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Heres information about central florida broadcast stations
Broadcast Tower,WFTT-TV is the Telefutura affiliate for Tampa Bay, owned by Univision and operated by Entravision, owners of WVEA-TV. The station, which broadcasts on UHF channel 50, is based at WVEA's studios on Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa, and transmits from Riverview. WFTT can be seen on cable throughout the Bay Area on Bright House channel 5, and on Comcast in Sarasota County on channel 23.
With the completion of the 442.550 repeater in Riverview at 805ft in January, the western pointing antenna on the 442.825 repeater caused a expected overlap that was unnecessary. Since 442.550 now blankets Hillsborough County, we have as of April 11th taken the antenna off the west leg of the Pebbledale tower site at 800ft and moved it to the east leg of the tower. What does mean for users? The tower has a 7 foot wide face, which creates a null that is created behind the antenna. This null used to face a huge portion of Polk County. By moving this antenna to the east, the null is now facing essentially Brandon/Riverview, where 442.550 is now located at 805ft. So far we have gotten incredible results from users in eastern Polk County. Some users in Sebring reporting almost full scale signal, and mobile users with hand helds on 27 at 5 watts can use 442.825 now. None of this was previously possible. So with this move, expect to hear more Polk, Osceola and I-4 corridor area users making it into the network.
A nother tower WVEA (channel 62) is Tampa Bay, Florida's first Spanish-language TV station, which had its start in the early-1980s as low-powered W50AC ch.50, which offered programming from the Spanish International Network (SIN), the forerunner of today's Univision. In 1988, to make way for new HSN flagship WBHS (now WFTT-TV), the station relocated to channel 61 and became W61BL. In the mid-1990s, the station was re-called "WVEA-LP". In 2000, WVEA's parent company, Entravision, acquired Sarasota English independent WBSV channel 62, with the intent of moving the transmitter from Venice to the antenna farm at Riverview. WBSV signed on May 3, 1991 as the Sarasota area's own independent station, designed to compete against WWSB and the other stations in the Tampa Bay and nearby Ft. Myers markets. Licensed to Venice, Florida the call letters stood for Bradenton, Sarasota, Venice, the three cities it primarily served. WBSV had a variety of syndicated and local programming, plus infomercials and home shopping programs. early on, they also had its own newscast. But, WBSV was eternally in red ink, and relied more on home shopping and infomercials to keep the station afloat....
And then,WTVT, channel 13, is a television station in Tampa, Florida. It is an owned and operated station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsdiary of the News Corporation. WTVT's studios are located in Tampa, and its transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.
Overall the WUSF (89.7 FM) is an NPR-member radio station licensed to Tampa, Florida, USA. The station is currently owned by the University of South Florida. WUSF signed on in 1963, seven years after USF's founding in 1956.
WOPX channel 56 is a television station based in Orlando, Florida, USA. An affiliate of the ION Television network, it transmits its analog signal on UHF channel 56 and its digital signal on UHF channel 48, both from a transmitter located near Holopaw. The station signed on the air in 1986.
WIWA (1160 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish language Christian format. Licensed to St. Cloud, Florida, USA, it serves the greater Orlando area. The station is currently owned by Centro De La Familia Cristiana Inc.
WAFZ-FM (92.1 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Regional Mexican format. Licensed to Immokalee, Florida, USA, the station is currently owned by Glades Media Company LLC. WAFZ's programming is also heard on WAFZ AM 1490 in Immokalee.
WTVY or WTVY News 4 is a CBS-affiliated television station broadcasting on channel 4 in Dothan, Alabama, owned by Gray Television. The station's signal, originating from a transmitter in Holmes County, Florida, reaches large portions of Alabama, Georgia and Florida. WTVY is also the designated CBS affiliate for the Panama City, Florida market, where Gray also owns that city's NBC affiliate, WJHG-TV. In exchange, WJHG is available in Dothan on cable since Dothan does not have its own NBC affiliate. In fact, WTVY's transmitter is located within the Panama City market. WTVY-DT uses digital subchannels to operate MyNetworkTV affiliate My 4 and CW affiliate Dothan's CW.
WJED (91.1 FM) is a radio station broadcasting a Christian radio format. Licensed to Dogwood Lakes Estate, Florida, USA. The station is currently owned by Bethany Bible College.
WTVJ, channel 6, is the NBC owned-and-operated television station for South Florida, licensed to Miami. Its analog transmitter is located in Redland. The station's digital transmitter is located near Dolphin Stadium in north Miami-Dade County. Owned by NBC Universal, the station is sister to South Florida's Telemundo owned-and-operated station, WSCV. The two share studios at Peacock Plaza in Miramar.
WOIR (1430 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish News/Talk format. Licensed to Homestead, Florida, USA, the station serves the Miami area. The station is currently owned by Amanecer Christian Network, Inc..
WTLH is a Fox television affiliate licensed to Bainbridge, Georgia and serves the Tallahassee, Florida television market. It broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 49 and its digital signal on UHF channel 50. The station began operations on November 25, 1989. Its transmitter is located in Metcalf, Georgia. The Station is owned by CP Media, LLC. The station runs a duopoly with WFXU, The CW station in Tallahassee. WTLH programming is also seen on a low-powered, Class-A repeater, WBVJ-LP channel 35 in Valdosta.
WTXL-TV is the ABC affiliate station for Tallahassee, Florida, Thomasville, Georgia, and Valdosta, Georgia, broadcasting on channel 27. The station is owned by Calkins Media, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based mass media company that owns several small newspapers in Pennsylvania and two other television stations: WWSB in Sarasota and WAAY-TV in Huntsville, Alabama. It was previously owned by Media Ventures Management, and operated by the Sinclair Broadcast Group pursuant to an outsourcing agreement (See: [1]), the first of its kind in the United States. This agreement merged virtually all of WTXL-TV's operations with that of Sinclair's NBC affiliate WTWC. Denis LeClair, General Manager of WTXL-TV and WBXT-TV at the time, was made General Manager for WTXL, WBXT and WTWC under this agreement. He would be followed by Chris Butterick and then Bob Franklin. Eventually, Kim Urbuteit (who was fired in May, 2007) would be named General Manager of WTXL only as Bob Franklin (now in Mobile, AL) oversaw WTWC. Gary Wordlaw is the current General Manager of WTXL-TV.
WFSU is the callsign (or variations thereon) for public radio stations operated by Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. WFSU also operates 3 radio stations that serve northern Florida: * WFSU-FM 88.9 FM: Tallahassee-based news/talk/public affairs station carrying several NPR programs and overnight BBC World Service programming. Also heard on these low-powered repeaters: * 97.1 - Carrabelle * 106.1 - Marianna * 96.7 - Apalachicola * 93.7 - Downtown Tallahassee (necessary because the main WFSU transmitter must conform its signal to protect WTSU in Troy, Alabama) * WFSQ-FM 91.5 FM: Tallahassee-based classical music station. Also heard on WFSL-FM 90.7 in Thomasville, Georgia, and on low-powered 92.7 FM in the northeast portion of the city of Tallahassee. * WFSW-FM 89.1 FM: Panama City-based news/talk/public affairs station. Offers many of the same programs as WFSU. Also heard on low-powered 91.1 FM in the Port St. Joe area along the Gulf of Mexico, as well as 94.5 FM in Fort Walton Beach.
WESH is the NBC affiliate in Orlando, Florida. It is licensed to Daytona Beach, with studio facilities in Winter Park. It transmits its analog signal on VHF channel 2 and its digital signal on VHF channel 11, when viewed over the air PSIP will display 2.1 for WESH DT and 2.2 for WESH Weather Plus. It is currently owned by Hearst-Argyle Television along with the area's CW affiliate, WKCF. WESH's transmitter is located in Orange City, Florida. The tower is the tallest man-made structure in Florida, at 1,740 feet (530 m). The station also serves as the default NBC affiliate for the Gainesville market, and can be seen on the fringes of the Tampa Bay and Jacksonville markets. WESH was the first station in Orlando to carry an on-site RADAR facility, SuperDoppler 2 as opposed to relying on National Weather Service RADARs. It is installed on top of the tower located at the Winter Park broadcast studio. Today it also promotes a VIPIR 3D RADAR system, taking advantage of the fact that the RADARs at Melbourne, Tampa, Jacksonville and Miami can all reach Orlando, in addition to SuperDoppler 2. The primary news anchors at WESH are Martha Sugalski and Jim Payne....
WOMX is a radio station located in the Orlando, Florida area and broadcasts at 105.1. WOMX 105.1 plays the "Best MIX of the 80s, 90s and Today," though the station programming focuses mostly on rock and modern rock music from the 90's and 2000's. Every Friday from 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m., Mix 105.1 presents Friday Night 80's. The "Saturday Night Party MIX" airs every Saturday night from 7 p.m. to midnight. The "Saturday Night Party MIX" replaced the Orlando heritage show "Seventies Saturday Night" in 2005.
WOTF-TV Channel 43 is the TeleFutura station serving the Orlando/Daytona Beach/Melbourne, Florida television market. It is owned by Univision and managed by Entravision which owns Univision affiliate WVEN-TV 26 and radio station WNUE 98.1 FM and offers a Spanish language entertainment format featuring movies, dramas, comedy shows, and kids shows. The studios are located in Altamonte Springs which is also shared by WVEN.
WOFL, "Fox 35", is the Fox owned-and-operated television station serving the Orlando, Florida metropolitan area. It is licensed to Orlando, with studios located in Lake Mary. It broadcasts its analog signal on UHF channel 35, and its digital signal on UHF channel 22. Its transmitter is located in Bithlo, Florida. Its Digital TV transmitter has a power of 1,000 kW. Its Analog TV transmitter has a power of 2,570 kW. WOFL and sister station WTVT of the bordering Tampa market commonly share reporters and footage, as other station groups do.
WFTV channel 9 is a television station based in Orlando, Florida, affiliated with the ABC network. It transmits its analog signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter located in Bithlo, Florida, and its digital signal on UHF channel 39 from a transmitter located in Christmas, Florida. It is owned by Cox Enterprises along with independent station WRDQ TV 27. The primary news anchors at WFTV are Bob Opsahl and Martie Salt. They anchored the main afternoon newscasts from 1984 through 1994, when Ms. Salt transferred to WFTS, a TV station in Tampa (where she was known as "Martie Tucker"). She returned to anchor WFTV's news again with Opsahl in 2003. Opsahl is one of the longest-serving (at one station) local news anchors in Florida. Barbara West, a 20 year veteran at WFTV and the station's medical reporter is paired with Opsahl at 5:30. Marla Weech, a former anchor for WFTV, was paired up with Bob Opsahl during most of Salt's absence. Weech currently works for WKMG. Tom Terry is the "Chief Meteorologist". WFTV's Severe Weather Center 9 includes WFTV's own doppler weather radar station located at Joint Venture TV Tower Bithlo. Its radar has features that are...
WRBW-TV is the MyNetworkTV owned and operated station serving the Orlando/Daytona Beach/Melbourne, Florida television market. It is owned by the Fox Television Stations Group, along with Fox station WOFL Channel 35. Known on-air as "My65", the station offers sitcoms, cartoons, court shows, and talk/reality shows. Its transmitter is located in Christmas, Florida.
WNTF (1580 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a News Talk Information format. Licensed to Bithlo, Florida, USA, it serves the Orlando area. The station is currently owned by Rama Communications, Inc.
WBCC is an educational television station serving the Orlando television market. It broadcasts on UHF channel 68, with a digital signal on channel 30. It is one of the Orlando market's PBS member stations. WBCC's digital signal, on channel 30, offers programming from the University of Central Florida (channel 68.2) and BPS-TV from Brevard Public Schools (channel 68.3), in addition to WBCC's standard programming.
WRDQ, channel 27, is an independent television station in Orlando, Florida. Its analog transmitter is located in northeastern Osceola County. The station's digital transmitter is located in Christmas. Onwed by Cox Enterprises, WRDQ is sister to ABC affiliate WFTV. The two stations share studios on East South Street in downtown Orlando. WRDQ offers the Retro Television Network on its second digital subchannel. It can also be seen on Bright House digital channel 1028. Syndicated programming on WRDQ includes: South Park, Scrubs, Merv Griffin's Crosswords, Oprah, According to Jim, and George Lopez. The station can be considered an alternate ABC affiliate. As such, it may take on the responsibility of airing ABC programs whenever WFTV may not be able to do so as in a news-related emergency.
WXPX is a television station licensed to Bradenton, Florida. Operating on channel 66, it is an ION Television affiliate, owned and operated by ION Media Networks (formerly Paxson Communications), which has owned the station since its founding in 1994. Current programming on WXPX is virtually the same as other ION affiliates -- infomercials throughout the day and during the overnights, plus ION programming in the evenings. WXPX also shows Tampa Bay Lightning hockey, Orlando Magic basketball, some college football and Tampa Bay Rays baseball, though most of these games are in the evenings only, as WXPX tend to reserve non-prime-time hours for infomercials. Rays games air in high definition on WXPX in the 720p format, the same format as FSN Florida, the producers of the games (See: [1]). The only local programming on WXPX is i on Tampa (public affairs) and the aforementioned Rays and Magic games. The station once aired Miccosukee Magazine along with WPXM Miami and WPXP West Palm Beach, but no longer airs the program. (the latter two stations still do, along with WOPX Orlando) WXPX started in 1994 as WFCT, which featured infomercials at all hours under...
Wesh News Cast Bay News 9 Cast Weather Channel
Kristina
Abernathy
Stephanie
Abrams
Natalie
Allen
Tetiana
Anderson
Adam
Berg
Mike
Bettes
Vivian
Brown
Jim
Cantore
Jennifer
Carfagno
Kelly
Cass
Betty
Davis
Kristin
Dodd
Jorma
Duran
Dr Marcus
Eriksen
Paul
Goodloe
Ryan
Goswick
Rich
Johnson
Bill
Keneely
Danny
Lipford
Warren
Madden
Mark
Mancuso
Dr Anna
Marie
Julie
Martin
Jeff
Mielcarz
Jarod
Miller
Nicole
Mitchell
Samantha
Mohr
Jeff
Morrow
Carl
Parker
Kim
Perez
Sharon
Resultan
Kevin
Robinson
Marshall
Seese
Mike
Seidel
Alexandra
Steele
Heather
Tesch
Nick
Walker
Alex
Wallace
Dr Steve Lyons
Dr Greg Forbes
Dr Heidi Cullen
Stu Ostro
Aixa Diaz (NEWS ANCHORS
Jen Holloway
Al Ruechel
Leigh Moody
Erica Riggins
Rick Elmhorst
(METEOROLOGISTS)
Mike Clay
Juli Marquez
Josh Linker
Diane Kacmarik
Brian McClure
Alan Winfield
(NEWS REPORTERS
Jennifer Anderson
Dalia Dangerfield
Laurie Davison
Melissa Eichman
Samantha Hayes
Chuck Johnson
Troy Kinsey
Jason Lanning
Emily Maza
Carol Minn Vacca
Jonathan Petramala
Josh Rojas
Summer Smith
Kathryn Simmons
Melanie Snow
Melissa Sogegian
Anna Tataris
Ferdinand
Zogbaum
(EN ESPANOL
Lydia Guzmán
Roy De Jesús
Sandra Pinto
Jim Payne
Syan Rhodes
Martha Sugalski
Scott Walker
Eryka Washington
Weather:
Jason Brewer
Tony Mainolfi
Malachi Rodgers
Amy Sweezey
WESH.com Web Staff:
Jeff Cousins
Managing Editor
Jessica Seeley
Washington Reporters:
Sally Kidd
Nikole Killion
Laurie Kinney
Orlando Sentinel:
Roger Moore
Movie Critic
Sports:
Pat Clarke
Guy Rawlings
Reporters:
Danielle Bellini
Dan Billow
Greg Fox
Bob Kealing
Jeff Lennox
Craig Lucie
Dave McDaniel
Michelle Meredith
Claire Metz
Amanda Ober
Kendra Oestreich
Gail Paschall-Brown
Tim Trudell
Todd Wilson
Other Talent:
Jason Chepenik
Financial Analyst
Dr. Todd Husty
Dan McCarthy
Chopper 2 Pilot
Kimberly Williams
Traffic Reporter
Das Katzenfell war, wie so oft, etwas mühsam. Aber unterschiedliche Teileformen und guter Teilezusammenhalt hat das Zusammensetzen trotzdem zum Vergnügen gemacht. Wieder mal ein Top-SunsOut!
Aber irgendwie sind die Geschenke und die Eisenbahn etwas gar klein im Vergleich mit den Kätzchen :). Aber besser als umgekehrt!
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Hersteller: SunsOut
Jahr: 2016
Artikelnummer: 45893
Anzahl Teile: 1000 (nicht nachgezählt)
Grösse: 68 cm Durchmesser
Bild: Higgins Bond
Kaufdatum und Ort: August 2017, Puzzleonline.de
Datum gelegt: 20.-23. Dezember 2017.
Legezeit: 457 Minuten. (7 Std. 37 Min.)
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Brand: SunsOut
Year: 2016
Item no.: 45893
Number of pieces: 1000
Measures: 26 in. diameter
Image by Artist/Photographer: Higgins Bond
Date and place of purchase: August 2017, Puzzleonline.de
Date of completion: December 20-23, 2017.
Time for completion: 457 min.
Read about the completion of the Whiting Refinery units: www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/press/press-releases/bp-co...
It's funny, you have it fixed in your mind as to what you remember of a previous visit to a church, and you go in and find your memory was totally wrong.
I was met in the churchyard by two volunteers who were in the middle of strimming the graveyard, but were having a break and eating a picnic from a wicker basket.
As you do.
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More interesting than beautiful, the church consists of nave, chancel and central tower. The nave is twelfth century - a north window still dates from this period. In the thirteenth-century chancel is the outstanding sedilia, probably erected to mark the completion of the rebuilding works at that end of the church. Its shafts are of Bethersden marble and the top is boldly embattled. The church boasts a fine Royal Arms of George III. The corbels that supported the rood beam may still be seen while at the opposite end of the building is a charming eighteenth-century gallery built for musicians. Outside, on the south wall, we can find the remains of two mass dials.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Waltham
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WALTHAM
LIES the next parish southward from Petham, taking its name from its situation among the woods. It is written in antient records, Temple Waltham, from the knights templars, early possessors of it. This parish is only part of it in the hundred of Bridge and Petham; another part, that is, so much as is in Town borough, is in the hundred of Wye; and the residue is in the hundred of Stowting. There are four boroughs in it, viz. of Waltham, Town Borough, Yoklets, and Bere.
WALTHAM lies still further in the same wild and dreary country, obscutely situated among the hills, and interspersed with woods, having a deep valley running through the midst of it, along which is the road from Canterbury through Petham to Elmsted and Hastingleigh. The soil of it is very chalky, poor, and covered with sharp slint stones; at the eastern boundaries is the Stone-street road, and near it, among the woods, Wadnall. On the other side of the valley, on the opposite hill, stands the church, with the village called Kakestreet, at a little distance from which is the hamlet and green called Hanville, so called after the family of Handville, or Handfield, whose habitation, (now belonging to Mr. Lade, of Canterbury) was close to it. Several of them lie buried in this church; they afterwards removed to Ulcombe, Ashford, and Canterbury, at the former a descendant of them still remains. They bore for their arms, Argent, a lion rampant, within an orle of nine crosses, formee, sable. (fn. 1) Southward from the church is Grandacre, for many years the habitation of the Proudes, alias Prudes, now belonging to the Rev. Mr. Marsh, of Bredgar; Yoklets, now belonging to Mr. Browning, who lives in it; and still further, at the southern boundary of the parish, in a wild, heathy country, is the once more noted habitation of Ashenfield, situated near the end of the ridge of hills which extend themselves above Crundal and Eggarton. Mr. Dodsworth is the present possessor of it.
THE MANOR OF WALTHAM, alias TEMPLE, was once part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and was given to the knights templars by archbishop Theobald, in king Stephen's reign, as appears by the inquisition of their lands, taken anno 1185, now in the exchequer, at which time Hamo de Chilham held this manor of them. Upon the dissolution of that order anno 17 Edward II. this manor, among the rest of their possessions, was given to the knights hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, with whom it continued till their suppression in the 32d year of Henry VIII. when it came into the king's hands, who granted it in his 34th year, in exchange, among other premises, to the archbishop, (fn. 2) by whom it was again exchanged with the crown, where it lay till queen Elizabeth granted the scite of it, in her 8th year, to Thomas Manwaring, (fn. 3) and in the latter end of her reign, the manor itself to his descendant John Manwaring, esq. by whose daughter and heir Hope Manwaring, it went in marriage to Humphry Hamond, whose son Mr. Manwaring Hamond, alienated it to Mr. Robert Stapleton, his mother's second husband, (fn. 4) who owned it in 1660, and his heirs passed it away to Sir William Honywood, bart. of Evington, in whose descendants it has continued down to Sir John Honywood, bart. now of Evington, the present owner of it.
WADENHALL, or Wadnall, as it is usually called, is a manor, situated on the eastern boundary of this parish, next to Stelling. It was antiently parcel of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and continued so till archbishop Lanfranc granted it in see, to be held by knight's service, to two of his knights, Nigell and Robert; and he afterwards gave the tithes of the demesnes of it to the hospital of St. Gregory, in Canterbury, on the foundation of it, as will be further mentioned hereafter. After which it came into the possession of a family of its own name, and in the inquisition taken of knights fees in this county, anno 12 and 13 king John, returned into the exchequer, Thomas de Wadenhale then held it as one knight's fee. After which it became the property of the eminent family of Haut, who held it of the archbishop, and they frequently resided at it, as one of their principal mansions in this part of Kent. William de Haut, who resided here, and anno 5 king Edward I. founded a chapel at this seat. Nicholas was knight of the shire anno 18 Richard II. and the next year kept his shrievalty at Wadenhall. He left two sons, Nicholas, of Hauts-place, in the adjoining parish of Petham, and William, who was of Bishopsborne, and on his father's death became possessed of this manor, which continued in his descendants down to Sir William Haut, of that place, who in Henry VIII.'s reign, leaving two daughters his coheirs, Elizabeth, the eldest, carried it in marriage to Thomas Colepeper, esq. of Bedgbury, who in the 32d year of that reign, exchanged it with the king for other premises, and the fee of it remained in the crown till queen Elizabeth, in her 42d year, granted it to Sir John Sotherton. baron of the exchequer, whose heir sold it to Mr. Benjamin Pere, of Canterbury; from which name it afterwards passed to Richard, and from thence again to Butler, of Sussex, in whose descendants it continued down to John Butler, of Warminghurst-park, knight of the shire several times for that county, and he died in 1767, as did his son James in 1785, possessed of the fee of it, which now belongs to his heirs; but the rents and possession of it have been for some time vested in George Gipps, esq. M.P. of Canterbury, who has since sold them to Sir John Honywood, bart. and he is now entitled to them.
WHITACRE is a small manor in the southern part of this parish, which once likewise belonged to the see of Canterbury, and was granted by archbishop Lanfranc, with Wadenhall above-mentioned, to Nigell and Robert, his two knights, to hold in fee by knights service; and he afterwards gave the tithes of the demesnes of it to the hospital of St. Gregory, in Canterbury, on his foundation of it, as may be seen further hereafter. After which it came into the possession of owners of the same name, one of whom, Nigellus de Whiteacre, probably, by the similarity of the name, a descendant of that Nigell to whom archbishop Lanfranc first granted it, held it in like manner. After which it came into the name of Hilles, descended from those of Ash, near Sandwich, one of whom, William Hilles, gent. died possessed of it in 1498, s. p. and devised it to feoffees, who, in pursuance of his will, sold the mansion and adjacent demesnes of this manor to Simon a Courte, who at his death in 1534, gave them to his son-in-law John Gayler, who had married his daughter Dionise, and they alienated them to Moyle, as he did to Proude, in which name they continued for some time, together with two other estates in this parish, called Upper Andesdoor and Cernells, which have been since sold off, and now belong to Mr. Goddard, of Westenhanger, and to Mrs. Sutton, and till they were at length alienated to alderman William Cockaine, afterwards knighted and lord-mayor of London in 1619, descended from a family very early seated in Derbyshire, and son of William Cockaine, citizen and skinner of London, and bore Argent, three cocks, gules, crested and jelloped, sable, a crescent, or, a crescent for difference. (fn. 5) He passed them away to Sawkins, and James Sawkins, gent. of Liminge, died possessed of them in 1628, whose descendant sold this estate of Whitacre, since called the WALNUT TREE FARM, to Beacon, who was possessed of it in 1660, whose heirs afterwards conveyed it to Sir William Honywood, bart. of Evington, whose descendant Sir John Honywood, bart. of Evington, now owns it.
BUT THE MANOR OF WHITACRE, alias CRANESBROOKE, as it was then stiled, with the courts, rents, services, &c. continued in the name of Hilles some time longer, but at length it was alienated to William Boys, who did homage to archbishop Morton for it anno 7 Henry VII. and his descendant Sir John Boys; of St. Gregory's, by his will in 1612, settled it on the warden and poor of his new founded hospital, called Jesus hospital, in Canterbury, and they sold it lately, (under the powers of the land-tax redemption act) to Mr. R. Kelly, of St. Dunstan's, Canterbury, the present possessor of it. A court baron is held for this manor.
ASHENFIELD, as it is now usually called, but more properly Eshmerfield, is another manor, lying at the southern boundary of this parish, in Wye hundred, which was formerly part of the possessions of St. Augustine; accordingly it is thus entered, under the general title of their lands, in the survey of Domesday:
In Wy hundred, the abbot himself holds Esmerefel, and Anschitil of him. It was taxed at one suling. The arable land is one carucate, and there is in demesne. . . . with five borderers and six acres of meadow. Wood for the pannage of ten hogs. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth forty shillings, and afterwards twenty shillings, now forty shillings.
Anschitil above-mentioned, appears to have held this manor of the abbot in fee, by a certain rent in lieu of all service, &c. as did after him Ralph Fitzbernard, of whom it was again held by Bertram de Criol, who gave it to his younger son John, and he died possessed of it in the 48th year of Henry III. during whose time Richard de Clare, earl of Gloucester, lord of Tunbridge, and founder of the priory there, vir nobilis & omni laude dignus, died, as it was thought, of poison, in 1262, on a visit to him at this manor-house. (fn. 6). His son Bertram left two sons, John and Bertram, and a daughter Joane, who afterwards married Sir Richard de Rokesle, and on both her brothers deaths, s. p. became their heir, and this manor afterwards descended to her two daugh ters and coheirs, Agnes, wife of Thomas de Poynings, and Joane, wife of Sir William le Baud; and upon the division of their inheritance, Joane had this manor allotted to her. After which it passed into the name of Lovel, and from thence to Haut, in which it continued till Alice, daughter of Sir William Haut, of Bishopsborne, carried it in marriage to Sir John Fogge, of Repton, who sold it to Thomas Kempe, bishop of London, who devised it to his nephew Sir Tho. Kempe, K. B. of Ollantigh, whose descendant, of the same name, dying in 1607, without male issue, Mary his daughter and coheir entitled her husband Sir Dudley Diggs to the possession of it, and he sold it to Thomas Twysden, esq. of Wye, the younger brother of Sir William Twysden, bart. of Roydon-hall, whose son, of the same name, passed it away to Sir John Ashburnham, of Ashburnham, in Sussex, who died in 1620, (fn. 7) leaving Elizabeth his widow, daughter of Sir Thomas Beaumont, of Leicestershire, surviving, who held this manor in dower. She afterwards married Sir Thomas Richardson, speaker of the house of commons, and afterwards chief justice of the king's bench, and was in 1627 created baroness Cramond, in Scotland. After her death, her heirs, in king Charles II.'s reign, alienated it to Francis Barrell, sergeant-at-law, who died possessed of it in 1679, as did his grandson Francis, Barrell, esq. of London, whose third wise Frances, daughter and coheir of William Hanbury, esq. of Herefordshire, surviving him, held it in jointure till her death, when it came by his will to his two daughters and coheirs, and on the division of their estates, this manor has been allotted to the youngest, Catherine, married to the Rev. Frederick Dodsworth, S. T. P. and canon of Windsor, who is the present owner of it.
By the remains of the mansion-house of this manor some years ago, it appeared to have been a castellated mansion of some size and consequence. It is now a modern built farm house.
The chapel of Eshmerfield was one of the four appendant to the church of Waltham, to which the tithes of this manor were given in very early times, as will be further taken notice of hereafter.
There are no parochial charities. The poor constantly relieved are about eighteen, casually the same.
WALTHAM is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Bridge.
The church, which is dedicated to St Bartholomew, consists of one isle and a chancel, having a low pointed tower between them, in which there is one bell. The church, which seems antient, has no monuments or inscriptions in it, worthy of notice. There was a chantry in this church.
¶This church was antiently appendant to the manor of Waltham, and probably continued so till archbishop Lanfranc separated them, by giving the former, as well as the tithes of the manors of Whitacre and Wadenhall, to his new-founded hospital of St. Gregory; and archbishop Hubert in king Richard I.'s reign, confirmed to it, among its other possessions, the church of St Bartholomew, of Waltham, with the land called Joclet, and the tithes of knights and husbandmen, with the four chapels of Elmsted, Esmeresfield, Wadenhall, and Dene. Of these, Elmsted has been long since a separate independent vicarage, in which the desecrated chapel of Dene is merged, being in that parish, and the chapels of Ashenfield and Wadnall, in this parish, long since likewise desecrated, are merged in the church of Waltham. Soon after which, the church of Waltham with its appendages, became appropriated to the above priory; in which state, together with the advowson of the vicarage, it remained till the dissolu tion of the priory in king Henry VIII.'s reign, when they came to the crown, where they did not stay long, before they were granted with the scite, and other possessions of the priory in exchange to the archbishop, part of the revenues of whose see they continue at this time, Sir John Honywood, baronet, being the present lessee of this parsonage; but the advowson of the vicarage, his grace the archbishop, who has now only the alternate presentation to it, reserves in his own hands.
In 1698 this vicarage was united to that of Petham, with the consent of the patrons of both, the archbishop, as patron of this vicarage, to have one turn, and the family of Honywood, patrons of the vicarage of Petham, the next turn, and so on in future alternately, in which state the advowson of them still continue.
This vicarage is valued in the king's books at 7l. 15s. 5d. and the yearly tenths at 16s. 0½d. Archbishop Juxon, in 1660, augmented this vicarage with twenty pounds per annum, to be paid out of the great tithes. In 1588 here were one hundred and forty-six communicants. In 1640, one hundred and twenty, and it was valued at sixty-five pounds. (fn. 8)
Strasbourg (/ˈstræzbɜrɡ/, French pronunciation: [stʁaz.buʁ, stʁas.buʁ]; German: Straßburg, [ˈʃtʁaːsbʊɐ̯k]) is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in north eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace were historically Alemannic-speaking, hence the city's Germanic name.[5] In 2006, the city proper had 272,975 inhabitants and its urban community 467,375 inhabitants. With 759,868 inhabitants in 2010, Strasbourg's metropolitan area (only the part of the metropolitan area on French territory) is the ninth largest in France. The transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of 884,988 inhabitants in 2008.[6]
Strasbourg is the seat of several European institutions, such as the Council of Europe (with its European Court of Human Rights, its European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and its European Audiovisual Observatory) and the Eurocorps, as well as the European Parliament and the European Ombudsman of the European Union. The city is also the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine and the International Institute of Human Rights.[7]
Strasbourg's historic city centre, the Grande Île (Grand Island), was classified a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1988, the first time such an honour was placed on an entire city centre. Strasbourg is immersed in the Franco-German culture and although violently disputed throughout history, has been a bridge of unity between France and Germany for centuries, especially through the University of Strasbourg, currently the second largest in France, and the coexistence of Catholic and Protestant culture. The largest Islamic place of worship in France, the Strasbourg Grand Mosque, was inaugurated by French Interior Minister Manuel Valls on 27 September 2012.[8]
Economically, Strasbourg is an important centre of manufacturing and engineering, as well as a hub of road, rail, and river transportation. The port of Strasbourg is the second largest on the Rhine after Duisburg, Germany.
Etymology and Names
The city's Gallicized name (Lower Alsatian: Strossburi, [ˈʃd̥rɔːsb̥uri]; German: Straßburg, [ˈʃtʁaːsbʊɐ̯k]) is of Germanic origin and means "Town (at the crossing) of roads". The modern Stras- is cognate to the German Straße and English street, all of which are derived from Latin strata ("paved road"), while -bourg is cognate to the German Burg and English borough, all of which are derived from Proto-Germanic *burgz ("hill fort, fortress").
Geography
Strasbourg seen from Spot Satellite
Strasbourg is situated on the eastern border of France with Germany. This border is formed by the River Rhine, which also forms the eastern border of the modern city, facing across the river to the German town Kehl. The historic core of Strasbourg however lies on the Grande Île in the River Ill, which here flows parallel to, and roughly 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from, the Rhine. The natural courses of the two rivers eventually join some distance downstream of Strasbourg, although several artificial waterways now connect them within the city.
The city lies in the Upper Rhine Plain, at between 132 metres (433 ft) and 151 metres (495 ft) above sea level, with the upland areas of the Vosges Mountains some 20 km (12 mi) to the west and the Black Forest 25 km (16 mi) to the east. This section of the Rhine valley is a major axis of north-south travel, with river traffic on the Rhine itself, and major roads and railways paralleling it on both banks.
The city is some 400 kilometres (250 mi) east of Paris. The mouth of the Rhine lies approximately 450 kilometres (280 mi) to the north, or 650 kilometres (400 mi) as the river flows, whilst the head of navigation in Basel is some 100 kilometres (62 mi) to the south, or 150 kilometres (93 mi) by river.
Climate
In spite of its position far inland, Strasbourg's climate is classified as Oceanic (Köppen climate classification Cfb), with warm, relatively sunny summers and cold, overcast winters. Precipitation is elevated from mid-spring to the end of summer, but remains largely constant throughout the year, totaling 631.4 mm (24.9 in) annually. On average, snow falls 30 days per year.
The highest temperature ever recorded was 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) in August 2003, during the 2003 European heat wave. The lowest temperature ever recorded was −23.4 °C (−10.1 °F) in December 1938.
Strasbourg's location in the Rhine valley, sheltered from the dominant winds by the Vosges and Black Forest mountains, results in poor natural ventilation, making Strasbourg one of the most atmospherically polluted cities of France.[10][11] Nonetheless, the progressive disappearance of heavy industry on both banks of the Rhine, as well as effective measures of traffic regulation in and around the city have reduced air pollution.
Prehistory
The first traces of human occupation in the environs of Strasbourg go back many thousands of years.[16] Neolithic, bronze age and iron age artifacts have been uncovered by archeological excavations. It was permanently settled by proto-Celts around 1300 BC. Towards the end of the third century BC, it developed into a Celtic township with a market called "Argentorate". Drainage works converted the stilthouses to houses built on dry land.[17]
From Romans
The Romans under Nero Claudius Drusus established a military outpost belonging to the Germania Superior Roman province at Strasbourg's current location, and named it Argentoratum. (Hence the town is commonly called Argentina in medieval Latin.[18]) The name "Argentoratum" was first mentioned in 12 BC and the city celebrated its 2,000th birthday in 1988. "Argentorate" as the toponym of the Gaulish settlement preceded it before being Latinized, but it is not known by how long. The Roman camp was destroyed by fire and rebuilt six times between the first and the fifth centuries AD: in 70, 97, 235, 355, in the last quarter of the fourth century, and in the early years of the fifth century. It was under Trajan and after the fire of 97 that Argentoratum received its most extended and fortified shape. From the year 90 on, the Legio VIII Augusta was permanently stationed in the Roman camp of Argentoratum. It then included a cavalry section and covered an area of approximately 20 hectares. Other Roman legions temporarily stationed in Argentoratum were the Legio XIV Gemina and the Legio XXI Rapax, the latter during the reign of Nero.
The centre of Argentoratum proper was situated on the Grande Île (Cardo: current Rue du Dôme, Decumanus: current Rue des Hallebardes). The outline of the Roman "castrum" is visible in the street pattern in the Grande Ile. Many Roman artifacts have also been found along the current Route des Romains, the road that led to Argentoratum, in the suburb of Kœnigshoffen. This was where the largest burial places were situated, as well as the densest concentration of civilian dwelling places and commerces next to the camp. Among the most outstanding finds in Kœnigshoffen were (found in 1911–12) the fragments of a grand Mithraeum that had been shattered by early Christians in the fourth century. From the fourth century, Strasbourg was the seat of the Bishopric of Strasbourg (made an Archbishopric in 1988). Archaeological excavations below the current Église Saint-Étienne in 1948 and 1956 unearthed the apse of a church dating back to the late fourth or early fifth century, considered to be the oldest church in Alsace. It is supposed that this was the first seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Strasbourg.
The Alemanni fought the Battle of Argentoratum against Rome in 357. They were defeated by Julian, later Emperor of Rome, and their King Chonodomarius was taken prisoner. On 2 January 366, the Alemanni crossed the frozen Rhine in large numbers to invade the Roman Empire. Early in the fifth century, the Alemanni appear to have crossed the Rhine, conquered, and then settled what is today Alsace and a large part of Switzerland.
In the fifth century Strasbourg was occupied successively by Alemanni, Huns, and Franks. In the ninth century it was commonly known as Strazburg in the local language, as documented in 842 by the Oaths of Strasbourg. This trilingual text contains, alongside texts in Latin and Old High German (teudisca lingua), the oldest written variety of Gallo-Romance (lingua romana) clearly distinct from Latin, the ancestor of Old French. The town was also called Stratisburgum or Strateburgus in Latin, from which later came Strossburi in Alsatian and Straßburg in Standard German, and then Strasbourg in French. The Oaths of Strasbourg is considered as marking the birth of the two countries of France and Germany with the division of the Carolingian Empire.[19]
A major commercial centre, the town came under the control of the Holy Roman Empire in 923, through the homage paid by the Duke of Lorraine to German King Henry I. The early history of Strasbourg consists of a long conflict between its bishop and its citizens. The citizens emerged victorious after the Battle of Oberhausbergen in 1262, when King Philip of Swabia granted the city the status of an Imperial Free City.
Around 1200, Gottfried von Straßburg wrote the Middle High German courtly romance Tristan, which is regarded, alongside Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival and the Nibelungenlied, as one of great narrative masterpieces of the German Middle Ages.
A revolution in 1332 resulted in a broad-based city government with participation of the guilds, and Strasbourg declared itself a free republic. The deadly bubonic plague of 1348 was followed on 14 February 1349 by one of the first and worst pogroms in pre-modern history: over a thousand Jews were publicly burnt to death, with the remainder of the Jewish population being expelled from the city.[20] Until the end of the 18th century, Jews were forbidden to remain in town after 10 pm. The time to leave the city was signalled by a municipal herald blowing the Grüselhorn (see below, Museums, Musée historique);.[21] A special tax, the Pflastergeld (pavement money), was furthermore to be paid for any horse that a Jew would ride or bring into the city while allowed to.[22]
Construction on Strasbourg Cathedral began in the twelfth century, and it was completed in 1439 (though, of the towers, only the north tower was built), becoming the World's Tallest Building, surpassing the Great Pyramid of Giza. A few years later, Johannes Gutenberg created the first European moveable type printing press in Strasbourg.
In July 1518, an incident known as the Dancing Plague of 1518 struck residents of Strasbourg. Around 400 people were afflicted with dancing mania and danced constantly for weeks, most of them eventually dying from heart attack, stroke or exhaustion.
In the 1520s during the Protestant Reformation, the city, under the political guidance of Jacob Sturm von Sturmeck and the spiritual guidance of Martin Bucer embraced the religious teachings of Martin Luther. Their adherents established a Gymnasium, headed by Johannes Sturm, made into a University in the following century. The city first followed the Tetrapolitan Confession, and then the Augsburg Confession. Protestant iconoclasm caused much destruction to churches and cloisters, notwithstanding that Luther himself opposed such a practice. Strasbourg was a centre of humanist scholarship and early book-printing in the Holy Roman Empire, and its intellectual and political influence contributed much to the establishment of Protestantism as an accepted denomination in the southwest of Germany. (John Calvin spent several years as a political refugee in the city). The Strasbourg Councillor Sturm and guildmaster Matthias represented the city at the Imperial Diet of Speyer (1529), where their protest led to the schism of the Catholic Church and the evolution of Protestantism. Together with four other free cities, Strasbourg presented the confessio tetrapolitana as its Protestant book of faith at the Imperial Diet of Augsburg in 1530, where the slightly different Augsburg Confession was also handed over to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
After the reform of the Imperial constitution in the early sixteenth century and the establishment of Imperial Circles, Strasbourg was part of the Upper Rhenish Circle, a corporation of Imperial estates in the southwest of Holy Roman Empire, mainly responsible for maintaining troops, supervising coining, and ensuring public security.
After the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440, the first printing offices outside the inventor's hometown Mainz were established around 1460 in Strasbourg by pioneers Johannes Mentelin and Heinrich Eggestein. Subsequently, the first modern newspaper was published in Strasbourg in 1605, when Johann Carolus received the permission by the City of Strasbourg to print and distribute a weekly journal written in German by reporters from several central European cities.
From Thirty Years' War to First World War
The Free City of Strasbourg remained neutral during the Thirty Years' War 1618-1648, and retained its status as a Free Imperial City. However, the city was later annexed by Louis XIV of France to extend the borders of his kingdom.
Louis' advisors believed that, as long as Strasbourg remained independent, it would endanger the King's newly annexed territories in Alsace, and, that to defend these large rural lands effectively, a garrison had to be placed in towns such as Strasbourg.[23] Indeed, the bridge over the Rhine at Strasbourg had been used repeatedly by Imperial (Holy Roman Empire) forces,[24] and three times during the Franco-Dutch War Strasbourg had served as a gateway for Imperial invasions into Alsace.[25] In September 1681 Louis' forces, though lacking a clear casus belli, surrounded the city with overwhelming force. After some negotiation, Louis marched into the city unopposed on 30 September 1681 and proclaimed its annexation.[26]
This annexation was one of the direct causes of the brief and bloody War of the Reunions whose outcome left the French in possession. The French annexation was recognized by the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). The official policy of religious intolerance which drove most Protestants from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 was not applied in Strasbourg and in Alsace, because both had a special status as a province à l'instar de l'étranger effectif (a kind of foreign province of the king of France). Strasbourg Cathedral, however, was taken from the Lutherans to be returned to the Catholics as the French authorities tried to promote Catholicism wherever they could (some other historic churches remained in Protestant hands). Its language also remained overwhelmingly German: the German Lutheran university persisted until the French Revolution. Famous students included Goethe and Herder.
The Duke of Lorraine and Imperial troops crossing the Rhine at Strasbourg during the War of the Austrian Succession, 1744
During a dinner in Strasbourg organized by Mayor Frédéric de Dietrich on 25 April 1792, Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed "La Marseillaise". The same year François Christophe Kellermann, a child of Strasbourg was appointed the head of the Mosel Army. He led his company to victory at the battle of Valmy and saved the young French republic. He was later appointed Duke of Valmy by Napoléon in 1808.
During this period Jean-Baptiste Kléber, also born in Strasbourg, led the French army to win several decisive victories. A statue of Kléber now stands in the centre of the city, at Place Kléber, and he is still one of the most famous French officers. He was later appointed Marshal of France by Napoléon.
Strasbourg's status as a free city was revoked by the French Revolution. Enragés, most notoriously Eulogius Schneider, ruled the city with an increasingly iron hand. During this time, many churches and monasteries were either destroyed or severely damaged. The cathedral lost hundreds of its statues (later replaced by copies in the 19th century) and in April 1794, there was talk of tearing its spire down, on the grounds that it was against the principle of equality. The tower was saved, however, when in May of the same year citizens of Strasbourg crowned it with a giant tin Phrygian cap. This artifact was later kept in the historical collections of the city until it was destroyed by the Germans in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian war.[27]
In 1805, 1806 and 1809, Napoléon Bonaparte and his first wife, Joséphine stayed in Strasbourg.[28] In 1810, his second wife Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma spent her first night on French soil in the palace. Another royal guest was King Charles X of France in 1828.[29] In 1836, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte unsuccessfully tried to lead his first Bonapartist coup in Strasbourg.
During the Franco-Prussian War and the Siege of Strasbourg, the city was heavily bombarded by the Prussian army. The bombardment of the city was meant to break the morale of the people of Strasbourg.[30] On 24 and 26 August 1870, the Museum of Fine Arts was destroyed by fire, as was the Municipal Library housed in the Gothic former Dominican church, with its unique collection of medieval manuscripts (most famously the Hortus deliciarum), rare Renaissance books, archeological finds and historical artifacts. The gothic cathedral was damaged as well as the medieval church of Temple Neuf, the theatre, the city hall, the court of justice and many houses. At the end of the siege 10,000 inhabitants were left without shelter; over 600 died, including 261 civilians, and 3200 were injured, including 1,100 civilians.[31]
In 1871, after the end of the war, the city was annexed to the newly established German Empire as part of the Reichsland Elsass-Lothringen under the terms of the Treaty of Frankfurt. As part of Imperial Germany, Strasbourg was rebuilt and developed on a grand and representative scale, such as the Neue Stadt, or "new city" around the present Place de la République. Historian Rodolphe Reuss and Art historian Wilhelm von Bode were in charge of rebuilding the municipal archives, libraries and museums. The University, founded in 1567 and suppressed during the French Revolution as a stronghold of German sentiment,[citation needed] was reopened in 1872 under the name Kaiser-Wilhelms-Universität.
Strasbourg in the 1890s.
A belt of massive fortifications was established around the city, most of which still stands today, renamed after French generals and generally classified as Monuments historiques; most notably Fort Roon (now Fort Desaix) and Fort Podbielski (now Fort Ducrot) in Mundolsheim, Fort von Moltke (now Fort Rapp) in Reichstett, Fort Bismarck (now Fort Kléber) in Wolfisheim, Fort Kronprinz (now Fort Foch) in Niederhausbergen, Fort Kronprinz von Sachsen (now Fort Joffre) in Holtzheim and Fort Großherzog von Baden (now Fort Frère) in Oberhausbergen.[32]
Those forts subsequently served the French army (Fort Podbielski/Ducrot for instance was integrated into the Maginot Line[33]), and were used as POW-camps in 1918 and 1945.
Two garrison churches were also erected for the members of the Imperial German army, the Lutheran Église Saint-Paul and the Roman Catholic Église Saint-Maurice.
1918 to the present
A lost, then restored, symbol of modernity in Strasbourg : a room in the Aubette building designed by Theo van Doesburg, Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp.
Following the defeat of the German empire in World War I and the abdication of the German Emperor, some revolutionary insurgents declared Alsace-Lorraine as an independent Republic, without preliminary referendum or vote. On 11 November 1918 (Armistice Day), communist insurgents proclaimed a "soviet government" in Strasbourg, following the example of Kurt Eisner in Munich as well as other German towns. French troops commanded by French general Henri Gouraud entered triumphantly in the city on 22 November. A major street of the city now bears the name of that date (Rue du 22 Novembre) which celebrates the entry of the French in the city.[34][35][36] Viewing the massive cheering crowd gathered under the balcony of Strasbourg's town hall, French President Raymond Poincaré stated that "the plebiscite is done".[37]
In 1919, following the Treaty of Versailles, the city was annexed by France in accordance with U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points" without a referendum. The date of the assignment was retroactively established on Armistice Day. It is doubtful whether a referendum in Strasbourg would have ended in France's favour since the political parties striving for an autonomous Alsace or a connection to France accounted only for a small proportion of votes in the last Reichstag as well as in the local elections.[38] The Alsatian autonomists who were pro French had won many votes in the more rural parts of the region and other towns since the annexation of the region by Germany in 1871. The movement started with the first election for the Reichstag; those elected were called "les députés protestataires", and until the fall of Bismarck in 1890, they were the only deputies elected by the Alsatians to the German parliament demanding the return of those territories to France.[39] At the last Reichstag election in Strasbourg and its periphery, the clear winners were the Social Democrats; the city was the administrative capital of the region, was inhabited by many Germans appointed by the central government in Berlin and its flourishing economy attracted many Germans. This could explain the difference between the rural vote and the one in Strasbourg. After the war, many Germans left Strasbourg and went back to Germany; some of them were denounced by the locals or expelled by the newly appointed authorities. The Saverne Affair was vivid in the memory among the Alsatians.
In 1920, Strasbourg became the seat of the Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine, previously located in Mannheim, one of the oldest European institutions. It moved into the former Imperial Palace.
When the Maginot Line was built, the Sous-secteur fortifié de Strasbourg (fortified sub-sector of Strasbourg) was laid out on the city's territory as a part of the Secteur fortifié du Bas-Rhin, one of the sections of the Line. Blockhouses and casemates were built along the Grand Canal d'Alsace and the Rhine in the Robertsau forest and the port.[40]
Between the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and the Anglo-French declaration of War against the German Reich on 3 September 1939, the entire city (a total of 120,000 people) was evacuated, like other border towns as well. Until the arrival of the Wehrmacht troops mid-June 1940, the city was, for ten months, completely empty, with the exception of the garrisoned soldiers. The Jews of Strasbourg had been evacuated to Périgueux and Limoges, the University had been evacuated to Clermont-Ferrand.
After the ceasefire following the Fall of France in June 1940, Alsace was annexed to Germany and a rigorous policy of Germanisation was imposed upon it by the Gauleiter Robert Heinrich Wagner. When, in July 1940, the first evacuees were allowed to return, only residents of Alsatian origin were admitted. The last Jews were deported on 15 July 1940 and the main synagogue, a huge Romanesque revival building that had been a major architectural landmark with its 54-metre-high dome since its completion in 1897, was set ablaze, then razed.[41]
In September 1940 the first Alsatian resistance movement led by Marcel Weinum called La main noire (The black hand) was created. It was composed by a group of 25 young men aged from 14 to 18 years old who led several attacks against the German occupation. The actions culminated with the attack of the Gauleiter Robert Wagner, the highest commander of Alsace directly under the order of Hitler. In March 1942, Marcel Weinum was prosecuted by the Gestapo and sentenced to be beheaded at the age of 18 in April 1942 in Stuttgart, Germany. His last words will be: "If I have to die, I shall die but with a pure heart". From 1943 the city was bombarded by Allied aircraft. While the First World War had not notably damaged the city, Anglo-American bombing caused extensive destruction in raids of which at least one was allegedly carried out by mistake.[42] In August 1944, several buildings in the Old Town were damaged by bombs, particularly the Palais Rohan, the Old Customs House (Ancienne Douane) and the Cathedral.[43] On 23 November 1944, the city was officially liberated by the 2nd French Armoured Division under General Leclerc. He achieved the oath that he made with his soldiers, after the decisive Capture of Kufra. With the Oath of Kuffra, they swore to keep up the fight until the French flag flew over the Cathedral of Strasbourg.
Many people from Strasbourg were incorporated in the German Army against their will, and were sent to the eastern front, those young men and women were called Malgré-nous. Many tried to escape from the incorporation, join the French Resistance, or desert the Wehrmacht but many couldn't because they were running the risk of having their families sent to work or concentration camps by the Germans. Many of these men, especially those who did not answer the call immediately, were pressured to "volunteer" for service with the SS, often by direct threats on their families. This threat obliged the majority of them to remain in the German army. After the war, the few that survived were often accused of being traitors or collaborationists, because this tough situation was not known in the rest of France, and they had to face the incomprehension of many. In July 1944, 1500 malgré-nous were released from Soviet captivity and sent to Algiers, where they joined the Free French Forces. Nowadays history recognizes the suffering of those people, and museums, public discussions and memorials have been built to commemorate this terrible period of history of this part of Eastern France (Alsace and Moselle). Liberation of Strasbourg took place on 23 November 1944.
In 1947, a fire broke out in the Musée des Beaux-Arts and devastated a significant part of the collections. This fire was an indirect consequence of the bombing raids of 1944: because of the destruction inflicted on the Palais Rohan, humidity had infiltrated the building, and moisture had to be fought. This was done with welding torches, and a bad handling of these caused the fire.[44]
In the 1950s and 1960s the city was enlarged by new residential areas meant to solve both the problem of housing shortage due to war damage and that of the strong growth of population due to the baby boom and immigration from North Africa: Cité Rotterdam in the North-East, Quartier de l'Esplanade in the South-East, Hautepierre in the North-West. Between 1995 and 2010, a new district has been built in the same vein, the Quartier des Poteries, south of Hautepierre.
In 1958, a violent hailstorm destroyed most of the historical greenhouses of the Botanical Garden and many of the stained glass windows of St. Paul's Church.
In 1949, the city was chosen to be the seat of the Council of Europe with its European Court of Human Rights and European Pharmacopoeia. Since 1952, the European Parliament has met in Strasbourg, which was formally designated its official 'seat' at the Edinburgh meeting of the European Council of EU heads of state and government in December 1992. (This position was reconfirmed and given treaty status in the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam). However, only the (four-day) plenary sessions of the Parliament are held in Strasbourg each month, with all other business being conducted in Brussels and Luxembourg. Those sessions take place in the Immeuble Louise Weiss, inaugurated in 1999, which houses the largest parliamentary assembly room in Europe and of any democratic institution in the world. Before that, the EP sessions had to take place in the main Council of Europe building, the Palace of Europe, whose unusual inner architecture had become a familiar sight to European TV audiences.[45] In 1992, Strasbourg became the seat of the Franco-German TV channel and movie-production society Arte.
In 2000, a terrorist plot to blow up the cathedral was prevented thanks to the cooperation between French and German police that led to the arrest in late 2000 of a Frankfurt-based group of terrorists.
On 6 July 2001, during an open-air concert in the Parc de Pourtalès, a single falling Platanus tree killed thirteen people and injured 97. On 27 March 2007, the city was found guilty of neglect over the accident and fined €150,000.[46]
In 2006, after a long and careful restoration, the inner decoration of the Aubette, made in the 1920s by Hans Arp, Theo van Doesburg, and Sophie Taeuber-Arp and destroyed in the 1930s, was made accessible to the public again. The work of the three artists had been called "the Sistine Chapel of abstract art".
Architecture
Strasbourg, Cathedral of Our Lady
The city is chiefly known for its sandstone Gothic Cathedral with its famous astronomical clock, and for its medieval cityscape of Rhineland black and white timber-framed buildings, particularly in the Petite France district or Gerberviertel ("tanners' district") alongside the Ill and in the streets and squares surrounding the cathedral, where the renowned Maison Kammerzell stands out.
Notable medieval streets include Rue Mercière, Rue des Dentelles, Rue du Bain aux Plantes, Rue des Juifs, Rue des Frères, Rue des Tonneliers, Rue du Maroquin, Rue des Charpentiers, Rue des Serruriers, Grand' Rue, Quai des Bateliers, Quai Saint-Nicolas and Quai Saint-Thomas. Notable medieval squares include Place de la Cathédrale, Place du Marché Gayot, Place Saint-Étienne, Place du Marché aux Cochons de Lait and Place Benjamin Zix.
Maison des tanneurs.
In addition to the cathedral, Strasbourg houses several other medieval churches that have survived the many wars and destructions that have plagued the city: the Romanesque Église Saint-Étienne, partly destroyed in 1944 by Allied bombing raids, the part Romanesque, part Gothic, very large Église Saint-Thomas with its Silbermann organ on which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Albert Schweitzer played,[49] the Gothic Église protestante Saint-Pierre-le-Jeune with its crypt dating back to the seventh century and its cloister partly from the eleventh century, the Gothic Église Saint-Guillaume with its fine early-Renaissance stained glass and furniture, the Gothic Église Saint-Jean, the part Gothic, part Art Nouveau Église Sainte-Madeleine, etc. The Neo-Gothic church Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux Catholique (there is also an adjacent church Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux Protestant) serves as a shrine for several 15th-century wood worked and painted altars coming from other, now destroyed churches and installed there for public display. Among the numerous secular medieval buildings, the monumental Ancienne Douane (old custom-house) stands out.
The German Renaissance has bequeathed the city some noteworthy buildings (especially the current Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie, former town hall, on Place Gutenberg), as did the French Baroque and Classicism with several hôtels particuliers (i.e. palaces), among which the Palais Rohan (1742, now housing three museums) is the most spectacular. Other buildings of its kind are the "Hôtel de Hanau" (1736, now the city hall), the Hôtel de Klinglin (1736, now residence of the préfet), the Hôtel des Deux-Ponts (1755, now residence of the military governor), the Hôtel d'Andlau-Klinglin (1725, now seat of the administration of the Port autonome de Strasbourg) etc. The largest baroque building of Strasbourg though is the 150 m (490 ft) long 1720s main building of the Hôpital civil. As for French Neo-classicism, it is the Opera House on Place Broglie that most prestigiously represents this style.
Strasbourg also offers high-class eclecticist buildings in its very extended German district, the Neustadt, being the main memory of Wilhelmian architecture since most of the major cities in Germany proper suffered intensive damage during World War II. Streets, boulevards and avenues are homogeneous, surprisingly high (up to seven stories) and broad examples of German urban lay-out and of this architectural style that summons and mixes up five centuries of European architecture as well as Neo-Egyptian, Neo-Greek and Neo-Babylonian styles. The former imperial palace Palais du Rhin, the most political and thus heavily criticized of all German Strasbourg buildings epitomizes the grand scale and stylistic sturdiness of this period. But the two most handsome and ornate buildings of these times are the École internationale des Pontonniers (the former Höhere Mädchenschule, girls college) with its towers, turrets and multiple round and square angles[50] and the École des Arts décoratifs with its lavishly ornate façade of painted bricks, woodwork and majolica.[51]
Notable streets of the German district include: Avenue de la Forêt Noire, Avenue des Vosges, Avenue d'Alsace, Avenue de la Marseillaise, Avenue de la Liberté, Boulevard de la Victoire, Rue Sellénick, Rue du Général de Castelnau, Rue du Maréchal Foch, and Rue du Maréchal Joffre. Notable squares of the German district include: Place de la République, Place de l'Université, Place Brant, and Place Arnold
As for modern and contemporary architecture, Strasbourg possesses some fine Art Nouveau buildings (such as the huge Palais des Fêtes and houses and villas like Villa Schutzenberger and Hôtel Brion), good examples of post-World War II functional architecture (the Cité Rotterdam, for which Le Corbusier did not succeed in the architectural contest) and, in the very extended Quartier Européen, some spectacular administrative buildings of sometimes utterly large size, among which the European Court of Human Rights building by Richard Rogers is arguably the finest. Other noticeable contemporary buildings are the new Music school Cité de la Musique et de la Danse, the Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain and the Hôtel du Département facing it, as well as, in the outskirts, the tramway-station Hoenheim-Nord designed by Zaha Hadid.
Place Kléber
The city has many bridges, including the medieval and four-towered Ponts Couverts that, despite their name, are no longer covered. Next to the Ponts Couverts is the Barrage Vauban, a part of Vauban's 17th-century fortifications, that does include a covered bridge. Other bridges are the ornate 19th-century Pont de la Fonderie (1893, stone) and Pont d'Auvergne (1892, iron), as well as architect Marc Mimram's futuristic Passerelle over the Rhine, opened in 2004.
The largest square at the centre of the city of Strasbourg is the Place Kléber. Located in the heart of the city's commercial area, it was named after general Jean-Baptiste Kléber, born in Strasbourg in 1753 and assassinated in 1800 in Cairo. In the square is a statue of Kléber, under which is a vault containing his remains. On the north side of the square is the Aubette (Orderly Room), built by Jacques François Blondel, architect of the king, in 1765–1772.
Parks
The Pavillon Joséphine (rear side) in the Parc de l'Orangerie
The Château de Pourtalès (front side) in the park of the same name
Strasbourg features a number of prominent parks, of which several are of cultural and historical interest: the Parc de l'Orangerie, laid out as a French garden by André le Nôtre and remodeled as an English garden on behalf of Joséphine de Beauharnais, now displaying noteworthy French gardens, a neo-classical castle and a small zoo; the Parc de la Citadelle, built around impressive remains of the 17th-century fortress erected close to the Rhine by Vauban;[52] the Parc de Pourtalès, laid out in English style around a baroque castle (heavily restored in the 19th century) that now houses a small three-star hotel,[53] and featuring an open-air museum of international contemporary sculpture.[54] The Jardin botanique de l'Université de Strasbourg (botanical garden) was created under the German administration next to the Observatory of Strasbourg, built in 1881, and still owns some greenhouses of those times. The Parc des Contades, although the oldest park of the city, was completely remodeled after World War II. The futuristic Parc des Poteries is an example of European park-conception in the late 1990s. The Jardin des deux Rives, spread over Strasbourg and Kehl on both sides of the Rhine opened in 2004 and is the most extended (60-hectare) park of the agglomeration. The most recent park is Parc du Heyritz (8,7 ha), opened in 2014 along a canal facing the hôpital civil.
Content description: Crowd of people looking up at 8 Cambridge Center foundation completion ceremony.
Local identifier: 020_01_03_033
Type of resource: still image
Genre/form: black-and-white prints (photographs)
Date: 1998-04
Physical description: 1 photograph : print, black and white ; 25.4 x 20.3 cm
Digital origin: reformatted digital
General notes: Title and content description from related item.
Date notes: Date from related item.
Acquisition notes: Donated by the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority in July 2014.
Description standard: dcrmg
Subject headings:
Cambridge Redevelopment Authority
Boston Properties, Inc.
Kendall Square (Cambridge, Mass.)
Construction industry
Urban renewal--Massachusetts--Cambridge
Host collection: Cambridge Redevelopment Authority Records, 1952-2000
Physical location: Cambridge Public Library
Conditions Governing Use: The material in this collection is subject to copyright and intellectual property restrictions. It is the responsibility of the researcher to understand and observe copyright law and to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyright. Researchers must obtain written permission from the copyright holder(s) if they wish to publish materials from this collection. Questions concerning copyright and permission to publish should be directed to the Cambridge Room, Cambridge Public Library Archives and Special Collections.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection: [Identification of item], Cambridge Redevelopment Authority Records, 1952-2000, 020, [Box#, Folder title], Cambridge Room, Cambridge Public Library Archives and Special Collections.
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Sibiu (Romanian: [siˈbiw], antiquated Sibiiu; German: Hermannstadt [ˈhɛʁmanʃtat], Transylvanian Saxon dialect: Härmeschtat, Hungarian: Nagyszeben [ˈnɒcsɛbɛn]) is a city in Transylvania, Romania, with a population of 147,245.[1] Located some 275 km (171 mi) north-west of Bucharest,[2] the city straddles the Cibin River, a tributary of the river Olt. Now the capital of Sibiu County, between 1692 and 1791 and 1849–65 Sibiu was the capital of the Principality of Transylvania.
Sibiu is one of the most important cultural centres of Romania and was designated the European Capital of Culture for the year 2007, along with the city of Luxembourg.[3] Formerly the centre of the Transylvanian Saxons, the old city of Sibiu was ranked as "Europe's 8th-most idyllic place to live" by Forbes in 2008.[4]
The city administers the Păltiniș ski resort.
History[edit]
See also: Timeline of Sibiu
The first official record referring to the Sibiu area comes from 1191, when Pope Celestine III confirmed the existence of the free prepositure of the German settlers in Transylvania, the prepositure having its headquarters in Sibiu, named Cibinium at that time.[5]
In the 14th century, it was already an important trade centre. In 1376, the craftsmen were divided in 19 guilds. Sibiu became the most important ethnic German city among the seven cities that gave Transylvania its German name Siebenbürgen (literally seven citadels).[6][7] It was home to the Universitas Saxorum (Community of the Saxons), a network of pedagogues, ministers, intellectuals, city officials, and councilmen of the German community forging an ordered legal corpus and political system in Transylvania since the 1400s.[8][9] During the 18th and 19th centuries, the city became the second- and later the first-most important centre of Transylvanian Romanian ethnics. The first Romanian-owned bank had its headquarters here (The Albina Bank), as did the ASTRA (Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and Romanian's People Culture). After the Romanian Orthodox Church was granted status in the Habsburg Empire from the 1860s onwards, Sibiu became the Metropolitan seat, and the city is still regarded as the third-most important centre of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Between the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 and 1867 (the year of the Ausgleich), Sibiu was the meeting-place of the Transylvanian Diet, which had taken its most representative form after the Empire agreed to extend voting rights in the region.
After World War I, when Austria-Hungary was dissolved, Sibiu became part of Romania; the majority of its population was still ethnic German (until 1941) and counted a large Romanian community, as well as a smaller Hungarian one. Starting from the 1950s and until after 1990, most of the city's ethnic Germans emigrated to Germany and Austria. Among the roughly 2,000 who have remained is Klaus Johannis, the current President of Romania.
Geography[edit]
Topographic map of the Sibiu region
Panoramic view of Sibiu historic center, looking East.
Sibiu is situated near the geographical center of Romania at
WikiMiniAtlas
45.792784°N 24.152069°E. Set in the Cibin Depression, the city is about 20 km from the Făgăraș Mountains, 12 km from the Cibin Mountains, and about 15 km from the Lotru Mountains, which border the depression in its southwestern section. The northern and eastern limits of Sibiu are formed by the Târnavelor Plateau, which descends to the Cibin Valley through Gușteriței Hill.
The Cibin river as well as some smaller streams runs through Sibiu. The geographical position of Sibiu makes it one of the most important transportation hubs in Romania with important roads and railway lines passing through it.
City districts[edit]
The following districts are part of Sibiu. Some were villages annexed by the city but most were built as the city developed and increased its surface.
•Historic Center - Divided into the Upper Town and Lower Town
•Centru (Centre)
•Lupeni
•Trei Stejari
•Vasile Aaron
•Hipodrom I, II, III, IV
•Valea Aurie (Golden Valley)
•Tilișca
•Ștrand
•Turnișor (Little Tower; German: Neppendorf)
•Piața Cluj
•Țiglari
•Terezian
•Reșița
•Lazaret
•Gușterița (German: Hammersdorf)
•Broscărie
•Viile Sibiului
•Tineretului
•Veteranilor de Război
The Southern part, including the ASTRA National Museum Complex and the Zoo, also falls within the city limits.
Politics[edit]
Sibiu city council composition in 2004:
Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania
Social Democratic Party
National Liberal Party
Democratic Party
Although ethnic Germans make up less than 2% of Sibiu's population, Klaus Johannis, the former president of the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania (FDGR/DFDR) and current president of Romania, served as mayor of Sibiu from 2000 to 2014. Johannis was overwhelmingly reelected in 2004 (with 88.7% of votes) and 2008 (with 83.3% of the votes cast) and his party gained an absolute majority in the city council in that year. After the 2014 presidential elections, the interim position for mayor of the city was filled by deputy mayor Astrid Fodor who in the 2016 local elections won the seat with a majority of votes.[18]
Despite winning the local elections with a majority of votes and a high approval rating, the current administration is beginning to be viewed as slow moving and lacking transparency. Another issue that is affecting the current administraiton's approval ratings is the lack of investments and innovations
Economy[edit]
Sibiu is an important economic hub for Romania, with a high rate of foreign investments. It is also an important hub for the manufacturing of automotive components and houses factories belonging to ThyssenKrupp Bilstein-Compa, Takata Corporation, Continental Automotive Systems, and NTN-SNR ball bearings. Other local industries are machine components, textiles, agro-industry, and electrical components (Siemens).
The city also contains Romania's second-largest stock exchange, the Sibiu Stock Exchange which is set to merge with the Bucharest Stock Exchange in 2018.[19]
The main industrial activities of Sibiu take place in two industrial zones located on the outskirts of the city:
•East industrial zone (East Economic Center), alongside the railway to Brașov and Râmnicu Vâlcea
•West industrial zone (West Economic Center),[20] near the exit to Sebeș, close to the Airport
A commercial zone located in the Șelimbăr commune plays an important role in the economy of Sibiu. It houses a mall and other large retailers.
Another factor that plays an important role in the economy of the city is tourism, which has been increasing at a steady rate since 2007.
Transport[edit]
Sibiu International Airport Location
Sibiu is well served in terms of transport and infrastructure. In 2010 a city bypass was opened, significantly reducing the road traffic inside the city.
Tursib[21] is the city's internal transportation system operator.
Air[edit]
Sibiu Airport, Blue Air flight.
Sibiu has one of the most modern international airports in Romania, with direct connections to Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, Italy and Spain while connections to other European countries being scheduled to start in summer 2018 Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland.
Road[edit]
Sibiu is an important node in the European road network, being on two different European routes (E68 and E81). At a national level, Sibiu is located on three different main national roads, DN1, DN7 and DN14.
The Romanian Motorway A1 will link the city with Pitești and the Romanian western border, near Arad. From the remaining 332 km of motorway towards the border with Hungary Nadlac, a total of 276 km is completed and the last 56 km are currently under construction, while the timeline for the segment towards Pitești is targeted for completion for the year 2025 (construction will start no sooner than 2019). Sibiu' s ring road as part of A1 motorway was completed on December 1, 2010.
Sibiu is also an important hub for the international bus links with the biggest passenger transporter in Romania, Atlassib, based here. Transport companies are also providing coach connections from Sibiu to a large number of locations in Romania.
Public bus transportation in Sibiu
Rail[edit]
Main article: Sibiu railway station
Sibiu is situated on the CFR-Romanian Railways Main Line 200 (Brasov - Făgăraș - Sibiu - Simeria - Arad - Romanian Western Border) and on Line 206 (Sibiu - Mediaș).
The city is served by five rail stations: the Main Station (Gara Mare), the Little Station (Gara Micǎ), Turnișor, Sibiu Triaj, Halta Ateliere Zonă . It has an important diesel-powered locomotives depot and a freight terminal.
Numerous Inter City trains (nicknamed Blue Arrows) connect Sibiu to other major cities in Romania: Cluj-Napoca, Brașov, Craiova, Timișoara and Bucharest.
Cycling[edit]
Over the last six years, Sibiu has enjoyed a revival of cycling. The bicycle way in the city span for 43 kilometers.
Bicycle rentals have offered a boost for the local economy with several small rental centers and a bigger rental center that is administered by the I'Velo Bike Sharing group.
Culture[edit]
Sibiu is one of Romania's most culturally lively cities. It has 3 theatres and a philharmonic orchestra along with other smaller private theatrical venues and a theatre studio housed by the Performing Arts and Acting section of Lucian Blaga University, where students hold monthly representations.
The Radu Stanca National Theatre[22] is one of the leading Romanian theatres. With origins dating back to 1787, it attracts some of the best-known Romanian directors, such as Gábor Tompa and Silviu Purcărete. It has both a Romanian-language and a German-language section, and presents an average of five shows a week.
The Gong Theatre is specialised in puppetry, mime and non-conventional shows for children and teenagers. It also presents shows in both Romanian and German.
The State Philharmonic of Sibiu[23] presents weekly classical music concerts, and educational concerts for children and teenagers. The concerts take place in the newly restored Thalia Hall, a concert and theatre hall dating from 1787, situated along the old city fortifications. Weekly organ concerts are organised at the Evangelical Cathedral during summers, and thematic concerts are presented by the Faculty of Theology choir at the Orthodox Cathedral.
The Sibiu International Theatre Festival is an annual festival of performing arts. Since 2016, it is the largest performance arts festival in the world.[24]
Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu.
Museums and parks[edit]
Sibiu's museums are organised around two entities: the Brukenthal National Museum and the ASTRA National Museum Complex. The Brukenthal Museum consists of an Art Gallery and an Old Books Library located inside the Brukenthal Palace, a History Museum located in the old town hall building, a Pharmacy Museum located in one of the first apothecary shops in Europe, dating from the 16th century, a Natural History Museum and a Museum of Arms and Hunting Trophies.
The ASTRA National Museum Complex focuses on ethnography, and consists of a Traditional Folk Civilisation Museum, a 96-hectare open-air museum located in Dumbrava Forest south of Sibiu, a Universal Ethnography Museum, a Museum of Transylvanian Civilisation and a Museum of Saxon Ethnography and Folk Art. Also planned is a Museum of the Culture and Civilisation of the Romany People.
Bicycle riders in Sub Arini park, in Sibiu.
The Dumbrava Sibiului Natural Park stretches over 960 hectares and it is situated 4 km away from the center of the city in the southwest direction along the road towards Răşinari. Also, here you can find the Zoological Garden and Ethnography Museum.
There is a Steam Locomotives Museum close to the railway station, sheltering around 40 locomotives, two of which are functional.
The first park in the city was The Promenade, later called "The Disabled Promenade." established in 1791, today part of Parcul Cetății (Citadel Park). Current arrangement of the park, including the space between the walls, dates from 1928.
The Sub Arini Park, established in 1856 is one of the biggest and best-maintained parks in Romania. There are other green spaces in the city center, the best known being Astra Park, established in 1879.
Tineretului Park
Other parks:
Tineretului Park, Reconstrucției Park, Corneliu Coposu Park, Petöfi Sándor Park, Piața Cluj Park, Ștrand Park, Cristianului Park, Țițeica Park, Vasile Aaron Park, Lira Park.
The distribution of green space is good compared to other Romanian cities.
Events[edit]
Citadel Park, with the 16 century City wall
Several festivals are organised yearly in Sibiu, the most prestigious of them being the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, organized each spring at the end of May. Medieval Festival organized every year in August, reviving the medieval spirit of Transylvania. The Artmania Festival is held every Summer since 2006 and as of 2008 the Rockin' Transilvania Festival is also held in Sibiu. The oldest Jazz Festival in Romania is organized here, as well as the "Carl Filtsch" festival for young classical piano players, the "Astra Film" documentary film festival, the Transylvania calling Festival a Multi Cultural 6 day Open Air Music festival! 26–31 July 2007, a medieval arts festival and many more smaller cultural events.[25] Feeric Fashion Week is also hosted here.
European Cultural Capital[edit]
The designation as a European Cultural Capital for 2007, owed greatly to the excellent collaboration with Luxembourg, but also to what many regard as a miraculous social rebirth taking place in the city during the last years. The Cultural Capital status was expected to bring about an abrupt increase in quantity and quality of cultural events in 2007.
Tourism[edit]
In 2007, Sibiu was the European Capital of Culture (together with Luxembourg). This was the most important cultural event that has ever happened in the city, and a great number of tourists came, both domestic and foreign.
The city of Sibiu and its surroundings are one of the most visited areas in Romania. It holds one of the best preserved historical sites in the country, many of its medieval fortifications having been kept in excellent state. Its old center has begun the process for becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. Sibiu and its surrounding area have many significant museums, with 12 institutions housing art collections, paintings, and exhibits in decorative arts, archeology, anthropology, history, industrial archeology and history of technology and natural sciences.
The city also lies close to the Făgăraș Mountains - a very popular trekking destination, close to the Păltiniș and Arena Platos ski resorts - popular winter holiday destinations, and it is at the heart of the former Saxon communities in Transylvania renowned for its fortified churches.
Fortified Lutheran church of Gușterița neighbourhood, 13th century
Since 2007, a traditional Christmas market is held for the first time in Sibiu, Romania. The first of its kind in Romania, it is inspired by Viennese Christmas markets, being a project developed by the Social Attaché of the Austrian Embassy in Romania, dr.h.c. Barbara Schöfnagel It was held in the "Lesser Square" (Piața Mică) with 38 small stalls, a small stage and an area dedicated to children, having several mechanical attractions installed there. Since 2008 the market is held in the "Grand Square" and grew to a number of about 70 stalls, a bigger stage was set up, where Christmas carols concerts are held. An ice skating rink and a children's workshop are also attractions which have been added in the following years.[26] It was the first Christmas Market in Romania,[27] but soon other Christmas markets emerged across the country. In 2013, the Sibiu Christmas markets was included in the "15 Of the Most Beautiful Christmas Markets in Europe"[28]
Main sights[edit]
Sibiu Lutheran Cathedral
Market in the Large Square, 1790, painting by Franz Neuhauser the Younger
Christmas Fair in the Large Square
Coopers Tower
The House with Caryatids on Mitropoliei Street, constructed in 1786
Pasajul Scărilor (Passage of the Stairs) in the Lower Town
Much of the city's aspect is due to its position, easily defensible, but allowing horizontal development. The old city of Sibiu lies on the right bank of the Cibin River, on a hill situated at about 200 m from the river. It consists of two distinct entities: the Upper Town and the Lower Town. Traditionally, the Upper Town was the wealthier part and commercial outlet, while the Lower Town served as the manufacturing area.
The Lower Town
(German: Unterstadt, Romanian: Orașul de jos) comprises the area between the river and the hill, and it developed around the earliest fortifications. The streets are long and quite wide for medieval city standards, with small city squares at places. The architecture is rather rustic: typically two-storey houses with tall roofs and gates opening passages to inner courts.
Most of the exterior fortifications were lost to industrial development and modern urban planning in the mid-late 19th century; only four towers still exist. A building associated with newer urbanism of the period is the Independența Highschool.
This area has the oldest church in the city, dating back to 1292.
The Upper Town (German: Oberstadt, Romanian: Orașul de sus) is organised around three city squares and a set of streets along the line of the hill. As the main area for burgher activities, the area contains most points of interest in the city.
Grand Square
(German: Großer Ring, Romanian: Piața Mare ) is, as its name suggests, the largest square of the city, and has been the center of the city since the 15th century. At 142 meters long and 93 meters wide, it is one of the largest ones in Transylvania.
Brukenthal Palace, one of the most important Baroque monuments in Romania, lies on the north-western corner of the square. It was erected between 1777 and 1787 as the main residence for the Governor of Transylvania Samuel von Brukenthal. It houses the main part of the National Brukenthal Museum, opened in 1817, making it one of the oldest museums in the world. Next to the palace is the Blue House or Moringer House, an 18th-century Baroque house bearing the old coat of arms of Sibiu on its façade.
Interior of the Sibiu Orthodox Cathedral
On the north side is the Jesuit Church, along with its dependencies, the former residence of the Jesuits in Sibiu. Also on the north side, at the beginning of the 20th century an Art Nouveau building was constructed on the west part, now it houses the mayor's office.
Liars Bridge in Lesser Square, erected in 1859
Next to the Jesuit Church on the north side is the Council Tower, one of the city's symbols. This former fortification tower from the 13th century has been successively rebuilt over the years. The building nearby used to be the City Council's meeting place; beneath it lies an access way between the Grand Square and the Lesser Square.
On the south and east sides are two- or three-storey houses, having tall attics with small windows known as the city's eyes. Most of these houses are dated 15th to 19th centuries, and most of them are Renaissance or Baroque in style.
Lesser Square (Small Square, German: Kleiner Ring) as its name implies, is a smaller square situated in the northern part of the Upper Town. After the 2007 rehabilitation there has been an increase in the number of small businesses such as pubs and restaurants in this area.
The square is connected to the other two squares and to other streets by small, narrow passages. The main access from the Lower City is through Ocnei Street, which divides the square in two. The street passes under the Liar's Bridge - the first bridge in Romania to have been cast in iron (1859).[29]
To the right of the bridge is another symbol of the city, The House of the Arts, a 14th-century arched building formerly belonging to the Butchers' Guild. On the left side of the bridge is the Luxemburg House, a Baroque four-storey building.
Huet Square
is the third of the three main squares of Sibiu. Its most notable feature is the Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral in its center. It is the place where the earliest fortifications have been built in the late 12th century or early 13th century. The buildings around this square are mainly Gothic. On the west side lies the Brukenthal Highschool, in place of a former 14th-century school.
The Thick Tower
The Fortifications
of Sibiu made the city one of the most important fortified cities in Central Europe. Multiple rings were built around the city, most of them out of clay bricks. The south-eastern fortifications are the best kept, and all three parallel lines are still visible. The first is an exterior earth mound, the second is a 10-meter-tall red brick wall, and the third line comprises towers linked by another 10-meter-tall wall. All structures are connected via a labyrinth of tunnels and passageways, designed to ensure transport between the city and lines of defense.
In the 16th century more modern elements were added to the fortifications, mainly leaf-shaped bastions. Two of these survived to this day, as the Haller Bastion (all the way down Coposu Boulevard) and "Soldisch Bastion".
The Passage of the Stairs, leads down to the lower section of Sibiu. It descends along some fortifications under the support arches. It is the most picturesque of the several passages linking the two sides of the old city.
Health
Health[edit]
Sibiu County Hospital
Sibiu is one of the important medical centers of Romania, housing many important medical facilities:
•County Hospital
•Academic Emergency Hospital;
•Hospital of Pediatrics;
•Military Emergency Hospital;
•CFR Hospital (Romanian Railways Hospital);
•"Dr. Gheorghe Preda" Psychiatry Hospital
•other smaller private clinics
The city also houses one of the largest private hospitals in the country, Polisano.
Education[edit]
Samuel von Brukenthal High School
Sibiu is an important centre of higher education, with over 23,000 students in four public and private higher institutions.[30][31][32][33]
The Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu was founded in 1990, with five faculties: Engineering and Sciences; Language Sciences; History and Law; Medicine; Food and Textile Processing Technology. Nowadays, there are 10 faculties and departments.
Sibiu also houses the Nicolae Bălcescu Land Forces Academy and the Military Foreign Language Center as well as two private universities, Romanian-German University and Alma Mater University.
In Sibiu there are 20 educational institutions on the secondary level, the most important of which are:
•Gheorghe Lazăr National College - sciences and informatics, first opened in 1692 as a Jesuit College
•
Gheorghe Lazăr National College
Samuel von Brukenthal National College - German language high school
•Octavian Goga National College - social sciences, sciences, informatics and linguistics
•Onisifor Ghibu Theoretical Highschool - informatics, sciences, sports, theater and linguistics
•Andrei Șaguna National College - training for school teacher and linguistics
•Constantin Noica Theoretical Highschool - sciences and linguistics
•Daniel Popovici Barcianu Highschool - agricultural sciences
•George Baritiu National College - economic sciences
•Nicolae Iorga Elementary school
•Regina Maria Elementary school
M.V.AMADEUS AMETHIST
Previous names
12.200 - 04.2003 Crescent Seine
04.2003 - 01.2016 RMS Logona
Type
General cargo ship - Heavycargo - Equipped for carriage of containers
IMO-number: 9223435
MMSI: 244870673
Call sign : PDDW
Flag:The Netherlands
Port of registry:Alkmaar
Previous flags
12.2000 - 04.2003 Antigua & Barbuda, St. John's - Call sign: V2PM6
04.2003 - 01.2016 Antigua & Barbuda, St. John's - Call sign: V2PM9
GT:1.898 t
DWT:Summer: 2.688 t
DWCC:Summer: 2.530 t Winter: 2.470 t
NT:997
Number of 20ft containers (On deck: 24 In hold: 56 Total: 80)
Length: 88,00 m overall 84,98 m between perpendiculars
Breadth:11,41 m moulded
Draught: Max.: 4,09 m
Air draft: 6,26m 3,00 m in ballast
Forecastle:8,74 m
Quarterdeck:15,04 m
Freeboard:1.015 mm
Depth:5,40 m
Built:2000
Keel laid: 07.03.2000
Launch date: 01.09.2000
Delivery date:29.12.2000
Builder casco
Daewoo Mangalia Heavy Industries S.A.
Mangalia
Romania
yard number: 1028
Builder completion
Bodewes Scheepswerf Volharding Foxhol B.V.,
Foxhol Scheepswervenweg 14
9607 PX Hoogezand
The Netherlands
Yard number: 366
Hull material:Shipbuilding steel (higher tensile)
Hull type:
Double bottom
Watertight compartments:5
Movable bulkheads:2 off with 10 positions
Continuous decks :1
Main engine:1x Deutz MWM SBV6M628 - 4 stroke single acting 6 cylinder 240 x 280 mm diesel engine 1.678 hp / 1.235 kW at 1.000 rpm
Manufacturer: Deutz MWM Motoren-Werke Mannheim AG, Mannheim - German Federal Republic
Propellers:1x 1 Screw propeller solid - aft at 283 rpm
Right handed, with propeller nozzle
Electric installations
Power voltage: 380 V
Lighting voltage: 220 V
Frequency: 50 Hz
Generators
2x Valmet 620 DSG diesel generatorsets each 120 kVA - 96 kW - 150 hp
Emergency generator
1x Valmet 320 DSG diesel generatorsets 53 kVA - 42 kW - 72 hp
Compressed air receivers
2x Receivers each 125 litres - 30,0 bar
Bow thruster:1x Transverse thruster, forward
Number of holds:1 60,10 x9,00 x 6,85 m
Total capacity of holds:3.817 m³
Timber:Abt.: 3.400 /3.500 m³
Cargo hatchways: 1 61,60 x 9,00 m
Hatchcovers:Pontoon type - Steel - Handled by Gantry Crane
Load of pontoons:1,5 t/m²
Strength tanktop:15,0 t/m²
Ventilation: 6x / electric
Tank capacities
Fuel oil: 121 m³
Fresh water: 43 m³
Water ballast: 1.542 m³
Anchor equipment
3x Anchors weight each 1.590 kg
Length: 412,50 m
Diameter: 34 mm
Crew size:8
Manager
De Bock Maritiem B.V.
Alkmaar
The Netherlands
Owner
Amethist B.V.Alkmaar,The Netherlands
Previous names & owners
12.2000 - 04.2003 Crescent Seine - Rhein-Nord-Ostsee Befrachtungs G.m.b.H., Duisburg - Germany
04.2003 - 01.2016 RMS Logona - Shipcom Bereederungs G.m.b.H. & Co. Betriebs K.G., Duisburg - Germany
Remarks
31/05/16 - 22:30 Collided with bridge at Ingenieur Menneslaan in Albertkanaal, Antwerp - Belgium
Vessel got stuck under the bridge, suffering heavy damaged
Repair follows at shipyard Royal Niestern Sander B.V., Delfzijl - The Netherlands
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The Northrop Grumman-IAI F-24 is the latest reincarnation of the USAF "Lightweight Fighter Program" which dates back to the 1950ies and started with the development of Northrop's F-5 "Freedom Fighter".
The 1st generation F-5 became very successful in the export market and saw a long line of development, including the much more powerful F-5E "Tiger II" and the F-20 Tigershark (initially called F-5G). Northrop had high hopes for the F-20 in the international market; however, policy changes following Ronald Reagan's election meant the F-20 had to compete for sales against aircraft like the F-16, the USAF's latest fighter design (which was politically favored). The F-20 development program was eventually abandoned in 1986 after three prototypes had been built and a fourth partially completed.
But this was not the end for Northrop’s Lightweight Fighter. In the early 1980s, two X-29As experimental aircraft were built by Grumman from two existing Northrop F-5A Freedom Fighter airframes. The Grumman X-29 was a testbed for forward-swept wings, canard control surfaces, and other novel aircraft technologies. The aerodynamic instability of this arrangement increased agility but required the use of computerized fly-by-wire control. Composite materials were used to control the aeroelastic divergent twisting experienced by forward-swept wings, also reducing the weight. The NASA test program continued from 1984 to 1991 and the X-29s flew 242 times, gathering valuable data and breaking ground for new aerodynamic technologies of 4th and 5th generation fighters.
Even though no service aircraft directly evolved from the X-29, its innovative FBW system as well as the new material technologies also opened the door for an updated F-20 far beyond the 1990ies. It became clear that ever expensive and complex aircraft could not be the answer to modern, asymmetrical warfare in remote corners of the world, with exploding development costs and just a limited number of aircraft in service that could not generate true economies of scale, esp. when their state-of-the-art design would not permit any export.
Anyway, a global market for simpler fighter aircraft was there, as 1st generation F-16s as well as the worldwide, aging F-5E fleet and types of Soviet/Russian origin like the MiG-29 provided the need for a modern, yet light and economical jet fighter. Contemporary types like the Indian HAL Tejas, the Swedish Saab Gripen, the French Dassault Rafale and the Pakistani/Chinese FC-1/JF-17 ”Thunder” proved this trend among 4th - 4.5th generation fighter aircraft.
Northrop Grumman (Northrop bought Grumman in 1994) initiated studies and basic design work on a respective New Lightweight Fighter (NLF) as a private venture in 1995. Work on the NLF started at a slow pace, as the company was busy with re-structuring.
The idea of an updated lightweight fighter was fueled by another source, too: Israel. In 1998 IAI started looking in the USA for a development partner for a new, light fighter that would replace its obsolete Kfir fleet and partly relieve its F-16 and F-15 fleet from interception tasks. The domestic project for that role, the IAI Lavi, had been stillborn, but lots of its avionics and research were still at hand and waited for an airframe for completion.
The new aircraft for the IAF was to be superior to the MiG-29, at least on par with the F-16C/D, but easier to maintain, smaller and overall cheaper. Since the performance profiles appeared to be similar to what Northrop Grumman was developing under the NLF label, the US company eventually teamed up with IAI in 2000 and both started the mutual project "Namer" (=נמר, “Tiger” in Hebrew), which eventually lead to the F-24 I for the IAF which kept its project name for service and to the USAF’s F-24A “Tigershark”.
The F-24, as the NLF, was based on the F-20 airframe, but outwardly showed only little family heritage, onle the forward fuselage around the cockpit reminds of the original F-5 design . Many aerodynamic details, e. g. the air intakes and air ducts, were taken over from the X-29, though, as the experimental aircraft and its components had been developed for extreme maneuvers and extra high agility. Nevertheless, the X-29's forward-swept wing was considered to be too exotic and fragile for a true service aircraft, but the F-24 was to feature an Active Aeroelastic Wing (AAW) system.
AAW Technology integrates wing aerodynamics, controls, and structure to harness and control wing aeroelastic twist at high speeds and dynamic pressures. By using multiple leading and trailing edge controls like "aerodynamic tabs", subtle amounts of aeroelastic twist can be controlled to provide large amounts of wing control power, while minimizing maneuver air loads at high wing strain conditions or aerodynamic drag at low wing strain conditions. This system was initially tested on the X-29 and later on the X-53 research aircraft, a modified F-18, until 2006.
Both USAF and IAF versions feature this state-of-the-art aerodynamic technology, but it is uncertain if other customers will receive it. While details concerning the F-24's system have not been published yet, it is assumed that its AAW is so effective that canard foreplanes could be omitted without sacrificing lift and maneuverability, and that drag is effectively minimized as the wing profile can be adjusted according to the aircraft’s speed, altitude, payload and mission – much like a VG wing, but without its clumsy and heavy swiveling mechanism which has to bear high g forces. As a result, the F-24 is, compared to the F-20, which could carry an external payload of about 3.5 tons, rumored to be able to carry up to 5 tons of ordnance.
The delta wing shape proved to be a perfect choice for the required surface and flap actuators inside of the wings, and it would also offer a very good compromise between lift and drag for a wide range of performance. Anyway, there was one price to pay: in order to keep the wing profile thin and simple, the F-24’s landing gear retracts into the lower fuselage, leaving the aircraft with a relatively narrow track.
Another major design factor for the outstanding performance of this rather small aircraft was weight reduction and structural integrity – combined with simplicity, ruggedness and a modular construction which would allow later upgrades. Instead of “going big” and expensive, the new F-24 was to create its performance through dedicated loss of weight, which was in some part also a compensation for the AAW system in the wings and its periphery.
Weight was saved wherever possible, e .g. a newly developed, lightweight M199A1 gatling gun. This 20mm cannon is a three-barreled, heavily modified version of the already “stripped” M61A2 gun in the USAF’s current F-18E and F-22. One of the novel features is a pneumatic drive instead of the traditional electric mechanism, what not only saves weight but also improves trigger response. The new gun weighs only a mere 65kg (the six-barreled M61A2 weighs 92kg, the original M61A1 112 kg), but still reaches a burst rate of fire of 1.800 RPM (about 800 RPM under cyclic fire, standard practice is to fire the cannon in 30 to 50-round bursts, though) and a muzzle velocity of 1.050 metres per second (3,450 ft/s) with a PGU-28/B round.
While the F-16 was and is still made from 80% aluminum alloys and only from 3% composites, the F-24 makes major use of carbon fiber and other lightweight materials, which make up about 40% of the aircraft’s structure, plus an increased share of Titanium and Magnesium alloys. As a consequence and through many other weight-saving measures like keeping stealth capabilities to a minimum (even though RAM was deliberately used and many details designed to have a natural low radar signature, resulting in modest radar cross-section (RCS) reductions), a single, relatively small engine, a fuel-efficient F404-GE-402 turbofan, is enough to make the F-24 a fast and very agile aircraft, coupled with a good range. The F-24’s thrust/weight ratio is considerably higher than 1, and later versions with a vectored thrust nozzle (see below) will take this level of agility even further – with the pilot becoming the limiting factor for the aircraft’s performance.
USAF and IAF F-24s are outfitted with Northrop Grumman's AN/APG-80 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, also used in the F-16 Block 60 aircraft. Other customers might only receive the AN/APG-68, making the F-24 comparable to the F-16C/D.
The first prototype, the YF-24, flew on 8th of March 2008, followed by two more aircraft plus a static airframe until summer 2010. In early 2011 the USAF placed an initial order of 101 aircraft (probably also to stir export sales – the earlier lightweight fighters from Northrop suffered from the fact that the manufacturer’s country would not use the aircraft in its own forces). These initial aircraft will replace older F-16 in the interceptor role, or free them for fighter bomber tasks. The USN and USMC also showed interest in the aircraft for their aggressor squadrons, for dissimilar air combat training. A two-seater, called the F-24B, is supposed to follow soon, too, and a later version for 2020 onwards, tentatively designated F-24C, is to feature an even stronger F404 engine and a 3D vectoring nozzle.
Israel is going to produce its own version domestically from late 2014 on, which will exclusively be used by the IAF. These aircraft will be outfitted with different avionics, built by Elta in Israel, and cater to national requirements which focus more on multi-purpose service, while the USAF focusses with its F-24A on aerial combat and interception tasks.
International interest for the F-24A is already there: in late 2013 Grumman stated that initial talks have been made with various countries, and potential export candidates from 2015 on are Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Finland, Norway, Australia and Japan.
General F-24A characteristics:
Crew: 1 pilot
Length: 47 ft 4 in (14.4 m)
Wingspan: 27 ft 11.9 in / 8.53 m; with wingtip missiles (26 ft 8 in/ 8.13 m; without wingtip missiles)
Height: 13 ft 10 in (4.20 m)
Wing area: 36.55 m² (392 ft²)
Empty weight: 13.150 lb (5.090 kg)
Loaded weight: 15.480 lb (6.830 kg)
Max. take-off weight: 27.530 lb (12.500 kg)
Powerplant
1× General Electric F404-GE-402 turbofan with a dry thrust of 11,000 lbf (48.9 kN) and 17,750 lbf (79.2 kN) with afterburner
Performance
Maximum speed: Mach 2+
Combat radius: 300 nmi (345 mi, 556 km); for hi-lo-hi mission with 2 × 330 US gal (1,250 L) drop tanks
Ferry range: 1,490 nmi (1715 mi, 2759 km); with 3 × 330 US gal (1,250 L) drop tanks
Service ceiling: 55,000 ft (16,800 m)
Rate of climb: 52,800 ft/min (255 m/s)
Wing loading: 70.0 lb/ft² (342 kg/m²)
Thrust/weight: 1.09 (1.35 with loaded weight & 50% fuel)
Armament
1× 20 mm (0.787 in) M199A1 3-barreled Gatling cannon in the lower fuselage with 400 RPG
Eleven external hardpoints (two wingtip tails, six underwing hardpoints, three underfuselage hardpoints) and a total capacity of 11.000 lb (4.994 kg) of missiles (incl. AIM 9 Sidewinder and AIM 120 AMRAAM), bombs, rockets, ECM pods and drop tanks for extended range.
The kit and its assembly:
A spontaneous project. This major kitbash was inspired by fellow user nighthunter at whatifmodelers.com, who came up with a profile of a mashed-up US fighter, created “out of boredom”. The original idea was called F-21C, and it was to be a domestic successor to the IAI Kfirs which had been used by the US as aggressor aircraft in USN and USMC service for a few years.
As a weird(?) coincidence I had many of the necessary ingredients for this fictional aircraft in store, even though some parts and details were later changed. This model here is an interpretation of the original design. The idea was spun further, and the available parts that finally went into the model also had some influence on design and background.
I thank nighthunter for sharing the early ideas, inviting me to take the design to the hardware stage (sort of…) and adapting my feedback into new design sketches, too, which, in return, inspired the model building process.
Well, what went into this thing? To cook up a F-24 à la Dizzyfugu you just need (all in 1:72):
● Fuselage from a Hasegawa X-29, including the cockpit and the landing gear
● Fin and nose cone from an Italeri F-16A
● Inner wings from a (vintage) Hasegawa MiG-21F
● Outer wings from a F-4 (probably a J, Hasegawa or Fujimi)
The wing construction deviates from nighthunter’s original idea. The favorite ingredients would have been F-16XL or simple Mirage III wings, but I found the composite wing to be more attractive and “different”. The big F-16XL wings, despite their benefit of a unique shape, might also have created scale/size problems with a F-20 style fuselage? So I built hybrid wings: The MiG-21 landing gear wells were filled with putty and the F-4 outer wings simply glued onto the MiG inner wing sections, which were simply cut down in span. It sounds like an unlikely combo, but these parts fit together almost perfectly! In order to hide the F-4 origins I modified them to carry wingtip launch rails, though, which were also part of nighthunter’s original design.
The AAW technology detail mentioned in the background came in handy as it explains the complicated wing shape and the fact that the landing gear retracts into the fuselage, not into the wings, which would have been more plausible… Anyway, there’s still room for a simpler export version, with Mirage III or Kfir C.2/7 wings, and maybe canards?
Using the X-29 as basis also made fitting the new wings onto the area-ruled fuselage pretty easy, as I could use the wing root parts from the X-29 to bridge the gap. The original, forward-swept wings were just cut away, and the remains used as consoles for the new hybrid delta wings. Took some SERIOUS putty work, but the result is IMHO fine.
The bigger/square X-29 air intakes were taken over, and they change the look of the aircraft, making it look less F-5-ish than a true F-20 fuselage. For the same reason I kept the large fairing at the fin base, combining it with a bigger F-16 tail, though, as a counter-balance to the new, bigger wings. Again, the F-16 fin was/is part of nighthunter’s idea, so the model stays true to the original concept.
For the same reason I omitted the original X-29 nose, which is rather pointy, sports vanes and a large sensor boom. The F-16 nose was a plausible choice, as the AN/APG-80 is also carried by late Fighting Falcons, and its shape fits well, too.
All around the hull, some small details like radar warning sensors, pitots and air scoops were added. Not really necessary, but such thing add IMHO to the overall impression of such a fictional aircraft beyond the prototype stage.
Cockpit and landing gear were taken OOB, I just added a pilot figure and slightly modified the seat.
The ordnance was puzzled together from the scrap box, the AIM-9Ls come from the same F-4 kit which donated its outer wings, the AIM-120s come from an Italeri NATO weapons kit. The drop tanks belong to an F-16.
Painting and markings:
At first I considered an F-24I in IAF markings, or even a Japanese aircraft, but then reverted to one of nighthunter’s initial, simple ideas: an USAF aircraft in the “Hill II” paint scheme (F-16 style), made up from three shades of gray (FS 36118, 36270 and 36375) with low-viz markings and stencils. Dutch/Turkish NF-5A/Bs in the “Hill II” scheme were used as design benchmarks, too. It’s a simple livery, but on this delta wing aircraft it looks pretty interesting. I used enamels, what I had at hand: Humbrol 127 and 126, and Modelmaster's 1723.
A light black ink wash was applied, in order to em,phasize the engraved panel lines, in contrast to that, panels were manually highlighted through dry-brushed, lighter shades of gray (Humbrol 27, 166 and 167).
“Hill II” also adds to a generic, realistic touch for this whif. Doing an exotic air force thing is rather easy, but creating a convincing whif for a huge military machinery like the USAF’s takes more subtlety, I think.
The cockpit was painted in medium Gray (Dark Gull Grey, FS 36231, Humbrol 140), as well as the radome. The landing gear and the air intakes were painted white. The radome was painted with Revell 47 and dry-brushed with Humbrol 140.
Decals were puzzled together from various USAF aircraft, including sheets from an Airfix F-117, an Italeri F-15E and even an Academy OV-10D.
Tadah: a hardware tribute to an idea, born from boredom - and the aircraft does not look even bad at all? What I wanted to achieve was to make the F-24 neither look like a F-20, nor a Saab Gripen clone, as the latter comes close in overall shape, size and design.
Wednesday February 16th 1983
Spot fires have grown into uncontrolled fires in Cudgee Braxholme, Mt Macedon, Monivale, Warburton, the Otways and the Dandenongs.
"... I remember the smoke blackening the air. It seemed like the fires were just beyond the ridge to the south. Yet the fires were many kilometres away in the Dandenongs. I was living in Panton Hill, a small community 40km north east of Melbourne. When the local CFA siren sounded, my father raced up the dirt road to respond, just like many other local CFA members including my friends Stuart and Neville. A truck was sent with both of them and three other local men. My father was asked to stay behind for another shift. The following day I received a telephone call from my tearful mother. All she could say was "It's them", referring to the discovery of 12 dead firemen and their trucks. I was devastated, as was everyone else in our small town. My life has never been the same. Don't expect to find happiness in the distant future, seek it out now! RIP Stuart, Neville, and all the other brave volunteer and professional fire fighters who have lost their lives trying to keep others safe. And all those living firefighters who put their lives on the line have my undying admiration. Most particularly those who volunteer. ..." Bryan [0]
The trip
For the Panton Hill crew the journey would have been a long one. Panton Hill is 32 km north east of Melbourne. To get to the Dandenongs means a trip through Kangaroo Ground, Warrandyte, Ringwood then depending on what time they arrived possibly a drive down Dorset Rd to Ferntree Gulley then Emerald to Upper Beaconsfield. This is the most logical route. That's 70 kilometres to get to the fire in a 4 tonne International Fire Tanker. Going from Ferntree Gully to Emerald has quite hilly terrain. It would have been a long trip. [4]
Upper Beaconsfield
"... As soon as I saw the column of smoke I knew we were in trouble, the day as it was and the area where it started. The whole fire just swept up right through Upper Beaconsfield and took out half the town. At that point, when the wind changed, it was a matter of everyone for themselves. ..." [2] Eric Bumpstead, ( CFA Captian) Upper Beaconsfield.
A fire broke out at 1522 at Belgrave heights fanned by strongs winds pushing the fire in a southerly direction. The temperature is 43 degrees, 6% humidity with winds blowing in the range of 60 kilometers per hour.
By 2050 the fire had crossed the Beaconsfield Emerald road and the wind changed. [1]
"... It was like a hail storm, but it wasn't hail. It was red hot coals and twigs and all [of that] was burning you had to turn your back to it and you were getting pelted with that. It was a devastating fire. ..." [3] Eric Bumpstead, ( CFA Captian) Upper Beaconsfield.
From blowing in a southerly direction, the fire now turned sideways turning a 1 kilometer fire front into a 15 kilometer fire front. Winds now reached 100 km/hr parallel to the Princess Highway to the right, Cardinia Reservoir to the left. Upper Beaconsfield lay in it's path. There are no timestamps on the fire distribution map that I'm describing. That was the scene a Panton Hill CFA tanker crew found themselves in on that day. I knew most of the crew on that tanker. A mate, a mates brother. Anothers step father. Of the three locals on the Fire tanker, I knew Nev the best. I knew Stuart because his brother Wayne was in the same year as Nev and myself. I knew of Mr Marsden because I'd had classes with Chris. So for me this is personal.
Post fire
The last I'd seen of Nev was the finals at High School. I wrote the following in 2007.
"... I started school with Neville, did the same classes, same house, played cricket & footy in the lunchtime breaks. Nevs' family where Orchardists, growing apples in the hilly areas of Panton Hill not far from this shot. At school we visited the Jefferys farm in one of our classes. We got to see how they farmed the land. My overriding memory is the drip feeding setup they had to equalise the pressure in the pipes when watering the trees and the steepness of the land. Nev was going to Dookie (oldest Ag college in Vic) that year looking to continue on the land no doubt. But it was not to be. Tragedy was to strike the Jefferys again not long after the fires. Mr. Jeffery died from a heart attack. Sad stuff. When I found out about the memorial service all those years ago I made a choice of having a school photo taken instead of attending. I'd already had a pretty crappy year and I didn't want to start the new one with a service. Bush fires are part of life here, a constant threat. If you live around the area long enough there is no way you escape it. I grew up with them as a 4 year old, drawing black pictures in kinder for months after (so my mum tells me). So in the summer it never really leaves your mind, will a fire start this year? In '83 a big one stared. And as a volunteer the Panton Hill CFA Nev with other members went to help and paid the ultimate price. ..." [5]
I finished school and went to Uni in the city and was lucky enough to get a job with the Eltham Shire Council Parks and Gardens. For pretty much the entire time I was at Uni, I'd spend all my spare days and holidays working through the shire. This included the up-keep of the Panton Hill memorial Park. After the fires, a glass block was laid in stone at the park as a memorial. So while I worked at the central depot Bernie and myself would often spend the morning cleaning up the park, crack out the snags and have lunch at this park. I don't know when but a number of years later someone fired a shotgun blast at the block partially destroying it. It's since been repaired.
A revisit
After the fire, I barely remember the newspaper and television coverage. The lingering memory a burned out International Fire tanker reported in, "The Sun" or "The Herald." Coronial reports aren't released to the public. There is certainly no mention of how they got into trouble, where they traveled. 30 years later I to take a look myself.
Online
Firstly I started on-line. I found the original image I saw in the newspapers. It's a black and white unidentified photograph of a fire tanker in Upper Beaconsfield.The images are not in the public domain but you can see them here. [6] It's not much but gives you an idea of the equipment at the time. The fire truck new would have looked like the tanker shown here outside the Diamond Creek CFA fire station in 1982. [7]
To me looking at the tanker, there is no real protection. The windows, doors in the cabin are standard fittings and the crew are exposed.In another shot shown on the online ABC 30th memorial I saw a shot of the typical kit issued to CFA fire fighters in 1982. [8] The heavy cotton boiler suits, the plastic hard hats and neck cooler. The choice of kit was to have tragic consequences on Ash Wednesday.
Next I searched on Youtube for any TV footage at the time. I was in luck. Someonehad copied the original 1983, GTV-9 news reports. Then by luck I saw a scene I'd missed on the news. The footage narrated by Brian Naylor shows the chaotic scene late in the afternoon and news the following day the two burned out tankers in Upper Beaconsfield. That afternoon I'd learned more about the firethan I had known. I screen capped the shots and it gave me an indication of where the trucks got caught. With that information I picked a day to find the location shown in these images.
2013FEB02 Upper Beaconsfield
I need to see the location. Looking at images was not going to be enough. I got out the Melways and looked for 'St Georges Rd', Upper Beaconsfield. While it wasn't hard to locate, navigating proved a pain. Eventually I found the main town and parked the car. Got out and purchased some bread, a drink and checked the map again. Osbourne road can clearly be seen on the Youtube footage. [9] So I followed the road and located the entrance to the park. Got out of the car and followed the track down the hill. The first thing that strikes me is the width of the track. It's not wide enough to turn around. Once you commit, that's it. The next thing is the trees. Even after 30 years you can see the blackness of the trunks.
There is some works going on. There's a excavator at the top of the park and the track has been cleared. My guess this is for the memorial but I later find it's for a firebreak. The completion date was meant to be 2011/12. As I go further down the hill I can't see anything that resembles the photos I've seen. What I do know is this road faces west, the direction of the fire. As the wind changed at 2050. It would have been dark by then. As I write this it's now dark at the same time. You would have been able to see the fire coming towards you. There's no way to turn around.
You simply cannot maneuver these tankers with up to 4 tonne of water easily. I estimate the slope is fifteen degrees at some places. I travel further down the hill. I don't find any marker showing the spot so I make my way up. On the way up I thought I could make out the spot where the photos show the trucks stopped. But on the news tonight it looks like there is in fact a marker. I'll go have a better look when winter comes around. I took a few shots at the top showing the name of the park entrance and left.
I had some lunch at the Upper Beaconsfield memorial up near the Post office. Interesting read of the posters they had up. The pre-Internet warnings were a lot different. I then left. I was running low on fuel I played chicken with low levels of petrol only locating a petrol station with "Lo" on the fuel gauge.
2013FEB16 Panton Hill
Today I went up to Panton Hill. I knew they'd have something planned at the park, took some shots and went home. I'd seen enough. Later on in the day the seven o'clock news came on. There was a follow-up story with Eric Bumpstead and some footage of CFA members laying some flowers at yet another memorial. I'll have to search for this some other day. I'd seen enough.
A lot of things changed after Ash Wednesday. It still is the largest single loss of CFA personal in one fire. Pre Ash Wednesday the kit supplied was adequate for grass fires, useless for forest fires.
"... Robert Rankin AFSM has been awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his service to the community through the CFA, as part of the Queen’s Birthday awards. The former executive manager of CFA Fleet Services first joined CFA in 1981 as a design engineer in the mechanical services division. Over the next 30 years he was instrumental in a number of fire truck upgrades that still protect firefighters today. ..." [10]
People such as Robert Rankin have spent their careers working on improving the safety of vehicles. One of the biggest problems with fires is a burn-over where flames engulf the truck, occupants and those inside. This is what happened to the Panton Hill crew. Fire quickly over-ran the truck, incinerating the crew.
In the Black Saturday Bushfire, February 22, 2009, a Diamond Creek tanker in Wandong was over-run by fire. The occupants put the truck in "survival mode"using water carried in the back to protect the crew. The whole vehicle survived because it was engineered to withstand such a situation. [11] [12]Then there is the clothing. Instead of cotton, sturdy boots it's a fire system, starting with personal protection clothing (structural system) [13] specifically designed for keeping the wearers cool yet still being able to withstand high temperatures.
Science is now driving the kit being supplied. Breathing apparatus, personal communications and location equipment, air quality monitors and training to use and maintain this kit. This is above and beyond the actual fire training. There is a whole section set up to drive this innovation. [14]
lot of the advances mentioned can be traced to the loss of life on the day. 75 lives on Ash Wednesday. 21 in Upper Beaconsfield. Nine residents and twelve fire fighters. [15] The CFA is becoming more professional. But mistakes are still made. You could see this on Black Satuday. Another fire, another place.
When I looked up the CFA, 'Roll of Honour', I found a picture of Nev and Stu. Head shots taken from their last High School photos just as I remember them. [16]
Reference
[0] ABC, Bryan (12 Apr 2012) , '75 perish in the Ash Wednesday bushfires'
www.abc.net.au/archives/80days/stories/2012/01/19/3411671...
[1] Ash Wednesday, "details and maps of the location of the fire on the day"
members.ozemail.com.au/~tammii/ASH WEDNESDAY.htm
[2] ABC News, Danny Morgan, "Survivors mark 30th anniversary of Ash Wednesday"
www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-16/ash-wednesday-30th-anniver...
[3] Ibid.
[4] The alternative is a 73km trip Ferntree Gulley to Noble Park North to Berwick
and then Upper Beaconsfield via the Monash Freeway. Faster but riskier to get to
Upper Beaconsfield. There's only one road up.
[5] flickr, bootload, "Ash Wednesday set"
www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/sets/72157603927001251/
[6] Ash Wednesday Bushfires, "FEBRUARY 18, 1983: COCKATOO, VIC. The fire...
By News Ltd 18 February, 1983" (3rd image across, fire tanker burned out)
www.newspix.com.au/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&ALID...
[7] Yarra Plenty Regional Library, 1982, "Diamond Creek C.F.A. trucks & station"
yprl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/486582027_diamond_creek_...
[8] abc, Danny Morgan, "Survivors mark 30th anniversary of Ash Wednesday"
www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-16/ash-wednesday-30th-anniver...
[9] youtube, gonadsftw, "10 minutes of coverage by channel 9 on the horrific
Ash Wednesday Bushfires of 1983 in February, presented by Brian Naylor (R.I.P)
with reports by Peter Mitchell and others"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVquGTpK9Ik
[10] CFA Connect, "Recognition for firefighter safety, 2012"
www.cfaconnect.net.au/news/recognition-for-firefighter-sa...
[11] youtube, CFATV, Part 1, "Diamond Creek tanker in Wandong, February 22, 2009 the
crew went into 'fire protection mode to survive"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiFgH3fKceo
[12] youtube, CFATV, Part 2, "Diamond Creek tanker in Wandong, February 22, 2009 the
crew went into 'fire protection mode to survive"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9WqA5X9ias
[13] CFA Connect, "New structural PPC rollout complete, 2011"
www.cfaconnect.net.au/news/new-structural-ppc-rollout-com...
[14] CFA Connect, "The Innovators – Part 2: Protective Equipment Department"
www.cfaconnect.net.au/news/the-innovators-part-2.html
[15] abc, Danny Morgan, "Survivors mark 30th anniversary of Ash Wednesday"
Ibid.
[16] CFA, Roll of Honour, "This roll of honour commemorates all CFA firefighters
who have lost their lives in the line of duty since the formation of CFA"
www.cfa.vic.gov.au/about/roll-of-honour/
next >>>
The Tay Rail Bridge
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The Tay Bridge (sometimes unoffically the Tay Rail Bridge) is a railway bridge approximately 2.75 miles (3.5 kilometers) long that spans the Firth of Tay in Scotland,between the city of Dundee and the suburb of Wormit in Fife.
As with the Forth Bridge,the Tay Bridge has als been called the Tay Bridge since the construction of the road bridge over the Firth of Tay,the Tay Road Bridge.The rail bridge replaced an earl train ferry.
"Tay Bridge" was also the codename for the funeral plans for Queen Elizabeth,The Queen Mother.
The First Tay Bridge
----------------------------
The original Tay Bridge was designed by noted railway engineer Sir Thomas Bouch,who received a knighthood following the bridge's completion.It was a lttice-grid design,combining cast and wrought iron.The design was well known,having been used first by Kennard in the Crumlin Viaduct in South Wales in 1858,following the innovative use of cast iron in Crystal Palace of London England.However,the Crystal Palace was not as heavil loaded as a railway bridge.A previous cast iron desing,the Dee Bridge in Chester,England which collapsed in 1847,failed due to poor use of cast-iron cirders.Later,Alexander Gustave Eiffel used a similar design to create several large viaducts in the Massif Central ,France (1867).
Proposal for constructing a bridge across the River Tay date back to at least 1854.The North Britsh Railway (Tay Bridge) Act receiving the Royal Assent on July 15,1870 and the foundation stone was laid on July 22,1871.
The Bridge Design -The Basic Concept
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The original design was for lattice griders supported by brick piers resting on bedrock shown by trail borings to lie at no great depth under the river.At either end of the bridge the single track rail ran on top of the bridge girder,most of which therefore lay below the pier tops.However,in the center section of the bridge,(the "high girder") the railway ran inside the bridge,which could then run above the pier tops to give the required clearance to allow passage of sailing ships upriver(e.g. to Perth).To accommodate thermal expansion there were few rigid connectiions between girders and piers.
However as the bridge extended out into the river,it became clear (December 1873) that the bedrock really much deeper,to act as a foundation for the bridge piers.Sir Thomas Bouch had to redesign the bridge.
He reduced the number of piers and correspondingly increased the span of the girders.The pier foundations were no longer taken down to bedrock,instead they were constructed by sinking brick-lind wrought-iron caissons onto the riverbed,removing sand until the caissons rested upon the consoildated gravel layer which had been misreported as rock,and then filling the caissons with concrete.To reduce the weight the ground under the caissons would have to support the brick piers were replaced by lattice iron skeleton piers(each pier had multiple cast-iron columns taking the weight of the bridge girder,with wrought iron horizontal braces and diagonal tiebars lining the columns of the pier to give rigidity and stability). the basic concept was well known,having been used first by Kennard in the Crumlin Viaduct in South Wales in 1858;Sir Thomas Bouch had used it for Viaducts (notable the Beelah Viaducts (1860) on the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway line over Stainmore,England,but for the Tay Bridge,even with the largest praticale caissons pier dimensions were significantly constrained by the caissons in a hexagon; this maximsed the pier widtgh but not the amount of diagononal bracing directly resiting sidewalk forces.
The Bridge Design -- Design Details
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The engineering details on the Tay Bridge was considerably simpler,lighter,and cheaper then on earlier Viaducts.On these the machined based of each column section docked securely into a machine enlarged section of the top of the section below.The joint was then secured by bolts through matching holes on lugs (Crumlin) or flanges (Belah) on the two sections.This 'spigot and faucet' configuration was used (apparently without machining) on some Tay Bridge pier columns,but on some the bolts were relied upon to ensure correct alignment.(In the event,the joint were using undersized bolts.This give greater tolerances when assembling the column,but the less positive alignment of the column joints as initially assembled and after any subsequent 'working' of the joint would have weakened the column).
On the Tay Bridge the diagonal bracing was by means of flat bars running from one lug at the column section top (and integral part of the column casting) to two sling plates bolted to the diagonally opposite lug.Bar and sling plates all had a matching longditudinal slot in them; the tie bar was placed between the sling plates with all three slots aligned and overlapping and a gib driven through all three slots and secured.Two cotters (medal wedges) were then positioned to fill the rest of the slot overlap,and driven in hard to put the tie under tension.Horizontal Bracing was provided by (wrought iron) channel iron.The various bolt head were too close to each other,and to the column for easy tightening up with spanners;this coupled with lack of precision in the preparation of the channeliron braces led to various on the site fitting expedients (one of them described by a witness to the enquirey as "about' as alovently a piece of work as ever i saw in my life').
On the Crumin Viaduct and Belah Viaduct,however,horizontal bracing was provided by substantial fitting cast-iron girders securely attached to the columns with the diagonal braces the girders.The Chairman of the court of Inquiry quoted at length from a contemporary book praising the detailed engineering of the belah Viaduct pier (and describing the Viaduct as one of the lightest and cheapest of the kind that had ever beenerected.)
...it is a distinguished feature in the Viaduct that the cross,or distance girders of the piers encircle the columns,which are turned up at that point,the girder being bored oput to fit the turned part with great accuracy.No cement of any kind was used in the whole structure,and the piers when completed,and the vertical horizontal wrought-iron bracing keyed up,are nearly as riged as though they were one solid piece...
...The fitting was all done by machines,which were specially designed for the purposed,finshed the work with mathematical accuracy.The flanges of the column were all faced up and their edges turned,and ever column was stepper into the one below it with a lip of about 5/8 of an inch (1.5 centimeters) in depth,the lip and socket for it being actualyly turned and bored,That portion of the column against which the cross girders rested was also turned.The whole operations were performed at one time,the column being centered in a hollow mandriil lathe.After being turned the column passed on to a drilling machine,in which all the holes in each flange were drilled out the solid simultaneously.And as this was done with them all in the same machine,the holes of couse,perfectly coincided when the columns were placed on the other in the progress of erection.Similar care was taken with the cross-girders,which were bored out at the ends by machines designed for the purpose.Thus,when the pieces of the Viaduct had to be put together at the place of erction these was literally not a tool required,and neither chipping or filing to retard the program to work.
Either,said the Chairman,the Belah Viaduct had been over-engineered.
Bridge Construction
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Whilst Sir Thomas Bouch was revising his design,A Grothe C.E.G,manage of the Tay Bridge contract,the company which had the contract for construction went out of business and the contract passed (June 1874) to Hopkins Gilkes and Company,successors to the Middlesbrough Company which had made the ironwork for the Belah Viaduct Hopkin Gilkes and Company originally intended to produce all the bridge ironwork on Teesside,but in the event continued to use a foundry at Wormit to oroduce the cast-iron components,and carry out limited post-casting machine operations.
The change in design increased cast and necessitated dalay,intensified after two of the high girders fell when being lifted into place (Fedruary 1877).
The fallengirders had to be removed and new ones built.One of the fallen griders was recovered and reused and piers to be earcted again;and this threatened seirously to interfere with the expection of having the bridge finshed passage of a train by September.Only eight months were now available for the erection and floating out of six,and the lifting of ten 245 feet (74.6 meters) spans.Five andseven respectively of the 145 feet (44.1 meters) spans had yet to go through the same process.Seven large piers and three small piers had to be built.The weight of the iron which to be put in its place was 2,700 tons,and it seemed incredible that all could he done in eight months.A good deal would depend on the weather but this was far from favourable.
Dispite this,the first enging crossed the bridge on September 22,1877,and upon its completion in early 1878 the Tay Bridge was the longest in the world.While visiting the city former United States Presidend Ulysses Simpon "SAM" Grant commented that was "a big bridge for a small city".
Inspection and opening
--------------------------------
Like all rail lines,the Tay Bridge was subject to a Board of Trade inspection before it could carry passenger trains.The inspection was conducted Febuary 25,1878 -- February 27,1878 by Major General Charles Scrope Hutchinson Corps of Royal Engineers Companions of the Order of Bath of the Railway Inspectorate,who measured the deflection of the 245 feet (774.6 meters) bridge girder under a distributed load of 1.5 tons per foot (5 T/M) due to heavy locomotives (travelling at up to 40 miles per hour (65 kilometers per hour) as less then 2 inchs 50 milimeters).He reported that "these results are in my opinion to be satisfactory.The lateral oscillation,as observed by the theodolite ehen the engines ran over at speed,was very slight and the stucture overall showed great stiffness.He required some minor remedial work and 'recommended' a 25 miles per hour speed limit over the bridge.(Major General Charles Scrope Hutchinson Corps of Royal Engineers Comanions of the Order of Bath subsequently explained to the Inquire that he had suggested the speed limit because of minimal taper on the piers.) The inspection report added '... when again visiting the sport should whish,if possible,to have an opportunity of observing the effects of high wind when a train of carriages is running over the bridge...'.
The bridge was opened for passenger traffic on June 1,1878,formal opening cememonies having taking place the previous day,in the couse of which Sior Thomas Bouch was made a Burgess of Dundee "in respect of his meritorious service as engineer of the bridge...".
The following year (une 20,1879)Her Majesty Queen Victoria of Great Britain crossed the bridge to return south from Balmoral Castle;Sir Thomas Bouch was presented to Her Majesty before she did so,on June 26,1879 he was knighted by Her Majesty Queen Victoria of Great Britain at Windsor Castle.
The Tay Bridge Disaster
---------------------------------
On the night of December 28,1879 at 7:15 pm,the first bridge collapsed after its central span gave way during high winter gales.A train with six carriages carry seventy-five passengers and crew,crossing at the time of the collapse,plunged into the icy waters of the River Tay.All seventy-five were lost.The disaster stunned the whole contry and sent shock waves through the Victorian engineering community.The ensuring enquiry revealed that the bridge did not allow for high winds.At the time gale estimated at force ten or eleven (Tropical Storm force winds: 55 miles per hour -- 75 miles per hour (80 kilometers per hour -- 117 kilometers per hour0 had been blowing down the River Tay estury at right angles to the bridge.The engine itself was salvaged from the river and restored to the railway service.The collapsed of the bridge,opened only nineteen months earlier and passed as safe by the Board of Trade,is still the most famous bridge disaster of the British Isles.The disaster was commenorated in "The Tay Bridge Disaster",one of the best-known verse efforts of William Topaz McGonagall.German pote Theodor Fontane within 10 days of the disaster wrote his famous poem Die Bruck'am Tay.
The stumps of the original bridge piers are still visible above the surface on the River Tay even at high tide.
The Second Tay Bridge
---------------------------------
A new double-track bridge was designed by William Henry Borlow and built by Sir William Arrol & Company 18 meters (59 feet) upstream of ,and parallel to the original bridge.The bridge proposal was formally incorported in July 1881 and the foundation stone laid on July 6,1883.Contruction involed 25,000 metric tons (28,000 short tons) of iron and steel,70,000 metric tons 77,000 short tons) of concrete ten million bricks (weighing 37,500 metric tons (41,300 short tons) and three million rivets.Fourteen men lost their lives during construction,most by browning.
The second bridge opened on July 13,1887 and remain's in use.A $33,516,60.00 million strenghtening and refurbishment project ($32,976,480.00 million),on the bridge won the Bridge Construction Industy Civil Engineering Award,in consideration of the staggering scale logistics involed.More than 1,000 metric tons (1,100 short tons) of bird broppings were scraped off the bridge ironwork lattice of the bridge using hand tools,and bagged into 25 kllogram (55 pound) sacks.Hundeds of thousands of riviets were removed and replaced,all work being done in very exposed conditions high over a Firth of Tay with fast -running tides.
Double-heading of locomotives is prophibited across the bridge;consecutive locomotives must be separated by at 60 feet (18 meters) using barrie or reach wagons.
New York's Grand Central Station nearing completion sometime around 1913. 8x10 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection.
2017 marked the 200th Anniversary of the completion and opening of the Tavistock Canal, construction of which commenced in 1803. It was the first canal to use iron boats.
The granary warehouse straddles the canal just beyond the Gill & Company Wharf. The low air draught iron canal boats could pass under what appears to be quite a low bridge to berth under the warehouse whose floor was removable for cargo handling.
When the canal closed the warehouse became a furniture store until 1930 when it was sold to the Girl Guides who still operate from the building. Just under the bridge a water main pipe can be seen, obviously this was not in place when the canal was operational for navigation purposes. Since the 1930s the canal has been maintained as a feed for the Morwellham Hydro Electric Power Station.
For more photographs of the Tavistock Canal please click here: www.jhluxton.com/Canals/Tavistock-Canal/
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced the completion of new platforms and other transformative upgrades at the Long Island Rail Road’s Lynbrook station on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020. The four-track elevated station features two new island platforms, platform canopies and other customer-friendly amenities. The $17.9 million dollar enhancement initiative was funded through the 2015-19 MTA Capital Plan. Work on the station began May 2019 and has been completed one month ahead of schedule.
Mauna Kea Beach Hotel - History
George Mason headed the Hawaii Department of Economic Development in the early 1960's (later he founded the Pacific Business News). It was determined that Hawaii's tourism industry had to expand beyond Waikiki to the outer islands. William Quinn, the first Governor of Hawaii, sent Mason to Caneel Bay Plantation in the U.S. Virgin Islands to study Laurence Rockefeller's investment and development of an environmentally friendly resort set on a very remote island, St. John. Mason had several conversations with Lesley Moore, Caneel Bay's hotel manager at the time. As a result an invitation was delivered to Laurence Rockefeller to visit Hawaii with the hope he would develop a similar resort on one of Hawaii's outer islands.
In 1960 Rockefeller arrived in Hawaii along with his long-time associate Allston Boyer who was instrumental in the development of Caneel Bay Plantation and Dorado Beach Hotel and Walter Collins representing the firm Belt, Collins & Associates known for providing master planning, landscape architecture and civil engineering. The visitors were given the use of a state airplane to visit possible resort locations. In fact Aloha Airlines donated the plane and crew. When Rockefeller later learned this, he insisted on paying for it. The entourage stayed overnight at the Parker Ranch, Volcano House and Kona Inn on the Big Island, Coco Palms on Kauai and Hotel Hana Maui - where Rockefeller met and visited with Robert Butterfield (then the hotel manager at Hotel Hana Maui and later the second hotel manager at Mauna Kea Beach Hotel). Rockefeller met with Parker Ranch owner Richard Smart. He asked to visit the beach he had seen while flying over the island. From the ranch headquarters in cool misty Waimea the small group descended the bumpy 2600 feet by jeep trail to visit the beach at remote Kauna'oa Bay. It was reported that George Mason, Allston Boyer and Laurence Rockefeller went swimming at Kauna'oa Bay. As Mason had hoped the visitors were awe struck by the crescent shaped beach, the warm Pacific waters and the spectacular view of the snow-capped Mauna Kea. In May, 1961 Rockefeller returned to Kauna'oa Bay with Robert Trent Jones and the governor of Hawaii to announce the plans for a massive investment in a resort and golf course. At that time Kauan'oa Bay's crescent shaped beach was isolated, had no water or electricity and was accessible only by a dirt road and foot paths. Richard Smart leased approximately 500 acres for 99 years to Laurence Rockefeller for building the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on Kauna'oa Bay of the Kohala Coast. Smart said it was land too dry for his cattle!
Rockefeller first selected the architect John Carl Warnecke, a pioneer of contextual architecture - fitting a building into its environment. Warnecke later designed the Hawaiian State Capitol building. Rockefeller initially conceived the resort to follow the cottage format similar to his design for Caneel Bay Plantation and Little Dix Bay. Rockefeller is quoted “The design should follow the natural contours of the land, incorporate lava rock and in every possible way make the hotel invisible.” Nathaniel A. Owings, a founder of the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, was leaning towards designing 100 beach cottages. A model cottage was built, it was later demolished after sustaining damage from tropical storms. The cottage concept was shelved in favor of a single large structure. Later Rockefeller turned to the architect Edward Charles Bassett of the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill firm to design the hotel that is part outdoors and part indoors, in fact the hotel has a door-less entry. Bassett also designed in 1962 the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in Oakland.
Belt Collins prepared for Pioneer Mill sugar plantation the first feasibility study for the Ka'anapali resort area on Maui. Belt Collins work at Mauna Kea included the construction of the hotel, its grounds, sewage plant, golf course, drilling of three wells and building a segment of the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway from Kawaihae to the hotel. The construction of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel was a huge logistical task. All building materials came by ferry. A temporary camp was created to house and feed the 500 construction workers.
As the resort neared completion, Rockefeller took a motor launch off shore. He looked back to the bay, the beach and his hotel-to-be with snow-capped Mauna Kea volcano, the backdrop. He determined the building's exterior was too bright. He ordered a repaint to better harmonize with the surroundings. He is quoted as saying "No man can outdo nature; mustn't even try."
Another expert of Rockefeller's team was Robert Trent Jones, Sr. He had designed Rockefeller's Dorado Beach golf courses in Puerto Rico. Regarding the third hole, Jones said, "Mr. Rockefeller, if you allow me to build a golf course here, this will be the most beautiful hole in the world." The debate continues if the par 3 third hole with an over-ocean inlet carry from tee to green is the most beautiful golf hole in the world. He seamlessly blended in the 18 fairways and greens to the black lava rock. The golf course was completed before the hotel opened. Jackie Pung, Hawaii's first woman golfing notable, was the initial teaching pro. "Rags" Ragland was the first director of golf at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. The first pro shop was a shack that was originally a recreational facility for Parker Ranch employees who wanted to swim at Mauna Kea's beach.
When it opened in July, 1965 the 154-room Mauna Kea was the most expensive hotel ever built at the time, at $15 million. The opening room rates on the Modified American Plan (MAP) started at $43, including breakfast and dinner in the Pavilion, which featured rotating menus of international cuisines. From 1965 to 1995, the Hotel operated contentedly without guestroom televisions. Esquire magazine named the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel one of the "Three greatest hotels in the world."
At the 1965 grand opening Rockefeller spoke this prayer. "May we all find inspiration in the majesty of the sea and the beauty of the surrounding mountains. May we learn again the joy of living and that good will is the key to brotherly love. May we recognize anew that material goods are but the means - stepping stone to the spiritual meaning and purpose of life."
The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel boasts an impressive art collection that includes priceless Pacific and Asian art pieces, curated for the resort’s opening, and handmade Hawaiian quilts from the 1960’s. These masterpieces elevate the status of Mauna Kea Beach Hotel to a museum in and of itself. Over 1600 pieces of authentic artwork and artifacts make Mauna Kea’s collection one of the most extensive collections of Asian and Oceanic artwork assembled by one individual, Mr. Rockefeller. The Art Collection showcases pieces from India, Southeast Asia, China, Japan, Melanesia, and Polynesia. Works of art include everything from custom, in-room watercolors, to a seventh-century sandstone Buddha, to elaborate Thai temple guardians. It was Mr. Rockefeller’s intention to informally display the pieces without signs or glass, in order to create the semblance of a noble manor teeming with abundant fine art.
Leslie H. Moore Jr., from Caneel Bay Plantation, was the first general manager of Mauna Kea. Allston Boyer hired Moore to manage Caneel Bay in 1956. Moore, a graduate of the Cornell University Hotel School, was previously the manager of the General Electric's Association Island at Henderson Harbor, NY. Moore left Mauna Kea to manage the White Elephant Hotel on Nantucket Island, MA. Executive assistants at opening were Richard Erb and James Reed and Clay James headed the food and beverage department along with executive chef Walter Blum. Mrs. Pi'lani Bell was the first executive housekeeper.
Robert H. Butterfield Jr managed the hotel from 1966 to 1982. He and his wife, Charlotte managed the Hotel Hana Maui from 1948 to 1965. Butterfield held a degree in Hotel Administration from the Cornell Hotel School, served wartime in the navy before working with Sugar Plantation owner Paul Fagan, the owner of remote Hotel Hana Maui. Butterfield died in 2011 at age 94 in Waimea, Hawaii. The hotel manager's residence was the "White House" (today the 8 room Jacaranda Inn) at Waimea, formerly the home of the Parker Ranch manager. It is where Rockefeller stayed during his many visits to the construction site and entertained guests.
In 1967 Laurence Rockefeller sold portions of his hotel assets to Eastern Airlines. Eastern acquired an 80% interest in the 306 room Dorado Beach resort for about $17 million and acquired a 60% interest in the 154 room Mauna Kea Beach Hotel for $10 million. As part of the deal Eastern also acquired a 40% interest in Rockresorts, Rockefeller's hotel management company.
In 1978 Laurence Rockefeller and Eastern Airlines sold the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel to UAL. Inc., the parent company of United Airlines and Western International Hotels for $51.5 million. The sell included 310 room hotel, 18-hole Robert Trent Jones golf course and about 100 acres of land adjacent to the hotel and golf course. Western International (later Westin) would operate the hotel. Western International at that time also owned and operated the Ilikai Hotel in Waikiki. Many repeat guests worried the hotel would lose its Rockefeller lustre. But Bob Butterfield in a 1981 interview is quoted "They (UAL, Inc.) told me, don't cut maintenance, don't cut anything.
William F. Mielcke, served as President of the Mauna Kea Resort for 21 years from 1980 to 2001. Previously he served as general manager at the Kona Surf. Mauna Kea Resort consists of the 258 room Mauna Kea Beach Hotel and the 350 room Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, two golf courses and real estate including single family homes, townhomes, condominiums and vacant land.
The hotel was purchased in 1989 for $315 million by Yoshiaki Tsutsumi of Seibu Railway. Fortune magazine named Tsutsumi as the world's richest man during the years 1987 to 1990. Seibu purchased the Mauna Kea Beach Resort from the partnership of Aoki Corp of Japan and the Robert M Bass Group of Fort Worth Texas – who had acquired Westin Hotels from UAL, Inc. The hotel moved from the Westin flag and management to Seibu's Prince Resorts Hawaii management in 1990.
In 1994, 30 years after opening, the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel closed for a 1 year renovation. This happened as the Hapuna Prince Hotel opens. Mauna Kea Beach reopened with Adi Kohler as the Managing Director - and - with TVs in the guest rooms. Kohler retired in June, 2000.
Prince Hotels Hawaii embarked on a three-year, $150 million renovation of the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel after it closed following major damage from a 2006 earthquake. Mauna Kea Beach Hotel re-opened in 2009, the renovations included larger, redesigned guest rooms, new restaurants, a new spa, a new club house, and new air conditioning and plumbing systems. Mauna Kea Beach Hotel was added to Marriott's Autograph Collection in 2015.
Mauna Kea Beach Hotel management through 50 plus years of operation:
Leslie Moore - appointed first General Manager in 1965
Bob Butterfield - appointed General Manager in 1966.
Adi Kohler - Mauna Kea Beach Hotel's 3rd Hotel Manager appointed in 1978.
William F Mielcke - named President of Mauna Kea Resort in 1980 (retired in 2001)
Adi Kohler - named Managing Director of Mauna Kea Resort in 1994 (retired in 2000)
Charlie Park - named the hotels fifth Hotel Manager in 1997.
Donn Takahashi - named President of Prince Resorts Hawaii 2004
Jon Gersonde - named General Manager - Mauna Kea Beach Hotel in 2008 (left in 2014 to be Managing Director Turnberry Isle, Miami)
Phyllis Branco - named Hotel Manager in 2010 (left in 2015 to be General Manager at Hilo Doubletree Naniloa Hotel)
Craig Anderson - named Vice President of operations Mauna Kea Resort in 2015 (previously was general manager at the Westin Moana Surfrider)
Information compiled by Richard L. Johnson (October, 2016). I was the Beverage Manager at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel from approximately 1973 to 1975. I worked for Roger Bird, the Food and Beverage Manager. Bob Butterfield was the GM and Adi Kohler the Assistant GM. Michael White was the Pavillion Dining Room Manager. Kim Dietrich was the Executive Chef. I was a 1971 graduate from the U of Hawaii School on Travel Industry Management. Upon graduation Caneel Bay Plantation Assistant Manager George Pynn hired me as the night auditor. The telegram confirmation from Pynn was something like "$350 a month plus room and board. Also, a one way ticket from Honolulu to Charlotte Amalie, US Virgin Islands." I worked through several jobs ending as the Assistant Manager at Rockefeller's St. John National Park Cinnamon Bay Campground. Richard Erb, Caneel Bay Plantation's General Manager helped me in securing the Beverage Manager position at Mauna Kea.
Menlo School celebrates the completion of the new dance studio in the Creative Arts Center. Photo by Pete Zivkov.
Vertical construction of the Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense project continues Jan. 14 in Deveselu, Romania. The land-based BMD facility is in the final stage of construction and the system is expected to be fully operational in late 2015. U.S. Naval Support Facility Deveselu was established in October and about 200 U.S. military personnel, government civilians and support contractors will man the complex. Phase three of the U.S. European Phased Adaptive Approach to ballistic missile defense will include a second facility in Poland, set to be complete in 2018. The projects in Romania and Poland are designed to support NATO’s collective defense and overall missile defense system in Europe. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by John Rice)
+++ DISCLAIMER +++
Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!
Some background:
The CAC Sabre, sometimes known as the Avon Sabre or CA-27, was an Australian variant of the North American Aviation F-86F Sabre fighter aircraft. In 1951, Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation obtained a license agreement to build the F-86F Sabre. In a major departure from the North American blueprint, it was decided that the CA-27 would be powered by a license-built version of the Rolls-Royce Avon R.A.7, rather than the General Electric J47. In theory, the Avon was capable of more than double the maximum thrust and double the thrust-to-weight ratio of the US engine. This necessitated a re-design of the fuselage, as the Avon was shorter, wider and lighter than the J47.
To accommodate the Avon, over 60 percent of the fuselage was altered and there was a 25 percent increase in the size of the air intake. Another major revision was in replacing the F-86F's six machine guns with two 30mm ADEN cannon, while other changes were also made to the cockpit and to provide an increased fuel capacity.
The prototype aircraft first flew on 3 August 1953. The production aircrafts' first deliveries to the Royal Australian Air Force began in 1954. The first batch of aircraft were powered by the Avon 20 engine and were designated the Sabre Mk 30. Between 1957 and 1958 this batch had the wing slats removed and were re-designated Sabre Mk 31. These Sabres were supplemented by 20 new-built aircraft. The last batch of aircraft were designated Sabre Mk 32 and used the Avon 26 engine, of which 69 were built up to 1961.
Beyond these land-based versions, an indigenous version for carrier operations had been developed and built in small numbers, too, the Sea Sabre Mk 40 and 41. The roots of this aircraft, which was rather a prestigious idea than a sensible project, could be traced back to the immediate post WWII era. A review by the Australian Government's Defence Committee recommended that the post-war forces of the RAN be structured around a Task Force incorporating multiple aircraft carriers. Initial plans were for three carriers, with two active and a third in reserve, although funding cuts led to the purchase of only two carriers in June 1947: Majestic and sister ship HMS Terrible, for the combined cost of AU£2.75 million, plus stores, fuel, and ammunition. As Terrible was the closer of the two ships to completion, she was finished without modification, and was commissioned into the RAN on 16 December 1948 as HMAS Sydney. Work progressed on Majestic at a slower rate, as she was upgraded with the latest technology and equipment. To cover Majestic's absence, the Colossus-class carrier HMS Vengeance was loaned to the RAN from 13 November 1952 until 12 August 1955.
Labour difficulties, late delivery of equipment, additional requirements for Australian operations, and the prioritization of merchant ships over naval construction delayed the completion of Majestic. Incorporation of new systems and enhancements caused the cost of the RAN carrier acquisition program to increase to AU£8.3 million. Construction and fitting out did not finish until October 1955. As the carrier neared completion, a commissioning crew was formed in Australia and first used to return Vengeance to the United Kingdom.
The completed carrier was commissioned into the RAN as HMAS Majestic on 26 October 1955, but only two days later, the ship was renamed Melbourne and recommissioned.
In the meantime, the rather political decision had been made to equip Melbourne with an indigenous jet-powered aircraft, replacing the piston-driven Hawker Fury that had been successfully operated from HMAS Sydney and HMAS Vengeance, so that the "new jet age" was even more recognizable. The choice fell on the CAC Sabre, certainly inspired by North American's successful contemporary development of the navalized FJ-2 Fury from the land-based F-86 Sabre. The CAC 27 was already a proven design, and with its more powerful Avon engine it even offered a better suitability for carrier operations than the FJ-2 with its rather weak J47 engine.
Work on this project, which was initially simply designated Sabre Mk 40, started in 1954, just when the first CAC 27's were delivered to operative RAAF units. While the navalized Avon Sabre differed outwardly only little from its land-based brethren, many details were changed and locally developed. Therefore, there was also, beyond the general outlines, little in common with the North American FJ-2 an -3 Fury.
Externally, a completely new wing with a folding mechanism was fitted. It was based on the F-86's so-called "6-3" wing, with a leading edge that was extended 6 inches at the root and 3 inches at the tip. This modification enhanced maneuverability at the expense of a small increase in landing speed due to deletion of the leading edge slats, a detail that was later introduced on the Sabre Mk 31, too. As a side benefit, the new wing leading edges without the slat mechanisms held extra fuel. However, the Mk 40's wing was different as camber was applied to the underside of the leading edge to improve low-speed handling for carrier operations. The wings were provided with four stations outboard of the landing gear wells for up to 1000 lb external loads on the inboard stations and 500 lb on the outboard stations.
Slightly larger stabilizers were fitted and the landing gear was strengthened, including a longer front wheel strut. The latter necessitated an enlarged front wheel well, so that the front leg’s attachment point had to be moved forward. A ventral launch cable hook was added under the wing roots and an external massive arrester hook under the rear fuselage.
Internally, systems were protected against salt and humidity and a Rolls-Royce Avon 211 turbojet was fitted, a downrated variant of the already navalized Avon 208 from the British DH Sea Vixen, but adapted to the different CAC 27 airframe and delivering 8.000 lbf (35.5 kN) thrust – slightly more than the engines of the land-based CAC Sabres, but also without an afterburner.
A single Mk 40 prototype was built from a new CAC 27 airframe taken directly from the production line in early 1955 and made its maiden flight on August 20th of the same year. In order to reflect its naval nature and its ancestry, this new CAC 27 variant was officially christened “Sea Sabre”.
Even though the modified machine handled well, and the new, cambered wing proved to be effective, many minor technical flaws were discovered and delayed the aircraft's development until 1957. These included the wing folding mechanism and the respective fuel plumbing connections, the landing gear, which had to be beefed up even more for hard carrier landings and the airframe’s structural strength for catapult launches, esp. around the ventral launch hook.
In the meantime, work on the land-based CAC 27 progressed in parallel, too, and innovations that led to the Mk 31 and 32 were also incorporated into the naval Mk 40, leading to the Sea Sabre Mk 41, which became the effective production aircraft. These updates included, among others, a detachable (but fixed) refueling probe under the starboard wing, two more pylons for light loads located under the wing roots and the capability to carry and deploy IR-guided AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, what significantly increased the Mk 41's efficiency as day fighter. With all these constant changes it took until April 1958 that the Sabre Mk 41, after a second prototype had been directly built to the new standard, was finally approved and cleared for production. Upon delivery, the RAN Sea Sabres carried a standard NATO paint scheme with Extra Dark Sea Grey upper surfaces and Sky undersides.
In the meantime, the political enthusiasm concerning the Australian carrier fleet had waned, so that only twenty-two aircraft were ordered. The reason behind this decision was that Australia’s carrier fleet and its capacity had become severely reduced: Following the first decommissioning of HMAS Sydney in 1958, Melbourne became the only aircraft carrier in Australian service, and she was unavailable to provide air cover for the RAN for up to four months in every year; this time was required for refits, refueling, personnel leave, and non-carrier duties, such as the transportation of troops or aircraft. Although one of the largest ships to serve in the RAN, Melbourne was one of the smallest carriers to operate in the post-World War II period, so that its contribution to military actions was rather limited. To make matters worse, a decision was made in 1959 to restrict Melbourne's role to helicopter operations only, rendering any carrier-based aircraft in Australian service obsolete. However, this decision was reversed shortly before its planned 1963 implementation, but Australia’s fleet of carrier-borne fixed-wing aircraft would not grow to proportions envisioned 10 years ago.
Nevertheless, on 10 November 1964, an AU£212 million increase in defense spending included the purchase of new aircraft for Melbourne. The RAN planned to acquire 14 Grumman S-2E Tracker anti-submarine aircraft and to modernize Melbourne to operate these. The acquisition of 18 new fighter-bombers was suggested (either Sea Sabre Mk 41s or the American Douglas A-4 Skyhawk), too, but these were dropped from the initial plan. A separate proposal to order 10 A-4G Skyhawks, a variant of the Skyhawk designed specifically for the RAN and optimized for air defense, was approved in 1965, but the new aircraft did not fly from Melbourne until the conclusion of her refit in 1969. This move, however, precluded the production of any new and further Sea Sabre.
At that time, the RAN Sea Sabres received a new livery in US Navy style, with upper surfaces in Light Gull Gray with white undersides. The CAC Sea Sabres remained the main day fighter and attack aircraft for the RAN, after the vintage Sea Furies had been retired in 1962. The other contemporary RAN fighter type in service, the Sea Venom FAW.53 all-weather fighter that had replaced the Furies, already showed its obsolescence.
In 1969, the RAN purchased another ten A-4G Skyhawks, primarily in order to replace the Sea Venoms on the carriers, instead of the proposed seventh and eighth Oberon-class submarines. These were operated together with the Sea Sabres in mixed units on board of Melbourne and from land bases, e.g. from NAS Nowra in New South Wales, where a number of Sea Sabres were also allocated to 724 Squadron for operational training.
Around 1970, Melbourne operated a standard air group of four jet aircraft, six Trackers, and ten Wessex helicopters until 1972, when the Wessexes were replaced with ten Westland Sea King anti-submarine warfare helicopters and the number of jet fighters doubled. Even though the A-4G’s more and more took over the operational duties on board of Melbourne, the Sea Sabres were still frequently deployed on the carrier, too, until the early Eighties, when both the Skyhawks and the Sea Sabres received once more a new camouflage, this time a wraparound scheme in two shades of grey, reflecting their primary airspace defense mission.
The CAC 27 Mk 41s’ last carrier operations took place in 1981 in the course of Melbourne’s involvements in two major exercises, Sea Hawk and Kangaroo 81, the ship’s final missions at sea. After Melbourne was decommissioned in 1984, the Fleet Air Arm ceased fixed-wing combat aircraft operation. This was the operational end of the Sabre Mk 41, which had reached the end of their airframe lifetime, and the Sea Sabre fleet had, during its career, severely suffered from accidents and losses: upon retirement, only eight of the original twenty-two aircraft still existed in flightworthy condition, so that the aircraft were all scrapped. The younger RAN A-4Gs were eventually sold to New Zealand, where they were kept in service until 2002.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length: 37 ft 6 in (11.43 m)
Wingspan: 37 ft 1 in (11.3 m)
Height: 14 ft 5 in (4.39 m)
Wing area: 302.3 sq ft (28.1 m²)
Empty weight: 12,000 lb (5,443 kg)
Loaded weight: 16,000 lb (7,256 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 21,210 lb (9,621 kg)
Powerplant:
1× Rolls-Royce Avon 208A turbojet engine with 8,200 lbf (36.44 kN)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 700 mph (1,100 km/h) (605 knots)
Range: 1,153 mi, (1,000 NM, 1,850 km)
Service ceiling: 52,000 ft (15,850 m)
Rate of climb: 12,000 ft/min at sea level (61 m/s)
Armament:
2× 30 mm ADEN cannons with 150 rounds per gun
5,300 lb (2,400 kg) of payload on six external hardpoints;
Bombs were usually mounted on outer two pylons as the mid pair were wet-plumbed pylons for
2× 200 gallons drop tanks, while the inner pair was usually occupied by a pair of AIM-9 Sidewinder
AAMs
A wide variety of bombs could be carried with maximum standard loadout being 2x 1,000 lb bombs
or 2x Matra pods with unguided SURA missiles plus 2 drop tanks for ground attacks, or 2x AIM-9 plus
two drop tanks as day fighter
The kit and its assembly:
This project was initially inspired by a set of decals from an ESCI A-4G which I had bought in a lot – I wondered if I could use it for a submission to the “In the navy” group build at whatifmodelers.com in early 2020. I considered an FJ-3M in Australian colors on this basis and had stashed away a Sword kit of that aircraft for this purpose. However, I had already built an FJ variant for the GB (a kitbashed mix of an F-86D and an FJ-4B in USMC colors), and was reluctant to add another Fury.
This spontaneously changed after (thanks to Corona virus quarantine…) I cleaned up one of my kit hoards and found a conversion set for a 1:72 CAC 27 from JAYS Model Kits which I had bought eons ago without a concrete plan. That was the eventual trigger to spin the RAN Fury idea further – why not a navalized version of the Avon Sabre for HMAS Melbourne?
The result is either another kitbash or a highly modified FJ-3M from Sword. The JAYS Model Kits set comes with a THICK sprue that carries two fuselage halves and an air intake, and it also offers a vacu canopy as a thin fallback option because the set is actually intended to be used together with a Hobby Craft F-86F.
While the parts, molded in a somewhat waxy and brittle styrene, look crude on the massive sprue, the fuselage halves come with very fine recessed engravings. And once you have cleaned the parts (NOTHING for people faint at heart, a mini drill with a saw blade is highly recommended), their fit is surprisingly good. The air intake was so exact that no putty was needed to blend it with the rest of the fuselage.
The rest came from the Sword kit and integrating the parts into the CAC 27 fuselage went more smoothly than expected. For instance, the FJ-3M comes with a nice cockpit tub that also holds a full air intake duct. Thanks to the slightly wider fuselage of the CAC 27, it could be mounted into the new fuselage halves without problems and the intake duct almost perfectly matches the intake frame from the conversion set. The tailpipe could be easily integrated without any mods, too. The fins had to be glued directly to the fuselage – but this is the way how the Sword kit is actually constructed! Even the FJ-3M’s wings match the different fuselage perfectly. The only modifications I had to make is a slight enlargement of the ventral wing opening at the front and at the read in order to take the deeper wing element from the Sword kit, but that was an easy task. Once in place, the parts blend almost perfectly into each other, just minor PSR was necessary to hide the seams!
Other mods include an extended front wheel well for the longer leg from the FJ-3M and a scratched arrester hook installation, made from wire, which is on purpose different from the Y-shaped hook of the Furies.
For the canopy I relied on the vacu piece that came with the JAYS set. Fitting it was not easy, though, it took some PSR to blend the windscreen into the rest of the fuselage. Not perfect, but O.K. for such a solution from a conversion set.
The underwing pylons were taken from the Sword kit, including the early Sidewinders. I just replaced the drop tanks – the OOB tanks are very wide, and even though they might be authentic for the FJ-3, I was skeptical if they fit at all under the wings with the landing gear extended? In order to avoid trouble and for a more modern look, I replaced them outright with more slender tanks, which were to mimic A-4 tanks (USN FJ-4s frequently carried Skyhawk tanks). They actually come from a Revell F-16 kit, with modified fins. The refueling probe comes from the Sword kit.
A last word about the Sword kit: much light, but also much shadow. While I appreciate the fine surface engravings, the recognizably cambered wings, a detailed cockpit with a two-piece resin seat and a pretty landing gear as well as the long air intake, I wonder why the creators totally failed to provide ANY detail of the arrester hook (there is literally nothing, as if this was a land-based Sabre variant!?) or went for doubtful solutions like a front landing gear that consists of five(!) single, tiny parts? Sadism? The resin seat was also broken (despite being packed in a seperate bag), and it did not fit into the cockpit tub at all. Meh!
Painting and markings:
From the start I planned to give the model the late RAN A-4Gs’ unique air superiority paint scheme, which was AFAIK introduced in the late Seventies: a two-tone wraparound scheme consisting of “Light Admiralty Grey” (BS381C 697) and “Aircraft Grey” (BS 381C 693). Quite simple, but finding suitable paints was not an easy task, and I based my choice on pictures of the real aircraft (esp. from "buzz" number 880 at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, you find pics of it with very good light condition) rather than rely on (pretty doubtful if not contradictive) recommendations in various painting instructions from models or decal sets.
I wanted to keep things simple and settled upon Dark Gull Grey (FS 36231) and Light Blue (FS 35414), both enamel colors from Modelmaster, since both are rather dull interpretations of these tones. Esp. the Light Blue comes quite close to Light Admiralty Grey, even though it should be lighter for more contrast to the darker grey tone. But it has that subtle greenish touch of the original BS tone, and I did not want to mix the colors.
The pattern was adapted from the late A-4Gs’ scheme, and the colors were dulled down even more through a light black ink wash. Some post-shading with lighter tones emphasized the contrast between the two colors again. And while it is not an exact representation of the unique RAN air superiority scheme, I think that the overall impression is there.
The cockpit interior was painted in very dark grey, while the landing gear, its wells and the inside of the air intake became white. A red rim was painted around the front opening, and the landing gear covers received a red outline, too. The white drop tanks are a detail I took from real world RAN A-4Gs - in the early days of the air superiority scheme, the tanks were frequently still finished in the old USN style livery, hence the white body but fins and tail section already in the updated colors.
The decals became a fight, though. As mentioned above, the came from an ESCI kit – and, as expected, the were brittle. All decals with a clear carrier film disintegrated while soaking in water, only those with a fully printed carrier film were more or less usable. One roundel broke and had to be repaired, and the checkered fin flash was a very delicate affair that broke several times, even though I tried to save and repair it with paint. But you can unfortunately see the damage.
Most stencils and some replacements (e. g. the “Navy” tag) come from the Sword FJ-3. While these decals are crisply printed, their carrier film is utterly thin, so thin that applying esp. the larger decals turned out to be hazardous and complicated. Another point that did not really convince me about the Sword kit.
Finally, the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish (Italeri) and some soot stains were added around the exhaust and the gun ports with graphite.
In the end, this build looks, despite the troubles and the rather exotic ingredients like a relatively simple Sabre with Australian markings, just with a different Navy livery. You neither immediately recognize the FJ-3 behind it, nor the Avon Sabre’s bigger fuselage, unless you take a close and probably educated look. Very subtle, though.
The RAN air superiority scheme from the late Skyhawks suits the Sabre/Fury-thing well – I like the fact that it is a modern fighter scheme, but, thanks to the tones and the colorful other markings, not as dull and boring like many others, e. g. the contemporary USN "Ghost" scheme. Made me wonder about an early RAAF F-18 in this livery - should look very pretty, too?
liquid painting is very liberating for the painter.
SEE PHOTO BELOW in the comment section for an example of what this painting's left side used to look like.
it's a good visual description of LIQUID PAINTING's purpose/changes.
and it's very exciting to overpaint.
it provides its own form of escapism -- the ability to be free to paint over what is finished in a way that builds and destroys at the same time. just like life!
in life when we have a goal or an accomplishment that we want to achieve, we set out toward the completion point.
if we work hard enough and have the necessary aptitude for success within the project, eventually the TASK is completed.
and there is perhaps a celebration?
but then the next chapter of this incessant struggle rears up to make itself frontal to our next accomplishment.
we seem to live between the accomplishments, ever-focused on the end point of achievement.
and liquid painting is like this without the neurotic sadness.
it is about literally PAINTING OVER already wonderful and finished products.
it is ANTI-MATERIALISTIC.
it is an exploration into change.
it is an adventure about letting go of something.
it is like a tibetan sand painting that is fated to be blown away.
and so are dynasties and earthly power.
as the RISE OF A GLOBAL TELEVISION NETWORK continues its mad race toward existence, nation states will be used like pawns. they will become like the characters on the Dopaquel Peninsula.
they will eat horses and chop off the arms of their daughters.
they will seek an illusion of the pre-electric world reintegrated with the post-havoc world of nuclear energy and atomic warfare. they will look to the past as though it had become a heaven.
and the inversion of the demented CHRISTIAN FALL will make heaven into an "historical" notion that can only be reached by going back into time, whereas hell will become a "future possibility".
the threat of CRIME BLOTTER posing as news will make the peaceful tranquility of the Dopaquel Peninsula irresistible to the betteroffs and the prettyoffs.
the idea of CLEAN AIR, CLEAN LAND, CLEAN WATER, CLEAN FOOD will be the plaintiff cry of all the people.
but few will have access to it.
so keep shoveling those fking MEDZ down your throat, america.
blake's poetry that you didn't read or understand because all you could stand was the image of a tiger burning bright.
you never made it to the real poetic works, did you?
got hung up at the door jam,
again and again and again.
the piscean slave syndrome of catch and release, catch and release.
but who if not you ever listened or read our government's abominations in the 9/11 commission report?
did NOT ONE american take time to hear what the government "claims" happened?
is this inconceivably sharp question so DAMNING?!?!
how could NOT ONE american take time to examine 9/11?
how could GLOBAL TELEVISION crush the story and the fall out so THOROUGHLY?
it literally KILLED the show friends.
i don't know, but i'd bet that you never took the time to understand just exactly what our rogue government was up to, but you acted like you did.
you pretended that these new unnamed organizations weren't stool pigeons of your own government, set up and paid for and then "allegedly" they went sideways?!<| maybe not.
liars tell lies.
instead, you probably know at least a couple of people who took time and money to out and buy duct tape and plastic wrapping.
and all of us bought so much gas it could fill swimming pools and a whole neighborhood could fill lakes and underground oceans have been consumed by cities.
it was US!!!
i gave my car up for three years, but after i was almost run down on my mountain bike by a confused motorist who had never used a "roundabout" before, i too returned to the petroleum speed addiction of instant travel power.
it's a life/death issue -- don't go up against armored vehicles with your windmill tilting two wheeled pedaler.
that's just stupid.
and even though i've only put 60k miles on my car in 12 years, we are all in this game and working it.
so it's on us.
we did it.
we are guilty.
and the outside world knows and sees this VERY CLEARLY.
they aren't hindered by all the GOOD TIMES we had.
instead, they remember every flagrant fku we sent their way.
historically, this is why the party kids never realize how much they fk others up. they are so fkt up that they think they're funny and attractive and special and deserving.
and that's sad and true.
so the party kids blow off their human duties to other humans.
they suppress those truths and hide those memories,.
they live on borrowed money's pleasure and then they pretend they never have to pay it back.
they neglect their most basic obligations .
seriously can you fking believe that american kid stole a poster from the north koreans.
i mean, too bad for him and all, that's a private family issue and none of my concern in ANY WAY.
but what a fking horrible person!!!!!
fking GD AWFUL TREASONOUS AMERICAN!!!!
how DARE him!!!!
or "how a kid hired by the C.I.A. tried to start a war with NORTH KOREA" at our EXPENSE.
i wish that was fake news.
but we fall for it every fking time.
it doesn't occur to us to think that that young man violated our NATION'S trust with a NATION by his fkt up actions.
it was INTENTIONAL GLOBAL SABOTAGE.
and even if it wasn't, it was.
that's the STANDOFF rules and don't fake like you don't know that.
no true american would ever stain their country's nation's state reputation with such fkt up behavior. that's something an entitled ditch would do. OR A YOUNG MAN ON MEDZ.
and true americans aren't ditches.
it is against all the values of americanism to be a ditch.
but MEDZ make remorseless ditches out of their users.
and i can't diagnose that kid, but his pupils had what i call MEDZ eye syndrome. it is a darkening of the actual eye color. a tinting that makes the pupils appear to be dilated larger than the light values would naturally dilate an eye.
but i saw some pics of him and i'd give 7:1 odds that he was using pharmaceuticals or had been using pharmaceuticals before the incident.
but this kid's actions aren't really my point.
my point is that we get so worked up by the FAKE CRIME BLOTTER because we secretly know that if we don't go to war with everyone at some point, everyone is coming for us.
will this mean that americans will be physically invading other countries as rogue individuals?
it's happening to putin's government now, so why wouldn't it also happen to ours?
we've had the white gee-hadists who go rogue and the reality is that the "rebel" element is a condition of the human WHOLE.
until we address these philosophical NECESSITIES, we will continue to be swept up in the drama of the circumstances that are intentionally manufactured FOR THAT PURPOSE.
we will be "GRETEL/HANSELED" down the prescribed bread crumb path of "the nation state game" when the nations are just pawns in the GLOBAL NEWS NETWORK SCHEME.
somehow we innately know this in our soceity. but it's literally so much easier to refocus our intentions on fking GLUTTONY and constant feasting and bad health options and all that alcohol and the MEDZ for depression and the wanton sickness of overindulgence when it becomes BORING is such an OBVIOUS choice to make.
it's not very poetic.
it's not noble or uplifting.
it's not smart.
it's not very realized and has a variable suicide contract attached to it.
some come with murder warnings.
MARS NEEDS MARTIANS!!!!!
but remember this, those who have become MATERIALLY-entitled nazi people (the big difference between the nazis and modern average americans is that the nazis had pride and enthusiasm for ideals and achievable dreams whereas americans are awash in medz and alcohol and entertainment):
you should examine your government.
read what they have been forced to share with you in the official reports.
get out a fking map and start to make some connections.
a true republic or democracy is so much stronger when the people are aware of the actions of our own people.
the delusion is of no strategic or spiritual benefit to any humans including us, but we are bigger than us.
and all of these avoidance techniques are the insider's view.
and this is NOT the outside experience.
it is the TOWER OF BABEL view from the outside
it's the burning man of hades.
it's that crazy place in the disney version of pinocchio where all the boys get turned into jackasses.
so that outside view is clearly different and very CLEAR.
those outside are hindered only by their ability to throw envy and jealousy as hard as they can at the raging partiers.
same trap, different time zone.
same war, new leaders.
hateful to be gratefully hatefilled.
the nemesis and the zenith-makers.
the death of music.
the murder of art.
the villianification of truth.
but we can all dream the same dream of CLEAN AIR, CLEAN LAND, CLEAN WATER, CLEAN FOOD.
it is a worthwhile dream because it will make CLEAN PEOPLE.
LUC has worked with a large multi-disciplinary team to deliver a sustainable infrastructure and development masterplan to guide the long term transformation of Shawfield in Glasgow’s East End. LUC also led the design and implementation of an advanced phase of public realm and landscape works that now forms a framework for new development to be realised over a 20-25year horizon.
Prior to construction the site was heavily contaminated and consisted of large areas of vacant and derelict land together with dated business and industrial premises. The site was completely cleared and underwent significant ground remediation in advance of the public realm works to ensure the site is ‘development ready’.
LUC developed a green infrastructure strategy to inform the masterplan design with an emphasis on integrated surface water drainage and pedestrian connectivity to surrounding communities, transport nodes and the River Clyde corridor.
The Clyde riverbanks have been manipulated to provide new pedestrian and cycling infrastructure and this now provides an extension to the strategically important Clyde Walkway.
An ecologically diverse mosaic of riparian woodland, grassland and wetland habitats has been created that will improve the biodiversity of the River Clyde corridor.
A new strategic pedestrian and cycling link has been created linking the new South Dalmarnock Smart Bridge with the centre of the masterplan site, improving connectivity in the area. In contrast with the more naturalistic riverside treatment this link is more formal in character with strong tree avenue planting, lighting and paving patterns.
For more information, visit: www.landuse.co.uk
I stay a few miles from Dyce, an area of Aberdeen where most of the oil industry has offices and our airport is situated, hence you would believe there is not much to see other than big business, roadworks, traffic congestion etc, I thought so too.
This post sits at the entrance to the railway station .
To celebrate the National Cycle Network at the turn of the century, Sustrans commissioned four artists from the four countries of the United Kingdom to design cast iron ‘Millennium Mileposts’.
1,000 mileposts were created and installed across all the regions, stretching to all corners, some as far North as the Shetland Islands. You’ll find them in rural locations along our routes, at train stations and other key locations where the network runs through villages, towns and cities.
I visited and captured everything that I enjoyed viewing, this album is a collection of my photos of Dyce , its a fine place with lots to offer, please find below a little information on its history .
Dyce railway station is a railway station serving the town of Dyce, Aberdeen, Scotland. The station is managed by Abellio ScotRail and is on the Aberdeen to Inverness Line, with some trains operating on the Edinburgh to Aberdeen Line and Glasgow to Aberdeen Line also extended to call at Dyce and Inverurie.
This gives direct service from Dyce to Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and intermediate stations.
It is the closest station to Aberdeen Airport, whose runway is located next to the station.
Dyce Railway Station
Location Place : Dyce
Local authorityAberdeen City Council
Grid referenceNJ884128
Station codeDYC
Managed byAbellio ScotRail
Number of platforms2
Annual rail passenger usage*
2012/13Increase 0.760 million
2013/14Increase 0.811 million
2014/15Increase 0.824 million
2015/16Decrease 0.664 million
2016/17Decrease 0.517 million
History
Opened 20 September 1854
Closed 6 May 1968
ReOpened 15 September 1984
Aircraft can frequently be seen landing and taking off. However, the passenger terminal is the other side of the runway so a bus or taxi journey is required to reach it. Bus services to the airport terminal are provided by Stagecoach Bluebird's 80 Jet Connect route. However, for those travelling between the airport and Aberdeen city centre, direct bus services to/from the bus station at Union Square, such as route 727, are usually more convenient.
Dyce (Scottish Gaelic: Deis) is an area of the city of Aberdeen, Scotland, about 6 miles (9.7 km) north west of Aberdeen city centre, and best known as the location of the city's airport. It is on the River Don.
History
Dyce is the site of an early medieval church dedicated to the 8th century missionary and bishop Saint Fergus, otherwise associated with Glamis, Angus.
Today the cemetery, north of the airport, and overlooking the River Don, hosts the roofless but otherwise virtually complete former St. Fergus Chapel, within which Pictish and early Christian stones from the 7th–9th centuries, found in or around the churchyard, are displayed.
The Chapel is a unicameral late medieval building with alterations perhaps of the 17th or 18th centuries. Two further carved stones, of uncertain (though probably early) character, were discovered re-used as building rubble in the inner east gable and outer south wall during the chapel's restoration.
They were left in situ and are readily visible. A broken font, somewhat resembling a round-backed chair in its present condition, lies outside the church, and may also be of early medieval date.
The graveyard surrounding the old church was used into the 20th century, and retains almost no old gravestones.
There is a small 'mort house' in one corner of the enclosure, which is adjoined by a modern extension, still in use for burials.
During World War 1 conscientious objectors laboured at Dyce Work Camp at Dyce Quarries.
BP (British Petroleum) offices based in Dyce 1985; all of BP's UK fields are operated from here, and the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Harold Wilson (Prime Minister) and Prince Andrew came to the BP offices on 3 November 1975 to switch on the supply of oil from the BP Forties Oil Field - the oil came inland at Cruden Bay, and ended up 130 miles away at Grangemouth Refinery.
Development of the field had cost around £750m. Britain would become self-sufficient in oil by 1980. The next main field to come ashore was from the Auk oilfield .
Transport
Aberdeen Airport is located in Dyce.
Dyce railway station is served by First ScotRail and East Coast trains on the Aberdeen to Inverness Line.
There is an old railway line running from Dyce northwards past Newmachar which is now a path for pedestrians and cyclists and is the start of the Formatine and Buchan Way cycle route.
When complete the Aberdeen Bypass, will circle west and north of the suburb. The Dyce junction is scheduled for completion in Autumn 2016.
Education
The local secondary school, Dyce Academy, has about 500 pupils. There is also a primary school, Dyce Primary School. Dyce is also the location for the Cordyce School, a secondary school serving pupils who require additional support.
a colour shot of one of Walters rebuilt and refurbished Lorain cranes.it would seem that there is not much to do now to complete the transformation from USAF useage to one of Walters finished gems. behind the crane of note is the road tanker body that is being used as a fuel storage tank for Walters fleet.
A long way from the grace and beauty of its near neighbour, don't you think? Well, it is as far as I'm concerned! Both can be seen whilst standing between them, they're that close together!
Those Considerate Constructors really can't compete, whatever they think, with the old building easily visible from standing in front of the new one! 😁
www.freemoviescinema.com/science-fiction/video/latest/con... Full Feature
See more photos in set.
Starring Walter Brooke, Eric Fleming, Mickey Shaughnessy, Phil Foster, William Redfield, William Hopper, Benson Fong, Ross Martin, Vito Scotti. Directed by Byron Haskin. Producer George Pal gave us the sci-fi landmark Destination Moon in 1950. He then gave us the timeless classic War of the Worlds in '53. This, his third epic, was a grand effort, but fell shy of his earlier triumphs. On paper, it should have been another mega-classic. The team members from the earlier hits were reassembled. Pal as producer, Haskin directing, Lydon on screenplay, O'Hanlon writing. Conquest was also based on a popular book. Yet, despite all this pedigree, something fell short. Conquest would not go on to be remembered as one of the 50s mega-classics. Some of this obscurity may be due to Conquest being in the "serious" science fiction sub-genre, like Destination Moon and Riders to the Stars which tried to depict a plausible space-traveling future. Audiences were becoming much more entranced with saucers and weird aliens.
In some ways,Conquest is a remake of the basic story line from Destination Moon -- a crew are the first to land on a celestial body. They struggle to survive and yet courageously return. This time, instead of the moon, it's Mars. As a remake goes, however, it's worthy. The Technicolor is rich and the sets well done. This is an A-level production which at its release was the 2001: A Space Odyssey of its day. All the melodrama, however, starts to get in the way of the techno-gee-whiz.
Synopsis
Based aboard a rotating wheel space station, workmen prepare a big flying wing of a rocket ship. A group of potential crewmen train for what they think will be a moon landing mission. As the work nears completion, they find out that the real mission will be a landing on Mars instead. While aboard "The Wheel", we're introduced to the phenomenon of "space sickness" -- a mental breakdown due to workload and confinement for long periods. One of the crew candidates is scrubbed because of one such breakdown. Nonetheless, the multinational crew are chosen and embark for the long journey to Mars. After departure, it's found that General Merritt's old friend, Sergeant Mahoney, stowed away. On the way to Mars, a communications antenna is damaged and must be fixed via spacewalking crewmen. Just as the repairs are completed, the customary meteor arrives, threatening to hit the ship. General Merritt manages to fly the ship out of the way, but one of the crewmen on EVA is hit with micrometeoroids (like bullets) and killed. The General is also starting to show odd behavior, doubting whether their mission is proper or is an affront to God. Their evasive action puts them behind schedule, but they arrive at Mars. While attempting to land on Mars, the General has another bout of delusion and tries to abort the landing. His son, Captain Merritt, manages to take control and brings in the flying-wing lander to a rough but successful landing. The others go out to explore, but the General, now fully delusional, is venting rocket fuel in an attempt to blow up the ship. His son discovers this and the two struggle. The General's pistol discharges, killing him. Mahoney comes on the scene just then and accuses Captain Merritt of murdering the General. The rest explore a bit more, but pronounce Mars a dead planet. Despite this, Imoto discovers that his earth flower seed sprouted in martian soil. Earthquakes cause the escape rocket to shift off of perpendicular. They get it righted and blast off. On the way home, Mahoney and Captain Merritt make up and declare that the dead General was a hero, the man who conquered space. The End.
The color, the sets, models and background paintings are very visually rich. The whole image is a great snapshot of the future as people in the mid-50s imagined it would be. More tidbits in the Notes section below.
There is actually a subtle anti-war tone to the movie. No overt talk of nuclear dangers or menacing enemies. It is notable, however, that among the conspicuously international crew candidates, there is no Russian. Americans would "conquer" space with a few other nationals along for the ride, but NO Russians. There is also a poorly explained urgency to the mission. What's the hurry? Back in the Cold War, it was pretty common that WE had to get something before THEY did.
In 1949, Willy Ley wrote the book "The Conquest of Space," which speculated about how mankind might travel to other planets. This book was illustrated by space artist Chesley Bonestell. This book would become the inspiration for the movie.
From 1952 to 1954, Collier's magazine ran a series of stories about mankind conquering space. These were repeats by Ley and Bonestell of their 1949 book, but this time Collier's added material from "rocket scientist" Werner von Braun. Bonestell's new illustrations were clearly the prototype for the look of Conquest. People felt that mankind was on the verge of taking to the stars. The Collier's series expressed that giddy optimism.
The screenplay for Conquest added weak human interest sub-plots which almost negate the gee-whiz optimism that the visuals convey. The screenwriters were all experienced in their craft, so it's puzzling why such amateurish characterizations are so prominent. The comic relief moments are almost cartoonish. The whole leader-gone-mad sub-plot seems out of place.
A possible "message" to Conquest is that man is a fragile creature who may not be ready for the rigors of space travel. Certainly, people wondered about this, and other movies touched on the theme too, such as Riders to the Stars ('54). Our not being mentally ready yet was cited by the aliens in It Came From Outer Space ('53). General Merritt's dementia was foreshadowed in the breakdown of Roy early in the movie.
One thing that strikes the viewer is how much life aboard the space station is presumed to duplicate life aboard a navy ship. It's not overtly stated that the military should (or will) be the agency which "conquers" space, but from the ranks and uniforms and the navy-life scenes, that message comes through. Space ships will be like earthly ships.
On the surface, it seems like Conquest is blasting Christians as dangerous religious fanatics. This notion, that anyone who believes in God simply MUST be wacko, would be much more popular in later decades, but it was uncommon in the 50s. For that reason, the General's dementia deserves a closer look.
Actually, General Merritt was not the stereotypic religious fanatic. His son comments that he had never seen him carrying around and reading the Bible before. Instead of headaches or paralysis, the General's "space sickness" took a paranoid turn. He had rational misgivings about the Mars mission from the start, pre-dementia. His repressed misgivings are expressed in Bible verses dealing with sinners being punished by God. He once quotes from Psalm 38, then later from Psalm 62.
Throughout all this, God is not mocked. Indeed, only the "religious" man had the courage to go outside and give the dead Fodor a proper burial. The other non-relgious crewmen were at a loss for what to do.
The notion of impudent mankind trying to meddle in God's domain, is treated as a credible issue. In this, the pattern of the Tower of Babel is drawn. Prideful mankind thinks they can build their way into God's realm. God foils that plan. General Merritt's dementia seems motivated by a fear that this divine retribution could be coming again.
The writers of Conquest imagine a multinationalism in space. Most notable are two former enemy nations: Imoto is from Japan and Fodor is a German-accented Austrian, (as a stand-in for Germany). Imoto gets to make a little speech about why Japan went to war (lack of resources). Fodor gets to be seen as the cherished son of a classic "mama". By 1955, it was starting to become okay to look beyond World War 2.
At one point, the crew of The Wheel are watching a movie with many scantily clad dancing girls (much like sailors aboard a ship). The movie is a lavish musical number with many gold bikini clad pseudo-harem girls dancing while Rosemary Clooney sings about love "...in the desert sand." This clip is total non-sequetor to the high-tech space environment. What's interesting, is that it's NOT stock footage recycled. Clooney had not done any such movie. This dance number must have been staged and shot just for this scene in Conquest. Random act of musical. Gotta love 'em.
Bottom line? Conquest is an almost-epic. It's definitely an A-grade sci-fi movie, so it's well worth watching. The human story part gets in the way sometimes, but the visuals more than make up for it.
I recently took part in my first Triathlon - The 2008 Blenheim Triathlon. The story of how I got to this starts at the end of my first ear of University, in the year 2000. I contracted glandular fever, and a doctor told me that I would feel "awful for two weeks, low in energy for a year, and have less energy for the rest of my life". I thought it would be a good idea to pull my finger out and work on getting fit, to prove the doctor wrong. My first efforts were extremely painful, and very short, and showed me quite how unfit I had become after a year of partying and very little exercise. When I spent two years in Japan, things moved up a couple of gears, and I started running, cycling and swimming longer distances. I found that the more exercise one does, the more one is inclined to do, until I was running half-marathon distances after work and cycling up mountains with friends (there's material for a retrospecitve blog if ever there was). Since these were the main sports I was doing, I wanted to do Triathlon, but I knew running was still my weak spot. With this in mind, I entered the Robin Hood Marathon in Nottingham on my return to the UK.
The marathon was massively painful in one of my knees, but because it was the event I had been building up to, I ran to the finish. Afterwards, it took about a week to be able to walk normally, and I concluded that running is not good for me. Supporting evidence for this is the fact that several members of my family on both my mother and father's sides have had knee problems to the point of surgery, and there is a history of arthiritis, so I decided to listen to the painful alarm bells. The training route to the triathlon consisted mainly of carrying on as before, and in fact the main hurdle was getting hold of all the equipment. I had foreseen the main expense as being the bike, but in fact it turned out to be the wetsuit. I managed to snag a basic raodbike for a mere 116 quid at Decathlon in their winter sale, and she is still going strong after over 700 miles.
My wetsuit is an Aquasphere Mako, hurriedly purchased from "Mike's Diving" in the week leading up to the Triathlon, and fortunately it fits like a glove. Thus prepared, George, his girlfriend and I headed up to Blenheim Palace on the day of the event, though not without a hitch as the following photo illustrates:
On arrival, we had to rack up, which basically means putting your bike and running gear in a rack in the transition zone and hopefully remembering their location. We then made our way down to the lake in our as-yet untested wetsuits, and had a briefing. Briefing over, we made our way to the pier, and followed the triathletes, leaping like lemmings into the remarkably chilly lake. The icy bite of the lake made things painful during the seemingly long wait for the starting claxon. I reassured George that the pain would go away once we started swimming, having no idea whether it actually would. Finally the claxon sounded and the lake transformed from idyllic tranquility to a frothing tumult of swimmers, all vying for position. I had read that the first 200-400 metres are the most stressful part of any triathlon, and that a lot of triathletes freak out at this point due to the combination of cold water on the face, sudden exertion, and being in water teeming with other people, all of whom seem to want to swim over you. Having been forewarned, I was prepared for this and kept switching from crawl to breast stroke to keep my bearings, and my head.
At the end of the swim, we clambered out of the water and some helpful attendants unzipped our wetsuits as we made our way up the hill for the 400m run to the transition zone.
At transition, I spent about two minutes trying to extricate myself from my wetsuit, writhing around on the gravel in a most undignified fashion, before finally emerging and grabbing my t-shirt and bike from the rack, clipping on my helmet and wheeling the bike towards the exit of the transition. There are so many tules dictating what one can and cannot do in transition, I was quite worried about getting disqualified for doing something that was banned, like putting my helmet on at the wrong time, or walking inappropriately... Once on the bike I made a mental note to not go too hard, as I am wont to do on my commute when anyone overtakes me. I wanted to pace myself to leave something in reserve for the run. The route was three laps of a track through the beautiful grounds of Blenheim Palace, adding up to just under 20km. There were several downhill sections marked with "slow down", which obviously were the most fun parts to go as fast as possible on, and build up some momentum for the ensuing hill-climbs. I still had not encountered George by the end of the third lap, and was pondering this when I heard a shout of "COME ON CHUFFY!" as George flew by on his trusty steed. I gave chase and we entered transition at the same time, in our appalling-looking skimpy swimming trunks.
The second transition should have been more straightforward than the first, as no wetsuit removal was necessary. Despite this fact, I managed to remove my helmet too early, earning a shouting-at from one of the marshalls. George and I then headed out of transition heading in completely the wrong direction, and the same marshall alerted us to our glaring error before witheringly shouting "The run exit is over there where there's a huge sign saying 'RUN EXIT'!". Thus informed, we set off on the run leg of the event. George had to drop back briefly as he was suffering from cramp owing to the transition from one leg-intensive exercise to another. I didn't want to go into cramp so I kept jogging steadily. I ran alongside a friendly Aussie called Coops and we chatted until the end, when he had challenged me to a sprint finish.
As the time approached, Coops said he didn't really feel the sprint coming on, and I could totally sympathise with him after my previous marathon experience, so I went for it, and here is a video of the finish: [video:youtube:O7cHwRKMHZI] All in all, it was a fantastic event, with much less painful after effects than the half marathon. It is definitely something I want to repeat. In fact, George and I have booked places at the Nottingham Triathlon on August 3rd.
September 14, 2014-New York, NY- Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and MTA Chairman Thomas F. Prendergast tour the Montague Tunnel prior to arriving at the newly reopened Whitehall Street Subway Station. The tunnel was damaged during Superstorm Sandy.
The good doctors celebrated the return of spring and the completion of our Pataphysical Slot Machine on a balmy Saturday afternoon.
We held a ritual blessing of the ‘Pataphysical Slot Machine, to guide it on its way to its new home at the Figurines Ranch. We ended with another butt-shaking dance break to cap it all off.
We then gathered in the art garden for a special awards ceremony led by Dr. Truly, who presented the beautiful medals she created for each doctor: they are amazing works of art, carefully designed to highlight the unique talents of each creator. Thank you for these wonderful gifts, Dr. Truly!
In other news, Drs. Rindbrain and Figurine completed a new ‘pataphysical flagpole, with the help of Dr. Maurizzio, visiting from Lucca, Italy. Dr. Pozar hobbled over with his new crutches and supervised the playground with his acolytes, while Dr. Tout d’Suite created more ‘pataphysical talismans and Dr. Jardin decorated her lab coat. Dr. Igor inspected the slot machine one last time and pronounced it ready for next week's move. Dr. Really gave our last slot machine demo in this studio. Drs. Canard and Fabio finally got the sounds to work on Mother of Yes — which was the last thing we wanted to fix before our move. :)
The mojo is stronger than ever in the art garden. Fire in the hole!
View more 'Pataphysical photos: www.flickr.com/photos/fabola/albums/72157623637793277
Watch 'Pataphysical videos: vimeo.com/album/3051039
Learn more about Pataphysical Studios: pataphysics.us/
Liking the darker reds, this will make a find stand-in for the otherwise older dinky Bloodthirster from the 90's (80's?).
100% Games Workshop components, and alarmingly easy to accomplish.
Details on how it was built and painted can be found at my blog: battle-brothers.blogspot.com
Simple Lines shawl is done. Due to poor lighting, there are only teaser-type images. :)
blogged:
mysistersknitter.typepad.com/my-blog/2013/06/off-the-need...
The new track, sports field, grandstands, bus parking, playground and multipurpose room are nearing completion for use by the Kaiserslautern Raiders in Vogelweh, Germany April 11, 2013. The Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Europe project is 97 percent complete and will be ready for the DODDS-E track and field championships in late May. The state-of-the-art, all-weather running track surrounds a fully-lit turf soccer/football field. The field will require less water and maintenance than a traditional grass field. The project also includes a multipurpose room for the local elementary school. The MPR features a basketball court, rock climbing wall, performance stage and a fully-functional kitchen. In addition to this project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Europe District is working with DoDDS-E to build new 21st century high-, middle- and elementary schools on U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern, the largest U.S. community overseas. USACE is currently designing and building 21st century schools for DoDDS throughout Germany, Italy, Belgium and the U.S., for more information read the following article: www.usace.army.mil/Media/NewsArchive/tabid/204/Article/42... (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Jennifer Aldridge)
Battery Russell (1904-1944) - Battery Russell was built at Fort Stevens in Clatsop County, Oregon between March 1903 and August 1904 and was transferred for service August 12, 1904 at a cost of $125,000. Battery Russell was named for Bvt. Major General David A. Russell who was killed in action September 19, 1864 at Opequan, Virginia, during the U.S. Civil War (earlier in his career he served as commander of Fort Yamhill). Deactivated December 29, 1944 upon completion of Battery 245. (www.fortwiki.com/Battery_Russell)
On the night of June 21, 1942 the Japanese submarine I-25 commanded by Capt Tagami Meiji surfaced near the mouth of the Columbia River, having followed American fishing boats to evade the minefields in the area. It had previously patrolled the Oregon Coast and grounded the SS Connecticut. Now it aimed to attack the harbor defenses at Fort Stevens, which still retained its old Endicott Batteries, which were now 40 years outdated. Surfacing about 16 km from shore, I-25 opened fire at Battery Russell, the nearest defenses at Fort Stevens, with 144 mm shells, jarring awake the artillery garrison. Immediately the commander of the fort ordered the lights cut out of the fort, plunging the entire area into darkness. The gun crews were quickly ready, but permission to fire was denied, mostly because I-25 was firing wide and the commander did not want a reply to allow the submarine to pinpoint the positions to either fire at or triangulate for more serious attacks. After firing 17 shots, I-25 was attacked by an A-29 Hudson. Successfully evading the attacks, the Japanese submarine submerged and disappeared. Though two of the shells landed near Battery Russell the only damage the Japanese shells did was to cut several large telephone cables and destroy a baseball backstop.
The bombardment of Fort Stevens was the first military fortification to come under attack on U.S. soil since the War of 1812 and the only time the Axis powers would attack a military installation on the continental United States during WWII. It was also the second attack on US soil since I-17 bombarded the oil refinery at Ellwood four months earlier.
I-25 would have one more role to play in attacks on the US during WWII. On August 15, Warrant Officer Nubuo Fujita flew a Yokosuka E14Y floatplane stored on I-25 to launch incendiary attacks on the Pacific Northwest, hoping to burn a large part of the Oregon forest. Light wind, wet weather and sharp lookouts quickly foiled the attack near Brookings, Oregon, which caused no damage. On September 29 Fujita tried again near Port Orford, but to this day there has been no evidence of the bombing recovered in Oregon. Nevertheless the two air attacks Fujita performed would be the only time the United States has been subjected to an aerial attack by a foreign power. Unsuccessful, I-25 then crippled the SS Camden and sank the SS Larry Doheny as well as the Soviet L-16 (which was technically neutral, being mistaken for an American submarine) before returning to Japan. I-25 would be sunk a year later.
In November 1944 facing the threat of defeat, the Japanese began launching what would eventually number some 9400 fire balloons, hydrogen balloons carrying antipersonnel bombs or incendiaries to the United States. Carried by the jet stream, the bombs were the first intercontinental weapon ever used. The attack was dramatic but largely ineffectual; at least 300 made it to the United States, some landing as far east as Texas and Michigan. Interestingly on March 10, 1945, one balloon landed at the Hanford Site in Washington, site of the Manhattan Project's nuclear production facility; the balloon short-circuited electricity to the nuclear reactor cooling pumps, but power was restored almost immediately by backups. Only one caused fatalities; on May 5, 1945 Pastor Archie Mitchell and his pregnant wife Elsie and five of his Sunday school children went to picnic in the forest of Gearhart Mountain in Southern Oregon. While Archie parked the car, Elsie and the kids looked for a picnic spot. Two rapid explosions then killed all six. Investigators guessed that an incendiary bomb had landed weeks before and that the bomb had been set off when kicked. Elsie Mitchell, Edward Engen, Jay Gifford, Joan Patzke, Dick Patzke, and Sherman Shoemaker were the only known deaths in US soil as a result of enemy action during WWII.
Along with the Bombardment of Ellwood and the German sabotage attempt Operation Pastorius, these would constitute the only Axis attacks on the United States during WWII (both Alaska and Hawaii, as well as the Philippines, Midway, Wake and American Samoa were territories). Oregon, being one of the closest locations in the continental United States to Japan, would thus be the unlucky state to bear to brunt of the pinprick Axis attacks on the home front.
In 1962, Nubuo Fujita, who survived WWII, was invited to Brookings, Oregon by the Brookings Junior Chamber of Commerce, to great local controversy. Nevertheless, Fujita arrived with his family and in a well-regarded ceremony, presented his family samurai sword to the city. Treated with respect and affection, he would return to Brookings several times, planting a tree in 1992 at his bombing site 50 years earlier. He died in 1997 having received an honorary citizenship of Brookings. In his obituary in the New York Times it was revealed that in the 1962 visit, Fujita had actually planned on using his ceremonial sword to commit seppuku if he faced a hostile reception at the hands of his former enemies. As it is, Fujita's samurai sword remains in a place of honor at the Brookings, Oregon library.
January 27, 2022 - Flushing - Governor Kathy Hochul, joined by New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Port Authority Executive Director Rick Cotton, announces the opening of the new Western Pedestrian Skybridge in the new Terminal B at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, Thursday January 27, 2022. The completion of the western skybridge means that every arriving and departing passenger at Terminal B will experience newly built, 21st Century architecture from gate to curb. With the completion of the second pedestrian skybridge, which will span an active aircraft taxiway, Terminal B also becomes the world’s first airport with dual pedestrian skybridges. The completion marks the end of a 5 1/2 year construction period for Terminal B. The project is on-time and on-budget. (Kevin P. Coughlin / Office of Governor Kathy Hochul )
The completion of the work to rehabilitate seven stations along the D Line in Brooklyn was marked on August 2, 2012, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by MTA leaders and local elected officials.
We installed great new artwork at each of the seven stations. Here are details for the artwork shown in this image and its location.
25th Avenue Station -
Artist: Amy Cheng
Title: Rediscovery
Date: 2012
Medium: Laminated glass
Location: Platform windscreens
Fabricator: Depp Glass, Inc.
Amy Cheng’s artwork entitled Rediscovery selected for the 25th Avenue Station is a tribute to the human longing for discovery, adventure and spiritual quests which form part of the immigrant experience. Most of this area is currently comprised of Chinese immigrants. For instance, there is a large Chinese supermarket next to the station as well as other Chinese restaurants and businesses. In addition, there are many other immigrants from Turkey and Latin America. Amy Cheng, a child of immigrants from Taiwan, aimed to depict mystery and adventure by illustrating an imaginative land and skyscapes. For immigrants living in a new country forms part of their “Rediscovery” and the imagery found in her proposal reflects these qualities of being dreamers, self starters and full of beautiful complexity. Her rich and colorful compositions reflect the cultural richness of this Asian American neighborhood.
For more information about art throughout the New York transit system, download the Meridian app.
Photo: MTA Arts for Transit and Urban Design.
Battery Russell (1904-1944) - Battery Russell was built at Fort Stevens in Clatsop County, Oregon between March 1903 and August 1904 and was transferred for service August 12, 1904 at a cost of $125,000. Battery Russell was named for Bvt. Major General David A. Russell who was killed in action September 19, 1864 at Opequan, Virginia, during the U.S. Civil War (earlier in his career he served as commander of Fort Yamhill). Deactivated December 29, 1944 upon completion of Battery 245. (www.fortwiki.com/Battery_Russell)
On the night of June 21, 1942 the Japanese submarine I-25 commanded by Capt Tagami Meiji surfaced near the mouth of the Columbia River, having followed American fishing boats to evade the minefields in the area. It had previously patrolled the Oregon Coast and grounded the SS Connecticut. Now it aimed to attack the harbor defenses at Fort Stevens, which still retained its old Endicott Batteries, which were now 40 years outdated. Surfacing about 16 km from shore, I-25 opened fire at Battery Russell, the nearest defenses at Fort Stevens, with 144 mm shells, jarring awake the artillery garrison. Immediately the commander of the fort ordered the lights cut out of the fort, plunging the entire area into darkness. The gun crews were quickly ready, but permission to fire was denied, mostly because I-25 was firing wide and the commander did not want a reply to allow the submarine to pinpoint the positions to either fire at or triangulate for more serious attacks. After firing 17 shots, I-25 was attacked by an A-29 Hudson. Successfully evading the attacks, the Japanese submarine submerged and disappeared. Though two of the shells landed near Battery Russell the only damage the Japanese shells did was to cut several large telephone cables and destroy a baseball backstop.
The bombardment of Fort Stevens was the first military fortification to come under attack on U.S. soil since the War of 1812 and the only time the Axis powers would attack a military installation on the continental United States during WWII. It was also the second attack on US soil since I-17 bombarded the oil refinery at Ellwood four months earlier.
I-25 would have one more role to play in attacks on the US during WWII. On August 15, Warrant Officer Nubuo Fujita flew a Yokosuka E14Y floatplane stored on I-25 to launch incendiary attacks on the Pacific Northwest, hoping to burn a large part of the Oregon forest. Light wind, wet weather and sharp lookouts quickly foiled the attack near Brookings, Oregon, which caused no damage. On September 29 Fujita tried again near Port Orford, but to this day there has been no evidence of the bombing recovered in Oregon. Nevertheless the two air attacks Fujita performed would be the only time the United States has been subjected to an aerial attack by a foreign power. Unsuccessful, I-25 then crippled the SS Camden and sank the SS Larry Doheny as well as the Soviet L-16 (which was technically neutral, being mistaken for an American submarine) before returning to Japan. I-25 would be sunk a year later.
In November 1944 facing the threat of defeat, the Japanese began launching what would eventually number some 9400 fire balloons, hydrogen balloons carrying antipersonnel bombs or incendiaries to the United States. Carried by the jet stream, the bombs were the first intercontinental weapon ever used. The attack was dramatic but largely ineffectual; at least 300 made it to the United States, some landing as far east as Texas and Michigan. Interestingly on March 10, 1945, one balloon landed at the Hanford Site in Washington, site of the Manhattan Project's nuclear production facility; the balloon short-circuited electricity to the nuclear reactor cooling pumps, but power was restored almost immediately by backups. Only one caused fatalities; on May 5, 1945 Pastor Archie Mitchell and his pregnant wife Elsie and five of his Sunday school children went to picnic in the forest of Gearhart Mountain in Southern Oregon. While Archie parked the car, Elsie and the kids looked for a picnic spot. Two rapid explosions then killed all six. Investigators guessed that an incendiary bomb had landed weeks before and that the bomb had been set off when kicked. Elsie Mitchell, Edward Engen, Jay Gifford, Joan Patzke, Dick Patzke, and Sherman Shoemaker were the only known deaths in US soil as a result of enemy action during WWII.
Along with the Bombardment of Ellwood and the German sabotage attempt Operation Pastorius, these would constitute the only Axis attacks on the United States during WWII (both Alaska and Hawaii, as well as the Philippines, Midway, Wake and American Samoa were territories). Oregon, being one of the closest locations in the continental United States to Japan, would thus be the unlucky state to bear to brunt of the pinprick Axis attacks on the home front.
In 1962, Nubuo Fujita, who survived WWII, was invited to Brookings, Oregon by the Brookings Junior Chamber of Commerce, to great local controversy. Nevertheless, Fujita arrived with his family and in a well-regarded ceremony, presented his family samurai sword to the city. Treated with respect and affection, he would return to Brookings several times, planting a tree in 1992 at his bombing site 50 years earlier. He died in 1997 having received an honorary citizenship of Brookings. In his obituary in the New York Times it was revealed that in the 1962 visit, Fujita had actually planned on using his ceremonial sword to commit seppuku if he faced a hostile reception at the hands of his former enemies. As it is, Fujita's samurai sword remains in a place of honor at the Brookings, Oregon library.
One Atlantic Center, also known as the IBM Tower, is a skyscraper located in Midtown Atlanta. It is the third-tallest in Atlanta, reaching a height of 820 feet (250 m) with 50 stories of office space. It was completed in 1987 and remained the tallest building in Atlanta until 1992, when it was surpassed by the Bank of America Plaza, which was also built in Midtown. It was also the tallest building in the southeastern U.S. at the time of completion, surpassing the Wachovia Financial Center in Miami.
The building was commissioned by Prentiss Properties as a southeastern headquarters for IBM, a company responsible for many notable skyscrapers of the 1980s. Aside from introducing Atlanta to the postmodern architectural idiom of the 80s, this tower is notable for essentially creating what is now the Midtown commercial district. Located at the then-remote corner of 14th and West Peachtree Streets over a mile from Downtown, this building nevertheless opened nearly fully occupied and thus attracted developers to Midtown in droves.
The building's exterior consists of Spanish Pink Granite with a copper pyramidal top and gold peak. The design includes gothic flourishes, most noticeably below the copper top of the building. At night the peak and ridges along the top are illuminated brightly, creating a glowing effect.
It was joined in 2001 by the much shorter Atlantic Center Plaza building, which bears similar postmodern design and was constructed across the street as the second phase of the Atlantic Center development. Atlantic Center Plaza's design and architecture are so similar, it has affectionately become known in Atlanta as the "Mini Me" building, named after the comical dwarfish clone of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies. Phase III sits on the drawing boards as the developers await a tenant.
One Atlantic Center was designed by Heery International, Inc. and Johnson/Burgee Architects.
Source: WIkipedia
The Maryland National Guard Freestate Challenge Academy held their course completion ceremony for the 22 week residency phase for 104 cadets of class #47 at Havre de Grace High School, Havre de Grace, Md., Dec. 10, 2016. .
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Retired Air Force Gen. Larry O. Spencer, who served as the VIce Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force, spoke to the cadets as the keynote speaker..
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The Academy is a two-phased 17-month intervention program for underemployed, drug-free, “at-risk” high school dropouts from the state of Maryland between 16-18 years of age. Following graduation from the resident phase, the cadets are mentored for an additional 12 months, during which time they are placed into jobs, continue their higher education, or vocational trades training or enter the military..
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The mission of the Academy is to intervene in and reclaim the lives of at-risk youth and to produce graduates with the values, skills, education and self-discipline needed to succeed as adults..
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The students were brought into a structured and highly disciplined quasi-military academic setting that builds confidence and self-esteem to become productive and contributing members of our society. Cadets attend academic classes to prepare them for the test for the General Education Development (GED) credential and Maryland High School Diploma.
No visit to York would be complete without a walk around the City Walls. At 3.4 kilometres long, the beautifully preserved walls are the longest medieval town walls in England. About 2.5 million people walk along all or part of the City walls each year, enjoying some amazing views. The completion of the entire circuit will take approximately 2 hours. There are five main bars or gateways, one Victorian gateway, one postern (a small gateway) and 45 towers.
York City Walls
The city or ‘bar’ walls of York are the most complete example of medieval city walls still standing in England today. Beneath the medieval stonework lie the remains of earlier walls dating as far back as the Roman period.
The Roman walls survived into the 9th century when, in AD 866, York was invaded by the Danish Vikings. The Vikings buried the existing Roman wall under an earth bank and topped with a palisade – a tall fence of pointed wooden stakes.
The wooden palisade was replaced in the 13th and 14th centuries with the stone wall we see today.
The medieval city walls originally included 4 main gates or ‘bars’ (Bootham Bar, Monk Bar, Walmgate Bar and Micklegate Bar), 6 postern or secondary gates and 44 intermediate towers. The defensive perimeter stretched over 2 miles encompassing the medieval city and castle.
By the late 18th century, however, the walls were no longer required as defences for the city and had fallen into disrepair. In 1800, the Corporation of York applied for an Act of Parliament to demolish them. In addition to the poor condition of the walls at the time, the narrow gateways of the bars were inconvenient and the walls themselves hindered the city’s expansion.
Many other cities, including London, were removing their outdated, medieval city walls at this time. In York, however, the city officials met with fierce and influential opposition and by the mid-nineteenth century the Corporation had been forced to back down.
Unfortunately, the call for preservation came too late for some parts of the walls – the barbicans at all but one of the gateways (Walmgate Bar) had been torn down along with 3 postern gates, 5 towers and 300 yards of the wall itself.
Since the mid-nineteenth century the walls have been restored and maintained for public access, including the planting of spring flowers on the old Viking embankment. Today the walls are a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade 1 listed building.
Bootham Bar
There has been a gateway here for nearly 2000 years - Bootham Bar is on the site of one of the four main entrances to the Roman fortress.
The existing structure is not Roman but it has been around for quite a while. The archway itself dates from the 11th century and the rest of the structure is largely from the 14th century. In 1501 a door knocker was installed as Scots were required to knock first and seek permission from the Lord Mayor to enter the city.
The bar was damaged during the siege of York in 1644. Like Micklegate Bar, it was sometimes used to display the heads of traitors, the heads of three rebels opposing Charles II’s restoration were placed here in 1663.
Bootham Bar was the last of the gates to lose its barbican, demolished in 1835.
Fishergate Bar
1315AD - 1487AD
Fishergate Bar is one of six gateways in the city walls. It faces South towards Selby. Nearby used to be the large flooded area known as the King’s Fishpond.
‘Barram Fishergate’ is the first documented reference to the bar, in 1315. A central stone above the archway reveals the date of the current bar. It contains the York coat of arms and an inscription which reads:
‘A.doi m.cccc.lxxx.vii Sr Willm Tod knight mayre this wal was mayd in his days lx yadys’
This tells us that sixty yards of the wall, including the bar, was built in 1487 under Sir William Tod, mayor of York.
But just two years later, in 1489, Fishergate Bar suffered considerable damage in the Yorkshire peasants’ revolt against Henry VII. The rebels burned the gates of the bar after murdering the Earl of Northumberland. The gateway was bricked up soon after and wasn’t re-opened until 1834, to give better access for the cattle market.
Micklegate Bar
Micklegate Bar was the most important of York’s four main medieval gateways and the focus for grand events. The name comes from 'Micklelith', meaning great street.
It was the main entrance to the city for anyone arriving from the South. At least half a dozen reigning monarchs have passed through this gate and by tradition they stop here to ask the Lord Mayor's permission to enter the city.
The lower section of the bar dates from the 12th century, the top two storeys from the 14th. The building was inhabited from 1196. Like the other main gates, Micklegate Bar originally had a barbican built on the front, in this case demolished in 1826.
For centuries the severed heads of rebels and traitors were displayed above the gate, the many victims include Sir Henry Purcey (Hotspur) in 1403 and Richard, Duke of York in 1460. The last of the severed heads was removed in 1754.
Monk Bar
Monk Bar is the largest and most ornate of the bars, it dates from the early 14th century. It was a self-contained fortress, with each floor capable of being defended. On the front of the bar is an arch supporting a gallery, including 'murder-holes' through which missiles and boiling water could be rained down upon attackers.
Monk Bar has the city’s only working portcullis, in use until 1970. Like the other main gateways, Monk Bar originally had a barbican on the front. This was demolished in 1825.
The rooms above the gateway have had various uses over the years, including as a home and as a jail for rebellious Catholics in the 16th century.
The Red Tower
1490AD - 1491AD
The Red Tower, built in 1490, forms the only brick section of York’s famous city walls. Because it was built of brick its construction did not sit well with the local stone masons. So much so that it was the cause of dispute, and even murder.
The masons who worked on the majority of York’s walls and buildings were unhappy about the employment of tilers to build the Red Tower; their unhappiness led to them attempting to sabotage the building of the tower. The tilers had to ask for protection from the city council to stop the masons from threatening them and breaking their tools.
This protection made little difference, however. In 1491, the tiler John Patrik was murdered. Two leading masons, William Hindley and Christopher Homer, were charged with the murder but quickly acquitted.
The first recorded use of the name “The Red Tower” was in 1511, presumably in reference to its red brick colour rather than its bloody past.
Despite forming an important and unique part of the city walls, the Red Tower fell quickly into disrepair. It had to be repaired multiple times, notably in 1541 and 1545, and was in ruins by 1736. It was roughly restored in 1800 and became known as ‘Brimstone House’ – probably a reference to its former use as a manufactory for gunpowder. It has two storeys, and a garderobe. The way that the tower appears now is thanks to G F Jones’ restorations in 1857-8.
Walmgate Bar
Walmgate Bar is the most complete of the four main medieval gateways to the city, it is the only bar to retain its barbican, portcullis and inner doors.
Its oldest part is a 12th century stone archway, the walled barbican at the front dates from the 14th century, the wooden gates from the 15th century and the timber-framed building on the inside from the 16th century.
It was burned by rebels in 1489 and battered by cannon during the siege of 1644.
Baile Hill
William the Conqueror ordered two castles to be built in York, one on either side of the River Ouse.
They formed a defensive system in response to the recent violent unrest.
'York Castle' was later reinforced and eventually rebuilt in stone and so now appears much more substantial. But originally both castles were of a similar size and layout.
Baile Hill is the name given to all that remains of York's other castle. It was the man-made mound, or motte, of the castle.
Excavations in 1979 revealed remains of timber buildings and a strong fence at the summit of the mound, together with a staircase up one side. The surrounding bailey was defended by a bank of earth built on top of the original Roman city wall.
Barker Tower
This river-side tower was built in the 14th century. It was positioned at the boundary of the medieval city-centre and, in conjunction with Lendal Tower on the opposite bank, was used to control river traffic entering the city. A great iron chain was stretched across the river between the two towers and boatmen had to pay a toll to cross it. The chain also served as a defence for the city. As early as 1380 Thomas Smyth was named as the tower’s ‘keeper of the chain’.
For boats coming downstream it would be the second toll in quick succession; St Mary's Abbey had its own tower and toll collection system a little further up the river.
Barker tower was leased for long periods to various ferrymen (and at least one woman) who ran passengers across the Ouse until Lendal Bridge was built in 1863. The ferry ran 'in summer and winter, fair weather and foul, Sundays and weekdays'.
The ferry was put out of business when Lendal Bridge opened in 1863. The tower has had plenty of other uses over the years, including as a mortuary for a brief time in the 19th century.