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Information From: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_bridge
Brooklyn Bridge
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For other uses, see Brooklyn Bridge (disambiguation).
Brooklyn Bridge
Carries Motor vehicles (cars only)
Elevated trains (until 1944)
Streetcars (until 1950)
Pedestrians, and bicycles
Crosses East River
Locale New York City (Manhattan–Brooklyn)
Maintained by New York City Department of Transportation
Designer John Augustus Roebling
Design Suspension/Cable-stay Hybrid
Total length 5,989 feet (1825 m)[1]
Width 85 feet (26 m)
Longest span 1,595 feet 6 inches (486.3 m)
Clearance below 135 feet (41 m) at mid-span
Opened May 24, 1883
Toll Free both ways
Daily traffic 123,781 (2008)[2]
Coordinates 40°42′20″N 73°59′47″W / 40.70569°N 73.99639°W / 40.70569; -73.99639 (Brooklyn Bridge)Coordinates: 40°42′20″N 73°59′47″W / 40.70569°N 73.99639°W / 40.70569; -73.99639 (Brooklyn Bridge)
Brooklyn Bridge
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
NYC Landmark
Built/Founded: 1883
Architectural style(s): Gothic
Added to NRHP: 1966[3]
Designated NHL: January 29, 1964[4]
NRHP Reference#: 75001237
The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. With a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m), it was the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge.
Originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, it was dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge in a January 25, 1867 letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle,[5] and formally so named by the city government in 1915. Since its opening, it has become an iconic part of the New York skyline. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964[4][6][7] and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.[8]
Contents [hide]
1 Construction
2 Pedestrian and vehicular access
2.1 Notable events
2.2 100th anniversary celebrations
2.3 125th anniversary celebrations
3 Cultural significance
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links
[edit] Construction
The Brooklyn Bridge was initially designed by German immigrant John Augustus Roebling, who had previously designed and constructed shorter suspension bridges, such as Roebling's Delaware Aqueduct in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, and the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati, Ohio.
While conducting surveys for the bridge project, Roebling sustained a crush injury to his foot when a ferry pinned it against a piling. After amputation of his crushed toes he developed a tetanus infection which left him incapacitated and soon resulted in his death, not long after he had placed his 32 year-old son Washington Roebling in charge of the project.[9]
Washington Roebling also suffered a paralyzing injury as a result of decompression sickness shortly after the beginning of construction on January 3, 1870.[10] This condition, first called "caisson disease" by the project physician Dr. Andrew Smith, afflicted many of the workers working within the caissons.[11][12] After Roebling's debilitating condition left him unable to physically supervise the construction firsthand, his wife Emily Warren Roebling stepped in and provided the critical written link between her husband and the engineers on-site.[13] Under her husband's guidance, Emily had studied higher mathematics, the calculations of catenary curves, the strengths of materials, bridge specifications, and the intricacies of cable construction.[14][15][16] She spent the next 11 years assisting Washington Roebling helping to supervise the bridge's construction.
When iron probes underneath the caisson found the bedrock to be even deeper than expected, Roebling halted construction due to the increased risk of decompression sickness. He deemed the aggregate overlying the bedrock 30 feet (9 m) below it to be firm enough to support the tower base.[17]
The Brooklyn Bridge was completed thirteen years later and was opened for use on May 24, 1883. The opening ceremony was attended by several thousand people and many ships were present in the East Bay for the occasion. President Chester A. Arthur and New York Mayor Franklin Edson crossed the bridge to celebratory cannon fire and were greeted by Brooklyn Mayor Seth Low when they reached the Brooklyn-side tower. Arthur shook hands with Washington Roebling at the latter's home, after the ceremony. Roebling was unable to attend the ceremony (and in fact rarely visited the site again), but held a celebratory banquet at his house on the day of the bridge opening. Further festivity included the performance of a band, gunfire from ships, and a fireworks display.[18]
On that first day, a total of 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed what was then the only land passage between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Emily Warren Roebling was the first to cross the bridge. The bridge's main span over the East River is 1,595 feet 6 inches (486.3 m). The bridge cost $15.5 million to build and approximately 27 people died during its construction.[19]
One week after the opening, on May 30, 1883, a rumor that the Bridge was going to collapse caused a stampede, which crushed and killed at least twelve people.[20] On May 17, 1884, P. T. Barnum helped to squelch doubts about the bridge's stability—while publicizing his famous circus—when one of his most famous attractions, Jumbo, led a parade of 21 elephants over the Brooklyn Bridge.[21][22][23][24]
Plan of one tower for the Brooklyn Bridge, 1867At the time it opened, and for several years, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world—50% longer than any previously built — and it has become a treasured landmark. Since the 1980s, it has been floodlit at night to highlight its architectural features. The towers are built of limestone, granite, and Rosendale cement. Their architectural style is neo-Gothic, with characteristic pointed arches above the passageways through the stone towers. The paint scheme of the bridge is "Brooklyn Bridge Tan", although is has been argued that the original paint was "Rawlins Red".[25]
At the time the bridge was built, the aerodynamics of bridge building had not been worked out. Bridges were not tested in wind tunnels until the 1950s—well after the collapse of the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Galloping Gertie) in 1940. It is therefore fortunate that the open truss structure supporting the deck is by its nature less subject to aerodynamic problems. Roebling designed a bridge and truss system that was six times as strong as he thought it needed to be. Because of this, the Brooklyn Bridge is still standing when many of the bridges built around the same time have vanished into history and been replaced. This is also in spite of the substitution of inferior quality wire in the cabling supplied by the contractor J. Lloyd Haigh—by the time it was discovered, it was too late to replace the cabling that had already been constructed. Roebling determined that the poorer wire would leave the bridge four rather than six times as strong as necessary, so it was eventually allowed to stand, with the addition of 250 cables. Diagonal cables were installed from the towers to the deck, intended to stiffen the bridge. They turned out to be unnecessary, but were kept for their distinctive beauty.
After the collapse in 2007 of the I-35W highway bridge in the city of Minneapolis, increased public attention has been brought to bear on the condition of bridges across the US, and it has been reported that the Brooklyn Bridge approach ramps received a rating of "poor" at its last inspection.[26] According to a NYC Department of Transportation spokesman, "The poor rating it received does not mean it is unsafe. Poor means there are some components that have to be rehabilitated." A $725 million project to replace the approaches and repaint the bridge was scheduled to begin in 2009.[27]
The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge is detailed in the 1978 book The Great Bridge by David McCullough[13] and Brooklyn Bridge (1981), the first PBS documentary film ever made by Ken Burns.[28] Burns drew heavily on McCullough's book for the film and used him as narrator.[29] It is also described in Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, a BBC docudrama series with accompanying book.
[edit] Pedestrian and vehicular access
Cross section diagramAt various times, the bridge has carried horse-drawn and trolley traffic; at present, it has six lanes for motor vehicles, with a separate walkway along the centerline for pedestrians and bicycles. Due to the roadway's height (11 ft (3.4 m) posted) and weight (6,000 lb (2,700 kg) posted) restrictions, commercial vehicles and buses are prohibited from using this bridge. The two inside traffic lanes once carried elevated trains of the BMT from Brooklyn points to a terminal at Park Row via Sands Street. Streetcars ran on what are now the two center lanes (shared with other traffic) until the elevated lines stopped using the bridge in 1944, when they moved to the protected center tracks. In 1950 the streetcars also stopped running, and the bridge was rebuilt to carry six lanes of automobile traffic.
The Brooklyn Bridge is accessible from the Brooklyn entrances of Tillary/Adams Streets, Sands/Pearl Streets, and Exit 28B of the eastbound Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. In Manhattan, motor cars can enter from either direction of the FDR Drive, Park Row, Chambers/Centre Streets, and Pearl/Frankfort Streets. Pedestrian access to the bridge from the Brooklyn side is from either Tillary/Adams Streets (in between the auto entrance/exit), or a staircase on Prospect St between Cadman Plaza East and West. In Manhattan, the pedestrian walkway is accessible from the end of Centre Street, or through the unpaid south staircase of Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall IRT subway station.
View from the pedestrian walkway. The bridge's cable arrangement forms a distinct weblike pattern.The Brooklyn Bridge has a wide pedestrian walkway open to walkers and cyclists, in the center of the bridge and higher than the automobile lanes. While the bridge has always permitted the passage of pedestrians across its span, its role in allowing thousands to cross takes on a special importance in times of difficulty when usual means of crossing the East River have become unavailable.
During transit strikes by the Transport Workers Union in 1980 and 2005, the bridge was used by people commuting to work, with Mayors Koch and Bloomberg crossing the bridge as a gesture to the affected public.[30][31]
Following the 1965, 1977 and 2003 Blackouts and most famously after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, the bridge was used by people in Manhattan to leave the city after subway service was suspended. The massive numbers of people on the bridge could not have been anticipated by the original designer, yet John Roebling designed it with three separate systems managing even unanticipated structural stresses. The bridge has a suspension system, a diagonal stay system, and a stiffening truss. "Roebling himself famously said if anything happens to one of [his] systems, 'The bridge may sag, but it will not fall.'"[32] The movement of large numbers of people on a bridge creates pedestrian oscillations or "sway" as the crowd lifts one foot after another, some falling inevitably in synchronized cadences. The natural sway motion of people walking causes small sideways oscillations in a bridge, which in turn cause people on the bridge to sway in step, increasing the amplitude of the bridge oscillations and continually reinforcing the effect. High-density traffic of this nature causes a bridge to appear to move erratically or "to wobble" as happened at opening of the London Millennium Footbridge in 2000.[33]
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper c.1883[edit] Notable events
First jumper
The first person to jump from the bridge was Robert E. Odlum on May 19, 1885. He struck the water at an angle and died shortly thereafter from internal injuries.[34] Steve Brodie was the most famous jumper, or self-proclaimed jumper (in 1886).
Bungee jump
On June 1993, following 13 reconnoiters inside the metal structure, and with the help of a mountain guide, Thierry Devaux performed (illegally) eight acrobatic bungee jumps above the East River close to the Brooklyn pier, in the early morning. He used an electric winch between each acrobatic figure.[35]
1994 Brooklyn Bridge shooting
Main article: Brooklyn Bridge Shooting
On March 1, 1994, Lebanese-born Rashid Baz opened fire on a van carrying members of the Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish Movement, striking sixteen-year-old student Ari Halberstam and three others traveling on the bridge.[36] Halberstam died five days later from his wounds. Baz was apparently acting out of revenge for the Hebron massacre of 29 Muslims by Baruch Goldstein that had taken place days earlier on February 25, 1994. Baz was convicted of murder and sentenced to a 141-year prison term. After initially classifying the murder as one committed out of road rage, the Justice Department reclassified the case in 2000 as a terrorist attack. The entrance ramp to the bridge on the Manhattan side was named the Ari Halberstam Memorial Ramp in memory of the victim.[37]
The 2003 plot
In 2003, truck driver Iyman Faris was sentenced to about 20 years in prison for providing material support to Al-Qaeda, after an earlier plot to destroy the bridge by cutting through its support wires with blowtorches was thwarted through information the National Security Agency uncovered through wiretapped phone conversations and interrogation of Al-Qaeda militants.[38]
2006 bunker discovery
In 2006, a Cold War era bunker was found by city workers near the East River shoreline of Manhattan's Lower East Side. The bunker, hidden within the masonry anchorage, still contained the emergency supplies that were being stored for a potential nuclear attack by the Soviet Union.[39]
[edit] 100th anniversary celebrations
The centennary celebrations on May 24, 1983, saw a cavalcade of cars crossing the bridge, led by President Ronald Reagan. A flotilla of ships visited the harbor, parades were held, and in the evening the sky over the bridge was illuminated by Grucci fireworks.[40] The Brooklyn Museum exhibited a selection of the original drawings made for the bridge's construction, some by Washington Roebling himself.
[edit] 125th anniversary celebrations
Beginning on May 22, 2008, festivities were held over a five-day period to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. The events kicked off with a live performance of the Brooklyn Philharmonic in Empire–Fulton Ferry State Park, followed by special lighting of the bridge's towers and a fireworks display.[41] Other events held during the 125th anniversary celebrations, which coincided with the Memorial Day weekend, included a film series, historical walking tours, information tents, a series of lectures and readings, a bicycle tour of Brooklyn, a miniature golf course featuring Brooklyn icons, and other musical and dance performances.[42]
Just before the anniversary celebrations, the Telectroscope, which created a video link between New York and London, was installed on the Brooklyn side of the bridge. The installation lasted for a few weeks and permitted viewers in New York to see people looking into a matching telectroscope in front of London's Tower Bridge.[43] A newly renovated pedestrian connection to DUMBO was also unveiled before the anniversary celebrations.[44]
[edit] Cultural significance
Contemporaries marveled at what technology was capable of and the bridge became a symbol of the optimism of the time. John Perry Barlow wrote in the late 20th century of the "literal and genuinely religious leap of faith" embodied in the Brooklyn Bridge ... "the Brooklyn Bridge required of its builders faith in their ability to control technology."[45]
References to "selling the Brooklyn Bridge" abound in American culture, sometimes as examples of rural gullibility but more often in connection with an idea that strains credulity. For example, "If you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you."[citation needed] References are often nowadays more oblique, such as "I could sell you some lovely riverside property in Brooklyn ...".[citation needed] George C. Parker and William McCloundy are two early 20th-century con-men who had (allegedly) successfully perpetrated this scam on unwitting tourists.[46] The 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon Bowery Bugs is a joking reference to Bugs "selling" a story of the Brooklyn Bridge to a naive tourist.
In his second book The Bridge, Hart Crane begins with a poem entitled "Proem: To Brooklyn Bridge." The bridge was a source of inspiration for Crane and he owned different apartments specifically to have different views of the bridge.
[edit] References
^ "NYCDOT Bridges Information". New York City Department of Transportation. www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bridges/bridges.shtml#brooklyn. Retrieved 2008-08-23.
^ "New York City Bridge Traffic Volumes 2008" (PDF). New York City Department of Transportation. March 2010. p. 63. www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/bridgetrafrpt08.pdf. Retrieved 2010-07-10.
^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. www.nr.nps.gov/.
^ a b "Brooklyn Bridge". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=376&Resource....
^ E.P.D. (January 25, 1867). "Bridging the East River – Another Project". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle: p. 2. www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/eagle/. Retrieved 2007-11-26.
^ "The Brooklyn Bridge", February 24, 1975, by James B. Armstrong and S. Sydney Bradford "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination"]. National Park Service. 1975-02-24. pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/66000523.pdf "The Brooklyn Bridge", February 24, 1975, by James B. Armstrong and S. Sydney Bradford].
^ The Brooklyn Bridge—Accompanying three photos, from 1975. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination"]. National Park Service. 1975-02-24. pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Photos/66000523.pdf The Brooklyn Bridge—Accompanying three photos, from 1975.].
^ "Brooklyn Bridge". ASCE Metropolitan Section. www.ascemetsection.org/content/view/339/872/. Retrieved 2010-06-30.
^ "THE BUILDING OF THE BRIDGE.; ITS COST AND THE DIFFICULTIES MET WITH-- DETAILS OF THE HISTORY OF A GREAT ENGINEERING TRIUMPH.". The New York Times. May 24, 1883. query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F01E5DC1431E433A.... Retrieved 2009-10-27.
^ Butler WP (2004). "Caisson disease during the construction of the Eads and Brooklyn Bridges: A review". Undersea Hyperb Med 31 (4): 445–59. PMID 15686275. archive.rubicon-foundation.org/4028. Retrieved 2008-06-19.
^ Smith, Andrew Heermance (1886). The Physiological, Pathological and Therapeutical Effects of Compressed Air. Detroit: George S. Davis. books.google.com/?id=hLq981_A5bMC&printsec=frontcover.... Retrieved 2009-04-17.
^ Acott, Chris (1999). "A brief history of diving and decompression illness.". South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society journal 29 (2). ISSN 0813-1988. OCLC 16986801. archive.rubicon-foundation.org/6004. Retrieved 2009-04-17.
^ a b Amazon.com: The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge: J'aime Drisdelle: Books
^ Weigold, Marilyn (1984). Silent Builder: Emily Warren Roebling and the Brooklyn Bridge. Associated Faculty Press.
^ McCullough, David (1983). The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 421.
^ "Emily Warren Roebling". American Society of Civil Engineers. www.asce.org/PPLContent.aspx?id=2147487328. Retrieved 2010-06-30.
^ "GlassSteelandStone: Brooklyn Bridge-tower rests on sand". www.glasssteelandstone.com/BuildingDetail/435.php. Retrieved 2007-02-20.
^ Reeves, Thomas C. (1975). Gentleman Boss. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 359–360. ISBN 0-394-46095-2.
^ "Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1841–1902 Online". Archived from the original on 2007-11-14. web.archive.org/web/20071114135249/http://eagle.brooklynp.... Retrieved 2007-11-23.
^ "Dead on the New Bridge; Fatal Crush at the Western Approach". The New York Times. May 31, 1883. query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=980DE3DA1431E433A.... Retrieved 2010-02-20.
^ Bildner, Phil (2004). Twenty-One Elephants. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0689870116.
^ Prince, April Jones (2005). Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 061844887X.
^ "P.T. Barnum – MSN Encarta". Archived from the original on 2009-10-31. www.webcitation.org/5kwQPajtQ.
^ Strausbaugh, John (November 9, 2007). "When Barnum Took Manhattan". The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/arts/09expl.html. Retrieved 2008-09-21.
^ Gary Buiso, New York Post (May 25, 2010). "A True Cover Up. Brooklyn Bridge Paint Job Glosses over History". www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/true_cover_up_brookl.... Retrieved October 23, 2010.
^ Chan, Sewell (August 2, 2007). "Brooklyn Bridge Is One of 3 With Poor Rating". The New York Times. cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/brooklyn-bridge-is-.... Retrieved 2007-09-10.
^ "Brooklyn Bridge called 'safe' – DOT says span is okay despite getting a 'poor' rating". Courier-Life Publications. www.baynewsbrooklyn.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18685076&.... Retrieved 2007-08-12.
^ Burns, Ken. "Why I Decided to Make Brooklyn Bridge". Public Broadcasting Service. www.pbs.org/kenburns/brooklynbridge/about/. Retrieved 2010-02-20.
^ "Burns, Ken – U.S. Documentary Film Maker". The Museum of Broadcast Communications. www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=burnsken. Retrieved 2010-02-20.
^ Quindlen, Anna (April 2, 1980). "Koch Faces Day Ebulliently; He Looks Well Rested". The New York Times. select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F3061EFB395C1272.... Retrieved 2010-06-30.
^ Rutenberg, Jim (December 21, 2005). "On Foot, on Bridge and at City Hall, Bloomberg Is Irate". The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/nyregion/nyregionspecial3/21ma.... Retrieved 2010-06-30.
^ Julavits, Robert (August 26, 2003). "Point of Collapse". The Village Voice. www.villagevoice.com/2003-08-26/news/point-of-collapse/. Retrieved 2010-02-20.
^ Steven Henry, Strogatz (2003). Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order. New York: Hyperion. pp. 174–175, 312, 320. ISBN 0786868449.
^ "Odlum's Leap to Death". The New York Times: p. 1. May 20, 1885. query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990DE4D91739E533A.... Retrieved 2008-04-15.
^ "Brooklyn Bridge". SunnyDream. www.sunnydream.info/index.php?page=brooklyn. Retrieved 2010-06-25.
^ Sexton, Joe (March 2, 1994). "4 Hasidic Youths Hurt in Brooklyn Bridge Shooting". The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/1994/03/02/nyregion/4-hasidic-youths-hurt.... Retrieved 2010-06-30.
^ "In Memoriam". Ari Halberstam Memorial Site. www.arihalberstam.com/in-memoriam/. Retrieved 2010-06-30.
^ "Iyman Faris". GlobalSecurity.org. www.globalsecurity.org/security/profiles/iyman_faris.htm. Retrieved 2010-06-30.
^ Lovgren, Stefan (March 24, 2006). "Cold War "Time Capsule" Found in Brooklyn Bridge". National Geographic. news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0324_060324_broo.... Retrieved 2010-02-20.
^ NYC Roads. "The Brooklyn Bridge". www.nycroads.com/crossings/brooklyn/. Retrieved October 23, 2010.
^ Burke, Kerry; Hutchinson, Bill (May 23, 2008). "Brooklyn Bridge turns 125 with a bang". Daily News (New York). www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/05/22/2008-05-.... Retrieved 2009-08-01.
^ "Brooklyn Bridge 125th Anniversary Celebration". ASCE Metropolitan Section. www.ascemetsection.org/content/view/121/830/. Retrieved 2009-08-01.
^ Ryzik, Melena (May 21, 2008). "Telescope Takes a Long View, to London". The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/arts/design/21tele.html. Retrieved 2009-08-01.
^ Farmer, Ann (May 21, 2008). "This Way to Brooklyn, This Way". The New York Times. cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/welcome-to-dumbo-it.... Retrieved 2009-08-01.
^ Cultural Significance
^ Cohen, Gabriel (November 27, 2005). "For You, Half Price". The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/nyregion/thecity/27brid.htm. Retrieved 2010-02-20.
[edit] Further reading
Cadbury, Deborah. (2004), Dreams of Iron and Steel. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-716307-X
Haw, Richard. (2005). The Brooklyn Bridge: A Cultural History. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-3587-5
Haw, Richard. (2008). Art of the Brooklyn Bridge: A Visual History. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-95386-3
McCullough, David. (1972). The Great Bridge. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-21213-3
Strogatz, Steven. (2003). Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order. New York: Hyperion books. 10-ISBN 0-7868-6844-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-7868-6844-5 (cloth) [2nd ed., Hyperion, 2004. 10-ISBN 0-7868-8721-4; 13-ISBN 978-0-7868-8721-7 (paper)]
Strogartz, Steven, Daniel M. Abrams, Allan McRobie, Bruno Eckhardt, and Edward Ott. et al. (2005). "Theoretical mechanics: Crowd synchrony on the Millennium Bridge," Nature, Vol. 438, pp, 43–44.link to Nature articleMillennium Bridge opening day video illustrating "crowd synchrony" oscillations
Trachtenberg, Alan. (1965). Brooklyn Bridge: Fact and Symbol. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226811158 [2nd ed., 1979, ISBN 0-226-81115-8 (paper)]
[edit] External links
New York City portal
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brooklyn Bridge
360° Interactive panorama from the top of the Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge: A Study in Greatness
NYCroads.com – Brooklyn Bridge
Transportation Alternatives Fiboro Bridges – Brooklyn Bridge
The story of Brooklyn Bridge – by CBS Forum
Panorama of Brooklyn Bridge 1899 – Extreme Photo Constructions
Structurae: Brooklyn Bridge
Great Buildings entry for the Brooklyn Bridge
American Society of Civil Engineers
Railroad Extra – Brooklyn Bridge and its Railway
Images of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Bridge Photo Gallery with a Flash VR 360 of the Brooklyn Bridge Pedestrian Walkway
Opening Ceremonies of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, May 24, 1883 at Project Gutenberg
Brooklyn Bridge at Historical Marker Database
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the first week of September, 2016.
Constant traffic nowadays with hard material being trucked in and dumped in storage areas along The Slang/Rehills section of the river bank.
Further work is now being undertaken to upgrade the protection of the riverbank edge with the laying down of extra stone material.
Work has finished on the construction of the 'debris trap' in the river bed, opposite the Rivervale Apartments complex. This work was begun a few years ago, and halted with the creation of a pit, and the placement of (what I like to call) the 8 Dargle Dolmen stones (upright pillars) - 4 of which are immediately visible to the eye.
The ‘Debris Trap’ consists of 12 concrete elliptical shaped columns approximately 1.6m (5ft) high spaced 0.5m apart across the river channel -- essential for trapping any trees or other objects which may flow down the river in flood conditions.
To create proper foundations for the columns, the guys had to drive steel piles deep into the bed of the river. Similar to work done elsewhere. Within that waterproof chamber, they set/poured concrete to build the columns.
That pile driving work here involved a sub-contractor using an excavator-mounted vibratory pile driver – possibly a ‘Movax’ model. That’s the combination they used in 2014 with the work opposite La Vallee.
River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the first week of August, 2016.
Adjacent to The People's Park, a large compound is the site of continuing work along this section of the river. Some of the works are nearing completion.
Work here along the riverbank, between Glenwood and The Maltings, involves stabilisation measures (digging out a channel, and dropping in large boulders) intended to reinforce this newly constructed/shaped length of bank.
Access is quite restricted here, and involves shipping material in/out via the entrance further upriver, adjacent to The Slang.
A temporary soil shelf has been laid along this wall-side, to allow better access for vehicles moving materials in and out.
The shelf allows the guys to excavate down to the base of the protective wall, where they layer in another row of supportive boulders to decrease the 'scouring effect' of future fast-flowing floods.
newcastlephotos.blogspot.com/2006/06/all-saints-cemetery....
All Saints Cemetery
This Cemetery stands on Jesmond Road, opposite Jesmond Old Cemetery and was the first cemetery in Newcastle to be instigated by the Burial Board. Consecrated in 1855 and opened in 1856 this was very much a rural part of Newcastle. The residential housing surrounding the cemetery on 3 sides were built later.
Noted Newcastle architect Benjamin Green designed the cemetery, its buildings and the fine Gothic archway over the entrance from Jesmond Road. The cemetery is surrounded by cast iron railings with fleur-de-lys heads.
The cemetery was extended to Osborne Avenue, from just under 10 acres by another 1.3 hectares in 1881.
In 1924 Carliol Square Gaol was demolished and the bodies of its executed criminals were transferred into unmarked graves in the cemetery.
In total around 90,000 burials have taken place here.
Thomas Harrison Hair (1810-1875) the artist best known for his Views of the Collieries of Northumberland and Durham, is buried here in an unmarked grave.
Two Small Chapels:
2 chapels. 1856 by Green. Coursed squared sandstone with ashlar turrets and dressings; Welsh slate roofs. T-plan with additional porch on side away from centre of cemetery, and corner turret on innermost side at south end. Aligned north-south. Decorated style. Double doors, with elaborate hinges,on inner fronts have nook shafts and head-stopped dripmoulds; similar surround to plainer door in outward-facing porch; windows of 3 lights facing gateway, 2 lights on other fronts, have similar dripmoulds. Lancets to corner turrets with gabled belfry under octagonal spirelets. Buttresses. Steeply-pitched roofs with cross finials. LISTED GRADE 2.
1 of the Chapels is now the Russian Orthodox Church Of St. George.
Gate, walls, piers, gates and railings.
Cemetery gateway, walls, piers, gates and railings. Dated 1856; by Green. Coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings; wrought iron gates; cast iron railings. Gothic style. High gable over 2-centred arch with 12 shafts each side and many mouldings; gabled ends have fantastic beasts climbing down kneelers; head-stopped dripmoulds, buttresses and finials.
High, pointed coping to flanking walls containing pedestrian doors in arches; end piers have gables with fleur-de-lis moulding. Chamfered coping to dwarf quadrant walls and similar walls along cemetery front, with 4 square piers at each side having pyramidal coping. High gates are Gothic-patterned; railings have fleur-de-lis heads.
Burials:
Samuel Smith.
Celtic Cross monument. Samuel Smith OBE JP (1872-1949) was the founder of Rington's Tea. He was born in Leeds and became an errand boy for a tea merchants on leaving school at 11. In 1908 he moved to Newcastle and set up a small shop in Heaton with William Titterington. They called the company Ringtons. The tea was imported from India and Sri Lanka then tasted, blended and packaged. It was delivered by the company's black, gold and green horse-drawn coaches. In 1926 the business moved to purpose-built premises in Algernon Road. Eventually there were 26 branches of Ringtons in the North. The firm moved into coachbuilding during the World Wars, which led to the creation of Smith's Electric Vehicles at Team Valley Trading Estate.
Alexander Gardner.
Cross monument. Alexander Gardner (1877-1921) was a footballer for Newcastle United. Before the First World War, Newcastle United were in the First Division, won three league titles and won one FA Cup final of three. Alexander was the captain and played at right half (midfielder). He made 268 appearances and scored 20 goals. He was born in Leith in 1899. The 1904/5 team won 23 out of 34 league games. In 1909 Alexander broke his leg, which ended his football career. He became landlord of the Dun Cow Inn in Claremont Road.
Michael Joseph Quigley.
Gravestone of Michael Joseph Quigley (1837-1924), American Civil War veteran. Michael was born in Bradford and emigrated to America with his wife shortly before the outbreak of civil war. He served under General Robert E. Lee in Virginia but was wounded in his left arm. He was later employed in Government Service. He returned to Britain in 1876. He lived in St. Lawrence Square off Walker Road. His income was subsidised by a pension from the American Government.
James Skinner.
Obelisk monument to James Skinner (1836-1920), shipbuilder. James was born in London. He moved to Newcastle aged 14 to begin an apprenticeship at Coutts shipyard at Low Walker. He went on to manage Andrew Leslie's shipyard at Hebburn then opened a yard at Bill Quay with William Wood, shipyard cashier. The firm Wood Skinner & Co. built 330 vessels over 42 years up to 1925. They also built the 30-bed Tyne Floating Hospital for Infectious Diseases at Jarrow Slake, designed by Newcastle Civil Engineer, George Laws. The hospital ship was launched on 2 August 1885. It sank in 1888. She was refloated and remained moored there for over 40 years.
Francis Batey.
Urn monument to Francis Batey (1841-1915), steam tug boat owner. Francis joined his father's tug boat business at the age of 11 and eventually gained his master's certificate. When the Albert Edward Dock opened in 1884, he was assistant pilot on the Rio Amazonas, the first ship to enter the dock. He went on to be chairman of several tug related companies on the River Tyne. One of his sons, John Thomas Batey, became Managing Director of Hawthorn Leslie's Hebburn shipyard.
Antonio Marcantonio.
Impressive monument of a statue of a monk or friar holding an infant. Antonio Marcantonio (1886-1960), ice cream manufacturer, arrived in Newcastle in 1895 to join a small colony of Italians living in Byker. In the early 1900s he returned to Italy to marry Angela. He returned to Newcastle and began making ice cream in a room in his house using small pans of salt and ice to freeze it. Eventually he took over a small factory on Stepney Bank. 500 gallons of ice cream were made daily. He also owned five ice cream parlours, the first one was in the Grainger Arcade. The Mark Toney business still flourishes (factory at Benton Square).
George Henry Carr.
A 13 feet high monument to George Henry Carr (1867-1889), racing cyclist. There is a shield on each side depicting a bicycle, flowers, the badge of the Jubilee Rovers Bicycle Club and the badge of Clarence Bicycle Club. Carr was a prominent figure on the racing circuit. He died aged 22 of inflammation of the brain.
John James Lightfoot,
Monument of an angel to John James Lightfoot (1877-1897), apprentice joiner. John James was crushed to death aged 19 during restoration of the 200 year old Green Tree beerhouse in Robson's Entry, Sandgate.The building collapsed killing 4 people and injuring 12. The disaster was sketched by the Chronicle's artist and published on 6 March 1897 the day after the accident. The article describes the scene - 'in the house to the east there was a yawning space where the wall had tumbled in; behind the hole a staircase stood, but seemed, like the sword of Damocles, to have no more than a hair-strength to support it'.
Josephine Esther Salisse.
Family vault of M. and H.M. Salisse. A stone sarcophagus with a bronze female figure mourning over it. Josephine Esther Salisse (1905-1924) was from Thornton Heath in Surrey. She died suddenly at her aunt's home in Stratford Road, Heaton, aged 19.
John and Benjamin Green were a father and son who worked in partnership as architects in North East England during the early nineteenth century. John, the father was a civil engineer as well as an architect. Although they did carry out some commissions separately, they were given joint credit for many of their projects, and it is difficult to attribute much of their work to a single individual. In general, John Green worked on civil engineering projects, such as road and rail bridges, whereas Benjamin worked on projects that were more purely architectural. Their work was predominantly church and railway architecture, with a sprinkling of public buildings that includes their masterpiece, Newcastle's Theatre Royal.
Drawings by John and Benjamin Green are held by the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Biographies
John Green was born on 29 June 1787 at Newton Fell House, Nafferton, two miles north of Ovington, Northumberland. He was the son of Benjamin Green, a carpenter and maker of agricultural implements. After finishing school, he worked in his father's business. The firm moved to the market town of Corbridge and began general building work with young John concentrating on architectural work. About 1820, John set up business as an architect and civil engineer in nearby Newcastle upon Tyne.
John Green married Jane Stobart in 1805, and they had two sons, John (c.1807–68) and Benjamin (c1811-58), both of whom became architects. Little is known about the career of John, but Benjamin worked in partnership with his father on many projects.
In 1822 John Green designed a new building for the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society. The building, which houses the society's substantial library, is still in use today. He also designed a number of farmhouses, being employed on the Beaufront estate near Hexham and also on the Duke of Northumberland’s estates.
John Green was principally a civil engineer, and built several road and rail bridges. In 1829–31 he built two wrought-iron suspension bridges crossing the Tyne (at Scotswood) and the Tees (at Whorlton). The bridge at Scotswood was demolished in 1967 but the one at Whorlton still survives. When the High Level Bridge at Newcastle was proposed ten years later, John Green submitted plans, but those of Robert Stephenson were accepted by the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway. Green also built a number of bridges using an innovative system of laminated timber arches on masonry piers, the Weibeking system, based on the work of Bavarian engineer C.F. Weibeking. The two he built for the Newcastle and North Shields Railway, at the Ouseburn and at Willington Quay remain in use, though the timbers were replaced with wrought iron in a similar lattice pattern in 1869. In 1840 he was elected to the Institution of Civil Engineers, and in 1841 he was awarded the institution's Telford Medal for his work on laminated arch design.
John Green died in Newcastle on 30 September 1852.
Benjamin Green
Benjamin Green was a pupil of Augustus Charles Pugin, father of the more famous Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. In the mid-1830s he became a partner of his father and remained so until the latter's death in 1852. The two partners differed somewhat. John has been described as a 'plain, practical, shrewd man of business' with a 'plain, severe and economical' style, whereas Benjamin was 'an artistic, dashing sort of fellow', with a style that was 'ornamental, florid and costly'.
The Greens worked as railway architects and it is believed that all the main line stations between Newcastle and Berwick upon Tweed were designed by Benjamin. In 2020 Morpeth Station was restored to Green's original designs following a £2.3M investment. They also designed a number of Northumbrian churches, the best examples being at Earsdon and Cambo.
The Green's most important commissions in Newcastle were the Theatre Royal (1836–37) and the column for Grey's Monument (1837–38). Both of these structures were part of the re-development of Newcastle city centre in neo-classical style by Richard Grainger, and both exist today. Although both of the partners were credited with their design, it is believed that Benjamin was the person responsible.
Another well-known structure designed by the Greens is Penshaw Monument (1844). This is a folly standing on Penshaw Hill in County Durham. It was built as a half-sized replica of the renowned Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, and was dedicated to John George Lambton, first Earl of Durham and the first Governor of the Province of Canada. The monument, being built on a hill is visible for miles around and is a famous local landmark. It is now owned by the National Trust.
Benjamin Green survived his father by only six years, and died in a mental home at Dinsdale Park, County Durham on 14 November 1858.
Major works
Presbyterian Chapel, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1822 (demolished 2011)
Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1822–1825
St Peter's Church, Falstone, 1824–1825
Westgate Hill Cemetery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1825–1829 (lodge demolished 1970, railings and gates removed, piers and basic layout remains)
Ingram Farm, Ingram, 1826
Whorlton Suspension Bridge, Wycliffe, County Durham, 1829–1831
Hawks Cottages, Gateshead, 1830 (demolished 1960)
Scotswood Chain Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1831, (demolished 1967)
Church of St Mary and St Thomas Aquinas, Stella, 1831–1832[1]
Bellingham Bridge, Bellingham, 1834
Holy Trinity Church, Stockton-On-Tees, 1834–1835[2]
Holy Trinity Church, Dalton (near Stamfordham), 1836
Vicarage of St Alban, Earsdon, 1836
Church of St Alban, Earsdon, 1836–1837
St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Alnwick, 1836
Church of the Holy Saviour, Newburn, 1836–1837
Poor Law Guardians Hall, North Shields, 1837
Master Mariners Homes, Tynemouth, 1837–1840[3]
Theatre Royal, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1837
Parish Hall of the Church of the Holy Saviour, Newburn, 1838
Column of Grey's Monument, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1838
Willington Viaduct, Wallsend, 1837–1839
Ouseburn Viaduct, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1837–1839
Church of the Holy Saviour, Tynemouth, 1839–1841
Ilderton Vicarage, Ilderton, 1841
The Red Cottage, Whitburn, 1842
Holy Trinity Church, Cambo, 1842
Holy Trinity Church, Horsley-on-Rede, 1844
The Earl of Durham's Monument, Sunderland, 1844
St Edwin's, Coniscliffe, Co. Durham, 1844 (restoration of mediaeval church)
40–44 Moseley Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1845
Witham Testimonial Hall, Barnard Castle, 1846
Old Railway Station, Tynemouth Rd, Tynemouth 1846–1847
Acklington Station, Acklington, 1847
Chathill Station, Chathill, 1847
Belford Station, Belford, Northumberland, 1847
Morpeth Station, Morpeth, Northumberland, 1847
Warkworth Station, Warkworth, Northumberland, 1847
Holy Trinity Church, Seghill, 1849
Newcastle Joint Stock Bank, St Nicholas Square, Newcastle, c.1850
Norham station, Norham, 1851
St Paul's Church, Elswick, 1854
All Saints Cemetery, Jesmond, 1854
Sailor's Home, 11 New Quay, North Shields, 1856
United Free Methodist Church, North Shields, 1857
Corn Exchange, Groat Market, Newcastle (demolished 1974)
Newcastle upon Tyne, or simply Newcastle is a cathedral city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is located on the River Tyne's northern bank, opposite Gateshead to the south. It is the most populous settlement in the Tyneside conurbation and North East England.
Newcastle developed around a Roman settlement called Pons Aelius, the settlement became known as Monkchester before taking on the name of a castle built in 1080 by William the Conqueror's eldest son, Robert Curthose. It was one of the world's largest ship building and repair centres during the industrial revolution. Newcastle was part of the county of Northumberland until 1400, when it separated and formed a county of itself. In 1974, Newcastle became part of Tyne and Wear. Since 2018, the city council has been part of the North of Tyne Combined Authority.
The history of Newcastle upon Tyne dates back almost 2,000 years, during which it has been controlled by the Romans, the Angles and the Norsemen amongst others. Newcastle upon Tyne was originally known by its Roman name Pons Aelius. The name "Newcastle" has been used since the Norman conquest of England. Due to its prime location on the River Tyne, the town developed greatly during the Middle Ages and it was to play a major role in the Industrial Revolution, being granted city status in 1882. Today, the city is a major retail, commercial and cultural centre.
Roman settlement
The history of Newcastle dates from AD 122, when the Romans built the first bridge to cross the River Tyne at that point. The bridge was called Pons Aelius or 'Bridge of Aelius', Aelius being the family name of Roman Emperor Hadrian, who was responsible for the Roman wall built across northern England along the Tyne–Solway gap. Hadrian's Wall ran through present-day Newcastle, with stretches of wall and turrets visible along the West Road, and at a temple in Benwell. Traces of a milecastle were found on Westgate Road, midway between Clayton Street and Grainger Street, and it is likely that the course of the wall corresponded to present-day Westgate Road. The course of the wall can be traced eastwards to the Segedunum Roman fort at Wallsend, with the fort of Arbeia down-river at the mouth of the Tyne, on the south bank in what is now South Shields. The Tyne was then a wider, shallower river at this point and it is thought that the bridge was probably about 700 feet (210 m) long, made of wood and supported on stone piers. It is probable that it was sited near the current Swing Bridge, due to the fact that Roman artefacts were found there during the building of the latter bridge. Hadrian himself probably visited the site in 122. A shrine was set up on the completed bridge in 123 by the 6th Legion, with two altars to Neptune and Oceanus respectively. The two altars were subsequently found in the river and are on display in the Great North Museum in Newcastle.
The Romans built a stone-walled fort in 150 to protect the river crossing which was at the foot of the Tyne Gorge, and this took the name of the bridge so that the whole settlement was known as Pons Aelius. The fort was situated on a rocky outcrop overlooking the new bridge, on the site of the present Castle Keep. Pons Aelius is last mentioned in 400, in a Roman document listing all of the Roman military outposts. It is likely that nestling in the shadow of the fort would have been a small vicus, or village. Unfortunately, no buildings have been detected; only a few pieces of flagging. It is clear that there was a Roman cemetery near Clavering Place, behind the Central station, as a number of Roman coffins and sarcophagi have been unearthed there.
Despite the presence of the bridge, the settlement of Pons Aelius was not particularly important among the northern Roman settlements. The most important stations were those on the highway of Dere Street running from Eboracum (York) through Corstopitum (Corbridge) and to the lands north of the Wall. Corstopitum, being a major arsenal and supply centre, was much larger and more populous than Pons Aelius.
Anglo-Saxon development
The Angles arrived in the North-East of England in about 500 and may have landed on the Tyne. There is no evidence of an Anglo-Saxon settlement on or near the site of Pons Aelius during the Anglo-Saxon age. The bridge probably survived and there may well have been a small village at the northern end, but no evidence survives. At that time the region was dominated by two kingdoms, Bernicia, north of the Tees and ruled from Bamburgh, and Deira, south of the Tees and ruled from York. Bernicia and Deira combined to form the kingdom of Northanhymbra (Northumbria) early in the 7th century. There were three local kings who held the title of Bretwalda – 'Lord of Britain', Edwin of Deira (627–632), Oswald of Bernicia (633–641) and Oswy of Northumbria (641–658). The 7th century became known as the 'Golden Age of Northumbria', when the area was a beacon of culture and learning in Europe. The greatness of this period was based on its generally Christian culture and resulted in the Lindisfarne Gospels amongst other treasures. The Tyne valley was dotted with monasteries, with those at Monkwearmouth, Hexham and Jarrow being the most famous. Bede, who was based at Jarrow, wrote of a royal estate, known as Ad Murum, 'at the Wall', 12 miles (19 km) from the sea. It is thought that this estate may have been in what is now Newcastle. At some unknown time, the site of Newcastle came to be known as Monkchester. The reason for this title is unknown, as we are unaware of any specific monasteries at the site, and Bede made no reference to it. In 875 Halfdan Ragnarsson, the Danish Viking conqueror of York, led an army that attacked and pillaged various monasteries in the area, and it is thought that Monkchester was also pillaged at this time. Little more was heard of it until the coming of the Normans.
Norman period
After the arrival of William the Conqueror in England in 1066, the whole of England was quickly subjected to Norman rule. However, in Northumbria there was great resistance to the Normans, and in 1069 the newly appointed Norman Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Comines and 700 of his men were killed by the local population at Durham. The Northumbrians then marched on York, but William was able to suppress the uprising. That same year, a second uprising occurred when a Danish fleet landed in the Humber. The Northumbrians again attacked York and destroyed the garrison there. William was again able to suppress the uprising, but this time he took revenge. He laid waste to the whole of the Midlands and the land from York to the Tees. In 1080, William Walcher, the Norman bishop of Durham and his followers were brutally murdered at Gateshead. This time Odo, bishop of Bayeux, William's half brother, devastated the land between the Tees and the Tweed. This was known as the 'Harrying of the North'. This devastation is reflected in the Domesday Book. The destruction had such an effect that the North remained poor and backward at least until Tudor times and perhaps until the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle suffered in this respect with the rest of the North.
In 1080 William sent his eldest son, Robert Curthose, north to defend the kingdom against the Scots. After his campaign, he moved to Monkchester and began the building of a 'New Castle'. This was of the "motte-and-bailey" type of construction, a wooden tower on top of an earthen mound (motte), surrounded by a moat and wooden stockade (bailey). It was this castle that gave Newcastle its name. In 1095 the Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, rose up against the king, William Rufus, and Rufus sent an army north to recapture the castle. From then on the castle became crown property and was an important base from which the king could control the northern barons. The Northumbrian earldom was abolished and a Sheriff of Northumberland was appointed to administer the region. In 1091 the parish church of St Nicholas was consecrated on the site of the present Anglican cathedral, close by the bailey of the new castle. The church is believed to have been a wooden building on stone footings.
Not a trace of the tower or mound of the motte and bailey castle remains now. Henry II replaced it with a rectangular stone keep, which was built between 1172 and 1177 at a cost of £1,444. A stone bailey, in the form of a triangle, replaced the previous wooden one. The great outer gateway to the castle, called 'the Black Gate', was built later, between 1247 and 1250, in the reign of Henry III. There were at that time no town walls and when attacked by the Scots, the townspeople had to crowd into the bailey for safety. It is probable that the new castle acted as a magnet for local merchants because of the safety it provided. This in turn would help to expand trade in the town. At this time wool, skins and lead were being exported, whilst alum, pepper and ginger were being imported from France and Flanders.
Middle Ages
Throughout the Middle Ages, Newcastle was England's northern fortress, the centre for assembled armies. The Border war against Scotland lasted intermittently for several centuries – possibly the longest border war ever waged. During the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, David 1st of Scotland and his son were granted Cumbria and Northumberland respectively, so that for a period from 1139 to 1157, Newcastle was effectively in Scottish hands. It is believed that during this period, King David may have built the church of St Andrew and the Benedictine nunnery in Newcastle. However, King Stephen's successor, Henry II was strong enough to take back the Earldom of Northumbria from Malcolm IV.
The Scots king William the Lion was imprisoned in Newcastle, in 1174, after being captured at the Battle of Alnwick. Edward I brought the Stone of Scone and William Wallace south through the town and Newcastle was successfully defended against the Scots three times during the 14th century.
Around 1200, stone-faced, clay-filled jetties were starting to project into the river, an indication that trade was increasing in Newcastle. As the Roman roads continued to deteriorate, sea travel was gaining in importance. By 1275 Newcastle was the sixth largest wool exporting port in England. The principal exports at this time were wool, timber, coal, millstones, dairy produce, fish, salt and hides. Much of the developing trade was with the Baltic countries and Germany. Most of the Newcastle merchants were situated near the river, below the Castle. The earliest known charter was dated 1175 in the reign of Henry II, giving the townspeople some control over their town. In 1216 King John granted Newcastle a mayor[8] and also allowed the formation of guilds (known as Mysteries). These were cartels formed within different trades, which restricted trade to guild members. There were initially twelve guilds. Coal was being exported from Newcastle by 1250, and by 1350 the burgesses received a royal licence to export coal. This licence to export coal was jealously guarded by the Newcastle burgesses, and they tried to prevent any one else on the Tyne from exporting coal except through Newcastle. The burgesses similarly tried to prevent fish from being sold anywhere else on the Tyne except Newcastle. This led to conflicts with Gateshead and South Shields.
In 1265, the town was granted permission to impose a 'Wall Tax' or Murage, to pay for the construction of a fortified wall to enclose the town and protect it from Scottish invaders. The town walls were not completed until early in the 14th century. They were two miles (3 km) long, 9 feet (2.7 m) thick and 25 feet (7.6 m) high. They had six main gates, as well as some smaller gates, and had 17 towers. The land within the walls was divided almost equally by the Lort Burn, which flowed southwards and joined the Tyne to the east of the Castle. The town began to expand north of the Castle and west of the Lort Burn with various markets being set up within the walls.
In 1400 Henry IV granted a new charter, creating a County corporate which separated the town, but not the Castle, from the county of Northumberland and recognised it as a "county of itself" with a right to have a sheriff of its own. The burgesses were now allowed to choose six aldermen who, with the mayor would be justices of the peace. The mayor and sheriff were allowed to hold borough courts in the Guildhall.
Religious houses
During the Middle Ages a number of religious houses were established within the walls: the first of these was the Benedictine nunnery of St Bartholomew founded in 1086 near the present-day Nun Street. Both David I of Scotland and Henry I of England were benefactors of the religious house. Nothing of the nunnery remains now.
The friary of Blackfriars, Newcastle (Dominican) was established in 1239. These were also known as the Preaching Friars or Shod Friars, because they wore sandals, as opposed to other orders. The friary was situated in the present-day Friars Street. In 1280 the order was granted royal permission to make a postern in the town walls to communicate with their gardens outside the walls. On 19 June 1334, Edward Balliol, claimant to be King of Scotland, did homage to King Edward III, on behalf of the kingdom of Scotland, in the church of the friary. Much of the original buildings of the friary still exist, mainly because, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries the friary of Blackfriars was rented out by the corporation to nine of the local trade guilds.
The friary of Whitefriars (Carmelite) was established in 1262. The order was originally housed on the Wall Knoll in Pandon, but in 1307 it took over the buildings of another order, which went out of existence, the Friars of the Sac. The land, which had originally been given by Robert the Bruce, was situated in the present-day Hanover Square, behind the Central station. Nothing of the friary remains now.
The friary of Austinfriars (Augustinian) was established in 1290. The friary was on the site where the Holy Jesus Hospital was built in 1682. The friary was traditionally the lodging place of English kings whenever they visited or passed through Newcastle. In 1503 Princess Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII of England, stayed two days at the friary on her way to join her new husband James IV of Scotland.
The friary of Greyfriars (Franciscans) was established in 1274. The friary was in the present-day area between Pilgrim Street, Grey Street, Market Street and High Chare. Nothing of the original buildings remains.
The friary of the Order of the Holy Trinity, also known as the Trinitarians, was established in 1360. The order devoted a third of its income to buying back captives of the Saracens, during the Crusades. Their house was on the Wall Knoll, in Pandon, to the east of the city, but within the walls. Wall Knoll had previously been occupied by the White Friars until they moved to new premises in 1307.
All of the above religious houses were closed in about 1540, when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries.
An important street running through Newcastle at the time was Pilgrim Street, running northwards inside the walls and leading to the Pilgrim Gate on the north wall. The street still exists today as arguably Newcastle's main shopping street.
Tudor period
The Scottish border wars continued for much of the 16th century, so that during that time, Newcastle was often threatened with invasion by the Scots, but also remained important as a border stronghold against them.
During the Reformation begun by Henry VIII in 1536, the five Newcastle friaries and the single nunnery were dissolved and the land was sold to the Corporation and to rich merchants. At this time there were fewer than 60 inmates of the religious houses in Newcastle. The convent of Blackfriars was leased to nine craft guilds to be used as their headquarters. This probably explains why it is the only one of the religious houses whose building survives to the present day. The priories at Tynemouth and Durham were also dissolved, thus ending the long-running rivalry between Newcastle and the church for control of trade on the Tyne. A little later, the property of the nunnery of St Bartholomew and of Grey Friars were bought by Robert Anderson, who had the buildings demolished to build his grand Newe House (also known as Anderson Place).
With the gradual decline of the Scottish border wars the town walls were allowed to decline as well as the castle. By 1547, about 10,000 people were living in Newcastle. At the beginning of the 16th century exports of wool from Newcastle were more than twice the value of exports of coal, but during the century coal exports continued to increase.
Under Edward VI, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, sponsored an act allowing Newcastle to annexe Gateshead as its suburb. The main reason for this was to allow the Newcastle Hostmen, who controlled the export of Tyne coal, to get their hands on the Gateshead coal mines, previously controlled by the Bishop of Durham. However, when Mary I came to power, Dudley met his downfall and the decision was reversed. The Reformation allowed private access to coal mines previously owned by Tynemouth and Durham priories and as a result coal exports increase dramatically, from 15,000 tons in 1500 to 35,000 tons in 1565, and to 400,000 tons in 1625.
The plague visited Newcastle four times during the 16th century, in 1579 when 2,000 people died, in 1589 when 1700 died, in 1595 and finally in 1597.
In 1600 Elizabeth I granted Newcastle a charter for an exclusive body of electors, the right to elect the mayor and burgesses. The charter also gave the Hostmen exclusive rights to load coal at any point on the Tyne. The Hostmen developed as an exclusive group within the Merchant Adventurers who had been incorporated by a charter in 1547.
Stuart period
In 1636 there was a serious outbreak of bubonic plague in Newcastle. There had been several previous outbreaks of the disease over the years, but this was the most serious. It is thought to have arrived from the Netherlands via ships that were trading between the Tyne and that country. It first appeared in the lower part of the town near the docks but gradually spread to all parts of the town. As the disease gained hold the authorities took measures to control it by boarding up any properties that contained infected persons, meaning that whole families were locked up together with the infected family members. Other infected persons were put in huts outside the town walls and left to die. Plague pits were dug next to the town's four churches and outside the town walls to receive the bodies in mass burials. Over the course of the outbreak 5,631 deaths were recorded out of an estimated population of 12,000, a death rate of 47%.
In 1637 Charles I tried to raise money by doubling the 'voluntary' tax on coal in return for allowing the Newcastle Hostmen to regulate production and fix prices. This caused outrage amongst the London importers and the East Anglian shippers. Both groups decided to boycott Tyne coal and as a result forced Charles to reverse his decision in 1638.
In 1640 during the Second Bishops' War, the Scots successfully invaded Newcastle. The occupying army demanded £850 per day from the Corporation to billet the Scottish troops. Trade from the Tyne ground to a halt during the occupation. The Scots left in 1641 after receiving a Parliamentary pardon and a £4,000,000 loan from the town.
In 1642 the English Civil War began. King Charles realised the value of the Tyne coal trade and therefore garrisoned Newcastle. A Royalist was appointed as governor. At that time, Newcastle and King's Lynn were the only important seaports to support the crown. In 1644 Parliament blockaded the Tyne to prevent the king from receiving revenue from the Tyne coal trade. Coal exports fell from 450,000 to 3,000 tons and London suffered a hard winter without fuel. Parliament encouraged the coal trade from the Wear to try to replace that lost from Newcastle but that was not enough to make up for the lost Tyneside tonnage.
In 1644 the Scots crossed the border. Newcastle strengthened its defences in preparation. The Scottish army, with 40,000 troops, besieged Newcastle for three months until the garrison of 1,500 surrendered. During the siege, the Scots bombarded the walls with their artillery, situated in Gateshead and Castle Leazes. The Scottish commander threatened to destroy the steeple of St Nicholas's Church by gunfire if the mayor, Sir John Marley, did not surrender the town. The mayor responded by placing Scottish prisoners that they had captured in the steeple, so saving it from destruction. The town walls were finally breached by a combination of artillery and sapping. In gratitude for this defence, Charles gave Newcastle the motto 'Fortiter Defendit Triumphans' to be added to its coat of arms. The Scottish army occupied Northumberland and Durham for two years. The coal taxes had to pay for the Scottish occupation. In 1645 Charles surrendered to the Scots and was imprisoned in Newcastle for nine months. After the Civil War the coal trade on the Tyne soon picked up and exceeded its pre-war levels.
A new Guildhall was completed on the Sandhill next to the river in 1655, replacing an earlier facility damaged by fire in 1639, and became the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council. In 1681 the Hospital of the Holy Jesus was built partly on the site of the Austin Friars. The Guildhall and Holy Jesus Hospital still exist.
Charles II tried to impose a charter on Newcastle to give the king the right to appoint the mayor, sheriff, recorder and town clerk. Charles died before the charter came into effect. In 1685, James II tried to replace Corporation members with named Catholics. However, James' mandate was suspended in 1689 after the Glorious Revolution welcoming William of Orange. In 1689, after the fall of James II, the people of Newcastle tore down his bronze equestrian statue in Sandhill and tossed it into the Tyne. The bronze was later used to make bells for All Saints Church.
In 1689 the Lort Burn was covered over. At this time it was an open sewer. The channel followed by the Lort Burn became the present day Dean Street. At that time, the centre of Newcastle was still the Sandhill area, with many merchants living along the Close or on the Side. The path of the main road through Newcastle ran from the single Tyne bridge, through Sandhill to the Side, a narrow street which climbed steeply on the north-east side of the castle hill until it reached the higher ground alongside St Nicholas' Church. As Newcastle developed, the Side became lined with buildings with projecting upper stories, so that the main street through Newcastle was a narrow, congested, steep thoroughfare.
In 1701 the Keelmen's Hospital was built in the Sandgate area of the city, using funds provided by the keelmen. The building still stands today.
Eighteenth century
In the 18th century, Newcastle was the country's largest print centre after London, Oxford and Cambridge, and the Literary and Philosophical Society of 1793, with its erudite debates and large stock of books in several languages predated the London Library by half a century.
In 1715, during the Jacobite rising in favour of the Old Pretender, an army of Jacobite supporters marched on Newcastle. Many of the Northumbrian gentry joined the rebels. The citizens prepared for its arrival by arresting Jacobite supporters and accepting 700 extra recruits into the local militia. The gates of the city were closed against the rebels. This proved enough to delay an attack until reinforcements arrived forcing the rebel army to move across to the west coast. The rebels finally surrendered at Preston.
In 1745, during a second Jacobite rising in favour of the Young Pretender, a Scottish army crossed the border led by Bonnie Prince Charlie. Once again Newcastle prepared by arresting Jacobite supporters and inducting 800 volunteers into the local militia. The town walls were strengthened, most of the gates were blocked up and some 200 cannon were deployed. 20,000 regulars were billeted on the Town Moor. These preparations were enough to force the rebel army to travel south via the west coast. They were eventually defeated at Culloden in 1746.
Newcastle's actions during the 1715 rising in resisting the rebels and declaring for George I, in contrast to the rest of the region, is the most likely source of the nickname 'Geordie', applied to people from Tyneside, or more accurately Newcastle. Another theory, however, is that the name 'Geordie' came from the inventor of the Geordie lamp, George Stephenson. It was a type of safety lamp used in mining, but was not invented until 1815. Apparently the term 'German Geordie' was in common use during the 18th century.
The city's first hospital, Newcastle Infirmary opened in 1753; it was funded by public subscription. A lying-in hospital was established in Newcastle in 1760. The city's first public hospital for mentally ill patients, Wardens Close Lunatic Hospital was opened in October 1767.
In 1771 a flood swept away much of the bridge at Newcastle. The bridge had been built in 1250 and repaired after a flood in 1339. The bridge supported various houses and three towers and an old chapel. A blue stone was placed in the middle of the bridge to mark the boundary between Newcastle and the Palatinate of Durham. A temporary wooden bridge had to be built, and this remained in use until 1781, when a new stone bridge was completed. The new bridge consisted of nine arches. In 1801, because of the pressure of traffic, the bridge had to be widened.
A permanent military presence was established in the city with the completion of Fenham Barracks in 1806. The facilities at the Castle for holding assizes, which had been condemned for their inconvenience and unhealthiness, were replaced when the Moot Hall opened in August 1812.
Victorian period
Present-day Newcastle owes much of its architecture to the work of the builder Richard Grainger, aided by architects John Dobson, Thomas Oliver, John and Benjamin Green and others. In 1834 Grainger won a competition to produce a new plan for central Newcastle. He put this plan into effect using the above architects as well as architects employed in his own office. Grainger and Oliver had already built Leazes Terrace, Leazes Crescent and Leazes Place between 1829 and 1834. Grainger and Dobson had also built the Royal Arcade at the foot of Pilgrim Street between 1830 and 1832. The most ambitious project covered 12 acres 12 acres (49,000 m2) in central Newcastle, on the site of Newe House (also called Anderson Place). Grainger built three new thoroughfares, Grey Street, Grainger Street and Clayton Street with many connecting streets, as well as the Central Exchange and the Grainger Market. John Wardle and George Walker, working in Grainger's office, designed Clayton Street, Grainger Street and most of Grey Street. Dobson designed the Grainger Market and much of the east side of Grey Street. John and Benjamin Green designed the Theatre Royal at the top of Grey Street, where Grainger placed the column of Grey's Monument as a focus for the whole scheme. Grey Street is considered to be one of the finest streets in the country, with its elegant curve. Unfortunately most of old Eldon Square was demolished in the 1960s in the name of progress. The Royal Arcade met a similar fate.
In 1849 a new bridge was built across the river at Newcastle. This was the High Level Bridge, designed by Robert Stephenson, and slightly up river from the existing bridge. The bridge was designed to carry road and rail traffic across the Tyne Gorge on two decks with rail traffic on the upper deck and road traffic on the lower. The new bridge meant that traffic could pass through Newcastle without having to negotiate the steep, narrow Side, as had been necessary for centuries. The bridge was opened by Queen Victoria, who one year later opened the new Central Station, designed by John Dobson. Trains were now able to cross the river, directly into the centre of Newcastle and carry on up to Scotland. The Army Riding School was also completed in 1849.
In 1854 a large fire started on the Gateshead quayside and an explosion caused it to spread across the river to the Newcastle quayside. A huge conflagration amongst the narrow alleys, or 'chares', destroyed the homes of 800 families as well as many business premises. The narrow alleys that had been destroyed were replaced by streets containing blocks of modern offices.
In 1863 the Town Hall in St Nicholas Square replaced the Guildhall as the meeting place of Newcastle Town Council.
In 1876 the low level bridge was replaced by a new bridge known as the Swing Bridge, so called because the bridge was able to swing horizontally on a central axis and allow ships to pass on either side. This meant that for the first time sizeable ships could pass up-river beyond Newcastle. The bridge was built and paid for by William Armstrong, a local arms manufacturer, who needed to have warships access his Elswick arms factory to fit armaments to them. The Swing Bridge's rotating mechanism is adapted from the cannon mounts developed in Armstrong's arms works. In 1882 the Elswick works began to build ships as well as to arm them. The Barrack Road drill hall was completed in 1890.
Industrialisation
In the 19th century, shipbuilding and heavy engineering were central to the city's prosperity; and the city was a powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution. Newcastle's development as a major city owed most to its central role in the production and export of coal. The phrase "taking coals to Newcastle" was first recorded in 1538; it proverbially denotes bringing a particular commodity to a place that has more than enough of it already.
Innovation in Newcastle and surrounding areas included the following:
George Stephenson developed a miner's safety lamp at the same time that Humphry Davy developed a rival design. The lamp made possible the opening up of ever deeper mines to provide the coal that powered the industrial revolution.
George and his son Robert Stephenson were hugely influential figures in the development of the early railways. George developed Blücher, a locomotive working at Killingworth colliery in 1814, whilst Robert was instrumental in the design of Rocket, a revolutionary design that was the forerunner of modern locomotives. Both men were involved in planning and building railway lines, all over this country and abroad.
Joseph Swan demonstrated a working electric light bulb about a year before Thomas Edison did the same in the USA. This led to a dispute as to who had actually invented the light bulb. Eventually the two rivals agreed to form a mutual company between them, the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company, known as Ediswan.
Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine, for marine use and for power generation. He used Turbinia, a small, turbine-powered ship, to demonstrate the speed that a steam turbine could generate. Turbinia literally ran rings around the British Fleet at a review at Spithead in 1897.
William Armstrong invented a hydraulic crane that was installed in dockyards up and down the country. He then began to design light, accurate field guns for the British army. These were a vast improvement on the existing guns that were then in use.
The following major industries developed in Newcastle or its surrounding area:
Glassmaking
A small glass industry existed in Newcastle from the mid-15th century. In 1615 restrictions were put on the use of wood for manufacturing glass. It was found that glass could be manufactured using the local coal, and so a glassmaking industry grew up on Tyneside. Huguenot glassmakers came over from France as refugees from persecution and set up glasshouses in the Skinnerburn area of Newcastle. Eventually, glass production moved to the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. In 1684 the Dagnia family, Sephardic Jewish emigrants from Altare, arrived in Newcastle from Stourbridge and established glasshouses along the Close, to manufacture high quality flint glass. The glass manufacturers used sand ballast from the boats arriving in the river as the main raw material. The glassware was then exported in collier brigs. The period from 1730 to 1785 was the highpoint of Newcastle glass manufacture, when the local glassmakers produced the 'Newcastle Light Baluster'. The glassmaking industry still exists in the west end of the city with local Artist and Glassmaker Jane Charles carrying on over four hundred years of hot glass blowing in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Locomotive manufacture
In 1823 George Stephenson and his son Robert established the world's first locomotive factory near Forth Street in Newcastle. Here they built locomotives for the Stockton and Darlington Railway and the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, as well as many others. It was here that the famous locomotive Rocket was designed and manufactured in preparation for the Rainhill Trials. Apart from building locomotives for the British market, the Newcastle works also produced locomotives for Europe and America. The Forth Street works continued to build locomotives until 1960.
Shipbuilding
In 1296 a wooden, 135 ft (41 m) long galley was constructed at the mouth of the Lort Burn in Newcastle, as part of a twenty-ship order from the king. The ship cost £205, and is the earliest record of shipbuilding in Newcastle. However the rise of the Tyne as a shipbuilding area was due to the need for collier brigs for the coal export trade. These wooden sailing ships were usually built locally, establishing local expertise in building ships. As ships changed from wood to steel, and from sail to steam, the local shipbuilding industry changed to build the new ships. Although shipbuilding was carried out up and down both sides of the river, the two main areas for building ships in Newcastle were Elswick, to the west, and Walker, to the east. By 1800 Tyneside was the third largest producer of ships in Britain. Unfortunately, after the Second World War, lack of modernisation and competition from abroad gradually caused the local industry to decline and die.
Armaments
In 1847 William Armstrong established a huge factory in Elswick, west of Newcastle. This was initially used to produce hydraulic cranes but subsequently began also to produce guns for both the army and the navy. After the Swing Bridge was built in 1876 allowing ships to pass up river, warships could have their armaments fitted alongside the Elswick works. Armstrong's company took over its industrial rival, Joseph Whitworth of Manchester in 1897.
Steam turbines
Charles Algernon Parsons invented the steam turbine and, in 1889, founded his own company C. A. Parsons and Company in Heaton, Newcastle to make steam turbines. Shortly after this, he realised that steam turbines could be used to propel ships and, in 1897, he founded a second company, Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Company in Wallsend. It is there that he designed and manufactured Turbinia. Parsons turbines were initially used in warships but soon came to be used in merchant and passenger vessels, including the liner Mauretania which held the blue riband for the Atlantic crossing until 1929. Parsons' company in Heaton began to make turbo-generators for power stations and supplied power stations all over the world. The Heaton works, reduced in size, remains as part of the Siemens AG industrial giant.
Pottery
In 1762 the Maling pottery was founded in Sunderland by French Huguenots, but transferred to Newcastle in 1817. A factory was built in the Ouseburn area of the city. The factory was rebuilt twice, finally occupying a 14-acre (57,000 m2) site that was claimed to be the biggest pottery in the world and which had its own railway station. The pottery pioneered use of machines in making potteries as opposed to hand production. In the 1890s the company went up-market and employed in-house designers. The period up to the Second World War was the most profitable with a constant stream of new designs being introduced. However, after the war, production gradually declined and the company closed in 1963.
Expansion of the city
Newcastle was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Corporations Act 1835: the reformed municipal borough included the parishes of Byker, Elswick, Heaton, Jesmond, Newcastle All Saints, Newcastle St Andrew, Newcastle St John, Newcastle St Nicholas, and Westgate. The urban districts of Benwell and Fenham and Walker were added in 1904. In 1935, Newcastle gained Kenton and parts of the parishes of West Brunton, East Denton, Fawdon, Longbenton. The most recent expansion in Newcastle's boundaries took place under the Local Government Act 1972 on 1 April 1974, when Newcastle became a metropolitan borough, also including the urban districts of Gosforth and Newburn, and the parishes of Brunswick, Dinnington, Hazlerigg, North Gosforth and Woolsington from the Castle Ward Rural District, and the village of Westerhope.
Meanwhile Northumberland County Council was formed under the Local Government Act 1888 and benefited from a dedicated meeting place when County Hall was completed in the Castle Garth area of Newcastle in 1910. Following the Local Government Act 1972 County Hall relocated to Morpeth in April 1981.
Twentieth century
In 1925 work began on a new high-level road bridge to span the Tyne Gorge between Newcastle and Gateshead. The capacity of the existing High-Level Bridge and Swing Bridge were being strained to the limit, and an additional bridge had been discussed for a long time. The contract was awarded to the Dorman Long Company and the bridge was finally opened by King George V in 1928. The road deck was 84 feet (26 m) above the river and was supported by a 531 feet (162 m) steel arch. The new Tyne Bridge quickly became a symbol for Newcastle and Tyneside, and remains so today.
During the Second World War, Newcastle was largely spared the horrors inflicted upon other British cities bombed during the Blitz. Although the armaments factories and shipyards along the River Tyne were targeted by the Luftwaffe, they largely escaped unscathed. Manors goods yard and railway terminal, to the east of the city centre, and the suburbs of Jesmond and Heaton suffered bombing during 1941. There were 141 deaths and 587 injuries, a relatively small figure compared to the casualties in other industrial centres of Britain.
In 1963 the city gained its own university, the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, by act of parliament. A School of Medicine and Surgery had been established in Newcastle in 1834. This eventually developed into a college of medicine attached to Durham University. A college of physical science was also founded and became Armstrong College in 1904. In 1934 the two colleges merged to become King's College, Durham. This remained as part of Durham University until the new university was created in 1963. In 1992 the city gained its second university when Newcastle Polytechnic was granted university status as Northumbria University.
Newcastle City Council moved to the new Newcastle Civic Centre in 1968.
As heavy industries declined in the second half of the 20th century, large sections of the city centre were demolished along with many areas of slum housing. The leading political figure in the city during the 1960s was T. Dan Smith who oversaw a massive building programme of highrise housing estates and authorised the demolition of a quarter of the Georgian Grainger Town to make way for Eldon Square Shopping Centre. Smith's control in Newcastle collapsed when it was exposed that he had used public contracts to advantage himself and his business associates and for a time Newcastle became a byword for civic corruption as depicted in the films Get Carter and Stormy Monday and in the television series Our Friends in the North. However, much of the historic Grainger Town area survived and was, for the most part, fully restored in the late 1990s. Northumberland Street, initially the A1, was gradually closed to traffic from the 1970s and completely pedestrianised by 1998.
In 1978 a new rapid transport system, the Metro, was built, linking the Tyneside area. The system opened in August 1980. A new bridge was built to carry the Metro across the river between Gateshead and Newcastle. This was the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, commonly known as the Metro Bridge. Eventually the Metro system was extended to reach Newcastle Airport in 1991, and in 2002 the Metro system was extended to the nearby city of Sunderland.
As the 20th century progressed, trade on the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides gradually declined, until by the 1980s both sides of the river were looking rather derelict. Shipping company offices had closed along with offices of firms related to shipping. There were also derelict warehouses lining the riverbank. Local government produced a master plan to re-develop the Newcastle quayside and this was begun in the 1990s. New offices, restaurants, bars and residential accommodation were built and the area has changed in the space of a few years into a vibrant area, partially returning the focus of Newcastle to the riverside, where it was in medieval times.
The Gateshead Millennium Bridge, a foot and cycle bridge, 26 feet (7.9 m) wide and 413 feet (126 m) long, was completed in 2001. The road deck is in the form of a curve and is supported by a steel arch. To allow ships to pass, the whole structure, both arch and road-deck, rotates on huge bearings at either end so that the road deck is lifted. The bridge can be said to open and shut like a human eye. It is an important addition to the re-developed quayside area, providing a vital link between the Newcastle and Gateshead quaysides.
Recent developments
Today the city is a vibrant centre for office and retail employment, but just a short distance away there are impoverished inner-city housing estates, in areas originally built to provide affordable housing for employees of the shipyards and other heavy industries that lined the River Tyne. In the 2010s Newcastle City Council began implementing plans to regenerate these depressed areas, such as those along the Ouseburn Valley.
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River Dargle Flood Defence Scheme.
These images were taken during the last week of April, 2016.
Some 14 months previously we'd watched some low-level maintenance work on the opposite banks, and (I) predicted that some destabilised sections might be a problem. Whilst engineering works were on-going 1km down-river during all this entire period, there had been minimal activity in the Slang/Rehills section. That had finally changed. A new contractor had been tendered to implement further/final repair work to the entire Slang/Rehills section, with emphasis on repairs to the integrity of the rebuilt bank structures.
Historic 1866 Cornish-Windsor covered bridge over the Connecticut River on the Windsor, Vermont - Sullivan County, New Hampshire line.
The bridge is the longest two-span covered bridge in the world. The bridge is recognized as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by ASCE.
Posted to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 (NRHP Structure #76000135).
World Covered Bridge Guide Number: NH-10-09 (29-10-09) and VT-14-14 (45-14-14)
New Hampshire Covered Bridge Number: 20
Here, hundreds of researchers, businesses and progressive home- owners will be living and working side-by-side, along with great food, drink and entertainment venues. A collection of stunning public spaces for everyone, of all ages, to use.
Everyone here is united by one purpose: to help families, communities and cities around the world to live healthier, longer, smarter and easier lives. In short, to live better. In the process, our businesses will continue to grow, employ more local people and help ensure Newcastle excels.
Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a member of the Russell Group, an association of research-intensive UK universities.
The university finds its roots in the School of Medicine and Surgery (later the College of Medicine), established in 1834, and the College of Physical Science (later renamed Armstrong College), founded in 1871. These two colleges came to form the larger division of the federal University of Durham, with the Durham Colleges forming the other. The Newcastle colleges merged to form King's College in 1937. In 1963, following an Act of Parliament, King's College became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
The university subdivides into three faculties: the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; the Faculty of Medical Sciences; and the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering. The university offers around 175 full-time undergraduate degree programmes in a wide range of subject areas spanning arts, sciences, engineering and medicine, together with approximately 340 postgraduate taught and research programmes across a range of disciplines.[6] The annual income of the institution for 2022–23 was £592.4 million of which £119.3 million was from research grants and contracts, with an expenditure of £558 million.
History
Durham University § Colleges in Newcastle
The establishment of a university in Newcastle upon Tyne was first proposed in 1831 by Thomas Greenhow in a lecture to the Literary and Philosophical Society. In 1832 a group of local medics – physicians George Fife (teaching materia medica and therapeutics) and Samuel Knott (teaching theory and practice of medicine), and surgeons John Fife (teaching surgery), Alexander Fraser (teaching anatomy and physiology) and Henry Glassford Potter (teaching chemistry) – started offering medical lectures in Bell's Court to supplement the apprenticeship system (a fourth surgeon, Duncan McAllum, is mentioned by some sources among the founders, but was not included in the prospectus). The first session started on 1 October 1832 with eight or nine students, including John Snow, then apprenticed to a local surgeon-apothecary, the opening lecture being delivered by John Fife. In 1834 the lectures and practical demonstrations moved to the Hall of the Company of Barber Surgeons to accommodate the growing number of students, and the School of Medicine and Surgery was formally established on 1 October 1834.
On 25 June 1851, following a dispute among the teaching staff, the school was formally dissolved and the lecturers split into two rival institutions. The majority formed the Newcastle College of Medicine, and the others established themselves as the Newcastle upon Tyne College of Medicine and Practical Science with competing lecture courses. In July 1851 the majority college was recognised by the Society of Apothecaries and in October by the Royal College of Surgeons of England and in January 1852 was approved by the University of London to submit its students for London medical degree examinations. Later in 1852, the majority college was formally linked to the University of Durham, becoming the "Newcastle-upon-Tyne College of Medicine in connection with the University of Durham". The college awarded its first 'Licence in Medicine' (LicMed) under the auspices of the University of Durham in 1856, with external examiners from Oxford and London, becoming the first medical examining body on the United Kingdom to institute practical examinations alongside written and viva voce examinations. The two colleges amalgamated in 1857, with the first session of the unified college opening on 3 October that year. In 1861 the degree of Master of Surgery was introduced, allowing for the double qualification of Licence of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, along with the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Doctor of Medicine, both of which required residence in Durham. In 1870 the college was brought into closer connection with the university, becoming the "Durham University College of Medicine" with the Reader in Medicine becoming the Professor of Medicine, the college gaining a representative on the university's senate, and residence at the college henceforth counting as residence in the university towards degrees in medicine and surgery, removing the need for students to spend a period of residence in Durham before they could receive the higher degrees.
Attempts to realise a place for the teaching of sciences in the city were finally met with the foundation of the College of Physical Science in 1871. The college offered instruction in mathematics, physics, chemistry and geology to meet the growing needs of the mining industry, becoming the "Durham College of Physical Science" in 1883 and then renamed after William George Armstrong as Armstrong College in 1904. Both of these institutions were part of the University of Durham, which became a federal university under the Durham University Act 1908 with two divisions in Durham and Newcastle. By 1908, the Newcastle division was teaching a full range of subjects in the Faculties of Medicine, Arts, and Science, which also included agriculture and engineering.
Throughout the early 20th century, the medical and science colleges outpaced the growth of their Durham counterparts. Following tensions between the two Newcastle colleges in the early 1930s, a Royal Commission in 1934 recommended the merger of the two colleges to form "King's College, Durham"; that was effected by the Durham University Act 1937. Further growth of both division of the federal university led to tensions within the structure and a feeling that it was too large to manage as a single body. On 1 August 1963 the Universities of Durham and Newcastle upon Tyne Act 1963 separated the two thus creating the "University of Newcastle upon Tyne". As the successor of King's College, Durham, the university at its founding in 1963, adopted the coat of arms originally granted to the Council of King's College in 1937.
Above the portico of the Students' Union building are bas-relief carvings of the arms and mottoes of the University of Durham, Armstrong College and Durham University College of Medicine, the predecessor parts of Newcastle University. While a Latin motto, mens agitat molem (mind moves matter) appears in the Students' Union building, the university itself does not have an official motto.
Campus and location
The university occupies a campus site close to Haymarket in central Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located to the northwest of the city centre between the open spaces of Leazes Park and the Town Moor; the university medical school and Royal Victoria Infirmary are adjacent to the west.
The Armstrong building is the oldest building on the campus and is the site of the original Armstrong College. The building was constructed in three stages; the north east wing was completed first at a cost of £18,000 and opened by Princess Louise on 5 November 1888. The south-east wing, which includes the Jubilee Tower, and south-west wings were opened in 1894. The Jubilee Tower was built with surplus funds raised from an Exhibition to mark Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887. The north-west front, forming the main entrance, was completed in 1906 and features two stone figures to represent science and the arts. Much of the later construction work was financed by Sir Isaac Lowthian Bell, the metallurgist and former Lord Mayor of Newcastle, after whom the main tower is named. In 1906 it was opened by King Edward VII.
The building contains the King's Hall, which serves as the university's chief hall for ceremonial purposes where Congregation ceremonies are held. It can contain 500 seats. King Edward VII gave permission to call the Great Hall, King's Hall. During the First World War, the building was requisitioned by the War Office to create the first Northern General Hospital, a facility for the Royal Army Medical Corps to treat military casualties. Graduation photographs are often taken in the University Quadrangle, next to the Armstrong building. In 1949 the Quadrangle was turned into a formal garden in memory of members of Newcastle University who gave their lives in the two World Wars. In 2017, a statue of Martin Luther King Jr. was erected in the inner courtyard of the Armstrong Building, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his honorary degree from the university.
The Bruce Building is a former brewery, constructed between 1896 and 1900 on the site of the Hotspur Hotel, and designed by the architect Joseph Oswald as the new premises of Newcastle Breweries Limited. The university occupied the building from the 1950s, but, having been empty for some time, the building was refurbished in 2016 to become residential and office space.
The Devonshire Building, opened in 2004, incorporates in an energy efficient design. It uses photovoltaic cells to help to power motorised shades that control the temperature of the building and geothermal heating coils. Its architects won awards in the Hadrian awards and the RICS Building of the Year Award 2004. The university won a Green Gown award for its construction.
Plans for additions and improvements to the campus were made public in March 2008 and completed in 2010 at a cost of £200 million. They included a redevelopment of the south-east (Haymarket) façade with a five-storey King's Gate administration building as well as new student accommodation. Two additional buildings for the school of medicine were also built. September 2012 saw the completion of the new buildings and facilities for INTO Newcastle University on the university campus. The main building provides 18 new teaching rooms, a Learning Resource Centre, a lecture theatre, science lab, administrative and academic offices and restaurant.
The Philip Robinson Library is the main university library and is named after a bookseller in the city and benefactor to the library. The Walton Library specialises in services for the Faculty of Medical Sciences in the Medical School. It is named after Lord Walton of Detchant, former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Professor of Neurology. The library has a relationship with the Northern region of the NHS allowing their staff to use the library for research and study. The Law Library specialises in resources relating to law, and the Marjorie Robinson Library Rooms offers additional study spaces and computers. Together, these house over one million books and 500,000 electronic resources. Some schools within the university, such as the School of Modern Languages, also have their own smaller libraries with smaller highly specialised collections.
In addition to the city centre campus there are buildings such as the Dove Marine Laboratory located on Cullercoats Bay, and Cockle Park Farm in Northumberland.
International
In September 2008, the university's first overseas branch was opened in Singapore, a Marine International campus called, NUMI Singapore. This later expanded beyond marine subjects and became Newcastle University Singapore, largely through becoming an Overseas University Partner of Singapore Institute of Technology.
In 2011, the university's Medical School opened an international branch campus in Iskandar Puteri, Johor, Malaysia, namely Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia.
Student accommodation
Newcastle University has many catered and non-catered halls of residence available to first-year students, located around the city of Newcastle. Popular Newcastle areas for private student houses and flats off campus include Jesmond, Heaton, Sandyford, Shieldfield, South Shields and Spital Tongues.
Henderson Hall was used as a hall of residence until a fire destroyed it in 2023.
St Mary's College in Fenham, one of the halls of residence, was formerly St Mary's College of Education, a teacher training college.
Organisation and governance
The current Chancellor is the British poet and artist Imtiaz Dharker. She assumed the position of Chancellor on 1 January 2020. The vice-chancellor is Chris Day, a hepatologist and former pro-vice-chancellor of the Faculty of Medical Sciences.
The university has an enrolment of some 16,000 undergraduate and 5,600 postgraduate students. Teaching and research are delivered in 19 academic schools, 13 research institutes and 38 research centres, spread across three Faculties: the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; the Faculty of Medical Sciences; and the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering. The university offers around 175 full-time undergraduate degree programmes in a wide range of subject areas spanning arts, sciences, engineering and medicine, together with approximately 340 postgraduate taught and research programmes across a range of disciplines.
It holds a series of public lectures called 'Insights' each year in the Curtis Auditorium in the Herschel Building. Many of the university's partnerships with companies, like Red Hat, are housed in the Herschel Annex.
Chancellors and vice-chancellors
For heads of the predecessor colleges, see Colleges of Durham University § Colleges in Newcastle.
Chancellors
Hugh Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland (1963–1988)
Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley (1988–1999)
Chris Patten (1999–2009)
Liam Donaldson (2009–2019)
Imtiaz Dharker (2020–)
Vice-chancellors
Charles Bosanquet (1963–1968)
Henry Miller (1968–1976)
Ewan Stafford Page (1976–1978, acting)
Laurence Martin (1978–1990)
Duncan Murchison (1991, acting)
James Wright (1992–2000)
Christopher Edwards (2001–2007)
Chris Brink (2007–2016)
Chris Day (2017–present)
Civic responsibility
The university Quadrangle
The university describes itself as a civic university, with a role to play in society by bringing its research to bear on issues faced by communities (local, national or international).
In 2012, the university opened the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal to address issues of social and economic change, representing the research-led academic schools across the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences[45] and the Business School.
Mark Shucksmith was Director of the Newcastle Institute for Social Renewal (NISR) at Newcastle University, where he is also Professor of Planning.
In 2006, the university was granted fair trade status and from January 2007 it became a smoke-free campus.
The university has also been actively involved with several of the region's museums for many years. The Great North Museum: Hancock originally opened in 1884 and is often a venue for the university's events programme.
Faculties and schools
Teaching schools within the university are based within three faculties. Each faculty is led by a Provost/Pro-vice-chancellor and a team of Deans with specific responsibilities.
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape
School of Arts and Cultures
Newcastle University Business School
Combined Honours Centre
School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences
School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics
School of Geography, Politics and Sociology
School of History, Classics and Archaeology
Newcastle Law School
School of Modern Languages
Faculty of Medical Sciences
School of Biomedical Sciences
School of Dental Sciences
School of Medical Education
School of Pharmacy
School of Psychology
Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology (CBCB)
Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering
School of Computing
School of Engineering
School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics
School of Natural and Environmental Sciences
Business School
Newcastle University Business School
As early as the 1900/1 academic year, there was teaching in economics (political economy, as it was then known) at Newcastle, making Economics the oldest department in the School. The Economics Department is currently headed by the Sir David Dale Chair. Among the eminent economists having served in the Department (both as holders of the Sir David Dale Chair) are Harry Mainwaring Hallsworth and Stanley Dennison.
Newcastle University Business School is a triple accredited business school, with accreditation by the three major accreditation bodies: AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS.
In 2002, Newcastle University Business School established the Business Accounting and Finance or 'Flying Start' degree in association with the ICAEW and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The course offers an accelerated route towards the ACA Chartered Accountancy qualification and is the Business School's Flagship programme.
In 2011 the business school opened their new building built on the former Scottish and Newcastle brewery site next to St James' Park. This building was officially opened on 19 March 2012 by Lord Burns.
The business school operated a central London campus from 2014 to 2021, in partnership with INTO University Partnerships until 2020.
Medical School
The BMC Medicine journal reported in 2008 that medical graduates from Oxford, Cambridge and Newcastle performed better in postgraduate tests than any other medical school in the UK.
In 2008 the Medical School announced that they were expanding their campus to Malaysia.
The Royal Victoria Infirmary has always had close links with the Faculty of Medical Sciences as a major teaching hospital.
School of Modern Languages
The School of Modern Languages consists of five sections: East Asian (which includes Japanese and Chinese); French; German; Spanish, Portuguese & Latin American Studies; and Translating & Interpreting Studies. Six languages are taught from beginner's level to full degree level ‒ Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese ‒ and beginner's courses in Catalan, Dutch, Italian and Quechua are also available. Beyond the learning of the languages themselves, Newcastle also places a great deal of emphasis on study and experience of the cultures of the countries where the languages taught are spoken. The School of Modern Languages hosts North East England's only branches of two internationally important institutes: the Camões Institute, a language institute for Portuguese, and the Confucius Institute, a language and cultural institute for Chinese.
The teaching of modern foreign languages at Newcastle predates the creation of Newcastle University itself, as in 1911 Armstrong College in Newcastle installed Albert George Latham, its first professor of modern languages.
The School of Modern Languages at Newcastle is the lead institution in the North East Routes into Languages Consortium and, together with the Durham University, Northumbria University, the University of Sunderland, the Teesside University and a network of schools, undertakes work activities of discovery of languages for the 9 to 13 years pupils. This implies having festivals, Q&A sessions, language tasters, or quizzes organised, as well as a web learning work aiming at constructing a web portal to link language learners across the region.
Newcastle Law School
Newcastle Law School is the longest established law school in the north-east of England when law was taught at the university's predecessor college before it became independent from Durham University. It has a number of recognised international and national experts in a variety of areas of legal scholarship ranging from Common and Chancery law, to International and European law, as well as contextual, socio-legal and theoretical legal studies.
The Law School occupies four specially adapted late-Victorian town houses. The Staff Offices, the Alumni Lecture Theatre and seminar rooms as well as the Law Library are all located within the School buildings.
School of Computing
The School of Computing was ranked in the Times Higher Education world Top 100. Research areas include Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and ubiquitous computing, secure and resilient systems, synthetic biology, scalable computing (high performance systems, data science, machine learning and data visualization), and advanced modelling. The school led the formation of the National Innovation Centre for Data. Innovative teaching in the School was recognised in 2017 with the award of a National Teaching Fellowship.
Cavitation tunnel
Newcastle University has the second largest cavitation tunnel in the UK. Founded in 1950, and based in the Marine Science and Technology Department, the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel is used as a test basin for propellers, water turbines, underwater coatings and interaction of propellers with ice. The Emerson Cavitation Tunnel was recently relocated to a new facility in Blyth.
Museums and galleries
The university is associated with a number of the region's museums and galleries, including the Great North Museum project, which is primarily based at the world-renowned Hancock Museum. The Great North Museum: Hancock also contains the collections from two of the university's former museums, the Shefton Museum and the Museum of Antiquities, both now closed. The university's Hatton Gallery is also a part of the Great North Museum project, and remains within the Fine Art Building.
Academic profile
Reputation and rankings
Rankings
National rankings
Complete (2024)30
Guardian (2024)67
Times / Sunday Times (2024)37
Global rankings
ARWU (2023)201–300
QS (2024)110
THE (2024)168=
Newcastle University's national league table performance over the past ten years
The university is a member of the Russell Group of the UK's research-intensive universities. It is ranked in the top 200 of most world rankings, and in the top 40 of most UK rankings. As of 2023, it is ranked 110th globally by QS, 292nd by Leiden, 139th by Times Higher Education and 201st–300th by the Academic Ranking of World Universities. Nationally, it is ranked joint 33rd by the Times/Sunday Times Good University Guide, 30th by the Complete University Guide[68] and joint 63rd by the Guardian.
Admissions
UCAS Admission Statistics 20222021202020192018
Application 33,73532,40034,55031,96533,785
Accepte 6,7556,2556,5806,4456,465
Applications/Accepted Ratio 5.05.25.35.05.2
Offer Rate (%78.178.080.279.280.0)
Average Entry Tariff—151148144152
Main scheme applications, International and UK
UK domiciled applicants
HESA Student Body Composition
In terms of average UCAS points of entrants, Newcastle ranked joint 19th in Britain in 2014. In 2015, the university gave offers of admission to 92.1% of its applicants, the highest amongst the Russell Group.
25.1% of Newcastle's undergraduates are privately educated, the thirteenth highest proportion amongst mainstream British universities. In the 2016–17 academic year, the university had a domicile breakdown of 74:5:21 of UK:EU:non-EU students respectively with a female to male ratio of 51:49.
Research
Newcastle is a member of the Russell Group of 24 research-intensive universities. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF), which assesses the quality of research in UK higher education institutions, Newcastle is ranked joint 33rd by GPA (along with the University of Strathclyde and the University of Sussex) and 15th for research power (the grade point average score of a university, multiplied by the full-time equivalent number of researchers submitted).
Student life
Newcastle University Students' Union (NUSU), known as the Union Society until a 2012 rebranding, includes student-run sports clubs and societies.
The Union building was built in 1924 following a generous gift from an anonymous donor, who is now believed to have been Sir Cecil Cochrane, a major benefactor to the university.[87] It is built in the neo-Jacobean style and was designed by the local architect Robert Burns Dick. It was opened on 22 October 1925 by the Rt. Hon. Lord Eustace Percy, who later served as Rector of King's College from 1937 to 1952. It is a Grade II listed building. In 2010 the university donated £8 million towards a redevelopment project for the Union Building.
The Students' Union is run by seven paid sabbatical officers, including a Welfare and Equality Officer, and ten part-time unpaid officer positions. The former leader of the Liberal Democrats Tim Farron was President of NUSU in 1991–1992. The Students' Union also employs around 300 people in ancillary roles including bar staff and entertainment organisers.
The Courier is a weekly student newspaper. Established in 1948, the current weekly readership is around 12,000, most of whom are students at the university. The Courier has won The Guardian's Student Publication of the Year award twice in a row, in 2012 and 2013. It is published every Monday during term time.
Newcastle Student Radio is a student radio station based in the university. It produces shows on music, news, talk and sport and aims to cater for a wide range of musical tastes.
NUTV, known as TCTV from 2010 to 2017, is student television channel, first established in 2007. It produces live and on-demand content with coverage of events, as well as student-made programmes and shows.
Student exchange
Newcastle University has signed over 100 agreements with foreign universities allowing for student exchange to take place reciprocally.
Sport
Newcastle is one of the leading universities for sport in the UK and is consistently ranked within the top 12 out of 152 higher education institutions in the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) rankings. More than 50 student-led sports clubs are supported through a team of professional staff and a network of indoor and outdoor sports facilities based over four sites. The university have a strong rugby history and were the winners of the Northumberland Senior Cup in 1965.
The university enjoys a friendly sporting rivalry with local universities. The Stan Calvert Cup was held between 1994 and 2018 by major sports teams from Newcastle and Northumbria University. The Boat Race of the North has also taken place between the rowing clubs of Newcastle and Durham University.
As of 2023, Newcastle University F.C. compete in men's senior football in the Northern League Division Two.
The university's Cochrane Park sports facility was a training venue for the teams playing football games at St James' Park for the 2012 London Olympics.
A
Ali Mohamed Shein, 7th President of Zanzibar
Richard Adams - fairtrade businessman
Kate Adie - journalist
Yasmin Ahmad - Malaysian film director, writer and scriptwriter
Prince Adewale Aladesanmi - Nigerian prince and businessman
Jane Alexander - Bishop
Theodosios Alexander (BSc Marine Engineering 1981) - Dean, Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology of Saint Louis University
William Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong - industrialist; in 1871 founded College of Physical Science, an early part of the University
Roy Ascott - new media artist
Dennis Assanis - President, University of Delaware
Neil Astley - publisher, editor and writer
Rodney Atkinson - eurosceptic conservative academic
Rowan Atkinson - comedian and actor
Kane Avellano - Guinness World Record for youngest person to circumnavigate the world by motorcycle (solo and unsupported) at the age of 23 in 2017
B
Bruce Babbitt - U.S. politician; 16th Governor of Arizona (1978–1987); 47th United States Secretary of the Interior (1993–2001); Democrat
James Baddiley - biochemist, based at Newcastle University 1954–1983; the Baddiley-Clark building is named in part after him
Tunde Baiyewu - member of the Lighthouse Family
John C. A. Barrett - clergyman
G. W. S. Barrow - historian
Neil Bartlett - chemist, creation of the first noble gas compounds (BSc and PhD at King's College, University of Durham, later Newcastle University)
Sue Beardsmore - television presenter
Alan Beith - politician
Jean Benedetti - biographer, translator, director and dramatist
Phil Bennion - politician
Catherine Bertola - contemporary painter
Simon Best - Captain of the Ulster Rugby team; Prop for the Ireland Team
Andy Bird - CEO of Disney International
Rory Jonathan Courtenay Boyle, Viscount Dungarvan - heir apparent to the earldom of Cork
David Bradley - science writer
Mike Brearley - professional cricketer, formerly a lecturer in philosophy at the university (1968–1971)
Constance Briscoe - one of the first black women to sit as a judge in the UK; author of the best-selling autobiography Ugly; found guilty in May 2014 on three charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice; jailed for 16 months
Steve Brooks - entomologist; attained BSc in Zoology and MSc in Public Health Engineering from Newcastle University in 1976 and 1977 respectively
Thom Brooks - academic, columnist
Gavin Brown - academic
Vicki Bruce - psychologist
Basil Bunting - poet; Northern Arts Poetry Fellow at Newcastle University (1968–70); honorary DLitt in 1971
John Burgan - documentary filmmaker
Mark Burgess - computer scientist
Sir John Burn - Professor of Clinical Genetics at Newcastle University Medical School; Medical Director and Head of the Institute of Genetics; Newcastle Medical School alumnus
William Lawrence Burn - historian and lawyer, history chair at King's College, Newcastle (1944–66)
John Harrison Burnett - botanist, chair of Botany at King's College, Newcastle (1960–68)
C.
Richard Caddel - poet
Ann Cairns - President of International Markets for MasterCard
Deborah Cameron - linguist
Stuart Cameron - lecturer
John Ashton Cannon - historian; Professor of Modern History; Head of Department of History from 1976 until his appointment as Dean of the Faculty of Arts in 1979; Pro-Vice-Chancellor 1983–1986
Ian Carr - musician
Jimmy Cartmell - rugby player, Newcastle Falcons
Steve Chapman - Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University
Dion Chen - Hong Kong educator, principal of Ying Wa College and former principal of YMCA of Hong Kong Christian College
Hsing Chia-hui - author
Ashraf Choudhary - scientist
Chua Chor Teck - Managing Director of Keppel Group
Jennifer A. Clack - palaeontologist
George Clarke - architect
Carol Clewlow - novelist
Brian Clouston - landscape architect
Ed Coode - Olympic gold medallist
John Coulson - chemical engineering academic
Caroline Cox, Baroness Cox - cross-bench member of the British House of Lords
Nicola Curtin – Professor of Experimental Cancer Therapeutics
Pippa Crerar - Political Editor of the Daily Mirror
D
Fred D'Aguiar - author
Julia Darling - poet, playwright, novelist, MA in Creative Writing
Simin Davoudi - academic
Richard Dawson - civil engineering academic and member of the UK Committee on Climate Change
Tom Dening - medical academic and researcher
Katie Doherty - singer-songwriter
Nowell Donovan - vice-chancellor for academic affairs and Provost of Texas Christian University
Catherine Douglas - Ig Nobel Prize winner for Veterinary Medicine
Annabel Dover - artist, studied fine art 1994–1998
Alexander Downer - Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs (1996–2007)
Chloë Duckworth - archaeologist and presenter
Chris Duffield - Town Clerk and Chief Executive of the City of London Corporation
E
Michael Earl - academic
Tom English - drummer, Maxïmo Park
Princess Eugenie - member of the British royal family. Eugenie is a niece of King Charles III and a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II. She began studying at Newcastle University in September 2009, graduating in 2012 with a 2:1 degree in English Literature and History of Art.
F
U. A. Fanthorpe - poet
Frank Farmer - medical physicist; professor of medical physics at Newcastle University in 1966
Terry Farrell - architect
Tim Farron - former Liberal Democrat leader and MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale
Ian Fells - professor
Andy Fenby - rugby player
Bryan Ferry - singer, songwriter and musician, member of Roxy Music and solo artist; studied fine art
E. J. Field - neuroscientist, director of the university's Demyelinating Disease Unit
John Niemeyer Findlay - philosopher
John Fitzgerald - computer scientist
Vicky Forster - cancer researcher
Maximimlian (Max) Fosh- YouTuber and independent candidate in the 2021 London mayoral election.
Rose Frain - artist
G
Hugh Grosvenor, 7th Duke of Westminster - aristocrat, billionaire, businessman and landowner
Peter Gibbs - television weather presenter
Ken Goodall - rugby player
Peter Gooderham - British ambassador
Michael Goodfellow - Professor in Microbial Systematics
Robert Goodwill - politician
Richard Gordon - author
Teresa Graham - accountant
Thomas George Greenwell - National Conservative Member of Parliament
H
Sarah Hainsworth - Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Aston University
Reginald Hall - endocrinologist, Professor of Medicine (1970–1980)
Alex Halliday - Professor of Geochemistry, University of Oxford
Richard Hamilton - artist
Vicki L. Hanson - computer scientist; honorary doctorate in 2017
Rupert Harden - professional rugby union player
Tim Head - artist
Patsy Healey - professor
Alastair Heathcote - rower
Dorothy Heathcote - academic
Adrian Henri - 'Mersey Scene' poet and painter
Stephen Hepburn - politician
Jack Heslop-Harrison - botanist
Tony Hey - computer scientist; honorary doctorate 2007
Stuart Hill - author
Jean Hillier - professor
Ken Hodcroft - Chairman of Hartlepool United; founder of Increased Oil Recovery
Robert Holden - landscape architect
Bill Hopkins - composer
David Horrobin - entrepreneur
Debbie Horsfield - writer of dramas, including Cutting It
John House - geographer
Paul Hudson - weather presenter
Philip Hunter - educationist
Ronald Hunt – Art Historian who was librarian at the Art Department
Anya Hurlbert - visual neuroscientis
I
Martin Ince - journalist and media adviser, founder of the QS World University Rankings
Charles Innes-Ker - Marquess of Bowmont and Cessford
Mark Isherwood - politician
Jonathan Israel - historian
J
Alan J. Jamieson - marine biologist
George Neil Jenkins - medical researcher
Caroline Johnson - Conservative Member of Parliament
Wilko Johnson - guitarist with 1970s British rhythm and blues band Dr. Feelgood
Rich Johnston - comic book writer and cartoonist
Anna Jones - businesswoman
Cliff Jones - computer scientist
Colin Jones - historian
David E. H. Jones - chemist
Francis R. Jones - poetry translator and Reader in Translation Studies
Phil Jones - climatologist
Michael Jopling, Baron Jopling - Member of the House of Lords and the Conservative Party
Wilfred Josephs - dentist and composer
K
Michael King Jr. - civil rights leader; honorary graduate. In November 1967, MLK made a 24-hour trip to the United Kingdom to receive an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law from Newcastle University, becoming the first African American the institution had recognised in this way.
Panayiotis Kalorkoti - artist; studied B.A. (Hons) in Fine Art (1976–80); Bartlett Fellow in the Visual Arts (1988)
Rashida Karmali - businesswoman
Jackie Kay - poet, novelist, Professor of Creative Writing
Paul Kennedy - historian of international relations and grand strategy
Mark Khangure - neuroradiologist
L
Joy Labinjo - artist
Henrike Lähnemann - German medievalist
Dave Leadbetter - politician
Lim Boon Heng - Singapore Minister
Lin Hsin Hsin - IT inventor, artist, poet and composer
Anne Longfield - children's campaigner, former Children's Commissioner for England
Keith Ludeman - businessman
M
Jack Mapanje - writer and poet
Milton Margai - first prime minister of Sierra Leone (medical degree from the Durham College of Medicine, later Newcastle University Medical School)
Laurence Martin - war studies writer
Murray Martin, documentary and docudrama filmmaker, co-founder of Amber Film & Photography Collective
Adrian Martineau – medical researcher and professor of respiratory Infection and immunity at Queen Mary University of London
Carl R. May - sociologist
Tom May - professional rugby union player, now with Northampton Saints, and capped by England
Kate McCann – journalist and television presenter
Ian G. McKeith – professor of Old Age Psychiatry
John Anthony McGuckin - Orthodox Christian scholar, priest, and poet
Wyl Menmuir - novelist
Zia Mian - physicist
Richard Middleton - musicologist
Mary Midgley - moral philosopher
G.C.J. Midgley - philosopher
Moein Moghimi - biochemist and nanoscientist
Hermann Moisl - linguist
Anthony Michaels-Moore - Operatic Baritone
Joanna Moncrieff - Critical Psychiatrist
Theodore Morison - Principal of Armstrong College, Newcastle upon Tyne (1919–24)
Andy Morrell - footballer
Frank Moulaert - professor
Mo Mowlam - former British Labour Party Member of Parliament, former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, lecturer at Newcastle University
Chris Mullin - former British Labour Party Member of Parliament, author, visiting fellow
VA Mundella - College of Physical Science, 1884—1887; lecturer in physics at the College, 1891—1896: Professor of Physics at Northern Polytechnic Institute and Principal of Sunderland Technical College.
Richard Murphy - architect
N
Lisa Nandy - British Labour Party Member of Parliament, former Shadow Foreign Secretary
Karim Nayernia - biomedical scientist
Dianne Nelmes - TV producer
O
Sally O'Reilly - writer
Mo O'Toole - former British Labour Party Member of European Parliament
P
Ewan Page - founding director of the Newcastle University School of Computing and briefly acting vice-chancellor; later appointed vice-chancellor of the University of Reading
Rachel Pain - academic
Amanda Parker - Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire since 2023
Geoff Parling - Leicester Tigers rugby player
Chris Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes - British Conservative politician and Chancellor of the University (1999–2009)
Chris M Pattinson former Great Britain International Swimmer 1976-1984
Mick Paynter - Cornish poet and Grandbard
Robert A. Pearce - academic
Hugh Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland - Chancellor of the University (1964–1988)
Jonathan Pile - Showbiz Editor, ZOO magazine
Ben Pimlott - political historian; PhD and lectureship at Newcastle University (1970–79)
Robin Plackett - statistician
Alan Plater - playwright and screenwriter
Ruth Plummer - Professor of Experimental Cancer Medicine at the Northern Institute for Cancer Research and Fellow of the UK's Academy of Medical Sciences.
Poh Kwee Ong - Deputy President of SembCorp Marine
John Porter - musician
Rob Powell - former London Broncos coach
Stuart Prebble - former chief executive of ITV
Oliver Proudlock - Made in Chelsea star; creator of Serge De Nîmes clothing line[
Mark Purnell - palaeontologist
Q
Pirzada Qasim - Pakistani scholar, Vice Chancellor of the University of Karachi
Joyce Quin, Baroness Quin - politician
R
Andy Raleigh - Rugby League player for Wakefield Trinity Wildcats
Brian Randell - computer scientist
Rupert Mitford, 6th Baron Redesdale - Liberal Democrat spokesman in the House of Lords for International Development
Alastair Reynolds - novelist, former research astronomer with the European Space Agency
Ben Rice - author
Lewis Fry Richardson - mathematician, studied at the Durham College of Science in Newcastle
Matthew White Ridley, 4th Viscount Ridley - Chancellor of the University 1988-1999
Colin Riordan - VC of Cardiff University, Professor of German Studies (1988–2006)
Susie Rodgers - British Paralympic swimmer
Nayef Al-Rodhan - philosopher, neuroscientist, geostrategist, and author
Neil Rollinson - poet
Johanna Ropner - Lord lieutenant of North Yorkshire
Sharon Rowlands - CEO of ReachLocal
Peter Rowlinson - Ig Nobel Prize winner for Veterinary Medicine
John Rushby - computer scientist
Camilla Rutherford - actress
S
Jonathan Sacks - former Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth
Ross Samson - Scottish rugby union footballer; studied history
Helen Scales - marine biologist, broadcaster, and writer
William Scammell - poet
Fred B. Schneider - computer scientist; honorary doctorate in 2003
Sean Scully - painter
Nigel Shadbolt - computer scientist
Tom Shakespeare - geneticist
Jo Shapcott - poet
James Shapiro - Canadian surgeon and scientist
Jack Shepherd - actor and playwright
Mark Shucksmith - professor
Chris Simms - crime thriller novel author
Graham William Smith - probation officer, widely regarded as the father of the national probation service
Iain Smith - Scottish politician
Paul Smith - singer, Maxïmo Park
John Snow - discoverer of cholera transmission through water; leader in the adoption of anaesthesia; one of the 8 students enrolled on the very first term of the Medical School
William Somerville - agriculturist, professor of agriculture and forestry at Durham College of Science (later Newcastle University)
Ed Stafford - explorer, walked the length of the Amazon River
Chris Steele-Perkins - photographer
Chris Stevenson - academic
Di Stewart - Sky Sports News reader
Diana Stöcker - German CDU Member of Parliament
Miodrag Stojković - genetics researcher
Miriam Stoppard - physician, author and agony aunt
Charlie van Straubenzee - businessman and investment executive
Peter Straughan - playwright and short story writer
T
Mathew Tait - rugby union footballer
Eric Thomas - academic
David Tibet - cult musician and poet
Archis Tiku - bassist, Maxïmo Park
James Tooley - professor
Elsie Tu - politician
Maurice Tucker - sedimentologist
Paul Tucker - member of Lighthouse Family
George Grey Turner - surgeon
Ronald F. Tylecote - archaeologist
V
Chris Vance - actor in Prison Break and All Saints
Géza Vermes - scholar
Geoff Vigar - lecturer
Hugh Vyvyan - rugby union player
W
Alick Walker - palaeontologist
Matthew Walker - Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley
Tom Walker - Sunday Times foreign correspondent
Lord Walton of Detchant - physician; President of the GMC, BMA, RSM; Warden of Green College, Oxford (1983–1989)
Kevin Warwick - Professor of Cybernetics; former Lecturer in Electrical & Electronic Engineering
Duncan Watmore - footballer at Millwall F.C.
Mary Webb - artist
Charlie Webster - television sports presenter
Li Wei - Chair of Applied Linguistics at UCL Institute of Education, University College London
Joseph Joshua Weiss - Professor of Radiation Chemistry
Robert Westall - children's writer, twice winner of Carnegie Medal
Thomas Stanley Westoll - Fellow of the Royal Society
Gillian Whitehead - composer
William Whitfield - architect, later designed the Hadrian Building and the Northern Stage
Claire Williams - motorsport executive
Zoe Williams - sportswoman, worked on Gladiators
Donald I. Williamson - planktologist and carcinologist
Philip Williamson - former Chief Executive of Nationwide Building Society
John Willis - Royal Air Force officer and council member of the University
Lukas Wooller - keyboard player, Maxïmo Park
Graham Wylie - co-founder of the Sage Group; studied Computing Science & Statistics BSc and graduated in 1980; awarded an honorary doctorate in 2004
Y
Hisila Yami, Nepalese politician and former Minister of Physical Planning and Works (Government of Nepal
John Yorke - Controller of Continuing Drama; Head of Independent Drama at the BBC
Martha Young-Scholten - linguist
Paul Younger - hydrogeologist
~*Photography Originally Taken By: www.CrossTrips.Com Under God*~
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial warfare branch of the armed forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the U.S. Previously part of the U.S. Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947.[2] It is the last branch of the United States military to be formed.
The USAF is the largest and one of the most technologically advanced air forces in the world, with about 6013 manned aircraft in service (4,282 USAF; 1,321 Air National Guard; and 410 Air Force Reserve); approximately 160 Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles, 2161 Air-Launched Cruise Missiles, and 580 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles;[3] and as of April 4, 2008, had 328,808 personnel on active duty, 70,303 in the Selected and Individual Ready Reserves, and 106,254 in the Air National Guard. In addition, the Air Force employs 141,573 civilian personnel.[3]
The USAF is conducting a large Reduction-in-Force (RIF). Because of budget constraints, the USAF will reduce the service's current size from 333,000 active duty personnel, to 316,000, which will be the smallest United States Air Force since Pearl Harbor according to Air Force Chief of Staff, General Mosley, in his interview with air internationals vol.74 issue. The current size of the active-duty force is roughly 70% of that of the USAF at the end of the first Gulf War in 1991.[4]
Not all of the United States' military combat aircraft are operated by the USAF. The Army operates its own helicopters, mostly for support of ground combatants; it as well maintains a small fleet of fixed wing aircraft (mostly Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). The Navy is responsible for a multitude of aircraft, including integrated air wing combat aircraft operating aboard its 11 aircraft carriers and also many maritime patrol and transport aircraft stationed at multiple Naval air stations around the world. The Marine Corps operates its own combat and transport aircraft in support of its ground mission and often in conjunction with Naval Aviation. The Coast Guard also maintains transport and search-and-rescue aircraft (SARA), which may be used in a combat and law enforcement role. All branches of the U.S. military operate helicopters.
The Department of the Air Force is headed by the civilian Secretary of the Air Force who heads administrative affairs. The Department of the Air Force is a division of the Department of Defense, headed by the Secretary of Defense. The highest ranking military officer in the Department of the Air Force is the Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Mission
o 1.1 Search and rescue
* 2 History
o 2.1 Wars
o 2.2 Humanitarian operations
* 3 Administrative organization
o 3.1 Force structure
* 4 Operational organization
o 4.1 Aerospace Expeditionary Task Force
o 4.2 Commander, Air Force Forces
+ 4.2.1 Air Operations Center
o 4.3 Air Expeditionary Wings/Groups/Squadrons
* 5 Vocations
* 6 Aircraft
* 7 Culture
o 7.1 Uniforms
o 7.2 Awards and badges
o 7.3 Grade Structure and Insignias
o 7.4 Motto
* 8 See also
* 9 References
o 9.1 Further reading
* 10 External links
[edit] Mission
1. According to the National Security Act of 1947 (61 Stat. 502) which created the Air Force:
In general the United States Air Force shall include aviation forces both combat and service not otherwise assigned. It shall be organized, trained, and equipped primarily for prompt and sustained offensive and defensive air operations. The Air Force shall be responsible for the preparation of the air forces necessary for the effective prosecution of war except as otherwise assigned and, in accordance with integrated joint mobilization plans, for the expansion of the peacetime components of the Air Force to meet the needs of war.
2. §8062 of Title 10 US Code (10 USC 8062) defines the purpose of the Air Force as:
* to preserve the peace and security, and provide for the defense, of the United States, the Territories, Commonwealths, and possessions, and any areas occupied by the United States;
* to support national policy;
* to implement national objectives;
* to overcome any nations responsible for aggressive acts that imperil the peace and security of the United States.
3. The stated mission of the USAF today is to "deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests — to fly and fight in Air, Space, and Cyberspace".[5]
[edit] Search and rescue
The National Search and Rescue Plan designates the United States Coast Guard as the federal agency responsible for maritime search-and-rescue (SAR) operations, and the United States Air Force as the federal agency responsible for inland SAR.[6] Both agencies maintain Rescue Coordination Centers to coordinate this effort.[3]
* United States Air Force Rescue Coordination Center
[edit] History
Main article: History of the United States Air Force
Roundels which have appeared on US aircraft1. 5/17-2/18 2. 2/18-8/19 3. 8/19-5/42 4. 5/42-6/43 5. 6/43-9/43 6. 9/43-1/47 7. 1/47-
Roundels which have appeared on US aircraft
1. 5/17-2/18 2. 2/18-8/19 3. 8/19-5/42
4. 5/42-6/43 5. 6/43-9/43 6. 9/43-1/47
7. 1/47-
The United States Air Force became a separate military service on September 18, 1947, with the implementation of the National Security Act of 1947.[7] The Act created the United States Department of Defense, which was composed of three branches, the Army, Navy and a newly-created Air Force.[8] Prior to 1947, the responsibility for military aviation was divided between the Army (for land-based operations) and the Navy, for sea-based operations from aircraft carrier and amphibious aircraft. The Army created the first antecedent of the Air Force in 1907, which through a succession of changes of organization, titles, and missions advanced toward eventual separation 40 years later. The predecessor organizations of today's U.S. Air Force are:
* Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps (August 1, 1907 to July 18, 1914)
* Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps (July 18, 1914 to May 20, 1918)
* Division of Military Aeronautics (May 20, 1918 to May 24, 1918)
* U.S. Army Air Service (May 24, 1918 to July 2, 1926)
* U.S. Army Air Corps (July 2, 1926 to June 20, 1941) and
* U.S. Army Air Forces (June 20, 1941 to September 17, 1947)
[edit] Wars
The United States Air Force has been involved in many wars, conflicts, and operations since its conception; these include:
* World War I[9] Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps
* World War II[10] United States Army Air Forces
* The Cold War
* The Korean War
* The Vietnam War
* Operation Eagle Claw
* Operation Urgent Fury
* The United States invasion of Panama
* Operation Eldorado Canyon
* The Gulf War
* Operation Northern Watch
* Operation Southern Watch
* The Kosovo War
* Operation Enduring Freedom
* Operation Iraqi Freedom
[edit] Humanitarian operations
The U.S. Air Force has taken part in numerous humanitarian operations. Some of the more major ones include the following:[11]
* Berlin Airlift (Operation Vittles), 1948-1949
* Operation Safe Haven, 1956-1957
* Operations Babylift, New Life, Frequent Wind, and New Arrivals, 1975
* Operation Provide Comfort, 1991
* Operation Sea Angel, 1991
* Operation Provide Hope, 1992-1993
* Operation Unified Assistance, December 2004 - April 2005
[edit] Administrative organization
Main article: Organizational structure and hierarchy of the United States Air Force
The Air Force is one of three service departments, and is managed by the (civilian) Department of the Air Force. Guidance is provided by the Secretary of the Air Force(SECAF) and the Secretary's staff and advisors. The military leadership is the Air Staff, led by the Chief of Staff.
USAF direct subordinate commands and units are the Field Operating Agency (FOA), Direct Reporting Unit (DRU), and the currently unused Separate Operating Agency.
The Major Command (MAJCOM) is the superior hierarchical level of command. Including the Air Force Reserve Command, as of 30 September 2006, USAF has nine major commands, and a tenth, Air Force Cyber Command, in process. The Numbered Air Force (NAF) is a level of command directly under the MAJCOM, followed by Operational Command (now unused), Air Division (also now unused), Wing, Group, Squadron, and Flight.
[edit] Force structure
Headquarters, United States Air Force, The Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia
* Air Combat Command (ACC), headquartered at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia
o First Air Force, headquartered at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida
o Eighth Air Force, headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana
o Ninth Air Force, headquartered at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina
o Twelfth Air Force, headquartered at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona
* Air Education and Training Command (AETC), headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas
o Second Air Force, headquartered at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi
o Nineteenth Air Force, headquartered at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas
* Air Force Cyber Command (Provisional) (AFCYBER), interim location at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana
o Twenty Fourth Air Force
* Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio
* Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC), headquartered at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia
o Fourth Air Force, headquartered at March Air Force Base, California
o Tenth Air Force, headquartered at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas
o Twenty-Second Air Force, headquartered at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Georgia
* Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado
o Fourteenth Air Force, headquartered at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California
o Twentieth Air Force, headquartered at F. E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyoming
* Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Florida
o Twenty-Third Air Force
* Air Mobility Command (AMC), headquartered at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois
o Eighteenth Air Force, headquartered at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois
* United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), headquartered at Ramstein Air Base, Germany
o Third Air Force, headquartered at Ramstein Air Base, Germany
o Seventeenth Air Force, headquartered at Sembach Annex, Germany
* United States Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), headquartered at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii
o Fifth Air Force, headquartered at Yokota Air Base, Japan
o Seventh Air Force, headquartered at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea
o Eleventh Air Force, headquartered at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska
o Thirteenth Air Force, headquartered at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii
The permanent establishment of the USAF, as of 30 September 2006,[12] consisted of:
* Active duty forces:
o 57 flying wings, 8 space wings, and 55 non-flying wings
o 9 flying groups, 8 non-flying groups
+ 134 flying squadrons, 43 space squadrons
* Air Force Reserve
o 35 flying wings, 1 space wing
o 4 flying groups
+ 67 flying squadrons, 6 space squadrons
* Air National Guard
o 87 flying wings
+ 101 flying squadrons, 4 space squadrons
The United States Air Force and its Air Reserve Components field a total of 302 flying squadrons.[13]
[edit] Operational organization
The above organizational structure is responsible for the peacetime Organization, Equipping, and Training of aerospace units for operational missions. When required to support operational missions, the National Command Authority directs a Change in Operational Control (CHOP) of these units from their peacetime alignment to a Regional Combatant Commander (CCDR). In the case of AFSPC, AFSOC, PACAF, and USAFE units, forces are normally employed in-place under their existing CCDR. Likewise, AMC forces operating in support roles retain their componency to USTRANSCOM unless chopped to a Regional CCDR.
[edit] Aerospace Expeditionary Task Force
CHOPPED units are referred to as "forces". The top-level structure of these forces is the Air and Space Expeditionary Task Force (AETF). The AETF is the Air Force presentation of forces to a CCDR for the employment of Air Power. Each CCDR is supported by a standing Component Numbered Air Force (C-NAF) to provide planning and execution of aerospace forces in support of CCDR requirements. Each C-NAF consists of a Commander, Air Force Forces (COMAFFOR) and AFFOR/A-staff, and an Air Operations Center (AOC). As needed to support multiple Joint Force Commanders (JFC) in the COCOM's Area of Responsibility (AOR), the C-NAF may deploy Air Component Coordinate Elements (ACCE) to liaise with the JFC. If the Air Force possesses the most strategic air assets in a JFC's area of operations, the COMAFFOR will also serve as the Joint Forces Air Component Commander (JFACC).
[edit] Commander, Air Force Forces
The Commander, Air Force Forces (COMAFFOR) is the senior Air Force officer responsible for the employment of Air Power in support of JFC objectives. The COMAFFOR has a special staff and an A-Staff to ensure assigned or attached forces are properly organized, equipped, and trained to support the operational mission.
[edit] Air Operations Center
The Air Operations Center (AOC) is the JFACC's Command and Control (C²) center. This center is responsible for planning and executing air power missions in support of JFC objectives.
[edit] Air Expeditionary Wings/Groups/Squadrons
The AETF generates air power to support COCOM objectives from Air Expeditionary Wings (AEW) or Air Expeditionary Groups (AEG). These units are responsible for receiving combat forces from Air Force MAJCOMs, preparing these forces for operational missions, launching and recovering these forces, and eventually returning forces to the MAJCOMs. Theater Air Control Systems control employment of forces during these missions.
[edit] Vocations
The vast majority of Air Force members remain on the ground. There are hundreds of support positions which are necessary to the success of a mission.
The classification of an Air Force job is the Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC). They range from flight combat operations such as a gunner, to working in a dining facility to ensure that members are properly fed. There are many different jobs in fields such as computer specialties, mechanic specialties, enlisted aircrew, medical specialties, civil engineering, public affairs, hospitality, law, drug counseling, mail operations, security forces, and search and rescue specialties.
Perhaps the most dangerous Air Force jobs are Explosive Ordnance Disposal, Pararescue, Combat Control, Combat Weather and Tactical Air Control Party, who deploy with infantry and special operations units who disarm bombs, rescue downed or isolated personnel, call in air strikes and set up landing zones in forward locations. Most of these are enlisted positions. Other jobs have seen increasing combat, and have been billed "Battlefield Airmen". These include EOD, Vehicle operators, and OSI.
Nearly all enlisted jobs are "entry level," meaning that the Air Force provides all training. Some enlistees are able to choose a particular job, or at least a field before actually joining, while others are assigned an AFSC at Basic Training. After Basic Military Training, new Air Force members attend a technical training school where they learn their particular AFSC. Second Air Force, a part of Air Education and Training Command is responsible for nearly all technical training.
Training programs vary in length; for example, 3M0X1 (Services) has 31 days of tech school training, while 3E8X1 (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) is 1 year of training with a preliminary school and a main school consisting of 10 separate divisions; somtimes taking students close to 2 years to complete. Some AFSC's have even shorter or longer training.
[edit] Aircraft
Main article: List of military aircraft of the United States
B-2 Spirit
B-2 Spirit
F-22 Raptors
F-22 Raptors
V-22 Ospreys
V-22 Ospreys
C-17 Globemaster III
C-17 Globemaster III
The United States Air Force has over 7,500 aircraft commissioned as of 2004. Until 1962, the Army and Air Force maintained one system of aircraft naming, while the U.S. Navy maintained a separate system. In 1962, these were unified into a single system heavily reflecting the Army/Air Force method. For more complete information on the workings of this system, refer to United States Department of Defense Aerospace Vehicle Designations.
Current aircraft of the USAF[14]:
* O/A-10A/C Thunderbolt II
* An-26 Curl
* B-1B Lancer
* B-2A Spirit
* B-52H Stratofortress
* C-5A/B/C/M Galaxy
* KC-10A Extender
* C-12C/D/F Huron
* C-17A Globemaster III
* C-20A/B/C Gulfstream III
* C-20G/H Gulfstream IV
* C-21A Learjet
* C-22B
* VC-25A (Air Force One)
* C-26B Metroliner
* C-29A
* C-32A
* C-37A Gulfstream V
* C-38 Courier
* C-40B Clipper
* C-41A Aviocar
* C-130E/H/J Hercules
* AC-130H/U Spectre/Spooky II
* HC-130H/N
* LC-130H
* MC-130E/H/W Combat Talon/Combat Spear
* WC-130J
* C-135C/E/K Stratolifter
* NC-135B/E/W
* KC-135E/R/T Stratotanker
* EC-137D Stratoliner[citation needed]
* VC-137C
* CN-235-100[citation needed]
* E-3B/C Sentry
* E-4B
* E-8C JSTARS
* E-9A
* F-15A/B/C/D Eagle
* F-15E Strike Eagle
* F-16A/B/C/D Fighting Falcon
* F-22A Raptor
* F-35 Lightning II
* F-117A Nighthawk
* MH-53J/M Pave Low III/IV
* HH-60G Pave Hawk
* Mi-8 Hip
* NT-39A/B Sabreliner
* OC-135B
* M/RQ-1A/B Predator
* RQ-4A Global Hawk
* MQ-9 Reaper
* RC-135S/U/V/W
* T-1A Jayhawk
* T-6 Texan II
* (A)T-38A/B/C Talon
* Boeing T-43
* TC-18E
* TC-135S
* TC-135W
* Piper Aircraft Company TG-8A Piper Club glider
* TG-3A
* TG-4A
* TG-7A
* TG-9A
* TG-10B/C/D
* TG-11A
* TG-15A/TG-15B
* UH-1N Iroquois
* U-2R/S "Dragon Lady"
* UC-26C
* UV-18A/B Twin Otter
* UV-20A Chiricua
* CV-22B Osprey
* U-28A
* WC-135C/W
Source: [15]
[edit] Culture
[edit] Uniforms
Main article: United States Air Force uniform
United States Air Force personnel wear uniforms which are distinct from those of the other branches of the United States Armed Forces. The current uniform is an olive drab/black/brown and tan combination called the Battle Dress Uniform (BDU). Members deployed to an AOR wear a variation of the BDU, tan and brown in color, called the Desert Camouflage Uniform (DCU). A new uniform called the Airman Battle Uniform (ABU) is currently being distributed to some bases, and in a memo from HQ AFPC at Randolph AFB dated September 2007, will be distributed to basic trainees in their clothing issue starting October 2007. The ABU is already authorized for wear, and is scheduled to completely replace the BDU and DCU by November 2011.
[edit] Awards and badges
In addition to basic uniform clothing, various badges are used by the USAF to indicate a job assignment or qualification-level for a given assignment. Badges can also be used as merit-based or service-based awards. Over time, various badges have been discontinued and are no longer distributed.
[edit] Grade Structure and Insignias
See also: United States Air Force officer rank insignia
See also: United States Air Force enlisted rank insignia
The standard USAF uniform is also decorated with an insignia to designate rank. USAF rank is divided between enlisted airmen, non-commissioned officers, and commissioned officers, and ranges from "airman basic" to the commissioned rank of general. Promotions are granted based on a combination of test scores, years of experience, and selection board approval. Promotions among enlisted men and non-commissioned officers rankings are generally designated by increasing numbers of insignia chevrons. Commissioned officer rank is designated by bars, oak leaves, a silver eagle, and anywhere from one to five (only in war-time) stars.
For cadet rank at the U.S. Air Force Academy, see United States Air Force Academy Cadet Insignia.
[edit] Motto
The United States Air Force does not have an official motto, but there are numerous unofficial slogans such as "Nothing Comes Close" and Uno Ab Alto. For many years, the U.S. Air Force used "Aim High" as its recruiting motto; more recently, they have used "Cross Into the Blue", "We've been waiting for you" and "Do Something Amazing", and the newest one, "Above All".[16]
Each wing, group, or squadron usually has its own motto(s). Information and logos can usually be found on the wing, group, or squadron websites.[17]
The Airman's Creed is a statement introduced in the spring of 2007 to summarize the culture of the Air Force.
The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge. AKA the singing bridge or the suspension bridge, is an engineering marvel. (Wikipedia - The bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1983. It remains the busiest of Cincinnati's four non-freeway automobile or pedestrian bridges. Initially called the "Covington-Cincinnati Suspension Bridge" or "Ohio River Bridge,"[8] it was renamed in honor of its designer and builder on June 27, 1983)
Please reference the full Wikipedia information-worth a read as this was the prototype for the Brooklyn Bridge and designed after several suspension bridges which were successful in France. With towers made of sandstone, under-towers made of sandstone covered in limestone and set upon oak beams, the Suspension bridge has outlasted the Brent Spence Bridge which carries I-75 across the Ohio River. The Brent Spence Bridge - a double decker bridge, was built in 1963, and is in need of replacement due to wear. The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge was built during the 1800's and was completed in 1867 (The bridge is marked 1866, as this was the date of the first foot traffic was carried across the Ohio River.)
The deck of the bridge is a steel structure which generates a tune (hum) as traffic crosses, hence the name "The Singing Bridge". In the movie, Rain Man, starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, Dustin Hoffman's character hums along as he travels across the bridge in a convertible.
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Video: pic.twitter.com/8jR3TYX6hn
Contractors for United Utilities are working at two sites on the River Irwell. This site is between Rawtenstall and Ewood Bridge, the other is in Nuttall Woods just south of Ramsbottom. I think that there is more to it than riverbank work - maybe protecting and/or redirecting pipelines.
Drillers fixing an extention to the core sheath, the shaft that the cable is attached to is the sampler, this is dropped down the core sheath to the rock bed ,
Pavements and equipment Airmen from the 633rd Civil Engineer Squadron repair sections of the runway Aug. 27, 2014, at Langley Air Force Base, Va. According to 633rd CES leadership the improvements will provide a safe environment to sustain current flying operations, and secure future mission capability. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Connor Estes/Released)
Dickwittery of the week award goes to RBS Contractors who are digging a trench along the Bridleway beside the A39 to Carland Cross.
All well and good, but the forces of stupid are strong here. It's a long slog in my granny gear up a long hill to this point, where I found a road closed sign just a few yards from where the road is closed.
That isn't terribly helpful chaps. Go put your sign where it's needed, back at the start of the Bridleway you dickheads...
Major diversion for me then but hey ho.
I did think of going over the barrier and telling the chief hole digger that there had been an intelligence fail but didn't want to come across as some moaning knobhead (excuse all the slang n'stuff...), so I'm moaning on here instead, where it'll do no good whatsoever.
I could e-mail the company but by the look of it, they'll have finished the work by now and cleared everything away.
Lucerne (/ljuːˈsɜːrn/; German: Luzern [luˈtsɛrn] (About this soundlisten); French: Lucerne [lysɛʁn]; Italian: Lucerna [luˈtʃɛrna]; Romansh: Lucerna; Lucerne German: Lozärn) is a city in central Switzerland, in the German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the district of the same name. With a population of about 81,057 people (as of 2013),[3] Lucerne is the most populous town in Central Switzerland, and a nexus of economics, transportation, culture, and media of this region. The city's urban area consists of 17 municipalities and towns located in three different cantons with an overall population of about 250,000 people (as of 2007).[4]
Owing to its location on the shores of Lake Lucerne (German: Vierwaldstättersee) and its outflow, the river Reuss, within sight of the mounts Pilatus and Rigi in the Swiss Alps, Lucerne has long been a destination for tourists. One of the city's famous landmarks is the Chapel Bridge (German: Kapellbrücke), a wooden bridge first erected in the 14th century.
The official language of Lucerne is (the Swiss variety of Standard) German, but the main spoken language is the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect.
Contents
1History
1.1Early history and founding (750–1386)
1.2From city to city-state (1386–1520)
1.3Swiss-Catholic town (1520–1798)
1.4Century of revolutions (1798–1914)
1.521st century
2Geography and climate
2.1Topography
2.2Climate
3Politics
3.1Government
3.2Parliament
3.3National elections
3.3.1National Council
3.4International relations
3.4.1Twin towns
4Demography
4.1Population
4.2Historic population
4.3Religion
5Economy
6Sights
7Culture and events
7.1Culture
7.2Events
8Transport
9Sport
10Gallery
11Notable people
12See also
13References
14Further reading
15External links
History[edit]
Early history and founding (750–1386)[edit]
After the fall of the Roman Empire beginning in the 6th century, Germanic Alemannic peoples increased their influence on this area of present-day Switzerland.
Around 750 the Benedictine Monastery of St. Leodegar was founded, which was later acquired by Murbach Abbey in Alsace in the middle of the 9th century, and by this time the area had become known as Luciaria.[5]
The origin of the name is uncertain, it is possibly derived from the Latin name of the pike, lucius, thus designating a pike fishing spot in the river Reuss. Derivation from the theonym Lugus has been suggested but is phonetically implausible. In any case, the name was associated by popular etymology with Latin lucerna "lantern" from an early time.[6]
In 1178 Lucerne acquired its independence from the jurisdiction of Murbach Abbey, and the founding of the city proper probably occurred that same year. The city gained importance as a strategically located gateway for the growing commerce from the Gotthard trade route.
By 1290 Lucerne had become a self-sufficient city of reasonable size with about 3000 inhabitants. About this time King Rudolph I von Habsburg gained authority over the Monastery of St. Leodegar and its lands, including Lucerne. The populace was not content with the increasing Habsburg influence, and Lucerne allied with neighboring towns to seek independence from their rule. Along with Lucerne, the three other forest cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden formed the "eternal" Swiss Confederacy, known as the Eidgenossenschaft, on November 7, 1332.
Later the cities of Zürich, Zug and Bern joined the alliance. With the help of these additions, the rule of Austria over the area came to an end. The issue was settled by Lucerne’s victory over the Habsburgs in the Battle of Sempach in 1386. For Lucerne this victory ignited an era of expansion. The city shortly granted many rights to itself, rights which had been withheld by the Habsburgs until then. By this time the borders of Lucerne were approximately those of today.
From city to city-state (1386–1520)[edit]
In 1415 Lucerne gained Reichsfreiheit from Emperor Sigismund and became a strong member of the Swiss confederacy. The city developed its infrastructure, raised taxes, and appointed its own local officials. The city’s population of 3000 dropped about 40% due to the Black Plague and several wars around 1350.
In 1419 town records show the first witch trial against a male person.
Swiss-Catholic town (1520–1798)[edit]
Lucerne in 1642
Among the growing towns of the confederacy, Lucerne was especially popular in attracting new residents. Remaining predominantly Catholic, Lucerne hosted its own annual passion play from 1453 to 1616. It was a two-day-long play of 12 hours performance per day.[7] As the confederacy broke up during the Reformation, after 1520, most nearby cities became Protestant, but Lucerne remained Catholic. After the victory of the Catholics over the Protestants in the Battle at Kappel in 1531, the Catholic towns dominated the confederacy. The region, though, was destined to be dominated by Protestant cities such as Zürich, Bern and Basel, which defeated the Catholic forces in the 1712 Toggenburg War. The former prominent position of Lucerne in the confederacy was lost forever. In the 16th and 17th centuries, wars and epidemics became steadily less frequent and as a result the population of the country increased strongly.
Lucerne was besieged by a peasant army and quickly signed a peace treaty with the rebels in the Swiss peasant war of 1653.
Century of revolutions (1798–1914)[edit]
Conflict at Lucerne, Illustrated London News, 1845
In 1798, nine years after the beginning of the French Revolution, the French army marched into Switzerland. The old confederacy collapsed and the government became democratic. The industrial revolution hit Lucerne rather late, and by 1860 only 1.7% of the population worked in industry, which was about a quarter of the national average at that time. Agriculture, which employed about 40% of the workers, was the main form of economic output in the canton. Nevertheless, industry was attracted to the city from areas around Lucerne. From 1850 to 1913, the population quadrupled and the flow of settlers increased. In 1856 trains first linked the city to Olten and Basel, then Zug and Zürich in 1864 and finally to the south in 1897.
21st century[edit]
On June 17, 2007, voters of the city of Lucerne and the adjacent town of Littau agreed to a merger in a simultaneous referendum. This took effect on January 1, 2010.[8] The new city, still called Lucerne, has a population of around 80,000 people, making it the seventh-largest city in Switzerland. The results of this referendum are expected to pave the way for negotiations with other nearby cities and towns in an effort to create a unified city-region, based on the results of a study.[9]
Geography and climate[edit]
Topography[edit]
Lucerne is located at the outfall of Lake Lucerne into the river Reuss, which flows from south-east to north-west. The city occupies both banks of the river and the lowest reach of the lake, with the city centre straddling the river immediately downstream of the outfall. The city's suburbs climb the hills to the north-east and south-west, and stretch out along the river and lake banks, whilst the recently added area of Littau is to the north-west.[10]
Besides this contiguous city area, the municipality also includes an exclave on the south shore of Lake Lucerne some 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) away, comprising the northern slopes of the Bürgenstock. This section of the municipality is entirely surrounded by the lake and by land of the canton of Nidwalden. It does not contain any significant settlements, but the summit of the Bürgenstock is the highest point of the municipality.[10]
The municipality has an area of 29.1 square kilometers (11.2 sq mi). Of this area and as of 2009, 28.0% is used for agricultural purposes, while 22.3% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 47.6% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (2.1%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).[11]
Climate[edit]
Between 1961 and 1990 Lucerne had an average of 138.1 days of rain per year and on average received 1,171 mm (46.1 in) of precipitation. The wettest month was June during which time Lucerne received an average of 153 mm (6.0 in) of rainfall. During this month there was rainfall for an average of 14.2 days. The driest month of the year was February with an average of 61 mm (2.4 in) of precipitation over 10.2 days.[12] Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Cfb" (Marine West Coast Climate/Oceanic climate).[13]
hideClimate data for Lucerne
MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecYear
Average high °C (°F)3.4
(38.1)5.2
(41.4)10.3
(50.5)14.4
(57.9)19.1
(66.4)22.2
(72)24.7
(76.5)23.8
(74.8)19.4
(66.9)14.3
(57.7)7.8
(46)4.3
(39.7)14.1
(57.4)
Daily mean °C (°F)0.5
(32.9)1.4
(34.5)5.4
(41.7)9.1
(48.4)13.7
(56.7)16.9
(62.4)19.1
(66.4)18.3
(64.9)14.6
(58.3)10.2
(50.4)4.6
(40.3)1.6
(34.9)9.6
(49.3)
Average low °C (°F)−2.3
(27.9)−2.0
(28.4)1.1
(34)4.3
(39.7)8.9
(48)12.1
(53.8)14.2
(57.6)13.9
(57)10.6
(51.1)6.7
(44.1)1.6
(34.9)−1.0
(30.2)5.7
(42.3)
Average precipitation mm (inches)51
(2.01)54
(2.13)74
(2.91)88
(3.46)128
(5.04)154
(6.06)151
(5.94)146
(5.75)107
(4.21)76
(2.99)73
(2.87)72
(2.83)1,173
(46.18)
Average snowfall cm (inches)16.0
(6.3)20.2
(7.95)8.3
(3.27)1.2
(0.47)0.0
(0)0.0
(0)0.0
(0)0.0
(0)0.0
(0)0.4
(0.16)5.3
(2.09)14.6
(5.75)66.0
(25.98)
Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm)9.38.711.811.812.913.512.512.510.29.49.610.0132.2
Average snowy days (≥ 1.0 cm)3.84.41.90.60.00.00.00.00.00.12.47.937.9
Average relative humidity (%)83797370727272758083848477
Mean monthly sunshine hours47721221411611712011871379752361,423
Percent possible sunshine21283636373845453932221735
Source: MeteoSwiss[14]
Politics[edit]
Government[edit]
The City Council (Stadtrat) constitutes the executive government of the city of Lucerne and operates as a collegiate authority. It is composed of five councilors (German: Stadtrat/-rätin), each presiding over a directorate (Direktion) comprising several departments and bureaus. The president of the executive department acts as mayor (Stadtpräsident). In the mandate period (Legislatur) September 2016 – August 2020 the City Council is presided by Stadtpräsident Beat Züsli. Departmental tasks, coordination measures and implementation of laws decreed by the Grand City Council are carried by the City Council. The regular election of the City Council by any inhabitant valid to vote is held every four years. Any resident of Lucerne allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the City Council. The delegates are selected by means of a system of Majorz. The mayor is elected as such as well by public election while the heads of the other directorates are assigned by the collegiate.[15]
As of September 2016, Luzern's City Council is made up of one representative of the SP (Social Democratic Party, who is also the mayor), and one each of CVP (Christian Democratic Party), GPS (Green Party), FDP (FDP.The Liberals), and glp (Green Liberal Party). The last regular election was held on 1 May/5 June 2016.[15]
The City Council (Stadtrat) of Luzern[15]
City Councilor
(Stadtrat/-rätin)PartyHead of Directorate (Direktion, since) ofelected since
Beat Züsli[SR 1] SPMayor's Office and City's Chancellary (Präsidialdirektion und Stadtkanzlei, 2016)2016
Franziska Bitzi Staub CVPFinances (Finanzdirektion, 2016)November 2016
Adrian Borgula GPSEnvironment, Transport, and Security (Direktion Umwelt, Verkehr und Sicherheit, 2012)2012
Manuela Jost glpBuilding and Civil Engineering (Baudirektion, 2012)2012
Martin Merki FDPSocial Services (Sozialdirektion, 2012)2012
^ Mayor (Stadtpräsident)
Toni Göpfert (FDP) is Town Chronicler (Stadtschreiber) since 1990.
Parliament[edit]
The Grosse Stadtrat of Luzern for the mandate period of 2016-2020
JUSO (2.1%)
jg (2.1%)
SP (27.1%)
GPS (12.5%)
glp (8.3%)
CVP (14.6%)
FDP (18.8%)
SVP (16.7%)
The Grand City Council (Grosser Stadtrat) holds legislative power. It is made up of 48 members, with elections held every four years. The Grand City Council decrees regulations and by-laws that are executed by the City Council and the administration. The delegates are selected by means of a system of proportional representation.
The sessions of the Grand City Council are public. Unlike members of the City Council, members of the Grand City Council are not politicians by profession, and they are paid a fee based on their attendance. Any resident of Luzern allowed to vote can be elected as a member of the Grand City Council. The parliament holds its meetings in the Rathaus (Town Hall) am Kornmarkt.[16]
The last regular election of the Grand City Council was held on 1 May 2016 for the mandate period (German: Legislatur) from September 2016 to August 2020. Currently the Grand City Council consist of 13 members of the Social Democratic Party (SP/PS) and one of its junior section, the JUSO, 9 The Liberals (FDP/PLR), 7 Christian Democratic People's Party (CVP/PDC), 7 Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC), 6 Green Party (GPS/PES) and one of its junior section, the jg of Luzern, and 4 Green Liberal Party (GLP/PVL).[16]
National elections[edit]
National Council[edit]
In the 2015 election for the Swiss National Council the most popular party was the SPS which received 25.8% of the vote. The next five most popular parties were the SVP (19.5%), the FDP (15.4%), the CVP (14.1%), the GPS (13.3%), and the GLP (8.9%). In the federal election, a total of 26,521 voters were cast, and the voter turnout was 49.48%.[17]
International relations[edit]
See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Switzerland
Twin towns[edit]
Lucerne is twinned with the following towns:[18]
United Kingdom Bournemouth, United Kingdom (1981)[18][19]
United States Chicago, Illinois, United States (1999)[18]
Poland Cieszyn, Poland (1994)[18]
France Guebwiller / Murbach, France (1978)[18]
Czech Republic Olomouc, Czech Republic (1994)[18]
Germany Potsdam, Germany (2002)[18][20]
Demography[edit]
Population[edit]
Largest groups of foreign residents 2013[21]
NationalityNumbers% of total
(% of foreigners)
Germany4,1675.2 (20.7)
Italy2,2792.8 (11.3)
Portugal1,7652.2 (8.8)
Serbia1,4301.8 (7.1)
Kosovo7941.0 (3.9)
Spain7600.9 (3.8)
Sri Lanka7340.9 (3.6)
Bosnia and Herzegovina5430.7 (2.7)
Croatia5380.7 (2.7)
Republic of Macedonia4570.7 (2.6)
Lucerne has a population (as of 31 December 2017) of 81,401.[2] As of 2013, 19,264 or 25.0% of the population was made up of foreign nationals, of which 19.9% are from Europe, 2.8% from Asia, 1.2% from Africa and 1.0% from America.[21] Over the last 10 years the population has grown at a rate of 1.2%. Most of the population (as of 2010) speak German (87%), with Italian, as well as Serbo-Croatian and English with 5% being second most common languages, followed by French and Albanian with 3%, and Portuguese and Spanish with 2% each.[22]
The age distribution in Lucerne is (as of 2013); 12,916 people or 15.7% of the population is 0–19 years old. 26,381 people or 33.8% are 20–39 years old, and 25,863 people or 32.1% are 40–64 years old. The senior population distribution is 10,530 people or 13.1% are 65–79 years old, 4,208 or 5.2% are 80–89 years old and 900 people or 1.1% of the population are 90+ years old.[23]
In Lucerne about 73.6% of the population (between age 25–64) have completed either non-mandatory upper secondary education or additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule).
As of 2000 there are 30,586 households, of which 15,452 households (or about 50.5%) contain only a single individual. 853 or about 2.8% are large households, with at least five members.[24] As of 2000 there were 5,707 inhabited buildings in the municipality, of which 4,050 were built only as housing, and 1,657 were mixed use buildings. There were 1,152 single family homes, 348 double family homes, and 2,550 multi-family homes in the municipality. Most homes were either two (787) or three (1,468) story structures. There were only 74 single story buildings and 1,721 four or more story buildings.[24]
Historic population[edit]
The historical population of Lucerne is given in the following table:
Historical population
YearPop.±% p.a.
186013,166—
187016,450+2.25%
188020,419+2.18%
188823,607+1.83%
190032,954+2.82%
YearPop.±% p.a.
191043,611+2.84%
192048,394+1.05%
193047,066−0.28%
194159,847+2.21%
195066,170+1.12%
YearPop.±% p.a.
196076,148+1.41%
197083,374+0.91%
198078,274−0.63%
199076,466−0.23%
200075,425−0.14%
YearPop.±% p.a.
201077,491+0.27%
201681,592+0.86%
Source: City of Lucerne - Population by Nationality and Sex since 1860
Religion[edit]
The city grew up around Sankt Leodegar Abbey, founded in AD 840, and remained strongly Roman Catholic into the 21st century. By 1850, 96.9% of the population was Catholic, in 1900 it was 81.9% and in 1950 it was still 72.3%. In the 2000 census the religious membership of Lucerne was: 35,682 (60%) Roman Catholic, 9,227 (15.5%) Protestant, with an additional 1,979 (3.33%) who were of some other Christian denominations; 1,824 individuals (3.07% of the population) Muslim; 196 individuals (0.33% of the population) Jewish. Of the remainder, 1,073 (1.8%) individuals were another religion; 6,310 (10.61%) stated they do not belong to any organized religion; and 3,205 (5.39%) did not answer the question.[24]
Economy[edit]
As of 2012, there were a total of 77,641 people employed in the municipality. Of these, a total of 166 people worked in 53 businesses in the primary economic sector. The secondary sector employed 7,326 workers in 666 separate businesses. Finally, the tertiary sector provided 70,149 jobs in 6,929 businesses. In 2013 a total of 11.0% of the population received social assistance.[25] As of 2000 51.7% of the population of the municipality were employed in some capacity. At the same time, women made up 47.9% of the workforce.[24]
Lucerne is home to a number of major Swiss companies, including Schindler Group, Chronoswiss, Emmi, EF Education First and the Luzerner Kantonalbank. Suva, one of Switzerland's oldest accident insurance companies, is also based in Lucerne, as is the University of Lucerne, the youngest of Switzerland's traditional universitites.
Thanks to its continuous tax-cutting policies, Lucerne has become Switzerland's most business-friendly canton. As of 2012 Lucerne offers Switzerland's lowest corporate tax rate at cantonal level.[26]
Furthermore, Lucerne also offers very moderate personal income tax rates. In a recent published study of BAK Basel Economics taxation index 2012, Lucerne made it to the 4th place with an only marginally 2% higher tax rate compared to the top canton in this comparison.[27]
Since November 2009, Zurich Airport can be reached from Lucerne within 1 hour and 2 minutes[28] by a direct (every hour) train connection every half an hour with a stop just below the airport, and within 40 minutes by car due to a direct motorway from Lucerne to the Airport, but only if you travel outside of rush hours.
Sights[edit]
Since the city straddles the Reuss where it drains the lake, it has a number of bridges. The most famous is the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), a 204 m (669 ft) long wooden covered bridge originally built in 1333, the oldest covered bridge in Europe, although much of it had to be replaced after a fire on 18 August 1993, allegedly caused by a discarded cigarette. Part way across, the bridge runs by the octagonal Water Tower (Wasserturm), a fortification from the 13th century. Inside the bridge are a series of paintings from the 17th century depicting events from Lucerne's history. The Bridge with its Tower is the city's most famous landmark.
Lucerne city, lake and mountains view from the tower
Downriver, between the Kasernenplatz and the Mühlenplatz, the Spreuer Bridge (Spreuerbrücke or Mühlenbrücke, Mill Bridge) zigzags across the Reuss. Constructed in 1408, it features a series of medieval-style 17th century plague paintings by Kaspar Meglinger (de) titled Dance of Death (Totentanzzyklus). The bridge has a small chapel in the middle that was added in 1568.
Old Town Lucerne is mainly located just north of the Reuss, and still has several fine half-timber structures with painted fronts. Remnants of the old town walls exist on the hill above Lucerne, complete with eight tall watch towers. An additional gated tower sits at the base of the hill on the banks of the Reuss.
The twin needle towers of the Church of St. Leodegar, which was named after the city's patron saint, sit on a small hill just above the lake front. Originally built in 735, the present structure was erected in 1633 in the late Renaissance style. However, the towers are surviving remnants of an earlier structure. The interior is richly decorated. The church is popularly called the Hofkirche (in German) and is known locally as the Hofchile (in Swiss-German).
Bertel Thorvaldsen's famous carving of a dying lion (the Lion Monument, or Löwendenkmal) is found in a small park just off the Löwenplatz. The carving commemorates the hundreds of Swiss Guards of who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution, when an armed mob stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris.
The Swiss Museum of Transport is a large and comprehensive museum exhibiting all forms of transport, including locomotives, automobiles, ships, and aircraft. It is to be found beside the lake in the northern-eastern section of the city.
The Culture and Convention Center (KKL) beside the lake in the center of the city was designed by Jean Nouvel. The center has one of the world's leading concert halls, with acoustics by Russell Johnson.
Culture and events[edit]
Culture[edit]
The Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre at night
Since plans for the new culture and convention centre arose in the late 1980s, Lucerne has found a balance between the so-called established culture and alternative culture. A consensus was reached that culminated in a culture compromise (Kulturkompromiss). The established culture comprises the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre (KKL), the city theater (Luzerner Theater) and, in a broader sense, smaller establishments such as the Kleintheater, founded by comedian Emil Steinberger, a Lucerne native, or Stadtkeller, a music restaurant in the city's old town. KKL houses a concert hall as well as the Museum of Art Lucerne (Kunstmuseum Luzern).
Alternative culture took place mostly on the premises of a former tube factory, which became known as Boa. Other localities for alternative culture have since emerged in the same inner city area as Boa. Initially, Boa staged various plays, but concerts became more and more common; this new use of the building clashed with the development of apartment buildings on nearby lots of land. Due to possible noise pollution, Boa was closed and a replacement in a less heavily inhabited area is currently under construction. Critics claimed though that the new establishment would not meet the requirements for an alternative culture.
Südpol is a center for performing arts in Lucerne presenting music-, dance- and theatre-events. The house at the foot of Pilatus is opened since November 2008.
Lucerne is home to the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, a category A symphonic orchestra, and to the 21st Century Symphony Orchestra, and they both hold most of their performances in the Lucerne Culture and Congress Centre.
Lucerne is also home to Keramikkonzerte (keramikkonzerte.com/), a series of classical chamber music concerts held throughout each year.
Events[edit]
Every year, towards the end of winter, Fasnacht (Carnival) breaks out in the streets, alleyways and squares of the old town. This is a glittering outdoor party, where chaos and merriness reign and nothing is as it normally is. Strange characters in fantastic masks and costumes make their way through the alleyways, while Guggenmusiken (carnival bands) blow their instruments in joyful cacophony and thousands of bizarrely clad people sing and dance away the winter. The Lucerner Fasnacht, based on religious, Catholic backgrounds, starts every year on the Thursday before Aschermittwoch (Ash Wednesday) with a big bang at 5am called Morgenwacht (Morning Watch). There are big parades in the afternoon on Schmotzige Donnerstag (literally: Lardy Thursday)[29] and the following Monday, called Güdismontag (literally: Paunch Monday), which attract tens of thousands of people. Lucerne's Carnival ends with a crowning finish on Güdisdienstag (literally: Paunch Tuesday) evening with the Monstercorso, a tremendous parade of Guggenmusiken, lights and lanterns with even a larger audience. Rather recently a fourth Fasnacht day has been introduced on the Saturday between the others Fasnacht days, the Rüüdige Samstag while mainly several indoor balls take place. From dusk till dawn on the evenings of Schmotzige Donnerstag, Güdismontag, and after the Monstercorso many bands wander through the historical part of the city playing typical Fasnacht tunes. Until midnight, the historical part of the city usually is packed with people participating. A large part of the audience are also dressed up in costumes, even a majority in the evenings.
Lucerne Fasnacht
The city hosts various renowned festivals throughout the year. The Lucerne Festival for classical music takes place in the summer. Its orchestra, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, is hand-picked from some of the finest instrumentalists in the world. In June yearly the pop music festival B-Sides takes place in Lucerne. It focuses on international acts in alternative music, indie rock, experimental rock and other cutting edge and left field artistic musical genres. In July, the Blue Balls Festival brings jazz, blues and punk music to the lake promenade and halls of the Culture and Convention Center. The Lucerne Blues Festival is another musical festival which usually takes place in November. Since spring 2004, Lucerne has hosted the Festival Rose d'Or for television entertainment. And in April, the well-established comics festival Fumetto attracts an international audience.
Being the cultural center of a rather rural region, Lucerne regularly holds different folklore festivals, such as Lucerne Cheese Festival, held annually. In 2004, Lucerne was the focus of Swiss Wrestling fans when it had hosted the Swiss Wrestling and Alpine festival (Eidgenössisches Schwing- und Älplerfest), which takes place every three years in a different location. A national music festival (Eidgenössiches Musikfest) attracted marching bands from all parts of Switzerland in 2006. In summer 2008, the jodelling festival (Eidgenössisches Jodlerfest) is expected to have similar impact.
The 2021 Winter Universiade will be hosted by Lucerne.
Transport[edit]
Lucerne railway station
Lucerne boasts a developed and well-run transport network, with the main operator, Verkehrsbetriebe Luzern (VBL), running both the trolleybuses in Lucerne and a motor buses network in the city and to neighboring municipalities. Other operators, such as PostAuto Schweiz and Auto AG Rothenburg, provide bus services to other towns and villages.
Lucerne railway station is one of Switzerland's principal railway stations situated in the middle of the town and just next to the lake, and enjoys excellent connection to the rest of Switzerland via railway services operated by Swiss Federal Railways (SBB CFF FFS) and the Zentralbahn (zb). Two other stations are located within the city boundaries, with Lucerne Allmend/Messe railway station close to the Swissporarena in the south of the city, and the Lucerne Verkehrshaus railway station adjacent to the Swiss Museum of Transport in the east.
Lucerne's city transit system is fully integrated into the coherent and integrated fare network system called passepartout encompassing all kind of public transport in the cantons of Lucerne, Obwalden, and Nidwalden.
Sport[edit]
The Swissporarena is home to FC Lucerne of the Swiss Super League
There are several football clubs throughout the city. The most successful one is FC Luzern which plays in Switzerland's premier league (Swiss Super League). The club plays its home matches at the new Swissporarena, with a capacity of 16,800.
The city's main hockey team is the HC Luzern which plays in the Swiss Second League, the fourth tier of Swiss hockey. They play their home games in the 5,000-seat Swiss Life Arena.
In the past, Lucerne also produced national successes in men's handball and women's volleyball and softball.
Having a long tradition of equestrian sports, Lucerne has co-hosted CSIO Switzerland, an international equestrian show jumping event, until it left entirely for St. Gallen in 2006. Since then, the Lucerne Equestrian Masters replaced it. There is also an annual horse racing event, usually taking place in August.
Lucerne annually hosts the final leg of the Rowing World Cup on Rotsee Lake, and has hosted numerous World Rowing Championships, among others the first ever in 1962. Lucerne was also bidding for the 2011 issue but failed.
Lucerne hosts the annual Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern Track and field meeting, which attracts world class athletes such as Yohan Blake and Valerie Adams.
The city also provides facilities for ice-hockey, figure-skating, golf, swimming, basketball, rugby, skateboarding, climbing and more.
Lucerne hosted FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event Lucerne Open 2015 and FIVB Beach Volleyball U21 World Championship in 2016.
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Mauna Kea Beach Hotel - History
George Mason headed the Hawaii Department of Economic Development in the early 1960's (later he founded the Pacific Business News). It was determined that Hawaii's tourism industry had to expand beyond Waikiki to the outer islands. William Quinn, the first Governor of Hawaii, sent Mason to Caneel Bay Plantation in the U.S. Virgin Islands to study Laurence Rockefeller's investment and development of an environmentally friendly resort set on a very remote island, St. John. Mason had several conversations with Lesley Moore, Caneel Bay's hotel manager at the time. As a result an invitation was delivered to Laurence Rockefeller to visit Hawaii with the hope he would develop a similar resort on one of Hawaii's outer islands.
In 1960 Rockefeller arrived in Hawaii along with his long-time associate Allston Boyer who was instrumental in the development of Caneel Bay Plantation and Dorado Beach Hotel and Walter Collins representing the firm Belt, Collins & Associates known for providing master planning, landscape architecture and civil engineering. The visitors were given the use of a state airplane to visit possible resort locations. In fact Aloha Airlines donated the plane and crew. When Rockefeller later learned this, he insisted on paying for it. The entourage stayed overnight at the Parker Ranch, Volcano House and Kona Inn on the Big Island, Coco Palms on Kauai and Hotel Hana Maui - where Rockefeller met and visited with Robert Butterfield (then the hotel manager at Hotel Hana Maui and later the second hotel manager at Mauna Kea Beach Hotel). Rockefeller met with Parker Ranch owner Richard Smart. He asked to visit the beach he had seen while flying over the island. From the ranch headquarters in cool misty Waimea the small group descended the bumpy 2600 feet by jeep trail to visit the beach at remote Kauna'oa Bay. It was reported that George Mason, Allston Boyer and Laurence Rockefeller went swimming at Kauna'oa Bay. As Mason had hoped the visitors were awe struck by the crescent shaped beach, the warm Pacific waters and the spectacular view of the snow-capped Mauna Kea. In May, 1961 Rockefeller returned to Kauna'oa Bay with Robert Trent Jones and the governor of Hawaii to announce the plans for a massive investment in a resort and golf course. At that time Kauan'oa Bay's crescent shaped beach was isolated, had no water or electricity and was accessible only by a dirt road and foot paths. Richard Smart leased approximately 500 acres for 99 years to Laurence Rockefeller for building the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on Kauna'oa Bay of the Kohala Coast. Smart said it was land too dry for his cattle!
Rockefeller first selected the architect John Carl Warnecke, a pioneer of contextual architecture - fitting a building into its environment. Warnecke later designed the Hawaiian State Capitol building. Rockefeller initially conceived the resort to follow the cottage format similar to his design for Caneel Bay Plantation and Little Dix Bay. Rockefeller is quoted “The design should follow the natural contours of the land, incorporate lava rock and in every possible way make the hotel invisible.” Nathaniel A. Owings, a founder of the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, was leaning towards designing 100 beach cottages. A model cottage was built, it was later demolished after sustaining damage from tropical storms. The cottage concept was shelved in favor of a single large structure. Later Rockefeller turned to the architect Edward Charles Bassett of the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill firm to design the hotel that is part outdoors and part indoors, in fact the hotel has a door-less entry. Bassett also designed in 1962 the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland.
Belt Collins prepared for Pioneer Mill sugar plantation the first feasibility study for the Ka'anapali resort area on Maui. Belt Collins work at Mauna Kea included the construction of the hotel, its grounds, sewage plant, golf course, drilling of three wells and building a segment of the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway from Kawaihae to the hotel. The construction of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel was a huge logistical task. All building materials came by ferry. A temporary camp was created to house and feed the 500 construction workers.
As the resort neared completion, Rockefeller took a motor launch off shore. He looked back to the bay, the beach and his hotel-to-be with snow-capped Mauna Kea volcano, the backdrop. He determined the building's exterior was too bright. He ordered a repaint to better harmonize with the surroundings. He is quoted as saying "No man can outdo nature; mustn't even try."
Another expert of Rockefeller's team was Robert Trent Jones, Sr. He had designed Rockefeller's Dorado Beach golf courses in Puerto Rico. Regarding the third hole, Jones said, "Mr. Rockefeller, if you allow me to build a golf course here, this will be the most beautiful hole in the world." The debate continues if the par 3 third hole with an over-ocean inlet carry from tee to green is the most beautiful golf hole in the world. He seamlessly blended in the 18 fairways and greens to the black lava rock. The golf course was completed before the hotel opened. Jackie Pung, Hawaii's first woman golfing notable, was the initial teaching pro. "Rags" Ragland was the first director of golf at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. The first pro shop was a shack that was originally a recreational facility for Parker Ranch employees who wanted to swim at Mauna Kea's beach.
When it opened in July, 1965 the 154-room Mauna Kea was the most expensive hotel ever built at the time, at $15 million. The opening room rates on the Modified American Plan (MAP) started at $43, including breakfast and dinner in the Pavilion, which featured rotating menus of international cuisines. From 1965 to 1995, the Hotel operated contentedly without guestroom televisions. Esquire magazine named the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel one of the "Three greatest hotels in the world."
At the 1965 grand opening Rockefeller spoke this prayer. "May we all find inspiration in the majesty of the sea and the beauty of the surrounding mountains. May we learn again the joy of living and that good will is the key to brotherly love. May we recognize anew that material goods are but the means - stepping stone to the spiritual meaning and purpose of life."
The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel boasts an impressive art collection that includes priceless Pacific and Asian art pieces, curated for the resort’s opening, and handmade Hawaiian quilts from the 1960’s. These masterpieces elevate the status of Mauna Kea Beach Hotel to a museum in and of itself. Over 1600 pieces of authentic artwork and artifacts make Mauna Kea’s collection one of the most extensive collections of Asian and Oceanic artwork assembled by one individual, Mr. Rockefeller. The Art Collection showcases pieces from India, Southeast Asia, China, Japan, Melanesia, and Polynesia. Works of art include everything from custom, in-room watercolors, to a seventh-century sandstone Buddha, to elaborate Thai temple guardians. It was Mr. Rockefeller’s intention to informally display the pieces without signs or glass, in order to create the semblance of a noble manor teeming with abundant fine art.
Leslie H. Moore Jr., from Caneel Bay Plantation, was the first general manager of Mauna Kea. Allston Boyer hired Moore to manage Caneel Bay in 1956. Moore, a graduate of the Cornell University Hotel School, was previously the manager of the General Electric's Association Island at Henderson Harbor, NY. Moore left Mauna Kea to manage the White Elephant Hotel on Nantucket Island, MA. Executive assistants at opening were Richard Erb and James Reed and Clay James headed the food and beverage department along with executive chef Walter Blum. Mrs. Pi'lani Bell was the first executive housekeeper.
Robert H. Butterfield Jr managed the hotel from 1966 to 1982. He and his wife, Charlotte managed the Hotel Hana Maui from 1948 to 1965. Butterfield held a degree in Hotel Administration from the Cornell Hotel School, served wartime in the navy before working with Sugar Plantation owner Paul Fagan, the owner of remote Hotel Hana Maui. Butterfield died in 2011 at age 94 in Waimea, Hawaii. The hotel manager's residence was the "White House" (today the 8 room Jacaranda Inn) at Waimea, formerly the home of the Parker Ranch manager. It is where Rockefeller stayed during his many visits to the construction site and entertained guests.
In 1967 Laurence Rockefeller sold portions of his hotel assets to Eastern Airlines. Eastern acquired an 80% interest in the 306 room Dorado Beach resort for about $17 million and acquired a 60% interest in the 154 room Mauna Kea Beach Hotel for $10 million. As part of the deal Eastern also acquired a 40% interest in Rockresorts, Rockefeller's hotel management company.
In 1978 Laurence Rockefeller and Eastern Airlines sold the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel to UAL. Inc., the parent company of United Airlines and Western International Hotels for $51.5 million. The sell included 310 room hotel, 18-hole Robert Trent Jones golf course and about 100 acres of land adjacent to the hotel and golf course. Western International (later Westin) would operate the hotel. Western International at that time also owned and operated the Ilikai Hotel in Waikiki. Many repeat guests worried the hotel would lose its Rockefeller lustre. But Bob Butterfield in a 1981 interview is quoted "They (UAL, Inc.) told me, don't cut maintenance, don't cut anything.
William F. Mielcke, served as President of the Mauna Kea Resort for 21 years from 1980 to 2001. Previously he served as general manager at the Kona Surf. Mauna Kea Resort consists of the 258 room Mauna Kea Beach Hotel and the 350 room Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, two golf courses and real estate including single family homes, townhomes, condominiums and vacant land.
The hotel was purchased in 1989 for $315 million by Yoshiaki Tsutsumi of Seibu Railway. Fortune magazine named Tsutsumi as the world's richest man during the years 1987 to 1990. Seibu purchased the Mauna Kea Beach Resort from the partnership of Aoki Corp of Japan and the Robert M Bass Group of Fort Worth Texas – who had acquired Westin Hotels from UAL, Inc. The hotel moved from the Westin flag and management to Seibu's Prince Resorts Hawaii management in 1990.
In 1994, 30 years after opening, the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel closed for a 1 year renovation. This happened as the Hapuna Prince Hotel opens. Mauna Kea Beach reopened with Adi Kohler as the Managing Director - and - with TVs in the guest rooms. Kohler retired in June, 2000.
Prince Hotels Hawaii embarked on a three-year, $150 million renovation of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel after it closed following major damage from a 2006 earthquake. Mauna Kea Beach Hotel re-opened in 2009, the renovations included larger, redesigned guest rooms, new restaurants, a new spa, a new club house, and new air conditioning and plumbing systems. Mauna Kea Beach Hotel was added to Marriott's Autograph Collection in 2015.
Mauna Kea Beach Hotel management through 50 plus years of operation:
Leslie Moore - appointed first General Manager in 1965
Bob Butterfield - appointed General Manager in 1966.
Adi Kohler - Mauna Kea Beach Hotel's 3rd Hotel Manager appointed in 1978.
William F Mielcke - named President of Mauna Kea Resort in 1980 (retired in 2001)
Adi Kohler - named Managing Director of Mauna Kea Resort in 1994 (retired in 2000)
Charlie Park - named the hotels fifth Hotel Manager in 1997.
Donn Takahashi - named President of Prince Resorts Hawaii 2004
Jon Gersonde - named General Manager - Mauna Kea Beach Hotel in 2008 (left in 2014 to be Managing Director Turnberry Isle, Miami)
Phyllis Branco - named Hotel Manager in 2010 (left in 2015 to be General Manager at Hilo Doubletree Naniloa Hotel)
Craig Anderson - named Vice President of operations Mauna Kea Resort in 2015 (previously was general manager at the Westin Moana Surfrider)
Information compiled by Richard L. Johnson (October, 2016). I was the Beverage Manager at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel from approximately 1973 to 1975. I worked for Roger Bird, the Food and Beverage Manager. Bob Butterfield was the GM and Adi Kohler the Assistant GM. Michael White was the Pavillion Dining Room Manager. Kim Dietrich was the Executive Chef. I was a 1971 graduate from the U of Hawaii School on Travel Industry Management. Upon graduation Caneel Bay Plantation Assistant Manager George Pynn hired me as the night auditor. The telegram confirmation from Pynn was something like "$350 a month plus room and board. Also, a one way ticket from Honolulu to Charlotte Amalie, US Virgin Islands." I worked through several jobs ending as the Assistant Manager at Rockefeller's St. John National Park Cinnamon Bay Campground. Richard Erb, Caneel Bay Plantation's General Manager helped me in securing the Beverage Manager position at Mauna Kea.
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla., April 15, 2014 - Senior Airman Axel Fiksman, from the 116th Civil Engineering Squadron (CES), Georgia Air National Guard, takes a measurement during the construction of a wall during Silver Flag training
During the weeklong course, Guardsmen from the 116th CES and more than 30 other U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard units trained on building and maintaining bare-base operations at a forward-deployed location. In addition, they honed their combat and survival skills, repaired simulated bomb-damaged runways, set up base facilities and established various critical base operating support capabilities.
(Georgia Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Roger Parsons/Released)
The Colorado Street Bridge was designed and built in 1913 by the firm of J.A.L. Waddell, based in Kansas City, Missouri. The structure carries Colorado Boulevard (then called "Colorado Street"), the major east-west thoroughfare connecting Pasadena with Eagle Rock and Glendale to the west, and in Monrovia to the East. It spans 1,486 feet (453 m) and is notable for its distinctive Beaux Arts arches, light standards, and railings. The bridge is on the National Register of Historic Places and has been designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
During the early years of the twentieth century, the Colorado Street Bridge was known locally as "Suicide Bridge" after dozens of suicides. A suicide barrier was added which reduced the number of suicides, but the bridge retained its nickname. [There are also claims that the bridge is haunted and there are people who claim to have seen ghosts walking on the bridge] In 1989, after the Loma Prieta earthquake in Northern California, the bridge was declared a seismic hazard and closed to traffic. It was reopened in 1993 after a substantial retrofit. The bridge is closed each summer for a festival, "A Celebration on the Colorado Street Bridge", hosted by historic preservation group Pasadena Heritage.[2]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Street_Bridge_%28Pasadena,...
El puente de la calle Colorado fue diseñado y construido en 1913 por la firma de J.A.L. Waddell, basado en Kansas City, Missouri. La estructura lleva al boulevard Colorado (entonces llamado 'Calle de Colorado'), la importante arteria este-oeste conectando Pasadena con Eagle Rock y Glendale, al oeste y en Monrovia al este. Abarca 1.486 (453 pies) y es notable por su distintivos de Bellas Artes de arcos, lamparas de luces y barandillas. El puente se encuentra en el registro nacional de lugares históricos y ha sido designado un lugar histórico nacional de Ingeniería Civil por la sociedad americana de ingenieros civiles.
Durante los primeros años del siglo XX, el puente de la calle de Colorado fue conocido localmente como "Puente suicida" tras decenas de suicidios. Barandillas altas que fueron añadidas redujo el número de suicidios, pero el puente conservó su apodo. [y tambien se supone que es un lugar donde frequentemente gente dicen haber visto fantasma paseando por el puente] En 1989, tras el terremoto de Loma Prieta en California del Norte, el puente fue declarado una amenaza sísmica y cerrado al tráfico. Se reabrió en 1993 después de un retrofit sustancial. El puente está cerrado cada verano para un festival, “Una Celebracion en el puente de la calle Colorado', organizado por grupo de preservación histórica patrimonio de Pasadena.[2]