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The original World Trade Center was a large complex of seven buildings in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan, New York City. It opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks.

At the time of their completion, the Twin Towers—the original 1 World Trade Center (the North Tower), at 1,368 feet (417 m); and 2 World Trade Center (the South Tower), at 1,362 feet (415.1 m)—were the tallest buildings in the world.

Other buildings in the complex included the Marriott World Trade Center (3 WTC), 4 WTC, 5 WTC, 6 WTC, and 7 WTC. The complex contained 13,400,000 square feet (1,240,000 m2) of office space. That's a lot of space - 308 acres.

The core complex was built between 1966 and 1975, at a cost of $400 million (equivalent to $2.27 billion in 2018).

During its existence, the World Trade Center experienced several major incidents, including a fire on the 13th. February 1975, a bombing on the 26th. February 1993, and a bank robbery on the 14th. January 1998.

In 1998, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey decided to privatize it by leasing the buildings to a private company to manage. It awarded the lease to Silverstein Properties in July 2001.

The 9/11 Attacks

On the morning of the 11th. September 2001, Al-Qaeda-affiliated hijackers flew two Boeing 767 jets into the Twin Towers within minutes of each other; two hours later, both towers collapsed. The attacks killed 2,606 people in the towers and their vicinity, as well as all 157 on board the two aircraft.

Falling debris from the towers, combined with fires that the debris initiated in several surrounding buildings, led to the partial or complete collapse of all the buildings in the complex, and caused catastrophic damage to ten other large structures in the surrounding area.

Subsequent Developments

The clean-up and recovery process at the World Trade Center site took eight months, during which the remains of the other buildings were demolished.

A new World Trade Center complex is being built (2020) with six new skyscrapers and several other buildings, many of which are complete. A memorial and museum to those killed in the attacks, a new rapid transit hub, and an elevated park have been opened.

One World Trade Center, the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere at 1,776 feet (541 m) and the lead building for the new complex, was completed in May 2013, and opened in November 2014.

During its existence prior to 2001, the World Trade Center was an icon of New York City. It had a major role in popular culture, and according to one estimate was depicted in 472 films. Following the World Trade Center's destruction, mentions of the complex were altered or deleted, and several dozen "memorial films" were created.

For details of the earlier 1993 bomb attack on the WTC, please search for the tag 79CMP42

Economic Effects of the September 11 Attacks

The September 11 attacks in 2001 were followed by initial shocks causing global stock markets to drop sharply. The attacks themselves resulted in approximately $40 billion in insurance losses, making it one of the largest insured events ever.

-- Financial markets

On Tuesday, September 11, 2001, the opening of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was delayed after the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center's North Tower, and trading for the day was canceled after the second plane crashed into the South Tower.

The NASDAQ also canceled trading. The New York Stock Exchange Building was then evacuated as well as nearly all banks and financial institutions on Wall Street and in many cities across the country.

The London Stock Exchange and other stock exchanges around the world were also closed down and evacuated in fear of follow-up terrorist attacks.

The New York Stock Exchange remained closed until the following Monday. This was only the third time in history that the NYSE experienced prolonged closure, the first time being during the early months of the Great War, and the second in March 1933 during the Great Depression.

Trading on the United States bond market also ceased; the leading government bond trader, Cantor Fitzgerald, was based in the World Trade Center. The New York Mercantile Exchange was also closed for a week after the attacks.

The Federal Reserve issued a statement, saying:

"We are open and operating. The

discount window is available to

meet liquidity needs."

The Federal Reserve added $100 billion in liquidity per day during the three days following the attack in order to help avert a financial crisis.

Gold prices spiked upwards, from $215.50 to $287 an ounce in London trading. Oil prices also spiked upwards. Gas prices in the United States also briefly shot up, though the spike in prices lasted only about one week.

Currency trading continued, with the United States dollar falling sharply against the Euro, British pound, and Japanese yen.

The next day, European stock markets fell sharply, including declines of 4.6% in Spain, 8.5% in Germany, and 5.7% on the London Stock Exchange.

Stocks in the Latin American markets also plunged, with a 9.2% drop in Brazil, 5.2% drop in Argentina, and 5.6% decline in Mexico, before trading was halted.

-- Effect on Economic Sectors

In international and domestic markets, stocks of companies in some sectors were hit particularly hard. Travel and entertainment stocks fell, while communications, pharmaceutical and military/defense stocks rose. Online travel agencies particularly suffered, as they cater to leisure travel.

-- Insurance Consequences of the Attacks

Insurance losses due to 9/11 were more than one and a half times greater than what was previously the largest disaster (Hurricane Andrew) in terms of losses.

The losses included business interruption ($11.0 billion), property ($9.6 billion), liability ($7.5 billion), workers compensation ($1.8 billion), and others ($2.5 billion).

The firms with the largest losses included Berkshire Hathaway, Lloyd's, Swiss Re, and Munich Re, all of which are reinsurers, with more than $2 billion in losses for each.

Shares of major reinsurers, including Swiss Re and Baloise Insurance Group dropped by more than 10%, while shares of Swiss Life dropped 7.8%.

Although the insurance industry held reserves that covered the 9/11 attacks, insurance companies were reluctant to continue providing coverage for future terrorist attacks. Only a few insurers continue to offer such coverage.

-- Consequences for Airlines and Aviation

Flights were grounded in various places across the United States and Canada that did not necessarily have operational support in place, such as dedicated ground crews.

A large number of transatlantic flights landed in Gander, Newfoundland and in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with the logistics handled by Transport Canada in Operation Yellow Ribbon.

In order to help with the immediate needs of victims' families, United Airlines and American Airlines both provided initial payments of $25,000. The airlines were also required to refund ticket purchases for anyone unable to fly.

The 9/11 attacks compounded financial troubles that the airline industry was already experiencing before the attacks. Share prices of airlines and airplane manufacturers plummeted after the attacks.

Midway Airlines, already on the brink of bankruptcy, shut down operations almost immediately afterward. Swissair, unable to make payments to creditors on its large debt was grounded on the 2nd. October 2001 and later liquidated.

Other airlines were threatened with bankruptcy, and tens of thousands of layoffs were announced in the week following the attacks. To help the industry, the federal government provided an aid package, including $10 billion in loan guarantees, along with $5 billion for short-term assistance.

The reduction in air travel demand caused by the attack is also seen as a contributory reason for the retirement of the only supersonic aircraft in service at the time, Concorde.

-- Effects of the Attacks on Tourism

Tourism in New York City plummeted, causing massive losses in a sector that employed 280,000 people and generated $25 billion per year.

In the week following the attack, hotel occupancy fell below 40%, and 3,000 employees were laid off.

Tourism, hotel occupancy, and air travel also fell drastically across the nation. The reluctance to fly may have been due to increased fear of a repeat attack. Suzanne Thompson, Professor of Psychology at Pomona College, conducted interviews with 501 people who were not direct victims of 9/11.

From this, she concluded that:

"Most participants felt more distress

(65%) and a stronger fear of flying

(55%) immediately after the event

than they did before the attacks."

-- Effects on Security

Since the 9/11 attacks, substantial resources have been put in place in the US towards improving security, in the areas of homeland security, national defense, and in the private sector.

-- Effects on New York City

In New York City, approximately 430,000 jobs were lost, and there were $2.8 billion in lost wages over the three months following the 9/11 attacks. The economic effects were mainly focused on the city's export economy sectors.

The GDP for New York City was estimated to have declined by $30.3 billion over the final three months of 2001 and all of 2002.

The Federal government provided $11.2 billion in immediate assistance to the Government of New York City in September 2001, and $10.5 billion in early 2002 for economic development and infrastructure needs.

The 9/11 attacks also had great impact on small businesses in Lower Manhattan, located near the World Trade Center. Approximately 18,000 small businesses were destroyed or displaced after the attacks.

The Small Business Administration provided loans as assistance, while Community Development Block Grants and Economic Injury Disaster Loans were used by the Federal Government to provide assistance to small business affected by the 9/11 attacks.

-- Other Effects of the Attacks

The September 11 attacks also led directly to the U.S. war in Afghanistan, as well as additional homeland security spending.

The attacks were also cited as a rationale for the Iraq war.

The cost of the two wars so far has surpassed $6 trillion.

More on 9/11 below.

Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge (behind Manhattan Bridge in the photograph) is a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge. Opened on the 24th. May 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River.

It was also the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time of its opening, with a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m).

The bridge was designed by John A. Roebling. The project's chief engineer, his son Washington Roebling, contributed further design work, assisted by the latter's wife, Emily Warren Roebling.

Construction started in 1870, with the Tammany Hall-controlled New York Bridge Company overseeing construction, although numerous controversies and the novelty of the design prolonged the project over thirteen years.

Since opening, the Brooklyn Bridge has undergone several reconfigurations, having carried horse-drawn vehicles and elevated railway lines until 1950.

To alleviate increasing traffic flows, additional bridges and tunnels were built across the East River.

The Brooklyn Bridge is the southernmost of the four toll-free vehicular bridges connecting Manhattan Island and Long Island, with the Manhattan Bridge, the Williamsburg Bridge, and the Queensboro Bridge to the north. Only passenger vehicles and pedestrian and bicycle traffic are permitted.

A major tourist attraction since its opening, the Brooklyn Bridge has become an icon of New York City. Over the years, the bridge has been used as the location for various stunts and performances, as well as several crimes and attacks.

Following gradual deterioration, the Brooklyn Bridge has been renovated several times, including in the 1950's, 1980's, and 2010's.

Description of Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge, an early example of a steel-wire suspension bridge, uses a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge design, with both vertical and diagonal suspender cables.

Its stone towers are neo-Gothic, with characteristic pointed arches. The New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT), which maintains the bridge, says that its original paint scheme was "Brooklyn Bridge Tan" and "Silver", although a writer for The New York Post states that it was originally entirely "Rawlins Red".

The Deck of the Brooklyn Bridge

To provide sufficient clearance for shipping in the East River, the Brooklyn Bridge incorporates long approach viaducts on either end to raise it from low ground on both shores.

Including approaches, the Brooklyn Bridge is a total of 6,016 feet (1,834 m) long. The main span between the two suspension towers is 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m) long, and 85 feet (26 m) wide.

The bridge elongates and contracts between the extremes of temperature from 14 to 16 inches. Navigational clearance is 127 ft (38.7 m) above mean high water. A 1909 Engineering Magazine article said that, at the center of the span, the height could fluctuate by more than 9 feet (2.7 m) due to temperature and traffic loads.

At the time of construction, engineers had not yet discovered the aerodynamics of bridge construction, and bridge designs were not tested in wind tunnels.

It was coincidental that the open truss structure supporting the deck is, by its nature, subject to fewer aerodynamic problems. This is because John Roebling designed the Brooklyn Bridge's truss system to be six to eight times stronger than he thought it needed to be.

However, due to a supplier's fraudulent substitution of inferior-quality cable in the initial construction, the bridge was reappraised at the time as being only four times as strong as necessary.

The Brooklyn Bridge can hold a total load of 18,700 short tons, a design consideration from when it originally carried heavier elevated trains.

An elevated pedestrian-only promenade runs in between the two roadways and 18 feet (5.5 m) above them. The path is 10 to 17 feet (3.0 to 5.2 m) wide. The iron railings were produced by Janes & Kirtland, a Bronx iron foundry that also made the United States Capitol dome and the Bow Bridge in Central Park.

The Cables of Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge contains four main cables, which descend from the tops of the suspension towers and support the deck. Each main cable measures 15.75 inches (40.0 cm) in diameter, and contains 5,282 parallel, galvanized steel wires wrapped closely together. These wires are bundled in 19 individual strands, with 278 wires to a strand.

This was the first use of bundling in a suspension bridge, and took several months for workers to tie together. Since the 2000's, the main cables have also supported a series of 24-watt LED lighting fixtures, referred to as "necklace lights" due to their shape.

1,520 galvanized steel wire suspender cables hang downward from the main cables.

Brooklyn Bridge Anchorages

Each side of the bridge contains an anchorage for the main cables. The anchorages are limestone structures located slightly inland, measuring 129 by 119 feet (39 by 36 m) at the base and 117 by 104 feet (36 by 32 m) at the top.

Each anchorage weighs 60,000 short tons. The Manhattan anchorage rests on a foundation of bedrock, while the Brooklyn anchorage rests on clay.

The anchorages contain numerous passageways and compartments. Starting in 1876, in order to fund the bridge's maintenance, the New York City government made the large vaults under the bridge's Manhattan anchorage available for rent, and they were in constant use during the early 20th. century.

The vaults were used to store wine, as they maintained a consistent 60 °F (16 °C) temperature due to a lack of air circulation. The Manhattan vault was called the "Blue Grotto" because of a shrine to the Virgin Mary next to an opening at the entrance.

The vaults were closed for public use in the late 1910's and 1920's during the Great War and Prohibition, but were reopened thereafter.

When New York magazine visited one of the cellars in 1978, it discovered a fading inscription on a wall reading:

"Who loveth not wine, women and song,

he remaineth a fool his whole life long."

Leaks found within the vault's spaces necessitated repairs during the late 1980's and early 1990's. By the late 1990's, the chambers were being used to store maintenance equipment.

The Towers of the Brooklyn Bridge

The bridge's two suspension towers are 278 feet (85 m) tall, with a footprint of 140 by 59 feet (43 by 18 m) at the high water line.

They are built of limestone, granite, and Rosendale cement. The limestone was quarried at the Clark Quarry in Essex County, New York. The granite blocks were quarried and shaped on Vinalhaven Island, Maine, under a contract with the Bodwell Granite Company, and delivered from Maine to New York by schooner.

The Manhattan tower contains 46,945 cubic yards (35,892 m3) of masonry, while the Brooklyn tower has 38,214 cubic yards (29,217 m3) of masonry.

Each tower contains a pair of Gothic Revival pointed arches, through which the roadways run. The arch openings are 117 feet (36 m) tall and 33.75 feet (10.29 m) wide.

The Brooklyn Bridge Caissons

The towers rest on underwater caissons made of southern yellow pine. Both caissons contain interior spaces that were used by construction workers. The Manhattan side's caisson is slightly larger, measuring 172 by 102 feet (52 by 31 m) and located 78.5 feet (23.9 m) below high water, while the Brooklyn side's caisson measures 168 by 102 feet (51 by 31 m) and is located 44.5 feet (13.6 m) below high water.

The caissons were designed to hold at least the weight of the towers which would exert a pressure of 5 short tons per square foot when fully built, but the caissons were over-engineered for safety.

During an accident on the Brooklyn side, when air pressure was lost and the partially-built towers dropped full-force down, the caisson sustained an estimated pressure of 23 short tons per square foot with only minor damage. Most of the timber used in the bridge's construction, including in the caissons, came from mills at Gascoigne Bluff on St. Simons Island, Georgia.

The Brooklyn side's caisson, which was built first, originally had a height of 9.5 feet (2.9 m) and a ceiling composed of five layers of timber, each layer 1 foot (0.30 m) tall. Ten more layers of timber were later added atop the ceiling, and the entire caisson was wrapped in tin and wood for further protection against flooding.

The thickness of the caisson's sides was 8 feet (2.4 m) at both the bottom and the top. The caisson had six chambers: two each for dredging, supply shafts, and airlocks.

The caisson on the Manhattan side was slightly different because it had to be installed at a greater depth. To protect against the increased air pressure at that depth, the Manhattan caisson had 22 layers of timber on its roof, seven more than its Brooklyn counterpart had. The Manhattan caisson also had fifty 4-inch (10 cm)-diameter pipes for sand removal, a fireproof iron-boilerplate interior, and different airlocks and communication systems.

History of the Brooklyn Bridge

Proposals for a bridge between the then-separate cities of Brooklyn and New York had been suggested as early as 1800. At the time, the only travel between the two cities was by a number of ferry lines.

Engineers presented various designs, such as chain or link bridges, though these were never built because of the difficulties of constructing a high enough fixed-span bridge across the extremely busy East River.

There were also proposals for tunnels under the East River, but these were considered prohibitively expensive. The current Brooklyn Bridge was conceived by German immigrant John Augustus Roebling in 1852.

He had previously designed and constructed shorter suspension bridges, such as Roebling's Delaware Aqueduct in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, and the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky.

In February 1867, the New York State Senate passed a bill that allowed the construction of a suspension bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan.

Two months later, the New York and Brooklyn Bridge Company was incorporated. There were twenty trustees in total: eight each appointed by the mayors of New York and Brooklyn, as well as the mayors of each city and the auditor and comptroller of Brooklyn.

The company was tasked with constructing what was then known as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge. Alternatively, the span was just referred to as the "Brooklyn Bridge", a name originating in a 25th. January 1867 letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

The act of incorporation, which became law on the 16th. April 1867, authorized the cities of New York (now Manhattan) and Brooklyn to subscribe to $5 million in capital stock, which would fund the bridge's construction.

Roebling was subsequently named as the main engineer of the work, and by September 1867, he had presented a master plan of a bridge that would be longer and taller than any suspension bridge previously built.

It would incorporate roadways and elevated rail tracks, whose tolls and fares would provide the means to pay for the bridge's construction. It would also include a raised promenade that served as a leisurely pathway.

The proposal received much acclaim in both cities, and residents predicted that the New York and Brooklyn Bridge's opening would have as much of an impact as the Suez Canal, the first transatlantic telegraph cable, or the first transcontinental railroad.

By early 1869, however, some individuals started to criticize the project, saying either that the bridge was too expensive, or that the construction process was too difficult.

To allay concerns about the design of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, Roebling set up a "Bridge Party" in March 1869, where he invited engineers and members of U.S. Congress to see his other spans. Following the bridge party in April, Roebling and several engineers conducted final surveys.

During these surveys, it was determined that the main span would have to be raised from 130 to 135 feet (40 to 41 m), requiring several changes to the overall design.

In June 1869, while conducting these surveys, Roebling sustained a crush injury to his foot when a ferry pinned it against a piling. After amputation of his crushed toes, he developed a tetanus infection that left him incapacitated and resulted in his death the following month.

Washington Roebling, John Roebling's 32-year-old son, was then hired to fill his father's role. When the younger Roebling was hired, Tammany Hall leader William M. Tweed also became involved in the bridge's construction because, as a major landowner in New York City, he had an interest in the project's completion.

The New York and Brooklyn Bridge Company - later known simply as the New York Bridge Company - was actually overseen by Tammany Hall, and it approved Roebling's plans and designated him as chief engineer of the project.

Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge

The Caissons

Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began on the 2nd. January 2, 1870. The first work entailed the construction of two caissons, upon which the suspension towers would be built.

A caisson is a large watertight chamber, open at the bottom, from which the water is kept out by air pressure and in which construction work may be carried out under water.

The Brooklyn side's caisson was built at the Webb & Bell shipyard in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and was launched into the river on the 19th. March 1870. Compressed air was pumped into the caisson, and workers entered the space to dig the sediment until it sank to the bedrock. As one sixteen-year-old from Ireland, Frank Harris, described the fearful experience:

"The six of us were working naked to the waist

in the small iron chamber with the temperature

of about 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

In five minutes the sweat was pouring from us,

and all the while we were standing in icy water

that was only kept from rising by the terrific

pressure. No wonder the headaches were

blinding."

Once the caisson had reached the desired depth, it was to be filled in with vertical brick piers and concrete. However, due to the unexpectedly high concentration of large boulders on the riverbed, the Brooklyn caisson took several months to sink to the desired depth.

Furthermore, in December 1870, its timber roof caught fire, delaying construction further. The "Great Blowout", as the fire was called, delayed construction for several months, since the holes in the caisson had to be repaired.

On the 6th. March 1871, the repairs were finished, and the caisson had reached its final depth of 44.5 feet (13.6 m); it was filled with concrete five days later. Overall, about 264 individuals were estimated to have worked in the caisson every day, but because of high worker turnover, the final total was thought to be about 2,500 men.

In spite of this, only a few workers were paralyzed. At its final depth, the caisson's air pressure was 21 pounds per square inch. Normal air pressure is 14.7 psi.

The Manhattan side's caisson was the next structure to be built. To ensure that it would not catch fire like its counterpart had, the Manhattan caisson was lined with fireproof plate iron.

It was launched from Webb & Bell's shipyard on the 11th. May 1871, and maneuvered into place that September.

Due to the extreme underwater air pressure inside the much deeper Manhattan caisson, many workers became sick with "the bends" - decompression sickness - during this work, despite the incorporation of airlocks (which were believed to help with decompression sickness at the time).

This condition was unknown at the time, and was first called "caisson disease" by the project physician, Andrew Smith. Between the 25th. January and the 31st. May 1872, Smith treated 110 cases of decompression sickness, while three workers died from the condition.

When iron probes underneath the Manhattan caisson found the bedrock to be even deeper than expected, Washington Roebling halted construction due to the increased risk of decompression sickness.

After the Manhattan caisson reached a depth of 78.5 feet (23.9 m) with an air pressure of 35 pounds per square inch, Washington deemed the sandy subsoil overlying the bedrock 30 feet (9.1 m) beneath to be sufficiently firm, and subsequently infilled the caisson with concrete in July 1872.

Washington Roebling himself suffered a paralyzing injury as a result of caisson disease shortly after ground was broken for the Brooklyn tower foundation.

His debilitating condition left him unable to supervise the construction in person, so he designed the caissons and other equipment from his apartment, directing the completion of the bridge through a telescope in his bedroom.

His wife, Emily Warren Roebling, not only provided written communications between her husband and the engineers on site, but also understood mathematics, calculations of catenary curves, strengths of materials, bridge specifications, and the intricacies of cable construction.

She spent the next 11 years helping supervise the bridge's construction, taking over much of the chief engineer's duties, including day-to-day supervision and project management.

The Towers of the Brooklyn Bridge

After the caissons were completed, piers were constructed on top of each of them upon which masonry towers would be built. The towers' construction was a complex process that took four years.

Since the masonry blocks were heavy, the builders transported them to the base of the towers using a pulley system with a continuous 1.5-inch (3.8 cm)-diameter steel wire rope, operated by steam engines at ground level.

The blocks were then carried up on a timber track alongside each tower and maneuvered into the proper position using a derrick atop the towers. The blocks sometimes vibrated the ropes because of their weight, but only once did a block fall.

Construction of the suspension towers started in mid-1872, and by the time work was halted for the winter in late 1872, parts of each tower had already been built. By mid-1873, there was substantial progress on the towers' construction.

The arches of the Brooklyn tower were completed by August 1874. The tower was substantially finished by December 1874, with the erection of saddle plates for the main cables at the top of the tower.

The last stone on the Brooklyn tower was raised in June 1875, and the Manhattan tower was completed in July 1876.

The work was dangerous: by 1876, three workers had died having fallen from the towers, while nine other workers were killed in other accidents.

By 1875, while the towers were being constructed, the project had depleted its original $5 million budget. Two bridge commissioners, one each from Brooklyn and Manhattan, petitioned New York state lawmakers to allot another $8 million for construction. Legislators authorized the money on condition that the cities would buy the stock of Brooklyn Bridge's private stockholders.

Work proceeded concurrently on the anchorages on each side. The Brooklyn anchorage broke ground in January 1873 and was substantially completed by August 1875.

The Manhattan anchorage was built in less time. Having started in May 1875, it was mostly completed by July 1876. The anchorages could not be fully completed until the main cables were spun, at which point another 6 feet (1.8 m) would be added to the height of each 80-foot (24 m) anchorage.

The Brooklyn Bridge Cables

The first temporary wire was stretched between the towers on the 15th. August 1876, using chrome steel provided by the Chrome Steel Company of Brooklyn. The wire was then stretched back across the river, and the two ends were spliced to form a traveler, a lengthy loop of wire connecting the towers, which was driven by a 30 horsepower (22 kW) steam hoisting engine at ground level.

The wire was one of two that were used to create a temporary footbridge for workers while cable spinning was ongoing. The next step was to send an engineer across the completed traveler wire in a boatswain's chair slung from the wire, to ensure it was safe enough.

The bridge's master mechanic, E. F. Farrington, was volunteered for this task, and an estimated crowd of 10,000 people on both shores watched him cross.

A second traveler wire was then stretched across the span. The temporary footbridge, located some 60 feet (18 m) above the elevation of the future deck, was completed in February 1877.

By December 1876, a steel contract for the permanent cables still had not been awarded. There was disagreement over whether the bridge's cables should use the as-yet-untested Bessemer steel, or the well-proven crucible steel.

Until a permanent contract was awarded, the builders ordered 30 short tons of wire in the interim, 10 tons each from three companies, including Washington Roebling's own steel mill in Brooklyn.

In the end, it was decided to use number 8 Birmingham gauge (approximately 4 mm or 0.165 inches in diameter) crucible steel, and a request for bids was distributed, to which eight companies responded.

In January 1877, a contract for crucible steel was awarded to J. Lloyd Haigh, who was associated with bridge trustee Abram Hewitt, whom Roebling distrusted.

The spinning of the wires required the manufacture of large coils of it which were galvanized but not oiled when they left the factory. The coils were delivered to a yard near the Brooklyn anchorage. There they were dipped in linseed oil, hoisted to the top of the anchorage, dried out and spliced into a single wire, and finally coated with red zinc for further galvanizing.

There were thirty-two drums at the anchorage yard, eight for each of the four main cables. Each drum had a capacity of 60,000 feet (18,000 m) of wire. The first experimental wire for the main cables was stretched between the towers on the 29th. May 29 1877, and spinning began two weeks later.

All four main cables had been strung by that July. During that time, the temporary footbridge was unofficially opened to members of the public, who could receive a visitor's pass; by August 1877 several thousand visitors from around the world had used the footbridge. The visitor passes ceased that September after a visitor had an epileptic seizure and nearly fell off.

As the wires were being spun, work also commenced on the demolition of buildings on either side of the river for the Brooklyn Bridge's approaches; this work was mostly complete by September 1877. The following month, initial contracts were awarded for the suspender wires, which would hang down from the main cables and support the deck. By May 1878, the main cables were more than two-thirds complete.

However, the following month, one of the wires slipped, killing two people and injuring three others. In 1877, Hewitt wrote a letter urging against the use of Bessemer steel in the bridge's construction. Bids had been submitted for both crucible steel and Bessemer steel; John A. Roebling's Sons submitted the lowest bid for Bessemer steel, but at Hewitt's direction, the contract was awarded to Haigh.

A subsequent investigation discovered that Haigh had substituted inferior quality wire in the cables. Of eighty rings of wire that were tested, only five met standards, and it was estimated that Haigh had earned $300,000 from the deception.

At this point, it was too late to replace the cables that had already been constructed. Roebling determined that the poorer wire would leave the bridge only four times as strong as necessary, rather than six to eight times as strong. The inferior-quality wire was allowed to remain, and 150 extra wires were added to each cable.

To avoid public controversy, Haigh was not fired, but instead was required to personally pay for higher-quality wire. The contract for the remaining wire was awarded to the John A. Roebling's Sons, and by the 5th. October 1878, the last of the main cables' wires went over the river.

After the suspender wires had been placed, workers began erecting steel crossbeams to support the roadway as part of the bridge's overall superstructure. Construction on the bridge's superstructure started in March 1879, but, as with the cables, the trustees initially disagreed on whether the steel superstructure should be made of Bessemer or crucible steel.

That July, the trustees decided to award a contract for 500 short tons of Bessemer steel to the Edgemoor Iron Works, based in Philadelphia. The trustees later ordered another 500 short tons of Bessemer steel. However, by February 1880 the steel deliveries had not started.

That October, the bridge trustees questioned Edgemoor's president about the delay in steel deliveries. Despite Edgemoor's assurances that the contract would be fulfilled, the deliveries still had not been completed by November 1881.

Brooklyn mayor Seth Low, who became part of the board of trustees in 1882, became the chairman of a committee tasked to investigate Edgemoor's failure to fulfill the contract. When questioned, Edgemoor's president stated that the delays were the fault of another contractor, the Cambria Iron Company, who were manufacturing the eyebars for the bridge trusses.

Further complicating the situation, Washington Roebling had failed to appear at the trustees' meeting in June 1882, since he had gone to Newport, Rhode Island. After the news media discovered this, most of the newspapers called for Roebling to be fired as chief engineer, except for the Daily State Gazette of Trenton, New Jersey, and the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Some of the longstanding trustees were willing to vouch for Roebling, since construction progress on the Brooklyn Bridge was still ongoing. However, Roebling's behavior was considered suspect among the younger trustees who had joined the board more recently.

Construction progress on the bridge itself was submitted in formal monthly reports to the mayors of New York and Brooklyn. For example, the August 1882 report noted that the month's progress included 114 intermediate cords erected within a week, as well as 72 diagonal stays, 60 posts, and numerous floor beams, bridging trusses, and stay bars.

By early 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was considered mostly completed and was projected to open that June. Contracts for bridge lighting were awarded by February 1883, and a toll scheme was approved that March.

Opposition to the Bridge

There was substantial opposition to the bridge's construction from shipbuilders and merchants located to the north, who argued that the bridge would not provide sufficient clearance underneath for ships.

In May 1876, these groups, led by Abraham Miller, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court against the cities of New York and Brooklyn.

In 1879, an Assembly Sub-Committee on Commerce and Navigation began an investigation into the Brooklyn Bridge. A seaman who had been hired to determine the height of the span, testified to the committee about the difficulties that ship masters would experience in bringing their ships under the bridge when it was completed.

Another witness, Edward Wellman Serrell, a civil engineer, said that the calculations of the bridge's assumed strength were incorrect.

However the Supreme Court decided in 1883 that the Brooklyn Bridge was a lawful structure.

The Opening of the Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge was opened for use on the 24th. May 1883. Thousands of people attended the opening ceremony, and many ships were present in the East River for the occasion. Officially, Emily Warren Roebling was the first to cross the bridge.

The bridge opening was also attended by U.S. president Chester A. Arthur and New York mayor Franklin Edson, who crossed the bridge and shook hands with Brooklyn mayor Seth Low at the Brooklyn end. Abram Hewitt gave the principal address:

"It is not the work of any one man or of any one

age. It is the result of the study, of the experience,

and of the knowledge of many men in many ages.

It is not merely a creation; it is a growth. It stands

before us today as the sum and epitome of human

knowledge; as the very heir of the ages; as the

latest glory of centuries of patient observation,

profound study and accumulated skill, gained,

step by step, in the never-ending struggle of man

to subdue the forces of nature to his control and use."

Although Washington Roebling was unable to attend the ceremony (and rarely visited the site again), he held a celebratory banquet at his house on the day of the bridge opening.

Further festivity included a performance by a band, gunfire from ships, and a fireworks display. On that first day, a total of 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed the span.

Less than a week after the Brooklyn Bridge opened, ferry crews reported a sharp drop in patronage, while the bridge's toll operators were processing over a hundred people a minute. However, cross-river ferries continued to operate until 1942.

The bridge had cost US$15.5 million in 1883 dollars (about US$436,232,000 in 2021) to build, of which Brooklyn paid two-thirds. The bonds to fund the construction were not paid off until 1956.

An estimated 27 men died during the bridge's construction. Until the construction of the nearby Williamsburg Bridge in 1903, the Brooklyn Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world, 20% longer than any built previously.

At the time of opening, the Brooklyn Bridge was not complete; the proposed public transit across the bridge was still being tested, while the Brooklyn approach was being completed.

On the 30th. May 1883, six days after the opening, a woman falling down a stairway at the Brooklyn approach caused a stampede which resulted in at least twelve people being crushed and killed.

In subsequent lawsuits, the Brooklyn Bridge Company was acquitted of negligence. However, the company did install emergency phone boxes and additional railings, and the trustees approved a fireproofing plan for the bridge.

Public transit service began with the opening of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge Railway, a cable car service, on the 25th. September 1883.

On the 17th. May 1884, one of P. T. Barnum's most famous attractions, Jumbo the elephant, led a parade of 21 elephants over the Brooklyn Bridge. This helped to lessen doubts about the bridge's stability while also promoting Barnum's circus.

Brooklyn Bridge in the Late 19th. & Early 20th. Centuries

Movement across the Brooklyn Bridge increased in the years after it opened; a million people paid to cross in the first six months. The bridge carried 8.5 million people in 1884, its first full year of operation; this number doubled to 17 million in 1885, and again to 34 million in 1889.

Many of these people were cable car passengers. Additionally, about 4.5 million pedestrians a year were crossing the bridge for free by 1892.

The first proposal to make changes to the bridge was sent in only two and a half years after it opened; Linda Gilbert suggested glass steam-powered elevators and an observatory be added to the bridge and a fee charged for use, which would in part fund the bridge's upkeep and in part fund her prison reform charity.

This proposal was considered, but not acted upon. Numerous other proposals were made during the first fifty years of the bridge's life.

Trolley tracks were added in the center lanes of both roadways in 1898, allowing trolleys to use the bridge as well.

Concerns about the Brooklyn Bridge's safety were raised during the turn of the century. In 1898, traffic backups due to a dead horse caused one of the truss cords to buckle.

There were more significant worries after twelve suspender cables snapped in 1901, although a thorough investigation found no other defects.

After the 1901 incident, five inspectors were hired to examine the bridge each day, a service that cost $250,000 a year.

The Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company, which operated routes across the Brooklyn Bridge, issued a notice in 1905 saying that the bridge had reached its transit capacity.

Although a second deck for the Brooklyn Bridge was proposed, it was thought to be infeasible because doing so would overload the bridge's structural capacity.

Though tolls had been instituted for carriages and cable-car customers since the bridge's opening, pedestrians were spared from the tolls originally. However, by the first decade of the 20th. century, pedestrians were also paying tolls.

However tolls on all four bridges across the East River - the Brooklyn Bridge, as well as the Manhattan, Williamsburg, and Queensboro bridges to the north - were abolished in July 1911 as part of a populist policy initiative headed by New York City mayor William Jay Gaynor.

Ostensibly in an attempt to reduce traffic on nearby city streets, Grover Whalen, the commissioner of Plant and Structures, banned motor vehicles from the Brooklyn Bridge in 1922. The real reason for the ban was an incident the same year where two cables slipped due to high traffic loads.

Both Whalen and Roebling called for the renovation of the Brooklyn Bridge and the construction of a parallel bridge, although the parallel bridge was never built.

Brooklyn Bridge in Mid- to late 20th. Century

Upgrades to the Bridge

The first major upgrade to the Brooklyn Bridge commenced in 1948, when a contract for redesigning the roadways was awarded to David B. Steinman. The renovation was expected to double the capacity of the bridge's roadways to nearly 6,000 cars per hour, at a projected cost of $7 million.

The renovation included the demolition of both the elevated and the trolley tracks on the roadways and the widening of each roadway from two to three lanes, as well as the construction of a new steel-and-concrete floor.

In addition, new ramps were added to Adams Street, Cadman Plaza, and the Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE) on the Brooklyn side, and to Park Row on the Manhattan side. The trolley tracks closed in March 1950 to allow for the widening work to occur.

During the construction project, one roadway at a time was closed, allowing reduced traffic flows to cross the bridge in one direction only. The widened south roadway was completed in May 1951, followed by the north roadway in October 1953. In addition, defensive barriers were added to the bridge as a safeguard against sabotage.

The restoration was finished in May 1954 with the completion of the reconstructed elevated promenade.

While the rebuilding of the span was ongoing, a fallout shelter was constructed beneath the Manhattan approach in anticipation of the Cold War. The abandoned space in one of the masonry arches was stocked with emergency survival supplies for a potential nuclear attack by the Soviet Union; these supplies were still in place half a century later.

A repainting of the bridge was announced in advance of its 90th. anniversary.

Deterioration and Late-20th. Century Repair

The Brooklyn Bridge gradually deteriorated due to age and neglect. While it had 200 full-time dedicated maintenance workers before World War II, that number had dropped to five by the late 20th. century, and the city as a whole only had 160 bridge maintenance workers.

In 1974, heavy vehicles such as vans and buses were banned from the bridge to prevent further erosion of the concrete roadway. A report in The New York Times four years later noted that the cables were visibly fraying, and that the pedestrian promenade had holes in it.

The city began planning to replace all the Brooklyn Bridge's cables at a cost of $115 million, as part of a larger project to renovate all four toll-free East River spans.

By 1980, the Brooklyn Bridge was in such dire condition that it faced imminent closure. In some places, half of the strands in the cables were broken.

In June 1981, two of the diagonal stay cables snapped, seriously injuring a pedestrian who later died. Subsequently, the anchorages were found to have developed rust, and an emergency cable repair was necessitated less than a month later after another cable developed slack.

Following the incident, the city accelerated the timetable of its proposed cable replacement, and it commenced a $153 million rehabilitation of the Brooklyn Bridge in advance of the 100th anniversary.

As part of the project, the bridge's original suspender cables installed by J. Lloyd Haigh were replaced by Bethlehem Steel in 1986, marking the cables' first replacement since construction. In a smaller project, the bridge was floodlit at night, starting in 1982 to highlight its architectural features.

Additional problems persisted, and in 1993, high levels of lead were discovered near the bridge's towers. Further emergency repairs were undertaken in mid-1999 after small concrete shards began falling from the bridge into the East River. The concrete deck had been installed during the 1950's renovations, and had a lifespan of about 60 years.

Brooklyn Bridge in the 21st. Century

The Park Row exit from the bridge's westbound lanes was closed as a safety measure after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the nearby World Trade Center. That section of Park Row was closed since it ran right underneath 1 Police Plaza, the headquarters of the New York City Police Department.

In early 2003, to save money on electricity, the bridge's "necklace lights" were turned off at night. They were turned back on later that year after several private entities made donations to fund the lights.

After the 2007 collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, public attention focused on the condition of bridges across the U.S. The New York Times reported that the Brooklyn Bridge approach ramps had received a "poor" rating during an inspection in 2007.

However, a NYCDOT spokesman said that the poor rating did not indicate a dangerous state but rather implied it required renovation. In 2010, the NYCDOT began renovating the approaches and deck, as well as repainting the suspension span.

Work included widening two approach ramps from one to two lanes by re-striping a new prefabricated ramp; seismic retrofitting; replacement of rusted railings and safety barriers; and road deck resurfacing. The work necessitated detours for four years.

At the time, the project was scheduled to be completed in 2014, but completion was later delayed to 2015, then again to 2017. The project's cost also increased from $508 million in 2010 to $811 million in 2016.

In August 2016, after the renovation had been completed, the NYCDOT announced that it would conduct a seven-month, $370,000 study to verify if the bridge could support a heavier upper deck that consisted of an expanded bicycle and pedestrian path.

As of 2016, about 10,000 pedestrians and 3,500 cyclists used the pathway on an average weekday. Work on the pedestrian entrance on the Brooklyn side was underway by 2017.

The NYCDOT also indicated in 2016 that it planned to reinforce the Brooklyn Bridge's foundations to prevent it from sinking, as well as repair the masonry arches on the approach ramps, which had been damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012.

In July 2018, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission approved a further renovation of the Brooklyn Bridge's suspension towers and approach ramps. That December, the federal government gave the city $25 million in funding, which would contribute to a $337 million rehabilitation of the bridge approaches and the suspension towers. Work started in late 2019 and was scheduled to be completed in 2023.

Usage of the Brooklyn Bridge

Horse-drawn carriages have been allowed to use the Brooklyn Bridge's roadways since its opening. Originally, each of the two roadways carried two lanes of a different direction of traffic. The lanes were relatively narrow at only 8 feet (2.4 m) wide. In 1922, motor vehicles were banned from the bridge, while horse-drawn carriages were restricted from the Manhattan Bridge. Thereafter, the only vehicles allowed on the Brooklyn Bridge were horse-drawn.

By 1950, the main roadway carried six lanes of automobile traffic, three in each direction. It was then reduced to five lanes with the addition of a two-way bike lane on the Manhattan-bound side in 2021.

Because of the roadway's height (11 ft (3.4 m)) and weight (6,000 lb (2,700 kg)) restrictions, commercial vehicles and buses are prohibited from using the Brooklyn Bridge.

The weight restrictions prohibit heavy passenger vehicles such as pickup trucks and SUVs from using the bridge, though this is not often enforced in practice.

Formerly, rail traffic operated on the Brooklyn Bridge as well. Cable cars and elevated railroads used the bridge until 1944, while trolleys ran until 1950.

A cable car service began operating on the 25th. September 1883; it ran on the inner lanes of the bridge, between terminals at the Manhattan and Brooklyn ends.

Since Washington Roebling believed that steam locomotives would put excessive loads upon the structure of the Brooklyn Bridge, the cable car line was designed as a steam/cable-hauled hybrid.

They were powered from a generating station under the Brooklyn approach. The cable cars could not only regulate their speed on the 3.75% upward and downward approaches, but also maintain a constant interval between each other. There were 24 cable cars in total.

Initially, the service ran with single-car trains, but patronage soon grew so much that by October 1883, two-car trains were in use. The line carried three million people in the first six months, nine million in 1884, and nearly 20 million in 1885.

Patronage continued to increase, and in 1888, the tracks were lengthened and even more cars were constructed to allow for four-car cable car trains. Electric wires for the trolleys were added by 1895, allowing for the potential future decommissioning of the steam/cable system.

The terminals were rebuilt once more in July 1895, and, following the implementation of new electric cars in late 1896, the steam engines were dismantled and sold.

The Brooklyn Bridge Walkway

The Brooklyn Bridge has an elevated promenade open to pedestrians in the center of the bridge, located 18 feet (5.5 m) above the automobile lanes.

The path is generally 10 to 17 feet (3.0 to 5.2 m) wide, though this is constrained by obstacles such as protruding cables, benches, and stairways, which create "pinch points" at certain locations. The path narrows to 10 feet (3.0 m) at the locations where the main cables descend to the level of the promenade.

Further exacerbating the situation, these "pinch points" are some of the most popular places to take pictures. As a result, in 2016, the NYCDOT announced that it planned to double the promenade's width.

On the 14th. September 2021, the DOT closed off the inner-most car lane on the Manhattan-bound side with protective barriers and fencing to create a new bike path. Cyclists are now prohibited from the upper pedestrian lane.

Emergency Use of Brooklyn Bridge

While the bridge has always permitted the passage of pedestrians, the promenade facilitates movement when other means of crossing the East River have become unavailable.

During transit strikes by the Transport Workers Union in 1980 and 2005, people commuting to work used the bridge; they were joined by Mayors Ed Koch and Michael Bloomberg, who crossed as a gesture to the affected public.

Pedestrians also walked across the bridge as an alternative to suspended subway services following the 1965, 1977, and 2003 blackouts, and after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

During the 2003 blackouts, many crossing the bridge reported a swaying motion. The higher-than-usual pedestrian load caused this swaying, which was amplified by the tendency of pedestrians to synchronize their footfalls with a sway.

Several engineers expressed concern about how this would affect the bridge, although others noted that the bridge did withstand the event and that the redundancies in its design - the inclusion of the three support systems (suspension system, diagonal stay system, and stiffening truss) - make it probably the best secured bridge against such movements going out of control.

In designing the bridge, John Roebling had stated that the bridge would sag but not fall, even if one of these structural systems were to fail altogether.

Stunts Associated With Brooklyn Bridge

There have been several notable jumpers from the Brooklyn Bridge:

-- The first person was Robert Emmet Odlum, brother of women's rights activist Charlotte Odlum Smith, on the 19th. May 1885. He struck the water at an angle, and died shortly afterwards from internal injuries.

-- Steve Brodie supposedly dropped from underneath the bridge in July 1886 and was briefly arrested for it, although there is some doubt about whether he actually jumped.

-- Larry Donovan made a slightly higher jump from the railing a month afterward.

Other notable events have taken place on or near the bridge:

-- In 1919, Giorgio Pessi piloted what was then one of the world's largest airplanes, the Caproni Ca.5, under the bridge.

-- At 9:00 a.m. on the 19th. May 1977, artist Jack Bashkow climbed one of the towers for 'Bridging', which was termed a "media sculpture" by the performance group Art Corporation of America Inc.

Seven artists climbed the largest bridges connected to Manhattan in order to:

"Replace violence and fear

in mass media for one day".

When each of the artists had reached the tops of the bridges, they ignited bright-yellow flares at the same moment, resulting in rush hour traffic disruption, media attention, and the arrest of the climbers, though the charges were later dropped.

Called "The first social-sculpture to use mass-media as art” by conceptual artist Joseph Beuys, the event was on the cover of the New York Post, it received international attention, and received ABC Eyewitness News' 1977 Best News of the Year award.

John Halpern documented the incident in the film 'Bridging' (1977)

-- Halpern attempted another "Bridging" "social sculpture" in 1979, when he planted a radio receiver, gunpowder and fireworks in a bucket atop one of the Brooklyn Bridge towers.

The piece was later discovered by police, leading to his arrest for possessing a bomb.

-- In 1993, bridge jumper Thierry Devaux illegally performed eight acrobatic bungee jumps above the East River close to the Brooklyn tower.

-- On the 1st. October 2011, more than 700 protesters with the Occupy Wall Street movement were arrested while attempting to march across the bridge on the roadway.

Protesters disputed the police account of the event, and claimed that the arrests were the result of being trapped on the bridge by the NYPD. The majority of the arrests were subsequently dismissed.

-- On the 22nd. July 2014, the two American flags on the flagpoles atop each tower were found to have been replaced by bleached-white American flags.

Initially, cannabis activism was suspected as a motive, but on the 12th. August 2014, two Berlin artists claimed responsibility for hoisting the two white flags, having switched the original flags with their replicas.

The artists said that the flags were meant to celebrate the beauty of public space and the anniversary of the death of German-born John Roebling, and they denied that it was an anti-American statement.

Brooklyn Bridge as a Suicide Spot

The first person to jump from the bridge with the intention of suicide was Francis McCarey in 1892.

A lesser-known early jumper was James Duffy of County Cavan, Ireland, who on the 15th. April 1895 asked several men to watch him jump from the bridge. Duffy jumped and was not seen again.

Additionally, the cartoonist Otto Eppers jumped and survived in 1910, and was then tried and acquitted for attempted suicide.

The Brooklyn Bridge has since developed a reputation as a suicide bridge due to the number of jumpers who do so intending to kill themselves, though exact statistics are difficult to find.

Crimes and Terrorism Associated With Brooklyn Bridge

-- In 1979, police disarmed a stick of dynamite placed under the Brooklyn approach, and an artist in Manhattan was later arrested for the act.

-- On the 1st. March 1994, Lebanese-born Rashid Baz opened fire on a van carrying members of the Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish Movement, striking 16-year-old student Ari Halberstam and three others traveling on the bridge.

Halberstam died five days later from his wounds, and Baz was later convicted of murder. He was apparently acting out of revenge for the Hebron massacre of Palestinian Muslims a few days prior to the incident.

After initially classifying the killing as one committed out of road rage, the Justice Department reclassified the case in 2000 as a terrorist attack.

The entrance ramp to the bridge on the Manhattan side was subsequently dedicated as the Ari Halberstam Memorial Ramp.

-- In 2003, truck driver Lyman Faris was sentenced to 20 years in prison for providing material support to Al-Qaeda, after an earlier plot to destroy the bridge by cutting through its support wires with blowtorches was thwarted.

Brooklyn Bridge Anniversary Celebrations

-- The 50th.-anniversary celebrations on the 24th. May 1933 included a ceremony featuring an airplane show, ships, and fireworks, as well as a banquet.

-- During the centennial celebrations on the 24th. May 1983, President Ronald Reagan led a cavalcade of cars across the bridge.

A flotilla of ships visited the harbor, officials held parades, and Grucci Fireworks held a fireworks display that evening.

For the centennial, the Brooklyn Museum exhibited a selection of the original drawings made for the bridge.

Culture

The Brooklyn Bridge has had an impact on idiomatic American English. For example, references to "Selling the Brooklyn Bridge" abound in American culture, sometimes as examples of rural gullibility, but more often in connection with an idea that strains credulity.

George C. Parker and William McCloundy were two early 20th.-century con men who may have perpetrated this scam successfully on unwitting tourists, although the author of 'The Brooklyn Bridge: A Cultural History' wrote:

"No evidence exists that the bridge

has ever been sold to a 'gullible

outlander'".

However, anyone taken in by fraudsters is hardly likely to publicize the fact.

A popular tradition on Brooklyn Bridge is for couples to inscribe a date and their initials onto a padlock, attach it to the bridge, and throw the key into the water as a sign of their love.

The practice of attaching 'love locks' to the bridge is officially illegal in New York City, and in theory the NYPD can give violators a $100 fine.

NYCDOT workers periodically remove the love locks from the bridge at a cost of $100,000 per year.

Brooklyn Bridge in the Media

The bridge is often featured in wide shots of the New York City skyline in television and film, and has been depicted in numerous works of art.

Fictional works have used the Brooklyn Bridge as a setting; for instance, the dedication of a portion of the bridge, and the bridge itself, were key components in the 2001 film Kate & Leopold.

Furthermore, the Brooklyn Bridge has also served as an icon of America, with mentions in numerous songs, books, and poems.

Among the most notable of these works is that of American Modernist poet Hart Crane, who used the Brooklyn Bridge as a central metaphor and organizing structure for his second book of poetry, 'The Bridge' (1930).

The Brooklyn Bridge has also been lauded for its architecture. One of the first positive reviews was "The Bridge as a Monument", a Harper's Weekly piece written by architecture critic Montgomery Schuyler and published a week after the bridge's opening.

In the piece, Schuyler wrote:

"It so happens that the work which is likely to be

our most durable monument, and to convey some

knowledge of us to the most remote posterity, is a

work of bare utility; not a shrine, not a fortress, not

a palace, but a bridge."

Architecture critic Lewis Mumford cited the piece as the impetus for serious architectural criticism in the U.S. He wrote that in the 1920's the bridge was a source of joy and inspiration in his childhood, and that it was a profound influence in his adolescence.

Later critics regarded the Brooklyn Bridge as a work of art, as opposed to an engineering feat or a means of transport.

Not all critics appreciated the bridge, however. Henry James, writing in the early 20th. century, cited the bridge as an ominous symbol of the city's transformation into a "steel-souled machine room".

The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge is detailed in numerous media sources, including David McCullough's 1972 book 'The Great Bridge', and Ken Burns's 1981 documentary 'Brooklyn Bridge'.

It is also described in 'Seven Wonders of the Industrial World', a BBC docudrama series with an accompanying book, as well as in 'Chief Engineer: Washington Roebling, The Man Who Built the Brooklyn Bridge', a biography published in 2017.

Published Work - Vineyards quilt in autumn colours by Uschi

19 5

Found another one from me "in the wild" today ...

The original photo.

Fragile Jazz by jeffrey kriksciun

published by Nieves

FEB2015

nieves.ch/catalogue/jeffrey.html

2017-04-Sweden_MG_2953 by Nicolas Brunet

5 1

todays Castle Park shopping area 1940 by Regency Bristol

Published with permission of the author Maurice Bye to mark the 80th year since todays Castle Park shopping area was almost destroyed in the first “Bristol Blitz” 6100x3000 pixels. You will need to download the biggest version to read the writing comfortably.

müde von den Anstrengungen des Tages by Hughes Songe

"Book of the Secret of Creation and the Art of Nature"), dated between 650 and 830 AD.

Arabic translation A new translation bypassing the Latin has just been published by Nineveh Shadrach from the original Arabic of Book of Causes attributed to Apollonius of Tyana.[1. It contains an accurate commentary that can't be doubted. 2. It states: What is the above is from the below and the below is from the above. The work of wonders is from one. 3. And all things sprang from this essence through a single projection. How marvelous is its work! It is the principle [sic] part of the world and its custodian. 4. Its father is the sun and its mother is the moon. Thus the wind bore it within it and the earth nourished it. 5. Father of talismans and keeper of wonders. 6. Perfect in power that reveals the lights.

7. It is a fire that became our earth. Separate the earth from the fire and you shall adhere more to that which is subtle than that which is coarse, through care and wisdom.

8. It ascends from the earth to the heaven. It extracts the lights from the heights and descends to the earth containing the power of the above and the below for it is with the light of the lights. Therefore the darkness flees from it. 9. The greatest power overcomes everything that is subtle and it penetrates all that is coarse. 10. The formation of the microcosm is in accordance with the formation of the macrocosm. 11. The scholars made this their path. 12. This is why Thrice Hermes was exalted with wisdom. 13. This is his last book that he hid in the catacomb. Newton's translation A 17th century depiction of the Tablet by Heinrich Khunrath, 1606One translation, by Isaac Newton, found among his alchemical papers as reported by B. J. Dobbs[2] in modern spelling:1. Tis true without lying, certain most true. 2. That which is below is like that which is above that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of one only thing. 3. And as all things have been arose from one by the meditation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation. 4. The Sun is its father, the moon its mother, 5. the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth its nurse. 6. The father of all perfection in the whole world is here. 7. Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth. 7a. Separate thou the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross sweetly with great industry. 8. It ascends from the earth to the heaven again it descends to the earth and receives the force of things superior and inferior. 9. By this means ye shall have the glory of the whole world thereby all obscurity shall fly from you. 10. Its force is above all force. for it vanquishes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing. 11a. So was the world created. 12. From this are and do come admirable adaptations whereof the means (Or process) is here in this.

13. Hence I am called Hermes Trismegist, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world. 14. That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished and endedBeato translation Another translation from Aurelium Occultae Philosophorum by Georgio Beato:1) This is true and remote from all cover of falsehood.2) Whatever is below is similar to that which is above. Through this the marvels of the work of one thing are procured and perfected. 3) Also, as all things are made from one, by the consideration of one, so all things were made from this one, by conjunction. 4) The father of it is the sun, the mother the moon. 5) The wind bore it in the womb. Its nurse is the earth, the mother of all perfection. 6) Its power is perfected. 7) If it is turned into earth, 7) Separate the earth from the fire, the subtle and thin from the crude and coarse, prudently, with modesty and wisdom. 8) This ascends from the earth into the sky and again descends from the sky to the earth, and receives the power and efficacy of things above and of things below.

9) By this means you will acquire the glory of the whole world, and so you will drive away all shadows and blindness. 10) For this by its fortitude snatches the palm from all other fortitude and power. For it is able to penetrate and subdue everything subtle and everything crude and hard. 11) By this means the world was founded 12) And hence the marvelous cojunctions of it and admirable effects, since this is the way by which these marvels may be brought about. 13) And because of this they have called me Hermes Tristmegistus sinceI have the three parts of the wisdom and Philosophy of the whole universe. 14) My speech is finished which I have spoken concerning the solar work.

Latin textOriginal edition of the Latin text. (Chrysogonus Polydorus, Nuremberg 1541): Verum, sine mendacio, certum et verissimum: Quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius, et quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius, ad perpetranda miracula rei unius. Et sicut res omnes fuerunt ab uno, meditatione unius, sic omnes res natae ab hac una re, adaptatione. Pater eius est Sol. Mater eius est Luna. Portavit illud Ventus in ventre suo. Nutrix eius terra est. Pater omnis telesmi[3] totius mundi est hic. Virtus eius integra est si versa fuerit in terram. Separabis terram ab igne, subtile ab spisso, suaviter, magno cum ingenio. Ascendit a terra in coelum, iterumque descendit in terram, et recipit vim superiorum et inferiorum. Sic habebis Gloriam totius mundi. Ideo fugiet a te omnis obscuritas. Haec est totius fortitudinis fortitudo fortis, quia vincet omnem rem subtilem, omnemque solidam penetrabit. Sic mundus creatus est. Hinc erunt adaptationes mirabiles, quarum modus est hic. Itaque vocatus sum Hermes Trismegistus, habens tres partes philosophiae totius mundi. Completum est quod dixi de operatione Solis.Contemporary rendering of Latin text1. True, without error, certain and most true 2. That which is below is as that which is above, and that which is above is as that which is below, to perform the miracles of the one thing. 3. And as all things were from [the] one, by [means of] the meditation of [the] one, thus all things of the daughter from [the] one, by [means of] adaptation. 4. Its father is the sun, its mother[,]the moon, the wind carried it in its belly, its nurse is the earth. 5. The father of all the initiates of the whole world is here. 6. Its power is integrating if it be turned into earth. 7. Separate the earth from the fire, the fine from the dense, delicately, by [means of/to] the great [together] with capacity. 8. It ascends by [means of] earth into heaven and again it descends into the earth, and retakes the power of the superior[s] and of the inferior[s]. 9. Thus[,] you have the glory of the whole world.

10. Therefore[,] may it drive-out by [means of] you of all the obscurity. 11. This is the whole of the strength of the strong force, because it overcomes all fine things, and penetrates all the complete.12. Thus[,] the world has been created. 13. Hence they were wonderful adaptations, of which this is the manner. 14. Therefore[,] I am Hermes the Thrice Great, having the three parts of the philosophy of the whole world. 15. What I have said concerning the operation of the Sun has been completed. Textual history

The oldest documentable source for the text is the Kitab Sirr al-Asrar, a compendium of advice for rulers in Arabic which purports to be a letter from Aristotle to Alexander the Great. This work was translated into Latin as Secretum Secretorum (The Secret of Secrets) by Johannes "Hispalensis" or Hispaniensis (John of Seville) ca. 1140 and by Philip of Tripoli c. 1243.

In the 14th century, the alchemist Ortolanus wrote a substantial exegesis on "The Secret of Hermes," which was influential on the subsequent development of alchemy. Many manuscripts of this copy of the Emerald Tablet and the commentary of Ortolanus survive, dating at least as far back as the 15th century.

The Tablet has also been found appended to manuscripts of the Kitab Ustuqus al-Uss al-Thani (Second Book of the Elements of Foundation) attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan, and the Kitab Sirr al-Khaliqa wa San`at al-Tabi`a ("Book of the Secret of Creation and the Art of Nature"), dated between 650 and 830 AD.

Influence: In its several Western recensions, the Tablet became a mainstay of medieval and Renaissance alchemy. Commentaries and/or translations were published by, among others, Trithemius, Roger Bacon, Michael Maier, Aleister Crowley, Albertus Magnus, and Isaac Newton.

C.G. Jung identified "The Emerald Tablet" with a table made of green stone which he encountered in the first of a set of his dreams and visions beginning at the end of 1912, and climaxing in his writing The Seven Sermons to the Dead in 1916.

Because of its longstanding popularity, the Emerald Tablet is the only piece of non-Greek Hermetica to attract widespread attention in the West. The reason that the Emerald Tablet was so valuable is because it contained the instructions for the goals of alchemists. It hinted at the recipe for alchemical gold, as well as how to set one's level of consciousness to a new degree.

Related Links:

Secretum Secretorum - or Kitab Sirr al-Asrar is a medieval treatise also known as Secret of Secrets, or The Book of the Secret of Secrets, or in Arabic Kitab sirr al-asrar, or the Book of the science of government: on the good ordering of statecraft. It is a mid-12th century Latin translation of a 10th century Arabic encyclopedic treatise on a wide range of topics including statecraft, ethics, physiognomy, astrology, alchemy, magic, and medicine. It was influential in Europe during the High Middle Ages.

Arabic of Book of Causes attributed to Apollonius of Tyana

Aurelium Occultae Philosophorum by Georgio Beato

Kitab Ustuqus al-Uss al-Thani (Second Book of the Elements of Foundation) attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan

Kitab Sirr al-Khaliqa wa San`at al-Tabi`a ("Book of the Secret of Creation and the Art of Nature"), dated between 650 and 830 AD.Bernard Trevisan

The Seven Sermons to the Dead - C.G. Jung identified "The Emerald Tablet" with a table made of green stone which he encountered in the first of a set of his dreams and visions beginning at the end of 1912, and climaxing in his writing The Seven Sermons to the Dead in 1916.

Translation from the original Arabic of Book of Causes attributed to Apollonius of Tyana

Key Names: Albertus Magnus Aleister Crowley Alexander the Great Apollonius of Tyana

Aristotle ChrysogonusPolydorus - Nuremberg 1541 C.G. Jung Georgio Beato Hermes Trismegistus - "Hermes the Thrice-Great" Isaac Newton Jabir ibn Hayyan John of Seville - Johannes "Hispalensis" or Hispaniensis ca. 1140 Michael Maier Ortolanus - alchemist, wrote a substantial exegesis on "The Secret of Hermes Philip of Tripoli - c. 1243 Roger Bacon. Trithemius References: Translation from the original Arabic of Book of Causes attributed to Apollonius of Tyana "Newton's Commentary on the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus" in Merkel, I. and Debus, A. G., Hermeticism and the Renaissance. Folger, Washington 1988. Sometimes written Thelesmi. This indicates a Greek origin. The Latin word "Tela" (ae,fem.) roughly means "loom" or "incomplete cloth". The true meaning of the word is somewhat obscure.Holmyard, E.J. "The Emerald Table" Nature, No. 2814, Vol. 112, October 6 1923, pp 525–6.Holmyard, E.J. Alchemy, Pelican, Harmondsworth, 1957. pp95–8.Needham, J. Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 5, part 4: Spagyrical discovery and invention: Apparatus, Theories and gifts. CUP, 1980. Ruska, Julius. Die Alchimie ar-Razi's. n.p., 1935.Ruska, Julius. Quelques problemes de literature alchimiste. n.p., 1931.Stapleton, H.E., Lewis, G.L, Sherwood Taylor, F. "The sayings of Hermes quoted in the Ma Al-Waraqi of Ibn Umail. " Ambix, vol. 3, 1949, pp 69–90. M.Robinson. "The History and Myths surrounding Johannes Hispalensis," in Bulletin of Hispanic Studies vol. 80, no. 4, October 2003, pp. 443–470, abstract.An Interpretation of The Emerald Tablet by William Hoper drawing on Jung's Synchronicity and Plato's Theory of FormsSir Isaac Newton's translation of The Emerald Tablet with analysis and contemporary commentaryLetterpress edition of the Emerald Tablet offered by a US publisherThe Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus Ed. Vladimir Antonov.Comments on the 13 sentences of Tabula Smaragdina and Introductions to Alchemy (hermetic thinking) by Béla Hamvas.Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Tablet"

The Emerald Tablet, also known as the Smaragdine Table, or Tabula Smaragdina, is a compact and cryptic piece of Hermetica reputed to contain the secret of the prima materia and its transmutation. It was highly regarded by European alchemists as the foundation of their art and its Hermetic tradition. The original source of the Emerald Tablet is unknown. Although Hermes Trismegistus is the author named in the text, its first known appearance is in a book written in Arabic between the sixth and eighth centuries. The text was first translated into Latin in the twelfth century. Numerous translations, interpretations and commentaries followed. The layers of meaning in the Emerald Tablet have been associated with the creation of the philosopher's stone, laboratory experimentation, phase transition, the alchemical magnum opus, the ancient, classical, element system, and the correspondence between macrocosm and microcosm.In its several Western recensions, the Tablet became a mainstay of medieval and Renaissance alchemy. Commentaries and/or translations were published by, among others, Trithemius, Roger Bacon, Michael Maier, Aleister Crowley, Albertus Magnus, and Isaac Newton. The concise text was a popular summary of alchemical principles, wherein the secrets of the philosopher's stone were thought to have been described.The fourteenth century alchemist Ortolanus (or Hortulanus) wrote a substantial exegesis on "The Secret of Hermes," which was influential on the subsequent development of alchemy. Many manuscripts of this copy of the Emerald Tablet and the commentary of Ortolanus survive, dating at least as far back as the fifteenth century. Ortolanus, like Albertus Magnus before him saw the tablet as a cryptic recipe that described laboratory processes using decknamen (or code words). This was the dominant view held by Europeans until the fifteenth century.By the early sixteenth century, the writings of Johannes Trithemius (1462–1516) marked a shift away from a laboratory interpretation of the Emerald tablet, to a literal approach. Trithemius equated Hermes' one thing with the monad of pythagorean philosophy and the anima mundi. This interpretation of the Hermetic text was adopted by alchemists such as John Dee, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and Gerhard Dorn.C.G. Jung identified "The Emerald Tablet" with a table made of green stone which he encountered in the first of a set of his dreams and visions beginning at the end of 1912, and climaxing in his writing Seven Sermons to the Dead in 1916.[citation needed] Historians of science, Eric John Holmyard (1891-1959) and Julius Ruska (1867-1949) also studied the tablet in the twentieth century. Because of its longstanding popularity, the Emerald Tablet is the only piece of non-Greek Hermetica to attract widespread attention in the West.Heinrich Khunrath The Emerald Tablet .http://www.thelivingmoon.com/44cosmic_wisdom/02files/Heinrich_Khunrath_Emerald_Tablet.html

The figure from the fifteenth century is described as living from 1406-1490. He was born into a noble family in Padua and spent his entire life spending his family fortune in search of the Philosopher's stone.He began his career as an alchemist at the age of fourteen. He had his family's permission, as they also desired to increase their wealth. He first worked with a monk of Cîteaux named Gotfridus Leurier. They attempted for eight years to fashion the Philosopher's stone out of hen eggshells and egg yolk purified in horse manure.He is believed to have been influential on the work of Gilles de Rais in the 1430s.He then worked with minerals and natural salts using distillation and crystallization methods borrowed from Jābir ibn Hayyān and Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi. When these failed he turned to vegetable and animal material, finally using human blood and urine. He gradually sold his wealth to buy secrets and hints towards the stone, most often from swindlers. He traveled all over the known world, including the Baltics, Germany, Spain, France, Vienna, Egypt, Palestine, Persia, Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus, to find hints left by past alchemists. His health had been deteriorating, most likely from the fumes he had created with his alchemy. He retired to the Island of Rhodes, still working on the Philosopher's stone until his death in 1490.Bernard Trevisan AlchemistC.G. Jung identified "The Emerald Tablet" with a table made of green stone which he encountered in the first of a set of his dreams and visions beginning at the end of 1912, and climaxing in his writing The Seven Sermons to the Dead in 1916.

Screen Shot 2015-10-14 at 7.17.31 PM by Dennis Jarvis

Published

Eye 2 Eye - Elk by Jim Cumming

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*Published in Canadian Geographic Magazine "Best Wildlife Photography 2015 Special Edition"

*Published - World of Animals magazine Issue #8

*Published - PhotoPlus magazine April 2017

Driving through parc Omega, a wildlife preserve, I spotted these 2 elk fighting so I got out and walked up as close as I dared.

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Flower character by Elsa Mora

I created this flower character for a book titled Blossom Buddies, published by teNeues in 2009. The book includes 100 of these plant characters.

First real fall morning in Arlington. by David Giambarresi

Published on ArlNow www.arlnow.com/2018/10/12/arlnow-weekend-discussion-158/

Near Mechita by Nick Cool

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Photo reportage published in:

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published. by Kevin van der Leek

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The Globe and Mail published my photo today!

Published Picture!!! by Ronah Lee

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One of my photos was published in a Maine Magazine.

(Right hand corner - Machias Me.)

(My 2nd time being published and still such a thrill!)

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Stacey's Sweet Shop Gift Set by Big Red Angel

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Published in Haute Doll Magazine.

Sold benefiting Love 146.

Vintage Stacey model 1165 circa 1969. Vintage Barbie fashion set Barbie-Q circa 1959-1962. Handmade miniature cakes by Cathy McGhee. Handmade lollipops by Ericka.

Animal Behavior Book, Cornell University, 2010. by Melinda Young Stuart

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This is my photo (chickens at the farm across the road when I lived in western NC)--used by the author (a Cornell University professor) in her book about animal behavior. 😊

www.flickr.com/photos/melystu/5108639757/in/photolist-Y1x...

Aufnahmen-202 by Tekapa walking around the city .....

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statuesque II by helen sotiriadis

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a set of nine images captured at the louvre, paris.

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Published 1975. Featuring brand work for Braun, Citroën, Herman Miller, Olivetti, Sony, Swissair.

TIBET JIUZHAIGOU VALLEY SCENIC AREA 7 & UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE OF NATURAL ORDER 0153 AJ by SunDeep™ Bhardwaj World Photography™ 70+Countries 6 Continents 555+Places Travelled & Photographed in Last 2 Decades Worldwide UNESCO World Heritage Sites Himalayas Himachal 'Fine Art Wedding's by SDB' Fine Art Wonders of World gallery™''SDBFA:tm " The World is my Studio "'SDB Fine Art™' SDBFA™ SDBWP™ 2 Decades of Travel to Europe,Africa,North America,Central America,South America,Indian Sub-Continent,The Middle East,South Asia,South East Asia,Far East Asia & Australia.Contact for a quote

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JiuZhaiGou Valley in Tibet Autonomous Region TAR PRC .See larger image at www.flickr.com/photos/wittysam/8104583584/ A UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE and a scenic area in TIBET. TAR. 2nd most beautiful place on the Habitable Earth after Himalayas for me.

Another Wonder of World explored at JZH UNESCO TOUR 2012 4 days -

A concise practical guide to visit the places mentioned in my second published book "111 Miraculous WONDERS OF WORLD you must see when you alive" Download it to your mobile or better print it and use the info while exploring the places.

Jiuzhaigou Valley (simplified Chinese: ???; traditional Chinese: ???; pinyin: Jiuzhàigou; literally "Valley of Nine Villages"; Tibetan: ???????????????, Wylie: gzi-rtsa sde-dgu, ZYPY: Sirza Degu)

GO TO TRAVEL TIPS MARKED WITH SIGNS AND HEADERS LIKE THIS

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Travel Tip 1, 2....9...

BELOW IN DISCRIPTIONS TO SKIP TO MAIN PLACES TO SEE RATHER THAN ALL IMPORTANT TIPS.

***I suggest read all tips before you start your journey at least you are not referring to loads if information like I did. Have a excellent trip !!!

As per me JUIZHAIGOU valley ( 88 kms from JZH Airport )in particular & nearby HUANGLONG ( 53 kms from JZH Airport )is MOST BEAUTIFUL and MOST SCENIC PLACE IN CHINA and even around the WORLD the very reason it makes to the 111 WOW book i am writing. This UNESCO World Heritage Site of natural order is worth a visit more than even New 7 Wonders of World and Nature from my viewpoint and experience of travelling to 70+ Countries till date in year 2012. This travel advise is based on my 6 th Year of World Travel & 16th year of total travel experience & i can say it loud and clear that out of all my travels to China's major destinations and provinces around major cities which I travelled in

PRC People Republic of China Hongkong and Tibet Autonomous Region like

PEKING-BEJING

PUDONG-SHANGHAI Province-level Municipality

HANGZOU City ZHEJHING Province

JIUZHAIGOU

JIUZHAIGOU Valley

JIUZHAIGOU COUNTY

Formerly called Nanping County

HUANGLONG

Huanglong Valley

Tibetan Plateau

Min Mountains

Tibetan Plateau East, or Qinghai-Tibetan (Qingzang) Plateau

Tibet Autonomous Region(TAR), Tibet or Xizang level autonomous region 1965 administrative region & 1951 Province Level PRC

Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture capital Barkam town (Ch. Ma'erkang)

Qinghai

SICHUAN Province

Guangzhou Guangzhou or Canton or Kwangchow ( capital )

Guangdong province

CHONGQING

CHEGDU

Hong Kong

and my 15 th visit to China in last 6 years

It is a nature reserve and national park located in northern Sichuan province of southwestern China. Jiuzhaigou Valley is part of the Min Mountains on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau and stretches over 72,000 hectares. It is known for its many multi-level waterfalls, colorful lakes, and snow-capped peaks. Its elevation ranges from 2,000 to 4,500 metres (6,600 to 14,800 ft).

Jiuzhaigou Valley was inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1992 and a World Biosphere Reserve in 1997. It belongs to the category V (Protected Landscape) in the IUCN system of protected area categorization.

Jiuzhaigou Valley ( or in short Jouzhai) Scenic and Historic Interest Area

Can travel to this another UNESCO site together depending on time if you have one extra day availability -

Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area ( Near to JZH airport )

****you may not be able to cover all or any part of this area if you have less than 20-24 hours effectively from time you land in JZH airport to time you leave JZH airport. But you can take a 1 or 2 hour drive on the other side of route when you reach JZH airport area after travelling from historic site to JZH airport while heading back to your destination provided you taking last flight of the day which approximately leaves at 19.20 hrs.

*****I had no time to explore this area this time as It takes one full day or 10 hrs to cover 2/3 rd of Y shaped area of JZH valley. and another day to cover rest of Y shaped valley.And another day to cover Huanglong area. So I cud cover only this shape "/ " rather than complete scenic area in "Y" shape which is major scenic area. And tour from hotel is 2 N / 3 Days if boarding from CKG at say 2000 Yuan

**** This trip of just 2 days in my 6 days off from work actually 4 days and effectively 32 hours from time I start from CKG hotel and back to Hotel had cost me near 4500 YUAN but as per details below it may cost around 3500 Yuan minimum in total excluding food gifts books but including taxi ( 300 Yuan one way from JZH to JZH valley near entrence of historical area) and air tickets ( 1024 Yuan one way ) and hotel stay ( between 200-300 Yuan if pre-booked or 400 Yuan if walk in guest on budget rate hotel ) but even lesser if you have airline discounts and ID90 Z fare tickets. But no matter how much you pay you travel or not it's allready a Wonder of World and supreme natire at its best is there presently as i have eye witnessed it but not sure with very high infux of toyrists its gonna be same in future. Included in my book 111 WOW

Details :

Taxi Hotel to CKG airport and back: Taxi + Tips

70+15=85 multiply by 2 = 170 Yuan

Airfare If taking urgent flight Check in without pre-booking:

1024 multiply 2 = 2048 Yuan

Taxi to hotel near JZH valley historic area enterence from JZH airport ( 1- 1.5 hours by car): two way

300 Multiply by 2 = 600

Hotel Stay including break fast 200 to 400 to more depending on hotel type for no of nights planned

Food Drinks Travel equipment extra

*** the valley inbetween MAIN JZH historical site and JZH airport is also very scenic try to travel back 3 hours before flight departure time and when its not dark to take nice pictures of townships and cultural resorts on way to airport *** you can see many views of Honglong Scenic area which is near to airport but on other direction of Jiuzhiagou scenic area and even bird eye view from aircraft when your take off from JZH.

My first 2 Day trip from CKG to JZH and 12 th to China in last 6 years Details-

Travel by Sichuan airlines CKG ( CHONGQUING JIANGBEI INTERNATINAL AIRPORT ) to JZH ( JIUZHAI HUANGLONG AIRPORT ) and back to CKG,

1st day -

Flights I took CZ8181 ( last flight for day from CKG to JZH) by CHINA AIRLINES )

2nd day

Flights I took

JZH to CKG flight nos C3U8515 departing at 7:20 pm Arrival at 8:35 pm by SICHUAN AIRLINES

About JIUZHAIGOU-

Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve Jiuzhaigou (??? Jiuzhàigou) is a nature reserve in the north of Sichuan province in south western China. It is officially known as Jiuzhai Valley in English. It is known for its many multi-level waterfalls and colorful lakes scenic valleys and also as the habitat of giant pandas though due to excessive tourism potential of area you may not find then easily or not at all . You can see pandas in Chengdu breeding Center and in Chingqing Zoo though. It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1992.

Jiuzhai Valley (Jiuzhaigou) is a major feature of the Sichuan Scenic Area, located 350 km north of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. Jiuzhaigou is at the northeastern end of this scenic area in the Min Shan mountains. It is part of the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture.

***** ( very important point ) The main scenic area stretches 80 km (50 mi) long in the form of a letter Y comprising of three main valleys - Shuzheng, Rize and Zechawa covering 720 km² (278 mi²) and offering stunning views of lakes, waterfalls, and mountains. The name means "Valley of Nine Villages", derived from the 9 ancient Tibetan villages that call it home. Its highest point is 4,700 m (15,420 ft) above sea level, with *****the main sightseeing areas between 1,980 m and 3,100 m (6,500-10,170 ft).

*****So plan your walk and views of popular and most beautiful lakes considering this altitude range in mind and the list of notable lakes I wrote below.

History-

The remote region was inhabited by various Tibetan and Qiang peoples for centuries

Landscape, geology and hydrology-

Jiuzhaigou's best-known feature is its dozens of blue, green and turquoise-colored lakes. Originating in glacial activity, they were dammed by rockfalls and other natural phenomena, then solidified by processes of carbonate deposition (travertine). Jiuzhaigou's water has a high concentration of calcium carbonate, making it so clear that the bottom is often visible even at high depths. The lakes vary in color and aspect according to their depths, residues, and surroundings.

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Travel Tip 1 -

*****YOU NEED A iPhone application named LONELY PLANET OFFLINE TRANSLATOR CHINESE ENGLISH and a car iPhone charger to charge your gadget in car or buy a battery pack to extend your iPhone battery life

***** { very important point } To make the most out of your one day in the valley, buy the ticket at 7AM and take the bus up the right of Y shaped valley as shows on the map in back of ticket to Primeval Forest (*** should be your first point to start your travel early morning as per my experience even in sept month . Try to be at counter no later than 6.30am and take tickets by 6.45 and take first bus starting at 7 am as it will get very crowded by say even 7.30 am or anytime later in the day .

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Travel Tip 2-

***** Carry a wind cheater or umbrella and water bottle and juices in a small back pack as you gonna walk a lot whole day as distance from one end of Y shaped valley to entrance is like 30 kms and overall valley is spread across 80 Kms but my tips will help you see the best of best in this valley in say one day with your trip starting at 7 am and ending in by 3 pm for 8 hours combination of walk and bus hopping. Only advisable if u heading back to airport the same day ( this is for shortest one day visit to Jiuzhiagou) (**to see entire valley and all it's scenic points you may need 3 days or more to stay here and even one more day to cover Huanglong scenic area )

***You can even buy water and umbrella and Rain cheater at highest point of forest..

***In my first trip to area i had just one day so i finished all i could till 3 pm and then I took bus back to entrance to start for airport at 3.30 pm sharp. Saw areas on way in quick mode and saw some areas of Huanglong near to airport before taking last flight to CKG.

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Travel Tip 3 -

After reaching Primeval Forest which is last point on the bus route You took early morning

****Walk the trail around the forest then walk the forest path down to Swan Lake.

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Travel Tip 4 -

***** I took first bus to the top of Y shaped valley on right side where there is Primeval Forest and then headed to SWAN lake by foot yourself to place called” Pearl Shoal” creating a noisy bubbling cascade which from a distance looks like a shawl of pearls draped across the hillside. The falls have a drop height of 21 m (69 ft) and are 162 m (532 ft) wide providing a spectacular display.

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Travel Tip 5-

****I did all in one day. I took bus to highest point of the Y shaped map if this scenic area where lakes like Panda lake exist. Go to 3000 meters up till the point bus takes higest. Then trek down to lakes i mentioned below in this practical guide.i wish i had mire days to stay but since my holiday was just four days i could cover only major portion if it. But will be travelling again in my next leave. Tickets are only valid for one day.

*With a bus pass you can take a bus to all of the sites within the park. Your pass gives you access to an efficient hop-on hop-off bus transport system. Every few minutes a bus will come to a site to pick up passengers.

*Don’t miss the last bus or you must walk out!

*****{ very important point} An effective way to use the system is to take the bus to the head of Rize valley and walk back towards the entrance and Administration building. Walking is a great option in the park, as wooden-plank trails wind through the lakes and forests. It is best to combine walking with taking the bus as the park is quite large and you won't be able to cover enough ground on foot.

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Travel Tip 6 -

Jiuzhaigou has some 114 Lakes and waterfalls.

***** [ very very important points for shortest obr day travel to the area ]

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Travel Tip 7****** -

*****Here are a selection of scenic locations to visit:

See and Do

An effective way to use the system is to take the bus to the head of Rize valley and walk back towards the entrance and Administration building. Walking is a great option in the park, as wooden-plank trails wind through the lakes and forests. It is best to combine walking with taking the bus as the park is quite large and you won't be able to cover enough ground on foot.

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Travel Tip 7 -

Long Lake -

Is at the head of the Zechawa valley. At an altitude of 3,060 m (10,039 ft) this is the biggest and deepest lake in Jiuzhaigou. The lake has a surface area of approximately 30 sq km’s (12 mi) and an average depth of 44 m (144 ft). On clear days its dark wooded hillsides and blue waters are viewed against the backdrop of the 5,000 m (16,404 ft) snow capped Min Shan mountains. This lake has no major inflow and receives its water from underground sources. The local Tibetans have their own name for this lake, which translates, to “The Lake that never dries out.” Take the bus to the Long Lake and Jade Colored Pool because it is too far to walk to.

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Travel Tip 8 -

Five Colour Pool -

Also known as the Jade pool, is a small lake of 5,600 sq m (60,000 sq ft) at an altitude of 2,995 m (9,826 ft) and with an average depth of 6.6 m (21.5 ft). It is fed by underground streams from Long lake. Although small this lake must be rated as having one of the most varied and intense colour ranges of Jiuzhaigou and should not be missed. The lake systems in the lower parts of Zechawa valley are seasonal and are often dry in summer. Walkways are provided from Long Lake to a bus pickup point just passed the lower seasonal lake.

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Travel Tip 9 -

Grass Lake-

Grass Lake at 2,910 m (9,547 ft) is the highest lake in the Rize Valley. The valley here is narrow and steep. The lake was formed as a result of an ancient mudflow about 10,000 years ago and travertine sedimentation. The lake is shallow with large evergreen grassy beds.

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Travel Tip 10 -

SWAN LAKE-

At an elevation of 2,905 m (9,530 ft) Swan Lake is surrounded by high rocky cliffs that drop vertically into the lake. The lake takes is name from large numbers of migratory swans that visit it each year.

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Travel Tip 11 -

Arrow Bamboo Lake -

Is the first of the deep lakes. Set at an altitude of 2,680 m (8,793 ft) and 6 m (20 ft) deep it has a surface area of 170,000 sq m (1,830,000 sq ft). An unusual characteristic of this lake is that it never freezes even when the

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Travel Tip 12 -

Panda Lake -

100 m (328 ft) lower is completely covered in snow and ice. The lake is surrounded by Bamboo groves and together with the Panda Lake.

Panda Lake has an average depth of 14 m (46 ft) and as its name implies is in the heart of panda country. This 90,000 sq m (969,000 sq ft) lake at 2,590 m (8,500 ft) altitude is surrounded by bamboo forests and a mix of deciduous and coniferous woodland. This vivid green lake becomes a feast of colour in the autumn. The lake is home to many small and curious Songpan Naked Carp that gather in large numbers when a leaf or pebble falls into the lake. The fish are protected and must not be fed by visitors.

Water exits Panda Lake via the spectacular Panda Falls. These narrow falls have a drop height of 120 m (393 ft) and cascade down to the

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Travel Tip 13 -

“Five Flower Lake”-

The most beautiful one-

Over a series of travertine terraces. A well-maintained wooden walkway allows visitors to descend beside the falls providing a unique way of seeing the spectacle.

Five Flower Lake at 2,472 m (8,110 ft) and just 5 m (54 ft) deep is referred to as the soul of Jiuzhaigou. Its shallow cyan coloured waters provide the visitor with an outstanding display of is bottom sediments containing trees, bushes, and leaves in great array. Its waters drain via the peacock riverbed, claimed locally to be the shortest and most beautiful river in the world, to one of Jiuzhaigou’s most appealing waterfalls. The “Pearl Shoal Falls”

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Travel Tip 14 -

Pearl Shoal and Pearl Shoal Falls -

Are best viewed by taking the walkway. This takes visitors across the “Golden Bell Lake” and “Pearl Shoal” down the left side of the falls then across the base of the Falls to “Mirror Lake”. The shallow waters rush over the 160-m (525 ft) wide travertine shelf called” Pearl Shoal” creating a noisy bubbling cascade which from a distance looks like a shawl of pearls draped across the hillside. The falls have a drop height of 21 m (69 ft) and are 162 m (532 ft) wide providing a spectacular display.

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Travel Tip 15 -

Mirror Lake -

Is so named because of its ability to reflect the images of the surrounding mountains and forests. The lake at an altitude of 2,410 m (7,907 ft) is in a sheltered section of the valley running east west which produces its glassy reflective surface.The Lake was featured in the Zhang Yimou movie Hero. The outflow of “Mirror Lake” is through the “Rize Gully” a travertine ramp of small ponds and natural bonsai trees and bushes that lead directly to one of the great sights of Jiuzhaigou . The Nuorilang waterfall.

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Travel Tip 16 -

Nuorilang Falls-

The Nuorilang Falls are situated, at an altitude of 2,365 m (7,760 ft), at the junction of the Zechawa, Rize and Shuzheng valleys. Best viewed from the Shuzheng valley road the 250-m (820 ft) wide veil of water flows out of the thick shrubs and bushes of Rize Gully to drop 24 m (79 ft) into a small ravine below the road.

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Travel Tip 17 -

Rhinoceros Lake -

At 2,315 m (7,696 ft) and with a surface area of some 200,000 sq m (2,153,000 sq ft) is the largest lake in the Shuzheng valley, and also the deepest with an average depth of 12 m (39 ft). The lake derives its name from a legend that tells of a monk from Tibet riding a rhinoceros. When the monk came to this lake he was so entranced with the local scenery that he accidentally rode his rhinoceros directly into the lake.

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Travel Tip 18 -

Shuzheng Village-

Bedecked with prayer flags, is one of the nine Tibetan villages that give Jiuzhaigou its name. Situated above the Shuzheng Lakes it is easily accessed from the roadway. Here you can visit a traditional Tibetan home and drink “Yak Butter tea“. The steep main street is lined with shops selling trinkets, Tibetan artifacts and souvenirs.

Shuzheng Lakes and waterfalls are at 2,215 m (7,268 ft) the lowest series of lakes in Jiuzhaigou; Spread across the valley this series of small lakes and waterfalls cascade down the lower valley and drain directly into Baishui Jiang.

The last three features are the

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Travel Tip 19 -

Sleeping Dragon Lake-

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Travel Tip 20 -

Reed Lake -and

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Travel Tip 21 -

Bonsai beach-

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Travel Tip 19 -

Sleeping Dragon Lake -

Contains a large travertine shelf that extends across the floor of the lake. Locals say it looks like a sleeping dragon and that the head and tail seem to move as the wind ripples the lake surface.

***Jiuzhaigou is all about seeing! The colours of its lakes, trees and mountains are breathtaking and defy adequate description. The altitude changes within the valley to create continual variations of flora, which give each lake and waterfall a unique quality.

############

Travel Tip 22 -

Although Jiuzhaigou is a great place to visit at any time of the year Spring and autumn are best. Winter provides many magnificent sights with frozen lakes and waterfalls, but the day temperatures are very low and accessibility by road is neither easy nor guarantee-able. Summers can be slightly crowded with beautiful sunshine in the early parts and it often rains in July and August. The fresh air and lack of humidity make it a great break from the city. Autumn is, in many opinions, the pick of the seasons. In late September through October to early November the colour contrasts of red and gold leaves set against the greys of the Bamboo forest and the dark greens of the conifers provide the perfect backdrop to the blue, cyan and vivid greens lakes

############

Travel Tip 23 -

The buses are frequent and sometimes crowded during the peak season, running from early morning until the park closes

When entering the park you will be herded effectively and politely into one of the many queues waiting for transport. Once in the system you are a free agent with respect to where you go and what you see.

*****In 2007, over 2.5 million people visited Jiuzhaigou. The site averages 7,000 visits per day

--------------------

EXTRA INFO-

**Flora and fauna

Jiuzhaigou's landscape is made up of high-altitude karsts shaped by glacial, hydrological and tectonic activity. It lies on major fault lines on the diverging belt between the Tibetan Plateau and the Yangtze Plate, and earthquakes have also shaped the landscape. The rock strata is mostly made up of carbonate rocks such dolomite and tufa, as well as some sandstone and shales.

The valley includes the catchment area of three gullies (which due to their large size are often called valleys themselves), and is one of the sources of the Jialing River, part of the Yangtze River system. The area covering 720 km² (278 mi²) of the Minshan mountains provides the catchment for the water system of Jiuzhaigou.

The park is the natural habitat for two of China’s most treasured endangered species – the Giant Panda and the Sichuan Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey (???). However, due to the park's size and the number of tourists, the chances of seeing them are slim. About 20 pandas reportedly live within the boundaries of the park. There is probably higher chance of seeing them in Zaru Valley, the valley dedicated to eco-tourism as of July 2009. In the main valleys you are more likely to see other creatures including birds (140 species have been recorded here), insects and fish.

Nearly 300 km² (115 mi²) of the core scenic area is covered by virgin mixed forests. The flora changes greatly with altitude. In the lower regions of the valley, grasses and reeds abound. These are quickly replaced by bamboo forests which in turn give way to deciduous trees and conifers at the upper end of the valley

Beyond them the rocky slopes and snow-capped peaks of the Min Shan range dominate the view.

Climate-

The scenic area of the park is situated at a height of between 2,000 and 3,000 m (6,562-9,843 ft). In summer the winds blow predominantly from the south and in the winter from the north. The following table shows the average monthly temperature and rainfall.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

Average Temp (°C) 1.7° 4.4° 9.3° 14° 17.2° 19.7° 22° 21.8° 17.5° 13.2° 7.7° 3°

Average Precipitation (mm) 15 24 36 43 87 96 104 82 76 54 26 18

Umbrellas and wet weather clothing as well as sun protection and hats are highly recommended as the weather at these altitudes can be fickle.

[edit]Get in

The main departure points for a visit to Jiuzhaigou are Chengdu - the capital city of Sichuan, famous for its Panda Breeding Centre - Chongqing and Xi'an. Although Jiuzhaigou is only around 350km from Mianyang, and 460km from Chengdu (as the crow flies), the journey takes between 8 and 11 hours due to the winding mountain roads through some spectacular scenery along the valleys of the Fu or Min rivers. Many tour companies break the journey into two components with overnight stops either at Mianyang or Maoxian.

Important note: following the Sichuan earthquake of 12 May 2008, the road to Juizhaigou via Wenchuan and Maoxian is not recommended. The road between Chengdu and Wenchuan is excellent but Mao Xian - Chuan Zhu Si is undergoing landslide prevention and road widening works. As of September 2009, the bus from Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou can take up to 17 hours (!) although this is the exception rather than the norm. The regular time is 7-11 hours now that some of this work has been completed. During National Week 2009 the Chinese government was not allowing foreigners to travel to jiuzhaigou by road in any form. These restrictions were lifted again as of 10 October 2009.

If the area has experienced heavy rain, the mountain road to Jiuzhaigou may be closed. This can mean that there may be a delay as traffic backs up to wait for the road to reopen. In extreme cases, the road may not reopen at all, meaning that the bus and its passengers will have to spend the night in the non-descript Dujiangyan City, trying again in the morning. This was the case on one occasion in June 2011. If you are travelling during these conditions, you may have to be very flexible with your itinerary.

Flights between Chengdu and Jiuzhaigou Huanglong airport (IATA: JZH) are available on Air China, Sichuan Airlines, South China Airways and China Eastern. As of October 2009 direct flights are also available from Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou on Sichuan Airlines. Jiuhuang airport is about a 1.5-hour drive from the park entrance. This can be done by taxi or mini-bus.

Most visitors access Juizhaigou by road.

From Mianyang an early morning start gets you to Jiuzhaigou township in time for dinner and the Tibetan cultural show (¥120-320). The route initially follows the deep valley of the Fu river then over Longmen shan (Dragon gate mountain) to Qingchuan and Wenxian before reaching Jiuzhaigou County Town nestled in the valley of the Baishui river. The mountain and river views make even the journey a worth while tourist experience.

Public Bus services are available from the Xinnanmen and Chadianzi bus stations in Chengdu to Jiuzhaigou with 2 or 3 departures from each station daily depending on demand. Ticket price is approximately ¥110-145.

There are daily buses to the park from Songpan, and Huanglongsi National Park.

Taxi: If there are a few people, it may make sense to charter a taxi to/from where you're going. Fares of ¥600-700 to Langmusi have been reported. It is also reportedly possible to take a taxi to/from Chengdu for around ¥1200, which is probably cheaper than flying for 3 people and much more comfortable than a bus.

During peak season is ¥220 which includes an insurance fee of ¥3. Disabled visitors, Seniors between 60 and 70 years of age, students and soldiers get a discount price of ¥170. Children no taller than 1.3 m in height, government servants, and seniors over 70 get in free.

A one day bus ticket costs ¥90. Bus tickets are not mandatory. Many people choose to buy one as it is over 30 km from the entrance to the top of the park. There is a sign inside the park saying that if you then decide you want to buy a bus ticket inside you have to pay ¥140.

if you want to save the money of the tickets, you can walk till the main tourist center(about 10 km - a nice walk) and from there just go with the buses.

the Conductors don't check for tickets from there.

Previously there were two day tickets that are no longer on sale during the peak season. These are on sale in the off peak season.

Off peak ticket prices: Entry – ¥80 N.B. In the dry season (February) many of the wooden trails in the park are closed and marked as fire hazards. It is possible to walk on the roads in the park although there are some signs saying this also isn't formally allowed. The only other option is to bus around the park.

Student / OAP Entry – ¥70

One Day Bus ticket: ¥80

Winter 2nd day entry ticket: ¥20 (must be purchased at the same time as the first day's ticket)

Get around-

There are plenty of taxis in Jiuzhaigou. There are also mini-buses (they really are minivans) to the most popular tourist destinations in the Jiuzhaigou region. Car Rentals are also available and range from ¥500-900per day.

Perhaps the easiest way to get around without a tour guide is using one of the "self service travel websites" that are really popular with young Chinese tourists who are not looking to travel with a tour group. Unfortunately for people who cannot search the web using Chinese characters (pin yin does not work very well) these sites are near impossible to find. On these sites you can buy tickets to local cultural events, arrange for pick up service, rent cars, arrange for tour guides, and finding Tibetan local host families for a cultural experience. However, they are extremely hard to find with names that are usually just strings of letters and numbers like cq966.com. The mentioned website is actually ran by locals attached to Chang Qing (??)hotel - one of the two hotels (other is the Sheraton) with the most credibility among tour guides within Jiuzhaigou proper. You can email these websites in English or contact them through MSN and they will be able to respond. Most local hotels are also good sources for advice on how to get around Jiuzhaigou but only a few speak languages other than Tibetan and Chinese

[edit]Inside the park

For environmental protection reasons, no personal transport, not even bicycles, are permitted within the park.

Around the local area

Public buses run from the centre of the town to Chengdu, Huanglong, Chadianzi, Jiangyou and Songpan. For up-to-date bus schedules and travel options from Jiuzhaigou the best place to check is the Jiuzhaigou official website

From Chengdu the public bus costs between ¥110-145 and takes around 10-13 hours.

Buy-

Shuzheng Village

There are lots of Tibetian trinkets that could entice the younger ladies. There is a shop next to the entrance which sells a good collection of postcards and reading materials about the park itself.

Eat-

Being a UNESCO World Heritage Park in China does not mean it is fully decked out for non-Chinese visitors. There is a centrally located, sort of a HQ area with a restaurant serving buffet lunch. Typically Chinese stir-fry dishes. At the entrance, there is a Chinese fast food outlet serving fried chicken, and vendors selling ramen and other types of instant noodles.

A one-day stock of muesli bars and a flask of tea or coffee would help, especially if you plan to take in all the heavenly sights on foot, through the wooden planked pathways. In autumn and spring, the temperature is suitable for resting along the wooden plank path while having a nice warm drink while you wait for the lighting to be just right for your next photo shoot.

note - the food and drink in the Reserve is very expensive (dish of rice about ¥30, noodles ¥15, Small bottle of water ¥5) so it's a good idea to obtain supplies in the shops outside before you enter.

Drink-

There are many areas to drink. You will find one of the best local Tibetan tradition is to drink Tibetan butter tea. There is a surprising amount of bars available on bian bian jie (???) which is one of the most famous cobblestone roads in China.

6868 bar, (Just past the Sheraton off main road in the small town there). Any cab driver should know this place. Typical chinese-style club, with a dance floor, private rooms, and lots of tables with drinking games. If you want to drink with the locals, worth checking this place out...remarkably good light system and sound system for the rural area.

Sleep-

Tibetan butter tea. There is a surprising amount of bars available on bian

Five Flower Lake

Despite whatever they tell you, lodging in the park is illegal.

Lodging-

There are no hotels or commercial accommodation within the park. It used to be possible to stay at the home of a local villager for a small fee. The authorities however do not approve of the practice and as such it is not recommended.

There are now a number of 5 star, 4 star and 3 star hotels and cheap hostels just outside the park.

The price for a 5 star hotel such as the Jiuzhaigou Xilaideng International is from ¥600-1,000. Also there is a Sheraton that can be had for about ¥500-800/night through travel agents.

For 4 star hotels like Chang Qing binguan (????), the Geshang hotel, the Chinese Travel hotel, and the Golden Harbour Hotel room prices are from ¥400-900.

A 3 star hotel such as the Xing Long binguan(????), Qianhe Hotel etc. is from ¥300-800.

A lot of the hotels have different level "rooms" within the hotel which are priced accordingly. Thus you see a great deal of price ranges within the same hotel.

Prices vary according to the season and booking in advance is essential. Provided you speak and read mandarin bookings and purchase of tickets can be done online at [www.jiuzhaigouvalley.com].

There is one authentic homestay [2] (others are "Tibetan themed" often outside owned) run by a local family a 15 mins drive from the park entrance. They do not have a website but they can be contacted at [3]. There are also two hostels in the immediate area.

There are a number of cheap hostels to the West of the park entrance. You should be able to get dorm rooms for around ¥35 and double bedrooms for ¥100.

One that is the sister hostel of Sim's in Chengdu comes recommended (wifi, hot water, nice staff):

Uncle Jiang's family house, Peng Feng Village, Jiuzhaigou Park Entrance. They have free pick-up and offer packed lunches (sandwiches) for ¥20.

Using the local travel websites will allow you to purchase price for cheaper, kind of how the aggregate websites will allow you to get a room for cheaper. However, they are pretty hard to find unless you search with Chinese characters.

There is lodging located in the villages along the street outside the park entrance. For budget travelers the best option is the Jiutong Bingguan (????) located next to the bus station. Touts crowd around arriving buses and can lead you to alternative budget options.

Tibetan butter tea. There is a surprising amount of bars available on bian

Five Flower Lake

Despite whatever they tell you, lodging in the park is illegal.

Camping-

As of July 2009 hiking and camping have been made available within the Zaru Valley [4] of the national park. Zaru Valley has an amazing 40% of all the plant species in the whole of China and if you are to see any of the wildlife of the national park, this represents the best chance. The main hike is a 3-day hike, following the pilgrimage of the local Bebbo Tibetan Buddhists around the 4,500 m+ (14,764 ft+) Zhayizha Ga Mountain.

Stay safe-

The highest tourist destinations reach heights above 3,100 m (10,170 ft) and altitude sickness is a possibility.

In the winter months the park is extremely cold and it is necessary to dress warmly. Having said that, in the winter sunshine you could possibly strip down to a t-shirt in the bright winter sun shine - in the shade you'll need to layer up again however!

Chinese tourists dread standing in line and there is a lot of pushing and shoving getting on and off buses. Make sure you don't get pushed in front of an oncoming bus. Crowded trails can also be dangerous and if you walk on the edge of a path it is likely a shoulder or elbow with push you off. To really enjoy your time in the park you should walk on the trails on the opposite side of the lakes from the roads. These trails have considerable less tourists and you can really experience the serenity of the national park there.

English is not widely spoken in Juizhaigou.

Get out-

Everyday there are buses going to Songpan at 7:20AM and take two hours, Chengdu (10 hours) and Huanglong National Park. Bus times vary from time to time. It is best to keep an eye on the Jiuzhaigou website [5] for up-to-date times.

This is a guide article. It has a variety of good, quality information about the park including attractions, activities, lodging, campgrounds, restaurants, and arrival/departure info.

Plunge forward give your info and contributions in comments to make it a star!

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence by Wikipedia Wikitravel SunDeepKullu .com Phototube .co

Paillettes II by Donatello

18 3

Fashion shooting published in Umbigo Magazine

www.donatelloromanazzi.com

Follow me ⎜My Blog

Credits:

Model: Laura Tollesson (Francine Models)

Art direction and Stylist: Gemma Malé

MUA & Hair Stylist: Lucía Hernandez Calderón

Assistant: Isma Guirado

Dress: Valentina Bcn

Jewelery: Luz Vargas Exclusive Jewelery

Press L

Ifugao blacksmiths using bellows and stones in metalworking, Luzon, Philippines, 1887 by John Tewell

Published in: Album von Philippinen-typen ... / Hrsg. von Dr. A.B. Meyer .... Dresden, Wilhelm Hoffman, 1885-1904. 3 v. Plate 30, titled "Kiangan in Sapao Valley".

Creator Meyer, Adolf Bernard, 1840-1911

Otley Beyer collection of photographs

Condition: fading along edges and pigment loss at top.

Title devised by cataloguer based on information from file NLA/16269.

National Library of Australia

L'Artisan du Livre, bookshop and publisher, 2 Rue de Fleurus, Paris (c.1930) by pellethepoet

19 1

Postcard. Postally unused.

Published by L'Artisan du Livre, 2, Rue de Fleurus, Paris.

Bought from an eBay seller in Chantecorps, France.

Location: Google Maps Street View. Looking east towards the Luxembourg Gardens.

"In 1978, Claude Guérin acquired L’Artisan du Livre, a bookshop and publishing house located at 22, rue Guynemer [corner address, also 2, Rue de Fleurus], facing the Luxembourg gardens. Two years later, he established the Librairie Giraud-Badin definitively at this address, where it has been ever since." - www.giraud-badin.com/en/info/4

Lily Nicole - Published by Eric Adeleye

16 3

Some of my work with Model Lily Nicole (Model Mayhem @ www.modelmayhem.com/2485363) published in the February 2015 issue of Muotoilla Magazine (www.magcloud.com/browse/magazine/706975).

X-9 #22B by Komic-Kazi

Published by O Globo, Brazil 1942

1964 Dodge Custom 880 by A.Davey

7 3

Hemmings Motor News published this paean to the 1964 Dodge Custom 880:

Chances are, back then, you had no concept of what 90-odd cubic feet of storage space actually meant to an owner. While your sister sat on the sprawling bench seat behind your parents, you lounged contentedly in the third row, watching the world disappear over the horizon while counting the number of oncoming cars. Separating you from the family–until you got to the campsite at the lake–were four sleeping bags, a neatly folded tent, a small stack of luggage, mini barbecue grill and other assorted outdoor gear. With the high-tech world of cell phones, handheld video games and portable DVD players decades into the future, you kept yourself busy mile after seemingly endless mile with creative thinking.

ust about everyone has some memory of a particular station wagon: fond or otherwise. Your cousin might have used one to go on a fishing trip out in the country. Dad used it to haul lumber for a new back deck. Mom used it to bring the baseball team to the ice cream parlor after the game. Your older brother even drove it to pick up his date on prom night. It was a car with a million uses.

No matter the manufacturer, wagons began with a simplistic design: car chassis, seating for six and ample cargo space. In a series of one-upmanship, design deviations and a litany of convenience options peppered its long history. For instance, if you didn’t want four doors, you could try two. A third row of collapsible seating offered passengers a different traveling perspective. Some were clad in Di-Noc, that lovely faux wood paneling that kept the “Squire” badge in sales brochures well into the Nineties. Cargo space was increased by means of a Vista roof. And if that wasn’t enough, an all-out sales war resulted in the three-way tailgate versus the clamshell. It was a select few, however, that offered hardtop styling.

The pillarless look was a unique and short-lived idea born in the mid-Fifties; some might find it hard to imagine that Dodge used it first with the Polara, then with its new-for-1962 880 series. Our feature car, owned by Bisbee, Arizona, resident Pat Kennedy, is an unrestored, bona fide original 1964 Custom 880.

Lack of a B-pillar provides the illusion of easier access, although the hardtop design also enhances the cavernous feel of the interior. Unless you plan on adjusting the climate controls while in a panic stop, the two-tier dash is easily readable and reachable.

As other manufacturers had discovered, the pillarless station wagon was never a big seller. In fact, during the three years that the design lived on in Dodge’s 880 series, no more than 3,500 combined six- and nine-passenger examples were produced in a single sub-series during a single model year. But just how the 880, and its wagons, came to fruition is a worthwhile story in and of itself.

In the early days of the Sixties, rumors abounded of Chevrolet downsizing its entire fleet. As a result, Chrysler Corporation’s frenzied rush to keep up with the competition meant that everything in the Dodge camp was redesigned into a substantially smaller package. In a strange twist of fate, the poor-selling De Soto was nixed early in the 1961 model run, which effectively left the mid-price full-size car market wide open for the competition to absorb.

=========================================================================================================================

Rod Run to the End of the World, Ocean Park, Washington, September 7 & 8, 2019.

Hoopoe (Upupa epops) by wildlens

4 18

For Best Result

click on an image, once you're on the photo-page

to view higher resolution image on black background

Rome - Sunset on the "Cuppolone" by Fabio Dorascenzi

Psi Mod 1.8.9 by Mike Will

published via Free Download Minecraft ift.tt/22838cf

Greenfield Village, Dearborn, Michigan. And John F. Kennedy's Fateful Limousine. by pepandtim

5 1

The Postcard

A postally unused C.T. Art-Colortone postcard that was published on behalf of The Union News Co. In the space for the stamp it states:

'Place One Cent

Stamp Here.'

The following is printed on the divided back of the card:

"The historic village centers

in the 'Green' as did early

American communities.

About this spot stand the

public buildings - the Inn,

the Chapel, the School,

the Court House, the Town

Hall and the General Store."

The Henry Ford

The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, Greenfield Village, and the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan.

The museum collection contains the presidential limousine of John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln's chair from Ford's Theatre, Thomas Edison's laboratory, the Wright Brothers' bicycle shop, the Rosa Parks bus, and many other historical exhibits.

It is the largest indoor–outdoor museum complex in the United States, and is visited by over 1.7 million people each year. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1969 as Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1981 as "Edison Institute".

Background to the Museum

Named for its founder, the automobile industrialist Henry Ford, and based on his efforts to preserve items of historical interest and portray the Industrial Revolution, the property houses homes, machinery, exhibits, and Americana of historically significant items as well as common memorabilia, both of which help to capture the history of life in early America. It is one of the largest such collections in the nation.

Henry Ford said of his museum:

"I am collecting the history of our people as written

into things their hands made and used .... When we

are through, we shall have reproduced American life

as lived, and that, I think, is the best way of preserving

at least a part of our history and tradition."

History of the Museum

Architect Robert O. Derrick designed the museum with a 523,000 square feet (48,600 m2) exhibit hall that extends 400 feet (120 m) behind the main façade. The façade spans 800 feet (240 m) and incorporates facsimiles of three structures from Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia – Old City Hall, Independence Hall and Congress Hall.

The Edison Institute was dedicated by President Herbert Hoover to Ford's longtime friend Thomas Edison on the 21st. October 1929 – the 50th. anniversary of the first successful incandescent light bulb.

The attendees included Marie Curie, George Eastman, John D. Rockefeller, Will Rogers, Orville Wright, and about 250 others. The dedication was broadcast on radio, with listeners encouraged to turn off their electric lights until the switch was flipped at the Museum.

The Edison Institute was, at first, a private site for educational purposes only, but after numerous inquiries about the complex, it was opened as a museum to the general public on the 22nd. June 1933. It was originally composed of the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, and the Greenfield Village Schools (an experimental learning facility).

Initially, Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum were owned by the Ford Motor Company, which is currently a sponsor of the school, and cooperates with the Henry Ford to provide the Ford Rouge Factory Tour. The Henry Ford is sited between the Ford Dearborn Development Center and several Ford engineering buildings with which it shares the same style gates and brick fences.

In 1970, the museum purchased what it believed to be a 17th. century Brewster Chair, created for one of the Pilgrim settlers in the Plymouth Colony, for $9,000.

In September 1977, the chair was determined to be a modern forgery created in 1969 by Rhode Island sculptor Armand LaMontagne. The museum retains the piece as an educational tool on forgeries.

In the early 2000's, the museum added an auditorium to the building's south corner. This housed an IMAX theater until January 2016, when museum management decided to change formats for the facility to better fit with its mission. The renovated theater reopened in April of that year.

The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation

The Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation began as Henry Ford's personal collection of historic objects, which he began collecting as far back as 1906. The museum features a 4K digital projection theater, which shows scientific, natural, or historical documentaries, as well as major feature films.

Today, the 12 acre (49,000 m²) site is primarily a collection of antique machinery, pop culture items, automobiles, locomotives, aircraft, and other items:

-- An Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.

-- The 1961 Lincoln Continental in which President John F. Kennedy was riding when he was assassinated.

-- The rocking chair from Ford's Theatre in which President Abraham Lincoln was sitting when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth.

-- George Washington's camp bed.

-- A collection of several fine 17th. and 18th. century violins, including a Stradivarius.

-- Thomas Edison's alleged last breath in a sealed tube.

-- Buckminster Fuller's prototype Dymaxion house (see below).

-- The bus on which Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat, leading to the Montgomery bus boycott.

-- Igor Sikorsky's prototype helicopter.

-- The Fokker Trimotor airplane that flew the first flight over the North Pole.

-- Bill Elliott's record-breaking race car clocking in at over 212 MPH at Talladega in 1987.

-- Fairbottom Bobs, the Newcomen engine.

-- A steam engine from Cobb's Engine House in England.

-- A working fragment of the original Holiday Inn "Great Sign."

-- Chesapeake & Ohio Railway "Allegheny"-class steam locomotive #1601, built by Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio. The Allegheny was the third most-powerful steam locomotive ever built, after the Union Pacific Railroad "Big Boy" locomotive and the Pennsylvania Railroad Q2-class locomotive.

-- Toyota Prius sedan, the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle.

Behind the scenes, the Benson Ford Research Center uses the resources of The Henry Ford, especially the photographic, manuscript and archival material which is rarely displayed, to allow visitors to gain a deeper understanding of American people, places, events, and things. The Research Center also contains the Ford Motor Archives.

To commemorate the 100th. anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the Henry Ford Museum exhibited a vast array of artifacts and media documenting the Titanic's voyage and demise. The exhibit was hosted from the 31st. March to the 30th. September 2012.

Greenfield Village

Greenfield Village, the outdoor living history museum section of the Henry Ford complex, was (along with the adjacent Henry Ford Museum) dedicated in 1929 and opened to the public in June 1933.

It was the first outdoor museum of its type in the nation, and served as a model for subsequent outdoor museums. Patrons enter at the gate, passing by the Josephine Ford Memorial Fountain and Benson Ford Research Center. Nearly one hundred historical buildings were moved to the property from their original locations and arranged in a "village" setting.

The museum's intent is to show how Americans have lived and worked since the founding of the country. The Village includes buildings from the 17th. century to the present, many of which are staffed by costumed interpreters who conduct period tasks like farming, sewing and cooking.

A collection of craft buildings such as pottery, glass-blowing, and tin shops provide demonstrations while producing materials used in the Village and for sale. The Village features costumed and plain-clothed presenters to tell stories and convey information about the attractions. Some of these presenters are seasonal, such as the "games on the green" presenters who only operate in the summer.

Greenfield Village has 240 acres (970,000 m²) of land of which only 90 acres (360,000 m²) are used for the attraction, the rest being forest, river and extra pasture for sheep and horses.

Village homes, buildings, and attractions include:

-- Noah Webster's Connecticut home, which served as a dormitory for Yale students from 1918 to 1936, when it was obtained by Henry Ford and moved to Greenfield Village where it was restored.

-- The Wright brothers' bicycle shop and home, which were bought and moved by Henry Ford in 1937 from Dayton, Ohio.

-- A replica of Thomas Edison's Menlo Park laboratory complex from New Jersey. Its reconstruction started in 1928. The buildings were laid out according to exact foundation measurements from the original site. It was furnished with original or faithful duplicates, all placed as they were originally sited.

-- The Edison Homestead, birthplace of Thomas Edison's father. It was built in 1816 in Vienna, Ontario, and moved to Greenfield Village in the 1930's.

-- Henry Ford's birthplace, which was moved from Greenfield and Ford roads in 1944. Henry Ford had it furnished exactly as it was during his mother's time.

-- Henry Ford's prototype garage where he built the Ford Quadricycle.

-- Harvey Firestone the tire magnate's family farm from Columbiana, Ohio, which was given to the Village by Harvey's two remaining sons in 1983 to perpetuate their father's memory. It took over two years for the disassembling and rebuilding process, and has been operated as a working sheep farm since 1985.

-- The Logan County, Illinois courthouse where Abraham Lincoln practiced law.

-- William Holmes McGuffey's birthplace.

-- Luther Burbank's office.

-- J. R. Jones General Store was built circa 1857 in Waterford Village, Michigan. It was moved to Greenfield Village in 1927 after being purchased by Henry Ford from its then-owner August V. Jacober for $700 and the agreement to rebuild a new store on its Waterford site. It was the first structure to arrive at the Greenfield Village site. The general store was placed in its permanent location facing the village green in the spring of 1929.

-- Ackley Covered Bridge, a 75' wooden covered bridge, built in 1832 over Enlow Fork along the Greene - Washington County line in Southwestern Pennsylvania and moved to the village in 1937.

-- Cape Cod Windmill, also known as the Farris mill, is considered one of the oldest in America. It was originally built in 1633 on the north side of Cape Cod. It was moved several times around Cape Cod until it was gifted to Henry Ford from the Ford Dealers Association, and installed in Greenfield Village in 1936.

-- In 1935, a structure was added to the park and was identified as the home of Stephen Foster. The structure was identified by historians at the time as being authentic, and was deconstructed and moved piece by piece from the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Greenfield Village. However Foster's niece insisted that it was not his birthplace, and in 1953 the claim was withdrawn.

-- A 1913 Herschell Spillman carousel with an Artizan 'C' band organ with a replica Wurlitzer façade converted to play Wurlitzer rolls.

-- There are various modes of historic transportation in the Village providing rides for visitors which utilize authentic Ford Model Ts, a 1931 Ford Model AA bus (one of about 15 known to exist), horse-drawn omnibuses, and trains pulled by steam locomotives.

The Weiser Railroad

The rail line on which the steam locomotives in Greenfield Village presently run originally consisted of a simple straight stretch of track along the northern edge of the museum property, and has been present ever since Greenfield Village was dedicated in 1929.

The rail line, now named the Weiser Railroad, was later expanded into a continuous loop around the perimeter of the museum property, which was completed in stages between 1971 and 1972. This 4 ft 8½ in (1,435 mm) standard gauge passenger line is 2 miles (3.2 km) long, and has four stations.

All of the railroad's stations consist solely of single side platforms except for the station in the Railroad Junction section, which also includes the relocated Smiths Creek Depot building originally built for the Grand Trunk Railway in 1858.

The line utilizes a modern replica of a Detroit, Toledo & Milwaukee Railroad roundhouse built in 1884. At the time it opened in 2000, the new DT&M Roundhouse replica was one of only seven working roundhouses open to the public in the United States.

The railroad, unusual for a heritage railroad built purposely for tourism, has a direct connection to the United States National Railroad Network. The line to which it connects is a section of the Michigan Line owned by MDOT.

The Weiser Railroad's Torch Lake steam locomotive, built in 1873, is the oldest operational locomotive in the U.S. as of 2021.

Signature Events

(a) Civil War Remembrance

Each year the Village honors the sacrifices and achievements of those who fought in the American Civil War. The Civil War Remembrance event takes place on Memorial Day weekend every year.

An estimated 750,000 people died during the Civil War. The Civil War Remembrance includes hundreds of Union and Confederate re-enactors, musicians and historic presenters. Greenfield Village provides many opportunities to learn about the Civil War: exhibits, presentations, battle re-enactments, concerts, short plays, hands-on activities and Q&A with historians.

(b) Motor Muster

Motor Muster is one of two car shows that take place annually in Greenfield Village. Motor Muster is traditionally held on Father's Day weekend. This event currently features cars built from 1932–1976, and features between 600–800 cars. Special attractions include car judging, and Pass in Review in which experts discuss highlights of the passing cars.

Every summer the Henry Ford has a Summer Camp. It takes place inside Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum between June and August. It is for children in grades 2-9. Each grade level has a different theme, and children who participate in the Summer Camp have the opportunity to look at both the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village from different perspectives.

Children participate in activities such as apprenticeships, canoeing, glass blowing and other age-dependent activities.

(d) World Tournament of Historic Base Ball

The World Tournament of Historical Base Ball takes place every year in August. Guests get to take a step back in time to 1867 as vintage base ball clubs from around the country compete using the game's early rules in a two-day exposition of historic base ball.

The clubs engage in two days of throwing, batting and competition.

(e) Salute to America

For four nights around Independence Day, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra performs a patriotic concert on Walnut Grove in the Village. Attendance ranges from 5,000 to 9,500 per evening.

(f) Ragtime Street Fair

This weekend event in July was first presented in 2007, and ran annually through 2015. Ragtime Street Fair featured dozens of live performers, including the River Raisin Ragtime Revue, "Perfessor" Bill Edwards, Mike Montgomery, Nan Bostick, Taslimah Bey, John Remmers, and Tartarsauce Traditional Jazz Band, who celebrated the Ragtime era (ca. 1900–1917).

The event also featured silent movies, phonograph demonstrations, a cake walk, a cutting contest, and a musical revue in the Town Hall as well as the 1912 presidential campaign of Theodore Roosevelt.

Instruction in the ragtime one-step was provided free of charge at this event.

(g) Old Car Festival

The Old Car Festival takes place every year in September. The festival has been held on the first weekend after Labor Day since 1955. The festival takes over the streets and grounds of Greenfield Village with the sights, sounds, and smells of hundreds of authentic vehicles from the 1890's through 1932.

This event features 500–700 cars. Special events include car judging, Pass in Review, the gaslight tour, and car races on the Walnut Grove field. Guests can take a self-guided tour of the exposition and talk to the owners of the treasured vehicles.

Visitors can watch a Model T be assembled in just minutes, attend presentations, and hear experts share information about the vintage vehicles.

(h) Hallowe'en in Greenfield Village

The Village's Halloween celebration features decorations, a headless horseman, witches, as well as other costumed characters, treats and activities for visitors. It is held Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings in October.

(i) Holiday Nights

The Christmas season has traditionally been popular in Greenfield Village. Many buildings feature period decorations, and the Village is open for self-guided strolls. An ice skating rink is available.

Visitors can view live entertainment and costumed presenters, or ride in a horse-drawn carriage or a Model T.

(j) Rouge Tour

The Ford Rouge Factory Tour is a first-hand journey behind the scenes of a modern, working automobile factory. Boarding buses at the Henry Ford Museum, visitors are taken to the River Rouge Plant and Dearborn Truck Plant, an industrial complex where Ford has built cars since the Model A that once employed 100,000 people.

In 2003, the Ford Rouge Factory, the manufacturing facility for the Ford F-Series truck, re-opened following extensive renovations. When it reopened as sustainable architecture led by noted 'green' architect William McDonough, it also opened a new state-of-the-art visitor center highlighting the factory's sustainable aspects and educating visitors on the legacy of the historic manufacturing facility as well as the vehicle manufacturing process that takes place within the manufacturing plant.

The visitor experiences offer two multi-screen theaters, numerous touchscreen interpretive displays, and overlook the world's largest "Green" roof, atop the factory. Visitors then walk through the working assembly plant.

Admission Fees

Admission fees for buy-at-the-door tickets for adults are currently (2022) $30 for the Village, $27 for the Museum, and $22 for the Ford Rouge factory tour.

There's also a $9 parking fee. However on-line discounts and combination tickets are available at a reduced price.

The Dymaxion House

The Dymaxion House on display in the Museum was developed by inventor and architect Buckminster Fuller to address several perceived shortcomings with existing homebuilding techniques.

Fuller designed several versions of the house at different times — all of them factory manufactured kits, assembled on site, intended to be suitable for any site or environment, and to use resources efficiently. A key design consideration was ease of shipment and assembly.

As he did when naming many of his inventions, Fuller combined the words dynamic, maximum, and tension to arrive at the term Dymaxion.

History of the Dymaxion House

The Dymaxion House was completed in 1930 after two years of development, and redesigned in 1945. Buckminster Fuller wanted to mass-produce a bathroom and a house.

His first Dymaxion design was based on the design of a grain bin. During World War II, the U.S. Army commissioned Fuller to send these housing units to the Persian Gulf. In 1945, science-fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein placed an order for one to be delivered to Los Angeles, but the order was never filled.

The Siberian grain-silo house was the first system in which Fuller noted the "urban dust dome" effect: many installations have reported that a dome induces a local vertical heat-driven vortex that sucks cooler air downward into a dome, if the dome is vented properly - a single overhead vent, and peripheral vents. Fuller adapted the later units of the grain-silo house to use this effect.

The final design of the Dymaxion house used a central vertical stainless-steel strut on a single foundation. The strut carried utilities and plumbing. Structures similar to the spokes of a bicycle-wheel hung down from the strut to support the roof, while beams radiating out supported the floor. Wedge-shaped fans of sheet metal aluminum formed the roof, ceiling and floor.

Each structure was assembled at ground level and then winched up the strut. The Dymaxion house represented the first conscious effort to build an autonomous building in the 20th century.

It was a prototype with water storage and a convection-driven ventilator built into the roof. The Dymaxion was designed for the stormy areas of the world: temperate oceanic islands, and the Great Plains of North America, South America and Eurasia.

In most modern houses, laundry, showers and commodes are the major water uses, with drinking, cooking and dish-washing consuming less than 20 liters per day. The Dymaxion house was intended to reduce water use by a greywater system, a packaging commode, and a "fogger" to replace showers. The fogger was based on compressed-air and water degreasers, but with much smaller water particles to make it comfortable.

Two Dymaxion houses were prototyped – one indoor (the "Barwise" house) and one outdoor (the "Danbury" house). However no Dymaxion house built according to Fuller's intentions was ever constructed and lived in.

Fuller also designed a 10-story variant which was to have been dropped in place by the Graf Zeppelin.

The only two prototypes of the round, aluminum house were bought by investor William Graham, together with assorted unused prototyping elements as salvage after the venture failed. In 1948, Graham constructed a hybridized version of the Dymaxion House as his family's home; the Grahams lived there into the 1970's.

Graham built the round house on his lake front property, disabling the ventilator and other interior features. It was inhabited for about 30 years, although as an extension to an existing ranch house, rather than a standalone structure as intended by Fuller.

The large wrap-around windows and lightweight structures were popular with the children, who crawled on the windowsill, and twanged the bicycle-wheel-style main struts.

In 1990, the Graham family donated this house, and all the component prototyping parts, to The Henry Ford Museum. A painstaking process was used to conserve as many original component parts and systems as possible and to restore the rest using original documentation from the Fuller prototyping process. It was installed indoors in the Henry Ford Museum in 2001 as a full exhibit.

Since there was no evidence of the crucial internal rain-gutter system, some elements of the rain collecting system were omitted from the restored exhibit. The roof was designed to wick water inside and drip into the rain-gutter and then to the cistern, rather than have a difficult-to-fit, perfectly waterproof roof.

There was to be a waterless packaging toilet that deftly shrink-wrapped the waste for pickup for later composting. However during the prototyping process, the idea for the packaging toilet was quickly replaced by a conventional septic system, because the packaging plastic was not available. Other features worked as advertised, notably the heating, and the passive air conditioning system, based on the "dome effect."

The Dymaxion Bathroom

The inhabitants of the much-modified version of the house said that the bathroom was a particular delight. The bathroom consisted of two connected stamped copper bubbles, built as four nesting pieces. The bottom piece is fully plated in tin/antimony alloy, and the top half is painted. Each bubble had a drain.

No area had a radius of less than four inches (10 cm), to aid cleaning. The commode, shower, bathtub and sink were molded into the structural shell in one piece. One bubble contained a step-up ergonomic bathtub and shower, high enough to wash children without stooping, but just two steps (16 inches / 40 cm) up. The oval tub had the controls mounted on the inside left of the entrance to the tub.

The other bubble was the bathroom proper with commode and sink. The ventilation for the bathroom was a large silent fan under the main sink, which kept odors away from people's noses. All lighting was totally enclosed. To prevent fogging, the mirror faced into the medicine chest, which was ventilated by the fan. A plastic version of the bathroom was available intermittently until the 1980's.

Criticism of the Dymaxion

Criticism of the Dymaxion House included its supposed inflexible design, which completely disregarded local site and architectural styles, and its use of energy-intensive materials such as aluminum, rather than low-energy materials, such as adobe or tile.

Fuller chose aluminium for its light weight, great strength, and long-term durability, arguably factors that compensate for the initial production cost. Aluminum was also a logical choice if the homes were to be built in aircraft factories, which, since World War II had ended, had substantial excess capacity.

The Wichita House

The Wichita House was a project Fuller accepted during World War II as an attempt to produce cost-effective dwellings for everyone. The project continued to develop the technological concept of the Dymaxion House, now incorporating a round floor plan instead of a hexagonal one.

The reactions to the prototype were extraordinarily positive; nevertheless it was not produced industrially because of high re-tooling costs.

Fuller, a consummate perfectionist, felt that he could improve the design, and was dissatisfied with the prototype. He refused to begin production rather than allowing the "unfinished" design to be used.

Look And Find - Greek Myths Spread 01 - Olympus (Publishers International) by douglasbot

15 3

Shoot for Sana Safinaz by Fayyaz Ahmed

26 18

published in Diva annual issue, 2009

published (1) by Anette Hjerpaasen

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Just sharing. :o) I got published with 3 cards in the latest issue of the norwegian stamping magazine called "Ett Trykk" - YAY!

Published ;) by alexkj

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Finally, i got the email, it's out and available on Amazon for all to see, my first book cover.

www.amazon.co.uk/Rope-Walk-Carrie-Brown/dp/0307278093/ref...

Draw me a picture by ivan sciupac

7 4

Published by DCist and Prince of Petworth.

Digital Camera POTY 2011 - Commended by Chris Gin

My Gannet Colony shot commended in Landscape category. I don't think I ever uploaded this B&W shot to Flickr...

Congrats to Kah Kit Yoong for winning this category!

come in number seven by Jibbo

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Honk! The sound there of some self-trumpet blowing.

Last month the editor of What Digital Camera sent a Flickr mail asking if the magazine could use puddling about in a feature on bad weather photography (in exchange for a free mag and a bit of cash). I said yes, hoping he didn't mean bad weather photography.

A copy of this month's issue finally arrived today, making it a nice way to celebrate a year's D40 ownership.

Screen Shot 2015-10-06 at 2.10.47 PM by Dennis Jarvis

PLEASE, NO invitations or self promotions, THEY WILL BE DELETED. My photos are FREE to use, just give me credit and it would be nice if you let me know, thanks.

Why on earth did I wear high heel shoes to the office today? by Ed Yourdon

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Note: this photo was published in an undated (May 2010) EveryBlock NYC Zipcodes blog, with the title 10025. It was also published in an undated (May 2010) EveryBlock NYC Neighborhoods blog titled "Upper West Side."

Moving into 2012, the photo was published in an undated (mid-Oct 2012) blog titled "Unusual things to do in New York City for under $100."

Moving into 2014, the photo was published in a Jul 23, 2014 blog titled "How brands make the man, and the woman – literally." It was also published in an Oct 20, 2014 blog titled "New York Is The Snobbiest City In America."

****************

This is a continuation of a Flickr set that I started in the summer of 2009. As I noted in that earlier collection of photos, I still have many parts of New York City left to explore -- but I've also realized that I don't always have to go looking elsewhere for interesting photographs. Some of it is available just outside my front door.

I live on a street corner on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where there's an express stop on the IRT subway line (with a new space-age subway station scheduled to be completed by fall 2010), as well as a crosstown bus stop, an entrance to the West Side Highway, and the usual range of banks, delis, grocery stores, fast-food shops, mobile-phone stores, drug-stores, Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, Subway, and other commercial enterprises. As a result, there are lots of interesting people moving past my apartment building, all day and all night long.

It's easy to find an unobtrusive spot on the edge of the median strip separating the east side of Broadway from the west side; nobody pays any attention to me as they cross the street from east to west, and nobody even looks in my direction as they cross from north to south (or vice versa). In rainy weather, sometimes I huddle under an awning of the T-Mobile phone store on the corner, so I can take pictures of people under their umbrellas, without getting my camera and myself soaking wet...

So, these are some of the people I thought were photo-worthy during the past few weeks and month; I'll add more to the collection as the year progresses ... unless, of course, other parts of New York City turn out to be more compelling from time to time.

Swan by Jiamin Zhu

Published in Elegant Magazine Liquid Dreams Issue! And made cover =)

Model: Anita Mwiruki

Makeup, Hair, Body paint: Liz Kiss

www.jajasgarden.com

Published in the Manitoba Co-operator - October 14, 2021 by Jeannette Greaves

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THE BIG PICTURE - FALL COLOURS

This squirrel gets a late-season snack against the backdrop of some fall blooms.

Fantasticas aventuras #5 by Komic-Kazi

Published by Sissi, Brazil 1960

Published in zoom.nl magazine by Roy Coumans

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Proud! I heard the (physical) mailbox, checked it and it was there. The new zoom.nl magazine. The biggest magazine in The Netherlands in amateur-photography. I took it out of the wrap and it smelled good, better than ever! This is the interview in Amsterdam with me: 6 pages with photo's of which 1 photo was taken during the interview/streetphotography-session.

In stores in Belgium and The Netherlands in a few days.

FLASH ANOMALO 221019 2107 full by glaucoaster

Published on Nov 17, 2019

video youtu.be/zdAwkT7MPG8

18 Sept, 19:44 actividad inusual de anomalías se observan sobre el lado Este" de la ciudad capital , Flares , Orb (extraños orbitales luminosos ) y Flashes anómalos ( con patrones Random en su destellos ) tubieron un pico de actividad , mirando hacia y sobre Aquario , la mas llamativa la de destellos Random , se desplazaba tanto erraticamente , hacia el Norte " se pudo constatar dicha actividad inusual y registrar en infrarrojo .

20 Sept 2019, 19:42 otra Anomalía es registrada, esta vez flota casi fija en al vertical de la ciudad de Bs.as, al principio produce grandes destellos de -1 Mag y parece Estacionaria " en el Cielo, luego Sinuosides

y comienza un lento desplazamiento hacia el Este" .

22-10-2019 21:07 Una Intromision anómala de gran magnitud , sobrevolo el Cielo de buenos aires , por debajo de la zona celeste de Capricornio a unos 40° Alt - NNO" , aparecio cerca de la estrella Altair 0.8 Mag ( en el mismo momento habia vuelos activos hacia ese sector ) en la capital de Argentina , la misteriosa anomalía ( Flash Light ) genero varias descargas luminicas de " - 1 Mag " ( muy visibles a simple vista) y se desplazo de NNO" hacia el ESTE" , pero a los pocos minutos desaparecio , se logro un registro en infrarrojo, en la foto estatica del video, se lo ve pasando próxima a las estrellas, Eps Del de Mag 4.0, Iot Del de Mag5.4 y Kap Del de Mag 5.2 . Saludos amigos y amigas www.glaucoart.com.ar

El 11-10-2019 mientras se fotografia la Luna con Telescopio 114/900 a 13 Megapixel, una de las fotos muestra una anormal Lenticula oscura y bien definida, sobre el centro del disco Lunar y no pudo identificarse , mas que como un O.v.n.i ( muy parecido o casi identico , a la extraordinaria sequencia registrada en Rusia este año 2019 con un equipo de alta prestación astronomica Nikon P 900 www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zQX_Huidzk

para analizar la Fotografia a 13Mp con su EXIF original pueden entrar a los bancos del taller glaucoart en

www.flickr.com/photos/glaucoa...

Caso actualizado ( Febrero 2019) del registro de un ROD en su video original tomado con Telescopio114/900 y S4 y detenido cuadro por cuadro . No esta Identificado " es completamente inusual a este nivel de definición y aumento optico .

Caso del ROD mas emblematico registrado por el taller glaucoart el 16-10-1999 en el evento de la Flotilla Ovni , evento analizado oficialmente" en fundaciones y luego difundido/informado en varias web especializadas en la tematica . Son " 6" cuadros recuperados de diferentes soportes y generaciones ( Mpg - Vhs - Dvd )

Registro Edición y Música: Ricardo Enrique D'angelo Gentilini .

www.glaucoart.com.ar

The Phoenix of The Burning Sun by Anny To

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Published in Freque Magazine Vol 6 Part 3

Makeup + Styling: Tamra Cavell♥

Model: Ducky Rickman

Assistant: Devon Suboreau

www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/691573

♡ www.annytophotography.com

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