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Another of the many block posts on the Marches line, Tram Inn is an 1894 built structure working to Hereford in the north and Pontrilas in the south.
Having riddden on the Brompton from Hereford to Moreton-on-Lugg and then down to Tram Inn, I could have done with a bit of luck in photographing the one decent train booked to pass when I was there - unfortunately 1V96 1133 Holyhead to Cardiff was "blunt end first" with DVT 82229 leading the way and 67017 at the rear.
My luck ran out even more when I got the third puncture of the day (the roadside hedges had recently been trimmed, leaving a cocktail of thorns and spikes on the road) - this time trashing the inner tube. With 7 miles still to go I was in for a long walk, until a passing motorist stopped and kindly offered a lift back to Hereford.
A new set of tougher Brompton tyres have already been ordered!
On the edge of the city of Sevastopol, on a well-protected bay on the Black Sea, is the small harbor town of Balaklava. This quaint sleepy town has an interesting history and is well worth a visit if you are in the Crimea. It is known in history for the "Charge of the Light Brigade", a near-suicidal attack by British cavalry against Russian cannon, which took place 4 km outside the town in 1854.
The town is overlooked by the remains of a Genoese fortress; the Genoese used the port as a staging place for their lucrative trade in slaves and goods. Later the Mongols took it, and the Ottoman Empire took control of it in 1475. In the 1850s the harbor was filled with British troops and ships during the Crimean War.
In Soviet Union built a submarine base into one of the hillsides, and turned the town into one of the most secret of locations during the Cold War era. In 1991 the base was closed and the last submarine left in 1996.
Многие историки сходятся во мнении, что первое название Балаклавы — Ламос, свидетельство об этом можно найти в поэме Гомера «Одиссея». Народ, обитавший на этой территории в 6-5 веке до нашей эры, называют Лестригонами. В историю этот народ попал под названием Тавры, именно поэтому первое название Крыма, дошедшее до нас, было Таврия или Таврида.
Балаклавская бухта относительно узкая: от 200 до 500 метров в ширину и 1,7 км в длину. Глубина бухты — от 5 до 37 метров, во времена СССР была в некоторых местах искусственно углублена для скрытного подводного подхода подводных лодок. Скалистый берег бухты делает поворот, бухту практически невидно с моря. Когда на Черном море самая суровая погода, шторм гуляет в 4-6 балов, в бухте стоит штиль или легкое покачивание воды. Именно по этой причине в Балаклавской бухте находится самая большая стоянка яхт, лодок и катеров. В СССР в Балаклавской бухте под скалой Таврос находилась секретная база подводных лодок — «Объект ГТС 825». Объект мог выдержать прямое попадание ядерной бомбы и через некоторое время нанести ответный удар по противнику. До развала СССР объект был засекречен, а город был закрыт для посещения туристов.
A quiet moment in Osaka, where the past lingers on every street corner. The tobacco shop stands like a relic of another time, framed by the hum of bicycles and the weathered façades of lived-in buildings. Life slows here, where the charm is unpolished but undeniably human. A crossroads of stories, caught in a fleeting pause.
The Massandra Palace, built in the 19th century in Upper Massandra on the Southern coast of Crimea, was the residence of Emperor Alexander III. The building was built in the style of ancient castles of the period of the French king Louis XIII. It is often called the "little Versailles".
Массандровский дворец, построенный в XIX веке в Верхней Массандре на Южном берегу Крыма, был резиденцией императора Александра III. Здание возведено в стиле старинных замков периода французского короля Людовика XIII. Его нередко называют «малым Версалем».
法國巴黎 羅浮宮博物館著名玻璃金字塔
Louvre Paris,France
Entrance of the Louvre museum under its famous glass pyramid,Paris -Photo taken
on:June 3,2015
Пале́рмо (др.-греч. Πάνορμος, лат. Panormus, итал. Palermo, сиц. Palermu) — главный город итальянского региона Сицилия , административный центр одноимённой провинции.
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I still can't get over these mountains on these small islands meeting the North Atlantic Ocean. Visiting the Faroe Islands isn't just about powerful landscapes in a small area. It's also taking in the small villages that dot the islands. Winding your way through the islands by car, getting out, smelling the fresh air and taking in the beauty.
Read the full blog post: www.aisleseatplease.com/blog/rave-octopus-is-always-watching
Most built structures crack at sometime during their service life. Usually the cracks are of little consequence but they may be the first indication of a serious defect. Monitoring the changes in crack width across a crack helps determine the cause of cracking and decide what remedial work should be specified.
Prague-Řepy, Czech Republic
66508 heading south down the Erewash Valley with Bennerley Viaduct in the background approaches Ilkeston with 4Z27 04:59 Coatbridge – Daventry, 23rd April 2016. Bennerley Viaduct is a Grade II listed structure and was built by the Great Northern Railway in 1876/77. The wrought iron lattice work viaduct is 1452 feet long with the rails 60 feet 10 inches above the Erewash River. The area was subject to a great deal of coal mining subsidence therefore the lighter wrought iron design was chosen over a more traditional brick built structure. The viaduct consists of 16 lattice work deck spans, each 76 feet 7 inches long supported on wrought iron columns with stone capped blue brick foundations. There were three additional iron skew spans at the Ilkeston end of the viaduct which carried the railway line over the Erewash Canal and the Midland Railway. Bennerley viaduct's wrought iron construction saved it from demolition when the Nottingham Victoria – Derby Friargate line closed in the 1960’s. The demolition contractors who tendered for the contract to demolish the viaduct put forward amounts which were considered too high. The reason given for the high cost was that wrought iron structures could not be cut up with an oxy-acetylene torch and would have to be taken apart rivet by rivet. The viaduct survived to become Grade II listed structure
New York, New York City, Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan Skyline, designed by John Augustus Roebling
Canyonlands National Park is an American national park located in southeastern Utah near the town of Moab. The park preserves a colorful landscape eroded into numerous canyons, mesas, and buttes by the Colorado River, the Green River, and their respective tributaries. Legislation creating the park was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on September 12, 1964.
The park is divided into four districts: the Island in the Sky, the Needles, the Maze, and the combined rivers—the Green and Colorado—which carved two large canyons into the Colorado Plateau. While these areas share a primitive desert atmosphere, each retains its own character. Author Edward Abbey, a frequent visitor, described the Canyonlands as "the most weird, wonderful, magical place on earth—there is nothing else like it anywhere."
In the early 1950s, Bates Wilson, then superintendent of Arches National Monument, began exploring the area to the south and west of Moab, Utah. After seeing what is now known as the Needles District of Canyonlands National Park, Wilson began advocating for the establishment of a new national park that would include the Needles. Additional explorations by Wilson and others expanded the areas proposed for inclusion into the new national park to include the confluence of Green and Colorado rivers, the Maze District, and Horseshoe Canyon.
In 1961, Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall was scheduled to address a conference at Grand Canyon National Park. On his flight to the conference, he flew over the Confluence (where the Colorado and Green rivers meet). The view apparently sparked Udall's interest in Wilson's proposal for a new national park in that area and Udall began promoting the establishment of Canyonlands National Park.
Utah Senator Frank Moss first introduced legislation into Congress to create Canyonlands National Park. His legislation attempted to satisfy both nature preservationists' and commercial developers' interests. Over the next four years, his proposal was struck down, debated, revised, and reintroduced to Congress many times before being passed and signed into creation.
In September, 1964, after several years of debate, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Pub.L. 88–590, which established Canyonlands National Park as a new national park. Bates Wilson became the first superintendent of the new park and is often referred to as the "Father of Canyonlands."
The Colorado River and Green River combine within the park, dividing it into three districts called the Island in the Sky, the Needles, and the Maze. The Colorado River flows through Cataract Canyon below its confluence with the Green River.
The Island in the Sky district is a broad and level mesa in the northern section of the park, between the Colorado and Green rivers. The district has many viewpoints overlooking the White Rim, a sandstone bench 1,200 feet (370 m) below the Island, and the rivers, which are another 1,000 feet (300 m) below the White Rim.
The Needles district is located south of the Island in the Sky, on the east side of the Colorado River. The district is named for the red and white banded rock pinnacles which are a major feature of the area. Various other naturally sculpted rock formations are also within this district, including grabens, potholes, and arches. Unlike Arches National Park, where many arches are accessible by short to moderate hikes, most of the arches in the Needles district lie in backcountry canyons, requiring long hikes or four-wheel drive trips to reach them.
The Ancestral Puebloans inhabited this area and some of their stone and mud dwellings are well-preserved, although the items and tools they used were mostly removed by looters. The Ancestral Puebloans also created rock art in the form of petroglyphs, most notably on Newspaper Rock along the Needles access road.
The Maze district is located west of the Colorado and Green rivers. The Maze is the least accessible section of the park, and one of the most remote and inaccessible areas of the United States.
A geographically detached section of the park located north of the Maze district, Horseshoe Canyon contains panels of rock art made by hunter-gatherers from the Late Archaic Period (2000-1000 BC) pre-dating the Ancestral Puebloans. Originally called Barrier Canyon, Horseshoe's artifacts, dwellings, pictographs, and murals are some of the oldest in America. The images depicting horses date from after 1540 AD, when the Spanish reintroduced horses to America.
Since the 1950s, scientists have been studying an area of 200 acres (81 ha) completely surrounded by cliffs. The cliffs have prevented cattle from ever grazing on the area's 62 acres (25 ha) of grassland. According to the scientists, the site may contain the largest undisturbed grassland in the Four Corners region. Studies have continued biannually since the mid-1990s. The area has been closed to the public since 1993 to maintain the nearly pristine environment.
Mammals that roam this park include black bears, coyotes, skunks, bats, elk, foxes, bobcats, badgers, ring-tailed cats, pronghorns, desert bighorn sheep, and cougars. Desert cottontails, kangaroo rats and mule deer are commonly seen by visitors.
At least 273 species of birds inhabit the park. A variety of hawks and eagles are found, including the Cooper's hawk, the northern goshawk, the sharp-shinned hawk, the red-tailed hawk, the golden and bald eagles, the rough-legged hawk, the Swainson's hawk, and the northern harrier. Several species of owls are found, including the great horned owl, the northern saw-whet owl, the western screech owl, and the Mexican spotted owl. Grebes, woodpeckers, ravens, herons, flycatchers, crows, bluebirds, wrens, warblers, blackbirds, orioles, goldfinches, swallows, sparrows, ducks, quail, grouse, pheasants, hummingbirds, falcons, gulls, and ospreys are some of the other birds that can be found.
Several reptiles can be found, including eleven species of lizards and eight species of snake (including the midget faded rattlesnake). The common kingsnake and prairie rattlesnake have been reported in the park, but not confirmed by the National Park Service.
The park is home to six confirmed amphibian species, including the red-spotted toad, Woodhouse's toad, American bullfrog, northern leopard frog, Great Basin spadefoot toad, and tiger salamander. The canyon tree frog was reported to be in the park in 2000, but was not confirmed during a study in 2004.
Canyonlands National Park contains a wide variety of plant life, including 11 cactus species,[34] 20 moss species, liverworts, grasses and wildflowers. Varieties of trees include netleaf hackberry, Russian olive, Utah juniper, pinyon pine, tamarisk, and Fremont's cottonwood. Shrubs include Mormon tea, blackbrush, four-wing saltbush, cliffrose, littleleaf mountain mahogany, and snakeweed
Cryptobiotic soil is the foundation of life in Canyonlands, providing nitrogen fixation and moisture for plant seeds. One footprint can destroy decades of growth.
According to the Köppen climate classification system, Canyonlands National Park has a cold semi-arid climate ("BSk"). The plant hardiness zones at the Island in the Sky and Needles District Visitor Centers are 7a with an average annual extreme minimum air temperature of 4.0 °F (-15.6 °C) and 2.9 °F (-16.2 °C), respectively.
The National Weather Service has maintained two cooperative weather stations in the park since June 1965. Official data documents the desert climate with less than 10 inches (250 millimetres) of annual rainfall, as well as hot, mostly dry summers and cold, occasionally wet winters. Snowfall is generally light during the winter.
The station in The Neck region reports an average January temperature of 29.6 °F and an average July temperature of 79.3 °F. Average July temperatures range from a high of 90.8 °F (32.7 °C) to a low of 67.9 °F (19.9 °C). There are an average of 45.7 days with highs of 90 °F (32 °C) or higher and an average of 117.3 days with lows of 32 °F (0 °C) or lower. The highest recorded temperature was 105 °F (41 °C) on July 15, 2005, and the lowest recorded temperature was −13 °F (−25 °C) on February 6, 1989. Average annual precipitation is 9.33 inches (237 mm). There are an average of 59 days with measurable precipitation. The wettest year was 1984, with 13.66 in (347 mm), and the driest year was 1989, with 4.63 in (118 mm). The most precipitation in one month was 5.19 in (132 mm) in October 2006. The most precipitation in 24 hours was 1.76 in (45 mm) on April 9, 1978. Average annual snowfall is 22.8 in (58 cm). The most snowfall in one year was 47.4 in (120 cm) in 1975, and the most snowfall in one month was 27.0 in (69 cm) in January 1978.
The station in The Needles region reports an average January temperature of 29.7 °F and an average July temperature of 79.1 °F.[44] Average July temperatures range from a high of 95.4 °F (35.2 °C) to a low of 62.4 °F (16.9 °C). There are an average of 75.4 days with highs of 90 °F (32 °C) or higher and an average of 143.6 days with lows of 32 °F (0 °C) or lower. The highest recorded temperature was 107 °F (42 °C) on July 13, 1971, and the lowest recorded temperature was −16 °F (−27 °C) on January 16, 1971. Average annual precipitation is 8.49 in (216 mm). There are an average of 56 days with measurable precipitation. The wettest year was 1969, with 11.19 in (284 mm), and the driest year was 1989, with 4.25 in (108 mm). The most precipitation in one month was 4.43 in (113 mm) in October 1972. The most precipitation in 24 hours was 1.56 in (40 mm) on September 17, 1999. Average annual snowfall is 14.4 in (37 cm). The most snowfall in one year was 39.3 in (100 cm) in 1975, and the most snowfall in one month was 24.0 in (61 cm) in March 1985.
National parks in the Western US are more affected by climate change than the country as a whole, and the National Park Service has begun research into how exactly this will effect the ecosystem of Canyonlands National Park and the surrounding areas and ways to protect the park for the future. The mean annual temperature of Canyonlands National Park increased by 2.6 °F (1.4 °C) from 1916 to 2018. It is predicted that if current warming trends continue, the average highs in the park during the summer will be over 100 °F (40 °C) by 2100. In addition to warming, the region has begun to see more severe and frequent droughts which causes native grass cover to decrease and a lower flow of the Colorado River. The flows of the Upper Colorado Basin have decreased by 300,000 acre⋅ft (370,000,000 m3) per year, which has led to a decreased amount of sediment carried by the river and rockier rapids which are more frequently impassable to rafters. The area has also begun to see an earlier spring, which will lead to changes in the timing of leaves and flowers blooming and migrational patterns of wildlife that could lead to food shortages for the wildlife, as well as a longer fire season.
The National Park Service is currently closely monitoring the impacts of climate change in Canyonlands National Park in order to create management strategies that will best help conserve the park's landscapes and ecosystems for the long term. Although the National Park Service's original goal was to preserve landscapes as they were before European colonization, they have now switched to a more adaptive management strategy with the ultimate goal of conserving the biodiversity of the park. The NPS is collaborating with other organizations including the US Geological Survey, local indigenous tribes, and nearby universities in order to create a management plan for the national park. Right now, there is a focus on research into which native plants will be most resistant to climate change so that the park can decide on what to prioritize in conservation efforts. The Canyonlands Natural History Association has been giving money to the US Geological Survey to fund this and other climate related research. They gave $30,000 in 2019 and $61,000 in 2020.
A subsiding basin and nearby uplifting mountain range (the Uncompahgre) existed in the area in Pennsylvanian time. Seawater trapped in the subsiding basin created thick evaporite deposits by Mid Pennsylvanian. This, along with eroded material from the nearby mountain range, became the Paradox Formation, itself a part of the Hermosa Group. Paradox salt beds started to flow later in the Pennsylvanian and probably continued to move until the end of the Jurassic. Some scientists believe Upheaval Dome was created from Paradox salt bed movement, creating a salt dome, but more modern studies show that the meteorite theory is more likely to be correct.
A warm shallow sea again flooded the region near the end of the Pennsylvanian. Fossil-rich limestones, sandstones, and shales of the gray-colored Honaker Trail Formation resulted. A period of erosion then ensued, creating a break in the geologic record called an unconformity. Early in the Permian an advancing sea laid down the Halgaito Shale. Coastal lowlands later returned to the area, forming the Elephant Canyon Formation.
Large alluvial fans filled the basin where it met the Uncompahgre Mountains, creating the Cutler red beds of iron-rich arkose sandstone. Underwater sand bars and sand dunes on the coast inter-fingered with the red beds and later became the white-colored cliff-forming Cedar Mesa Sandstone. Brightly colored oxidized muds were then deposited, forming the Organ Rock Shale. Coastal sand dunes and marine sand bars once again became dominant, creating the White Rim Sandstone.
A second unconformity was created after the Permian sea retreated. Flood plains on an expansive lowland covered the eroded surface and mud built up in tidal flats, creating the Moenkopi Formation. Erosion returned, forming a third unconformity. The Chinle Formation was then laid down on top of this eroded surface.
Increasingly dry climates dominated the Triassic. Therefore, sand in the form of sand dunes invaded and became the Wingate Sandstone. For a time climatic conditions became wetter and streams cut channels through the sand dunes, forming the Kayenta Formation. Arid conditions returned to the region with a vengeance; a large desert spread over much of western North America and later became the Navajo Sandstone. A fourth unconformity was created by a period of erosion.
Mud flats returned, forming the Carmel Formation, and the Entrada Sandstone was laid down next. A long period of erosion stripped away most of the San Rafael Group in the area, along with any formations that may have been laid down in the Cretaceous period.
The Laramide orogeny started to uplift the Rocky Mountains 70 million years ago and with it, the Canyonlands region. Erosion intensified and when the Colorado River Canyon reached the salt beds of the Paradox Formation the overlying strata extended toward the river canyon, forming features such as The Grabens. Increased precipitation during the ice ages of the Pleistocene quickened the rate of canyon excavation along with other erosion. Similar types of erosion are ongoing, but occur at a slower rate.
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Colorado to its east, Wyoming to its northeast, Idaho to its north, Arizona to its south, and Nevada to its west. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin.
Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo, and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in the mid-16th century, though the region's difficult geography and harsh climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico. Even while it was Mexican territory, many of Utah's earliest settlers were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States via the Mormon Trail. Following the Mexican–American War in 1848, the region was annexed by the U.S., becoming part of the Utah Territory, which included what is now Colorado and Nevada. Disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government delayed Utah's admission as a state; only after the outlawing of polygamy was it admitted in 1896 as the 45th.
People from Utah are known as Utahns. Slightly over half of all Utahns are Mormons, the vast majority of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which has its world headquarters in Salt Lake City; Utah is the only state where a majority of the population belongs to a single church. A 2023 paper challenged this perception (claiming only 42% of Utahns are Mormons) however most statistics still show a majority of Utah residents belong to the LDS church; estimates from the LDS church suggests 60.68% of Utah's population belongs to the church whilst some sources put the number as high as 68%. The paper replied that membership count done by the LDS Church is too high for several reasons. The LDS Church greatly influences Utahn culture, politics, and daily life, though since the 1990s the state has become more religiously diverse as well as secular.
Utah has a highly diversified economy, with major sectors including transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, multi-level marketing, and tourism. Utah has been one of the fastest growing states since 2000, with the 2020 U.S. census confirming the fastest population growth in the nation since 2010. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah ranks among the overall best states in metrics such as healthcare, governance, education, and infrastructure. It has the 12th-highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Utah have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Utah's water security and impacting the state's economy.
The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.
Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of humans in Utah to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Paleolithic people lived near the Great Basin's swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds, and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. Over the centuries, the mega-fauna died, this population was replaced by the Desert Archaic people, who sheltered in caves near the Great Salt Lake. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was mainly composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed and sedge. Red meat appears to have been more of a luxury, although these people used nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, and animal figures made from split-twigs. About 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years.
The Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately 600 to 1300 AD. These people lived in areas close to water sources that had been previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people, and may have had some relationship with them. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people. Fremont technologies include:
use of the bow and arrow while hunting,
building pithouse shelters,
growing maize and probably beans and squash,
building above ground granaries of adobe or stone,
creating and decorating low-fired pottery ware,
producing art, including jewelry and rock art such as petroglyphs and pictographs.
The ancient Puebloan culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont. The ancestral Puebloan culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, including the San Juan River region of Utah. Archaeologists debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is generally accepted that the cultural peak of these people was around the 1200 CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more elaborate adobe and masonry dwellings. They were excellent craftsmen, producing turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture, and the people created and cultivated fields of maize, beans, and squash and domesticated turkeys. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems. They also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for cultural and religious rituals.
These two later cultures were roughly contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have common roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their existence. These two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE. Over the next two centuries, the Fremont and ancient Pueblo people may have moved into the American southwest, finding new homes and farmlands in the river drainages of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.
In about 1200, Shoshonean speaking peoples entered Utah territory from the west. They may have originated in southern California and moved into the desert environment due to population pressure along the coast. They were an upland people with a hunting and gathering lifestyle utilizing roots and seeds, including the pinyon nut. They were also skillful fishermen, created pottery and raised some crops. When they first arrived in Utah, they lived as small family groups with little tribal organization. Four main Shoshonean peoples inhabited Utah country. The Shoshone in the north and northeast, the Gosiutes in the northwest, the Utes in the central and eastern parts of the region and the Southern Paiutes in the southwest. Initially, there seems to have been very little conflict between these groups.
In the early 16th century, the San Juan River basin in Utah's southeast also saw a new people, the Díne or Navajo, part of a greater group of plains Athabaskan speakers moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In addition to the Navajo, this language group contained people that were later known as Apaches, including the Lipan, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Apaches.
Athabaskans were a hunting people who initially followed the bison, and were identified in 16th-century Spanish accounts as "dog nomads". The Athabaskans expanded their range throughout the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblo peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first specifically mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River, and north west of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navaho was applied to these same people. Although the Navajo newcomers established a generally peaceful trading and cultural exchange with the some modern Pueblo peoples to the south, they experienced intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, particularly the Utes in eastern Utah and western Colorado.
At the time of European expansion, beginning with Spanish explorers traveling from Mexico, five distinct native peoples occupied territory within the Utah area: the Northern Shoshone, the Goshute, the Ute, the Paiute and the Navajo.
The Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.
A group led by two Spanish Catholic priests—sometimes called the Domínguez–Escalante expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. All of what is now Utah was claimed by the Spanish Empire from the 1500s to 1821 as part of New Spain (later as the province Alta California); and subsequently claimed by Mexico from 1821 to 1848. However, Spain and Mexico had little permanent presence in, or control of, the region.
Fur trappers (also known as mountain men) including Jim Bridger, explored some regions of Utah in the early 19th century. The city of Provo was named for one such man, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah is named for a brigade leader of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden who trapped in the Weber Valley. In 1846, a year before the arrival of members from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, the ill-fated Donner Party crossed through the Salt Lake valley late in the season, deciding not to stay the winter there but to continue forward to California, and beyond.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. At the time, the U.S. had already captured the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico in the Mexican–American War and planned to keep them, but those territories, including the future state of Utah, officially became United States territory upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 10, 1848.
Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon pioneers found no permanent settlement of Indians. Other areas along the Wasatch Range were occupied at the time of settlement by the Northwestern Shoshone and adjacent areas by other bands of Shoshone such as the Gosiute. The Northwestern Shoshone lived in the valleys on the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake and in adjacent mountain valleys. Some years after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley Mormons, who went on to colonize many other areas of what is now Utah, were petitioned by Indians for recompense for land taken. The response of Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, was that the land belonged to "our Father in Heaven and we expect to plow and plant it." A 1945 Supreme Court decision found that the land had been treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone had been recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States.
Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons had to make a place to live. They created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches, and schools. Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed.
Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present-day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east-central Utah.
The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and the eastern segments of southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, a senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals, and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present-day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.
Prior to establishment of the Oregon and California trails and Mormon settlement, Indians native to the Salt Lake Valley and adjacent areas lived by hunting buffalo and other game, but also gathered grass seed from the bountiful grass of the area as well as roots such as those of the Indian Camas. By the time of settlement, indeed before 1840, the buffalo were gone from the valley, but hunting by settlers and grazing of cattle severely impacted the Indians in the area, and as settlement expanded into nearby river valleys and oases, indigenous tribes experienced increasing difficulty in gathering sufficient food. Brigham Young's counsel was to feed the hungry tribes, and that was done, but it was often not enough. These tensions formed the background to the Bear River massacre committed by California Militia stationed in Salt Lake City during the Civil War. The site of the massacre is just inside Preston, Idaho, but was generally thought to be within Utah at the time.
Statehood was petitioned for in 1849-50 using the name Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret would have been quite large, encompassing all of what is now Utah, and portions of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California. The name of Deseret was favored by the LDS leader Brigham Young as a symbol of industry and was derived from a reference in the Book of Mormon. The petition was rejected by Congress and Utah did not become a state until 1896, following the Utah Constitutional Convention of 1895.
In 1850, the Utah Territory was created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore (named after President Fillmore) was designated the capital. In 1856, Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital.
The first group of pioneers brought African slaves with them, making Utah the only place in the western United States to have African slavery. Three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with this first group in 1847. The settlers also began to purchase Indian slaves in the well-established Indian slave trade, as well as enslaving Indian prisoners of war. In 1850, 26 slaves were counted in Salt Lake County. Slavery didn't become officially recognized until 1852, when the Act in Relation to Service and the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners were passed. Slavery was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories.
Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the federal government intensified after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy became known. The polygamous practices of the Mormons, which were made public in 1854, would be one of the major reasons Utah was denied statehood until almost 50 years after the Mormons had entered the area.
After news of their polygamous practices spread, the members of the LDS Church were quickly viewed by some as un-American and rebellious. In 1857, after news of a possible rebellion spread, President James Buchanan sent troops on the Utah expedition to quell the growing unrest and to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming. The expedition was also known as the Utah War.
As fear of invasion grew, Mormon settlers had convinced some Paiute Indians to aid in a Mormon-led attack on 120 immigrants from Arkansas under the guise of Indian aggression. The murder of these settlers became known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. The Mormon leadership had adopted a defensive posture that led to a ban on the selling of grain to outsiders in preparation for an impending war. This chafed pioneers traveling through the region, who were unable to purchase badly needed supplies. A disagreement between some of the Arkansas pioneers and the Mormons in Cedar City led to the secret planning of the massacre by a few Mormon leaders in the area. Some scholars debate the involvement of Brigham Young. Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever convicted of the murders, and he was executed at the massacre site.
Express riders had brought the news 1,000 miles from the Missouri River settlements to Salt Lake City within about two weeks of the army's beginning to march west. Fearing the worst as 2,500 troops (roughly 1/3rd of the army then) led by General Albert Sidney Johnston started west, Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City and neighboring communities to prepare their homes for burning and evacuate southward to Utah Valley and southern Utah. Young also sent out a few units of the Nauvoo Legion (numbering roughly 8,000–10,000), to delay the army's advance. The majority he sent into the mountains to prepare defenses or south to prepare for a scorched earth retreat. Although some army wagon supply trains were captured and burned and herds of army horses and cattle run off no serious fighting occurred. Starting late and short on supplies, the United States Army camped during the bitter winter of 1857–58 near a burned out Fort Bridger in Wyoming. Through the negotiations between emissary Thomas L. Kane, Young, Cumming and Johnston, control of Utah territory was peacefully transferred to Cumming, who entered an eerily vacant Salt Lake City in the spring of 1858. By agreement with Young, Johnston established the army at Fort Floyd 40 miles away from Salt Lake City, to the southwest.
Salt Lake City was the last link of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, between Carson City, Nevada and Omaha, Nebraska completed in October 1861. Brigham Young, who had helped expedite construction, was among the first to send a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials. Soon after the telegraph line was completed, the Deseret Telegraph Company built the Deseret line connecting the settlements in the territory with Salt Lake City and, by extension, the rest of the United States.
Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of Utah Territory (and their fort auctioned off), leaving the territorial government in federal hands without army backing until General Patrick E. Connor arrived with the 3rd Regiment of California Volunteers in 1862. While in Utah, Connor and his troops soon became discontent with this assignment wanting to head to Virginia where the "real" fighting and glory was occurring. Connor established Fort Douglas just three miles (5 km) east of Salt Lake City and encouraged his bored and often idle soldiers to go out and explore for mineral deposits to bring more non-Mormons into the state. Minerals were discovered in Tooele County, and some miners began to come to the territory. Conner also solved the Shoshone Indian problem in Cache Valley Utah by luring the Shoshone into a midwinter confrontation on January 29, 1863. The armed conflict quickly turned into a rout, discipline among the soldiers broke down, and the Battle of Bear River is today usually referred to by historians as the Bear River Massacre. Between 200 and 400 Shoshone men, women and children were killed, as were 27 soldiers, with over 50 more soldiers wounded or suffering from frostbite.
Beginning in 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history. Chief Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870, but fights continued to break out until additional federal troops were sent in to suppress the Ghost Dance of 1872. The war is unique among Indian Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted Timpanogos Utes led by Antonga Black Hawk fighting federal and Utah local militia.
On May 10, 1869, the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes in the territory.
Main article: Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century
During the 1870s and 1880s, federal laws were passed and federal marshals assigned to enforce the laws against polygamy. In the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church leadership dropped its approval of polygamy citing divine revelation. When Utah applied for statehood again in 1895, it was accepted. Statehood was officially granted on January 4, 1896.
The Mormon issue made the situation for women the topic of nationwide controversy. In 1870 the Utah Territory, controlled by Mormons, gave women the right to vote. However, in 1887, Congress disenfranchised Utah women with the Edmunds–Tucker Act. In 1867–96, eastern activists promoted women's suffrage in Utah as an experiment, and as a way to eliminate polygamy. They were Presbyterians and other Protestants convinced that Mormonism was a non-Christian cult that grossly mistreated women. The Mormons promoted woman suffrage to counter the negative image of downtrodden Mormon women. With the 1890 Manifesto clearing the way for statehood, in 1895 Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of women's suffrage. Congress admitted Utah as a state with that constitution in 1896.
Though less numerous than other intermountain states at the time, several lynching murders for alleged misdeeds occurred in Utah territory at the hand of vigilantes. Those documented include the following, with their ethnicity or national origin noted in parentheses if it was provided in the source:
William Torrington in Carson City (then a part of Utah territory), 1859
Thomas Coleman (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1866
3 unidentified men at Wahsatch, winter of 1868
A Black man in Uintah, 1869
Charles A. Benson in Logan, 1873
Ah Sing (Chinese man) in Corinne, 1874
Thomas Forrest in St. George, 1880
William Harvey (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1883
John Murphy in Park City, 1883
George Segal (Japanese man) in Ogden, 1884
Joseph Fisher in Eureka, 1886
Robert Marshall (Black man) in Castle Gate, 1925
Other lynchings in Utah territory include multiple instances of mass murder of Native American children, women, and men by White settlers including the Battle Creek massacre (1849), Provo River Massacre (1850), Nephi massacre (1853), and Circleville Massacre (1866).
Beginning in the early 20th century, with the establishment of such national parks as Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, Utah began to become known for its natural beauty. Southern Utah became a popular filming spot for arid, rugged scenes, and such natural landmarks as Delicate Arch and "the Mittens" of Monument Valley are instantly recognizable to most national residents. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with the construction of the Interstate highway system, accessibility to the southern scenic areas was made easier.
Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has become world-renowned for its skiing. The dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range is considered some of the best skiing in the world. Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, and this has served as a great boost to the economy. The ski resorts have increased in popularity, and many of the Olympic venues scattered across the Wasatch Front continue to be used for sporting events. This also spurred the development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known as TRAX, and the re-construction of the freeway system around the city.
During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. In the 1970s, growth was phenomenal in the suburbs. Sandy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at that time, and West Valley City is the state's 2nd most populous city. Today, many areas of Utah are seeing phenomenal growth. Northern Davis, southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington counties are all growing very quickly. Transportation and urbanization are major issues in politics as development consumes agricultural land and wilderness areas.
In 2012, the State of Utah passed the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act in an attempt to gain control over a substantial portion of federal land in the state from the federal government, based on language in the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. The State does not intend to use force or assert control by limiting access in an attempt to control the disputed lands, but does intend to use a multi-step process of education, negotiation, legislation, and if necessary, litigation as part of its multi-year effort to gain state or private control over the lands after 2014.
Utah families, like most Americans everywhere, did their utmost to assist in the war effort. Tires, meat, butter, sugar, fats, oils, coffee, shoes, boots, gasoline, canned fruits, vegetables, and soups were rationed on a national basis. The school day was shortened and bus routes were reduced to limit the number of resources used stateside and increase what could be sent to soldiers.
Geneva Steel was built to increase the steel production for America during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had proposed opening a steel mill in Utah in 1936, but the idea was shelved after a couple of months. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war and the steel plant was put into progress. In April 1944, Geneva shipped its first order, which consisted of over 600 tons of steel plate. Geneva Steel also brought thousands of job opportunities to Utah. The positions were hard to fill as many of Utah's men were overseas fighting. Women began working, filling 25 percent of the jobs.
As a result of Utah's and Geneva Steels contribution during the war, several Liberty Ships were named in honor of Utah including the USS Joseph Smith, USS Brigham Young, USS Provo, and the USS Peter Skene Ogden.
One of the sectors of the beachhead of Normandy Landings was codenamed Utah Beach, and the amphibious landings at the beach were undertaken by United States Army troops.
It is estimated that 1,450 soldiers from Utah were killed in the war.
In this frame, you could see the Sky Terraces of Singapore Tallest Public and Private Residential Projects. Pinnacle @ Duxton, Altez and Sky Suites @ Anson.
Кальтаджироне (итал. Caltagirone) - Площадь Умберто I (Piazza Umberto I) - the Norman Cathedral of San Giuliano
The Roman Catholic church of St Charles in Gosforth was built in 1911 (replacing an earlier iron-built structure) and is a handsome building with two small west steeples flanking the main facade and a wide cruciform body culminating in a shallow apse. The interior is partially enlivened by marble-cladding, particularly around the sanctuary.
The outstanding features here however are in glass, principally the two large windows that dominate the north and south transepts, the largest windows in the church and both filled with gloriously rich stained glass by Harry Clarke Studios of Dublin and installed in 1945 (long after the death of Clarke himself and most likely designed by his successor Richard King). The south window depicts the Nativity, whilst that to the north represents the Deposition, with Christ's body being removed from the Cross. There is a further window by the same studio in the south nave clerestorey depicting Christ before Pilate, somewhat smaller and sadly less accessible.
This is a thoroughly rewarding church to visit for lovers of stained glass, though it is best to check with the church about access as it isn't always open outside mass times.
Пале́рмо (др.-греч. Πάνορμος, лат. Panormus, итал. Palermo, сиц. Palermu) — главный город итальянского региона Сицилия , административный центр одноимённой провинции.
VERONA (Itália):
Obras-primas góticas, estes túmulos foram construídos para a família Della Scala, governantes de Verona durante os séculos XIII e XIV.
Singapore Skyscraper Complex (Cityscape) at Nightfall with reflection in Marina Bay dominated by Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Singapore Flyer and dramatic sky.
The announcement made in October 2009 by General Secretary Kim Jong-Il, the North Korean leader, to have built 100,000 apartments in Pyongyang by 2012 officially aims at facing the housing shortage in the capital city. But it also represents a challenge to give evidence of the communist regime overall prosperity. The Stalinian regime had already pretended to amaze the rest of the world in the 1950’s claiming its ability to construct an apartment for a family in 14 minutes only!
This time it might be a little different. Despite the university students’ conscription and the mobilization of the army, many observers doubt the ability of North Korea to complete the buildings by its founder’s 100th birthday in 2012. In fact, it is not only a matter of housing: the energy and water supply as well as transports for 100,000 families need the building of extra-infrastructure.
Lately, reports have emerged of construction projects having been downsized and sites idling due to materials shortages. By the end of 2011, only 500 units are built, which forces the authorities to reduce the target to 20,000 to 25,000 apartments in total.
© Eric Lafforgue
Aerial view of the town of Cide at dusk, by the shore of Black Sea, in Kastamonu province of Turkey.
© All rights reserved. You may not use this photo in website, blog or any other media without my explicit permission.
Thailand's Royal Barge Procession (Thai: กระบวนพยุหยาตราชลมารค; RTGS: Krabuan Phayuhayattra Chonlamak) is a ceremony of both religious and royal significance which has been taking place for nearly 700 years. The exquisitely crafted Royal Barges are a blend of craftsmanship and traditional Thai art. The Royal Barge Procession takes place rarely, typically coinciding with only the most significant cultural and religious events. During the reign of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, spanning over 60 years, the Procession has only occurred 16 times.
Budapest, Hungary. Pest. Government building, Central Circuit Court, on Marko utca street 19 at night.
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(Taken from outside the cattery at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, an amazing charity)
Battersea Power Station is a decommissioned coal-fired power station located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Battersea, South London. The station comprises two individual power stations, built in two stages in the form of a single building. Battersea A Power Station was built first in the 1930s, with Battersea B Power Station to its east in the 1950s. The two stations were built to an identical design, providing the well known four chimney layout. The station ceased generating electricity in 1983, but over the past 50 years it has become one of the best known landmarks in London and is Grade II* listed. The station's celebrity owes to numerous cultural appearances, which include a shot in The Beatles' 1965 movie Help! and being used in the cover art of Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals.
Since closure the site has remained largely unused, with numerous failed redevelopment plans from successive site owners. The site is currently owned by Irish company Real Estate Opportunities, who purchased it for £400 million in November 2006. The station is the largest brick building in Europe and is notable for its original, lavish Art Deco interior fittings and decor. However, the building's condition has been described as "very bad" by English Heritage, who include the power station on its Buildings at Risk Register. In 2004 the power station was on the World Monuments Fund's List of 100 Most Endangered Sites.
History
Until the late 1930s electricity was supplied by municipal undertakings. These were small power companies that built power stations dedicated to a single industry or group of factories, and sold any excess electricity to the public. These companies used widely differing standards of voltage and frequency. In 1925, parliament decided that the power grid should be a single system with uniform standards under public ownership. Several of the private power companies reacted to the proposal by forming the London Power Company. They planned to heed parliament's recommendations and build a small number of very large stations.
The London Power Company's first of these super power stations was planned for the Battersea area, on the south bank of the River Thames in London. The proposal for the station was made in 1927, for a station built in two stages, capable of generating 400,000 kilowatts (kW) of electricity once completed. The site chosen for the construction of the station was a 15 acre plot of land which had been the site of the reservoirs for the former Southwark and Vauxhall Waterworks Company. The site was chosen for its close proximity to the River Thames for cooling water and coal delivery, and because it was sited in the heart of London, the station's immediate supply area.
The proposal sparked protests from those who felt that the building would be too large and would be an eyesore, as well as worries about the pollution damaging local buildings, parks and even paintings in the nearby Tate Gallery. The company addressed the former concern by hiring Sir Giles Gilbert Scott to design the building's exterior. He was a noted architect and industrial designer, famous for his design of the red telephone box, and of Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. He would go on to design another London power station, Bankside, which now houses the Tate Modern art gallery. The pollution issue was resolved by granting permission for the station on the condition that its emissions were to be treated, to ensure they were cleaner and contained less smoke.
Construction of the first phase, the A Station, commenced in March 1929. The main building work was carried out by John Mowlem & Co, and the structural steelwork erection carried out by Sir William Arrol & Co. Other contractors were employed for specialist tasks. Most of the electrical equipment, including the steam turbine turbo generators, was produced by Metropolitan Vickers. The building of the steel frame began in October 1930. Once completed, the construction of the brick cladding began, in March 1931. Prior to the construction of the B Station, the eastern wall of the boiler house was clad in corrugated metal sheeting as a temporary enclosure. The A Station first generated electricity in 1933, but was not completed until 1935. The total cost of its construction came to £2,141,550. Between construction beginning, in 1929, and 1933 there were 6 fatal and 121 non-fatal accidents on the site.
A short number of months after the end of Second World War, construction commenced on the second phase, the B Station. The station came into operation gradually between 1953 to 1955. It was identical to the A Station from the outside and was constructed directly to its east as a mirror to it, which gave the power station its now familiar four-chimney layout. The construction of the B Station brought the site's generating capacity up to 509 megawatts (MW), making it the third largest generating site in the UK at the time, providing a fifth of London's electricity needs. It was also the most thermally efficient power station in the world when it opened.
The A Station had been operated by the London Power Company, but by the time the B Station was completed, the UK's electric supply industry had been nationalised, and ownership of the two stations had passed into the hands of the British Electricity Authority in 1948. In 1955, this became the Central Electricity Authority, which in turn became the Central Electricity Generating Board in 1957.
On 20 April 1964, the power station was the site of a fire that caused power failures throughout London, including at the BBC Television Centre, which was due to launch BBC Two that night. The launch was delayed until the following day at 11am.
Design and specification
Both of the stations were designed by a team of architects and engineers. The team was headed by Dr S. Leonard Pearce, the chief engineer of the London Power Company, but a number of other notable engineers were also involved, including Henry Newmarch Allott, and T. P. O'Sullivan who was later responsible for the Assembly Hall at Filton. Theo J. Halliday was employed as architect, with Halliday & Agate Co. employed as a sub-consultant. Halliday was responsible for the supervision and execution of the appearance of the exterior and interior of the building. Architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was involved in the project much later on, consulted to appease public reaction, and refer to in the press as "architect of the exterior". The station was designed in the brick-cathedral style of power station design, which had been popular when the stations were designed in the 1930s and 1940s. Battersea is one of a very small number of examples of this style of power station design still in existence in the UK, other survivals being Uskmouth and Bankside. The station's design proved popular straight away, and was described as a "temple of power", which ranked equal with St Paul's Cathedral as a London landmark. In a 1939 survey by Architects Journal, it was ranked as a panel of celebrities' second most favourite building.
The A Station's interior was given many art deco fittings by architect Halliday. The control room was given art deco fittings, Italian marble was used in the turbine hall, and polished parquet floors and wrought iron staircases were used throughout. Due to a lack of available money following the Second World War, the interior of the B Station was not given the same treatment, and instead the fittings were made from stainless steel.
Each of the two connected stations consist of a long boiler house with a chimney at each end and an adjacent turbine hall. This makes a single main structure which is of steel frame construction with brick cladding. This is similar to the skyscrapers which were built in the United States around the same time. The station is the largest brick built structure in Europe. The building's gross dimensions measure 160 metres (520 ft) by 170 metres (560 ft), with the roof of the boiler house standing at over 50 metres (160 ft). Each of the four chimneys are made from concrete and stand at a height of 103 metres (338 ft). The station also had jetty facilities for unloading coal, a coal sorting and storage area, control rooms and an admin block.
The A Station generated electricity using three turbo alternators; two 69 megawatt (MW) Metropolitan Vickers British Thomson-Houston sets, and one 105 MW Metropolitan Vickers set, giving the A Station a generating capacity of 243 MW. At the time of its commissioning, the 105 MW generating set was the largest in Europe. The B Station also had three turbo alternators, all made by Metropolitan Vickers. This consisted of two units which used 16 MW high pressure units exhausting to a 78 MW and associated with a 6 MW house alternator, giving these units a total rating of 100 MW. The third unit cosisted of a 66 MW machine associated with a 6 MW house alternator, giving the unit a rating of 72 MW. Combined, these gave the B station a generating capacity of 260 MW, making the site's generating capacity 503 MW. All of the station's boilers were made by Babcock & Wilcox, fueled by pulverised coal from pulverisers also built by Babcock and Wilcox. There were nine boilers in the A station and six in the B station. The B station's boilers were the largest ever built in the UK at that time. The B station also had the highest thermal efficiency of any power station in the country for the first twelve years of its operation.
Operations
Coal transportation
Coal was usually brought to the station by collier ships, and unloaded by cranes, which are still intact on the station's riverfront
The station had an annual coal consumption of over 1,000,000 tonnes. The majority of this coal was delivered to the station from coal ports in Wales and North East England by collier ships. The jetty facilities used two cranes to off load coal, with the capacity of unloading two ships at one time, at a rate of 480 tonnes an hour. Coal was also delivered by rail to the east of the station using the Brighton Main Line which passes near the site. Coal was usually delivered via the jetty, rather than rail. A conveyor belt system was then used to take coal to the coal storage area or directly to the station's boiler rooms. The conveyor belt system consisted of a series of bridges connected by towers. The coal storage area was a large concrete box capable of holding 75,000 tonnes of coal. This had an overhead gantry with a conveyor belt attached to the conveyor belt system, for taking coal from the coal store to the boiler rooms.
Water system
Water is essential to a thermal power station, as water is heated to create steam to turn the steam turbines. Water cycled through Battersea Power Station's systems was taken from the River Thames, upon whose banks it had been built. The station would extract an average of 340,000,000 gallons of water from the river each day.Once the water had been through the stations' systems, the water was cooled and discharged back into the river.
The waste heat of the water was also implemented in a district heating scheme. After the end of the Second World War, the London Power Company took the opportunity to introduce the new innovation in the Battersea station. A district heating scheme (better known now as "cogeneration") benefitted some 10,000 people. It provided hot water and central heating to newly redeveloped areas within Pimlico, on the opposite side of the river.
Scrubbers
The reduction of sulphur emissions had been an important factor since the station was in the design stages, as it was one of the main worries of those who protested the construction of the station. The London Power Company began developing an experimental technique for washing the flue gases in 1925. It used water and alkaline sprays over scrubbers of steel and timber in the flue ducts. The gases were subject to continuous washing, and with the presence of the catalyst iron oxide, sulphur dioxide was converted into sulphuric acid. Battersea Power Station was one of the first commercial applications of this technique in the world. This method of washing was stopped in the B Station in the 1960s, when it was discovered that the discharge of these products into the Thames was more harmful to the river than the gases would be to the atmosphere.
Closure and redevelopment
Closure
The fact that the station's output continued to fall, coupled with increased operating costs, such as flue gas cleaning, led to Battersea's demise. On 17 March 1975, the A Station was closed after being in operation for 40 years. By this time the A Station's was co-firing oil and its generating capacity had reduced to 228 MW.
Three years after the closure of the A Station, rumours began to circulate that the B Station would soon follow. A campaign was then launched to try and save the building as part of the national heritage. As a result the station was declared a heritage site in 1980, when then Secretary of State for the Environment, Michael Heseltine, awarded the building Grade II listed status. (This was upgraded to Grade II* listed in 2007.) On 31 October 1983 production of electricity at Station B also ended, after nearly 30 years of operation. By then the B Station's generating capacity had lowered to 146 MW.The closure of the two stations was put down largely to the generating equipment becoming out-dated, and due to the preferred choice of fuel for electricity generation shifting from coal toward, oil, gas and nuclear power. Since the station ceased generating electricity, there have been numerous proposals and attempts to redevelop the site.
Theme park proposal
Following the station's closure, the Central Electricity Generating Board had planned to demolish the station and sell the land for housing, but because of the building's Grade II listed status, they had to pay the high cost of preserving the building. In 1983 they held a competition for ideas on the redevelopment of the site. It was won by a consortium including Alton Towers Ltd, which proposed an indoor theme park, based around Britain's industrial history. At a estimated cost of £35 million, the scheme was risky and would require over 2 million visitors a year to make any profit. The scheme received planning approval in May 1986 and the site was purchased by John Broome for £1.5 million in 1987. Work on converting the site began the same year.
The project was halted in March 1989, due to lack of funding, after costs had quickly escalated that January, from £35 million to £230 million. By this point huge sections of the building's roof had been removed, so that machinery could be taken out. Without a roof, the building's steel frame work has been left exposed and its foundations have been prone to flooding.
In March 1990, the proposal was changed to a mixture of offices, shops and a hotel. This proposal was granted planning permission in August 1990, despite opposition from 14 independent organizations, including English Heritage. Despite permission being granted, no further work took place on the site between 1990 and 1993.
Parkview proposal
In 1993, the site and its outstanding debt of £70 million were bought from the Bank of America by Hong Kong based development company, Parkview International, for £10 million. Following resolution of creditors' claims, it acquired the freehold title in May 1996. In November 1996 plans for the redevelopment of the site were submitted and outline consent was received in May 1997. Detailed consent for much of the site was granted in August 2000, and the rest in May 2001. The company received full possession of the site in 2003. Having purchased the site, Parkview started work on a £1.1 billion project to restore the building and to redevelop the site into a retail, housing and leisure complex.
Parkview's project plan, called simply "The Power Station", was masterminded by architect Nicholas Grimshaw. The scheme proposed a shopping mall, with 40 to 50 restaurants, cafes and bars, 180 shops, as well as nightclubs, comedy venues and a cinema. Cosmopolitan shops would have been sited in the A Station's turbine hall, and label name shops in the B Station's turbine hall. The boiler house would have been glazed over and used as a public space for installations and exhibitions. A riverside walkway would also be created, running continuously along the riverside from Vauxhall to Battersea Park.
Parkview claimed that 3,000 jobs would be created during the construction of the project, and 9,000 would be employed once completed, with an emphasis on local recruitment. The Battersea Power Station Community Group campaigned against the Parkview plan and argued for an alternative community-based scheme to be drawn up. The group described the plans as "a deeply unattractive project that has no affordable housing anywhere on the 38-acre (150,000 m2) site, no decent jobs for local people and no credible public transport strategy". They also criticised how appropriate the project was in its location, and proposal of other large buildings on the site. Keith Garner of the group said "I feel that there’s a real problem of appropriateness. They need a completely different kind of scheme, not this airport-lounge treatment. What you see now is a majestic building looming up from the river. If you surround it with buildings 15 storeys high, you don’t have a landmark any more."
In 2005 Parkview, English Heritage and the London Borough of Wandsworth claimed that the reinforcement inside the chimneys was corroded and irreparable. Wandsworth Council granted permission for them to be demolished and rebuilt. However, the Twentieth Century Society, the World Monuments Fund and the Battersea Power Station Company Ltd commissioned an alternative engineers' report that claimed that the existing chimneys could be repaired. In response, Parkview claimed to have given a legally binding undertaking to the council to provide certainty that the chimneys will be replaced "like for like", in accordance with the requirements of English Heritage and the planning authorities.
REO proposal
On 30 November 2006, it was announced that Real Estate Opportunities, led by Irish businessmen Richard Barrett and Johnny Ronan of Treasury Holdings, had purchased Battersea Power Station and the surrounding land for €532 million (£400 million). REO subsequently announced that the previous plan by Parkview had been dropped and that it had appointed the practice of the Uruguayan-born architect Rafael Viñoly, of New York as the new master planner for the site. The engineers Roger Preston & Partners and Buro Happold were retained on the design team.
They announced their £4 billion plans in 2008. They include reusing part of the station building as a power station, fueled by biomass and waste. The station's existing chimneys would be utilised for venting steam. The former turbine halls would be converted to shopping spaces, and the roofless boiler house used as a park. An energy museum would also be housed inside the former station building. The restoration of the power station building would cost £150 million.
A plastic built "eco-dome" is also to be built to the east of the power station. This building was originally planned to have a large 300 metres (980 ft) chimney, but this has now been abandoned in favour of a series of smaller towers. The eco-dome would house offices, and aim to reduce energy consumption in the buildings by 67% compared to conventional office buildings, by using the towers to draw cool air through the building. 3,200 new homes would also be built on the site to house 7,000 people.
An essential part of the regeneration is an extension of the London Underground to service the area. The proposed extension would branch from the Northern Line at Kennington and travel west to Nine Elms and Battersea. The proposed extension would cost £350 million and would be funded by REO and other significant land owners in the Nine Elms area, making it the first privately funded extension of the London Underground.
In June 2008 a consultation process was launched, which revealed that 66% of the general public were in favour of the plans. At an event at the station on 23 March 2009, it was announced that REO were to submit the planning application for their proposal to Wandsworth Council. REO hope for construction to begin in 2011, with completion of the project by 2020.
Cultural impact
Battersea Power Station has been featured in many forms of media and culture: it can be seen on several album covers by rock and pop groups, in a number of music videos, and has appeared in many films and television programmes in its more than 70 year history.
Music
Album artwork
The Battersea Power Station Community Group think one of the main reasons for the power station's worldwide recognition is due to it having appeared on the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album, Animals, where it was photographed with the group's inflatable pink pig floating above it. The photographs were taken in early December 1976 and the inflatable pig was made by the Zeppelin Airship company. The inflatable pig was tethered to one of the power station's southern chimneys, but broke loose from its moorings and, to the astonishment of pilots in approaching planes, rose into the flight path of Heathrow Airport. Police helicopters tracked its course, until it landed in Kent. Video footage of the photoshoot was used in the promotional video for the song "Pigs on the Wing". The album was officially launched at an event at the power station.
The Pink Floyd image has been parodied and paid homage to, for instance on:
•The cover of The Orb's 1991 album, Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld.
•The back cover of Les Claypool's Frog Brigade's 2001 album, Live Frogs Set 2, which is a full cover of Pink Floyd's Animals.
The station can also be seen on various other pieces of album artwork, including:
•The booklet art for The Who's 1973 album, Quadrophenia
•The photograph on the sleeve of Hawkwind's 1977 album, Quark, Strangeness and Charm, is of the B Station's control room.
•The cover of Jan Hammer's 1988 12" single of "The Runner (marathon mix)".
•The back cover of Morrissey's 1990 album Bona Drag.
•The background art for the cover of the 2001 Petula Clark boxed set, Meet Me in Battersea Park.
•The cover of London Elektricity's 2005 album, Power Ballads. Silhouettes of the station's coal cranes were used on the cover of the group's Hanging Rock single.
•A photograph on the inside case of Muse's 2009 album, The Resistance.
•Battersea Power Station was also the name of Junior's Eyes' 1969 album. Junior's Eyes went on to become David Bowie's backup band for a brief period in the late 1960s.
Music videos
The power station has often been used as a shooting location or as a back drop in music artists' promotional videos. Such uses include:
•Footage from the photoshoot of the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals is used in a video for their 1977 song "Pigs on the Wing". During the song "Money" at their 2005 Live 8 performance, the power station was briefly shown when the camera panned out away from the stage.
•The Jam shot the promotional video for their 1978 single "News Of The World" on the roof of the power station. Photos from the shoot featuring the station also appear on the sleeve of the "Snap!" compilation album.
•Tori Amos filmed the video for her 1996 single "Talula" inside the station.
•A scene from Bill Wyman's promotional video for his 1981 single, "Je Suis un Rock Star", shows the station in the background.
•The station appears in the 1997 music video by American pop band Hanson, for their song "Where's the Love".
•It was rented by Bruce Dickinson in 1999 to be a film location for the video to "Man Of Sorrows".
•The band Biffy Clyro shot the music video for their 2010 single, "Many Of Horror", at the station.
Television and film
•The station was used in the opening scene of Alfred Hitchcock's 1936 film, Sabotage.
•It has appeared numerous times in the long-running British science fiction series Doctor Who. It appeared briefly in the episode The Dalek Invasion of Earth in 1964, which saw the station in the 22nd century with two chimneys demolished, and a nearby nuclear reactor dome. It appeared again in the 2006 Doctor Who episodes "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel" as the base to which Londoners are drawn to be converted into Cybermen.
•It appeared briefly in The Beatles' 1965 film Help!, with a caption identifying it as "a famous power station".
•The station is seen in the 1967 science fiction film The Projected Man.
•The A Station's control room was used as the location for the "Find The Fish" segment of Monty Python's 1983 film The Meaning of Life.
•It was used as the external façade of the Victory Mansions in Michael Radford's 1984 film adaptation of George Orwell's novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.
•Scenes of Stanley Kubrick's 1987 film Full Metal Jacket were shot inside the power station.
•A stylized image of the station appears in the title sequence of Agatha Christie's Poirot, which began airing in 1989.
•The power station was the location for a weather changing machine in the children's sci-fi series "The Tomorrow People" in 1994 in the episode "Monsoon Man".
•In Ian McKellen's 1995 film adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III, the derelict power station stands in for Bosworth Field in Richard's final battle scene.
•In the "Knightsbridge" episode of Neil Gaiman's 1996 television series Neverwhere, the station appears as the aboveground landmark for the London Below Floating Market.
•A computer generated version of the power station appeared briefly in the background of a 2006 episode of the ABC television series Lost entitled "Fire and Water", sporting an identifying sign saying "Widmore Construction". This was the first introduced of one of the show's principal antagonists, Charles Widmore.
•In Alfonso Cuarón's 2006 film, Children of Men, the station appears converted as the "Ark Of Art" in 2027. The building contains art treasures salvaged from nations whose governments have collapsed and preserved for a "posterity". It contains a shattered and rebuilt Michelangelo's David, and Picasso's Guernica. An inflatable pig is tethered to the exterior of the building, a reference to the Animals album cover.
•In May 2007, Battersea Power Station played a central role in episode 5 of series 4 of the BBC TV series New Tricks.
•In October 2007, the power station was used as a filming location for the Batman movie, The Dark Knight. The station's stripped, empty interior was used as a setting for a burnt out warehouse.
•Starting in December 2007, the interior of the power station was used in Terry Gilliam's film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.
•In April 2010, the station was featured in the BBC television series Ashes to Ashes.
•In March 2010, the movie Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang briefly showed the station, with a silver inflatable pig tethered between two smokestacks.
Other uses in culture
•The "Advanced Power Plant" structure in the 1996 PC game Command & Conquer: Red Alert closely resembles the power station.
•The station is featured in the 1999 video game, Grand Theft Auto: London.
•A brown version of the power station can be seen in the 2001 video game Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies, in the mission "Invincible Fleet".
•In recent years, the building has played host to concerts and to performances by the Cirque du Soleil. In 2000, the company voiced plans to permanently convert the building into an "urban circus".
•In 2004, photographer Vera Lutter used the station in several pieces of her work. She created the photographs by turning shipping containers into giant pinhole cameras and placing them in front of the building for several days.
•Between the 8 October and 5 November 2006, the Serpentine Gallery took up residence in the power station for the exhibition China Power Station: Part I. It displayed the work of "an extraordinary and vibrant new generation of Chinese artists and architects".
•In 2007, replicating the pig from Pink Floyd, promoters flew a giant inflatable SpiderPig to promote the release of The Simpsons Movie that year.
•On 23 and 24 October 2008, the station was used for the Channel 4 Freeze event. The event included a snow jump and music performances.
•The 2009 video game Colin McRae: Dirt 2 allows the player to race through the disused power station.
•The 2009 BBC Radio 4 radio play, The Mouse House, features a storyline centred around Battersea Power Station.
•Since 22 August 2009, the station has been used as a venue on the Red Bull X-Fighters season.
•On 13 April 2010 the station site was used as the venue for the manifesto launch of the Conservative Party lead by David Cameron during the general election campaign for the UK Parliament at Westminster. Between 6 and 7 May 2010, the station site was used by Sky News in their coverage of the election.
Thanks to Wikipedia