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Originally called the "Calvert Street Bridge", it was designed by Paul Philippe Cret in a neoclassical style and built in 1935. It was rededicated as the Duke Ellington Bridge following the death of the Washington native and famous band leader in 1974. It is a limestone structure with three graceful 146-foot (45 m) arches. There are four sculptural reliefs on the abutments measuring three feet high by four feet wide. The classical reliefs by Leon Hermant represent the four modes of travel: automobile, train, ship, and plane.
The bridge replaced one built in 1891 by the Rock Creek Railway to carry streetcars. The bridge was a steel trestle bridge with wooden decking, 750 feet (230 m) long and 130 feet (40 m) high. To avoid streetcar service disruption, the old bridge was moved 80 feet (24 m) south during the construction of the new replacement Calvert Street Bridge; however, streetcar service was discontinued before the new bridge opened. (Text source: Wikipedia)
A walk from Taffs Well to Pontypridd. A view upstream on the River Taff at Pontypridd, with the Victoria Bridge of 1857 nearer and behind it the William Edwards Bridge of 1756. The older bridge is Grade 1 Listed and scheduled as an ancient monument. At the time of its completion, its 140ft / 43 m arch was the longest in Britain (and one of the longest in the world), and remained such for forty years.
On the left behind the bridges is the Pontypridd Museum, opened here in 1986 in what had been the Tabernacle Welsh Baptist Chapel that was built in 1861. Much of the interior, including the organ, remains in place.
For further information see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Bridge,_Pontypridd
The River Taff and bridges at Pontypridd on 14 May 2024.
A view upstream on the River Taff at Pontypridd, with the Victoria Bridge of 1857 nearer and behind it the William Edwards Bridge of 1756. The older bridge is Grade 1 Listed and scheduled as an ancient monument. At the time of its completion, its 140ft / 43 m arch was the longest in Britain (and one of the longest in the world), and remained such for forty years.
On the left behind the bridges is the Pontypridd Museum, opened here in 1986 in what had been the Tabernacle Welsh Baptist Chapel that was built in 1861. Much of the interior, including the organ, remains in place.
For further information see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Bridge,_Pontypridd
The River Taff and bridges at Pontypridd on 14 May 2024.
A view upstream on the River Taff at Pontypridd, with the Victoria Bridge of 1857 nearer and behind it the William Edwards Bridge of 1756. The older bridge is Grade 1 Listed and scheduled as an ancient monument. At the time of its completion, its 140ft / 43 m arch was the longest in Britain (and one of the longest in the world), and remained such for forty years.
On the left behind the bridges is the Pontypridd Museum, opened here in 1986 in what had been the Tabernacle Welsh Baptist Chapel that was built in 1861. Much of the interior, including the organ, remains in place.
For further information see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Bridge,_Pontypridd
The Ohio Historical Center is a rare example of Brutalism whose clients still proudly embrace the label... give it up for historians! Granted, this is a hybrid entry. While we do have a nearly windowless box hoisted up in the air, with a forty-foot cantilever supported by frankly revealed concrete beams, there are burgeoning attempts to acknowledge "context" in a loosely-defined sense. Not the context of the immediately site, mind you, which is a vast and featureless tract of leftover land stuck between the highway and the Highway Patrol (see Google Maps)... but some loose idea of "Ohio history," indicative of Byron Ireland's training at Harvard (M.Arch 1958) and in Saarinen's office (1959-61), when both were entertaining loose incorporations of context in surface and form (the "New Formalism" strikes again!) but not, irritatingly, in urbanism or site relationships.
The references given are definitely the kind of things that would get an architectural imagination going in an age of dramatic form-giving - it's a cross-breed of the frontier blockhouse typology, with some idea of a Hopewell Indian Mound. Given that the blockhouses were fortifications built as part of the long-term campaign against America's native population, this is a kind of weird, loaded fusion, but there it is. The cladding, by the way, is tile, intended to evoke historic grain silos - not the abstracted, Egyptoid concrete silos of the Industrial Revolution, which had already inspired so much modernism, but the humble silo of the small-time farmer. That part, at least, works for me, although the double-coding is probably lost on those who don't take the museum tour. (It was arbitrarily closed the day I biked over - never got around to going back for the interior visit, although it looks passably cool.) Most people probably experience this building chiefly as a presence along I-71, where it does stand out strikingly. In the Ohio Historical Society's informative video (see link above), a local sums it up well: "It's certainly... observable." For all that it's a big, lumpy dud sitting in a field, I am, predictably, drawn to this thing. I've seen worse.
St. Vitus Cathedral, Malá Strana, Prague, Czech Republic
The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.
The cathedral was commissioned by Charles IV. Construction began in 1344 on the site of an earlier 10th century rotunda.
However, it took almost six centuries to complete, with the final phase of construction in the period 1873-1929.
Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m
F&M Arch to Hell - Evil Hollow Tree.
23 LI copy and modify.
FANTAVATAR & MOONSTRUCK * Medieval Fantasy ROLEPLAY Mesh Hair, Dandelion (54, 198, 3970) - Moderado
Not Crook O'Lune Bridge – that's much bigger, 33 km away at Caton in the River Lune's lower valley, and itself not to be confused with Caton's Crook O'Lune Viaduct(s).
I've made numerous attempts to photograph this bridge close-up, from a number of angles and in a range of conditions... and I'm still trying. Maybe it needs a really powerful sky, or perhaps I need to get into the water for a better angle – that glacial terrace on the far side isn't the most compelling background.
Flow was fairly high today, almost bankfull and approaching the top of the pier's upstream cutwater, so I suppose that adds a little drama. ;)
The bridge is about half a millennium old, having been built in the 16th Century or even earlier, though it's known to have been repaired, and perhaps altered, in (at least) 1702, 1758 and 1817.
It's frequently said to have been a packhorse bridge, but that's merely repetition of a rumour, and I'm sceptical – the high parapets aren't characteristic and there's another mediæval bridge a mere 4 km downstream at a more likely crossing point for traders. Additionally, there is an acknowledged packhorse bridge nearby, over Lowgill Beck, but that's on a north-south route following the western bank of the River Lune, not crossing it east-west.
This bridge is, however, on an ancient droving route particularly important in the 17th and 18th Centuries, so I favour that explanation for its construction and frequent maintenance.
The humped bridge, of roughly-coursed rubble, spans 29 m via an asymmetrical pair of ~10 m arches supported by a buttressed pier in the channel; counting the curving approaches, it's 51 m long. It's also exceptionally narrow, at only ~2 m wide, which is just enough for a small modern car (I fold one wing mirror in, just in case!). As such, it receives limited motorised traffic, also because the approach roads are curiously offset from the bridge, forcing vehicles through a pair of tight bends. It is, however, on National Cycle Network Route 70 ('Walney-to-Wear').
As a stone by the crossing indicates, this reach of Lune was once the border between the pre-1974 county of Westmorland and Yorkshire's West Riding (it's all Cumbria now), and hence became the boundary of the Yorkshire Dales National Park in 1954 (the same year as the bridge was Grade II* Listed, probably coincidentally). That in turn means that this is the point where westward walkers on the Dales Way long-distance footpath technically cross out of the Dales on their way to Windermere.
[Image reached no.335 in Flickr Explore on 16/01/14! Thanks!]
Architect: Akira Yoneda/ARCHITECTON
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Founded: 1991
Principal: Akira Yoneda
Education:
Harvard GSD, M.Arch.II {1991}
University of Tokyo, M.Eng. {1984}
University of Tokyo, B.Eng. {1982}
Work history:
Practice- Takenaka Corporation {1984- 89}
Academic- associate professor, Kyoto Institute of Technology {2004- present}
Key completed projects:
K Clinic, Nabari, Japan, {2007}, White Base, Tokyo, {2006}, ?, Tokyo, {2005},
HP, Tokyo, {2004}, Conoid II, Tokyo, {2004},
BLOC, Kobe, Japan, {2002},
Conoid, Tokyo, {2002}, Beaver House, Tokyo, {2002}, nkm, Tokyo, {2001},
Ambi-Flux, Tokyo, {2000}, House E, Kanagawa, Japan, {1999},
White Echoes, Tokyo, {1998},
Key current projects:
Swing, Tokyo, {2008}, HOJO, Tokyo, {2008}
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From Wikipedia:
Total length: 834 feet (254 m)
Steel arch length: 616 feet (188 m)
Arch rise: 90 feet (27 m)
Height above river: 467 feet (142 m)
Width of the roadway: 18 feet (5.5 m)
Construction of the original Navajo Bridge began in 1927, and the bridge opened to traffic in 1929. The bridge was paid for by the nascent Arizona State Highway Commission (now the Arizona Department of Transportation) in cooperation with the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, as the eastern landing is on the Navajo Nation. The steel spandrel bridge design was constructed by the Kansas City Structural Steel Company. During construction, worker Lane McDaniel died after falling 470 feet (143 m) to the Colorado River below. Supervisors had rejected the idea of rigging safety netting, believing that it would catch on fire from falling hot rivets.
The original bridge is 834 feet (254 m) in length, with a maximum height of 467 feet (142 m) from the canyon floor. The roadway offers an 18-foot (5.5 m) surface width with a load capacity of 22.5 tons (although the posted legal weight limit was 40 tons). During the design phase, a wider roadway was considered, but ultimately rejected, as it would have required a costly third arch to be added to the design, and the vehicles of the time did not require a wider road.
The original Navajo Bridge is still open to pedestrian and equestrian use, and an interpretive center has been constructed nearby to showcase the historical nature of the bridge and early crossing of the Colorado River. The original bridge has been designated as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 13, 1981.
de / from : Wikipedia:
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_de_San_Vito
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Vitus_Cathedral
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La catedral gótica de San Vito es un templo dedicado al culto católico situado en la ciudad de Praga (República Checa). Forma parte del conjunto artístico monumental del Castillo de Praga y es la mayor muestra del Arte gótico de la ciudad.
Desde 1989 está dedicada a San Vito, San Venceslao y San Adalberto.
Ha sido el escenario de la coronación de todos los reyes de Bohemia y en ella se encuentran también enterrados todos los santos obispos y arzobispos y un buen número de reyes. La catedral, aunque católica, es de propiedad estatal desde el inicio de su construcción en el siglo XIV.
La catedral de San Vito es el símbolo de Praga y de toda la República Checa, tanto por su historia tempestuosa como por su valor artístico. Fue la culminación de las reivindicaciones de los reyes de Bohemia que quisieron convertir la diócesis de Praga en arzobispado.
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he Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex. Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.
From Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
"The most visible sign of the commemoration of women at Yale, the Women’s Table was designed by Maya Lin (BA 1981, M.Arch 1986), best known as the creator of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington."
de / from Wikipedia:
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_de_San_Vito
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Vitus_Cathedral
--------------------------------------------------------
La catedral gótica de San Vito es un templo dedicado al culto católico situado en la ciudad de Praga (República Checa). Forma parte del conjunto artístico monumental del Castillo de Praga y es la mayor muestra del Arte gótico de la ciudad.
Desde 1989 está dedicada a San Vito, San Venceslao y San Adalberto.
Ha sido el escenario de la coronación de todos los reyes de Bohemia y en ella se encuentran también enterrados todos los santos obispos y arzobispos y un buen número de reyes. La catedral, aunque católica, es de propiedad estatal desde el inicio de su construcción en el siglo XIV.
La catedral de San Vito es el símbolo de Praga y de toda la República Checa, tanto por su historia tempestuosa como por su valor artístico. Fue la culminación de las reivindicaciones de los reyes de Bohemia que quisieron convertir la diócesis de Praga en arzobispado.
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The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.[1] Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.[2]
Two pictures taken from the same spot just 57 minutes apart on 26 March 2023, showing Flying Scotsman and Support coach heading north and Royal Scot and Support Coach heading south at Preston.
The church of St Walburge is prominent in the background, and I believe the spire was constructed from limestone sleepers which originally carried the long closed Preston and Longridge Railway, and is famous as having the tallest spire of any parish church in England.
©copyright 2023-Peter Ainsworth
de / from Wikipedia:
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_de_San_Vito
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Vitus_Cathedral
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La catedral gótica de San Vito es un templo dedicado al culto católico situado en la ciudad de Praga (República Checa). Forma parte del conjunto artístico monumental del Castillo de Praga y es la mayor muestra del Arte gótico de la ciudad.
Desde 1989 está dedicada a San Vito, San Venceslao y San Adalberto.
Ha sido el escenario de la coronación de todos los reyes de Bohemia y en ella se encuentran también enterrados todos los santos obispos y arzobispos y un buen número de reyes. La catedral, aunque católica, es de propiedad estatal desde el inicio de su construcción en el siglo XIV.
La catedral de San Vito es el símbolo de Praga y de toda la República Checa, tanto por su historia tempestuosa como por su valor artístico. Fue la culminación de las reivindicaciones de los reyes de Bohemia que quisieron convertir la diócesis de Praga en arzobispado.
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The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.[1] Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.[2]
de / from Wikipedia:
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_de_San_Vito
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Vitus_Cathedral
--------------------------------------------------------
La catedral gótica de San Vito es un templo dedicado al culto católico situado en la ciudad de Praga (República Checa). Forma parte del conjunto artístico monumental del Castillo de Praga y es la mayor muestra del Arte gótico de la ciudad.
Desde 1989 está dedicada a San Vito, San Venceslao y San Adalberto.
Ha sido el escenario de la coronación de todos los reyes de Bohemia y en ella se encuentran también enterrados todos los santos obispos y arzobispos y un buen número de reyes. La catedral, aunque católica, es de propiedad estatal desde el inicio de su construcción en el siglo XIV.
La catedral de San Vito es el símbolo de Praga y de toda la República Checa, tanto por su historia tempestuosa como por su valor artístico. Fue la culminación de las reivindicaciones de los reyes de Bohemia que quisieron convertir la diócesis de Praga en arzobispado.
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The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.[1] Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.[2]
The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex. Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.[2]
The tiny village of Glenfinnan lies at the north-eastern tip of Loch Shiel, about halfway along the sole valley road* from Fort William to Mallaig, and hence a ferry to Skye. That same topographic restriction led to the construction of the concrete Glenfinnan Railway Viaduct in 1897–98, by Sir Robert McAlpine. Twenty-one 15 m arches carry the West Highland Railway line up to 30 m above the valley of the River Finnan, about a kilometre behind the camera.
Particularly from the elegantly curving viaduct (as seen in multiple 'Harry Potter' films), Loch Shiel looks distinctly fjord-like. It is a freshwater lake, but at less than 10 metres above sea level it's the result of glacial deposits blocking, yes, a sea loch. It's Scotland's fourth-longest loch (28 km), and 120 m deep.
Its importance as a nest site for rare water birds makes it a 'Special Protection Area'; the designation has been extended to cover the surrounding area, home of breeding golden eagles.
The cliff on the far left is Creag Mhòr at the foot of Meall a' Bhainne (reaching 559 m, off the image). The next 'lump' is Tom na Craobhe Guibhais at the foot of Sgorr nan Cearc (668 m).
To the right of the wide valley Allt Coire Ghiùbhsachain, the next ridge rises from Clach Mhòr a' Gharaidh Duibh to Meall a' Choire Chruinn (634 m) then on to the slightly snowy Sgùrr Ghiubhsachain (849 m, 6 km away). That narrow summit plateau continues to the right, to An Sgonn (simply 'The Connection') at 800 m asl, then descends around the head of Coire an t'Searraich Dhuibh to Meall nan Creag Leac (755 m).
*: Not the track visible on the far side of Loch Shiel – I don't know whether that's even surfaced.
de / from Wikipedia:
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_de_San_Vito
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Vitus_Cathedral
--------------------------------------------------------
La catedral gótica de San Vito es un templo dedicado al culto católico situado en la ciudad de Praga (República Checa). Forma parte del conjunto artístico monumental del Castillo de Praga y es la mayor muestra del Arte gótico de la ciudad.
Desde 1989 está dedicada a San Vito, San Venceslao y San Adalberto.
Ha sido el escenario de la coronación de todos los reyes de Bohemia y en ella se encuentran también enterrados todos los santos obispos y arzobispos y un buen número de reyes. La catedral, aunque católica, es de propiedad estatal desde el inicio de su construcción en el siglo XIV.
La catedral de San Vito es el símbolo de Praga y de toda la República Checa, tanto por su historia tempestuosa como por su valor artístico. Fue la culminación de las reivindicaciones de los reyes de Bohemia que quisieron convertir la diócesis de Praga en arzobispado.
Los vitrales son de la época de la Primera República Checoslovaca por lo que, parte de su significado religioso contiene un importante simbolismo del Estado Checoslovaco que, por aquel entonces, acababa de independizarse del Imperio austrohúngaro. Después de obtener su financiación por parte de la burguesía checoslovaca, se recurrió a los principales maestros cristaleros de Bohemia que estaban profundamente influenciados por Josef Cibulka. La mayoría de los vitrales se deben a Frantisek Kysela y a sus alumnos de la Escuela de Artes Decorativas de Praga, entre los que destacan Cyril Bouda y Karel Svolinsky. Sobresalientes son los vitrales del presbiterio y los de la Puerta Dorada que representan el Juicio Final con referencias a la historia checa obras de Max Svabinsky. Una de las vidrieras, en la zona izquierda, está hecha por Alfons Mucha, se nota el estilo propio del artista y la diferencia respecto al resto de ella.
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The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.[1] Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.[2]
© Saúl Tuñón Loureda
twitter.com/Woody_Twitt
La catedral de San Vito (en checo, Chrám svatého Víta o Katedrála Svatého Víta) es un templo dedicado al culto católico situado en la ciudad de Praga (República Checa). Forma parte del conjunto artístico monumental del Castillo de Praga y es la mayor muestra del Arte gótico de la ciudad. Desde 1989 está dedicada a San Vito, San Venceslao y San Adalberto. Ha sido el escenario de la coronación de todos los reyes de Bohemia y en ella se encuentran también enterrados todos los santos obispos y arzobispos y un buen número de reyes. La catedral, aunque católica, es de propiedad estatal desde el inicio de su construcción en el siglo XIV.
La catedral de San Vito es el símbolo de Praga y de toda la República Checa, tanto por su historia tempestuosa como por su valor artístico. Fue la culminación de las reivindicaciones de los reyes de Bohemia que quisieron convertir la diócesis de Praga en arzobispado. La primera piedra fue colocada el 21 de noviembre de 1344 por el arzobispo de Praga, Ernesto de Pardubice, en presencia del rey Juan de Luxemburgo y de sus hijos, Carlos (futuro Carlos IV de Bohemia) y Juan. Se erigió en el mismo solar en el que antiguamente se hallaban una rotonda románica y una basílica dedicadas, asimismo, a San Vito, de las que todavía quedan restos. El proyecto fue diseñado por el arquitecto francés Matias Arras, que se inspiró en el inicial arte gótico francés, tomando como modelo las catedrales de Toulouse y Narbona. De hecho, la catedral de San Vito es una de las últimas muestras importantes, de esta corriente artística.
Peter Parler sucedió, en 1356, al arquitecto Matías Arras después del fallecimiento de este, aunque transcurrieron unos años sin que fuera dirigida por ningún maestro de obras. Más tarde la construcción sería dirigida por los hijos de Peter Patlér, Jan y Václay. Estos nuevos arquitectos imprimieron a la catedral un estilo inspirado en el gótico alemán pero dándole, asimismo, su impronta personal, puesta de manifiesto en el coro, la capilla de San Segismundo y la sacristía que fueron terminadas por ellos. De esta época cabe destacar las complejas bóvedas, solo comparables a las de las catedrales inglesas.
En 1419 se interrumpieron los trabajos a causa de la rebelión husita. Los husitas, contrarios a la veneración de los santos y a las muestras de opulencia propias de la Iglesia católica, saquearon la catedral e hicieron coronar al rey Segismundo en el nuevo templo.
En 1485 la corte volvió al Castillo de Praga y se empezó a restaurar la Catedral. Se construyó un nuevo Oratorio Real, obra de Hans Spiesz, símbolo de la soberanía del rey, que se terminó en 1490. Las escenas de la leyenda de San Wenceslao se concluyeron en 1509 para la coronación del rey Luis Jagellon.
En 1526 Fernando I de Habsburgo se convirtió en el primer Habsburgo coronado como rey de Bohemia. De esta época data la Galería de la Música, obra de Bonifacio Wolmut, de estilo manierista, con bóvedas neogóticas, así como la capilla de San Adalberto que posteriormente fue destruida. En 1566 Maximiliano II de Habsburgo encargó el Panteón Real dedicado a la Casa de Habsburgo y a sus predecesores en el trono de Bohemia, se terminó en 1589.
El 23 de mayo de 1618 se produjo la defenestración de Praga, que daría comienzo a la Guerra de los Treinta Años. En 1619 los radicales calvinistas causaron grandes desperfectos en la catedral que tuvo que volver a consagrarse en febrero de 1621, después de la derrota checa en la batalla de la Montaña Blanca. Gaspar Bechteler talló los relieves de madera que commemoran la defenestración y sus consecuencias.
En 1644 Leopoldo Guillem, obispo de Olomue, hizo restaurar un candelabro románico de la capìlla de San Juan Bautista que, supuestamente, procedía del Templo de Jerusalén.
Con la llegada del barroco, el emperador Leopoldo I de Habsburgo colocó la primera piedra de una nave diseñada por Giovanni Domenico Orsi, pero las obras tuvieron que interrumpirse en 1675 por falta de presupuesto. De la misma forma fracasó el proyecto de Johann F. Schor. De esta época datan las estatuas de los santos patronos checos que hay en la capilla de San Juan de Nepomuceno, obra de Rinaldo Ranzoni, el retablo de San Segismundo de Frantisek Weis y la tumba de San Juan de Nepomuceno, obra maestra de Antonio Corradini.
En 1844, Václav M. Pesina pidió que se acabara la catedral, hecho que no ocurriría hasta 1839 al constituirse una Sociedad que se interesó en ello. En 1862 Josef’O Kranner empezó los trabajos restaurando el presbiterio del que eliminó gran parte de los añadidos barrocos. Con motivo del retorno a Praga de las Joyas de la Corona Checa, se reformó la Cámara de la Corona; paralelamente se finalizaron las obras de la bóveda principal y de la fachada Oeste. El 28 de diciembre de 1929 se abrió al público la catedral totalmente acabada.
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_de_San_Vito_(Praga)
The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.[1] Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.
The present-day Gothic Cathedral was founded on 21 November 1344, when the Prague bishopric was raised to an archbishopric. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by King John of Bohemia.[3] Its patrons were the chapter of cathedral (led by a Dean), the Archbishop Arnost of Pardubice, and, above all, Charles IV, King of Bohemia and a soon-to-be Holy Roman Emperor, who intended the new cathedral to be a coronation church, family crypt, treasury for the most precious relics of the kingdom, and the last resting place cum pilgrimage site of patron saint Wenceslaus. The first master builder was a Frenchman Matthias of Arras, summoned from the papal palace in Avignon. Matthias designed the overall layout of the building as, basically, an import of French Gothic: a triple-naved basilica with flying buttresses, short transept, five-bayed choir and decagon apse with ambulatory and radiating chapels. However, he lived to build only the easternmost parts of the choir: the arcades and the ambulatory. The slender verticality of Late French Gothic and clear, almost rigid respect of proportions distinguish his work today.
After Matthias' death in 1352, a new master builder took over the cathedral workshop. This was Peter Parler, at that time only 23 years old and son of the architect of the Heilig-Kreuz-Münster in Schwäbisch Gmünd. Parler at first only worked according to the plans left by his predecessor, building the sacristy on the north side of the choir and the chapel on the south. Once he finished all that Matthias left unfinished, he continued according to his own ideas. Parler's bold and innovative design brought in a unique new synthesis of Gothic elements in architecture. This is best exemplified in the vaults he designed for the choir. The so-called Parler's vaults or net-vaults have double (not single, as in classic High Gothic groin vaults) diagonal ribs that span the width of the choir-bay. The crossing pairs of ribs create a net-like construction (hence the name), which considerably strengthens the vault. They also give a lively ornamentation to the ceiling, as the interlocking vaulted bays create a dynamic zigzag pattern down the length of the cathedral.
While Matthias of Arras was schooled as a geometer, thus putting an emphasis on rigid systems of proportions and clear, mathematical compositions in his design, Parler was trained as a sculptor and woodcarver. He treated architecture as a sculpture, almost as if playing with structural forms in stone. Aside from his rather bold vaults, the peculiarities of his work can also be seen in the design of pillars (with classic, bell-shaped columns which were almost forgotten by High Gothic), the ingenious dome vault of new St Wenceslaus chapel, the undulating clerestory walls, the original window tracery (no two of his windows are the same, the ornamentation is always different) and the blind tracery panels of the buttresses. Architectural sculpture was given a considerable role while Parler was in charge of construction, as can be seen in the corbels, the passageway lintels, and, particularly, in the busts on the triforium, which depict faces of the royal family, saints, Prague bishops, and the two master builders, including Parler himself.
Work on the cathedral, however, proceeded rather slowly, because in the meantime the Emperor commissioned Parler with many other projects, such as the construction of the new Charles Bridge in Prague and many churches throughout the Czech realm. By 1397, when Peter Parler died, only the choir and parts of the transept were finished.
After Peter Parler's death in 1399 his sons, Wenzel Parler and particularly Johannes Parler, continued his work; they in turn were succeeded by a certain Master Petrilk, who by all accounts was also a member of Parler's workshop. Under these three masters, the transept and the great tower on its south side were finished. So was the gable which connects the tower with the south transept. Nicknamed 'Golden Gate' (likely because of the golden mosaic of Last Judgment depicted on it), it is through this portal that the kings entered the cathedral for coronation ceremonies.
The entire building process came to a halt with the beginning of Hussite War in the first half of 15th century. The war brought an end to the workshop that operated steadily over for almost a century, and the furnishings of cathedral, dozens of pictures and sculptures, suffered heavily from the ravages of Hussite iconoclasm. As if this was not enough, a great fire in 1541 considerably damaged the cathedral.
The Cathedral of St. Vitus had a tremendous influence on the development of Late Gothic style characteristic for Central Europe. Members of Parler workshop, and indeed, the Parler clan (both of which were established at the building site of St. Vitus) designed numerous churches and buildings across Central Europe. More notable examples include Stephansdom cathedral in Vienna, Strasbourg Cathedral, Church of St. Marko in Zagreb and the Church of St. Barbara in Kutna Hora, also in Czech Republic. Regional Gothic styles of Slovenia, northern Croatia, Austria, Czech Republic, and southern Germany were all heavily influenced by Parler design.
Of particular interest are Parler's net vaults. The Late Gothic of Central Europe is characterised by ornate and extraordinary vaulting, a practice which was started by Parler's development of his own vaulting system for the choir of St. Vitus cathedral. Another regional Gothic style also displays amazing ingenuity and ornamentation in the design of vaults, the Perpendicular Style of English Gothic. A question remains of what was influenced by what. Some British art and architecture historians suspected that Peter Parler might have travelled to England at some point in his life, studying the great English Gothic cathedrals, which then inspired his work on St Vitus. However, taking into account that the Perpendicular style and the use of truly extravagant vaults in English Gothic began at the very end of 14th century, it is also quite possible that it was St Vitus Cathedral of Prague that influenced the development of English Gothic.
In 1997, with 1000th anniversary of Saint Voitechus death, the patrocinium (dedication) of the church was re-extended to Saint Wenceslaus and Saint Adalbert. The previous Romanesque basilica had this triple patrocinium to the main Bohemian patrons since 1038 when relics of Saint Adalbert were placed here.
In 1954, a government decree entrusted the whole Prague Castle into ownership of "all Czechoslovak people" and into administration of the President's Office. Past the Velvet Revolution, since 1992, several petitions by church subjects were filed requiring to find which subject is really the owner. After 14 years, in June 2006, The City Court in Prague decided that the 1954 decree didn't change the ownership of the cathedral and the owner is the Metropolitan Chapter at Saint Vitus. In September 2006, the President's Office had passed the administration to the Metropolitan Chapter. However, in February 2007, the Supreme Court in Prague cancelled the decision of the City Court and returned the case to the common court. In September 2007, the District Court of Praha 7 decided that the cathedral is owned by the Czech Republic, this decision was confirmed by the City Court in Prague and the Constitutional Court rejected the appeal of the Metropolitan Chapter. The Metropolitan Chapter wanted to file a complaint to the European Court for Human Rights. However, the interior equipment of the cathedral is unquestionably owned by the church subject.
In May 2010, the new Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka and the state president Václav Klaus together declared that they don't want to continue with court conflicts. They constituted that the 7 persons who are traditionally holders of the keys of the Saint Wenceslaus Chamber with the Bohemian Crown Jewels become also a board to coordinate and organize administration and use of the cathedral. However, controversy about ownership of some related canonry houses continues.
de / from Wikipedia:
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_de_San_Vito
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Vitus_Cathedral
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La catedral gótica de San Vito es un templo dedicado al culto católico situado en la ciudad de Praga (República Checa). Forma parte del conjunto artístico monumental del Castillo de Praga y es la mayor muestra del Arte gótico de la ciudad.
Desde 1989 está dedicada a San Vito, San Venceslao y San Adalberto.
Ha sido el escenario de la coronación de todos los reyes de Bohemia y en ella se encuentran también enterrados todos los santos obispos y arzobispos y un buen número de reyes. La catedral, aunque católica, es de propiedad estatal desde el inicio de su construcción en el siglo XIV.
La catedral de San Vito es el símbolo de Praga y de toda la República Checa, tanto por su historia tempestuosa como por su valor artístico. Fue la culminación de las reivindicaciones de los reyes de Bohemia que quisieron convertir la diócesis de Praga en arzobispado.
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The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.[1] Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.[2]
St. Vitus Cathedral - 7
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The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.[1] Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.[2]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Vitus_Cathedral
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Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved
You can see my most interesting photo's on flickr: -------> FLICKR click here
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de / from Wikipedia:
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_de_San_Vito
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Vitus_Cathedral
--------------------------------------------------------
La catedral gótica de San Vito es un templo dedicado al culto católico situado en la ciudad de Praga (República Checa). Forma parte del conjunto artístico monumental del Castillo de Praga y es la mayor muestra del Arte gótico de la ciudad.
Desde 1989 está dedicada a San Vito, San Venceslao y San Adalberto.
Ha sido el escenario de la coronación de todos los reyes de Bohemia y en ella se encuentran también enterrados todos los santos obispos y arzobispos y un buen número de reyes. La catedral, aunque católica, es de propiedad estatal desde el inicio de su construcción en el siglo XIV.
La catedral de San Vito es el símbolo de Praga y de toda la República Checa, tanto por su historia tempestuosa como por su valor artístico. Fue la culminación de las reivindicaciones de los reyes de Bohemia que quisieron convertir la diócesis de Praga en arzobispado.
------------------------------------------------------------
The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.[1] Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.[2]
de / from : Wikipedia:
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_de_San_Vito
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Vitus_Cathedral
---------------------------
La catedral gótica de San Vito es un templo dedicado al culto católico situado en la ciudad de Praga (República Checa). Forma parte del conjunto artístico monumental del Castillo de Praga y es la mayor muestra del Arte gótico de la ciudad.
Desde 1989 está dedicada a San Vito, San Venceslao y San Adalberto.
Ha sido el escenario de la coronación de todos los reyes de Bohemia y en ella se encuentran también enterrados todos los santos obispos y arzobispos y un buen número de reyes. La catedral, aunque católica, es de propiedad estatal desde el inicio de su construcción en el siglo XIV.
La catedral de San Vito es el símbolo de Praga y de toda la República Checa, tanto por su historia tempestuosa como por su valor artístico. Fue la culminación de las reivindicaciones de los reyes de Bohemia que quisieron convertir la diócesis de Praga en arzobispado.
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he Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex. Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.
The tiny village of Glenfinnan lies at the north-eastern tip of Loch Shiel, about halfway along the sole valley road from Fort William to Mallaig, and hence a ferry to Skye. That same topographic restriction led to the construction of the concrete Glenfinnan Viaduct in 1897–98, by Sir Robert McAlpine. Twenty-one 15 m arches carry the West Highland Railway line up to 30 m above the valley of the River Finnan.
Until relatively recently, Glenfinnan's greatest significance was as the place where Charles Edward Stuart ('Bonnie Prince Charlie', the 'Young Pretender') began the abortive Jacobite rising of 1745.
However, the elegantly curving viaduct in a stunningly beautiful location means it's now better known, albeit anonymously, as the co-star of several feature films. Yes, 'Ring of Bright Water' (1969) was partly filmed here.
Okay; okay. Also at least four of the 'Harry Potter' films, in which the local 'Jacobite' steam train represents the 'Hogwarts Express'
The summit just off the left of the background is Beinn an Tuim (810 m).
de / from : Wikipedia:
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_de_San_Vito
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Vitus_Cathedral
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La catedral gótica de San Vito es un templo dedicado al culto católico situado en la ciudad de Praga (República Checa). Forma parte del conjunto artístico monumental del Castillo de Praga y es la mayor muestra del Arte gótico de la ciudad.
Desde 1989 está dedicada a San Vito, San Venceslao y San Adalberto.
Ha sido el escenario de la coronación de todos los reyes de Bohemia y en ella se encuentran también enterrados todos los santos obispos y arzobispos y un buen número de reyes. La catedral, aunque católica, es de propiedad estatal desde el inicio de su construcción en el siglo XIV.
La catedral de San Vito es el símbolo de Praga y de toda la República Checa, tanto por su historia tempestuosa como por su valor artístico. Fue la culminación de las reivindicaciones de los reyes de Bohemia que quisieron convertir la diócesis de Praga en arzobispado.
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he Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex. Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.
The Postcard
A postally unused Mirro-Krome postcard that was published by the H. S. Crocker Co. Inc. of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on behalf of the Jefferson National Expansion Historical Association of St. Louis, Missouri.
Although the card was not posted, it bears recipients' names and an address:
To: Pete & Barbara,
(Prince Albert),
Newton Street,
Macclesfield,
Cheshire,
England.
Alas, the Prince Albert closed for good in January 2022. Plans are currently (2023) in place for the building to be converted into a 7-bedroomed house of multiple occupation.
The card also bore a message:
"Hello Pete & Barbara,
Weather is 80 degrees -
Phew!
Flight good. Been to top
of this arch - 630 feet -
lovely view.
Also been to Chicago -
smashing.
See you later,
BUGS!"
The St. Louis Gateway Arch
The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot (192 m) tall monument in St. Louis, Missouri. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary arch, it is the world's tallest arch, and Missouri's tallest accessible building.
Some sources consider it the tallest human-made monument in the Western Hemisphere. Built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States and officially dedicated to "the American people", the Arch, commonly referred to as "The Gateway to the West", is a National Historic Landmark in Gateway Arch National Park.
It has become an internationally recognized symbol of St. Louis, as well as a popular tourist destination.
The Arch was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in 1947. Construction of the Arch began on the 12th. February 1963, and was completed on the 28th. October 1965, at an overall cost of $13 million (equivalent to $86.5 million in 2018).
The monument opened to the public on the 10th. June 1967. It is located at the 1764 site of the founding of St. Louis on the west bank of the Mississippi River.
Inception and Funding (1933–1935)
Around late 1933, civic leader Luther Ely Smith looked at the St. Louis riverfront area and envisioned that building a memorial there would revive the riverfront and stimulate the economy.
He suggested this to mayor Bernard Dickmann, who on the 15th. December 1933 raised it in a meeting with city leaders. They sanctioned the proposal, and the nonprofit Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association (JNEMA -pronounced "Jenny May") was formed.
Smith was appointed chairman, and Dickmann vice chairman. The association's goal was to create:
'A suitable and permanent public memorial to the men who made possible the western territorial expansion of the United States, particularly President Jefferson, his aides Livingston and Monroe, the great explorers, Lewis and Clark, and the hardy hunters, trappers, frontiersmen and pioneers who contributed to the territorial expansion and development of these United States, and thereby to bring before the public of this and future generations the history of our development and induce familiarity with the patriotic accomplishments of these great builders of our country.'
Many locals however did not approve of depleting public funds for the cause. Smith's daughter SaLees related that:
"When people would tell him we needed
more practical things, he would respond
that 'spiritual things' were equally important."
The association expected that $30 million would be needed to undertake the construction of such a monument (about $508 million in 2021 dollars). It called upon the federal government to foot three-quarters of the bill ($22.5 million).
The suggestion to renew the riverfront was not original, as previous projects had been attempted, but lacked popularity. However the Jefferson memorial idea emerged amid the economic disarray of the Great Depression, and promised new jobs.
The project was expected to create 5,000 jobs for three to four years. Committee members began to raise public awareness by organizing fundraisers and writing pamphlets. They also engaged Congress by planning budgets and preparing bills, in addition to researching ownership of the land they had chosen:
"Approximately one-half mile in length
from Third Street east to the present
elevated railroad."
In January 1934, Senator Bennett Champ Clark and Representative John Cochran introduced to Congress an appropriation bill seeking $30 million for the memorial, but the bill failed to garner support due to the large amount of money solicited.
On the 15th. June 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill into law, instituting the United States Territorial Expansion Memorial Commission. The commission comprised 15 members. It first convened on the 19th. December 1934 in St. Louis, where members examined the project and its planned location.
Meanwhile, in December 1934, the JNEMA discussed organizing an architectural competition to determine the design of the monument, and by January 1935, local architect Louis LeBeaume had drawn up competition guidelines.
On the 13th. April 1935, the commission certified JNEMA's project proposals, including memorial perimeters, the "historical significance" of the memorial, the competition, and the $30 million budget.
Dickmann and Smith applied for funding from two New Deal agencies—the Public Works Administration (headed by Harold Ickes) and the Works Progress Administration (headed by Harry Hopkins). On the 7th. August 1935, both Ickes and Hopkins promised $10 million, and said that the National Park Service (NPS) would manage the memorial.
A local bond issue election granting $7.5 million (about $127 million in 2021 dollars) for the memorial's development was held on the 10th. September 1935 and passed.
On the 21st. December 1935 President Roosevelt signed an Executive Order approving the memorial, designating the 82-acre area as the first National Historic Site. The order also appropriated $3.3 million through the WPA, and $3.45 million through the PWA.
However some taxpayers began to file suits to block the construction of the monument, which they called a "boondoggle".
Initial Planning (1936–1939)
The NPS acquired the historic buildings within the historic site—through condemnation rather than purchase—and demolished them. By September 1938, condemnation was complete.
The condemnation was subject to many legal disputes which culminated on the 27th. January 1939, when the United States Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that condemnation was valid. A total of $6.2 million was distributed to land owners on the 14th. June.
Demolition commenced on the 9th. October 1939, when Dickmann extracted three bricks from a vacant warehouse.
Led by Paul Peters, adversaries of the memorial delivered to Congress a leaflet titled:
"Public Necessity
or Just Plain Pork".
In March 1936, Representative John Cochran commented during a House meeting that:
"I would not vote for any measure
providing for building the memorial
or allotting funds to it".
Peters and other opponents asked Roosevelt to rescind his Executive Order, and to redirect the money to the American Red Cross. Smith stated that:
"They are opposed to anything that
is ever advanced in behalf of the city."
Because the Mississippi River played an essential role in establishing St. Louis's identity as the gateway to the west, it was felt that a memorial commemorating it should be near the river. Railroad tracks that had been constructed in the 1930's on the levee obstructed views of the riverfront from the memorial site.
When Ickes declared that the railway must be removed before he would allocate funds for the memorial, President of the St. Louis Board of Public Service Baxter Brown suggested that:
"A new tunnel would conceal the
tracks and re-grading of the site
would elevate it over the tunnel.
These modifications would open
up the views to the river."
Although rejected by NPS architect Charles Peterson, Brown's proposal formed the basis for the ultimate settlement.
By May 1942, demolition was complete. The Old Cathedral and the Old Rock House, because of their historical significance, were the only buildings retained within the historic site.
The Old Rock House was dismantled in 1959 with the intention of reassembling it at a new location, but pieces of the building went missing. Part of the house has been reconstructed in the basement of the Old Courthouse.
Design Competition (1945–1948)
In November 1944, Smith asserted that:
"The memorial should be transcending
in spiritual and aesthetic values, best
represented by one central feature: a
single shaft, a building, an arch, or
something else that would symbolize
American culture and civilization."
In January 1945, the JNEMA announced a two-stage design competition that would cost $225,000 to organize. Smith and the JNEMA struggled to raise the funds, garnering only a third of the required total by June 1945. The passage of a year brought little success, and Smith frantically underwrote the remaining $40,000 in May 1946. In February 1947, the fund stood at $231,199.
On the 30th. May 1947, the contest officially opened. It comprised two stages—the first to narrow down the designers to five, and the second to single out one architect and his design. The design was required to include:
-- An architectural memorial or memorials to Jefferson.
-- Preservation of the site of Old St. Louis—landscaping, provision of an open-air campfire theater, re-erection or reproduction of a few typical old buildings, and provision
of a Museum interpreting the Westward movement.
-- A living memorial to Jefferson's 'vision of greater opportunities for men of all races and creeds.'
-- Recreational facilities, both sides of the river.
-- Parking facilities, access, relocation of railroads,
and placement of an interstate highway.
On the 1st. September 1947, submissions for the first stage were received by the 7-member jury. The submissions were labeled by numbers only, and the names of the designers were kept anonymous.
Upon four days of deliberation, the jury narrowed down the 172 submissions to five finalists, and announced the corresponding numbers to the media on the 27th. September 1947.
Eero Saarinen's design (No. 144) was among the finalists, and comments written on it included:
"Relevant, beautiful, perhaps inspired
would be the right word." (Roland Wank) (....Yes, really.)
"An abstract form peculiarly happy
in its symbolism." (Charles Nagel).
Eero Saarinen's father Eliel Saarinen also submitted a design; however the secretary who sent out the telegrams informing finalists of their advancement mistakenly sent one to Eliel rather than Eero.
The family celebrated with champagne, and two hours later, a competition representative called to correct the mistake. Eliel broke out a second bottle of champagne to toast his son.
Saarinen changed the height of the Arch from 580 feet to 630 feet (190 m), and wrote that:
"The Arch symbolizes the gateway
to the West, the national expansion,
and whatnot."
He wanted the landscape surrounding the Arch:
"To be so densely covered with trees
that it will be a forest-like park, a green
retreat from the tension of the downtown
city."
The deadline for the second stage arrived on the 10th. February 1948, and on the 18th. February, the jury chose Saarinen's design unanimously, praising its "profoundly evocative and truly monumental expression."
The following day, during a formal dinner at Statler Hotel that the finalists and the media attended, Saarinen was pronounced the winner of the competition, and awarded the checks—$40,000 to his team, and $50,000 to Saarinen. The competition was the first major architectural design that Saarinen had developed unaided by his father.
The design drew varied responses. Representative H. R. Gross opposed the allocation of federal funds for the Arch's development. Some local residents likened it to:
"A stupendous hairpin and a
stainless steel hitching post."
The most aggressive criticism emerged from Gilmore D. Clarke, whose February 26th. 1948, letter compared Saarinen's Arch to an arch imagined by fascist Benito Mussolini, rendering the Arch a fascist symbol.
This allegation of plagiarism ignited fierce debates among architects about its validity. Douglas Haskell from New York wrote that:
"The use of a common form is not
plagiarism. This particular accusation
amounts to the filthiest smear that
has been attempted by a man highly
placed in the architectural profession
in our generation."
The jury refuted the charges, arguing that:
"The arch form is not inherently fascist,
but is indeed part of the entire history
of architecture."
Saarinen considered the opposition absurd, asserting:
"It's just preposterous to think that a
basic form, based on a completely
natural figure, should have any
ideological connection."
By January 1951, Saarinen had created 21 drawings, including profiles of the Arch, scale drawings of the museums and restaurants, various parking proposals, the effect of the levee-tunnel railroad plan on the Arch footings, the Arch foundations, the Third Street Expressway, and the internal and external structure of the Arch. Fred Severud made calculations for the Arch's structure.
Final Preparations (1959–1968)
Moving the railroad tracks was the first stage of the project. On the 6th. May 1959, the Public Service Commission called for ventilation to accompany the tunnel's construction, which entailed placing 3,000 feet of dual tracks into a tunnel 105 feet west of the elevated railroad, along with filling, grading, and trestle work.
In August 1959, demolition of the Old Rock House was complete, with workers beginning to excavate the tunnel. In November, they began shaping the tunnel's walls with concrete. On the 17th. November 1959, trains began to use the new tracks.
Construction of the Arch
The MacDonald Construction Co. of St. Louis was awarded the contract for the construction of the Arch and the visitor center. The Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Company served as the subcontractor for the shell of the Arch.
In 1959 ground was broken, and in 1961, the foundation of the structure was laid. Construction of the Arch itself began on the 12th. February 1963, as the first steel triangle on the south leg was eased into place.
These steel triangles, which narrowed as they spiraled to the top, were raised into place by a group of cranes and derricks. The Arch was assembled with 142 twelve foot-long (3.7 m) prefabricated stainless steel sections. Once in place, each section had its double-walled skin filled with concrete, prestressed with 252 tension bars.
In order to keep the partially completed legs steady, a scissors truss was placed between them at 530 feet (160 m), later removed as the derricks were taken down. The whole endeavor was expected to be completed by fall of 1964, in observance of the St. Louis bicentennial.
Contractor MacDonald Construction Co. arranged a 30-foot (9.1 m) tower for spectators, and provided recorded accounts of the undertaking. In 1963, a million people went to observe the progress, and by 1964, local radio stations began to broadcast when large slabs of steel were about to be raised into place.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer Art Witman documented the construction for the newspaper's Sunday supplement Pictures, his longest and most noted assignment. He visited the construction site frequently from 1963 to 1967, recording of every stage of progress.
With assistant Renyold Ferguson, he crawled along the catwalks with the construction workers up to 190m above the ground. He was the only news photographer on permanent assignment at the construction, with complete access. He primarily worked with slide film, but also used the only Panox camera in St. Louis to create panoramic photographs covering 140 degrees. Witman's pictures of the construction are now housed in the State Historical Society of Missouri.
The project manager of MacDonald Construction Co., Stan Wolf, said that a 62-story building was easier to build than the Arch:
"In a building, everything is straight up,
one thing on top of another. In this Arch,
everything is curved."
Delays and Lawsuits
Although an actuarial firm predicted that thirteen workers would die while building the Arch, no workers were killed during the monument's construction. However, construction of the Arch was nevertheless often delayed by safety checks, funding uncertainties, and legal disputes.
Civil rights activists regarded the construction of the Arch as a token of racial discrimination. On the 14th. July 1964, during the workers' lunchtime, civil rights protesters Percy Green and Richard Daly, both members of Congress of Racial Equality, climbed 125 feet (38 m) up the north leg of the Arch:
"To expose the fact that federal funds
are being used to build a national
monument that was racially
discriminating against black contractors
and skilled black workers."
As the pair disregarded demands to come down, protesters on the ground demanded that at least 10% of the skilled jobs should be given to African Americans. Four hours later, Green and Daly dismounted from the Arch to charges of trespassing, peace disturbance, and resisting arrest.
In 1965, NPS requested that the Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel remove the prominent letters "P-D-M" (its initials) from a creeper derrick used for construction, contending that it was promotional, and violated federal law with regards to advertising on national monuments.
Although Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel initially refused to pursue what it considered a precarious venture, the company relented after discovering that leaving the initials in place would cost $225,000 and after that, $42,000 per month.
On the 26th. October 1965, the International Association of Ironworkers delayed work to ascertain that the Arch was safe. After NPS director Kenneth Chapman gave his word that conditions were "perfectly safe," construction resumed on the 27th. October.
Topping out and Dedication
President Lyndon B. Johnson and Mayor Alfonso J. Cervantes decided on a date for the topping-out ceremony, but the Arch had not been completed by then. The ceremony date was reset to the 17th. October 1965; workers strained to meet the deadline, taking double shifts, but by the 17th. October, the Arch was still not complete.
The chairman of the ceremony then anticipated the ceremony to be held on the 30th. October 1965, a Saturday, to allow 1,500 schoolchildren, whose signatures were to be placed along with others in a time capsule, to attend. Ultimately, PDM set the ceremony date to the 28th. October.
The time capsule, containing the signatures of 762,000 students and others, was welded into the keystone before the final piece was set in place. On the 28th. October 1965, the Arch was topped out as Vice President Hubert Humphrey observed from a helicopter.
A Catholic priest and a rabbi prayed over the keystone, a 10-ton, eight-foot-long (2.4 m) triangular section. It was slated to be inserted at 10:00 a.m. local time, but was in fact done 30 minutes early, because thermal expansion had constricted the 8.5-foot (2.6 m) gap at the top by 5 inches (13 cm). To mitigate this, workers used fire hoses to spray water on the surface of the south leg to cool it down and make it contract.
The keystone was inserted in 13 minutes with only 6 inches (15 cm) remaining. For the next section, a hydraulic jack had to pry apart the legs six feet (1.8 m). By noon, the keystone was secured. Some filmmakers, in hope that the two legs would not meet, had chronicled every phase of construction.
The Gateway Arch was expected to open to the public by 1964, but by 1967 the public relations agency had stopped forecasting the opening date. The Arch's visitor center opened on the 10th. June 1967, and the tram began operating on the 24th. July.
The Arch was dedicated by Hubert Humphrey on the 25th. May 1968.He declared that the Arch was:
"A soaring curve in the sky that links
the rich heritage of yesterday with
the richer future of tomorrow. It brings
a new purpose and a new sense of
urgency to wipe out every slum.
Whatever is shoddy, whatever is ugly,
whatever is waste, whatever is false,
will be measured and condemned in
comparison to the Gateway Arch."
About 250,000 people were expected to attend the dedication, but rain canceled the outdoor activities, with the ceremony being transferred to the visitor center. After the dedication, Humphrey crouched beneath an exit as he waited for the rain to subside so that he could walk to his vehicle.
After Completion
The project did not provide 5,000 jobs as expected - as of June 1964, workers numbered fewer than 100. The project did, however, incite other riverfront restoration efforts, totaling $150 million. Building projects included a 50,000-seat sports stadium, a 30-story hotel, several office towers, four parking garages, and an apartment complex.
The idea of a Disneyland amusement park that included "synthetic riverboat attractions" was considered, but later abandoned. The developers hoped to use the Arch as a commercial catalyst, attracting visitors who would use their services. One estimate found that since the 1960's, the Arch has incited almost $503 million worth of construction.
Characteristics of the Arch
Both the width and height of the Arch are 630 feet (192 m). The Arch is the tallest memorial in the United States, and the tallest stainless steel monument in the world.
The cross-sections of the Arch's legs are equilateral triangles, narrowing from 54 feet (16 m) per side at the bases to 17 feet (5.2 m) per side at the top. Each wall consists of a stainless steel skin covering a sandwich of two carbon-steel walls with reinforced concrete in the middle from ground level to 300 feet (91 m), with carbon steel to the peak.
The Arch is hollow to accommodate a unique tram system that takes visitors to an observation deck at the top.
The structural load is supported by a stressed-skin design. Each leg is embedded in 25,980 tons of concrete 44 feet (13 m) thick and 60 feet (18 m) deep.
Twenty feet (6.1 m) of the foundation is in bedrock. The Arch is resistant to earthquakes, and is designed to sway up to 18 inches (46 cm) in either direction, while withstanding winds of up to 150 miles per hour (240 km/h).
The structure weighs 42,878 tons, of which concrete composes 25,980 tons; structural steel interior, 2,157 tons; and the 6.3mm thick grade 304 stainless steel panels that cover the exterior of the Arch, 886 tons.
This amount of stainless steel is the most used in any one project in history. The base of each leg at ground level had to have an engineering tolerance of 1⁄64 inch (0.40 mm), or the two legs would not meet at the top.
Mathematics of the Arch
The Arch is a weighted catenary - its legs are wider than its upper section. A hyperbolic cosine function describes the shape of a catenary. The catenary arch is the stablest of all arches, since the thrust passes through the legs and is absorbed in the foundations, instead of forcing the legs apart.
The Gateway Arch however is not a common catenary, but an inverted weighted catenary. Saarinen chose a weighted catenary over a normal catenary curve because it looked less pointed and less steep. In 1959, he caused some confusion about the actual shape of the Arch when he wrote:
"This Arch is not a true parabola, as is often
stated. Instead it is a catenary curve—the
curve of a hanging chain—a curve in which
the forces of thrust are continuously kept
within the center of the legs of the Arch."
Lighting the Arch
The first proposal to illuminate the Arch at night was announced on the 18th. May 1966, but the plan never came to fruition. However in July 1998, funding for an Arch lighting system was approved by St. Louis's Gateway Foundation, which agreed to take responsibility for the cost of the equipment, its installation, and its upkeep.
In January 1999, MSNBC arranged a temporary lighting system for the Arch so the monument could be used as the background for a visit by Pope John Paul II.
Since November 2001, the Arch has been bathed in white light between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. via a system of floodlights. Designed by Randy Burkett, it comprises 44 lighting fixtures situated in four pits just below ground level.
On the 5th. October 2004, the U.S. Senate approved a bill permitting the illumination in pink of the Arch in honor of breast cancer awareness month. Both Estée Lauder and May Department Store Co. had championed the cause.
One employee said that the Arch would be:
"A beacon for the importance of
prevention and finding a cure."
While the National Park Service took issue with the plan due to the precedent it would set for prospective uses of the Arch, it yielded due to a realization that it and Congress were "on the same team," and because the illumination was legally obligatory; on the 25th. October 2004, the plan was carried out.
The previous time the Arch was illuminated for promotional purposes was on the 12th. September 1995, under the management of local companies Fleishman-Hillard and Technical Productions, when a rainbow spectrum was shone on the Arch to publicize the debut of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus' Wizard of Oz on Ice at the Kiel Center.
Public Access to the Arch
In April 1965, three million tourists were expected to visit the Arch annually after completion; 619,763 tourists visited the top of the Arch in its first year open. On the 15th. January 1969, a visitor from Nashville, Tennessee, became the one-millionth person to reach the observation area; the ten-millionth person ascended to the top on the 24th. August 1979.
In 1974, the Arch was ranked fourth on a list of "most-visited man-made attractions." The Gateway Arch is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the world, with over four million visitors annually, of which around one million travel to the top.
The Arch was listed as a National Historic Landmark on the 2nd. June 1987, and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Visitor Center
The underground visitor center for the Arch was designed as part of the National Park Service's Mission 66 program. The 70,000-square-foot (6,500 m2) center is located directly below the Arch, between its legs.
Although construction of the visitor center began at the same time as construction of the Arch itself, it did not conclude until 1976 because of insufficient funding; however, the center opened with several exhibits on the 10th. June 1967. Access to the visitor center is provided through ramps adjacent to each leg of the Arch.
The center houses offices, mechanical rooms, and waiting areas for the Arch trams, as well as its main attractions: the Museum of Westward Expansion and two theaters displaying films about the Arch.
The older theater opened in May 1972; the newer theater, called the Odyssey Theatre, was constructed in the 1990's and features a four-story-tall screen. Its construction required the expansion of the underground complex, and workers had to excavate solid rock while keeping the disruption to a minimum so that the museum could remain open.
The museum houses several hundred exhibits relating to the United States' westward expansion in the 19th. century, and opened on the 10th. August 1977.
The visitor center and museum underwent a $176 million expansion and renovation that was completed in July 2018. The renovation included a 46,000-square-foot underground addition featuring interactive story galleries, video walls, a fountain and a café.
The Observation Area
Near the top of the Arch, passengers exit the tram compartment and climb a slight gradient to enter the observation area. This arched deck, which is over 65 feet (20 m) long and 7 feet (2.1 m) wide, can hold up to about 160 people, equivalent to the number of people from four trams.
Sixteen windows per side, each measuring 7 by 27 inches (180 mm × 690 mm), offer views up to 30 miles (48 km) to the east across the Mississippi River and southern Illinois with its prominent Mississippian culture mounds at Cahokia Mounds, and to the west over the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County beyond.
Modes of Ascent
There are three modes of transportation up the Arch: two sets of 1,076-step emergency stairs (one per leg), a 12-passenger elevator to the 372-foot (113 m) height, and a tram in each leg.
Each tram is a chain of eight cylindrical, five-seat compartments with a small window on the doors. As each tram has a capacity of 40 passengers and there are two trams, 80 passengers can be transported at one time, with trams departing from the ground every 10 minutes.
The cars swing like Ferris-wheel cars as they ascend and descend the Arch. This movement gave rise to the idea of the tram as "half-Ferris wheel and half-elevator."
The trip to the top takes four minutes, and the trip down takes three minutes.
The tram in the north leg entered operation in June 1967, but visitors were forced to endure three-hour-long waits until the 21st. April 1976, when a reservation system was put in place.
The south tram was completed in March 1968. Commemorative pins were awarded to the first 100,000 passengers.
As of 2007, the trams have traveled 250,000 miles (400,000 km), conveying more than 25 million passengers.
Incidents Associated With the Arch
-- July 1970
On the 8th. July 1970, a six-year-old boy, his mother, and two of her friends were trapped in a tram in the Arch's south leg after the monument closed. According to the boy's mother, the group went up the Arch around 9:30 p.m. CDT, but when the tram reached the de-boarding area, its doors did not open.
The tram then traveled up to a storage area 50 feet (15 m) above the ground, and the power was switched off. One person was able to pry open the tram door, and the four managed to reach a security guard for help after being trapped for about 45 minutes.
-- July 2007
On the 21st. July 2007, a broken cable forced the south tram to be shut down, leaving only the north tram in service until repairs were completed in March 2008. Around 200 tourists were stuck inside the Arch for about three hours because the severed cable contacted a high-voltage rail, causing a fuse to blow.
The north tram was temporarily affected by the power outage as well, but some passengers were able to exit the Arch through the emergency stairs and elevator. It was about two hours until all the tram riders safely descended, while those in the observation area at the time of the outage had to wait an additional hour before being able to travel back down.
An Arch official said the visitors, most of whom stayed calm during the ordeal, were not in any danger, and were later given refunds. The incident occurred while visitors in the Arch were watching a fireworks display, and no one was seriously injured in the event. However, two people received medical treatment: one person needed oxygen, and the other was diabetic.
-- March 2008
Almost immediately after the tram returned to service in 2008, however, it was closed again for new repairs after an electrical switch broke. The incident, which occurred on the 14th. March, was billed as a "bad coincidence."
-- February 2011
On the morning of the 9th. February 2011, a National Park Service worker was injured while performing repairs to the south tram. The 55-year-old was working on the tram's electrical system when he was trapped between it and the Arch wall for around 30 seconds, until being saved by other workers.
Emergency officials treated the injured NPS employee at the Arch's top before taking him to Saint Louis University Hospital in a serious condition.
-- March 2011
On the 24th. March 2011, around one hundred visitors were stranded in the observation area for 45 minutes after the doors of the south tram refused to close. The tourists were safely brought down the Arch in the north tram, which had been closed that week so officials could upgrade it with a new computer system.
The National Park Service later attributed the malfunction to a computer glitch associated with the new system, which had already been implemented with the south tram. No one was hurt in the occurrence.
-- June 2011
Around 2:15 p.m. local time on the 16th. June 2011, the Arch's north tram stalled due to a power outage. The tram became stuck about 200 feet (61 m) from the observation deck, and passengers eventually were told to climb the stairs to the observation area.
It took National Park Service workers about one hour to manually pull the tram to the top, and the 40 trapped passengers were able to return down on the south tram, which had previously not been operating that day because there was not an abundance of visitors.
An additional 120 people were at the observation deck at the time of the outage, and they also exited via the south tram. During the outage, visitors were stuck in the tram with neither lighting nor air conditioning. No one was seriously injured in the incident, but one visitor lost consciousness after suffering a panic attack, and a park ranger was taken away with minor injuries. The cause of the outage was not immediately known.
Stunts and Accidents Associated With the Arch
-- June 1966
On the 16th. June 1965, the Federal Aviation Administration cautioned that aviators who flew through the Arch would be fined, and their licenses revoked. At least ten pilots have disobeyed this order, beginning on the 22nd. June 1966.
-- December 1973
In 1973, Nikki Caplan was granted an FAA exception to fly a hot air balloon between the Arch's legs as part of the Great Forest Park Balloon Race. During the flight, on which the St. Louis park director was a passenger, the balloon hit the Arch and plummeted 70 feet before recovering.
-- July 1976
In 1976, a U.S. Army exhibition skydiving team was permitted to fly through the Arch as part of Fourth of July festivities, and since then, numerous skydiving exhibition teams have legally jumped onto the Arch grounds, after having flown their parachutes through the legs of the Arch.
-- June 1980
The Arch has been a target of various stunt performers, and while such feats are generally forbidden, several people have parachuted to or from the Arch regardless. In June 1980, the National Park Service declined a request by television producers to have a performer jump from the Arch.
-- November 1980
On the 22nd. November 1980, at about 8:45 a.m. CST, 33-year-old Kenneth Swyers of Overland, Missouri, parachuted onto the top of the Arch. His plan was to release his main parachute and then jump off the Arch using his reserve parachute to perform a base jump.
Unfortunately, after landing the wind blew him to the side, and he slid down the north leg to his death. The accident was witnessed by several people, including Swyers' wife, also a parachutist. She said that:
"My husband was not a hot
dog, daredevil skydiver. He
had prepared for the jump
two weeks in advance."
Swyers, who had made over 1,600 jumps before the incident, was reported by one witness as follows:
"He landed very well on the
top of the Arch, but had no
footing."
Swyers was reportedly blown to the top of the Arch by the wind and was unable to save himself when his reserve parachute failed to deploy. The Federal Aviation Administration said the jump was unauthorized, and investigated the pilot involved in the incident.
-- December 1980
On the 27th. December 1980, St. Louis television station KTVI reported receiving calls from supposed witnesses of another stunt landing. The alleged parachutist, who claimed to be a retired professional stuntman, was said to be wearing a Santa Claus costume when he jumped off an airplane around 8:00 a.m. CST.
He parachuted onto the Arch, grasped the monument's beacon, and used the same parachute to glide down unharmed. KTVI said it was told:
"The feat was done as an act of
homage to Swyers, and was a
combination of a dare, a drunk,
and a tribute."
However on the day after the alleged incident, authorities declared the jump a hoax. A spokesperson for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said no calls were received about the jump until after it was broadcast on the news, and the Federal Aviation Administration said the two calls it had received were very similar.
One caller also left an out-of-service phone number, while the other never followed up with investigators. Arch officials said they did not witness any such jump, and photos provided by the alleged parachutist were unclear.
-- February 1986
An appeal by stuntman Dan Koko to be allowed to jump from the Arch was turned away in February 1986. Koko, who was a stunt double for Superman, wanted to perform the leap during Fourth of July celebrations.
-- September 1992
On the 14th. September 1992, 25-year-old John C. Vincent climbed to the top of the Gateway Arch using suction cups, and proceeded to parachute back to the ground. He was later charged with two misdemeanors: climbing a national monument, and parachuting in a national park.
Federal prosecutor Stephen Higgins called the act a "great stunt" but said that:
"It is something the Park
Service doesn't take lightly."
Vincent, a construction worker and diver from Harvey, Louisiana, said:
"I did it just for the excitement,
just for the thrill."
He had previously parachuted off the World Trade Center in May 1991. He said that scaling the Arch "wasn't that hard," and that he had considered a jump off the monument for a few months.
In an interview, Vincent said he visited the Arch's observation area a month before the stunt, to see if he could use a maintenance hatch for accessing the monument's peak. Due to the heavy security, he instead decided to climb up the Arch's exterior using suction cups, which he had used before to scale shorter buildings.
Dressed in black, Vincent began crawling up the Arch around 3:30 a.m. CST on the 14th. September 1992, and arrived undetected at the top around 5:45 a.m., taking an additional 75 minutes to rest and take photos before finally jumping.
During this time, he was seen by two traffic reporters inside the One Metropolitan Square skyscraper.
Vincent was also spotted mid-air by Deryl Stone, a Chief Ranger for the National Park Service. Stone reported seeing Vincent grab his parachute after landing and run to a nearby car, which quickly drove away.
However, authorities were able to detain two men on the ground who had been videotaping the jump. Stone said 37-year-old Ronald Carroll and 27-year-old Robert Weinzetl, both St. Louis residents, were found with a wireless communication headset and a video camera, as well as a still camera with a telephoto lens.
The two were also charged with two misdemeanors: disorderly conduct, and commercial photography in a national park.
Vincent later turned himself in, and initially pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. However, he eventually accepted a guilty plea deal in which he testified against Carroll and Weinzetl, revealing that the two consented to record the jump during a meeting of all three on the day before his stunt occurred.
Federal magistrate judge David D. Noce ruled on the 28th. January 1993 that Carroll had been involved in a conspiracy, and was guilty of both misdemeanor charges; the charges against Weinzetl were dropped by federal prosecutors. In his decision, Noce stated:
"There are places in our country where the
sufficiently skilled can savor the exhilaration
and personal satisfaction of accomplishing
courageous and intrepid acts, of reaching
dreamed-of heights and for coursing
dangerous adventures.
However other places are designed for the
exhilaration of mere observation, and for the
appreciation of the imaginings and the works
of others. The St. Louis Arch and the grounds
of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
are in the latter category."
After his guilty plea, Vincent was sentenced to a $1,000 fine, 25 hours of community service, and a year's probation. In December 1992, Vincent was sentenced to ninety days in jail for violating his probation.
-- 2013
In 2013, Alexander Polli, a European BASE jumper, planned to fly a wingsuit under the Arch, but had his demo postponed by the FAA.
Security
Two years after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, $1 million was granted to institute a counter-terrorism program for the Arch. Park officials were trained to note the activity of tourists, and inconspicuous electronic detection devices were installed.
After the September 11 attacks on the WTC in 2001, security efforts became more prominent, and security checkpoints moved to the entrance of the Arch's visitor center. At the checkpoints, visitors are screened by magnetometers and x-ray equipment, devices which have been in place since 1997.
The Arch also became one of several U.S. monuments placed under restricted airspace during 2002 Fourth of July celebrations.
In 2003, 10-foot-long (3.0 m), 32-inch-high (81 cm), 4,100-pound (1,900 kg) movable Jersey barriers were installed to impede terrorist attacks on the Arch.
Later that year, it was announced that these walls were to be replaced by concrete posts encased in metal to be more harmonious with the steel color of the Arch. The movable bollards can be manipulated from the park's dispatch center, which has also been upgraded.
In 2006, Arch officials hired a "physical security specialist," replacing a law enforcement officer. The responsibilities of the specialist include risk assessment, testing the park's security system, increasing security awareness of other employees, and working with other government agencies to improve the Arch's security procedures.
Symbolism and Culture
Built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States, the Arch is said to typify:
"The pioneer spirit of the men and women
who won the West, and those of a latter
day to strive on other frontiers."
On the 14th. December 2003, Robert W. Duffy wrote in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
"The Gateway Arch packs a significant symbolic
wallop just by standing there. But the Arch has a
mission greater than being visually affecting.
Its shape and monumental size suggest movement
through time and space, and invite inquiry into the
complex, fascinating story of America's national
expansion."
The Arch has become the iconic image of St. Louis, appearing in many parts of city culture. In 1968, three years after the monument's opening, the St. Louis phone directory contained 65 corporations with "Gateway" in their title and 17 with "Arch".
Arches also appeared over gas stations and drive-in restaurants. In the 1970's, a local sports team adopted the name "Fighting Arches"; St. Louis Community College later (when consolidating all athletic programs under a single banner) named its sports teams "Archers".
Robert S. Chandler, an NPS superintendent, said:
"Most visitors are awed by the size
and scale of the Arch, but they don't
understand what it's all about ... Too
many people see it as just a symbol
of the city of St. Louis."
The Arch has also appeared as a symbol of the State of Missouri. On the 22nd. November 2002, at the Missouri State Capitol, Lori Hauser Holden, wife of then-Governor Bob Holden, uncovered the winning design for a Missouri coin design competition as part of the Fifty States Commemorative Coin Program.
Designed by water colorist Paul Jackson, the coin portrays three members of the Lewis and Clark expedition paddling a boat on the Missouri River upon returning to St. Louis with the Arch as the backdrop.
Holden said that:
"The Arch is a symbol for the entire
state ... Four million visitors each year
see the Arch. The coin will help make
it even more loved worldwide."
A special license plate designed by Arnold Worldwide featured the Arch, labeled with "Gateway to the West." Profits earned from selling the plates funded the museum and other educational components of the Arch.
Louchheim wrote that although the Arch has a simplicity which should guarantee timeliness, it is entirely modern as well, because of the innovative design and its scientific considerations.
In The Dallas Morning News, architectural critic David Dillon opined that:
"The Arch exists not as a functional edifice,
but as a symbol of boundless American
optimism". The Arch has multiple "moods" -
reflective in sunlight, soft and pewterish in
mist; crisp as a line drawing one moment,
chimerical the next.
The Arch has paid for itself many times
over in wonder".
Some have questioned whether St. Louis really was - as Saarinen said - the "Gateway to the West". Kansas City-born "deadline poet" Calvin Trillin wrote:
"I know you're thinking that there are considerable
differences between T.S. Eliot and me. Yes, it is true
that he was from St. Louis, which started calling itself
the Gateway to the West after Eero Saarinen's
Gateway Arch was erected, and I'm from Kansas City,
where people think of St. Louis not as the Gateway to
the West but as the Exit from the East."
With renovations in the 2010's of the visitor center, the message of the Arch has been more inclusive in its historic perspective, highlighting the impact of colonialism, and particularly the effect of American frontierism on the environment, land and people of the First Americans, as well as Native Mexicans.
It furthermore exhibits the urban history of the site and the struggle of its people, as well as of its construction workers for more rights, during the civil rights movement era.
The Arch's futuristic style has been seen as a symbol for the automobile age and the surrounding automobile-centric urban and interstate infrastructure, promising a technological future of a new accessible frontier.
This outlook has seen continuation, lending the Gateway Arch's iconic shape and meaning to the name and logo of the future Lunar Gateway, with its purpose as a gateway to the Moon and Mars.
On the 29th. February 1969, in an article in The New York Times, Louchheim praised the Arch's design as:
"A modern monument, fitting,
beautiful and impressive."
Cultural References to the Arch
-- Dutch composer Peter Schat wrote a 1997 work, Arch Music for St. Louis, Op. 44. for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. It premiered on the 8th. January 1999 at the Powell Symphony Hall.
Since Schat did not ascend the Arch due to his fear of heights, he used his creativity to depict in music someone riding a tram to the top of the Arch.
-- Paul Muldoon's poem, "The Stoic", is set under the Gateway Arch. The work, "An Elegy for a Miscarried Foetus", describes Muldoon's ordeal standing under the Gateway Arch after his wife telephoned and informed him that the baby they were expecting had been miscarried.
-- Percy Jackson encounters Echidna and the Chimera in the Gateway Arch in The Lightning Thief, after he, Grover Underwood, and Annabeth Chase visit the Arch during their trip to California to recover the Master Bolt. Percy faces the Chimera, jumps out of the Arch, and falls into the Mississippi River.
-- A damaged Gateway Arch is prominently featured in Defiance, a science fiction television series. The apex is used as a radio station studio, with the arch itself acting as the station's antenna.
Vandalism and Maintenance of the Arch
The first act of vandalism against the Arch was committed in June 1968: the vandals scratched their names on various parts of the Arch. In all, $10,000 was spent that year in order to repair damage from vandalism. The Arch was first targeted by graffiti artists on the 5th. March 1969.
In 2010, signs of corrosion were reported at the upper regions of the stainless steel surface. Carbon steel in the north leg has been rusting, possibly a result of water accumulation, a side effect of leaky welds in an environment that often causes rain to enter the skin of the structure.
Maintenance workers use mops and a temporary setup of water containers to ease the problem. According to NPS documents, the corrosion and rust pose no safety concerns.
A more comprehensive study of the corrosion had been suggested as early as 2006 by architectural specialists studying the Arch, and reiterated in a 2010 Historic Structure Report.
In September 2010, the NPS granted Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. a contract for a structural study that would:
"Gather data about the condition of the
Arch to enable experts to develop and
implement the right long-term solutions."
Stain samples were taken from the west face of the Arch on the 21st. October 2014 to determine the best way to clean it. The cleaning was estimated to cost about $340,000.
In 1984, structural engineer Tibor Szegezdy told the Smithsonian Magazine that:
"The Arch will stand for considerably
less than a thousand years before
collapsing in a wind storm."
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Ripe and unripe Blackberries in our neighbour's garden. The kids love 'em!
Taken while I prepared the Barbie...
______________________________________________________________________________
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by Rubus fruticosus, or any of several hybrids between that species and others of the Rubus genus in the Rosaceae family. The term 'bramble', a word meaning any impenetrable scrub, has traditionally been applied specifically to the blackberry or its products, though in the USA it applies to all members of the Rubus genus.
The (usually) black fruit is not a true berry; botanically it is termed an aggregate fruit, composed of small drupelets. It is a widespread and well-known group of over 375 species, many of which are closely related apomictic microspecies native throughout the temperate Northern Hemisphere and South America.
Blackberries are perennial plants which typically bear biennial stems ("canes") from the perennial root system. In its first year, a new stem, the primocane, grows vigorously to its full length of 3–6 m (in some cases, up to 9 m), arching or trailing along the ground and bearing large palmately compound leaves with five or seven leaflets; it does not produce any flowers. In its second year, the cane becomes a floricane and the stem does not grow longer, but the lateral buds break to produce flowering laterals (which have smaller leaves with three or five leaflets). First and second year shoots usually have numerous short curved very sharp prickles that are often erroneously called thorns. Prickle-free cultivars have been developed. Recently the University of Arkansas has developed primocane fruiting blackberries that grow and flower on first year growth much as the primocane-fruiting (also called fall bearing or everbearing) red raspberries do.
Unmanaged mature plants form a tangle of dense arching stems, the branches rooting from the node tip on many species when they reach the ground. Vigorous and growing rapidly in woods, scrub, hillsides and hedgerows, blackberry shrubs tolerate poor soils, readily colonizing wasteland, ditches and vacant lots.
The flowers are produced in late spring and early summer on short racemes on the tips of the flowering laterals. Each flower is about 2–3 cm in diameter with five white or pale pink petals.
The drupelets only develop around ovules that are fertilized by the male gamete from a pollen grain. The most likely cause of undeveloped ovules is inadequate pollinator visits. Even a small change in conditions, such as a rainy day or a day too hot for bees to work after early morning, can reduce the number of bee visits to the flower, thus reducing the quality of the fruit. Incomplete drupelet development can also be a symptom of exhausted reserves in the plant's roots, or infection with a virus such as Raspberry bushy dwarf virus.
In botanical terminology, the fruit is not a berry, but an aggregate fruit of numerous drupelets.
The soft fruit is popular for use in desserts, jams, seedless jelly (called Bramble jelly in the UK) and sometimes wine. It is often mixed with apples for pies and crumbles.
Good nectar producers, blackberry shrubs bearing flowers yield a medium to dark, fruity honey.
[Source: Wikipedia]
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM
Aperture: f/4
Exposure time: 1/250s
Focal length: 105mm
ISO Speed: 100
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On US-130 near Burlington, NJ
There is something to be said about how these huge signs lit up the night.
2023 update: this sign is slated to be removed in the next year or so.
Navajo Bridge is the name of twin steel spandrel arch bridges that cross the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon National Park (near Lees Ferry) in northern Coconino County, Arizona, United States. The newer of the two spans carries vehicular traffic on U.S. Route 89A (US 89A) over Marble Canyon between Bitter Springs and Jacob Lake, allowing travel into a remote Arizona Strip region north of the Colorado River including the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.
Prior to completion of the first Navajo Bridge, one of the only Colorado River crossings between Arizona and Utah was located about 5 miles (8.0 km) upstream from the bridge site, at the mouth of Glen Canyon where Lees Ferry service had operated since 1873. The ferry site had been chosen as the only relatively easy access to the river for both northbound and southbound travelers. By the 1920s, automobile traffic began using the ferry, though it was not considered a safe and reliable crossing due to adverse weather and flooding regularly preventing its operation.
The bridge was officially named the Grand Canyon Bridge when it was dedicated on June 14–15, 1929. The state legislature changed the name to Navajo Bridge five years later in 1934. The original bridge was closed to vehicular traffic after the new span opened in 1995. The old span is still open for pedestrian and equestrian use.
The dual spans of Navajo Bridge are tied at ninth place among the highest bridges in the United States with nearly identical heights of 467 feet (142.3 m) for the original span, and 470 feet (143.3 m) for the second span.
Construction of the original Navajo Bridge began in 1927, and the bridge opened to traffic in 1929. The bridge was paid for by the nascent Arizona State Highway Commission (now the Arizona Department of Transportation) in cooperation with the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, as the eastern landing is on the Navajo Nation. The steel spandrel bridge was designed and constructed by the Kansas City Structural Steel Company. During construction, worker Lane McDaniels died after falling 467 feet (142 m) to the Colorado River below. Supervisors had rejected the idea of rigging safety netting, believing that it would catch on fire from falling hot rivets.
The original bridge is 834 feet (254 m) in length, with a maximum height of 467 feet (142 m) from the canyon floor. The roadway offers an 18-foot (5.5 m) surface width with a load capacity of 22.5 tons (although the posted legal weight limit was 40 tons). During the design phase, a wider roadway was considered, but ultimately rejected, as it would have required a costly third arch to be added to the design, and the vehicles of the time did not require a wider road. When the Bridge officially opened on January 12, 1929, the Flagstaff paper proclaimed it "the biggest news in Southwest history."
By 1984, however, Arizona Department of Transportation officials decided that the traffic flow was too great for the original bridge and that a new solution was needed. The sharp corners in the roadway on each side of the approach had become a safety hazard due to low visibility, and deficiencies resulting from the original design's width and load capacity specifications were becoming problematic. The bridge had also become part of US 89A.
Deciding on a solution was difficult, due to the many local interests. Issues included preservation of sacred Navajo land, endangered plant species in Marble Canyon, and the possibility of construction debris entering the river. The original proposal called for merely widening and fortifying the 1928 bridge, but this was ultimately rejected as not sufficient to meet contemporary federal highway standards. Replacement became the only option, and it was eventually decided to entirely discontinue vehicular traffic on the original bridge. A new bridge would be built immediately next to the original and have a considerably similar visual appearance, but would conform to modern highway codes.
The new steel arch bridge was commissioned by the Arizona Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, and was completed in May 1995, at a cost of $14.7 million. A formal dedication was held on September 14, 1995.
The original Navajo Bridge is still open to pedestrian and equestrian use, and an interpretive center has been constructed on the west side to showcase the historical nature of the bridge and early crossing of the Colorado River. The original bridge has been designated as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 13, 1981.
California condors were reintroduced to the area in 1996 and can sometimes be seen on and around Navajo Bridge.
Original bridge (1929)
Construction started June 30, 1927
Bridge opened to traffic January 12, 1929
Total length: 834 feet (254 m)
Steel arch length: 616 feet (188 m)
Arch rise: 90 feet (27 m)
Height above river: 467 feet (142 m)
Width of the roadway: 18 feet (5.5 m)
Amount of steel: 2,400,000 pounds (1,100,000 kg)
Amount of concrete: 500 cubic yards (382 m3)
Amount of steel reinforcement: 82,000 pounds (37,000 kg)
Construction cost: $390,000 (equivalent to $6.65 million in 2022)[1]
New bridge (1995)
Total length: 909 feet (277 m)
Steel arch length: 726 feet (221 m)
Arch rise: 90 feet (27 m)
Height above river: 470 feet (143 m)
Width of the roadway: 44 feet (13 m)
Amount of steel: 3,900,000 pounds (1,800,000 kg)
Amount of concrete: 1,790 cubic yards (1,370 m3)
Amount of steel reinforcement: 434,000 pounds (197,000 kg)
Construction cost $14.7 million (equivalent to $28.23 million in 2022)
The Colorado River (Spanish: Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The 1,450-mile-long (2,330 km) river, the 5th longest in the United States, drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states. The name Colorado derives from the Spanish language for "colored reddish" due to its heavy silt load. Starting in the central Rocky Mountains of Colorado, it flows generally southwest across the Colorado Plateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona–Nevada border, where it turns south toward the international border. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora.
Known for its dramatic canyons, whitewater rapids, and eleven U.S. National Parks, the Colorado River and its tributaries are a vital source of water for 40 million people. An extensive system of dams, reservoirs, and aqueducts divert almost its entire flow for agricultural irrigation and urban water supply. Its large flow and steep gradient are used to generate hydroelectricity, meeting peaking power demands in much of the Intermountain West. Intensive water consumption has dried up the lower 100 miles (160 km) of the river, which has rarely reached the sea since the 1960s.
Native Americans have inhabited the Colorado River basin for at least 8,000 years. Starting around 1 CE, large agriculture-based societies were established, but a combination of drought and poor land use practices led to their collapse in the 1300s. Their descendants include tribes such as the Puebloans, while others including the Navajo settled in the Colorado Basin after the 1000s. In the 1500s, Spanish explorers began mapping and claiming the watershed, which became part of Mexico upon winning its independence from Spain in 1821. Even after most of the watershed became US territory in 1846, much of the river's course remained unknown. Several expeditions charted the Colorado in the mid-19th century—one of which, led by John Wesley Powell, was the first to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon. Large-scale settlement of the lower basin began in the mid- to late-1800s, with steamboats sailing from the Gulf of California to landings along the river that linked to wagon roads to the interior. Starting in the 1860s, gold and silver strikes drew prospectors to the upper Colorado River basin.
Large-scale river management began in the early 1900s, with major guidelines established in a series of international and US interstate treaties known as the "Law of the River". The US federal government constructed most of the major dams and aqueducts between 1910 and 1970; the largest, Hoover Dam, was completed in 1935. Numerous water projects have also involved state and local governments. With all of their waters fully allocated, both the Colorado and the neighboring Rio Grande are now considered among the most controlled and litigated river systems in the world. Since 2000, extended drought has conflicted with increasing demands for Colorado River water, and the level of human development and control of the river continues to generate controversy.
Marble Canyon is the section of the Colorado River canyon in northern Arizona from Lee's Ferry to the confluence with the Little Colorado River, which marks the beginning of the Grand Canyon.
Lee's Ferry is a common launching point for river runners starting their journey through Marble Canyon and then onward to the Grand Canyon. Marble Canyon is also well known for the Navajo Bridge, where US Highway 89A crosses the Colorado River.
Marble Canyon marks the western boundary of the Navajo Nation. In 1975, the former Marble Canyon National Monument, which followed the Colorado River northeast from the Grand Canyon to Lee's Ferry, was made part of Grand Canyon National Park.
The name Marble Canyon is a misnomer because there is no marble there. Although John Wesley Powell knew this when he named the canyon, he thought the polished limestone looked like marble. In his words, "The limestone of the canyon is often polished, and makes a beautiful marble. Sometimes the rocks are of many colors – white, gray, pink, and purple, with saffron tints."
Marble Canyon is the site of one of the last great proposed dam projects on the Colorado, the Marble Canyon Dam. Proposed and investigated in the early 1950s by the United States Bureau of Reclamation, the proposal met substantial opposition, notably from the Sierra Club, when a revived proposal was considered by the state of Arizona as part of the Central Arizona Project from 1965 to 1968. The proposed dam was finally abandoned in 1968. Exploratory holes, which were drilled in the Redwall Limestone of the canyon walls in an early phase of the abortive project, can still be seen at Mile 39.2.
Grand Canyon National Park, located in northwestern Arizona, is the 15th site in the United States to have been named as a national park. The park's central feature is the Grand Canyon, a gorge of the Colorado River, which is often considered one of the Wonders of the World. The park, which covers 1,217,262 acres (1,901.972 sq mi; 4,926.08 km2) of unincorporated area in Coconino and Mohave counties, received more than six million recreational visitors in 2017, which is the second highest count of all American national parks after Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Grand Canyon was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. The park celebrated its 100th anniversary on February 26, 2019.
The Grand Canyon became well known to Americans in the 1880s after railroads were built and pioneers developed infrastructure and early tourism. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt visited the site and said,
The Grand Canyon fills me with awe. It is beyond comparison—beyond description; absolutely unparalleled through-out the wide world ... Let this great wonder of nature remain as it now is. Do nothing to mar its grandeur, sublimity and loveliness. You cannot improve on it. But you can keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see.
Despite Roosevelt's enthusiasm and strong interest in preserving land for public use, the Grand Canyon was not immediately designated as a national park. The first bill to establish Grand Canyon National Park was introduced in 1882 by then-Senator Benjamin Harrison, which would have established Grand Canyon as the third national park in the United States, after Yellowstone and Mackinac. Harrison unsuccessfully reintroduced his bill in 1883 and 1886; after his election to the presidency, he established the Grand Canyon Forest Reserve in 1893. Theodore Roosevelt created the Grand Canyon Game Preserve by proclamation on November 28, 1906, and the Grand Canyon National Monument on January 11, 1908. Further Senate bills to establish the site as a national park were introduced and defeated in 1910 and 1911, before the Grand Canyon National Park Act was finally signed by President Woodrow Wilson on February 26, 1919. The National Park Service, established in 1916, assumed administration of the park.
The creation of the park was an early success of the conservation movement. Its national park status may have helped thwart proposals to dam the Colorado River within its boundaries. (Later, the Glen Canyon Dam would be built upriver.) A second Grand Canyon National Monument to the west was proclaimed in 1932. In 1975, that monument and Marble Canyon National Monument, which was established in 1969 and followed the Colorado River northeast from the Grand Canyon to Lees Ferry, were made part of Grand Canyon National Park. In 1979, UNESCO declared the park a World Heritage Site. The 1987 the National Parks Overflights Act found that "Noise associated with aircraft overflights at the Grand Canyon National Park is causing a significant adverse effect on the natural quiet and experience of the park and current aircraft operations at the Grand Canyon National Park have raised serious concerns regarding public safety, including concerns regarding the safety of park users."
In 2010, Grand Canyon National Park was honored with its own coin under the America the Beautiful Quarters program. On February 26, 2019, the Grand Canyon National Park commemorated 100 years since its designation as a national park.
The Grand Canyon had been part of the National Park Service's Intermountain Region until 2018.[citation needed] Today, the Grand Canyon is a part of Region 8, also known as the Lower Colorado Basin.
The Grand Canyon, including its extensive system of tributary canyons, is valued for its combination of size, depth, and exposed layers of colorful rocks dating back to Precambrian times. The canyon itself was created by the incision of the Colorado River and its tributaries after the Colorado Plateau was uplifted, causing the Colorado River system to develop along its present path.
The primary public areas of the park are the South and North Rims, and adjacent areas of the canyon itself. The rest of the park is extremely rugged and remote, although many places are accessible by pack trail and backcountry roads. The South Rim is more accessible than the North Rim and accounts for 90% of park visitation.
The park headquarters are at Grand Canyon Village, not far from the South Entrance to the park, near one of the most popular viewpoints.
Most visitors to the park come to the South Rim, arriving on Arizona State Route 64. The highway enters the park through the South Entrance, near Tusayan, Arizona, and heads eastward, leaving the park through the East Entrance. Interstate 40 provides access to the area from the south. From the north, U.S. Route 89 connects Utah, Colorado, and the North Rim to the South Rim. Overall, some 30 miles of the South Rim are accessible by road.
The North Rim area of the park is located on the Kaibab Plateau and Walhalla Plateau, directly across the Grand Canyon from the principal visitor areas on the South Rim. The North Rim's principal visitor areas are centered around Bright Angel Point. The North Rim is higher in elevation than the South Rim, at over 8,000 feet (2,400 m) of elevation. Because it is so much higher than the South Rim, it is closed from December 1 through May 15 each year, due to the enhanced snowfall at elevation. Visitor services are closed or limited in scope after October 15. Driving time from the South Rim to the North Rim is about 4.5 hours, over 220 miles (350 km).
There are few roads on the North Rim, but there are some notable vehicle-accessible lookout points, including Point Imperial, Roosevelt Point, and Cape Royal. Mule rides are also available to a variety of places, including several thousand feet down into the canyon.
Many visitors to the North Rim choose to make use of the variety of hiking trails including the Widforss Trail, Uncle Jim's Trail, the Transept Trail, and the North Kaibab Trail. The North Kaibab Trail can be followed all the way down to the Colorado River, connecting across the river to the South Kaibab Trail and the Bright Angel Trail, which continue up to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
The Toroweap Overlook is located in the western part of the park on the North Rim. Access is via unpaved roads off Route 389 west of Fredonia, Arizona. The roads lead through Grand Canyon–Parashant National Monument and to the overlook.
A variety of activities at the South Rim cater to park visitors. A driving tour (35 miles (56 km)) along the South Rim is split into two segments. The western drive to Hermit's Point is eight miles (13 km) with several overlooks along the way, including Mohave Point, Hopi Point, and the Powell Memorial. From March to December, access to Hermit's Rest is restricted to the free shuttle provided by the Park Service. The eastern portion to Desert View is 25 miles (40 km), and is open to private vehicles year round.
Walking tours include the Rim Trail, which runs west from the Pipe Creek viewpoint for about eight miles (13 km) of paved road, followed by seven miles (11 km) unpaved to Hermit's Rest. Hikes can begin almost anywhere along this trail, and a shuttle can return hikers to their point of origin. Mather Point, the first view most people reach when entering from the south entrance, is a popular place to begin.
Private canyon flyovers are provided by helicopters and small airplanes out of Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Grand Canyon National Park Airport. Due to a crash in the 1990s, scenic flights are no longer allowed to fly within 1,500 feet (460 m) of the rim within the Grand Canyon National Park. Flights within the canyon are still available outside of park boundaries.
Arizona is a state in the Southwestern region of the United States. Arizona is part of the Four Corners region with Utah to the north, Colorado to the northeast, and New Mexico to the east; its other neighboring states are Nevada to the northwest, California to the west and the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California to the south and southwest. It is the 6th-largest and the 14th-most-populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix.
Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union, achieving statehood on February 14, 1912. Historically part of the territory of Alta California and Nuevo México in New Spain, it became part of independent Mexico in 1821. After being defeated in the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded much of this territory to the United States in 1848, where the area became part of the territory of New Mexico. The southernmost portion of the state was acquired in 1853 through the Gadsden Purchase.
Southern Arizona is known for its desert climate, with very hot summers and mild winters. Northern Arizona features forests of pine, Douglas fir, and spruce trees; the Colorado Plateau; mountain ranges (such as the San Francisco Mountains); as well as large, deep canyons, with much more moderate summer temperatures and significant winter snowfalls. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff, Sunrise, and Tucson. In addition to the internationally known Grand Canyon National Park, which is one of the world's seven natural wonders, there are several national forests, national parks, and national monuments.
Arizona's population and economy have grown dramatically since the 1950s because of inward migration, and the state is now a major hub of the Sun Belt. Cities such as Phoenix and Tucson have developed large, sprawling suburban areas. Many large companies, such as PetSmart and Circle K, have headquarters in the state, and Arizona is home to major universities, including the University of Arizona and Arizona State University. The state is known for a history of conservative politicians such as Barry Goldwater and John McCain, though it has become a swing state since the 1990s.
Arizona is home to a diverse population. About one-quarter of the state is made up of Indian reservations that serve as the home of 27 federally recognized Native American tribes, including the Navajo Nation, the largest in the state and the United States, with more than 300,000 citizens. Since the 1980s, the proportion of Hispanics in the state's population has grown significantly owing to migration from Mexico. A substantial portion of the population are followers of the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The history of Arizona encompasses the Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Post-Archaic, Spanish, Mexican, and American periods. About 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, Paleo-Indians settled in what is now Arizona. A few thousand years ago, the Ancestral Puebloan, the Hohokam, the Mogollon and the Sinagua cultures inhabited the state. However, all of these civilizations mysteriously disappeared from the region in the 15th and 16th centuries. Today, countless ancient ruins can be found in Arizona. Arizona was part of the state of Sonora, Mexico from 1822, but the settled population was small. In 1848, under the terms of the Mexican Cession the United States took possession of Arizona above the Gila River after the Mexican War, and became part of the Territory of New Mexico. By means of the Gadsden Purchase, the United States secured the northern part of the state of Sonora, which is now Arizona south of the Gila River in 1854.
In 1863, Arizona was split off from the Territory of New Mexico to form the Arizona Territory. The remoteness of the region was eased by the arrival of railroads in 1880. Arizona became a state in 1912 but was primarily rural with an economy based on cattle, cotton, citrus, and copper. Dramatic growth came after 1945, as retirees and young families who appreciated the warm weather and low costs emigrated from the Northeast and Midwest.
In the Mexican–American War, the garrison commander avoided conflict with Lieutenant Colonel Cooke and the Mormon Battalion, withdrawing while the Americans marched through the town on their way to California. In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (1848), Mexico ceded to the U.S. the northern 70% of modern-day Arizona above the Sonora border along the Gila River. During the California Gold Rush, an upwards of 50,000 people traveled through on the Southern Emigrant Trail pioneered by Cooke, to reach the gold fields in 1849. The Pima Villages often sold fresh food and provided relief to distressed travelers among this throng and to others in subsequent years.
Paleo-Indians settled what is now Arizona around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. According to most archaeologists, the Paleo-Indians initially followed herds of big game—megafauna such as mammoths, mastodons, and bison—into North America. The traveling groups also collected and utilized a wide variety of smaller game animals, fish, and a wide variety of plants. These people were likely characterized by highly mobile bands of approximately 20 or 50 members of an extended family, moving from place to place as resources were depleted and additional supplies needed. Paleoindian groups were efficient hunters and created and carried a variety of tools, some highly specialized, for hunting, butchering and hide processing. These paleolithic people utilized the environment that they lived in near water sources, including rivers, swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, and drew birds and game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. At the latest by 9500 BCE, bands of hunters wandered as far south as Arizona, where they found a desert grassland and hunted mule deer, antelope and other small mammals.
As populations of larger game began to diminish, possibly as a result of intense hunting and rapid environmental changes, Late Paleoindian groups would come to rely more on other facets of their subsistence pattern, including increased hunting of bison, mule deer and antelope. Nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Hunting was especially important in winter and spring months when plant foods were scarce.
The Archaic time frame is defined culturally as a transition from a hunting/gathering lifestyle to one involving agriculture and permanent, if only seasonally occupied, settlements. In the Southwest, the Archaic is generally dated from 8000 years ago to approximately 1800 to 2000 years ago. During this time the people of the southwest developed a variety of subsistence strategies, all using their own specific techniques. The nutritive value of weed and grass seeds was discovered and flat rocks were used to grind flour to produce gruels and breads. This use of grinding slabs in about 7500 BCE marks the beginning of the Archaic tradition. Small bands of people traveled throughout the area, gathering plants such as cactus fruits, mesquite beans, acorns, and pine nuts and annually establishing camps at collection points.
Late in the Archaic Period, corn, probably introduced into the region from central Mexico, was planted near camps with permanent water access. Distinct types of corn have been identified in the more well-watered highlands and the desert areas, which may imply local mutation or successive introduction of differing species. Emerging domesticated crops also included beans and squash.
About 3,500 years ago, climate change led to changing patterns in water sources, leading to a dramatically decreased population. However, family-based groups took shelter in south facing caves and rock overhangs within canyon walls. Occasionally, these people lived in small semisedentary hamlets in open areas. Evidence of significant occupation has been found in the northern part of Arizona.
In the Post-Archaic period, the Ancestral Puebloan, the Hohokam, the Mogollon and Sinagua cultures inhabited what is now Arizona. These cultures built structures made out of stone. Some of the structures that these cultures built are called pueblos. Pueblos are monumental structures that housed dozens to thousands of people. In some Ancestral Puebloan towns and villages, Hohokam towns and villages, Mogollon towns and villages, and Sinagua towns and villages, the pueblo housed the entire town. Surrounding the pueblos were often farms where farmers would plant and harvest crops to feed the community. Sometimes, pueblos and other buildings were built in caves in cliffs.
The Ancestral Puebloans were an ancient Pre-Columbian Native American civilization that spanned the present-day Four Corners region of the United States, comprising southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southwestern Colorado. The Ancestral Puebloans are believed to have developed, at least in part, from the Oshara tradition, who developed from the Picosa culture.
They lived in a range of structures that included small family pit houses, larger structures to house clans, grand pueblos, and cliff-sited dwellings for defense. The Ancestral Puebloans possessed a complex network that stretched across the Colorado Plateau linking hundreds of communities and population centers. They held a distinct knowledge of celestial sciences that found form in their architecture. The kiva, a congregational space that was used chiefly for ceremonial purposes, was an integral part of this ancient people's community structure. Some of their most impressive structures were built in what is now Arizona.
Hohokam was a Pre-Columbian culture in the North American Southwest in what is now part of Arizona, United States, and Sonora, Mexico. Hohokam practiced a specific culture, sometimes referred to as Hohokam culture, which has been distinguished by archeologists. People who practiced the culture can be called Hohokam as well, but more often, they are distinguished as Hohokam people to avoid confusion.
Most archaeologists agree that the Hohokam culture existed between c. 300 and c. 1450 CE, but cultural precursors may have been in the area as early as 300 BC. Whether Hohokam culture was unified politically remains under controversy. Hohokam culture may have just given unrelated neighboring communities common ground to help them to work together to survive their harsh desert environment.
The Mogollon culture was an ancient Pre-Columbian culture of Native American peoples from Southern New Mexico and Arizona, Northern Sonora and Chihuahua, and Western Texas. The northern part of this region is Oasisamerica, while the southern span of the Mogollon culture is known as Aridoamerica.
The Mogollon culture was one of the major prehistoric Southwestern cultural divisions of the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. The culture flourished from c. 200 CE, to c. 1450 CE or 1540 CE, when the Spanish arrived.
The Sinagua culture was a Pre-Columbian culture that occupied a large area in central Arizona from the Little Colorado River, near Flagstaff, to the Verde River, near Sedona, including the Verde Valley, area around San Francisco Mountain, and significant portions of the Mogollon Rim country, between approximately 500 CE and 1425 CE. Besides ceremonial kivas, their pueblos had large "community rooms" and some featured ballcourts and walled courtyards, similar to those of the Hohokam culture. Since fully developed Sinagua sites emerged in central Arizona around 500 CE, it is believed they migrated from east-central Arizona, possibly emerging from the Mogollon culture.
The history of Arizona as recorded by Europeans began in 1539 with the first documented exploration of the area by Marcos de Niza, early work expanded the following year when Francisco Vásquez de Coronado entered the area as well.
The Spanish established a few missions in southern Arizona in the 1680s by Father Eusebio Francisco Kino along the Santa Cruz River, in what was then the Pimería Alta region of Sonora. The Spanish also established presidios in Tubac and Tucson in 1752 and 1775. The area north of the Gila River was governed by the Province of Las California under the Spanish until 1804, when the Californian portion of Arizona became part of Alta California under the Spanish and Mexican governments.
In 1849, the California Gold Rush led as many as 50,000 miners to travel across the region, leading to a boom in Arizona's population. In 1850, Arizona and New Mexico formed the New Mexico Territory.
In 1853, President Franklin Pierce sent James Gadsden to Mexico City to negotiate with Santa Anna, and the United States bought the remaining southern strip area of Arizona and New Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase. A treaty was signed in Mexico in December 1853, and then, with modifications, approved by the US Senate in June 1854, setting the southern boundary of Arizona and of New Mexico.
Before 1846 the Apache raiders expelled most Mexican ranchers. One result was that large herds of wild cattle roamed southeastern Arizona. By 1850, the herds were gone, killed by Apaches, American sportsmen, contract hunting for the towns of Fronteras and Santa Cruz, and roundups to sell to hungry Mexican War soldiers, and forty-niners en route to California.
During the Civil War, on March 16, 1861, citizens in southern New Mexico Territory around Mesilla (now in New Mexico) and Tucson invited take-over by the Confederacy. They especially wanted restoration of mail service. These secessionists hoped that a Confederate Territory of Arizona (CSA) would take control, but in March 1862, Union troops from California captured the Confederate Territory of Arizona and returned it to the New Mexico Territory.
The Battle of Picacho Pass, April 15, 1862, was a battle of the Civil War fought in the CSA and one of many battles to occur in Arizona during the war among three sides—Apaches, Confederates and Union forces. In 1863, the U.S. split up New Mexico along a north–south line to create the Arizona Territory. The first government officials to arrive established the territory capital in Prescott in 1864. The capital was later moved to Tucson, back to Prescott, and then to its final location in Phoenix in a series of controversial moves as different regions of the territory gained and lost political influence with the growth and development of the territory.
In the late 19th century the Army built a series of forts to encourage the Natives to stay in their territory and to act as a buffer from the settlers. The first was Fort Defiance. It was established on September 18, 1851, by Col. Edwin V. Sumner to create a military presence in Diné bikéyah (Navajo territory). Sumner broke up the fort at Santa Fe for this purpose, creating the first military post in what is now Arizona. He left Major Electus Backus in charge. Small skirmishes were common between raiding Navajo and counter raiding citizens. In April 1860 one thousand Navajo warriors under Manuelito attacked the fort and were beaten off.
The fort was abandoned at the start of the Civil War but was reoccupied in 1863 by Colonel Kit Carson and the 1st New Mexico Infantry. Carson was tasked by Brigadier-General James H. Carleton, Commander of the Federal District of New Mexico, to kill Navajo men, destroy crops, wells, houses and livestock. These tactics forced 9000 Navajos to take the Long Walk to a reservation at Bosque Redondo, New Mexico. The Bosque was a complete failure. In 1868 the Navajo signed another treaty and were allowed to go back to part of their former territory. The returning Navajo were restocked with sheep and other livestock. Fort Defiance was the agency for the new Navajo reservation until 1936; today it provides medical services to the region.
Fort Apache was built on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation by soldiers from the 1st Cavalry and 21st Infantry in 1870. Only one small battle took place, in September 1881, with three soldiers wounded. When the reservation Indians were granted U.S. citizenship in 1924, the fort was permanently closed down. Fort Huachuca, east of Tucson, was founded in 1877 as the base for operations against Apaches and raiders from Mexico. From 1913 to 1933 the fort was the base for the "Buffalo Soldiers" of the 10th Cavalry Regiment. During World War II, the fort expanded to 25,000 soldiers, mostly in segregated all-black units. Today the fort remains in operation and houses the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and the U.S. Army Network.
The Pueblos in Arizona were relatively peaceful through the Navajo and Apache Wars. However, in June 1891, the army had to bring in troops to stop Oraibi from preventing a school from being built on their mesa.
After the Civil War, Texans brought large-scale ranching to southern Arizona. They introduced their proven range methods to the new grass country. Texas rustlers also came, and brought lawlessness. Inexperienced ranchers brought poor management, resulting in overstocking, and introduced destructive diseases. Local cattleman organizations were formed to handle these problems. The Territory experienced a cattle boom in 1873–91, as the herds were expanded from 40,000 to 1.5 million head. However, the drought of 1891–93 killed off over half the cattle and produced severe overgrazing. Efforts to restore the rangeland between 1905 and 1934 had limited success, but ranching continued on a smaller scale.
Arizona's last major drought occurred during Dust Bowl years of 1933–34. This time Washington stepped in as the Agricultural Adjustment Administration spent $100 million to buy up the starving cattle. The Taylor Grazing Act placed federal and state agencies in control of livestock numbers on public lands. Most of the land in Arizona is owned by the federal government which leased grazing land to ranchers at low cost. Ranchers invested heavily in blooded stock and equipment. James Wilson states that after 1950, higher fees and restrictions in the name of land conservation caused a sizable reduction in available grazing land. The ranchers had installed three-fifths of the fences, dikes, diversion dams, cattleguards, and other improvements, but the new rules reduced the value of that investment. In the end, Wilson believes, sportsmen and environmentalists maintained a political advantage by denouncing the ranchers as political corrupted land-grabbers who exploited the publicly owned natural resources.
On February 23, 1883, United Verde Copper Company was incorporated under New York law. The small mining camp next to the mine was given a proper name, 'Jerome.' The town was named after the family which had invested a large amount of capital. In 1885 Lewis Williams opened a copper smelter in Bisbee and the copper boom began, as the nation turned to copper wires for electricity. The arrival of railroads in the 1880s made mining even more profitable, and national corporations bought control of the mines and invested in new equipment. Mining operations flourished in numerous boom towns, such as Bisbee, Jerome, Douglas, Ajo and Miami.
Arizona's "wild west" reputation was well deserved. Tombstone was a notorious mining town that flourished longer than most, from 1877 to 1929. Silver was discovered in 1877, and by 1881 the town had a population of over 10,000. Western story tellers and Hollywood film makers made as much money in Tombstone as anyone, thanks to the arrival of Wyatt Earp and his brothers in 1879. They bought shares in the Vizina mine, water rights, and gambling concessions, but Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt were soon appointed as federal and local marshals. They killed three outlaws in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the most famous gunfight of the Old West.
In the aftermath, Virgil Earp was maimed in an ambush and Morgan Earp was assassinated while playing billiards. Walter Noble Burns's novel Tombstone (1927) made Earp famous. Hollywood celebrated Earp's Tombstone days with John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946), John Sturges's Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) and Hour of the Gun (1967), Frank Perry's Doc (1971), George Cosmatos's Tombstone (1993), and Lawrence Kasdan's Wyatt Earp (1994). They solidified Earp's modern reputation as the Old West's deadliest gunman.
Jennie Bauters (1862–1905) operated brothels in the Territory from 1896 to 1905. She was an astute businesswoman with an eye for real estate appreciation, and a way with the town fathers of Jerome regarding taxes and restrictive ordinances. She was not always sitting pretty; her brothels were burned in a series of major fires that swept the business district; her girls were often drug addicts. As respectability closed in on her, in 1903 she relocated to the mining camp of Acme. In 1905, she was murdered by a man who had posed as her husband.
By 1869 Americans were reading John Wesley Powell's reports of his explorations of the Colorado River. In 1901, the Santa Fe Railroad reached Grand Canyon's South Rim. With railroad, restaurant and hotel entrepreneur Fred Harvey leading the way, large-scale tourism began that has never abated. The Grand Canyon has become an iconic symbol of the West and the nation as a whole.
The Chinese came to Arizona with the construction of the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1880. Tucson was the main railroad center and soon had a Chinatown with laundries for the general population and a rich mix of restaurants, groceries, and services for the residents. Chinese and Mexican merchants and farmers transcended racial differences to form 'guanxi,' which were relations of friendship and trust. Chinese leased land from Mexicans, operated grocery stores, and aided compatriots attempting to enter the United States from Mexico after the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Chinese merchants helped supply General John Pershing's army in its expedition against Pancho Villa. Successful Chinese in Tucson led a viable community based on social integration, friendship, and kinship.
In February 1903, U.S. Senator Hamilton Kean spoke against Arizona's statehood. He said Mormons who fled from Idaho to Mexico would return to the U.S. and mix in the politics of Arizona.
In 1912, Arizona almost entered the Union as part of New Mexico in a Republican plan to keep control of the U.S. Senate. The plan, while accepted by most in New Mexico, was rejected by most Arizonans. Progressives in Arizona favored inclusion in the state constitution of the initiative, referendum, recall, direct election of senators, woman suffrage, and other reforms. Most of these proposals were included in the constitution that was rejected by Congress.
A new constitution was offered with the problematic provisions removed. Congress then voted to approve statehood, and President Taft signed the statehood bill on February 14, 1912. State residents promptly put the provisions back in. Hispanics had little voice or power. Only one of the 53 delegates at the constitutional convention was Hispanic, and he refused to sign. In 1912 women gained suffrage in the state, eight years before the country as a whole.
Arizona's first Congressman was Carl Hayden (1877–1972). He was the son of a Yankee merchant who had moved to Tempe because he needed dry heat for his bad lungs. Carl attended Stanford University and moved up the political ladder as town councilman, county treasurer, and Maricopa County sheriff, where he nabbed Arizona's last train robbers. He also started building a coalition to develop the state's water resources, a lifelong interest. A liberal Democrat his entire career, Hayden was elected to Congress in 1912 and moved to the Senate in 1926.
Reelection followed every six years as he advanced toward the chairmanship of the powerful Appropriations Committee, which he reached in 1955. His only difficult campaign came in 1962, at age 85, when he defeated a young conservative. He retired in 1968 after a record 56 years in Congress. His great achievement was his 41-year battle to enact the Central Arizona Project that would provide water for future growth.
The Great Depression of 1929–39 hit Arizona hard. At first local, state and private relief efforts focused on charity, especially by the Community Chest and Organized Charities programs. Federal money started arriving with the Federal Emergency Relief Committee in 1930. Different agencies promoted aid to the unemployed, tuberculosis patients, transients, and illegal immigrants. The money ran out by 1931 or 1932, and conditions were bad until New Deal relief operations began on a large scale in 1933.
Construction programs were important, especially the Hoover Dam (originally called Boulder Dam), begun by President Herbert Hoover. It is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border with Nevada. It was constructed by the Federal Bureau of Reclamation between 1931 and 1936. It operationalized a schedule of water use set by the Colorado River Compact of 1922 that gave Arizona 19% of the river's water, with 25% to Nevada and the rest to California.
Construction of military bases in Arizona was a national priority because of the state's excellent flying weather and clear skies, large amounts of unoccupied land, good railroads, cheap labor, low taxes, and its proximity to California's aviation industry. Arizona was attractive to both the military and private firms and they stayed after the war.
Fort Huachuca became one of the largest nearly-all-black Army forts, with quarters for 1,300 officers and 24,000 enlisted soldiers. The 92nd and 93rd Infantry Divisions, composed of African-American troops, trained there.
During the war, Mexican-American community organizations were very active in patriotic efforts to support American troops abroad, and made efforts to support the war effort materially and to provide moral support for the American servicemen fighting the war, especially the Mexican-American servicemen from local communities. Some of the community projects were cooperative ventures in which members of both the Mexican-American and Anglo communities participated. Most efforts made in the Mexican-American community represented localized American home front activities that were separate from the activities of the Anglo community.
Mexican-American women organized to assist their servicemen and the war effort. An underlying goal of the Spanish-American Mothers and Wives Association was the reinforcement of the woman's role in Spanish-Mexican culture. The organization raised thousands of dollars, wrote letters, and joined in numerous celebrations of their culture and their support for Mexican-American servicemen. Membership reached over 300 during the war and eventually ended its existence in 1976.
Heavy government spending during World War II revitalized the Arizona economy, which was still based on copper mining, citrus and cotton crops and cattle ranching, with a growing tourist business.
Military installations peppered the state, such as Davis-Monthan Field in Tucson, the main training center for air force bomber pilots. Two relocation camps opened for Japanese and Japanese Americans brought in from the West Coast.
After World War II the population grew rapidly, increasing sevenfold between 1950 and 2000, from 700,000 to over 5 million. Most of the growth was in the Phoenix area, with Tucson a distant second. Urban growth doomed the state's citrus industry, as the groves were turned into housing developments.
The cost of water made growing cotton less profitable, and Arizona's production steadily declined. Manufacturing employment jumped from 49,000 in 1960 to 183,000 by 1985, with half the workers in well-paid positions. High-tech firms such as Motorola, Hughes Aircraft, Goodyear Aircraft, Honeywell, and IBM had offices in the Phoenix area. By 1959, Hughes Aircraft had built advanced missiles with 5,000 workers in Tucson.
Despite being a small state, Arizona produced several national leaders for both the Republican and Democratic parties. Two Republican Senators were presidential nominees: Barry Goldwater in 1964 and John McCain in 2008; both carried Arizona but lost the national election. Senator Ernest McFarland, a Democrat, was the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate from 1951 to 1952, and Congressman John Rhodes was the Republican Minority Leader in the House from 1973 to 1981. Democrats Bruce Babbitt (Governor 1978–87) and Morris Udall (Congressman 1961–90) were contenders for their party's presidential nominations. In 1981 Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court; she served until 2006.
Retirement communities
Warm winters and low cost of living attracted retirees from the so-called snowbelt, who moved permanently to Arizona after 1945, bringing their pensions, Social Security, and savings with them. Real estate entrepreneurs catered to them with new communities with amenities pitched to older people, and with few facilities for children. Typically they were gated communities with controlled access and had pools, recreation centers, and golf courses.
In 1954, two developers bought 320 acres (1.3 km2) of farmland near Phoenix and opened the nation's first planned community dedicated exclusively to retirees at Youngtown. In 1960, developer Del Webb, inspired by the amenities in Florida's trailer parks, added facilities for "active adults" in his new Sun City planned community near Phoenix. In 1962 Ross Cortese opened the first of his gated Leisure Worlds. Other developers copied the popular model, and by 2000 18% of the retirees in the state lived in such "lifestyle" communities.
The issues of the fragile natural environment, compounded by questions of water shortage and distribution, led to numerous debates. The debate crossed traditional lines, so that the leading conservative, Senator Barry Goldwater, was also keenly concerned. For example, Goldwater supported the controversial Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP). He wrote:
I feel very definitely that the [Nixon] administration is absolutely correct in cracking down on companies and corporations and municipalities that continue to pollute the nation's air and water. While I am a great believer in the free competitive enterprise system and all that it entails, I am an even stronger believer in the right of our people to live in a clean and pollution-free environment. To this end, it is my belief that when pollution is found, it should be halted at the source, even if this requires stringent government action against important segments of our national economy.
Water issues were central. Agriculture consumed 89% of the state's strictly limited water supply while generating only 3% of the state's income. The Groundwater Management Act of 1980, sponsored by Governor Bruce Babbitt, raised the price of water to farmers, while cities had to reach a "safe yield" so that the groundwater usage did not exceed natural replenishment. New housing developments had to prove they had enough water for the next hundred years. Desert foliage suitable for a dry region soon replaced grass.
Cotton acreage declined dramatically, freeing up land for suburban sprawl as well as releasing large amounts of water and ending the need for expensive specialized machinery. Cotton acreage plunged from 120,000 acres in 1997 to only 40,000 acres in 2005, even as the federal treasury gave the state's farmers over $678 million in cotton subsidies. Many farmers collect the subsidies but no longer grow cotton. About 80% of the state's cotton is exported to textile factories in China and (since the passage of NAFTA) to Mexico.
Super Bowl XXX was played in Tempe in 1996 and Super Bowl XLII was held in Glendale in 2008. Super Bowl XLIX was also held in Glendale in 2015.
Illegal immigration continued to be a prime concern within the state, and in April 2010, Arizona SB1070 was passed and signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer. The measure attracted national attention as the most thorough anti-illegal immigration measure in decades within the United States.
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head during a political event in Tucson on January 8, 2011. The shooting resulted in six deaths and several injuries. Giffords survived the attack and became an advocate for gun control.
On June 30, 2013, nineteen members of the Prescott Fire Department were killed fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire. The fatalities were members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a hotshot crew, of whom only one survived as he was working in another location.
Border crisis: by 2019 Arizona was one of the states most affected by the border crisis, with a high number of migrant crossings and detentions.
after the rain
This is an example of the super depth of field of iPhone lens actually working to my benefit. Extreme foreground is sharp although I focused on M arches.
The River Taff and bridges at Pontypridd on 14 May 2024.
A view upstream on the River Taff at Pontypridd, with the Victoria Bridge of 1857 nearer and behind it the William Edwards Bridge of 1756. The older bridge is Grade 1 Listed and scheduled as an ancient monument. At the time of its completion, its 140ft / 43 m arch was the longest in Britain (and one of the longest in the world), and remained such for forty years.
For further information see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Bridge,_Pontypridd
de / from Wikipedia:
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_de_San_Vito
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Vitus_Cathedral
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La catedral gótica de San Vito es un templo dedicado al culto católico situado en la ciudad de Praga (República Checa). Forma parte del conjunto artístico monumental del Castillo de Praga y es la mayor muestra del Arte gótico de la ciudad.
Desde 1989 está dedicada a San Vito, San Venceslao y San Adalberto.
Ha sido el escenario de la coronación de todos los reyes de Bohemia y en ella se encuentran también enterrados todos los santos obispos y arzobispos y un buen número de reyes. La catedral, aunque católica, es de propiedad estatal desde el inicio de su construcción en el siglo XIV.
La catedral de San Vito es el símbolo de Praga y de toda la República Checa, tanto por su historia tempestuosa como por su valor artístico. Fue la culminación de las reivindicaciones de los reyes de Bohemia que quisieron convertir la diócesis de Praga en arzobispado.
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The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.[1] Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.[2]
de / from Wikipedia:
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_de_San_Vito
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Vitus_Cathedral
--------------------------------------------------------
La catedral gótica de San Vito es un templo dedicado al culto católico situado en la ciudad de Praga (República Checa). Forma parte del conjunto artístico monumental del Castillo de Praga y es la mayor muestra del Arte gótico de la ciudad.
Desde 1989 está dedicada a San Vito, San Venceslao y San Adalberto.
Ha sido el escenario de la coronación de todos los reyes de Bohemia y en ella se encuentran también enterrados todos los santos obispos y arzobispos y un buen número de reyes. La catedral, aunque católica, es de propiedad estatal desde el inicio de su construcción en el siglo XIV.
La catedral de San Vito es el símbolo de Praga y de toda la República Checa, tanto por su historia tempestuosa como por su valor artístico. Fue la culminación de las reivindicaciones de los reyes de Bohemia que quisieron convertir la diócesis de Praga en arzobispado.
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The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.[1] Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.[2]
In this pose.where I'm arching my body to the side, it almost makes me look SKINNY!
I look like I've got that Shelley Long/Diane Chambers look! I should be behind the bar at Cheers!
Detail Of Gothic St. Vitus Cathedral In Prague / St. Vitus Katedrali-Çek Cumhuriyeti-Prag
**Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex. Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.
Photo by Hakan Şan Borteçin
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de / from Wikipedia:
es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catedral_de_San_Vito
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Vitus_Cathedral
--------------------------------------------------------
La catedral gótica de San Vito es un templo dedicado al culto católico situado en la ciudad de Praga (República Checa). Forma parte del conjunto artístico monumental del Castillo de Praga y es la mayor muestra del Arte gótico de la ciudad.
Desde 1989 está dedicada a San Vito, San Venceslao y San Adalberto.
Ha sido el escenario de la coronación de todos los reyes de Bohemia y en ella se encuentran también enterrados todos los santos obispos y arzobispos y un buen número de reyes. La catedral, aunque católica, es de propiedad estatal desde el inicio de su construcción en el siglo XIV.
La catedral de San Vito es el símbolo de Praga y de toda la República Checa, tanto por su historia tempestuosa como por su valor artístico. Fue la culminación de las reivindicaciones de los reyes de Bohemia que quisieron convertir la diócesis de Praga en arzobispado.
------------------------------------------------------------
The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.[1] Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.[2]
St. Vitus Cathedral - 16
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The Metropolitan Cathedral of Saints Vitus, Wenceslaus and Adalbert (Czech: metropolitní katedrála svatého Víta, Václava a Vojtěcha) is a Roman Catholic metropolitan cathedral in Prague, the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. Up to 1997, the cathedral was dedicated only to Saint Vitus, and is still commonly named only as St. Vitus Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.[1] Cathedral dimensions are 124 × 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.[2]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Vitus_Cathedral
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Saint Vitus Cathedral is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Prague, and the seat of the Archbishop of Prague. The full name of the cathedral is St. Vitus, St. Wenceslas and St. Adalbert Cathedral.
This cathedral is an excellent example of Gothic architecture and is the biggest and most important church in the country. Located within Prague Castle and containing the tombs of many Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors, the cathedral is under the ownership of the Czech government as part of the Prague Castle complex.
Cathedral dimensions are 124 x 60 meters, the main tower is 96.5 meters high, front towers 82 m, arch height 33.2 m.
Had to shot this panorama photo freehand in low light condition with a Nikorr 18-105mm 5.6.... not an easy task to do...I still don't understand why i wasn't allowed to use a tripod.