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Fontana di Trevi
Um texto, em português, da Wikipédia, a Enciclopédia livre:
A Fontana di Trevi (Fonte dos trevos, em português) é a maior (cerca de 26 metros de altura e 20 metros de largura) e mais ambiciosa construção de fontes barrocas da Itália e está localizada na rione Trevi, em Roma.
A fonte situava-se no cruzamento de três estradas (tre vie), marcando o ponto final do Acqua Vergine, um dos mais antigos aquedutos que abasteciam a cidade de Roma. No ano 19 a.C., supostamente ajudados por uma virgem, técnicos romanos localizaram uma fonte de água pura a pouco mais de 22 quilômetros da cidade (cena representada em escultura na própria fonte, atualmente). A água desta fonte foi levada pelo menor aqueduto de Roma, diretamente para os banheiros de Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa e serviu a cidade por mais de 400 anos.
O "golpe de misericórdia" desferido pelos invasores godos em Roma foi dado com a destruição dos aquedutos, durante as Guerras Góticas. Os romanos durante a Idade Média tinham de abastecer-se da água de poços poluídos, e da pouco límpida água do rio Tibre, que também recebia os esgotos da cidade.
O antigo costume romano de erguer uma bela fonte ao final de um aqueduto que conduzia a água para a cidade foi reavivado no século XV, com a Renascença. Em 1453, o Papa Nicolau V determinou fosse consertado o aqueduto de Acqua Vergine, construindo ao seu final um simples receptáculo para receber a água, num projeto feito pelo arquiteto humanista Leon Battista Alberti.
Em 1629, o Papa Urbano VIII achou que a velha fonte era insuficientemente dramática e encomendou a Bernini alguns desenhos, mas quando o Papa faleceu o projeto foi abandonado. A última contribuição de Bernini foi reposicionar a fonte para o outro lado da praça a fim de que esta ficasse defronte ao Palácio do Quirinal (assim o Papa poderia vê-la e admirá-la de sua janela). Ainda que o projeto de Bernini tenha sido abandonado, existem na fonte muitos detalhes de sua idéia original.
Muitas competições entre artistas e arquitetos tiveram lugar durante o Renascimento e o período Barroco para se redesenhar os edifícios, as fontes, e até mesmo a Scalinata di Piazza di Spagna (as escadarias da Praça de Espanha). Em 1730, o Papa Clemente XII organizou uma nova competição na qual Nicola Salvi foi derrotado, mas efetivamente terminou por realizar seu projeto. Este começou em 1732 e foi concluído em 1762, logo depois da morte de Clemente, quando o Netuno de Pietro Bracci foi afixado no nicho central da fonte.
Salvi morrera alguns anos antes, em 1751, com seu trabalho ainda pela metade, que manteve oculto por um grande biombo. A fonte foi concluída por Giuseppe Pannini, que substituiu as alegorias insossas que eram planejadas, representando Agrippa e Trivia, as virgens romanas, pelas belas esculturas de Netuno e seu séquito.
A fonte foi restaurada em 1998; as esculturas foram limpas e polidas, e a fonte foi provida de bombas para circulação da água e sua oxigenação.
A text, in english, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The fountain at the junction of three roads (tre vie) marks the terminal point of the "modern" Acqua Vergine, the revivified Aqua Virgo, one of the ancient aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. In 19 BC, supposedly with the help of a virgin, Roman technicians located a source of pure water some 13 km (8 miles) from the city. (This scene is presented on the present fountain's façade.) However, the eventual indirect route of the aqueduct made its length some 22 km (14 miles). This Aqua Virgo led the water into the Baths of Agrippa. It served Rome for more than four hundred years. The coup de grâce for the urban life of late classical Rome came when the Goth besiegers in 537/38 broke the aqueducts. Medieval Romans were reduced to drawing water from polluted wells and the Tiber River, which was also used as a sewer.
The Roman custom of building a handsome fountain at the endpoint of an aqueduct that brought water to Rome was revived in the 15th century, with the Renaissance. In 1453, Pope Nicholas V finished mending the Acqua Vergine aqueduct and built a simple basin, designed by the humanist architect Leon Battista Alberti, to herald the water's arrival.
In 1629 Pope Urban VIII, finding the earlier fountain insufficiently dramatic, asked Bernini to sketch possible renovations, but when the Pope died, the project was abandoned. Bernini's lasting contribution was to resite the fountain from the other side of the square to face the Quirinal Palace (so the Pope could look down and enjoy it). Though Bernini's project was torn down for Salvi's fountain, there are many Bernini touches in the fountain as it was built. An early, striking and influential model by Pietro da Cortona, preserved in the Albertina, Vienna, also exists, as do various early 18th century sketches, most unsigned, as well as a project attributed to Nicola Michetti, one attributed to Ferdinando Fuga and a French design by Edme Bouchardon.
Competitions had become the rage during the Baroque era to design buildings, fountains, and even the Spanish Steps. In 1730 Pope Clement XII organized a contest in which Nicola Salvi initially lost to Alessandro Galilei — but due to the outcry in Rome over the fact that a Florentine won, Salvi was awarded the commission anyway. Work began in 1732, and the fountain was completed in 1762, long after Clement's death, when Pietro Bracci's Oceanus (god of all water) was set in the central niche.
Salvi died in 1751, with his work half-finished, but before he went he made sure a stubborn barber's unsightly sign would not spoil the ensemble, hiding it behind a sculpted vase, called by Romans the asso di coppe, "the "Ace of Cups".
The Trevi Fountain was finished in 1762 by Giuseppe Pannini, who substituted the present allegories for planned sculptures of Agrippa and "Trivia", the Roman virgin.
The fountain was refurbished in 1998; the stonework was scrubbed and the fountain provided with recirculating pumps.
The backdrop for the fountain is the Palazzo Poli, given a new facade with a giant order of Corinthian pilasters that link the two main stories. Taming of the waters is the theme of the gigantic scheme that tumbles forward, mixing water and rockwork, and filling the small square. Tritons guide Oceanus' shell chariot, taming seahorses (hippocamps).
In the center is superimposed a robustly modelled triumphal arch. The center niche or exedra framing Oceanus has free-standing columns for maximal light-and-shade. In the niches flanking Oceanus, Abundance spills water from her urn and Salubrity holds a cup from which a snake drinks. Above, bas reliefs illustrate the Roman origin of the aqueducts.
The tritons and horses provide symmetrical balance, with the maximum contrast in their mood and poses (by 1730, rococo was already in full bloom in France and Germany).
A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. Among those who are unaware that the "three coins" of Three Coins in the Fountain were thrown by three different individuals, a reported current interpretation is that two coins will lead to a new romance and three will ensure either a marriage or divorce. A reported current version of this legend is that it is lucky to throw three coins with one's right hand over one's left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain.
Approximately 3,000 Euros are thrown into the fountain each day and are collected at night. The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome's needy. However, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain.
Archaeologist and painter Edward Dodwell (1767-1832), who came from a noble and rich Irish family, was born in Dublin (recitation: Eduard Doduel) and studied literature and archeology at Trinity College in Cambridge. Thanks to the economic comfort provided by his great fortune, he is completely away from the need to acquire a profession and gives himself to the researches about the Mediterranean civilizations.
In 1801, he traveled with Ionian islands (Corfu, Zante etc.) and the region of Troy together with Atkins and well-known traveler W. Gell. In 1805-06, he traveled to Central Greece with his traveling companion, Simone Pomardi. He then settled in Naples and Rome and marries a woman thirty years younger from him. He was an honorary member of many European cultural foundations. He died of sickness while exploring in the mountains of Italy. The large archaeological collection (coins, 115 copper items, 143 amphoras) he created was sold to the Munich Sculpture Museum after being housed in his home in Rome for a while.
Being a prolific writer and visual artist at the same time, Dodwell reveals his multi-faceted talent, consisting of a sense of curiosity, critical gaze and artistic sensitivity as an archaeologist in his works that are unique for his age. For the first time in his work, we witness the real discovery of a "place": While the phenomenon of walking becomes a form of discovering and recognizing (reading) the view, on the other hand, information based on monuments, history, contemporary people and documents all join together in this phenomenon.
The journey, which is described in these two volumes of publications and offers rich data in archeology and topography, constitutes a valuable treasure of information about the public and private lives of the Greeks before the rebellion (before 1821). Dodwell sets off from Venice by taking an intelligent and well-read Greek from Santorini, whom he had met in Italy in late April 1801, as an interpreter. He crosses the Adriatic sea and arrives in Corfu under Russian-Ottoman occupation with his travel companions within a month. Their journey continues towards Paksos islands, Parga, Lefkada (Santa Mavra). Dodwell writes about the nose of Lefkata, where ancient Greek poet Saffo, according to ancient ruins, products, villages and legend, fell into the sea because of his desperate love for Faon. From here go to Preveza and go to Nikopolis. He travels to the archeological site at the village, continues to Ithaka island and writes about the geography and economic situation there and about the search for ancient ruins. Finally, he came to Kefalonia and completed his first trip to Greece with William Gell.
In 1805, Dodwell, along with the artist Simone Pomardi, arrived in Zakinthos (Zante) from the city of Messina in Sicily, where he writes about the villages, population, products; he then goes to Mesolongi. Tepedelenli Ali Pasha writes about the persecution of local people, local products, the Akheloos river and the Echinades archipelago.
After the journey, he reached Patra and became the guest of the consul Nikolaos Stranis. Stranis's mansion had been the meeting place of many European guests for years. Dodwell's trip to Patra confirms his theoretical knowledge about them. Speaking of Contemporary Patra, he writes in an easy-to-understand manner both about the architectural order of the city ("The houses of the Greeks are lime and the houses of the Turks are painted in red") and its economic condition (including products exported from the region). In Patra, he visits the castle, the famous big-bodied cypress tree, the church of Saint Andrea and the holy spring (blessed water source / fountain). He adds the pattern that his travel companion Pomardi has drawn and displays the sacred source. Patra ' Noting that many black slaves were found in Dodwell, Dodwell also made efforts to obtain some archaeological artifacts. As he writes about Patra, he especially portrays the city's historical memory. On the Dodwell route, it documents scientifically its own knowledge as well as the old sources it used to showcase the contemporary reality of Greece and previous travel testimonies.
Due to an epidemic in Dodwell Peloponnese, he chose to go to Athens in another way, passing through Nafpaktos (Inebahtı), Galaksidi (watching the carnival shows here) and passing through Amfisa (here he is a guest at the house of a Kefalonian doctor and visits the voivodeship), climbs to Parnasos mountain, Hriso and stops in Kastri and tour the Kastalya fountain and few ancient ruins that can be seen in Delfi. The road passes through the villages of Arahova and Distomo and takes him to the ancient site of the Trophonius priests in Livadia, from there he continues to other Viotia (Boeotia) villages (Orchomenos, Aliartos, Thespiae). Passing through the Eleutherae road and the Eleusis plain, on March 26, lord Elgin's work teams arrive in Athens when the relief of the Acropolis relief (relief) marbles.
Dodwell will stay here until September and visit almost all of Attica (Pendeli mountain, Fili, Acharnai, Kifisia, Vrauron, Porto Rafti, Thorikos, Lavrion, Sunion, Piraeus) and the Egina and Salamis islands. In addition to archaeological issues, he writes about the folk dances, music and games of the Greeks, even about baths, even insects and birds.
After Athens, it passes through Thiva (Thebai), Kopais lake, Thermopylae and Lamia, Stylis and Almyros to Volos and Pelion; in his article he mentions all the ancient city ruins he met along the way. After that, Larissa and Ambelakia come and are highly affected by the high level of living, cultured people and the cotton yarn dyeing industry. Thessaly plain returns to Athens after passing through Lilaia, Amfikleia, Fokida, Viotia (Boeotia) and stops by Chalkida and Marathon.
He stays in Athens all summer. In December of 1805, we find him touring the Argos-Corinth region: Dafni monastery, Eleusis and its religious mysteries, Megara, Corinthian isthmus, Corinthian fortress, Kechries, Nemea and its vineyards, Acropolis and ancient theater in Argos, the treasure of Mikene and Atreus, The ruins of Tiryns and Nauplion, Epidaurus and Asclepius temple, Troizina, Methana, Poros are the places he traveled and wrote. Then, on the road of Aegion, Sikyon passes through Xylokastron and stops in the local inns, and after Patra, he reaches Olympia on January 24, 1806 by describing all villages of Achaia and Ileia.
In the continuation of the trip, Messini visits Sparta in late February after visiting the ruins in Megalopolis and Vassai. After crossing Arkadiya and Achaia (by stopping at Tegea, Tripoliçe, Mantineia, Orchomenos, Stymphalia, Feneos, Kalavrita, Mega Spilaion), it reaches Patra in the spring and finally reaches Rome on September 18, 1806.
Dodwell (who has drafted about 400 places and monuments) has been aiming to combine the scientific look with art by adding the engravings to them after using the camera obscura technique and documenting the archaeological ruins he has visited recently. The four volumes of his work, published after Dodwell, are a basic handbook for all travelers traveling around Greece and are still considered a very useful resource for archaeological research today.
The work was published 2 years after Dodwell's death in 1834. Publishers received the material to create the book and detailed instructions about the publication from Dodwell himself. Paintings with stone prints and based on Dodwell's own drawings show magnificent relic images from Greece and Italy. These include, in particular, wall forms, acropolis (city hills or endpoints), fortifications, and domed tombs. Engravings showing monuments in Greece are accompanied by descriptive and explanatory texts; the same is not true for monuments in Italy, however, because Dodwell was unable to write his explanations about them. Publishers have not been able to fill this gap. The embroidery of the paintings on stone was made by the well-known engraver C. Hullmandel.
Despite the misrepresentation of naming and identification in some of the architectural remains, Dodwell's work remains a pioneer in terms of both its subject and less-known archaeological sites. The aim of the author was to add this book to his two volume volume "Classical and Topographical Tour in Greece", published in 1819.
Written By: İoli Vingopoulou
The Duke of York Column is a monument in London, England, to Prince Frederick, Duke of York, the second son of King George III. The designer was Benjamin Dean Wyatt. It is sited where a purposefully wide endpoint of Regent Street, known as Waterloo Place and Gardens, meets The Mall, between the two terraces of Carlton House Terrace and their tree-lined squares. The three very wide flights of steps down to The Mall adjoining are known as the Duke of York Steps. The column was completed in December 1832, and the statue of the Duke of York, by Sir Richard Westmacott, was raised on 10 April 1834.
Our endpoint today. Actually just a small hill, but enough of a challenge for my old bones. The real Mt Ware is a little further down the trail and a bit higher.
Both of these are named after John Ware - an early rancher and cowboy who lived in this area once.
www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-ware/
I call them software and hardware.
Fonte Avatar official FB Page:
A dark, twisted circus sideshow that’s built around bombastically grooving melodic death n’ roll is swinging forward with captivating glee, mesmerizing merriment and the plundering power of lethal pirates toward those brave souls who hand over a ticket to be torn by Avatar and their Black Waltz, the fourth album and first proper American release from the Swedish masters of mayhem.
Within Avatar’s diverse songs, a steady focus on the fluid and organic power of the riff (recalling the thunderous foresight of heavy metal’s original wizards, Black Sabbath) takes flight combined with an adventurous sprit veering off into the astral planes of the psychedelic atmosphere conjured by pioneers like Pink Floyd back in the day.
Avatar has found a footing that combines the best of rock n’ roll, hard rock and heavy metal’s past, present and future into an overall artistic presentation that is thought-provoking, challenging and altogether enchantingly electric. With the grandiose showmanship of American professional wrestling, the snake oil salesmanship of early 20th century vaudevillian troubadours and the kinetically superheroic power of early Kiss, Avatar lays waste to lesser mortals with ease. Whether somebody gets their rocks off listening to Satyricon or System of a Down, they’ll find something suitably deranged here.
“We’re in this weird field, caught in a triangle between extreme metal, rock n’ roll and what can be described as Avant-garde,” confesses Avatar vocalist Johannes Eckerström. The all-enveloping theme park vibe of the band’s music and visual counterpart means that, naturally, “it’s turning into something bigger.”
“I have been in this band for ten years. I grew up in this band,” Eckerström explains. “We’re somewhat veterans on the one hand. But we’re the new kids in the neighborhood in America at the same time.”
Avatar came of age as “little brothers” of sorts of the famed Gothenburg scene that spawned the celebrated New Wave Of Swedish Death Metal. The band’s debut album, 2006’s Thoughts of No Tomorrow, was filled with brutal, technical melodic death metal to be sure but already, “We tried to put our own stamp on it,” the singer assures. While the following year’s Schlacht still contained flourishes of melody, the unrelenting metallic fury reached an extreme peak. “Intensity was very important,” he says, with some degree of understatement.
Where to go for album number three? “We basically rebelled against ourselves,” Eckerström says of 2009’s self-titled collection. “We figured, ‘We can play faster and make even weirder, more technical riffs,’ because Schlacht was cool. But to take that another step would have turned us into something we didn’t want to be.”
Instead Avatar rediscovered their inherent passion for traditional heavy metal and classic rock n’ roll. “We decided to remove some unnecessary ‘look at me, I can play!’ parts and added more groove. We added a whole new kind of melody. It was awesome to be this ‘rock n’ roll band’ for a while. It was refreshing and liberating.”
Black Waltz sees Avatar coming completely full circle, returning to a more aggressive form of heavy metal but incorporating the lessons they learned while jamming on big riffs with album number three. “We finally came to understand what a good groove is all about and what a great fit it was for our sound,” notes Eckerström.
Tracks like the appropriately titled “Ready for the Ride,” the rollicking “Let it Burn” (which dips into some delicious stonerifficness), the anthemic “Smells Like a Freakshow” (a modern day twist of Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie) and “Torn Apart” are supercharged with a dynamic range of artistic showmanship on a near cinematic scale and it’s all stitched together by a driving bottom end.
While most European metal acts who dare attempt this level of musicianship, showmanship and attention to detail seem content to toil away in the studio and lock themselves away from the crowds, Avatar have excelled beyond their peers thanks in large part to their continued focus on road work. Careening to and fro on tour busses and airplanes around the world like a marauding troupe of circus performers, Eckerström and his mates (guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin and drummer John Alfredsson) have forged the type of musical bond that can only be brought forth from massive amounts of time spent together on the stage, in hotel rooms, in airports and partying at the venue’s bar.
Whether on tour with bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquility or Helloween, playing gigantic festivals like Storsjöyra and Sweden Rock Festival or demolishing South by Southwest, playing live is what it all comes down to for this band. “That is the final manifestation of our art,” Eckerström insists. “Of course an album is a piece of art in itself, but mainly it's a means to reach the higher goal, which is doing these awesome shows. Touring is of the greatest importance.”
“We all just love the pirate’s life,” he admits freely. “Sailing into the city on this tour bus thingy, going to kick some ass, have that party and all the while meeting all of these people, entertaining them, encountering a culture that's not your own. We love that.”
The want for this type of lifestyle goes back to early childhood fascinations for the good-humored singer. Reading about superheroes, watching Hulk Hogan on TV, getting exposed to Kiss – these were the first ingredients for what Eckerström would go on to create with the guys in Avatar and what has culminated now in Black Waltz.
The frontman promises that Avatar will continue to create, to captivate and to experiment. There’s no definitive endpoint in sight. It’s always about the horizon, the journey itself. “As long as you're hungry as an artist, there are higher and higher artistic achievements. I love AC/DC and Motorhead and what they’ve established is amazing, but we don’t want to write albums that are kind of like the album before. We want to travel to a new galaxy, so to speak, every time.”
The goal is always to conquer what came before. “That is what stays with you as a mentally healthy musician. Or maybe a mentally deranged one, I’m not sure,” the singer laughs. And part and parcel to that continued evolution will be the ever broadening expansion of the scope of Avatar’s worldwide presentation: Black Waltz and beyond.
“We have great visions of what we want to do and the things we want to give to people on a stage,” Eckerström promises. “These ideas, these visions, they require a huge audience. They require a lot of legroom to be done, so I want to get into those arenas, basically. I know we would do something really magical if we got the chance. This idea is one of those things that really, really keeps us going.”
Fontana di Trevi
Um texto, em português, da Wikipédia, a Enciclopédia livre:
A Fontana di Trevi (Fonte dos trevos, em português) é a maior (cerca de 26 metros de altura e 20 metros de largura) e mais ambiciosa construção de fontes barrocas da Itália e está localizada na rione Trevi, em Roma.
A fonte situava-se no cruzamento de três estradas (tre vie), marcando o ponto final do Acqua Vergine, um dos mais antigos aquedutos que abasteciam a cidade de Roma. No ano 19 a.C., supostamente ajudados por uma virgem, técnicos romanos localizaram uma fonte de água pura a pouco mais de 22 quilômetros da cidade (cena representada em escultura na própria fonte, atualmente). A água desta fonte foi levada pelo menor aqueduto de Roma, diretamente para os banheiros de Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa e serviu a cidade por mais de 400 anos.
O "golpe de misericórdia" desferido pelos invasores godos em Roma foi dado com a destruição dos aquedutos, durante as Guerras Góticas. Os romanos durante a Idade Média tinham de abastecer-se da água de poços poluídos, e da pouco límpida água do rio Tibre, que também recebia os esgotos da cidade.
O antigo costume romano de erguer uma bela fonte ao final de um aqueduto que conduzia a água para a cidade foi reavivado no século XV, com a Renascença. Em 1453, o Papa Nicolau V determinou fosse consertado o aqueduto de Acqua Vergine, construindo ao seu final um simples receptáculo para receber a água, num projeto feito pelo arquiteto humanista Leon Battista Alberti.
Em 1629, o Papa Urbano VIII achou que a velha fonte era insuficientemente dramática e encomendou a Bernini alguns desenhos, mas quando o Papa faleceu o projeto foi abandonado. A última contribuição de Bernini foi reposicionar a fonte para o outro lado da praça a fim de que esta ficasse defronte ao Palácio do Quirinal (assim o Papa poderia vê-la e admirá-la de sua janela). Ainda que o projeto de Bernini tenha sido abandonado, existem na fonte muitos detalhes de sua idéia original.
Muitas competições entre artistas e arquitetos tiveram lugar durante o Renascimento e o período Barroco para se redesenhar os edifícios, as fontes, e até mesmo a Scalinata di Piazza di Spagna (as escadarias da Praça de Espanha). Em 1730, o Papa Clemente XII organizou uma nova competição na qual Nicola Salvi foi derrotado, mas efetivamente terminou por realizar seu projeto. Este começou em 1732 e foi concluído em 1762, logo depois da morte de Clemente, quando o Netuno de Pietro Bracci foi afixado no nicho central da fonte.
Salvi morrera alguns anos antes, em 1751, com seu trabalho ainda pela metade, que manteve oculto por um grande biombo. A fonte foi concluída por Giuseppe Pannini, que substituiu as alegorias insossas que eram planejadas, representando Agrippa e Trivia, as virgens romanas, pelas belas esculturas de Netuno e seu séquito.
A fonte foi restaurada em 1998; as esculturas foram limpas e polidas, e a fonte foi provida de bombas para circulação da água e sua oxigenação.
A text, in english, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The fountain at the junction of three roads (tre vie) marks the terminal point of the "modern" Acqua Vergine, the revivified Aqua Virgo, one of the ancient aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. In 19 BC, supposedly with the help of a virgin, Roman technicians located a source of pure water some 13 km (8 miles) from the city. (This scene is presented on the present fountain's façade.) However, the eventual indirect route of the aqueduct made its length some 22 km (14 miles). This Aqua Virgo led the water into the Baths of Agrippa. It served Rome for more than four hundred years. The coup de grâce for the urban life of late classical Rome came when the Goth besiegers in 537/38 broke the aqueducts. Medieval Romans were reduced to drawing water from polluted wells and the Tiber River, which was also used as a sewer.
The Roman custom of building a handsome fountain at the endpoint of an aqueduct that brought water to Rome was revived in the 15th century, with the Renaissance. In 1453, Pope Nicholas V finished mending the Acqua Vergine aqueduct and built a simple basin, designed by the humanist architect Leon Battista Alberti, to herald the water's arrival.
In 1629 Pope Urban VIII, finding the earlier fountain insufficiently dramatic, asked Bernini to sketch possible renovations, but when the Pope died, the project was abandoned. Bernini's lasting contribution was to resite the fountain from the other side of the square to face the Quirinal Palace (so the Pope could look down and enjoy it). Though Bernini's project was torn down for Salvi's fountain, there are many Bernini touches in the fountain as it was built. An early, striking and influential model by Pietro da Cortona, preserved in the Albertina, Vienna, also exists, as do various early 18th century sketches, most unsigned, as well as a project attributed to Nicola Michetti, one attributed to Ferdinando Fuga and a French design by Edme Bouchardon.
Competitions had become the rage during the Baroque era to design buildings, fountains, and even the Spanish Steps. In 1730 Pope Clement XII organized a contest in which Nicola Salvi initially lost to Alessandro Galilei — but due to the outcry in Rome over the fact that a Florentine won, Salvi was awarded the commission anyway. Work began in 1732, and the fountain was completed in 1762, long after Clement's death, when Pietro Bracci's Oceanus (god of all water) was set in the central niche.
Salvi died in 1751, with his work half-finished, but before he went he made sure a stubborn barber's unsightly sign would not spoil the ensemble, hiding it behind a sculpted vase, called by Romans the asso di coppe, "the "Ace of Cups".
The Trevi Fountain was finished in 1762 by Giuseppe Pannini, who substituted the present allegories for planned sculptures of Agrippa and "Trivia", the Roman virgin.
The fountain was refurbished in 1998; the stonework was scrubbed and the fountain provided with recirculating pumps.
The backdrop for the fountain is the Palazzo Poli, given a new facade with a giant order of Corinthian pilasters that link the two main stories. Taming of the waters is the theme of the gigantic scheme that tumbles forward, mixing water and rockwork, and filling the small square. Tritons guide Oceanus' shell chariot, taming seahorses (hippocamps).
In the center is superimposed a robustly modelled triumphal arch. The center niche or exedra framing Oceanus has free-standing columns for maximal light-and-shade. In the niches flanking Oceanus, Abundance spills water from her urn and Salubrity holds a cup from which a snake drinks. Above, bas reliefs illustrate the Roman origin of the aqueducts.
The tritons and horses provide symmetrical balance, with the maximum contrast in their mood and poses (by 1730, rococo was already in full bloom in France and Germany).
A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. Among those who are unaware that the "three coins" of Three Coins in the Fountain were thrown by three different individuals, a reported current interpretation is that two coins will lead to a new romance and three will ensure either a marriage or divorce. A reported current version of this legend is that it is lucky to throw three coins with one's right hand over one's left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain.
Approximately 3,000 Euros are thrown into the fountain each day and are collected at night. The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome's needy. However, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain.
"New slogan, fight for freedom, boycott China"
‘Resist tyranny, join a union’: Huge turnout as Hongkongers hit the streets for New Year’s Day protest
Thousands of Hongkongers took to the streets on Wednesday for the first police-approved mass protest of the new year.
The huge turnout built on a continuing a pro-democracy movement that has reached each corner of the city over the past seven months.
The march received a letter of no objection from the police, and began at around 2:40pm in Victoria Park in Causeway Bay.
The front of the march reached the endpoint at the Chater Road Pedestrian Precinct in Central just after 4pm.
In addition to the five core demands of the movement, protesters on Wednesday also called for increased union participation, supporting the victims of political reprisals, and halting a proposed pay rise for the police.
Protesters chanted slogans such as “Five demands, not one less,” as well as new additions such as “Resist tyranny, join a union.”
Those at the head of the march included some newly-elected pro-democracy district councillors – whose term in office began on January 1.
A group outside Victoria Park were rallying Hongkongers to register to vote: “We want to use our vote to tell the Hong Kong government what we want… We want the people to come out again and win at the Legislative Council election [in September],” Ms Oliver told HKFP, following the pro-democracy camp’s victory at last year District Council elections.
Though the extradition bill – which sparked the movement – was axed, demonstrators are still demanding an independent probe into police behaviour, amnesty for those arrested, universal suffrage and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”
In a statement, march organisers the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) called on the public to be “more united, persistent, and caring of one another” in the coming year.
“In 2020, the police have already fired the first round of tear gas,” the group wrote shortly after midnight. “Carrie Lam and police brutality turned a festive season into anguish, and perhaps we should say ‘Five demands, not one less’ instead of happy new year.”
In a statement later on Wednesday, the Front said the police had taken no responsibility for any misconduct: “They dehumanise protestors as cockroaches, demean journalists as “black reporters” and arrest medical doctors and nurses as rioters. Now, the government even attempts to increase the salaries of these rioting police.”
“We must persist this fight, for the arrested, injured and departed brothers and sisters in this movement. When victory comes, we shall gather at the dawn,” they added.
During the march, Ms Ho of the Construction Site Workers General Union said they had over 10,000 signed-up members and around 100 active members: “It is a union that already exists, but now we are recruiting more workers with the same political stance,” she said.
“We aim for three targets. The first one, we want to defend our own worker’s rights… We want to get the right to vote in the coming legislative election [as a functional constituency]… The third aim – we are trying to use construction workers’ role in this movement – for example, volunteer teams for people in need – trying to prepare for the general strike.”.....
www.hongkongfp.com/2020/01/01/resist-tyranny-join-union-h...
民陣今日（1日）舉行「毋忘承諾，並肩同行」 元旦大遊行。在預定起步時間2時，銅鑼灣東角道已聚集大量等待插隊的民眾，亦有不少市民支持黃色經濟圈，黃店「渣哥」有逾百人排隊光顧。
Fontana di Trevi
Um texto, em português, da Wikipédia, a Enciclopédia livre:
A Fontana di Trevi (Fonte dos trevos, em português) é a maior (cerca de 26 metros de altura e 20 metros de largura) e mais ambiciosa construção de fontes barrocas da Itália e está localizada na rione Trevi, em Roma.
A fonte situava-se no cruzamento de três estradas (tre vie), marcando o ponto final do Acqua Vergine, um dos mais antigos aquedutos que abasteciam a cidade de Roma. No ano 19 a.C., supostamente ajudados por uma virgem, técnicos romanos localizaram uma fonte de água pura a pouco mais de 22 quilômetros da cidade (cena representada em escultura na própria fonte, atualmente). A água desta fonte foi levada pelo menor aqueduto de Roma, diretamente para os banheiros de Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa e serviu a cidade por mais de 400 anos.
O "golpe de misericórdia" desferido pelos invasores godos em Roma foi dado com a destruição dos aquedutos, durante as Guerras Góticas. Os romanos durante a Idade Média tinham de abastecer-se da água de poços poluídos, e da pouco límpida água do rio Tibre, que também recebia os esgotos da cidade.
O antigo costume romano de erguer uma bela fonte ao final de um aqueduto que conduzia a água para a cidade foi reavivado no século XV, com a Renascença. Em 1453, o Papa Nicolau V determinou fosse consertado o aqueduto de Acqua Vergine, construindo ao seu final um simples receptáculo para receber a água, num projeto feito pelo arquiteto humanista Leon Battista Alberti.
Em 1629, o Papa Urbano VIII achou que a velha fonte era insuficientemente dramática e encomendou a Bernini alguns desenhos, mas quando o Papa faleceu o projeto foi abandonado. A última contribuição de Bernini foi reposicionar a fonte para o outro lado da praça a fim de que esta ficasse defronte ao Palácio do Quirinal (assim o Papa poderia vê-la e admirá-la de sua janela). Ainda que o projeto de Bernini tenha sido abandonado, existem na fonte muitos detalhes de sua idéia original.
Muitas competições entre artistas e arquitetos tiveram lugar durante o Renascimento e o período Barroco para se redesenhar os edifícios, as fontes, e até mesmo a Scalinata di Piazza di Spagna (as escadarias da Praça de Espanha). Em 1730, o Papa Clemente XII organizou uma nova competição na qual Nicola Salvi foi derrotado, mas efetivamente terminou por realizar seu projeto. Este começou em 1732 e foi concluído em 1762, logo depois da morte de Clemente, quando o Netuno de Pietro Bracci foi afixado no nicho central da fonte.
Salvi morrera alguns anos antes, em 1751, com seu trabalho ainda pela metade, que manteve oculto por um grande biombo. A fonte foi concluída por Giuseppe Pannini, que substituiu as alegorias insossas que eram planejadas, representando Agrippa e Trivia, as virgens romanas, pelas belas esculturas de Netuno e seu séquito.
A fonte foi restaurada em 1998; as esculturas foram limpas e polidas, e a fonte foi provida de bombas para circulação da água e sua oxigenação.
A text, in english, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The fountain at the junction of three roads (tre vie) marks the terminal point of the "modern" Acqua Vergine, the revivified Aqua Virgo, one of the ancient aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. In 19 BC, supposedly with the help of a virgin, Roman technicians located a source of pure water some 13 km (8 miles) from the city. (This scene is presented on the present fountain's façade.) However, the eventual indirect route of the aqueduct made its length some 22 km (14 miles). This Aqua Virgo led the water into the Baths of Agrippa. It served Rome for more than four hundred years. The coup de grâce for the urban life of late classical Rome came when the Goth besiegers in 537/38 broke the aqueducts. Medieval Romans were reduced to drawing water from polluted wells and the Tiber River, which was also used as a sewer.
The Roman custom of building a handsome fountain at the endpoint of an aqueduct that brought water to Rome was revived in the 15th century, with the Renaissance. In 1453, Pope Nicholas V finished mending the Acqua Vergine aqueduct and built a simple basin, designed by the humanist architect Leon Battista Alberti, to herald the water's arrival.
In 1629 Pope Urban VIII, finding the earlier fountain insufficiently dramatic, asked Bernini to sketch possible renovations, but when the Pope died, the project was abandoned. Bernini's lasting contribution was to resite the fountain from the other side of the square to face the Quirinal Palace (so the Pope could look down and enjoy it). Though Bernini's project was torn down for Salvi's fountain, there are many Bernini touches in the fountain as it was built. An early, striking and influential model by Pietro da Cortona, preserved in the Albertina, Vienna, also exists, as do various early 18th century sketches, most unsigned, as well as a project attributed to Nicola Michetti, one attributed to Ferdinando Fuga and a French design by Edme Bouchardon.
Competitions had become the rage during the Baroque era to design buildings, fountains, and even the Spanish Steps. In 1730 Pope Clement XII organized a contest in which Nicola Salvi initially lost to Alessandro Galilei — but due to the outcry in Rome over the fact that a Florentine won, Salvi was awarded the commission anyway. Work began in 1732, and the fountain was completed in 1762, long after Clement's death, when Pietro Bracci's Oceanus (god of all water) was set in the central niche.
Salvi died in 1751, with his work half-finished, but before he went he made sure a stubborn barber's unsightly sign would not spoil the ensemble, hiding it behind a sculpted vase, called by Romans the asso di coppe, "the "Ace of Cups".
The Trevi Fountain was finished in 1762 by Giuseppe Pannini, who substituted the present allegories for planned sculptures of Agrippa and "Trivia", the Roman virgin.
The fountain was refurbished in 1998; the stonework was scrubbed and the fountain provided with recirculating pumps.
The backdrop for the fountain is the Palazzo Poli, given a new facade with a giant order of Corinthian pilasters that link the two main stories. Taming of the waters is the theme of the gigantic scheme that tumbles forward, mixing water and rockwork, and filling the small square. Tritons guide Oceanus' shell chariot, taming seahorses (hippocamps).
In the center is superimposed a robustly modelled triumphal arch. The center niche or exedra framing Oceanus has free-standing columns for maximal light-and-shade. In the niches flanking Oceanus, Abundance spills water from her urn and Salubrity holds a cup from which a snake drinks. Above, bas reliefs illustrate the Roman origin of the aqueducts.
The tritons and horses provide symmetrical balance, with the maximum contrast in their mood and poses (by 1730, rococo was already in full bloom in France and Germany).
A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. Among those who are unaware that the "three coins" of Three Coins in the Fountain were thrown by three different individuals, a reported current interpretation is that two coins will lead to a new romance and three will ensure either a marriage or divorce. A reported current version of this legend is that it is lucky to throw three coins with one's right hand over one's left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain.
Approximately 3,000 Euros are thrown into the fountain each day and are collected at night. The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome's needy. However, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain.
Our endpoint was this pretty little waterfall on Elbow River a few Km beyond the lake. (click on photo to see animation)
‘Resist tyranny, join a union’: Huge turnout as Hongkongers hit the streets for New Year’s Day protest
Thousands of Hongkongers took to the streets on Wednesday for the first police-approved mass protest of the new year.
The huge turnout built on a continuing a pro-democracy movement that has reached each corner of the city over the past seven months.
The march received a letter of no objection from the police, and began at around 2:40pm in Victoria Park in Causeway Bay.
The front of the march reached the endpoint at the Chater Road Pedestrian Precinct in Central just after 4pm.
In addition to the five core demands of the movement, protesters on Wednesday also called for increased union participation, supporting the victims of political reprisals, and halting a proposed pay rise for the police.
Protesters chanted slogans such as “Five demands, not one less,” as well as new additions such as “Resist tyranny, join a union.”
Those at the head of the march included some newly-elected pro-democracy district councillors – whose term in office began on January 1.
A group outside Victoria Park were rallying Hongkongers to register to vote: “We want to use our vote to tell the Hong Kong government what we want… We want the people to come out again and win at the Legislative Council election [in September],” Ms Oliver told HKFP, following the pro-democracy camp’s victory at last year District Council elections.
Though the extradition bill – which sparked the movement – was axed, demonstrators are still demanding an independent probe into police behaviour, amnesty for those arrested, universal suffrage and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”
In a statement, march organisers the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) called on the public to be “more united, persistent, and caring of one another” in the coming year.
“In 2020, the police have already fired the first round of tear gas,” the group wrote shortly after midnight. “Carrie Lam and police brutality turned a festive season into anguish, and perhaps we should say ‘Five demands, not one less’ instead of happy new year.”
In a statement later on Wednesday, the Front said the police had taken no responsibility for any misconduct: “They dehumanise protestors as cockroaches, demean journalists as “black reporters” and arrest medical doctors and nurses as rioters. Now, the government even attempts to increase the salaries of these rioting police.”
“We must persist this fight, for the arrested, injured and departed brothers and sisters in this movement. When victory comes, we shall gather at the dawn,” they added.
During the march, Ms Ho of the Construction Site Workers General Union said they had over 10,000 signed-up members and around 100 active members: “It is a union that already exists, but now we are recruiting more workers with the same political stance,” she said.
“We aim for three targets. The first one, we want to defend our own worker’s rights… We want to get the right to vote in the coming legislative election [as a functional constituency]… The third aim – we are trying to use construction workers’ role in this movement – for example, volunteer teams for people in need – trying to prepare for the general strike.”.....
www.hongkongfp.com/2020/01/01/resist-tyranny-join-union-h...
民陣今日（1日）舉行「毋忘承諾，並肩同行」 元旦大遊行。在預定起步時間2時，銅鑼灣東角道已聚集大量等待插隊的民眾，亦有不少市民支持黃色經濟圈，黃店「渣哥」有逾百人排隊光顧。
Routing 30,000 randomly-chosen trips through the paths suggested by 10,000 randomly-chosen geotags. These are perhaps the most interesting routes between the endpoints of the trips, even if not necessarily the most likely.
Data from the Twitter streaming API, August, 2011. Base map from OpenStreetMap, CC-BY-SA.
‘Resist tyranny, join a union’: Huge turnout as Hongkongers hit the streets for New Year’s Day protest
Thousands of Hongkongers took to the streets on Wednesday for the first police-approved mass protest of the new year.
The huge turnout built on a continuing a pro-democracy movement that has reached each corner of the city over the past seven months.
The march received a letter of no objection from the police, and began at around 2:40pm in Victoria Park in Causeway Bay.
The front of the march reached the endpoint at the Chater Road Pedestrian Precinct in Central just after 4pm.
In addition to the five core demands of the movement, protesters on Wednesday also called for increased union participation, supporting the victims of political reprisals, and halting a proposed pay rise for the police.
Protesters chanted slogans such as “Five demands, not one less,” as well as new additions such as “Resist tyranny, join a union.”
Those at the head of the march included some newly-elected pro-democracy district councillors – whose term in office began on January 1.
A group outside Victoria Park were rallying Hongkongers to register to vote: “We want to use our vote to tell the Hong Kong government what we want… We want the people to come out again and win at the Legislative Council election [in September],” Ms Oliver told HKFP, following the pro-democracy camp’s victory at last year District Council elections.
Though the extradition bill – which sparked the movement – was axed, demonstrators are still demanding an independent probe into police behaviour, amnesty for those arrested, universal suffrage and a halt to the characterisation of protests as “riots.”
In a statement, march organisers the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) called on the public to be “more united, persistent, and caring of one another” in the coming year.
“In 2020, the police have already fired the first round of tear gas,” the group wrote shortly after midnight. “Carrie Lam and police brutality turned a festive season into anguish, and perhaps we should say ‘Five demands, not one less’ instead of happy new year.”
In a statement later on Wednesday, the Front said the police had taken no responsibility for any misconduct: “They dehumanise protestors as cockroaches, demean journalists as “black reporters” and arrest medical doctors and nurses as rioters. Now, the government even attempts to increase the salaries of these rioting police.”
“We must persist this fight, for the arrested, injured and departed brothers and sisters in this movement. When victory comes, we shall gather at the dawn,” they added.
During the march, Ms Ho of the Construction Site Workers General Union said they had over 10,000 signed-up members and around 100 active members: “It is a union that already exists, but now we are recruiting more workers with the same political stance,” she said.
“We aim for three targets. The first one, we want to defend our own worker’s rights… We want to get the right to vote in the coming legislative election [as a functional constituency]… The third aim – we are trying to use construction workers’ role in this movement – for example, volunteer teams for people in need – trying to prepare for the general strike.”.....
www.hongkongfp.com/2020/01/01/resist-tyranny-join-union-h...
民陣今日（1日）舉行「毋忘承諾，並肩同行」 元旦大遊行。在預定起步時間2時，銅鑼灣東角道已聚集大量等待插隊的民眾，亦有不少市民支持黃色經濟圈，黃店「渣哥」有逾百人排隊光顧。
Rather than being passive recipients of mass consumer culture, the Net Gen spend time searching, reading, scrutinizing, authenticating, collaborating and organising.
Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams in Wikinomics (p.47)
astore.amazon.co.uk/will-lion-21/detail/184354637X/026-57...
There is a lot on how the Google Generation (which is actually a very misleading idea) is full of a bunch of cognitively myopic and depthless individuals just skimming from one digital distraction to another. And somewhere in that there is probably some truth for some people.
But the assumption that the endpoint of new web behaviours is neuromush is wrong. That's why it's nice when you hear something that says, actually all this new media causes more cognitive sweat than the media before it. It might even be making us a bit smarter.
It's just refreshing to hear that the new doesnt represent a mental downgrade.
See Stephen Johnson's rather brilliant little book for more on this idea
Image courtesy of www.flickr.com/photos/66164549@N00/2260970300/. This citation appears in the bottom right of the image.
Robert Cremean in his studio with the lay-in of the Outer Wall of VATICAN CORRIDOR, A Non-Specific Autobiography, 1975
He wrote:
"…I believe the idea of creating oneself is what we are about. That’s the reason we’re here. That’s the point of life. You can believe that whether you are a Jew, a Christian, or a Buddhist. There are no actual rewards. The real reward is in the creation. Vatican Corridor is about creating oneself."
In 1974 Robert Cremean created his sixty page Preparatory Study for VATICAN CORRIDOR, A Non-Specific Autobiography, 1974–1976, the second part of THE NARCISSUS PENTOLOGY. In the introduction to the publication of the Preparatory Study the publisher wrote: “This manuscript provides us with the opportunity to read the artist’s philosophical concepts for that specific work of art and to understand how these concepts are interpreted symbolically through the human figure. Because the basic philosophy—one man equals all men—is inherent in the work, the artist’s non-specific autobiography contains and is an extension of our own.”The pages of the Preparatory Study usually accompany the exhibition of the sculpture thus marrying the sculptor’s visual and written concepts with the completed piece.
Every artist, no matter the medium, creates an autobiography through his or her work, whether deliberately or not. Whatever ideas and forms, whatever metaphors and historical evidence are made manifest, the entire body of work is an expression of all that has itself formed the artist, an ongoing endpoint of everything previously thought and experienced. The work
of Robert Cremean may be viewed, as it is in VATICAN CORRIDOR, A Non-Specific Autobiography and within the concept “One man equals all men,” as the deliberate creation of
a metaphorical autobiography, a detailed analysis of who and what he is, was and may yet become; it is a metaphorical analysis of everything that has formed him. A study of all subsequent works by him makes clear his continuing analysis in metaphor of himself, of religion, of war, of commerce and of Art, a pertinacious metaphorical exposition of the culture and of “culture-makers,” of how “culture-makers” actually form and bind our culture and how they have, in the process, distorted the very concept of Art, how they ill-used artists, women, homosexuals,
and children—all of us and each other—during the millenia, and a continuing analysis of 8/6/45, the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima from which date he has declared “All the metaphors
have changed.”
And it was with VATICAN CORRIDOR, A Non-Specific Autobiography, that he shifted almost exclusively from the making of individual pieces consisting of only one physical element to the creation of major installation works consisting of various individual elements, each executed in diverse media, studio sections that completely filled whatever studio in which he worked. TERMINUS: Studio Section 1981–1983 was the first of the so-named studio sections he created. About the second, he wrote: “With TERMINUS II: Studio Section 1985–1990 began a flow of work receptive to everything I am, enfolding me in Process.” No longer did he make individual pieces, a collection of which would then be exhibited for sale in a commercial art gallery. He chose thereafter to continue the precedent established with the filling of his studio with work that was all of a piece. He wrote:
"I began to use the Wall as a separate voice in the work, setting it back rather like a Greek chorusfor witness and commentary on the action within the sculpture which fronts it: cast shadows,
interconnections of line, color, content, etc."
The “walls” became spaces whereon he recorded his thoughts, wrote essays, made images in bas-relief and in three dimension. Combined with three dimensional sculptures placed in front
of these wall panels and within the center space bounded by the four walls of the studio, these large bodies of work, these studio sections, continued to be created even with the change of
studios. With the exception of only one, its parts dispersed by a collector, all of the studio sections to the present are housed in the permanent collections of various museums.
After many very successful one-person gallery shows, Robert Cremean vowed never again to place his work in a commercial gallery, his reasons clearly explained. The following is excerpted
from his book THE TENTH ARCH, A Sequel to VATICAN CORRIDOR, A Non-Specific Autobiography:
"All of my previous relationships with gallery dealers were oil and water turbulence. Any consideration of continuance within the artist/gallery/collector triangle was precluded by experience and almost physical revulsion. By excluding commerce from the equation, there was the very real possibility for an interchange and complexity almost limitless in scope and service… As artists’ visions differ, so do their needs, desires and ambitions. In this age of exaggeration, celebrity has been given high value. Whoness has replaced Whatness and the culture has adjusted accordingly. The traditional artist/gallery/collector triangle is perhaps the clearest indication of this shift of emphasis: My first one-man exhibition in a commercial gallery was in 1954. The percentage of commission to the gallery was 331⁄3%,with expenses shared equally by artist and dealer (catalogues,
shipping, mailing, brochures, etc.). That percentage now stands at 50% with, in most cases, the artist required to pay all expenses. What has happened here? Obviously, the culture feels that the seller of art is of more value than the maker. This shift of emphasis in a value system is pervasive, touching all aspects of the community. By establishing the purveyor of art with so much importance, it is his product that has assumed priority, placing the artist in remove and creating a hierarchy of parasitic industry: galleries, museums, collectors, auction houses, publications, etc. The artist must pay 20% more of his income for hype. Some artists may find this acceptable in their ambition, and celebrity a valid and desirable reward. Some, however, will not. Despite the seeming all-pervasive control of art by culture-makers and middle men, there remains only one significant triangle for artists and Art: point A being the artifact, point B the artist and point
C the viewer. It is for this kind of artist that, perhaps, a non-commercial, more community oriented form might appeal. Too many of these artists are being abandoned by contemporary attitudes and patterns, causing a drastic disconnection between Art and culture. The parasitic hierarchy has distorted and opacified the significance of Art to a degree beyond definition. It is time for the artist to reclaim his identity within the societal whole; the parasites have virtually destroyed the host. New ways must be found to realign Art and culture into a more tactile symmetry."
Liloan is one of the gateway to the island of Leyte coming from Mindanao. The Manila bound buses from Mindanao pass through this port....I think Ultrabus as well as other bus transits from Manila have Liloan as endpoint destination.
Nice little town.
Photo was taken in March of this year aboard the Maharlika V bound for Lipata.
Routing 30,000 randomly-chosen trips through the paths suggested by 10,000 randomly-chosen geotags. These are perhaps the most interesting routes between the endpoints of the trips, even if not necessarily the most likely.
Data from the Twitter streaming API, August, 2011. Base map from OpenStreetMap, CC-BY-SA.
“By adapting and adjusting to randomness, you shape but do not control your endpoint.”
― Bob Deutsch, The 5 Essentials: Using Your Inborn Resources to Create a Fulfilling Life
12 10x8, 1 12x9
This is ~6 hours of work; hopefully I can get the rest of the work (tombstones, fender mount stay, fork legs stays, crown stay, light mount) done in another 13 hours and keep my income above minimum wage (actually it needs to be under 11 hours, because the firegas tank is running low and will probably need to be refilled tomorrow.)
These racks are all basically rectangular and (at least the 10x8s) basically the same size. Thank goodness I've got a square and I made up a rail jig for brazing the rails into place, otherwise the "basically" would be laughably optimistic.
(Way out of focus because the electronic viewfinder on the camera DOES NOT deal well with low-light situations, and to add insult to injury the camera doesn't have antishake. So double the blur for half the price!)
My contribution to the local 'airport terminal' shots. Taken around 5pm as the winter sun was setting. A little HDR for good measure to lighten up the roofs and floors of the levels and to bring back the nice lighting along the roof / screens.
For those interested in the HDR range, this was 5 exposures, ranging from low to high with the following endpoints:
DateTime - 2008:01:12 17:51:44
ExposureTime - 1/15 seconds
ISOSpeedRatings - 160
FNumber - 16.00
- Very dark, strong details on upper screens, colors on top glass and individually visible gridwork elements in the glass. No visibility of colors of cars and only mild discernment of concrete.
DateTime - 2008:01:12 17:52:17
ExposureTime - 2.5 seconds
ISOSpeedRatings - 160
FNumber - 16.00
- Very bright, significant overexposure. All concrete is nearly white, no visibility of upper glasswork or color where light strikes. Strong differentiation of vehicle color (blue vs black is visible) and visible layers (rooflines, posts, etc) for each parking level.
2-r2:r2:r2 between the center of the top edge and the endpoint of the edge.
Completed model: flic.kr/p/2ksoCQZ
Detroit was a famous endpoint on the underground railroad. I suppose it wasn't quite the end as people crossed into Canada at that point. However much of the stress and danger of recapture was done when enslaved people reached this city. First Congregational Church had a role at the time of the real underground railway, and now feature a basement where you can become "slaves" and take a trip from the deep South to Detroit. Many from the community come in and volunteer their time and effort to enrich the experience by dressing in period costumes and acting in pertinent roles. The basement is a warren of tight corridors that are made to appear like forests. The corridors are almost maze like--and the escaping slaves encounter people that help them as well as bounty hunters trying to recapture them. This is a powerful and worthwhile experience.
Italien / Toskana - Siena
Sunset - Piazza del Campo - Torre del Mangia and Palazzo Comunale
Sonnenuntergang - Piazza del Campo - Torre del Mangia und Palazzo Comunale
Piazza del Campo is the main public space of the historic center of Siena, Tuscany, Italy and is regarded as one of Europe's greatest medieval squares. It is renowned worldwide for its beauty and architectural integrity. The Palazzo Pubblico and its Torre del Mangia, as well as various palazzi signorili surround the shell-shaped piazza. At the northwest edge is the Fonte Gaia.
The twice-a-year horse-race, Palio di Siena, is held around the edges of the piazza. The piazza is also the finish of the annual road cycling race Strade Bianche.
History
The open site was a marketplace established before the thirteenth century on a sloping site near the meeting point of the three hillside communities that coalesced to form Siena: the Castellare, the San Martino and the Camollia. Siena may have had earlier Etruscan settlements, but it was not a considerable Roman settlement, and the campo does not lie on the site of a Roman forum, as is sometimes suggested. It was paved in 1349 in fishbone-patterned red brick with 8 lines of travertine, which divide the piazza into 9 sections, radiating from the mouth of the gavinone (the central water drain) in front of the Palazzo Pubblico. The number of divisions is held to be symbolic of the rule of The Nine (Noveschi) who laid out the campo and governed Siena at the height of its mediaeval splendour between 1292-1355. The Campo was and remains the focal point of public life in the City. From the piazza, eleven narrow shaded streets radiate into the city.
The palazzi signorili that line the square, housing the families of the Sansedoni, the Piccolomini and the Saracini etc., have unified rooflines, in contrast to earlier tower houses — emblems of communal strife — such as may still be seen not far from Siena at San Gimignano. In the statutes of Siena, civic and architectural decorum was ordered :"...it responds to the beauty of the city of Siena and to the satisfaction of almost all people of the same city that any edifices that are to be made anew anywhere along the public thoroughfares...proceed in line with the existent buildings and one building not stand out beyond another, but they shall be disposed and arranged equally so as to be of the greatest beauty for the city."
The unity of these Late Gothic houses is affected in part by the uniformity of the bricks of which their walls are built: brick-making was a monopoly of the commune, which saw to it that standards were maintained.
At the foot of the Palazzo Pubblico's wall is the late Gothic Chapel of the Virgin built as an ex voto by the Sienese, after the terrible Black Death of 1348 had ended.
Fonte Gaia
The Fonte Gaia ("Joyous Fountain") was built in 1419 as an endpoint of the system of conduits bringing water to the city's centre, replacing an earlier fountain completed about 1342 when the water conduits were completed. Under the direction of the Committee of Nine, many miles of tunnels were constructed to bring water in aqueducts to fountains and thence to drain to the surrounding fields. The present fountain, a center of attraction for the many tourists, is in the shape of a rectangular basin that is adorned on three sides with many bas-reliefs with the Madonna surrounded by the Classical and the Christian Virtues, emblematic of Good Government under the patronage of the Madonna. The white marble Fonte Gaia was originally designed and built by Jacopo della Quercia, whose bas-reliefs from the basin's sides are conserved in the Ospedale di St. Maria della Scala in Piazza Duomo. The former sculptures were replaced in 1866 by free copies by Tito Sarrocchi, who omitted Jacopo della Quercia's two nude statues of Rhea Silvia and Acca Larentia, which the nineteenth-century city fathers found too pagan or too nude. When they were set up in 1419, Jacopo della Quercia's nude figures were the first two female nudes, who were neither Eve nor a repentant saint, to stand in a public place since Antiquity.
(Wikipedia)
Die Piazza del Campo ist der bedeutendste Platz der toskanischen Stadt Siena, deren Zentrum er bildet.
Der Platz ist bekannt durch seine beeindruckende Architektur und seine halbrunde Form sowie durch das hier normalerweise jährlich zweimal ausgetragene Pferderennen Palio di Siena.
Geschichte
Das Zentrum der bereits in der Etruskerzeit bedeutenden Stadt lag ursprünglich im Gebiet des heutigen Castelvecchio, während „der Campo“ lediglich ein Stück Land war, das dem Abfluss des Regenwassers diente. Da aber auch die an Siena vorbeiführende Fernstraße über dieses Feld verlief und sich hier mit einer anderen Straße kreuzte, entwickelte sich bald ein Marktplatz.
Der Name „Campo“ wird zum ersten Mal schriftlich 1169 erwähnt in einer Quelle, die sich mit der gesamten Talebene befasst, zu der auch die heutige Piazza del Mercato, heute auf der anderen Seite des Palazzo Comunale, gehörte. Damals erwarb die Stadt Siena das Gelände, das von der Piazza del Mercato bis zur heutigen Logge della Mercanzia reicht. Eine Unterteilung des Geländes in die heutigen zwei Plätze wird 1193 erwähnt, sodass man davon ausgehen kann, dass in der Zwischenzeit zumindest eine Mauer erbaut wurde, die den Platz in zwei Hälften teilte; möglicherweise geschah dies, um das Wasser besser ableiten zu können.
Bis ins Jahr 1270, als die Herrschaft der Vierundzwanzig (1236–1270) zu Ende ging, wurde dann der Platz für Messen und Märkte genutzt. Zwar hatte der Platz noch nicht das heutige Aussehen, er entwickelte sich aber allmählich zum zweiten Mittelpunkt der Stadt neben dem Dom; während dort religiöse Feste im Mittelpunkt standen, dominierten auf der Piazza del Campo der Handel und weltliche Feste. Da sich auch die städtische Obrigkeit immer unabhängiger vom Bischof (und später Erzbischof) machte, kam in der Zeit der Herrschaft der Neun (1289–1355) der Bedarf nach einem eigenen Rathaus auf.
Die Piazza del Campo ist einer der eindrucksvollsten kommunalen Plätze Italiens – im Gegensatz zum Markusplatz Venedigs und zur Piazza dei Miracoli Pisas ist dies ein Platz ohne Kirche, also ein rein politisches Zentrum – und das zeigt sich auch in der Kunst in den Innenräumen des Rathauses. Das Gelände ist leicht abschüssig und der Palazzo Pubblico, der öffentliche Palast, also das Rathaus steht an der tiefsten Stelle. Diese auffallend tief liegende Position im Gegensatz zu den Gepflogenheiten anderer Städte erklärt sich aus dem Bedürfnis, eine neutrale Lage zwischen den Hügeln von Siena zu wählen. Auch hier hat also das Konkurrenzdenken innerhalb der Stadt Konsequenzen gehabt. Das hatte zur Folge, dass der Turm sehr hoch werden musste, damit er trotz seiner niedrigen Lage die Stadt überragen konnte.
Mit dem Bau des Palazzo Comunale wurden dann auch die Impulse für eine architektonische Gestaltung des Platzes gegeben. In den Jahren 1327–1349 erhielt der Platz eine Pflasterung, wobei auch heute noch die Einteilung in neun Segmente an die damalige Herrschaft der Neun erinnert. Die „Skyline“ des Platzes ist allerdings nicht spontan in einem Stück entstanden. Erst mit den Jahren sorgte die Stadtverwaltung durch entsprechende Gesetze dafür, dass die Fassadengestaltung einheitlich gehandhabt wurde. So wurde etwa eine Peter- und Paul-Kirche abgerissen; heute erinnern die Gassen Vicoli di San Pietro e di San Paolo daran.
Nach 1861 wurden, wie auch an anderen Gebäuden in der Altstadt von Siena, Gebäude an der Piazza von ihren barocken Fassaden „befreit“, um dem ursprünglichen, d. h. mittelalterlichen Erscheinungsbild wieder zur Geltung zu verhelfen.
Seit ca. 2017 gehören 15 der 20 Gebäude, die den Platz begrenzen, Igor Bidilo, einem Investor aus Kasachstan.
Fonte Gaia
Auf der höheren Seite des Campo steht der Fonte Gaia, den Jacopo della Quercia von 1409 bis 1419 geschaffen hat. ‚Brunnen der Freude’ heißt er, weil es 1342 zum ersten Mal gelungen war, mithilfe einer 25 km langen Leitung Wasser in die Stadt fließen zu lassen. Der ewige Wassermangel war in der Bergstadt Siena ein großes Problem – besonders in den Sommermonaten. Stilistisch hat della Quercia in den Figuren dieses Brunnens etwas Ähnliches erreicht wie die Sieneser Malerei, nämlich einen Ausgleich zwischen der klassischen Tradition und gotischem Schwung.
Die Figuren des Brunnens sind zwar seit 1858 durch Nachbildungen von Tito Sarrocchi ersetzt, aber trotzdem haben wir hier ein wichtiges Dokument für die Entwicklung der frühen Renaissance-Plastik vor uns. Zur damaligen Zeit, 1409, hatte man angefangen, sich zunehmend für die antike Vergangenheit zu interessieren und dabei natürlich besonders für die Geschichte Roms. Jacopo della Quercia war von der Stadt Siena deshalb beauftragt worden, in diesem Brunnen die angebliche römische Abstammung der Stadt als Gründung der Söhne des Remus und ihre darauf beruhenden Tugenden zu dokumentieren. Die Originalteile des Brunnens sind heute im Museum von Santa Maria della Scala im Raum Fienile zu betrachten.
Gebäude
Palazzo Comunale
Mit dem Bau des Gebäudes der Stadtverwaltung wurde 1297 begonnen. Ursprünglich hatte der Palazzo lediglich drei Stockwerke; später erfolgten weitere Anbauten. Vor allem aber kam im Laufe des 14. Jahrhunderts mit dem Torre del Mangia der 102 Meter hohe Turm hinzu, der das Stadtbild von Siena prägt. Der Name leitet sich von dem Spitznamen Mangiaguadagni (Gewinnfresser) des ersten Glöckners ab.
Cappella di Piazza
Vor dem Eingang zum Palazzo Pubblico wurde als Dank für die überstandene Pest 1352 – also noch in der Gotik – eine kleine Kapelle, die Cappella di Piazza, die Platzkapelle errichtet, die über 100 Jahre später (1463) mit einer Renaissance-Dekoration ihre heutige Gestalt erhielt. Beides passt aber so gut zusammen, als sei es gleichzeitig geschaffen worden. Die Dachkonstruktion stammt von Antonio Federighi und entstand in den 1460er Jahren. Die nordeuropäische Gotik wurde in Italien im 13. und besonders im 14. Jh. in stark veränderter und der italienischen Tradition angepassten Form übernommen. Und später konnte im 15. Jh. die Renaissance auf jahrhundertelange vorbereitende Phasen aufbauen. Beides widersprach sich hier in Italien nicht so wie in Frankreich oder Deutschland. Hier an dieser Kapelle ist in der Gotik also locker der alte Rundbogen verwandt worden und nicht der eigentlich typische gotische Spitzbogen. Und als in der Renaissance der Rundbogen wieder zur Norm wurde, musste hier auch gar nichts geändert werden.
Das Pferderennen
Auf dem Platz wird zweimal im Jahr, am 2. Juli und am 16. August, ein Pferderennen („Palio di Siena“) ausgetragen.
(Wikipedia)
The 50,000 longest point-to-point journeys recorded in pairs of Twitter geotags near the San Francisco Bay Area though October 21, 2011, with routes between endpoints fabricated to try to pass through dense clusters of geotags. Longest routes on top, contrary to usual practice, because the shorter ones look even muddier. (Santa Cruz near the bottom, Sacramento near the top right.)
Left: Stecknitz-Prahm
Right: Ilmenau Ewer
Those barges were used to ship salt to Lübeck via Stecknitz Canal
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OLD CRANE
The Old Crane is a historic harbour crane at the former Ilmenau-Harbour in Lüneburg. The 1797 built crane was at that time the most powerful crane in the northern part of Germany and is still one of the main-sights in Lüneburg.
A crane at this part of Lüneburg harbour is officially mentioned in the history of Lüneburg in the year 1330. At that time Lüneburg was already important, because of its saline. So the main use of this crane was to load the ships with salt from the salines. The ships had to ship the salt mainly to the Hanseatic Town of Lübeck, where the salt was stored in the historic - and still existing - Salt Warehouses (Lübecker Salzspeicher).
And also the huge amount of fire wood was landed from ships with this crane. This fire wood was necessary to boil out the salt from the brine.
TECHNIC
This crane is a typical medieval treadwheel crane. It is powered by a man-powered double-treadwheel with a diameter of the lower wheel of 5 meter.
Over the centuries that Lüneburg crane was reconstructed many times. In winter 1795 a flooding with ice caused many damage in Lüneburg. In summer 1797 the crane was repaired by carpenter G. P. Hintze. The present crane is untouched since 1797.
In August 1840 the crane raised his haviest load: a steam locomotive built by Englands George Forrester & Company and transported by sea to Germany. The estimated weight of that locomotive was 9,3 tons. To rotate the treadwheel of the crane they needed 38 men. To ensure the crane has enough power they tested it with the 10 tons of 80 railway rails.
In 1838 the crane already managed to raise a steam locomotive with 14.000 pounds.
With the building of the railroad track Hamburg-Hannover Lüneburg was attached to railroad in 1847. In short time the transport moved from the waterways to rail. So Lüneburg harbour and the crane lost its importance and in 1860 the crane had to stop the business - even it was still intact!
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HISTORY OF TREADWHEELS
A treadwheel, or treadmill, is a form of engine typically powered by humans. It may resemble a water wheel in appearance, and can be worked either by a human treading paddles set into its circumference (treadmill), or by a human or animal standing inside it (treadwheel). These devices are no longer used for power or punishment, and the term "treadmill" has come to mean an exercise machine for running or walking in place.
Uses of treadwheels included raising water, to power cranes, or grind grain. They were used extensively in the Greek and Roman world, such as in the reverse overshot water-wheel used for dewatering purposes. They were widely used in the Middle ages to lift the stones in the soaring Gothic cathedrals. There is a literary reference to one in 1225, and one treadwheel crane survives at Chesterfield, Derbyshire and is housed in the Museum. It has been dated to the early 14th century and was housed in the top of the church tower until its removal in 1947. They were used extensively in the Renaissance famously by Brunelleschi during the construction of Florence cathedral. Penal treadmills were used in prisons during the early-Victorian period in the UK as a form of punishment. According to The Times in 1827, and reprinted in William Hone's Table-Book in 1838, the amount prisoners walked per day on average varied, from the equivalent of 6,600 vertical feet at Lewes to as much as 17,000 vertical feet in ten hours during the summertime at Warwick gaol. In 1902, the British government banned the use of the treadwheel as a form of punishment.
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STECKNITZ CANAL
The Stecknitz Canal (German: Stecknitzfahrt) was an artificial waterway in northern Germany which connected Lauenburg and Lübeck on the Old Salt Route by linking the tiny rivers Stecknitz (a tributary of the Trave) and Delvenau (a tributary of the Elbe), thus establishing an inland water route across the drainage divide from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea. Built between 1391 and 1398, the Stecknitz Canal was the first European summit-level canal and one of the earliest artificial waterways in Europe. In the 1890s the canal was replaced by an enlarged and straightened waterway called the Elbe–Lübeck Canal, which includes some of the Stecknitz Canal's watercourse.
The original artificial canal was 0.85 metres deep and 7.5 metres wide; the man-made segment ran for 11.5 kilometres, with a total length of 97 kilometres including the rivers it linked. The canal included seventeen wooden locks (of which the Palmschleuse at Lauenburg still exists) that managed the 13-metre elevation difference between its endpoints and the highest central part, the Delvenaugraben.
HISTORY
In the Middle Ages the trade between the North Sea and Baltic Sea grew dramatically, but the sea journey through Øresund, increasingly important to commercial shipping since the thirteenth century, was time-consuming and dangerous. Therefore, the emerging Hanseatic city of Lübeck and Eric IV of Saxe-Lauenburg agreed in 1390 to cooperate in the construction of an artificial canal between the Elbe and the Baltic Sea. Construction on the canal began in 1391; thirty barges carrying the first load of salt from Lüneburg reached Lübeck on 22 July 1398.
The Stecknitz Canal soon replaced the existing overland cart road as the main transport mode for Lüneburg salt on the Old Salt Route. In Lübeck the salt was stored in vast salt warehouses and then transferred to ocean-going vessels for export throughout the Baltic region. In the reverse direction the Stecknitz barges transported cereals, furs, herring, ash, timber and other goods from Lübeck, which were reloaded in Lauenburg and transported down the Elbe to Hamburg. Later coal, peat, brick, limestone and gravel were added to the cargo. The importance of the canal was greatest in years in which Øresund was closed to merchant ships because of disputes over the Sound Dues and foreign shipping.
In the fifteenth century traffic peaked, with more than 3,000 shipments of more than 30,000 tons of salt moving on the canal each year. This number declined by the seventeenth century to 400 to 600 shipments (5,000 to 7,000 tons). In 1789 there were still sixty-four shipments carrying approximately 680 tons of salt. Plans for a new Baltic–North Sea canal were proposed as early as the seventeenth century, but none was implemented until the end of the nineteenth century, when the new Elbe–Lübeck Canal was built using parts of the old route of the Stecknitz Canal. For five hundred years the canal was used to transport the "white gold" and other goods; today the Palmschleuse lock in Lauenburg is one of the last remaining parts of the former canal, preserved as an historical monument.
TECHNOLOGY
The Stecknitz Canal consisted of an 11.5-kilometre artificial waterway (the Delvenaugraben) linking two minor rivers, the north-flowing Stecknitz and south-flowing Delvenau. The man-made trench itself was about 85 centimetres deep and 7.5 metres wide, though it was enlarged between 1821 and 1823 to a depth of 144 centimetres and a width of 12 metres. Outside the artificial segment the canal followed the tortuous natural watercourses of the two rivers; as a result, the full journey from Lauenburg to Lübeck stretched to a distance of 97 kilometres, even though the straight-line separation between the two cities is only 55 kilometres. The journey along the canal often lasted two weeks or longer due to the number and primitive design of the locks and the difficulty of towing.
The canal's course originally included thirteen locks, which later renovations increased to seventeen. Initially most were one-gate flash locks built into weirs (usually set below the mouth of a tributary creek), where water was dammed until a barge was ready to pass downriver. In Lauenburg the initial course included one chamber lock (the Palmschleuse) because of a watermill whose operation would have been made impossible by a flash lock. Over the course of the canal's lifetime further flash locks were progressively converted to chamber locks until the 17th century.
The canal overcame the drainage divide between the North and Baltic Seas, with a summit height of 17 metres above sea level. In order to supply the top portion of the canal with water, flow was diverted from Hornbeker Mühlenbach. To the north the canal descended to the Ziegelsee by the town of Mölln and then connected to the Stecknitz by a series of eight locks. The southern end of the artificial canal descended to the Delvenau through a staircase of nine locks.
BARGES AND DRIVERS
The original salt barges measured roughly 12 metres by 2.5 metres, with a 40-centimetre draft when loaded to capacity with around 7.5 tons of salt, and required at least ten days to make the journey one way. When traveling uphill or through chamber locks the barges had to be hauled by laborers or animals walking the towpath on the banks of the channel. By the nineteenth century newer vessel designs included rigging that eliminated the need for towing (with sufficient wind).
In Lauenburg and Lübeck the barges were unloaded and their contents transferred to ships for export down the Elbe and Trave. Stecknitz barge drivers were only permitted to own one barge each, so they could not acquire great wealth in the trade; in the long run this ensured their dependence upon the Lübeck salt merchants, who were not bound by any such limitations and amassed great fortunes. The guild of the Stecknitzfahrer (Stecknitz barge drivers) still exists today in Lübeck and meets annually at the Kringelhöge to celebrate the guild's history.
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Der Alte Kran (Schreibweise früher auch Krahn) ist ein historischer Hafenkran am ehemaligen Ilmenau-Hafen in Lüneburg. Der 1797 erbaute Kran, der damals zu den leistungsfähigsten in ganz Norddeutschland gehörte, prägt bis heute das Bild des Wasserviertels und gilt als eines der Wahrzeichen der Stadt.
TECHNIK
Der Kran ist aus tragendem Holzfachwerk gebaut, welches als Wetterschutz mit einer Bretterverkleidung versehen wurde; die Dachflächen sind mit Kupferplatten gedeckt. Der Unterteil mit kreisförmigem Grundriss (Durchmesser: acht Meter) ist feststehend. Der Oberteil mit dem Kranausleger ist drehbar gelagert (ähnlich einer Holländerwindmühle). Vier Sandsteinblöcke von je etwa 200 kg dienen als Gegengewicht zur Last. Die Kettenwinde im Oberteil wird angetrieben über eine 9 m hohe Königswelle, diese wiederum durch ein doppeltes Tretrad mit 5 m Durchmesser im Unterteil.
In Stade wurde 1977 ein Nachbau am Hansehafen errichtet, der heute als Informationszentrum für Stader Stadtgeschichte dient; ein zweiter, funktionstüchtiger Nachbau befindet sich im Hebezeug-Museum in Witten in Nordrhein-Westfalen.
GESCHICHTE
Ein Kran am Standort des heutigen Kranes am Lüneburger Hafen wird erstmals 1330 urkundlich erwähnt. Er diente neben dem Heben anderer Waren vor allem dem Betrieb der Lüneburger Saline, nämlich einerseits zum Verschiffen des dort produzierten Salzes (insbesondere über den Stecknitzkanal nach Lübeck, aber auch in andere Städte) und andererseits zum Anlanden des Brennholzes, welches für den Betrieb der Sudhäuser benötigt wurde. Der Kran teile sich die Arbeit mit den kleineren Winden des benachbarten Lagerhauses (damals Heringshaus, heute Altes Kaufhaus genannt). In einer Verordnung des Lüneburger Stadtrates war festgelegt, welche Waren von welchem Kran zu heben waren und welche Gebühren („Krangeld“) dafür zu entrichten waren.
Der ursprüngliche Kran wurde über die Jahrhunderte immer wieder um- und ausgebaut. In seiner heutigen Form besteht der Kran fast unverändert seit 1797. Im Winter 1795 wurden viele Bauwerke im Hafen durch ein Hochwasser mit Eisgang stark beschädigt, darunter auch der Kran und die benachbarte Brücke. Der Kran wurde im Sommer 1797 vom Zimmermann G. P. Hintze unter der Leitung des Landbauverwalters Kruse in neuer Form wieder aufgebaut.
Am 13. August 1840 hob der Kran seine schwerste Last an Land: eine Dampflokomotive für die Herzoglich Braunschweigische Staatseisenbahn, die in England von George Forrester & Company gebaut und auf dem Wasserweg nach Deutschland transportiert worden war. Das Gewicht der Lok wurde auf bis zu 60 Schiffspfund (ca. 9,3 Tonnen) geschätzt. Zum Drehen des Tretrades wurde dabei die Kraft von 38 Menschen benötigt. Als Belastungstest wurde vorher ein Paket mit 80 Eisenbahnschienen mit etwa 20.000 Pfund Gewicht angehoben. Zwei Jahre zuvor hatte der Kran bereits eine leichtere Lok mit etwa 14.000 Pfund gehoben.
Mit dem Bau der Eisenbahnlinie Hamburg-Hannover, die 1847 Lüneburg erreichte, verlagerte sich der Warentransport von und nach Lüneburg binnen kurzer Zeit vom Binnenwasserweg auf die Schiene. In der Folge verlor der Hafen und somit auch der Kran rapide an Bedeutung. Im Jahre 1860 stellte der Kran aus wirtschaftlichen Gründen seinen Betrieb ein (obwohl er technisch weiterhin intakt war).
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GESCHICHTE DER TRETMÜHLE
Eine Tretmühle (auch Tretrad oder Laufrad) ist ein seit dem Römischen Reich bis in die Moderne benutzter Antrieb für Mühlen und insbesondere für Hebe-Vorrichtungen (Krane). Sie arbeitet nach dem Prinzip des Wellrads und nutzt die Körperkraft von Menschen oder Tieren.
Heute wird das Wort Tretmühle im übertragenen Sinne für eine monotone Tätigkeit oder Tagesablauf benutzt.
KONSTRUKTION UND BETRIEB
Kernstück einer Tretmühle sind ein oder mehrere (meist zwei), übermannshohe hölzerne Treträder („Fabricae pedales“, Fußwerke, Laufräder, Durchmesser von 3 m bis 5 m) mit meist acht Holz-Speichen auf jeder Seite. Die Räder waren auf einer schweren, horizontalen Holzwelle angebracht, die bei mittelalterlichen Tretkränen mit Drehdach in einer quadratischen Holzkonstruktion als Rad-„Träger“ oder auf freistehenden Radlagern ruhte (bei römischen Kränen und als festmontierte Hebevorrichtung). Bei Mühlen (Kornmühlen, Pumpmühlen etc.) war die horizontale Antriebsachse mit dem Mahlwerk oder Pumpwerk verbunden, bei den Hebevorrichtungen saß eine Tretvorrichtung auf der Achse, entweder in deren Verlängerung oder auch zwischen den Treträdern. Im einfachsten Fall war die Tretvorrichtung ein Abschnitt auf der Achse mit Begrenzungsringen. Die Tretvorrichtung nahm Seil oder Kette auf. In den Treträdern, deren Innenfläche (Lauffläche) mit rutschmindernden Trittleisten versehen war, liefen die Radläufer, Tret- oder Windenknechte (auch Windenfahrer genannt, bei Kranen auch Kranenknechte) und setzten damit den Mechanismus in die gewünschte Richtung in Gang. Es gab auch Ausführungen ähnlich einem Wasserrad, bei dem die Menschen außen auf schaufelartigen Trittbrettern liefen. Auf mittelalterlichen Baustellen galten die Windenknechte (bis ins 18. Jahrhundert waren Tretradantriebe stark verbreitet) als hoch- bis höchstbezahlte Arbeitskräfte. Die Tätigkeit war mühsam, extrem anstrengend und in Hebevorrichtungen auch gefährlich. Das Halten der Lasten war schwierig, weil die Laufräder nicht gesichert werden konnten, um die Last während des Drehvorganges auf Höhe zu halten. Auch das Ablassen der Lasten barg Gefahr, weil sich die Last durch ihre Eigenmasse selbständig machen und die Männer in den Treträdern ins „Rotieren“ und „Schleudern“ (Redewendung) bringen konnte: es gab zum Teil schwere und tödliche Unfälle. Zum Heben einer Last auf eine Höhe von 4 m mussten die Windenknechte in den Laufrädern etwa 56 m an Laufstrecke zurücklegen (vom Achs- und Raddurchmesser abhängig: bei 4 m Raddurchmesser und 0,4 m Achsdurchmesser entspricht eine Radumdrehung 12,56 m Laufstrecke und 1,26 m Wickellänge (= Hubhöhe), das sind 50,24 m Laufstrecke und 5 m Hub). Das bedeutete für einen kompletten Hebe- und Senkvorgang eine Gesamtstrecke von etwa 132 bis 140 m. Bei solcher Tätigkeit musste jeder sich auf den anderen verlassen können. Viel Erfahrung und Kondition war vonnöten, um die harte Tätigkeit im Akkord (berechnet nach gelöschter Ladung gemäß einer Gebührenliste durch den Kranmeister) gewinnbringend zu schaffen. Zwischen 15 und mehr als 20 Mann arbeiteten in und an einem mittelalterlichen Ladekran. Sie waren zum Teil in der „Aufläder-Zunft“ organisiert, dem ursprünglichen Wort für die Ladetätigkeit am Kran.
EINSATZBEREICHE
In der Schifffahrt kamen beim Betrieb der seit dem Mittelalter verbreiteten Hafenkräne zwecks Zeitgewinn gewöhnlich Doppeltreträder zum Einsatz, die an beiden Seiten eines drehbaren Turms befestigt waren. Diese Turm-Tretkräne waren entweder aus Holz oder Stein gebaut und konnten beim Verladen eine Last von bis 2,5 Tonnen bewältigen. Es wird geschätzt, dass circa 80 Tretkräne an 32 Kranstandorten am Rhein mit Nebenflüssen im Einsatz waren, im gesamten deutschsprachigem Raum sogar ca. doppelt so viele.
Verbreitet war der Einsatz der Treträder auch beim Betrieb von Mühlen und beim Bau großer Gebäude, insbesondere der mittelalterlichen Kathedralen, wo Tretradkräne als Einzel- oder Doppelräder in die Dachkonstruktion integriert waren. Im Freiburger Münster, Gmünder Münster, Straßburger Münster, in St. Marien und St.Nikolai Stralsund sowie in der Abtei des Mont-Saint-Michel sind diese beispielsweise noch vorhanden. Bis 1868 befand sich auf dem bis dahin unvollendeten Südturm des Kölner Doms ein durch Treträder angetriebener Baukran aus dem 15. Jahrhundert.
Noch Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts mussten in den britischen Kolonien Sträflinge in den Tretmühlen arbeiten. Zwei solcher Mühlen, zynisch als „dancing academies“ bezeichnet, wurden ab 1823 in Sydney zum Antrieb von Getreidemühlen eingesetzt. Da diese Mühlen großen Profit abwarfen, wurden sechs weitere in Betrieb genommen. Die Arbeitszeit betrug bis zu zwölf Stunden täglich, die Leistung wurde mit der Dampfmaschine in Relation gesetzt und mit 70 Watt pro Arbeiter angegeben. Aus dem Jahr 1850 wird berichtet, dass 28 Sträflinge die Arbeit in der Tretmühle verweigerten und den Tod durch Erhängen vorzogen. Auch Frauen mussten in den Tretmühlen arbeiten, auf Schwangerschaft wurde keine Rücksicht genommen.
WIKIPEDIA
Fold the endpoint of the midline of the square onto the 1/4 line.
There are other three methods:
www.flickr.com/photos/origamiru/29435821637/in/faves-1199...
www.flickr.com/photos/119967028@N08/42264262344/in/datepo...
www.flickr.com/photos/119967028@N08/42264262694/in/datepo...
Back from a long string theory of travel.
From Graham Spencer (http://gr.ah.am an internet instantiation of will,i,am):
Why did the web win?
We have 13K Internet protocols. It's like a fossil record. TCPmux is extinct, but still on the list.
By 2009, there's a huge loss of diversity.
Back in 93, FTP dominated. The FTP state machine has 185 transitions. Lots of messages and states. Turning into code is complicated. Variation to v2.0 is tough.
IMAP: 153 transitions
NNTP: 362 transitions
Conversational protocols are complicated.
http 0.9: few features, but simple.
The state machine has 4 states! An entire http server could fit into one SMS message.
Richard Gabriel: worse is better. Implementation simplicity is the highest priority. “Unix and C are the ultimate computer viruses.” Simplicity is the most important adaptation.
Other protocols evolve by changing endpoints.
Web evolves by adding intermediaries (proxy, search, social apps).
Ecosystem of intermediaries.
20 year predictions:
1) web protocols will remain simple. Browser from today will be able to view most websites 20 years from now.
2) The ecosystem of the web will keep getting better.
3) The appstore is anomaly. More devices will speak http
Kalawakan nearing the endpoint from Balanga!
Bataan Transit Co., Inc. | 725 | Hyundai Universe Space Luxury fleet by Hyundai Motor Company (Korea)
🚏 Original / Authorized Franchise Route: Cubao - Balanga, Bataan
🕙 Date Taken on April 10, 2022 • 6:06 PM
📍 Photo Shot Location @ EDSA-Cubao cor. Aurora Blvd., Cubao, Quezon City
#MacBusEnthusiast #BehindTheBusSpottingPhotography #AerialShot @macbusenthusiastph
#BusesInThePhilippines #BusPhotography #FeelTheRhythmOfKoreanBus #KoreanBus #HyundaiBus #HyundaiUniverse #HyundaiUniverseSpaceLuxury #HUSL
#BataanTransit #BTCI
The Fonte Gaia ("Fountain of Joy") was built in 1419 as an endpoint of the system of conduits bringing water to the city's centre, replacing an earlier fountain completed about 1342 when the water conduits were completed. Under the direction of the Committee of Nine, many miles of tunnels were constructed to bring water in aqueducts to fountains and thence to drain to the surrounding fields. The present fountain, a center of attraction for the many tourists, is in the shape of a rectangular basin that is adorned on three sides with many bas-reliefs with the Madonna surrounded by the Classical and the Christian Virtues, emblematic of Good Government under the patronage of the Madonna. The white marble Fonte Gaia was originally designed and built by Jacopo della Quercia, whose bas-reliefs from the basin's sides are conserved in the Ospedale di St. Maria della Scala in Piazza Duomo. The former sculptures were replaced in 1866 by free copies by Tito Sarrocchi, who omitted Jacopo della Quercia's two nude statues of Rhea Silvia and Acca Larentia, which the nineteenth-century city fathers found too pagan or too nude. When they were set up in 1419, Jacopo della Quercia's nude figures were the first two female nudes, who were neither Eve nor a repentant saint, to stand in a public place since Antiquity.
HAROLD THE POLICEMAN NYPD balloon in the 90th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade New York City USA
The 90th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, USA
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an annual parade presented by the U.S.-based department store chain Macy's. The tradition started in 1924.
The three-hour Macy's event is held in New York City starting at 9:00 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day, and has been televised nationally on NBC since 1952.
The parade starts on the Upper West Side of Manhattan at w77th st and heads 2.5 miles to West 34th Street.
Macy's Herald Square is the largest department store in the world. The flagship store covers almost an entire New York City block, features about 1.1 million square feet of retail space, includes additional space for offices and storage, and serves as the endpoint for Macy's annual Thanksgiving Day parade.
Macy's
Formerly called R. H. Macy & Co.
FoundedOctober 28, 1858
FounderRowland Hussey Macy
Macy's Herald Square
151 W 34th St,
New York, NY 10001
USA
The 90th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade performers include:
JOHNNYSWIM
DIAMANTE ELÉCTRICO
SARAH MCLACHLAN
MICHELLE CARTER
MADDIE & TAE
LAURIE HERNANDEZ
KELSEA BALLERINI
JACOB WHITESIDES
FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS
EASTON CORBIN
DE LA SOUL
DAYA
CHLOE AND HALLE
BRETT ELDREDGE
ALOE BLACC
BEN RECTOR
REGINA SPEKTOR
TIMEFLIES
TONY BENNETT
GRACE VANDERWAAL
CLARESSA SHIELDS
THE MUPPETS
TATYANA MCFADDEN
HANNAH MCFADDEN
GIANFRANCO IANNOTTA
MIKEY BRANNIGAN
LUNCHMONEY LEWIS
THE RADIO CITY ROCKETTES
And much more!
The movie Miracle on 34th Street focuses on the impact of a department store Santa Claus who claims to be the real Santa. The film was released June 4, 1947
Hashtag metadata tag
#HappyThanksgiving #Happy #Thanksgiving #ThankYou #Thankful #MacysParade #MacysThanksgivingDayParade #MacysThanksgivingParade #Thanksgiving #ThanksgivingParade #NY #NYC #NYNY #NYS #NewYork #NewYorkCity #NewYorkNewYork #NewYorkState #Macys #W34thSt #Holiday #US #USA #America #American #MacysThanksgiving
Photo
New York City, Manhattan Island, New York State, The United States of America USA country, North America continent
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Probably a quick recap. Didn't realise I have shot 35 frames with 28mm for this roll like doing a special feature of the lens. It turned out well. Uploaded 31 (1 for 50 f2) photos and set 20+ to public viewing. It's really high hit rate for handheld shots with flash or tripod. Rejected photos are those that I was experimenting for dark, early morning shots in the car (not advisable to try). This could be my best roll for the R6.
Looking at the numbers, 28mm has the most shots from my Leica R collection. This maybe justify its higher cost compared to the other 2 lens. 24mm has the most shots for my Minolta collection as well. Of course, this does not factor in the fixed 45mm on the V2. Anyway, it's evident that I prefer to shoot with wide angle lens, indoors or outdoors.
R6 is leading the way now even though it started after my SRT101. After the few fumbles due to user's fault, it has performed steadily and become a joy to use. Sometimes it can be unpredictable, giving something different from what you expect. SRT101 is a workhorse that gets the job done, especially with 24mm and 50 f1.4. Let's see how it goes with the Spotmatic SP II.
More than a year now, I still find myself with 100 rolls of 120 film and 40+ rolls of 35mm film. I am not quite sure when is the endpoint. Hope others won't get fed up. In any case, the quest continues.
a beer tent near the endpoint and marchers filing past.
The Vierdaagse (4-day march) is a 4-day walking event held every year in Nijmegen. Each day, up to 45000 walkers set out to walk 30, 40 or 50km , a different route each day through the surrounding area. There are people from 60 different countries, many military and police walk it too, including English bobbies.This year is the 99th edition of the event, which is accompanied by a week of festivities in the city, with events and live music.
SKYLANDERS ERUPTOR ACTIVISION PUBLISHING, INC. / SKYLANDERS balloon in the 90th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade New York City USA
The 90th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, USA
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an annual parade presented by the U.S.-based department store chain Macy's. The tradition started in 1924.
The three-hour Macy's event is held in New York City starting at 9:00 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day, and has been televised nationally on NBC since 1952.
The parade starts on the Upper West Side of Manhattan at w77th st and heads 2.5 miles to West 34th Street.
Macy's Herald Square is the largest department store in the world. The flagship store covers almost an entire New York City block, features about 1.1 million square feet of retail space, includes additional space for offices and storage, and serves as the endpoint for Macy's annual Thanksgiving Day parade.
Macy's
Formerly called R. H. Macy & Co.
FoundedOctober 28, 1858
FounderRowland Hussey Macy
Macy's Herald Square
151 W 34th St,
New York, NY 10001
USA
The 90th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade performers include:
JOHNNYSWIM
DIAMANTE ELÉCTRICO
SARAH MCLACHLAN
MICHELLE CARTER
MADDIE & TAE
LAURIE HERNANDEZ
KELSEA BALLERINI
JACOB WHITESIDES
FITZ AND THE TANTRUMS
EASTON CORBIN
DE LA SOUL
DAYA
CHLOE AND HALLE
BRETT ELDREDGE
ALOE BLACC
BEN RECTOR
REGINA SPEKTOR
TIMEFLIES
TONY BENNETT
GRACE VANDERWAAL
CLARESSA SHIELDS
THE MUPPETS
TATYANA MCFADDEN
HANNAH MCFADDEN
GIANFRANCO IANNOTTA
MIKEY BRANNIGAN
LUNCHMONEY LEWIS
THE RADIO CITY ROCKETTES
And much more!
The movie Miracle on 34th Street focuses on the impact of a department store Santa Claus who claims to be the real Santa. The film was released June 4, 1947
Hashtag metadata tag
#HappyThanksgiving #Happy #Thanksgiving #ThankYou #Thankful #MacysParade #MacysThanksgivingDayParade #MacysThanksgivingParade #Thanksgiving #ThanksgivingParade #NY #NYC #NYNY #NYS #NewYork #NewYorkCity #NewYorkNewYork #NewYorkState #Macys #W34thSt #Holiday #US #USA #America #American #MacysThanksgiving
Photo
New York City, Manhattan Island, New York State, The United States of America USA country, North America continent
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Fontana di Trevi
A seguir, um texto, em português, do Blog do Noblat:
Nenhuma semana sobre fontes poderia ser feita sem falar na Fontana di Trevi, a linda, a inteiramente diferente de todas as outras fontes. Numa pequena praça, formada pelo cruzamento de três vias, em italiano tre vie, e é daí que vem seu nome, a fonte marca o ponto final do aqueduto Acqua Vergine, um dos mais antigos de Roma.
Reza a lenda que em 19 a.C, uma virgem ajudou os Romanos a encontrar uma fonte de água pura. Essa nascente supriu Roma de água por mais de 400 anos, e isso só terminou entre 537 e 538, quando os visigodos sitiaram Roma e destruíram seus aquedutos.
A reconstrução do aqueduto só terminou em 1453, sob o papa Nicolau V que mandou fazer ali uma bacia em mármore para acolher a água.
Em 1629, o papa Urbano VII pediu a Bernini que embelezasse a fonte; o grande arquiteto começou por mudar o local da escultura: seu projeto a colocava do outro lado da praça e ela ficaria de frente para o Palácio Quirinal, de modo que o papa pudesse apreciar a vista. Mas o papa morreu, o projeto foi abandonado. Ainda assim muitos dos detalhes que Bernini criara foram respeitados pelo arquiteto Nicola Salvi, que assina a fonte.
Em 1730, Salvi recebeu do papa Clemente XII a incumbência de reiniciar a decoração da fonte. Os trabalhos começaram em 1732 e terminaram em 1762, depois da morte de Clemente. A estátua principal, do deus Oceano, só foi colocada após a morte do papa.
O pano de fundo da estrutura é o Palazzo Poli que, para compor o cenário perfeito, recebeu uma nova fachada com colunas gregas que unem os dois andares.
O tema principal é “O Domínio das Águas”. A biga de Oceano, em forma de concha, é puxada por cavalos alados dominados por Tritãos. O nicho do deus é um imenso arco do triunfo; nos laterais estão as estátuas da Abundância e da Salubridade.
No alto, em baixo relevo, a origem dos aquedutos romanos e, acima, as armas de Clemente XII. O conjunto mede 25.9m de altura x 19,8m de largura e é a maior fonte barroca dessa cidade com tantas fontes.
Reza a lenda que ao jogar uma moeda na fonte, está assegurada sua volta a Roma. Se jogar três moedas com a mão direita sobre o ombro esquerdo, você garante sua boa sorte. Parece brincadeira? Cerca de 3mil euros são jogados por dia na Fontana di Trevi!
Esse cenário deslumbrante serviu a Federico Fellini para uma das cenas mais famosas de sua obra-prima, o filme La Dolce Vita. Difìcil alguém que não conheça a cena interpretada por Anita Eckberg e Marcello Mastroianni. Pois bem, quando Mastroianni faleceu, desligaram a água e cobriram a fonte de panos negros. Foi o luto de Roma pelo grande ator.
Um texto, em português, da Wikipédia, a Enciclopédia livre:
A Fontana di Trevi (Fonte dos trevos, em português) é a maior (cerca de 26 metros de altura e 20 metros de largura) e mais ambiciosa construção de fontes barrocas da Itália e está localizada na rione Trevi, em Roma.
A fonte situava-se no cruzamento de três estradas (tre vie), marcando o ponto final do Acqua Vergine, um dos mais antigos aquedutos que abasteciam a cidade de Roma. No ano 19 a.C., supostamente ajudados por uma virgem, técnicos romanos localizaram uma fonte de água pura a pouco mais de 22 quilômetros da cidade (cena representada em escultura na própria fonte, atualmente). A água desta fonte foi levada pelo menor aqueduto de Roma, diretamente para os banheiros de Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa e serviu a cidade por mais de 400 anos.
O "golpe de misericórdia" desferido pelos invasores godos em Roma foi dado com a destruição dos aquedutos, durante as Guerras Góticas. Os romanos durante a Idade Média tinham de abastecer-se da água de poços poluídos, e da pouco límpida água do rio Tibre, que também recebia os esgotos da cidade.
O antigo costume romano de erguer uma bela fonte ao final de um aqueduto que conduzia a água para a cidade foi reavivado no século XV, com a Renascença. Em 1453, o Papa Nicolau V determinou fosse consertado o aqueduto de Acqua Vergine, construindo ao seu final um simples receptáculo para receber a água, num projeto feito pelo arquiteto humanista Leon Battista Alberti.
Em 1629, o Papa Urbano VIII achou que a velha fonte era insuficientemente dramática e encomendou a Bernini alguns desenhos, mas quando o Papa faleceu o projeto foi abandonado. A última contribuição de Bernini foi reposicionar a fonte para o outro lado da praça a fim de que esta ficasse defronte ao Palácio do Quirinal (assim o Papa poderia vê-la e admirá-la de sua janela). Ainda que o projeto de Bernini tenha sido abandonado, existem na fonte muitos detalhes de sua idéia original.
Muitas competições entre artistas e arquitetos tiveram lugar durante o Renascimento e o período Barroco para se redesenhar os edifícios, as fontes, e até mesmo a Scalinata di Piazza di Spagna (as escadarias da Praça de Espanha). Em 1730, o Papa Clemente XII organizou uma nova competição na qual Nicola Salvi foi derrotado, mas efetivamente terminou por realizar seu projeto. Este começou em 1732 e foi concluído em 1762, logo depois da morte de Clemente, quando o Netuno de Pietro Bracci foi afixado no nicho central da fonte.
Salvi morrera alguns anos antes, em 1751, com seu trabalho ainda pela metade, que manteve oculto por um grande biombo. A fonte foi concluída por Giuseppe Pannini, que substituiu as alegorias insossas que eram planejadas, representando Agrippa e Trivia, as virgens romanas, pelas belas esculturas de Netuno e seu séquito.
A fonte foi restaurada em 1998; as esculturas foram limpas e polidas, e a fonte foi provida de bombas para circulação da água e sua oxigenação.
A text, in english, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The fountain at the junction of three roads (tre vie) marks the terminal point of the "modern" Acqua Vergine, the revivified Aqua Virgo, one of the ancient aqueducts that supplied water to ancient Rome. In 19 BC, supposedly with the help of a virgin, Roman technicians located a source of pure water some 13 km (8 miles) from the city. (This scene is presented on the present fountain's façade.) However, the eventual indirect route of the aqueduct made its length some 22 km (14 miles). This Aqua Virgo led the water into the Baths of Agrippa. It served Rome for more than four hundred years. The coup de grâce for the urban life of late classical Rome came when the Goth besiegers in 537/38 broke the aqueducts. Medieval Romans were reduced to drawing water from polluted wells and the Tiber River, which was also used as a sewer.
The Roman custom of building a handsome fountain at the endpoint of an aqueduct that brought water to Rome was revived in the 15th century, with the Renaissance. In 1453, Pope Nicholas V finished mending the Acqua Vergine aqueduct and built a simple basin, designed by the humanist architect Leon Battista Alberti, to herald the water's arrival.
In 1629 Pope Urban VIII, finding the earlier fountain insufficiently dramatic, asked Bernini to sketch possible renovations, but when the Pope died, the project was abandoned. Bernini's lasting contribution was to resite the fountain from the other side of the square to face the Quirinal Palace (so the Pope could look down and enjoy it). Though Bernini's project was torn down for Salvi's fountain, there are many Bernini touches in the fountain as it was built. An early, striking and influential model by Pietro da Cortona, preserved in the Albertina, Vienna, also exists, as do various early 18th century sketches, most unsigned, as well as a project attributed to Nicola Michetti, one attributed to Ferdinando Fuga and a French design by Edme Bouchardon.
Competitions had become the rage during the Baroque era to design buildings, fountains, and even the Spanish Steps. In 1730 Pope Clement XII organized a contest in which Nicola Salvi initially lost to Alessandro Galilei — but due to the outcry in Rome over the fact that a Florentine won, Salvi was awarded the commission anyway. Work began in 1732, and the fountain was completed in 1762, long after Clement's death, when Pietro Bracci's Oceanus (god of all water) was set in the central niche.
Salvi died in 1751, with his work half-finished, but before he went he made sure a stubborn barber's unsightly sign would not spoil the ensemble, hiding it behind a sculpted vase, called by Romans the asso di coppe, "the "Ace of Cups".
The Trevi Fountain was finished in 1762 by Giuseppe Pannini, who substituted the present allegories for planned sculptures of Agrippa and "Trivia", the Roman virgin.
The fountain was refurbished in 1998; the stonework was scrubbed and the fountain provided with recirculating pumps.
The backdrop for the fountain is the Palazzo Poli, given a new facade with a giant order of Corinthian pilasters that link the two main stories. Taming of the waters is the theme of the gigantic scheme that tumbles forward, mixing water and rockwork, and filling the small square. Tritons guide Oceanus' shell chariot, taming seahorses (hippocamps).
In the center is superimposed a robustly modelled triumphal arch. The center niche or exedra framing Oceanus has free-standing columns for maximal light-and-shade. In the niches flanking Oceanus, Abundance spills water from her urn and Salubrity holds a cup from which a snake drinks. Above, bas reliefs illustrate the Roman origin of the aqueducts.
The tritons and horses provide symmetrical balance, with the maximum contrast in their mood and poses (by 1730, rococo was already in full bloom in France and Germany).
A traditional legend holds that if visitors throw a coin into the fountain, they are ensured a return to Rome. Among those who are unaware that the "three coins" of Three Coins in the Fountain were thrown by three different individuals, a reported current interpretation is that two coins will lead to a new romance and three will ensure either a marriage or divorce. A reported current version of this legend is that it is lucky to throw three coins with one's right hand over one's left shoulder into the Trevi Fountain.
Approximately 3,000 Euros are thrown into the fountain each day and are collected at night. The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome's needy. However, there are regular attempts to steal coins from the fountain.
Fonte Avatar official FB Page:
A dark, twisted circus sideshow that’s built around bombastically grooving melodic death n’ roll is swinging forward with captivating glee, mesmerizing merriment and the plundering power of lethal pirates toward those brave souls who hand over a ticket to be torn by Avatar and their Black Waltz, the fourth album and first proper American release from the Swedish masters of mayhem.
Within Avatar’s diverse songs, a steady focus on the fluid and organic power of the riff (recalling the thunderous foresight of heavy metal’s original wizards, Black Sabbath) takes flight combined with an adventurous sprit veering off into the astral planes of the psychedelic atmosphere conjured by pioneers like Pink Floyd back in the day.
Avatar has found a footing that combines the best of rock n’ roll, hard rock and heavy metal’s past, present and future into an overall artistic presentation that is thought-provoking, challenging and altogether enchantingly electric. With the grandiose showmanship of American professional wrestling, the snake oil salesmanship of early 20th century vaudevillian troubadours and the kinetically superheroic power of early Kiss, Avatar lays waste to lesser mortals with ease. Whether somebody gets their rocks off listening to Satyricon or System of a Down, they’ll find something suitably deranged here.
“We’re in this weird field, caught in a triangle between extreme metal, rock n’ roll and what can be described as Avant-garde,” confesses Avatar vocalist Johannes Eckerström. The all-enveloping theme park vibe of the band’s music and visual counterpart means that, naturally, “it’s turning into something bigger.”
“I have been in this band for ten years. I grew up in this band,” Eckerström explains. “We’re somewhat veterans on the one hand. But we’re the new kids in the neighborhood in America at the same time.”
Avatar came of age as “little brothers” of sorts of the famed Gothenburg scene that spawned the celebrated New Wave Of Swedish Death Metal. The band’s debut album, 2006’s Thoughts of No Tomorrow, was filled with brutal, technical melodic death metal to be sure but already, “We tried to put our own stamp on it,” the singer assures. While the following year’s Schlacht still contained flourishes of melody, the unrelenting metallic fury reached an extreme peak. “Intensity was very important,” he says, with some degree of understatement.
Where to go for album number three? “We basically rebelled against ourselves,” Eckerström says of 2009’s self-titled collection. “We figured, ‘We can play faster and make even weirder, more technical riffs,’ because Schlacht was cool. But to take that another step would have turned us into something we didn’t want to be.”
Instead Avatar rediscovered their inherent passion for traditional heavy metal and classic rock n’ roll. “We decided to remove some unnecessary ‘look at me, I can play!’ parts and added more groove. We added a whole new kind of melody. It was awesome to be this ‘rock n’ roll band’ for a while. It was refreshing and liberating.”
Black Waltz sees Avatar coming completely full circle, returning to a more aggressive form of heavy metal but incorporating the lessons they learned while jamming on big riffs with album number three. “We finally came to understand what a good groove is all about and what a great fit it was for our sound,” notes Eckerström.
Tracks like the appropriately titled “Ready for the Ride,” the rollicking “Let it Burn” (which dips into some delicious stonerifficness), the anthemic “Smells Like a Freakshow” (a modern day twist of Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie) and “Torn Apart” are supercharged with a dynamic range of artistic showmanship on a near cinematic scale and it’s all stitched together by a driving bottom end.
While most European metal acts who dare attempt this level of musicianship, showmanship and attention to detail seem content to toil away in the studio and lock themselves away from the crowds, Avatar have excelled beyond their peers thanks in large part to their continued focus on road work. Careening to and fro on tour busses and airplanes around the world like a marauding troupe of circus performers, Eckerström and his mates (guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin and drummer John Alfredsson) have forged the type of musical bond that can only be brought forth from massive amounts of time spent together on the stage, in hotel rooms, in airports and partying at the venue’s bar.
Whether on tour with bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquility or Helloween, playing gigantic festivals like Storsjöyra and Sweden Rock Festival or demolishing South by Southwest, playing live is what it all comes down to for this band. “That is the final manifestation of our art,” Eckerström insists. “Of course an album is a piece of art in itself, but mainly it's a means to reach the higher goal, which is doing these awesome shows. Touring is of the greatest importance.”
“We all just love the pirate’s life,” he admits freely. “Sailing into the city on this tour bus thingy, going to kick some ass, have that party and all the while meeting all of these people, entertaining them, encountering a culture that's not your own. We love that.”
The want for this type of lifestyle goes back to early childhood fascinations for the good-humored singer. Reading about superheroes, watching Hulk Hogan on TV, getting exposed to Kiss – these were the first ingredients for what Eckerström would go on to create with the guys in Avatar and what has culminated now in Black Waltz.
The frontman promises that Avatar will continue to create, to captivate and to experiment. There’s no definitive endpoint in sight. It’s always about the horizon, the journey itself. “As long as you're hungry as an artist, there are higher and higher artistic achievements. I love AC/DC and Motorhead and what they’ve established is amazing, but we don’t want to write albums that are kind of like the album before. We want to travel to a new galaxy, so to speak, every time.”
The goal is always to conquer what came before. “That is what stays with you as a mentally healthy musician. Or maybe a mentally deranged one, I’m not sure,” the singer laughs. And part and parcel to that continued evolution will be the ever broadening expansion of the scope of Avatar’s worldwide presentation: Black Waltz and beyond.
“We have great visions of what we want to do and the things we want to give to people on a stage,” Eckerström promises. “These ideas, these visions, they require a huge audience. They require a lot of legroom to be done, so I want to get into those arenas, basically. I know we would do something really magical if we got the chance. This idea is one of those things that really, really keeps us going.”
CREATURES:
• Fibelza: A round aquatic carnivore that is found on the planet Haysfhelt, whose surface consists of more than 80% water, making it the second most watery inhabited planet next to Hulptos. This planet is located in the Beta Octant and is the second planet from Ergnoplis, with Wegneheck in between the two. As for the Fibelza itself, it does not appear for several miles out from the shore of the planet's small, lone continent where its humanoids live, and thus has little interaction with the Emlottbiens. The creature is ferocious, though not to the same extent of the Eevakie, which is bears much resemblance to, being willing to feast on any and all types of fish smaller than it. The Fibelza is a carnivore, not an omnivore, and thus it does not eat plant life whatsoever. They have numerous eyes on their bodies, anywhere from six to ten pairs, and thus have an incredibly wide range of vision. However, any damage to their eyes causes them immense pain, and thus they are especially vulnerable in many places. The Fibelza's durability value is about 600.
• Nicayecid: Large–headed beasts that live in the depression/valley areas of Logdlind, which is also where most of the Boxyobobs live. It is obvious that Nicayecids share a good deal of their DNA with the Boxyobobs due to the jagged bodies of both as well as similar–looking faces, in a case similar to that of the Qendsewn and Uliroohs. However, the deluded Boxyobobs take this as meaning that the Nicayecids came long before them and were "precursors" that their race evolved from. On the creatures themselves, they are six feet tall and have a durability value of 900. They have long arms, acute eyes and sensitive, drooping ears on the sides of their heads, and hop around on a single foot, similar to a few other creatures. In addition, Nicayecids have luscious, humanoid–like lips in the back of their concave mouths, which are otherwise monstrous. Food that is ingested enters the creature's digestive system not through through these very far back lips but through a food pipe to the side of them. This is because the structure featuring these lips is actually the animal's penis. When it mates, this lip–penis becomes erect and juts out, and the two unisexual Nicayecid kiss passionately, which in their case is not just a sexual act but is literally sexual intercourse. They both ejaculate into each other's lips/urethras, and both can potentially become pregnant.
• Emlottbien: The amphibious humanoids of Haysfhelt. They live on the shores of a small continent in the water–covered planet's Northeastern hemisphere but can also safely dwell in the more shallow waters beyond its coast, which contain few dangerous lifeforms unlike the parts of the ocean farther out from the land. Emlottbiens are quite tall, standing at more than five feet, and have very long limbs as well. Their average durability value is 700. Their ability to breathe underwater comes from pairs of appendages on the sides of their heads which may be mistaken for ears by outsiders. Their actual sensors of sound are located on top of their heads. The mouth of the Emlottbien consists of three holes in the same area on the lower face where most beings' mouths are located. This makes eating on dry land difficult and an inconvenience; it is much easier for them to ingest their food underwater, where they can suck things in through their holes (the water nearest to the shores on their planet is freshwater, so they needn't worry about sea salt). All the things on Haysfhelt that are edible to them can be taken underwater without becoming soggy, so Emlottbiens usually go into the sea to eat what they find on land. This is also why they mainly live close to the water's edge rather than inland. Prior to the EndoBubble's destruction, Hulptos served as an alternative home for many Emlottbiens.
TECHNOLOGY:
• Skellen Turret: This device, like the Skellen Abomination, is synthetically derived from natural life forms, and thus straddles the line between "creature" and "technology". Specifically, and oddly enough, it contains living nerves taken from the plants of Gorlune and brain cells from various creatures, which together give the turret the capacity to handle more advanced programming. Skellen Turrets stand on wheels which can be locked in place to keep them from rolling away but which make them easier to move around outside of combat. Thanks to their organic components, they have been programmed to actively detect, aim at and fire upon all targets except Skellen and allied beings such as Errvwarps and Demioids, whose racial DNA is input into the turrets' "brains" making the devices recognize them as "friendlies". Of course, this also gives the turrets a major weakness as if a Skellen, Demioid etc. turns against their kind, they will not be fired at since the devices have been programmed to never attack members of their species. Thus, the turrets are used only in warfare against other creatures and not as local security against criminal/defector Skellen.
• Dynamo Force Field Generator: This device was invented by the Demioid Taekhned in his laboratory complex on Hulptos. It facilitates a perpetual cycle of reactions and combustion involving microscopic samples of several different elements and chemical compounds, which together produce obstructive multi–shaded fields of blue energy. A large number of these generators were used to form a force field around Taekhned's enormous underwater laboratory on Hulptos. Compared to supernatural barriers, the force fields produced by this device can be dissipated comparatively easily when powerful force is exerted upon them (i.e. heavy weapons and explosives can blast through them).
• MetaQuarium Power Generator: These devices are found near MetaQuariums, large containment cells that simulate the environment of another planet. These generators are dually powered by both steam and electricity and pump fresh air, solar energy and simulated weather into the MetaQuariums they are connected to in quantities appropriate for the amount and type of life inside, which they detect automatically. An average–sized MetaQuarium uses around three of them.
MORE CREATURES:
• Daliolet: One of the native creatures of planet Coneforfad in the Gamma Octant. Coneforfad is an unusual planet where refined metal occurs naturally in tremendous quantities and covers much of the surface. Though no humanoids are native to the planet, many races have established colonies on it for the purpose of collecting useful/valuable metals. The creatures there all have some sort of metallic component in them as well a visible antenna that fine–tunes all of their senses, which would be very weak otherwise. The Daliolet is one of the smaller, less complex and least metal–filled of Coneforfad's creatures. It is a three–legged docile mammalian being with a heavily–armored upper body and a large, gaping mouth organ at the top of a brown structure growing from its back which resembles a tumor but is in fact a natural feature. The Daliolets live in a region of the planet where spores that are nutritious to them float around in the air, and they use their mouth organs to inhale these spores. They could not survive in most other environments since it is very difficult if not impossible for them to consume food from the ground.
This is the type of animal that can be reasonably kept as a pet, and more than a few visitors to Coneforfad have either adopted Daliolets of their own or taken them to be sold to others who might want them. The creature's durability value is about 500.
• Menigunge: Another Coneforfadian creature. Resembling a Nirtrid somewhat but being totally unrelated to those creatures biologically, the Menigunge is a surprisingly intelligent and resourceful beast and scavenger that waddles around on two slabs of flesh that serve as its feet and scours the area for food and shelter. It will eat almost anything and everything it can. The creature has a multicolored fatty and blobby lower body and a tall head structure that gradually collects stray traces of electric energy from the air and stores up this energy in the metal rods within the Menigunge's body. When a sufficient amount of said electricity is gathered, it can be discharged at will through the metallic structure on one of the creature's arms, which is its primary method of attack. When it lacks the required amount of energy, it can alternatively attack by butting with its metal–filled head structure. The electric shock mechanism is randomly on either the left or right arm. Menigunges also have not one but two external antennae, with the extra one further enhancing their senses and giving them a considerable advantage over most other creatures in this department. They usually have durability values of between 400 and 600.
• Whaldort: Like the previous two entries, this creature also hails from Coneforfad. The Whaldort is one of Coneforfad's more exciting beasts, as its body consists of almost 50% metal, which shows in its interesting and unique abilities as well as its unusual body shape. In its default, dormant position, it vaguely resembles a disembodied foot and leg. When the Whaldort awakens, two eyes, two stubby arms and four wheels on the "foot" are revealed. These wheels are one of the creature's metal components, and allow it to move around at speeds of sixty miles per hour or more using just two of them. In addition, it can lean itself backward, allowing itself to move on all four wheels. In this form, its speed is even greater, being able to reach the ninety MPH mark with enough acceleration, and it is also able to move through very tight spaces. The other "special abilities" of the Whaldort that derive from its wheels include spinning around with its arms, which are almost completely made of metal, held out, resulting in a powerful attack, and creating a trail of sparks on the ground as it moves, especially on metal surfaces. The Whaldort's durability value is 800, which is augmented by the fact that there is so much metal in its body.
EVEN MORE CREATURES:
• SluthHona: A small and friendly herbivore amphibian creature from the planet Nonfialy, home of the chaotic Ojohkeys. They are stout, hunchbacked animals that dwell in and around the planet's many swamps and marshes, mainly making their homes inside small–moderate sized craters which are the result of an orbital bombardment of Nonfialy that occurred prior to the appearance of life there, and have four limbs like humanoids, though they do not qualify as beast–hominids due to their nonstandard heads, which blend into their upper torsos and thus do not have easily discernible endpoints. These heads can also retract back into said torsos when SluthHonas are threatened. They have three long, slender digits on each hand/foot, complex designs on their bodies (which contain a fiber resembling gold and sometimes even have parts jutting out on the side), antenna–based eyes and ears, plated backs that are harder than the rest of their bodies, and a single glowing thorn on their tops. They are intelligent enough to make distinct, meaningful gestures towards one another, but do not make any verbal noises. SluthHonas' durability values range from 400 to 600, and they are between three and four feet tall, weighing just over one hundred pounds on average.
• Pearloerd: One of God's most violent mortal creations, and one of the only mortal beings that can not only survive in the vacuum of space but actually lives there. The Pearloerd is not native to any planet, for the original spores of its creation were originally dispersed onto several otherwise lifeless moons and asteroids throughout the Prime Galaxy around which the first of its kind made their initial homes. These early Pearloerds dwelled around there for a while before discovering their amazing ability to flat–out defy the normal laws of physics and move through space at several hundred miles per hour. This ability, as well as the ability to breathe in space, is due to magic rather than any biological feature. Given the shape of their bodies (see below), Pearloerds normally would not be able to do these amazing things otherwise. After discovering their powers, they began making their way towards nearby planets in search of substantial food. Being highly efficient omnivores, they were provided by the heavens with simple plants to eat prior to this. However, these just barely kept the Pearloerds alive long enough for them to move on to better sources of food, and from the beginning they craved more, as they were (and still are) ambitiously vicious creatures. The beasts began periodically descending upon various planets throughout the Prime Galaxy, and using their final magical power to be discovered, the ability to emit both fire energy and ice energy from their mouths simply by roaring, to massacre and feast upon local wildlife before returning to space, where they would fly around and explore the galaxy for a time before visiting planets again when they were again hungry. This pattern of behavior continues to this very day. Pearloerds can kill and eat dozens of creatures at one time, for they have very large bellies, and this amount of food keeps them satiated for several days. They only attack and eat non–sapient animals and are disinterested in humanoids, with one notable exception (see below). Conversely, humanoids tend to simultaneously fear and admire the beasts, in part because it is very rare to see one unless one ventures into space.
Physically, the Pearloerds are vaguely draconic monsters with long, thick necks, massive heads and proportionately small bodies with three short, stubby arms. Because of their magical properties, the patterns on their bodies are particularly bright and complex. They average over five meters in length and can weigh up to one thousand pounds, and their durability value is around 3,000. They live for about 200 years and do not reproduce until near the end of their lifespans, so there have been only a limited number of generations of them. Pearloerds also tend to have short, unkempt beards. One special mutant Pearloerd had a particularly pronounced beard and was thus labeled "Balt the Beard". Balt the Beard was the only Pearloerd to ever deliberately attack humanoids, was twice the size of a normal one, and was slain in Age 690 by Connor Thorn.
• Sybruchar: Sybruchars are humanoid demons that are so completely sub–corporeal that they do not exist at all in the physical realm, but only in the mental realm. Roughly 1,200 of them exist. Their experiences take place in an ethereal parallel plane that is empty apart from the detectable presences of the minds of any and all thinking, sentient beings, which are a Sybruchar's only means of interaction with the rest of the Nava–Verse. These demons can usually only enter one's mind when the victim is asleep and the mind cannot focus on shielding itself from interference. However, in rare cases they have been able to enter the minds of subjects who were awake but in states of confusion, severe nervousness or stupidity. Once inside a mind, the Sybruchar launches an attack on its victim's psyche from within, usually manifesting within the dream being experienced by a sleeping victim and assaulting the person's dream avatar. The trauma resulting from this attack can have varying effects, all highly unpleasant, ranging from severe brain damage to comas to insanity to death. The Sybruchar can be stopped by either waking up, or taking control of one's dream and fighting off the demon's manifestation within it. This results in the monster being flung from the person's psyche to a far away point in its native realm. An individual can only be attacked by a Sybruchar once, for one of the fiend's few standards is to not assault the same person more than once. Even if it were to break this unspoken rule, most races' brains develop an immunity to similar experiences after being infiltrated once, even if they were damaged.
The creatures can also interact with other Sybruchars they cross paths with in their native plane of existence, and they make exchanges about their endeavors in an indecipherable gurgling language exclusive to the Sybruchar race, sometimes sharing information about nearby potential victims to prey upon. Sybruchars can float through space at speeds of thousands of miles per hour to accommodate for the vast empty distances between planets, and are extremely perceptive, being able to detect all living things within at least a five hundred mile radius at all times. Their forms are lanky and unnatural in posture, with five–fingered claw on one hand and blood–caked scissor–scythes in place of the other hand. Their faces consist of striated voids with bright, pupilless eyes that are said to stare all the way into the very soul of whoever is looked upon by them. Though the demon itself cannot permanently be killed no matter what, the manifestation of the Sybruchar that appears in dreams and must be destroyed within the dream to avoid being harmed by it has a durability value of about 2,000. Also note that no new Sybruchars appear to have come into being since the demons first appeared, as there is no need for the race to reproduce since they cannot die. No other species of being shares this same immortality.
BONUS WEAPONS:
• Xcythestian Injector Pulse Dagger
• Skellen Arm–Mounted Acid Spitter
GUESS WHAT? STILL MORE CREATURES:
• Gurtittaur: A demon of moderate power that exists in limited numbers on and around the Capitol of Evil within the City of Drenn. It is considered to be a very "direct" minion of Meth Stoph, but is not a direct creation of the brutish demon lord, of which there is no such thing, and is also thought to be one of the oldest types of demon in the Nava–Verse, possibly even predating the Dark Lord it is associated with. Gurtittaurs, of which only about one hundred exist, are inorganically metallic beings that possess roughly humanoid upper bodies but stand and walk on near–flat bases with four legs in a manner similar to typical chairs or tables. While being intelligent and able to comprehend the words and speech of others, they themselves can only vocalize in monstrous growls and bellows.
The role of the Gurtittaurs, and indeed the singular purpose for their very existence, is to serve as the prime smiths and forgers of darkly supernatural weaponry and other equipment for the rest of demonkind, a job which all of their innate skills and abilities lend themselves towards. Touching nearly any part of a Gurtittaur's body will (at a minimum) burn the flesh of basically any mortal, for the demons are filled with and exude a molten form of Infernal Energy that is even more violently fiery than any "normal" flame or lava for most but to whose volatility demonic beings (and the Underworld–native materials used to construct the weapons it crafts) are immune. Their chests in particular act as perpetually–active furnaces, and the Gurtittaur's endless production of molten material is such that the demon will never run out of fire and coal, but will not overflow with excesses of it, either; it automatically consumes and generates its "fuel" at comparable, stable rates. The right "hand" of the Gurtittaur consists of a powerful and unbreakable hammer's head, below which rests a small, fine–streamed welding–and–heating torch, while the left "hand" is a solid yet shapeless flame that can, in accordance with the demon's will, be used both to physically hold onto objects, including additional smithing tools, and as a large blowtorch.
The only discernible physical difference between individual Gurtittaurs are the precise shapes of their right–hand hammers, which vary in form and functionality just as other such tools do. They all share a consistent durability value of 1,500, and have never been known to leave the City of Drenn, let alone enter the mortal realm.
• Bassotso: A relatively small but highly dangerous, at least in proportion to its size, beast–hominid predator present on Lazberon. It has/had long been a major hazard for Latpazats, but this is not so much the case nowadays due to their improved technology and more secure settlements. Bassotsos are upright arthropods standing just under four feet tall on average and usually living in small, roaming packs. With basic horns and claws and standard bodily composition, they are of "merely" average resilience (~600–700 durability value) and attack strength, but boast great speed and stamina as well as even greater tenacity, chasing down intended prey more ruthlessly and over longer distances than the average predatory animal. In addition, male Bassotsos exclusively possess long, segmented tails with large stingers used to impale potential prey and inject a weak venom that actually tends to be less problematic than the physical damage usually caused by the sheer massive size of the stinger itself. A major "weak spot" of the male creature has been observed to lie in a small, red, almost inflamed–looking segment that bridges the outermost "normal" segment of the tail and the stinger piece proper and will register with immense pain if properly struck, though doing so is usually so difficult, given the "weak point"'s obscure position, that taking advantage of it is rarely practical. Besides the absence of the additional asset and potential weakness entailed by the tail and stinger, female Bassotsos are nearly indistinguishable from males on the surface, and are just as strong and vicious in other regards.
Again, Bassotsos are generally hostile to Latpazats; though the all–female humanoids do not seem to actually be on the "diet" of the beasts, the creatures are so easily threatened and aggravated by almost any being besides their own kin that, in terms of practice, they might as well be. As also mentioned above, though, deaths caused by them among the Latpazat population are currently considered to be at an all–time low thanks to better equipment and security in/on/around cities and roads. The initial version of the now–famous "Big Bella" multi–barrel shotgun was originally designed for the specific purpose of fighting off Bassotsos, with the successfully–met goal being to make it feasible to kill more than one of them with a single firing of the weapon.
• Shrigammy: A mostly harmless pudgy omnivore creature found on Ithpinbo. Shrigammies are found in the planet's more moist and mossy regions that are mainly situated in the Southeastern quadrant of its geography, tending to make their homes in caves, ditches or hollowed–out trees. While each adult generally operates alone, the creatures are abundant in these areas, and whenever at least one Shrigammy is visibly present, others are probably nearby. This animal stands around one meter tall, with a fat, rounded torso and a barely–distinct head with a single eye and large, thick, red lips forming the mouth, which often emits a deep vocalization that has often been onomatopoetically labelled as the "WARB". Its ears consist of small protrusions positioned roughly to the sides of its eye, which provide sub–par but adequate hearing. The Shrigammy is hairless except for small patches of fuzz on its belly and chin, and its flesh is squishy and moist, yet hard to puncture due to its flexibility and strong tissue bonds. The average durability value for a grown specimen is about 600.
Shrigammies possess large, jagged, gnarled feet and, more noticeably still, short but very muscular arms with small numbers of large, black cactus–like thorns over their lengths and ending in surprisingly well–developed five–fingered hands. In addition to being a passive–supportive defense mechanism for the creature, these "arm–thorns" also secure major internal blood pockets of the Shrigammy, and will cause major bleeding if ever severed, though they are very firmly rooted, similarly to teeth. The risk of the creature being cut by its own thorny structures is low, due to its aforementioned resistance to puncturing.
Shrigammies tend to be very lazy creatures, often sleeping for more than half of any given day–night cycle's length. They are of limited relevance to the affairs of Wevaracti and other humanoid beings, as they do not seem to care if any jewels in or around their territories are taken so long as they themselves are left alone.
The Berlin tramway (German: Straßenbahn Berlin) is the main tram system in Berlin, Germany. It is one of the oldest tram networks in the world having its origins in 1865 and is operated by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), which was founded in 1929. It is notable for being the third-largest tram system in the world, after Melbourne and St. Petersburg. Berlin's streetcar system is made up of 22 lines that operate across a standard gauge network, with almost 800 stops and measuring almost 190 kilometres in route length and 430 kilometres in line length. Nine of the lines, called Metrotram, are operated continuously around the clock, and are identified with the letter "M" before their number; the other thirteen lines are regular city tram lines and are identified by just a line number.
Most of the recent network is within the confines of the former East Berlin - tram lines within West Berlin having been replaced by buses during the division of Berlin (the first extension into West Berlin opened in 1994 on today's M13). In the eastern vicinity of the city there are also three private tram lines that are not part of the main system, whereas to the south-west of Berlin is the Potsdam tram system with its own network of lines.
HISTORY
In 1865, a horse tramway was established in Berlin. In 1881, the world's first electric tram line opened. Numerous private and municipal operating companies constructed new routes, so by the end of the 19th century the network developed quite rapidly, and the horse trams were changed into electric ones. By 1930, the network had a route length of over 630 km with more than 90 lines. In 1929, all operating companies were unified into the BVG. After World War II, BVG was divided into an eastern and a western company but was once again reunited in 1992, after the fall of East Germany. In West Berlin, by 1967 the last tram lines had been shut down. With the exception of two lines constructed after German reunification, the Berlin tram continues to be limited to the eastern portion of Berlin.
HORSE BUSES
The public transport system of Berlin is the oldest one in Germany. In 1825, the first bus line from Brandenburger Tor to Charlottenburg was opened by Simon Kremser, already with a timetable. The first bus service inside the city has operated since 1840 between Alexanderplatz and Potsdamer Bahnhof. It was run by Israel Moses Henoch, who had organized the cab service since 1815. On 1 January 1847, the Concessionierte Berliner Omnibus Compagnie (Concessionary Berlin Bus Company) started its first horse-bus line. The growing market witnessed the launch of numerous additional companies, with 36 bus companies in Berlin by 1864.
HORSE TRAMS
On 22 June 1865, the opening of Berlin's first horse tramway marked the beginning of the age of trams in Germany, spanning from Brandenburger Tor along today's Straße des 17. Juni (17 June Road) to Charlottenburg. Two months later, on 28 August, it was extended along Dorotheenstraße to Kupfergraben near today's Museumsinsel (Museum Island), a terminal stop which is still in service today. Like the horse-bus, many companies followed the new development and built horse-tram networks in all parts of the today's urban area. In 1873, a route from Rosenthaler Platz to the Gesundbrunnen was opened, to be operated by the new Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway) which would later become the dominant company in Berlin under the name of Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS; Great Berlin Tramway).
ELECTRIFICATION
On 16 May 1881, the region of Berlin again wrote transport history. In the village of Groß-Lichterfelde, which was incorporated into Berlin-Steglitz 39 years later, Werner von Siemens opened the world's first electric tramway. The electric tram in Groß-Lichterfelde was built to 1,000 mm metre gauge and ran from today's suburban station, Lichterfelde Ost, to the cadet school on Zehlendorfer Straße (today Finckensteinallee). Initially, the route was intended merely as a testing facility. Siemens named it an "elevated line taken down from its pillars and girders" because he wanted to build a network of electric elevated lines in Berlin. But the skeptical town council did not allow him to do this until 1902, when the first elevated line opened.
The first tests of electric traction on Berlin's standard gauge began on 1 May 1882, with overhead supply and in 1886 with chemical accumulators, were not very successful. Definitively, electric traction of standard-gauge trams in Berlin was established in 1895. The first tram line with an overhead track supply ran in an industrial area near Berlin-
Gesundbrunnen station. The first line in more a representative area took place with accumulators for its first year, but got a catenary, too, four years later. In 1902, the electrification with overhead wiring had been completed, except for very few lines on the periphery.
The last horse-drawn tram line closed in 1910.
UNDERGROUND TRAMS
On 28 December 1899, it became possible to travel underground, even under the Spree, upon completion of the Spreetunnel between Stralau and Treptow. Owing to structural problems, it was closed on 25 February 1932. From 1916 to 1951, the tram had a second tunnel, the Lindentunnel, passing under the well-known boulevard Unter den Linden.
GREAT VARIETY OF COMPANIES UNTIL THE FORMATION OF THE BVG
The history of tramway companies of the Berlin Strassenbahn is very complicated. Besides the private companies, which often changed because of takeovers, mergers, and bankruptcies, the cities of Berlin, Spandau, Köpenick, Rixdorf; the villages Steglitz, Mariendorf, Britz, Niederschönhausen, Friedrichshagen, Heiligensee and Französisch Buchholz, and the Kreis Teltow (Teltow district) had municipal tramway companies.
The most important private operating company was the Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway), which called itself Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS) (Great Berlin Tramway) after starting the electrification. GBS acquired nearly all of the other companies through the years. In 1920, the GBS merged with the municipal companies BESTAG and SSB to become the Berliner Straßenbahn (Berlin Tramway), which was reorganized in 1929 into the newly formed municipal Berliner Verkehrs-AG (BVG) (Berlin Transport Company). Besides the tramway, the BVG also took over the elevated and underground rail lines and the bus routes which were previously operated primarily by the Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus-Actien-Gesellschaft (ABOAG) (General Berlin Bus Corporation).
The following table includes all companies that operated tramways in today's Berlin before the formation of the BVG. The background color of each line marks the drive method which the respective company used to serve their lines at the time of the formation (blue = horse tram, yellow = steam tram, white = electric tram, red = benzole tram).
On the day of its formation, the BVG had 89 tramway lines: a network of 634 km in length, over 4,000 tramway cars, and more than 14,400 employees. An average tram car ran over 42,500 km per year. The Berlin tramway had more than 929 million passengers in 1929, at which point, the BVG already had increased its service to 93 tramway lines.
In the early 1930s, the Berlin tramway network began to decline; after partial closing of the world's first electric tram in 1930, on 31 October 1934, the oldest tramway of Germany followed. The Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni) was rebuilt by Nazi planners following a monumental East-West-Axis, and the tramway had to leave. In 1938, however, there were still 71 tramway lines, 2,800 tram cars and about 12,500 employees. Consequently, the bus network was extended during this time. Since 1933, Berlin also had trolley buses.
During World War II, some transport tasks were given back to the tramway to save oil. Thus an extensive transport of goods was established. Bombings (from March 1943 on) and the lack of personnel and electricity caused the transportation performance to decline. Due to the final Battle for Berlin, the tramway system collapsed on 23 April 1945.
THE NETWORK SINCE 1945
The BVG was - like most other Berlin institutions—split into two different companies on 1 August 1949. Two separate companies were installed, the BVG West in the three western sections (with 36 tram lines) and the BVG Ost (Berlin Public Transit Authority East) (with 13 lines) in the Soviet sector. The latter became in 1969 the VEB Kombinat Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVB). On 14 October 1950, traffic on the lines from West Berlin to the Brandenburgian suburbs Kleinmachnow and Schönefeld stopped, and on 15 January 1953, traffic over the downtown sector border did, too.
From 1949 to 1955, both companies exchanged the Thomson-Houston type trolley poles of their tramcars line by line for pantographs.
WEST
From 1954 onwards, a shift took place in the public transit plans of West-Berlin. From that moment, plans aimed at discontinuing the tramway service and replacing it with extended underground and bus lines. The tramway was considered old-fashioned and unnecessary since Berlin already had a well-developed underground network. From 1954 to 1962 numerous tram lines were replaced with bus routes and extended underground lines and stops. By 1962, the western part of the city had only 18 tram lines left out of the original 36.
On 2 October 1967 the last tramcar traveled through West-Berlin over the last line, which carried number 55 - from Zoo Station via Ernst-Reuter-Square, the City Hall in Charlottenburg, Jungfernheide S-Bahn station, Siemensdamm, Nonnendammallee,
Falkenseer Platz, and Neuendorfer Allee to Spandau, Hakenfelde.
Today, many MetroBus lines follow the routes of former tram lines.
The separation of the city resulted in many problems and difficulties for the public transportation system. Tram lines could no longer travel through the city's center as usual, and the main tram garage was moved to Uferstraße in Western Berlin.
EAST
Soviet Moscow was, with its tram-free avenues, the role model for East-Berlin's transport planning. The car-oriented mentality of West Berlin also settled in the East since a lot of tram lines closed here as well in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, the lines through the city center closed down at the same time as the new city expansion on Alexanderplatz started to grow.
However, complete elimination of the city's tram network was neither planned nor even discussed.
Those lines were built in order to connect the new housing estates Marzahn, Hohenschönhausen, and finally Hellersdorf to the city's tram network from the late 1970s to the early 1990s:
AFTER REUNIFICATION
In 1992, the West Berlin transport company BVG took over the East Berlin's BVB. (In addition to bus and subway lines, the new BVG also ran the trams, which now only circulated in the former East Berlin districts.)
There was an attempt to shut down the tram routes running to Pankow, because the trams in Schönhauser Allee run parallel to the U2 line, which does not run to Rosenthal, however.
In 1995, the first stretch of tram route along Bornholmer Straße was opened to the west in two stages. The Rudolf-Virchow-Klinikum and the metro stations located in Seestraße, Wedding, and Osloer Straße in Gesundbrunnen have since re-connected to the tram network.
Since 1997, the tram stops right at the Friedrichstraße station. Previously, passengers changing between modes of transport here had to take a long walk to get to the restored train station. Since then, the trams terminate along the reversing loop "Am Kupfergraben" near the Humboldt University and the Museum Island.
The following year saw the re-opening of tram facilities at Alexanderplatz. These routes now come directly from the intersection with Otto-Braun-Straße across the square, stopping both at the U2 underground station and the overground station for regional and commuter trains, where there is a direct interchange to the U5 and U8 lines. The increase of tram accident victims in the pedestrian
zone feared by critics has not occurred.
In 2000, the tram tracks were extended from the previous terminus at Revalerstraße past the Warschauer Straße S-Bahn station to the U-Bahn station of the same name. Since there is no room for a return loop, a blunt ending track was established. In order to accomplish this, bi-directional vehicles were procured. However, the tracks, which were further extended in 1995 to the Oberbaumbrücke, have not yet been expanded to Hermannplatz as had been planned long before.
Since 2000, the tram in Pankow runs beyond the previous terminus Pankow Kirche on to Guyotstraße, connecting the local development areas to the network.
On 12 December 2004, BVG introduced the BVG 2005 plus transport concept. The main focus was the introduction of Metro lines on densely traveled routes, which do not have any subway or suburban traffic. In the tram network, therefore, nine MetroTram lines were introduced and the remaining lines were partially rearranged. The numbering scheme is based on that of 1993, but has undergone minor adjustments. MetroTram and MetroBus lines carry a "M" in front of the line number.
Single metro lines operate on the main radial network; As a rule the line number corresponds to that of 1993; The M4 from the lines 2, 3 and 4, the M5 from the 5, and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines 52 and 53 were included as a line M1 in the scheme. The supplementary lines of these radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have acted as amplifiers of the respective metro service. Metro services of the ring and tangential net received a number in the 10er range, the supplementary lines retained the 20er number. An exception is the subsequently established line 37, which, together with the lines M17 and 27, travels a common route. Of the 50 lines the only remaining was the 50, the 60 lines remained largely unaffected by the measures.
M1: Niederschönhausen, Schillerstraße and Rosenthal to Mitte, Am Kupfergraben replacing 52 and 53
M2: Heinersdorf to Hackescher Markt
M4: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt
M5: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt
M6: Hellersdorf, Riesaer Straße to Schwartzkopffstraße
M8: Ahrensfelde to Schwartzkopffstraße
M10: Prenzlauer Berg, Eberswalder Straße to Warschauer Straße replacing 20
M13: Wedding to Warschauer Straße replacing 23
M17: Falkenberg to Schöneweide
In 2006, the second line was opened in the western part of the city, and the M10 line moved beyond its former terminus Eberswalderstraße along Bernauer Straße in Gesundbrunnen to the Nordbahnhof in the district of Mitte, before it was being extended to Hauptbahnhof in 2015.
In May 2007, a new line from Prenzlauer Tor along Karl-Liebknecht-Straße towards Alexanderplatz was put into operation, where the line M2 leads directly to the urban and regional train station instead of the current circulation through Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz to Hackescher Markt. The previous route along Alt and Neu Schönhauser Straße no longer carries regular services but operates only as a feeder line.
On September 4, 2011, the one and a half kilometer long new line from the S-Bahn station Adlershof was taken by the science and business location Adlershof to the provisional endpoint Karl-Ziegler-Straße at the campus Adlershof, the Humboldt University in operation. The route with three newly built stops cost 13 million euros and was first operated by the lines 60 and 61 in the overlapping 10-minute intervals. Since 13 December 2015, the line 63 runs instead of the line 60 to Karl Ziegler Street. Originally, the connection should already be completed in 1999. However, the plan approval procedure was only completed in 2002. Shortly before the plan approval decision expired after five years, the project was approved on August 9, 2007, and soon after the first masts for the overhead line were set up. It is expected to have 9000 passengers per working day. This is just as similar to the tram line being built along the Upper Changi Road East and the Flora Drive, and the subsequent linking of Flora Estate into the Upper Changi area.
TOWARDS THE HAUPTBAHNHOF
At the timetable change on 14 December 2014, a new tram line was opened from Naturkundemuseum to Hauptbahnhof via Invalidenstraße, with the final stop at Lüneburger Straße in the district of Alt-Moabit. The double-track line is 2.3 kilometers long to the main station, and new stops have been built on the Chausseestraße, the Invalidenpark and the Hauptbahnhof. This is followed by the 1.1 km single track block bypass that has three stops at Lesser-Ury-Weg, Lueneburger Straße and Clara-Jaschke-Straße, as well as the installation area. The planned opening date has already been postponed several times. Originally planned to complete in 2002. However, the plan was caught by the Administrative Court in 2004 and revised to either 2006 and 2007. However, the first 80 metres of the track has already been built during the construction of Berlin Hauptbahnhof.
A new approval procedure was completed on 15 January 2010. In April 2011, the preparatory construction work had begun. The Ministry of Transport revised the 50 metres of the length, a two-meter-wide strip of garden to the state of Berlin to provide enough space for all road users. In the course of the work on the new line sector, the line branch along, Chausseestraße (between Invalidenstraße and Wöhlertstraße), Schwartzkopffstraße, Pflugstraße, Wöhlertstraße was permanently closed on 26 August 2013. The commissioning of the new line was initially only with the line M5. With the restoration of the connection from the Nordbahnhof to the underground station Naturkundemuseum, the new line from 28 August 2015 could also be used by the lines M8 and M10.
The first horse-drawn tramlines did not use any special labeling as they were radially inferior from the respective endpoints in the center and thus had few points of contact with other lines. Only with the expansion of the network into the city center was there a need to distinguish the lines from each other. From the 1880s, most major German cities therefore used colored target signs or signal boards, sometimes both together. In Berlin, these were always kept in the same combination. As identification colors red, yellow, green and white were used, from 1898 additionally blue. The panels were one or two colors, the latter either half / half divided or in thirds with a line in the second color. However, the number of signal panels used was not sufficient to equip each line with its own color code. In addition, crossing or side by side lines should run with different signal panels. This meant that individual lines had to change their color code several times in the course of their existence. As a result of the electrification and the takeover of the New Berlin Horse Ride by the Great Berlin Horse Railways / Great Berlin Tram (GBPfE / GBS) increased their number of lines at the turn of the century abruptly. With a view of the Hamburg tram, where in the summer of 1900 for the first time in German-speaking countries line numbers were introduced, experimented the GBS from 1901 also with the numbers. In the timetables of this time, the lines were numbered, but could change their order every year. The numbering scheme should include not only the GBS but also its secondary lines. At the same time, letter-number combinations as they appeared in the timetable booklet should be avoided.
The scheme introduced on May 6, 1902 was relatively simple: single numbers were reserved for the ring lines, two-digit for the remaining lines. Initially, the tens gave information about where the line was going; 10 lines were to be found in Moabit, 60 lines in Weissensee and 70 lines in Lichtenberg. The lines of the West Berlin suburban railway were assigned the letters A to M, the Berlin-Charlottenburg tram the letters N to Z and the lines of the Southern Berlin suburban railway were numbered with Roman numerals. The 1910 taken over by the GBS northeastern Berliner Vorortbahn received in 1913 the line designation NO. The colored signal panels remained in parallel until about 1904. In addition, the lines created during this period were still colored signal panels with new, sometimes even three-color color combinations.
Insertors were marked separately from the March 1903. They bore the letter E behind the line number of their main line. In later years, these lines increasingly took over the tasks of booster drives and were therefore shown in the timetables as separate lines. On April 15, 1912, the GBS introduced the first line with three-digit number. The 164 was created by extending the 64, which was maintained in parallel. In the following months more lines were provided with 100 numbers or newly set up, usually as a line pair to the existing line.
The surrounding businesses were not affected by the change in May 1902 and set on their own markings. The lines of the urban trams and the meterspurigen lines of the Teltower circular orbits were still marked with signal panels, on the other hand, the BESTAG and in Heiligensee, not the lines, but only the targets were marked with different colored signs. In 1908, the Spandauer Straßenbahn introduced the line identification with letters, which corresponded to the initial letter of the destination (line P to Pichelsdorf, etc.), in 1917 the company switched to numbers. In Cöpenick, the lines were marked from 1906 with numbers, from 1910 additionally with colored signal panels for the individual routes (red lines to Friedrichshagen, etc.). The Berlin Ostbahnen used from 1913 also like the SBV Roman numbers as line numbers. The other companies, including the standard-gauge lines of the Teltower Kreisbahnen, did not use a line marking.
With the merger of companies for the Berlin tram, the GBS's numbering scheme was extended to cover the rest of the network. Usually, those numbers are assigned, whose lines were continued during the World War I. For example, it came about that the lines operating in Köpenick received mainly 80s numbers. Letters were still awarded to the tram lines in the BVG until 1924, after which it was reserved for the suburban tariff buses.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Berlin public transport companies had to stop a large part of the bus traffic to save fuel. Tram traffic has been extended accordingly. The newly established amplifier lines contributed to the distinction of the master lines 200 and 300 numbers. From 1941, the night routes of the bus and the tram networks were later classified into the 400-series numbers. The measures were existed until the end of the war. The last 100 numbers were renumbered in May 31, 1949.
After the administrative separation of the BVG initially only changed the numbering scheme. Tram lines running from the east to the west of Berlin kept their number after the grid separation in 1953 and as a result of network thinning, individual lines were disappeared. The BVG-West waived from July 1966, the prefix A on the bus lines, the BVG-Ost waived in 1 January 1968. While in the west tram traffic was stopped 15 months later, the passenger in the east could not tell from the line number whether it was a tram or bus line. The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe therefore planned to systematise their network in the 1970s. The city center lines of the tram should receive the line numbers 1 to 30, in Köpenick should retain their 80s numbers. The remaining numbers were intended for the bus. Night lines received from 1973 uniformly 100 numbers, for the tram were initially provided only the numbers from 120. The conversion of the daily lines was only partially completed.
After the reunification, in two steps, a uniform numbering scheme was introduced, which included the lines in the state of Brandenburg. The Berlin tram was assigned the line number range from 1 to 86, then followed by the overland operations in Woltersdorf, Schöneiche and Strausberg with the numbers 87 to 89. The Potsdam tram received the 90s line numbers. E-lines were no longer listed separately in the timetable, but the amplifiers continued to operate as such until 2004. Night lines were indicated on both means of transport by a preceding N and the three-digit line numbers were henceforth intended for the bus routes. The first conversion of 2 June 1991 followed the Berlin tram lines on 23 May 1993. The network was reorganized and divided into five number ranges. The main focus was on the focus on the historical center. Single lines formed the radial main network, 10 lines their supplementary network. 20er lines were intended for the ring and Tangentiallinien. There were 50 lines in the district of Pankow, 60 lines in the district of Köpenick analogous to the bus lines there.
BVG had instituted a new line structure, where the BVG has 22 lines since 2004. MetroTram also uses the symbol MetroTram.svg. On 12 December 2004, BVG had introduced the transport concept, BVG 2005+. The main content was the introduction of metro lines on busy routes where there are no S-Bahn or U-Bahn. In the tram network, therefore, nine tram lines under MetroTram were introduced, and the other lines have permanently rearranged. The numbering scheme is that it was similar to the 1993 scheme, but has undergone major adjustments.
Metro lines with a single digit number travel through the radial main network, as a rule, the line number corresponds to that of 1993, so the lines became 2, 3, and 4 into M4, the 5 into M5 and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines, 52 and 53 were included as line M1 in the main scheme. The supplementary lines of the radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have been merged into the amplifier of the metro line. Metro lines of the ring and tangential network received the numbers in the 10 range, whose supplementary lines retain the 20 range. An example is the retrofitted line, route 37, which together with the lines of M17 and 27 runs a common route. Of the 50 routes remained, the only one of the 50, the 60 lines were remained untouched by these measures.
FLEET
The Berlin tram has three different families of vehicles. In addition to Tatra high-floor vehicles there are low floor six-axle double articulated trams in unidirectional and bidirectional version (GT6N and GT6N-ZR), and since 2008, the new Flexity Berlin. The Tatra KT4 trams were phased out by 2017, and T6A2/B6A2 trams were phased out by 2007, those are Communism-era trams.
The number of trams has shrunk continuously. The BVB had 1,024 vehicles, while currently there are about 600. The reduction is possible because the new low-floor cars on average achieve more than twice the mileage per year (100,000 km), and, being longer, carry more passengers and therefore rarely operate in double header.
In July 2006, the cost of energy per vehicle-kilometer was:
tram €0.33
coupled set €0.45
bus €0.42
underground train €1.18
GT6N
Between 1992 and 2003 45 bidirectional T6N-ZRs and 105 unidirectional GT6Ns were purchased. The cars have a width of 2.30 m and a length of 26.80 m. They can carry 150 passengers and can run as coupled sets.
134 cars were in a risky transaction leased to a US investor and leased back. The SNB has accrued more than €157 million to hedge potential losses from cross-border business.
In the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 the SNB began the carriage 1006 and 1016 a sample exercise. They were provided with a new drive technology and new software such as the Flexcitys. The only mutually detachable vehicles had to distinguish the new car numbers 1506 and the 1516.
FLEXITY BERLIN
In April 2005, a European tender was issued for low floor trams, half unidirectional, and half bidirectional vehicles. The latter will respond better to the BVG and construction faults and build on certain routes for cost savings. The Vienna tramway tram type ULF was tested in passenger service.
On 12 June 2006, the BVG decided to procure new trams. These are based on the tested Incentro, referred to by Bombardier as Flexity Berlin. In October 2008, for €13 million, four prototypes were ordered and since then extensively tested. There are one- and two-way cars, respectively 30.8 and 40 m in length, carrying about 180 or 240 passengers. Use in coupled sets is not possible.
On 29 June 2009, the Supervisory Board of the BVG decided to buy 99 Flexity cars, 40 of which will be long and 59 short versions, for €305.3 million. In September 2011 the first 13 long cars began to be delivered. To replace all old Tatra cars, a further 33 costing €92.3 million may need to be ordered in 2017. The trams will be manufactured at Bombardier's Bautzen works or Hennigsdorf.
In June 2012 the Supervisory Board approved the BVG 2nd Serial recall of an additional 39 trams of type "Flexity Berlin". Considering the order of over 99 vehicles from 2010, that means a total of 38 vehicles and 47 long bidirectional vehicles, as well as 53 short bidirectional vehicles will be ordered from the manufacturer, Bombardier Transportation. Thus, the SNB responds to both the very positive development of passenger numbers at the tram and allows bidirectional vehicles the eventual abandonment of turning loops and enhancing the design stops. Once this procurement is secured in 2017, then the old Tatra cars can be scrapped. The State of Berlin's funded budget is €439.1 million.
The new cars are equipped with 2.40 m wheel spacing, 10 cm wider than the existing low-floor trams. The track width was chosen so that modifications in the network are not necessary This affects only the routes, which will operate on the Flexity. Köpenick and parts of the Pankow network, the web is unable to drive.
In December 2015, BVG exercised an option for another 47 Flexity trams from Bombardier to handle increased ridership.
TRAM DEPOTS
Depots are required for storage and maintenance purposes. BVG has seven operational tram depots, five of which are used for storage of service trams:
Kniprodestraße, in Friedrichshain on the east side of the junction of Kniprodestraße and Conrad-Blenkle-Straße. This depot is used for track storage and rail-grinding machinery only. It is on bus route 200, and the access tracks connect to tram line M10.
Köpenick, on the west side of Wendenschloßstraße, south of the junction with Müggelheimer Straße. The depot entrance is on tram route 62.
Lichtenberg, on the east side of Siegfriedstraße, north of Lichtenberg U-Bahn station. The depot entrance is on tram routes 21 & 37 and bus routes 240 & 256.
Marzahn, on the south side of Landsberger Allee, east of Blumberger Damm. The depot has a tram stop on the M6 and 18 lines. Bus route 197 also passes the depot.
Nalepastraße, on the east side of Nalepastraße, in Oberschöneweide. It is not on any tram or bus route, but its access line connects with tram routes M17, 21, 37, 63 and 67 at the junction of Wilhelminenhofstraße and Edisonstraße.
Niederschönhausen, on the north-east corner of the junction of Deitzgenstraße and Schillerstraße. The line is on tram line M1. The depot is used for the storage of works machinery and historic, and preserved trams.
Weissensee, on the north side of Bernkasteler Straße near the junction of Berliner Allee and Rennbahnstraße. The depot entrance is not directly passed by any bus or tram route, but tram routes 12 & 27 and bus routes 156, 255 & 259 serve the adjacent Berliner Allee/Rennbahnstraße tram stop.
Out-of-service trams returning to Nalepastraße and Weissensee depot remain in-service until reaching the special tram stop at each depot.
GENERAL VIEW
The Berlin tram network is today the third largest in Germany
Around Berlin there are some additional tram systems that do not belong to the BVG:
the Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam (operators of the Potsdam Tramway)
the Strausberg Railway (actually, a tram line located in the town of Strausberg)
the Woltersdorf Tramway (line 87, partly in Berlin)
the Schöneiche-Rüdersdorf Tramway (line 88, partly in Berlin)
The last three companies are located in the eastern suburbs at the eastern edge of Berlin. Each of them has only one line.
WIKIPEDIA
The crew of the waiting empty gets ready to provide a roll-by for the loaded train coming off the Big Horn Sub. Although the loads are on the wye, the two tracks run parallel for the better part of a mile before the connection splits off and makes the turn that will redirect the train roughly 170 degrees to go east on the Forsyth Sub.
Like many trains bound for points east on the old NP, this is the westernmost point of their journey. In the halcyon days of boom coal there was an effort to build the "Tongue River Railroad" between branchline endpoints of Decker and Colstrip and shave many miles off such trips. Such a shortcut would have rendered the Jones Jct. connection pretty quiet, perhaps even rusty and idle? Ultimately, the Tongue River line never got off the drawing board and coal's peak ebbed rendering it a historical footnote. September 7, 2023.
The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad (C&TSR) is a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge heritage railroad running between Chama, New Mexico and Antonito, Colorado. The line runs for 64 miles (103 km)over 10,015 ft (3,053 m) Cumbres Pass and through Toltec Gorge, from which it takes its name. Trains operate from both endpoints and meet at the midpoint. The train traverses the border between Colorado and New Mexico, crossing back and forth between the two states 11 times. The line was originally a portion of the San Juan Line of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway, jointly owned by the Colorado and New Mexico since 1970. The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad received the Designation of a National Historic Landmark in 2012 by the United States National Park Service.
The Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad continues to operate daily between May and October of each year with restored steam locomotives. Trains depart each morning from both Chama, New Mexico and Antonito, Colorado. In peak season there are trains every day of the week in either direction. They meet at Osier, the midpoint of the line. Passengers may continue on their train to the other end or switch trains to return to their original terminal. Through riders have the option of a motor coach return to their original terminal.
All the steam locomotives at the C&TS were built for and operated their entire careers for the Denver and Rio Grande Western. All 2-8-2 Mikados, these range from the relatively small K-27 "Mudhen",#463, once owned by Gene Autry, to the large K-37s, originally built as standard gauge locomotives. The mainstays are the venerable D&RGW K-36 fleet, produced by Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1925. The only two Surviving D&RGW rotary snowplows are onsite and both have operated for the C&TS.
The C&TSRR D&RGW 168 locomotive, a 4-6-0, was moved from Colorado Springs, Colorado to Antonito, Colorado with the intent of use for service once restored. The #168 was built in 1883 and is only one of two remaining of the original twelve locomotives built between 1883 and 1885 for the D&RG line. The other locomotive, #169, is on static display in Alamosa, Colorado, and is not operational.
The Cumbres and Toltec is highly regarded by both railfans and historians due to its relative authenticity and surviving historic fabric. Chama houses one of the most physically complete railroad yards from the steam era in the US. Although portions of the roundhouse, warehouses, and parking lots have been changed, the railroad yard has the ambiance of pre-1960 railroad operations. The yard tracks contain authentic rolling stock and structures of the Denver and Rio Grande indigenous to the railroad line.
As the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad San Juan Extension, the railway was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The boundaries of the NRHP listed area were increased in 2007. The railroad was featured extensively in the 1969 film The Good Guys and the Bad Guys, and was used in the opening sequence of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The 2014 film A Million Ways to Die in the West also featured this railroad.
The John F. Kennedy Expressway is a 17.8-mile (28.65 km) long freeway that travels northwest from the Chicago Loop to O'Hare International Airport. The highway is named for the 35th U.S. President, John F. Kennedy, and conforms to the Chicago-area convention of using the somewhat misleading suffix Expressway. The Interstate 90 portion of the Kennedy is a part of the much longer I-90 (which runs 3,111.52 miles (5,007.51 km) from Boston, Massachusetts to Seattle, Washington). The Kennedy's official endpoints are the Circle Interchange with Interstate 290 (Eisenhower Expressway/Congress Parkway) and the Dan Ryan Expressway (also I-90/94) at the east end, and the O'Hare Airport terminals at the west end. The Interstate 190 portion of the Kennedy is 3.07 miles (4.94 km) long and is meant to serve airport traffic. Interstate 90 picks up the Kennedy destination and runs a further 6.29 miles (10.12 km), before joining with I-94 for the final 8.44 miles (13.58 km).[1]
Traveling eastbound from O'Hare, the Kennedy interchanges with the eastern terminus of the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway (Interstate 90) and with the Tri-State Tollway (Interstate 294) at a complex junction just west of Illinois Route 171 (Cumberland Avenue). The Kennedy later merges with the southern end of the Edens Expressway (Interstate 94) at Montrose Avenue; the Kennedy (at this point both I-90 and I-94) then turns south to its junction with the Dan Ryan and Eisenhower Expressways and Congress Parkway at the Circle Interchange in downtown Chicago.
With up to 327,000 vehicles traveling on some portions of the Kennedy daily, the Kennedy and its South Side extension, the Dan Ryan, are the busiest roads in Illinois.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Expressway
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_...
The Berlin tramway (German: Straßenbahn Berlin) is the main tram system in Berlin, Germany. It is one of the oldest tram networks in the world having its origins in 1865 and is operated by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), which was founded in 1929. It is notable for being the third-largest tram system in the world, after Melbourne and St. Petersburg. Berlin's streetcar system is made up of 22 lines that operate across a standard gauge network, with almost 800 stops and measuring almost 190 kilometres in route length and 430 kilometres in line length. Nine of the lines, called Metrotram, are operated continuously around the clock, and are identified with the letter "M" before their number; the other thirteen lines are regular city tram lines and are identified by just a line number.
Most of the recent network is within the confines of the former East Berlin - tram lines within West Berlin having been replaced by buses during the division of Berlin (the first extension into West Berlin opened in 1994 on today's M13). In the eastern vicinity of the city there are also three private tram lines that are not part of the main system, whereas to the south-west of Berlin is the Potsdam tram system with its own network of lines.
HISTORY
In 1865, a horse tramway was established in Berlin. In 1881, the world's first electric tram line opened. Numerous private and municipal operating companies constructed new routes, so by the end of the 19th century the network developed quite rapidly, and the horse trams were changed into electric ones. By 1930, the network had a route length of over 630 km with more than 90 lines. In 1929, all operating companies were unified into the BVG. After World War II, BVG was divided into an eastern and a western company but was once again reunited in 1992, after the fall of East Germany. In West Berlin, by 1967 the last tram lines had been shut down. With the exception of two lines constructed after German reunification, the Berlin tram continues to be limited to the eastern portion of Berlin.
HORSE BUSES
The public transport system of Berlin is the oldest one in Germany. In 1825, the first bus line from Brandenburger Tor to Charlottenburg was opened by Simon Kremser, already with a timetable. The first bus service inside the city has operated since 1840 between Alexanderplatz and Potsdamer Bahnhof. It was run by Israel Moses Henoch, who had organized the cab service since 1815. On 1 January 1847, the Concessionierte Berliner Omnibus Compagnie (Concessionary Berlin Bus Company) started its first horse-bus line. The growing market witnessed the launch of numerous additional companies, with 36 bus companies in Berlin by 1864.
HORSE TRAMS
On 22 June 1865, the opening of Berlin's first horse tramway marked the beginning of the age of trams in Germany, spanning from Brandenburger Tor along today's Straße des 17. Juni (17 June Road) to Charlottenburg. Two months later, on 28 August, it was extended along Dorotheenstraße to Kupfergraben near today's Museumsinsel (Museum Island), a terminal stop which is still in service today. Like the horse-bus, many companies followed the new development and built horse-tram networks in all parts of the today's urban area. In 1873, a route from Rosenthaler Platz to the Gesundbrunnen was opened, to be operated by the new Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway) which would later become the dominant company in Berlin under the name of Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS; Great Berlin Tramway).
ELECTRIFICATION
On 16 May 1881, the region of Berlin again wrote transport history. In the village of Groß-Lichterfelde, which was incorporated into Berlin-Steglitz 39 years later, Werner von Siemens opened the world's first electric tramway. The electric tram in Groß-Lichterfelde was built to 1,000 mm metre gauge and ran from today's suburban station, Lichterfelde Ost, to the cadet school on Zehlendorfer Straße (today Finckensteinallee). Initially, the route was intended merely as a testing facility. Siemens named it an "elevated line taken down from its pillars and girders" because he wanted to build a network of electric elevated lines in Berlin. But the skeptical town council did not allow him to do this until 1902, when the first elevated line opened.
The first tests of electric traction on Berlin's standard gauge began on 1 May 1882, with overhead supply and in 1886 with chemical accumulators, were not very successful. Definitively, electric traction of standard-gauge trams in Berlin was established in 1895. The first tram line with an overhead track supply ran in an industrial area near Berlin-
Gesundbrunnen station. The first line in more a representative area took place with accumulators for its first year, but got a catenary, too, four years later. In 1902, the electrification with overhead wiring had been completed, except for very few lines on the periphery.
The last horse-drawn tram line closed in 1910.
UNDERGROUND TRAMS
On 28 December 1899, it became possible to travel underground, even under the Spree, upon completion of the Spreetunnel between Stralau and Treptow. Owing to structural problems, it was closed on 25 February 1932. From 1916 to 1951, the tram had a second tunnel, the Lindentunnel, passing under the well-known boulevard Unter den Linden.
GREAT VARIETY OF COMPANIES UNTIL THE FORMATION OF THE BVG
The history of tramway companies of the Berlin Strassenbahn is very complicated. Besides the private companies, which often changed because of takeovers, mergers, and bankruptcies, the cities of Berlin, Spandau, Köpenick, Rixdorf; the villages Steglitz, Mariendorf, Britz, Niederschönhausen, Friedrichshagen, Heiligensee and Französisch Buchholz, and the Kreis Teltow (Teltow district) had municipal tramway companies.
The most important private operating company was the Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway), which called itself Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS) (Great Berlin Tramway) after starting the electrification. GBS acquired nearly all of the other companies through the years. In 1920, the GBS merged with the municipal companies BESTAG and SSB to become the Berliner Straßenbahn (Berlin Tramway), which was reorganized in 1929 into the newly formed municipal Berliner Verkehrs-AG (BVG) (Berlin Transport Company). Besides the tramway, the BVG also took over the elevated and underground rail lines and the bus routes which were previously operated primarily by the Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus-Actien-Gesellschaft (ABOAG) (General Berlin Bus Corporation).
The following table includes all companies that operated tramways in today's Berlin before the formation of the BVG. The background color of each line marks the drive method which the respective company used to serve their lines at the time of the formation (blue = horse tram, yellow = steam tram, white = electric tram, red = benzole tram).
On the day of its formation, the BVG had 89 tramway lines: a network of 634 km in length, over 4,000 tramway cars, and more than 14,400 employees. An average tram car ran over 42,500 km per year. The Berlin tramway had more than 929 million passengers in 1929, at which point, the BVG already had increased its service to 93 tramway lines.
In the early 1930s, the Berlin tramway network began to decline; after partial closing of the world's first electric tram in 1930, on 31 October 1934, the oldest tramway of Germany followed. The Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni) was rebuilt by Nazi planners following a monumental East-West-Axis, and the tramway had to leave. In 1938, however, there were still 71 tramway lines, 2,800 tram cars and about 12,500 employees. Consequently, the bus network was extended during this time. Since 1933, Berlin also had trolley buses.
During World War II, some transport tasks were given back to the tramway to save oil. Thus an extensive transport of goods was established. Bombings (from March 1943 on) and the lack of personnel and electricity caused the transportation performance to decline. Due to the final Battle for Berlin, the tramway system collapsed on 23 April 1945.
THE NETWORK SINCE 1945
The BVG was - like most other Berlin institutions—split into two different companies on 1 August 1949. Two separate companies were installed, the BVG West in the three western sections (with 36 tram lines) and the BVG Ost (Berlin Public Transit Authority East) (with 13 lines) in the Soviet sector. The latter became in 1969 the VEB Kombinat Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVB). On 14 October 1950, traffic on the lines from West Berlin to the Brandenburgian suburbs Kleinmachnow and Schönefeld stopped, and on 15 January 1953, traffic over the downtown sector border did, too.
From 1949 to 1955, both companies exchanged the Thomson-Houston type trolley poles of their tramcars line by line for pantographs.
WEST
From 1954 onwards, a shift took place in the public transit plans of West-Berlin. From that moment, plans aimed at discontinuing the tramway service and replacing it with extended underground and bus lines. The tramway was considered old-fashioned and unnecessary since Berlin already had a well-developed underground network. From 1954 to 1962 numerous tram lines were replaced with bus routes and extended underground lines and stops. By 1962, the western part of the city had only 18 tram lines left out of the original 36.
On 2 October 1967 the last tramcar traveled through West-Berlin over the last line, which carried number 55 - from Zoo Station via Ernst-Reuter-Square, the City Hall in Charlottenburg, Jungfernheide S-Bahn station, Siemensdamm, Nonnendammallee,
Falkenseer Platz, and Neuendorfer Allee to Spandau, Hakenfelde.
Today, many MetroBus lines follow the routes of former tram lines.
The separation of the city resulted in many problems and difficulties for the public transportation system. Tram lines could no longer travel through the city's center as usual, and the main tram garage was moved to Uferstraße in Western Berlin.
EAST
Soviet Moscow was, with its tram-free avenues, the role model for East-Berlin's transport planning. The car-oriented mentality of West Berlin also settled in the East since a lot of tram lines closed here as well in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, the lines through the city center closed down at the same time as the new city expansion on Alexanderplatz started to grow.
However, complete elimination of the city's tram network was neither planned nor even discussed.
Those lines were built in order to connect the new housing estates Marzahn, Hohenschönhausen, and finally Hellersdorf to the city's tram network from the late 1970s to the early 1990s:
AFTER REUNIFICATION
In 1992, the West Berlin transport company BVG took over the East Berlin's BVB. (In addition to bus and subway lines, the new BVG also ran the trams, which now only circulated in the former East Berlin districts.)
There was an attempt to shut down the tram routes running to Pankow, because the trams in Schönhauser Allee run parallel to the U2 line, which does not run to Rosenthal, however.
In 1995, the first stretch of tram route along Bornholmer Straße was opened to the west in two stages. The Rudolf-Virchow-Klinikum and the metro stations located in Seestraße, Wedding, and Osloer Straße in Gesundbrunnen have since re-connected to the tram network.
Since 1997, the tram stops right at the Friedrichstraße station. Previously, passengers changing between modes of transport here had to take a long walk to get to the restored train station. Since then, the trams terminate along the reversing loop "Am Kupfergraben" near the Humboldt University and the Museum Island.
The following year saw the re-opening of tram facilities at Alexanderplatz. These routes now come directly from the intersection with Otto-Braun-Straße across the square, stopping both at the U2 underground station and the overground station for regional and commuter trains, where there is a direct interchange to the U5 and U8 lines. The increase of tram accident victims in the pedestrian
zone feared by critics has not occurred.
In 2000, the tram tracks were extended from the previous terminus at Revalerstraße past the Warschauer Straße S-Bahn station to the U-Bahn station of the same name. Since there is no room for a return loop, a blunt ending track was established. In order to accomplish this, bi-directional vehicles were procured. However, the tracks, which were further extended in 1995 to the Oberbaumbrücke, have not yet been expanded to Hermannplatz as had been planned long before.
Since 2000, the tram in Pankow runs beyond the previous terminus Pankow Kirche on to Guyotstraße, connecting the local development areas to the network.
On 12 December 2004, BVG introduced the BVG 2005 plus transport concept. The main focus was the introduction of Metro lines on densely traveled routes, which do not have any subway or suburban traffic. In the tram network, therefore, nine MetroTram lines were introduced and the remaining lines were partially rearranged. The numbering scheme is based on that of 1993, but has undergone minor adjustments. MetroTram and MetroBus lines carry a "M" in front of the line number.
Single metro lines operate on the main radial network; As a rule the line number corresponds to that of 1993; The M4 from the lines 2, 3 and 4, the M5 from the 5, and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines 52 and 53 were included as a line M1 in the scheme. The supplementary lines of these radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have acted as amplifiers of the respective metro service. Metro services of the ring and tangential net received a number in the 10er range, the supplementary lines retained the 20er number. An exception is the subsequently established line 37, which, together with the lines M17 and 27, travels a common route. Of the 50 lines the only remaining was the 50, the 60 lines remained largely unaffected by the measures.
M1: Niederschönhausen, Schillerstraße and Rosenthal to Mitte, Am Kupfergraben replacing 52 and 53
M2: Heinersdorf to Hackescher Markt
M4: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt
M5: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt
M6: Hellersdorf, Riesaer Straße to Schwartzkopffstraße
M8: Ahrensfelde to Schwartzkopffstraße
M10: Prenzlauer Berg, Eberswalder Straße to Warschauer Straße replacing 20
M13: Wedding to Warschauer Straße replacing 23
M17: Falkenberg to Schöneweide
In 2006, the second line was opened in the western part of the city, and the M10 line moved beyond its former terminus Eberswalderstraße along Bernauer Straße in Gesundbrunnen to the Nordbahnhof in the district of Mitte, before it was being extended to Hauptbahnhof in 2015.
In May 2007, a new line from Prenzlauer Tor along Karl-Liebknecht-Straße towards Alexanderplatz was put into operation, where the line M2 leads directly to the urban and regional train station instead of the current circulation through Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz to Hackescher Markt. The previous route along Alt and Neu Schönhauser Straße no longer carries regular services but operates only as a feeder line.
On September 4, 2011, the one and a half kilometer long new line from the S-Bahn station Adlershof was taken by the science and business location Adlershof to the provisional endpoint Karl-Ziegler-Straße at the campus Adlershof, the Humboldt University in operation. The route with three newly built stops cost 13 million euros and was first operated by the lines 60 and 61 in the overlapping 10-minute intervals. Since 13 December 2015, the line 63 runs instead of the line 60 to Karl Ziegler Street. Originally, the connection should already be completed in 1999. However, the plan approval procedure was only completed in 2002. Shortly before the plan approval decision expired after five years, the project was approved on August 9, 2007, and soon after the first masts for the overhead line were set up. It is expected to have 9000 passengers per working day. This is just as similar to the tram line being built along the Upper Changi Road East and the Flora Drive, and the subsequent linking of Flora Estate into the Upper Changi area.
TOWARDS THE HAUPTBAHNHOF
At the timetable change on 14 December 2014, a new tram line was opened from Naturkundemuseum to Hauptbahnhof via Invalidenstraße, with the final stop at Lüneburger Straße in the district of Alt-Moabit. The double-track line is 2.3 kilometers long to the main station, and new stops have been built on the Chausseestraße, the Invalidenpark and the Hauptbahnhof. This is followed by the 1.1 km single track block bypass that has three stops at Lesser-Ury-Weg, Lueneburger Straße and Clara-Jaschke-Straße, as well as the installation area. The planned opening date has already been postponed several times. Originally planned to complete in 2002. However, the plan was caught by the Administrative Court in 2004 and revised to either 2006 and 2007. However, the first 80 metres of the track has already been built during the construction of Berlin Hauptbahnhof.
A new approval procedure was completed on 15 January 2010. In April 2011, the preparatory construction work had begun. The Ministry of Transport revised the 50 metres of the length, a two-meter-wide strip of garden to the state of Berlin to provide enough space for all road users. In the course of the work on the new line sector, the line branch along, Chausseestraße (between Invalidenstraße and Wöhlertstraße), Schwartzkopffstraße, Pflugstraße, Wöhlertstraße was permanently closed on 26 August 2013. The commissioning of the new line was initially only with the line M5. With the restoration of the connection from the Nordbahnhof to the underground station Naturkundemuseum, the new line from 28 August 2015 could also be used by the lines M8 and M10.
The first horse-drawn tramlines did not use any special labeling as they were radially inferior from the respective endpoints in the center and thus had few points of contact with other lines. Only with the expansion of the network into the city center was there a need to distinguish the lines from each other. From the 1880s, most major German cities therefore used colored target signs or signal boards, sometimes both together. In Berlin, these were always kept in the same combination. As identification colors red, yellow, green and white were used, from 1898 additionally blue. The panels were one or two colors, the latter either half / half divided or in thirds with a line in the second color. However, the number of signal panels used was not sufficient to equip each line with its own color code. In addition, crossing or side by side lines should run with different signal panels. This meant that individual lines had to change their color code several times in the course of their existence. As a result of the electrification and the takeover of the New Berlin Horse Ride by the Great Berlin Horse Railways / Great Berlin Tram (GBPfE / GBS) increased their number of lines at the turn of the century abruptly. With a view of the Hamburg tram, where in the summer of 1900 for the first time in German-speaking countries line numbers were introduced, experimented the GBS from 1901 also with the numbers. In the timetables of this time, the lines were numbered, but could change their order every year. The numbering scheme should include not only the GBS but also its secondary lines. At the same time, letter-number combinations as they appeared in the timetable booklet should be avoided.
The scheme introduced on May 6, 1902 was relatively simple: single numbers were reserved for the ring lines, two-digit for the remaining lines. Initially, the tens gave information about where the line was going; 10 lines were to be found in Moabit, 60 lines in Weissensee and 70 lines in Lichtenberg. The lines of the West Berlin suburban railway were assigned the letters A to M, the Berlin-Charlottenburg tram the letters N to Z and the lines of the Southern Berlin suburban railway were numbered with Roman numerals. The 1910 taken over by the GBS northeastern Berliner Vorortbahn received in 1913 the line designation NO. The colored signal panels remained in parallel until about 1904. In addition, the lines created during this period were still colored signal panels with new, sometimes even three-color color combinations.
Insertors were marked separately from the March 1903. They bore the letter E behind the line number of their main line. In later years, these lines increasingly took over the tasks of booster drives and were therefore shown in the timetables as separate lines. On April 15, 1912, the GBS introduced the first line with three-digit number. The 164 was created by extending the 64, which was maintained in parallel. In the following months more lines were provided with 100 numbers or newly set up, usually as a line pair to the existing line.
The surrounding businesses were not affected by the change in May 1902 and set on their own markings. The lines of the urban trams and the meterspurigen lines of the Teltower circular orbits were still marked with signal panels, on the other hand, the BESTAG and in Heiligensee, not the lines, but only the targets were marked with different colored signs. In 1908, the Spandauer Straßenbahn introduced the line identification with letters, which corresponded to the initial letter of the destination (line P to Pichelsdorf, etc.), in 1917 the company switched to numbers. In Cöpenick, the lines were marked from 1906 with numbers, from 1910 additionally with colored signal panels for the individual routes (red lines to Friedrichshagen, etc.). The Berlin Ostbahnen used from 1913 also like the SBV Roman numbers as line numbers. The other companies, including the standard-gauge lines of the Teltower Kreisbahnen, did not use a line marking.
With the merger of companies for the Berlin tram, the GBS's numbering scheme was extended to cover the rest of the network. Usually, those numbers are assigned, whose lines were continued during the World War I. For example, it came about that the lines operating in Köpenick received mainly 80s numbers. Letters were still awarded to the tram lines in the BVG until 1924, after which it was reserved for the suburban tariff buses.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Berlin public transport companies had to stop a large part of the bus traffic to save fuel. Tram traffic has been extended accordingly. The newly established amplifier lines contributed to the distinction of the master lines 200 and 300 numbers. From 1941, the night routes of the bus and the tram networks were later classified into the 400-series numbers. The measures were existed until the end of the war. The last 100 numbers were renumbered in May 31, 1949.
After the administrative separation of the BVG initially only changed the numbering scheme. Tram lines running from the east to the west of Berlin kept their number after the grid separation in 1953 and as a result of network thinning, individual lines were disappeared. The BVG-West waived from July 1966, the prefix A on the bus lines, the BVG-Ost waived in 1 January 1968. While in the west tram traffic was stopped 15 months later, the passenger in the east could not tell from the line number whether it was a tram or bus line. The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe therefore planned to systematise their network in the 1970s. The city center lines of the tram should receive the line numbers 1 to 30, in Köpenick should retain their 80s numbers. The remaining numbers were intended for the bus. Night lines received from 1973 uniformly 100 numbers, for the tram were initially provided only the numbers from 120. The conversion of the daily lines was only partially completed.
After the reunification, in two steps, a uniform numbering scheme was introduced, which included the lines in the state of Brandenburg. The Berlin tram was assigned the line number range from 1 to 86, then followed by the overland operations in Woltersdorf, Schöneiche and Strausberg with the numbers 87 to 89. The Potsdam tram received the 90s line numbers. E-lines were no longer listed separately in the timetable, but the amplifiers continued to operate as such until 2004. Night lines were indicated on both means of transport by a preceding N and the three-digit line numbers were henceforth intended for the bus routes. The first conversion of 2 June 1991 followed the Berlin tram lines on 23 May 1993. The network was reorganized and divided into five number ranges. The main focus was on the focus on the historical center. Single lines formed the radial main network, 10 lines their supplementary network. 20er lines were intended for the ring and Tangentiallinien. There were 50 lines in the district of Pankow, 60 lines in the district of Köpenick analogous to the bus lines there.
BVG had instituted a new line structure, where the BVG has 22 lines since 2004. MetroTram also uses the symbol MetroTram.svg. On 12 December 2004, BVG had introduced the transport concept, BVG 2005+. The main content was the introduction of metro lines on busy routes where there are no S-Bahn or U-Bahn. In the tram network, therefore, nine tram lines under MetroTram were introduced, and the other lines have permanently rearranged. The numbering scheme is that it was similar to the 1993 scheme, but has undergone major adjustments.
Metro lines with a single digit number travel through the radial main network, as a rule, the line number corresponds to that of 1993, so the lines became 2, 3, and 4 into M4, the 5 into M5 and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines, 52 and 53 were included as line M1 in the main scheme. The supplementary lines of the radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have been merged into the amplifier of the metro line. Metro lines of the ring and tangential network received the numbers in the 10 range, whose supplementary lines retain the 20 range. An example is the retrofitted line, route 37, which together with the lines of M17 and 27 runs a common route. Of the 50 routes remained, the only one of the 50, the 60 lines were remained untouched by these measures.
FLEET
The Berlin tram has three different families of vehicles. In addition to Tatra high-floor vehicles there are low floor six-axle double articulated trams in unidirectional and bidirectional version (GT6N and GT6N-ZR), and since 2008, the new Flexity Berlin. The Tatra KT4 trams were phased out by 2017, and T6A2/B6A2 trams were phased out by 2007, those are Communism-era trams.
The number of trams has shrunk continuously. The BVB had 1,024 vehicles, while currently there are about 600. The reduction is possible because the new low-floor cars on average achieve more than twice the mileage per year (100,000 km), and, being longer, carry more passengers and therefore rarely operate in double header.
In July 2006, the cost of energy per vehicle-kilometer was:
tram €0.33
coupled set €0.45
bus €0.42
underground train €1.18
GT6N
Between 1992 and 2003 45 bidirectional T6N-ZRs and 105 unidirectional GT6Ns were purchased. The cars have a width of 2.30 m and a length of 26.80 m. They can carry 150 passengers and can run as coupled sets.
134 cars were in a risky transaction leased to a US investor and leased back. The SNB has accrued more than €157 million to hedge potential losses from cross-border business.
In the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 the SNB began the carriage 1006 and 1016 a sample exercise. They were provided with a new drive technology and new software such as the Flexcitys. The only mutually detachable vehicles had to distinguish the new car numbers 1506 and the 1516.
FLEXITY BERLIN
In April 2005, a European tender was issued for low floor trams, half unidirectional, and half bidirectional vehicles. The latter will respond better to the BVG and construction faults and build on certain routes for cost savings. The Vienna tramway tram type ULF was tested in passenger service.
On 12 June 2006, the BVG decided to procure new trams. These are based on the tested Incentro, referred to by Bombardier as Flexity Berlin. In October 2008, for €13 million, four prototypes were ordered and since then extensively tested. There are one- and two-way cars, respectively 30.8 and 40 m in length, carrying about 180 or 240 passengers. Use in coupled sets is not possible.
On 29 June 2009, the Supervisory Board of the BVG decided to buy 99 Flexity cars, 40 of which will be long and 59 short versions, for €305.3 million. In September 2011 the first 13 long cars began to be delivered. To replace all old Tatra cars, a further 33 costing €92.3 million may need to be ordered in 2017. The trams will be manufactured at Bombardier's Bautzen works or Hennigsdorf.
In June 2012 the Supervisory Board approved the BVG 2nd Serial recall of an additional 39 trams of type "Flexity Berlin". Considering the order of over 99 vehicles from 2010, that means a total of 38 vehicles and 47 long bidirectional vehicles, as well as 53 short bidirectional vehicles will be ordered from the manufacturer, Bombardier Transportation. Thus, the SNB responds to both the very positive development of passenger numbers at the tram and allows bidirectional vehicles the eventual abandonment of turning loops and enhancing the design stops. Once this procurement is secured in 2017, then the old Tatra cars can be scrapped. The State of Berlin's funded budget is €439.1 million.
The new cars are equipped with 2.40 m wheel spacing, 10 cm wider than the existing low-floor trams. The track width was chosen so that modifications in the network are not necessary This affects only the routes, which will operate on the Flexity. Köpenick and parts of the Pankow network, the web is unable to drive.
In December 2015, BVG exercised an option for another 47 Flexity trams from Bombardier to handle increased ridership.
TRAM DEPOTS
Depots are required for storage and maintenance purposes. BVG has seven operational tram depots, five of which are used for storage of service trams:
Kniprodestraße, in Friedrichshain on the east side of the junction of Kniprodestraße and Conrad-Blenkle-Straße. This depot is used for track storage and rail-grinding machinery only. It is on bus route 200, and the access tracks connect to tram line M10.
Köpenick, on the west side of Wendenschloßstraße, south of the junction with Müggelheimer Straße. The depot entrance is on tram route 62.
Lichtenberg, on the east side of Siegfriedstraße, north of Lichtenberg U-Bahn station. The depot entrance is on tram routes 21 & 37 and bus routes 240 & 256.
Marzahn, on the south side of Landsberger Allee, east of Blumberger Damm. The depot has a tram stop on the M6 and 18 lines. Bus route 197 also passes the depot.
Nalepastraße, on the east side of Nalepastraße, in Oberschöneweide. It is not on any tram or bus route, but its access line connects with tram routes M17, 21, 37, 63 and 67 at the junction of Wilhelminenhofstraße and Edisonstraße.
Niederschönhausen, on the north-east corner of the junction of Deitzgenstraße and Schillerstraße. The line is on tram line M1. The depot is used for the storage of works machinery and historic, and preserved trams.
Weissensee, on the north side of Bernkasteler Straße near the junction of Berliner Allee and Rennbahnstraße. The depot entrance is not directly passed by any bus or tram route, but tram routes 12 & 27 and bus routes 156, 255 & 259 serve the adjacent Berliner Allee/Rennbahnstraße tram stop.
Out-of-service trams returning to Nalepastraße and Weissensee depot remain in-service until reaching the special tram stop at each depot.
GENERAL VIEW
The Berlin tram network is today the third largest in Germany
Around Berlin there are some additional tram systems that do not belong to the BVG:
the Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam (operators of the Potsdam Tramway)
the Strausberg Railway (actually, a tram line located in the town of Strausberg)
the Woltersdorf Tramway (line 87, partly in Berlin)
the Schöneiche-Rüdersdorf Tramway (line 88, partly in Berlin)
The last three companies are located in the eastern suburbs at the eastern edge of Berlin. Each of them has only one line.
WIKIPEDIA
Fonte Avatar official FB Page:
A dark, twisted circus sideshow that’s built around bombastically grooving melodic death n’ roll is swinging forward with captivating glee, mesmerizing merriment and the plundering power of lethal pirates toward those brave souls who hand over a ticket to be torn by Avatar and their Black Waltz, the fourth album and first proper American release from the Swedish masters of mayhem.
Within Avatar’s diverse songs, a steady focus on the fluid and organic power of the riff (recalling the thunderous foresight of heavy metal’s original wizards, Black Sabbath) takes flight combined with an adventurous sprit veering off into the astral planes of the psychedelic atmosphere conjured by pioneers like Pink Floyd back in the day.
Avatar has found a footing that combines the best of rock n’ roll, hard rock and heavy metal’s past, present and future into an overall artistic presentation that is thought-provoking, challenging and altogether enchantingly electric. With the grandiose showmanship of American professional wrestling, the snake oil salesmanship of early 20th century vaudevillian troubadours and the kinetically superheroic power of early Kiss, Avatar lays waste to lesser mortals with ease. Whether somebody gets their rocks off listening to Satyricon or System of a Down, they’ll find something suitably deranged here.
“We’re in this weird field, caught in a triangle between extreme metal, rock n’ roll and what can be described as Avant-garde,” confesses Avatar vocalist Johannes Eckerström. The all-enveloping theme park vibe of the band’s music and visual counterpart means that, naturally, “it’s turning into something bigger.”
“I have been in this band for ten years. I grew up in this band,” Eckerström explains. “We’re somewhat veterans on the one hand. But we’re the new kids in the neighborhood in America at the same time.”
Avatar came of age as “little brothers” of sorts of the famed Gothenburg scene that spawned the celebrated New Wave Of Swedish Death Metal. The band’s debut album, 2006’s Thoughts of No Tomorrow, was filled with brutal, technical melodic death metal to be sure but already, “We tried to put our own stamp on it,” the singer assures. While the following year’s Schlacht still contained flourishes of melody, the unrelenting metallic fury reached an extreme peak. “Intensity was very important,” he says, with some degree of understatement.
Where to go for album number three? “We basically rebelled against ourselves,” Eckerström says of 2009’s self-titled collection. “We figured, ‘We can play faster and make even weirder, more technical riffs,’ because Schlacht was cool. But to take that another step would have turned us into something we didn’t want to be.”
Instead Avatar rediscovered their inherent passion for traditional heavy metal and classic rock n’ roll. “We decided to remove some unnecessary ‘look at me, I can play!’ parts and added more groove. We added a whole new kind of melody. It was awesome to be this ‘rock n’ roll band’ for a while. It was refreshing and liberating.”
Black Waltz sees Avatar coming completely full circle, returning to a more aggressive form of heavy metal but incorporating the lessons they learned while jamming on big riffs with album number three. “We finally came to understand what a good groove is all about and what a great fit it was for our sound,” notes Eckerström.
Tracks like the appropriately titled “Ready for the Ride,” the rollicking “Let it Burn” (which dips into some delicious stonerifficness), the anthemic “Smells Like a Freakshow” (a modern day twist of Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie) and “Torn Apart” are supercharged with a dynamic range of artistic showmanship on a near cinematic scale and it’s all stitched together by a driving bottom end.
While most European metal acts who dare attempt this level of musicianship, showmanship and attention to detail seem content to toil away in the studio and lock themselves away from the crowds, Avatar have excelled beyond their peers thanks in large part to their continued focus on road work. Careening to and fro on tour busses and airplanes around the world like a marauding troupe of circus performers, Eckerström and his mates (guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin and drummer John Alfredsson) have forged the type of musical bond that can only be brought forth from massive amounts of time spent together on the stage, in hotel rooms, in airports and partying at the venue’s bar.
Whether on tour with bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquility or Helloween, playing gigantic festivals like Storsjöyra and Sweden Rock Festival or demolishing South by Southwest, playing live is what it all comes down to for this band. “That is the final manifestation of our art,” Eckerström insists. “Of course an album is a piece of art in itself, but mainly it's a means to reach the higher goal, which is doing these awesome shows. Touring is of the greatest importance.”
“We all just love the pirate’s life,” he admits freely. “Sailing into the city on this tour bus thingy, going to kick some ass, have that party and all the while meeting all of these people, entertaining them, encountering a culture that's not your own. We love that.”
The want for this type of lifestyle goes back to early childhood fascinations for the good-humored singer. Reading about superheroes, watching Hulk Hogan on TV, getting exposed to Kiss – these were the first ingredients for what Eckerström would go on to create with the guys in Avatar and what has culminated now in Black Waltz.
The frontman promises that Avatar will continue to create, to captivate and to experiment. There’s no definitive endpoint in sight. It’s always about the horizon, the journey itself. “As long as you're hungry as an artist, there are higher and higher artistic achievements. I love AC/DC and Motorhead and what they’ve established is amazing, but we don’t want to write albums that are kind of like the album before. We want to travel to a new galaxy, so to speak, every time.”
The goal is always to conquer what came before. “That is what stays with you as a mentally healthy musician. Or maybe a mentally deranged one, I’m not sure,” the singer laughs. And part and parcel to that continued evolution will be the ever broadening expansion of the scope of Avatar’s worldwide presentation: Black Waltz and beyond.
“We have great visions of what we want to do and the things we want to give to people on a stage,” Eckerström promises. “These ideas, these visions, they require a huge audience. They require a lot of legroom to be done, so I want to get into those arenas, basically. I know we would do something really magical if we got the chance. This idea is one of those things that really, really keeps us going.”
One for a Endpoint hunter-gatherer, the other for an Elephant NFE. Cleaned, and ready for the final alignment checks, then plugging the vent holes, then painting.
Fonte Avatar official FB Page:
A dark, twisted circus sideshow that’s built around bombastically grooving melodic death n’ roll is swinging forward with captivating glee, mesmerizing merriment and the plundering power of lethal pirates toward those brave souls who hand over a ticket to be torn by Avatar and their Black Waltz, the fourth album and first proper American release from the Swedish masters of mayhem.
Within Avatar’s diverse songs, a steady focus on the fluid and organic power of the riff (recalling the thunderous foresight of heavy metal’s original wizards, Black Sabbath) takes flight combined with an adventurous sprit veering off into the astral planes of the psychedelic atmosphere conjured by pioneers like Pink Floyd back in the day.
Avatar has found a footing that combines the best of rock n’ roll, hard rock and heavy metal’s past, present and future into an overall artistic presentation that is thought-provoking, challenging and altogether enchantingly electric. With the grandiose showmanship of American professional wrestling, the snake oil salesmanship of early 20th century vaudevillian troubadours and the kinetically superheroic power of early Kiss, Avatar lays waste to lesser mortals with ease. Whether somebody gets their rocks off listening to Satyricon or System of a Down, they’ll find something suitably deranged here.
“We’re in this weird field, caught in a triangle between extreme metal, rock n’ roll and what can be described as Avant-garde,” confesses Avatar vocalist Johannes Eckerström. The all-enveloping theme park vibe of the band’s music and visual counterpart means that, naturally, “it’s turning into something bigger.”
“I have been in this band for ten years. I grew up in this band,” Eckerström explains. “We’re somewhat veterans on the one hand. But we’re the new kids in the neighborhood in America at the same time.”
Avatar came of age as “little brothers” of sorts of the famed Gothenburg scene that spawned the celebrated New Wave Of Swedish Death Metal. The band’s debut album, 2006’s Thoughts of No Tomorrow, was filled with brutal, technical melodic death metal to be sure but already, “We tried to put our own stamp on it,” the singer assures. While the following year’s Schlacht still contained flourishes of melody, the unrelenting metallic fury reached an extreme peak. “Intensity was very important,” he says, with some degree of understatement.
Where to go for album number three? “We basically rebelled against ourselves,” Eckerström says of 2009’s self-titled collection. “We figured, ‘We can play faster and make even weirder, more technical riffs,’ because Schlacht was cool. But to take that another step would have turned us into something we didn’t want to be.”
Instead Avatar rediscovered their inherent passion for traditional heavy metal and classic rock n’ roll. “We decided to remove some unnecessary ‘look at me, I can play!’ parts and added more groove. We added a whole new kind of melody. It was awesome to be this ‘rock n’ roll band’ for a while. It was refreshing and liberating.”
Black Waltz sees Avatar coming completely full circle, returning to a more aggressive form of heavy metal but incorporating the lessons they learned while jamming on big riffs with album number three. “We finally came to understand what a good groove is all about and what a great fit it was for our sound,” notes Eckerström.
Tracks like the appropriately titled “Ready for the Ride,” the rollicking “Let it Burn” (which dips into some delicious stonerifficness), the anthemic “Smells Like a Freakshow” (a modern day twist of Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie) and “Torn Apart” are supercharged with a dynamic range of artistic showmanship on a near cinematic scale and it’s all stitched together by a driving bottom end.
While most European metal acts who dare attempt this level of musicianship, showmanship and attention to detail seem content to toil away in the studio and lock themselves away from the crowds, Avatar have excelled beyond their peers thanks in large part to their continued focus on road work. Careening to and fro on tour busses and airplanes around the world like a marauding troupe of circus performers, Eckerström and his mates (guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin and drummer John Alfredsson) have forged the type of musical bond that can only be brought forth from massive amounts of time spent together on the stage, in hotel rooms, in airports and partying at the venue’s bar.
Whether on tour with bands like In Flames, Dark Tranquility or Helloween, playing gigantic festivals like Storsjöyra and Sweden Rock Festival or demolishing South by Southwest, playing live is what it all comes down to for this band. “That is the final manifestation of our art,” Eckerström insists. “Of course an album is a piece of art in itself, but mainly it's a means to reach the higher goal, which is doing these awesome shows. Touring is of the greatest importance.”
“We all just love the pirate’s life,” he admits freely. “Sailing into the city on this tour bus thingy, going to kick some ass, have that party and all the while meeting all of these people, entertaining them, encountering a culture that's not your own. We love that.”
The want for this type of lifestyle goes back to early childhood fascinations for the good-humored singer. Reading about superheroes, watching Hulk Hogan on TV, getting exposed to Kiss – these were the first ingredients for what Eckerström would go on to create with the guys in Avatar and what has culminated now in Black Waltz.
The frontman promises that Avatar will continue to create, to captivate and to experiment. There’s no definitive endpoint in sight. It’s always about the horizon, the journey itself. “As long as you're hungry as an artist, there are higher and higher artistic achievements. I love AC/DC and Motorhead and what they’ve established is amazing, but we don’t want to write albums that are kind of like the album before. We want to travel to a new galaxy, so to speak, every time.”
The goal is always to conquer what came before. “That is what stays with you as a mentally healthy musician. Or maybe a mentally deranged one, I’m not sure,” the singer laughs. And part and parcel to that continued evolution will be the ever broadening expansion of the scope of Avatar’s worldwide presentation: Black Waltz and beyond.
“We have great visions of what we want to do and the things we want to give to people on a stage,” Eckerström promises. “These ideas, these visions, they require a huge audience. They require a lot of legroom to be done, so I want to get into those arenas, basically. I know we would do something really magical if we got the chance. This idea is one of those things that really, really keeps us going.”
The Berlin tramway (German: Straßenbahn Berlin) is the main tram system in Berlin, Germany. It is one of the oldest tram networks in the world having its origins in 1865 and is operated by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), which was founded in 1929. It is notable for being the third-largest tram system in the world, after Melbourne and St. Petersburg. Berlin's streetcar system is made up of 22 lines that operate across a standard gauge network, with almost 800 stops and measuring almost 190 kilometres in route length and 430 kilometres in line length. Nine of the lines, called Metrotram, are operated continuously around the clock, and are identified with the letter "M" before their number; the other thirteen lines are regular city tram lines and are identified by just a line number.
Most of the recent network is within the confines of the former East Berlin - tram lines within West Berlin having been replaced by buses during the division of Berlin (the first extension into West Berlin opened in 1994 on today's M13). In the eastern vicinity of the city there are also three private tram lines that are not part of the main system, whereas to the south-west of Berlin is the Potsdam tram system with its own network of lines.
HISTORY
In 1865, a horse tramway was established in Berlin. In 1881, the world's first electric tram line opened. Numerous private and municipal operating companies constructed new routes, so by the end of the 19th century the network developed quite rapidly, and the horse trams were changed into electric ones. By 1930, the network had a route length of over 630 km with more than 90 lines. In 1929, all operating companies were unified into the BVG. After World War II, BVG was divided into an eastern and a western company but was once again reunited in 1992, after the fall of East Germany. In West Berlin, by 1967 the last tram lines had been shut down. With the exception of two lines constructed after German reunification, the Berlin tram continues to be limited to the eastern portion of Berlin.
HORSE BUSES
The public transport system of Berlin is the oldest one in Germany. In 1825, the first bus line from Brandenburger Tor to Charlottenburg was opened by Simon Kremser, already with a timetable. The first bus service inside the city has operated since 1840 between Alexanderplatz and Potsdamer Bahnhof. It was run by Israel Moses Henoch, who had organized the cab service since 1815. On 1 January 1847, the Concessionierte Berliner Omnibus Compagnie (Concessionary Berlin Bus Company) started its first horse-bus line. The growing market witnessed the launch of numerous additional companies, with 36 bus companies in Berlin by 1864.
HORSE TRAMS
On 22 June 1865, the opening of Berlin's first horse tramway marked the beginning of the age of trams in Germany, spanning from Brandenburger Tor along today's Straße des 17. Juni (17 June Road) to Charlottenburg. Two months later, on 28 August, it was extended along Dorotheenstraße to Kupfergraben near today's Museumsinsel (Museum Island), a terminal stop which is still in service today. Like the horse-bus, many companies followed the new development and built horse-tram networks in all parts of the today's urban area. In 1873, a route from Rosenthaler Platz to the Gesundbrunnen was opened, to be operated by the new Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway) which would later become the dominant company in Berlin under the name of Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS; Great Berlin Tramway).
ELECTRIFICATION
On 16 May 1881, the region of Berlin again wrote transport history. In the village of Groß-Lichterfelde, which was incorporated into Berlin-Steglitz 39 years later, Werner von Siemens opened the world's first electric tramway. The electric tram in Groß-Lichterfelde was built to 1,000 mm metre gauge and ran from today's suburban station, Lichterfelde Ost, to the cadet school on Zehlendorfer Straße (today Finckensteinallee). Initially, the route was intended merely as a testing facility. Siemens named it an "elevated line taken down from its pillars and girders" because he wanted to build a network of electric elevated lines in Berlin. But the skeptical town council did not allow him to do this until 1902, when the first elevated line opened.
The first tests of electric traction on Berlin's standard gauge began on 1 May 1882, with overhead supply and in 1886 with chemical accumulators, were not very successful. Definitively, electric traction of standard-gauge trams in Berlin was established in 1895. The first tram line with an overhead track supply ran in an industrial area near Berlin-
Gesundbrunnen station. The first line in more a representative area took place with accumulators for its first year, but got a catenary, too, four years later. In 1902, the electrification with overhead wiring had been completed, except for very few lines on the periphery.
The last horse-drawn tram line closed in 1910.
UNDERGROUND TRAMS
On 28 December 1899, it became possible to travel underground, even under the Spree, upon completion of the Spreetunnel between Stralau and Treptow. Owing to structural problems, it was closed on 25 February 1932. From 1916 to 1951, the tram had a second tunnel, the Lindentunnel, passing under the well-known boulevard Unter den Linden.
GREAT VARIETY OF COMPANIES UNTIL THE FORMATION OF THE BVG
The history of tramway companies of the Berlin Strassenbahn is very complicated. Besides the private companies, which often changed because of takeovers, mergers, and bankruptcies, the cities of Berlin, Spandau, Köpenick, Rixdorf; the villages Steglitz, Mariendorf, Britz, Niederschönhausen, Friedrichshagen, Heiligensee and Französisch Buchholz, and the Kreis Teltow (Teltow district) had municipal tramway companies.
The most important private operating company was the Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway), which called itself Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS) (Great Berlin Tramway) after starting the electrification. GBS acquired nearly all of the other companies through the years. In 1920, the GBS merged with the municipal companies BESTAG and SSB to become the Berliner Straßenbahn (Berlin Tramway), which was reorganized in 1929 into the newly formed municipal Berliner Verkehrs-AG (BVG) (Berlin Transport Company). Besides the tramway, the BVG also took over the elevated and underground rail lines and the bus routes which were previously operated primarily by the Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus-Actien-Gesellschaft (ABOAG) (General Berlin Bus Corporation).
The following table includes all companies that operated tramways in today's Berlin before the formation of the BVG. The background color of each line marks the drive method which the respective company used to serve their lines at the time of the formation (blue = horse tram, yellow = steam tram, white = electric tram, red = benzole tram).
On the day of its formation, the BVG had 89 tramway lines: a network of 634 km in length, over 4,000 tramway cars, and more than 14,400 employees. An average tram car ran over 42,500 km per year. The Berlin tramway had more than 929 million passengers in 1929, at which point, the BVG already had increased its service to 93 tramway lines.
In the early 1930s, the Berlin tramway network began to decline; after partial closing of the world's first electric tram in 1930, on 31 October 1934, the oldest tramway of Germany followed. The Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni) was rebuilt by Nazi planners following a monumental East-West-Axis, and the tramway had to leave. In 1938, however, there were still 71 tramway lines, 2,800 tram cars and about 12,500 employees. Consequently, the bus network was extended during this time. Since 1933, Berlin also had trolley buses.
During World War II, some transport tasks were given back to the tramway to save oil. Thus an extensive transport of goods was established. Bombings (from March 1943 on) and the lack of personnel and electricity caused the transportation performance to decline. Due to the final Battle for Berlin, the tramway system collapsed on 23 April 1945.
THE NETWORK SINCE 1945
The BVG was - like most other Berlin institutions—split into two different companies on 1 August 1949. Two separate companies were installed, the BVG West in the three western sections (with 36 tram lines) and the BVG Ost (Berlin Public Transit Authority East) (with 13 lines) in the Soviet sector. The latter became in 1969 the VEB Kombinat Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVB). On 14 October 1950, traffic on the lines from West Berlin to the Brandenburgian suburbs Kleinmachnow and Schönefeld stopped, and on 15 January 1953, traffic over the downtown sector border did, too.
From 1949 to 1955, both companies exchanged the Thomson-Houston type trolley poles of their tramcars line by line for pantographs.
WEST
From 1954 onwards, a shift took place in the public transit plans of West-Berlin. From that moment, plans aimed at discontinuing the tramway service and replacing it with extended underground and bus lines. The tramway was considered old-fashioned and unnecessary since Berlin already had a well-developed underground network. From 1954 to 1962 numerous tram lines were replaced with bus routes and extended underground lines and stops. By 1962, the western part of the city had only 18 tram lines left out of the original 36.
On 2 October 1967 the last tramcar traveled through West-Berlin over the last line, which carried number 55 - from Zoo Station via Ernst-Reuter-Square, the City Hall in Charlottenburg, Jungfernheide S-Bahn station, Siemensdamm, Nonnendammallee,
Falkenseer Platz, and Neuendorfer Allee to Spandau, Hakenfelde.
Today, many MetroBus lines follow the routes of former tram lines.
The separation of the city resulted in many problems and difficulties for the public transportation system. Tram lines could no longer travel through the city's center as usual, and the main tram garage was moved to Uferstraße in Western Berlin.
EAST
Soviet Moscow was, with its tram-free avenues, the role model for East-Berlin's transport planning. The car-oriented mentality of West Berlin also settled in the East since a lot of tram lines closed here as well in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, the lines through the city center closed down at the same time as the new city expansion on Alexanderplatz started to grow.
However, complete elimination of the city's tram network was neither planned nor even discussed.
Those lines were built in order to connect the new housing estates Marzahn, Hohenschönhausen, and finally Hellersdorf to the city's tram network from the late 1970s to the early 1990s:
AFTER REUNIFICATION
In 1992, the West Berlin transport company BVG took over the East Berlin's BVB. (In addition to bus and subway lines, the new BVG also ran the trams, which now only circulated in the former East Berlin districts.)
There was an attempt to shut down the tram routes running to Pankow, because the trams in Schönhauser Allee run parallel to the U2 line, which does not run to Rosenthal, however.
In 1995, the first stretch of tram route along Bornholmer Straße was opened to the west in two stages. The Rudolf-Virchow-Klinikum and the metro stations located in Seestraße, Wedding, and Osloer Straße in Gesundbrunnen have since re-connected to the tram network.
Since 1997, the tram stops right at the Friedrichstraße station. Previously, passengers changing between modes of transport here had to take a long walk to get to the restored train station. Since then, the trams terminate along the reversing loop "Am Kupfergraben" near the Humboldt University and the Museum Island.
The following year saw the re-opening of tram facilities at Alexanderplatz. These routes now come directly from the intersection with Otto-Braun-Straße across the square, stopping both at the U2 underground station and the overground station for regional and commuter trains, where there is a direct interchange to the U5 and U8 lines. The increase of tram accident victims in the pedestrian
zone feared by critics has not occurred.
In 2000, the tram tracks were extended from the previous terminus at Revalerstraße past the Warschauer Straße S-Bahn station to the U-Bahn station of the same name. Since there is no room for a return loop, a blunt ending track was established. In order to accomplish this, bi-directional vehicles were procured. However, the tracks, which were further extended in 1995 to the Oberbaumbrücke, have not yet been expanded to Hermannplatz as had been planned long before.
Since 2000, the tram in Pankow runs beyond the previous terminus Pankow Kirche on to Guyotstraße, connecting the local development areas to the network.
On 12 December 2004, BVG introduced the BVG 2005 plus transport concept. The main focus was the introduction of Metro lines on densely traveled routes, which do not have any subway or suburban traffic. In the tram network, therefore, nine MetroTram lines were introduced and the remaining lines were partially rearranged. The numbering scheme is based on that of 1993, but has undergone minor adjustments. MetroTram and MetroBus lines carry a "M" in front of the line number.
Single metro lines operate on the main radial network; As a rule the line number corresponds to that of 1993; The M4 from the lines 2, 3 and 4, the M5 from the 5, and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines 52 and 53 were included as a line M1 in the scheme. The supplementary lines of these radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have acted as amplifiers of the respective metro service. Metro services of the ring and tangential net received a number in the 10er range, the supplementary lines retained the 20er number. An exception is the subsequently established line 37, which, together with the lines M17 and 27, travels a common route. Of the 50 lines the only remaining was the 50, the 60 lines remained largely unaffected by the measures.
M1: Niederschönhausen, Schillerstraße and Rosenthal to Mitte, Am Kupfergraben replacing 52 and 53
M2: Heinersdorf to Hackescher Markt
M4: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt
M5: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt
M6: Hellersdorf, Riesaer Straße to Schwartzkopffstraße
M8: Ahrensfelde to Schwartzkopffstraße
M10: Prenzlauer Berg, Eberswalder Straße to Warschauer Straße replacing 20
M13: Wedding to Warschauer Straße replacing 23
M17: Falkenberg to Schöneweide
In 2006, the second line was opened in the western part of the city, and the M10 line moved beyond its former terminus Eberswalderstraße along Bernauer Straße in Gesundbrunnen to the Nordbahnhof in the district of Mitte, before it was being extended to Hauptbahnhof in 2015.
In May 2007, a new line from Prenzlauer Tor along Karl-Liebknecht-Straße towards Alexanderplatz was put into operation, where the line M2 leads directly to the urban and regional train station instead of the current circulation through Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz to Hackescher Markt. The previous route along Alt and Neu Schönhauser Straße no longer carries regular services but operates only as a feeder line.
On September 4, 2011, the one and a half kilometer long new line from the S-Bahn station Adlershof was taken by the science and business location Adlershof to the provisional endpoint Karl-Ziegler-Straße at the campus Adlershof, the Humboldt University in operation. The route with three newly built stops cost 13 million euros and was first operated by the lines 60 and 61 in the overlapping 10-minute intervals. Since 13 December 2015, the line 63 runs instead of the line 60 to Karl Ziegler Street. Originally, the connection should already be completed in 1999. However, the plan approval procedure was only completed in 2002. Shortly before the plan approval decision expired after five years, the project was approved on August 9, 2007, and soon after the first masts for the overhead line were set up. It is expected to have 9000 passengers per working day. This is just as similar to the tram line being built along the Upper Changi Road East and the Flora Drive, and the subsequent linking of Flora Estate into the Upper Changi area.
TOWARDS THE HAUPTBAHNHOF
At the timetable change on 14 December 2014, a new tram line was opened from Naturkundemuseum to Hauptbahnhof via Invalidenstraße, with the final stop at Lüneburger Straße in the district of Alt-Moabit. The double-track line is 2.3 kilometers long to the main station, and new stops have been built on the Chausseestraße, the Invalidenpark and the Hauptbahnhof. This is followed by the 1.1 km single track block bypass that has three stops at Lesser-Ury-Weg, Lueneburger Straße and Clara-Jaschke-Straße, as well as the installation area. The planned opening date has already been postponed several times. Originally planned to complete in 2002. However, the plan was caught by the Administrative Court in 2004 and revised to either 2006 and 2007. However, the first 80 metres of the track has already been built during the construction of Berlin Hauptbahnhof.
A new approval procedure was completed on 15 January 2010. In April 2011, the preparatory construction work had begun. The Ministry of Transport revised the 50 metres of the length, a two-meter-wide strip of garden to the state of Berlin to provide enough space for all road users. In the course of the work on the new line sector, the line branch along, Chausseestraße (between Invalidenstraße and Wöhlertstraße), Schwartzkopffstraße, Pflugstraße, Wöhlertstraße was permanently closed on 26 August 2013. The commissioning of the new line was initially only with the line M5. With the restoration of the connection from the Nordbahnhof to the underground station Naturkundemuseum, the new line from 28 August 2015 could also be used by the lines M8 and M10.
The first horse-drawn tramlines did not use any special labeling as they were radially inferior from the respective endpoints in the center and thus had few points of contact with other lines. Only with the expansion of the network into the city center was there a need to distinguish the lines from each other. From the 1880s, most major German cities therefore used colored target signs or signal boards, sometimes both together. In Berlin, these were always kept in the same combination. As identification colors red, yellow, green and white were used, from 1898 additionally blue. The panels were one or two colors, the latter either half / half divided or in thirds with a line in the second color. However, the number of signal panels used was not sufficient to equip each line with its own color code. In addition, crossing or side by side lines should run with different signal panels. This meant that individual lines had to change their color code several times in the course of their existence. As a result of the electrification and the takeover of the New Berlin Horse Ride by the Great Berlin Horse Railways / Great Berlin Tram (GBPfE / GBS) increased their number of lines at the turn of the century abruptly. With a view of the Hamburg tram, where in the summer of 1900 for the first time in German-speaking countries line numbers were introduced, experimented the GBS from 1901 also with the numbers. In the timetables of this time, the lines were numbered, but could change their order every year. The numbering scheme should include not only the GBS but also its secondary lines. At the same time, letter-number combinations as they appeared in the timetable booklet should be avoided.
The scheme introduced on May 6, 1902 was relatively simple: single numbers were reserved for the ring lines, two-digit for the remaining lines. Initially, the tens gave information about where the line was going; 10 lines were to be found in Moabit, 60 lines in Weissensee and 70 lines in Lichtenberg. The lines of the West Berlin suburban railway were assigned the letters A to M, the Berlin-Charlottenburg tram the letters N to Z and the lines of the Southern Berlin suburban railway were numbered with Roman numerals. The 1910 taken over by the GBS northeastern Berliner Vorortbahn received in 1913 the line designation NO. The colored signal panels remained in parallel until about 1904. In addition, the lines created during this period were still colored signal panels with new, sometimes even three-color color combinations.
Insertors were marked separately from the March 1903. They bore the letter E behind the line number of their main line. In later years, these lines increasingly took over the tasks of booster drives and were therefore shown in the timetables as separate lines. On April 15, 1912, the GBS introduced the first line with three-digit number. The 164 was created by extending the 64, which was maintained in parallel. In the following months more lines were provided with 100 numbers or newly set up, usually as a line pair to the existing line.
The surrounding businesses were not affected by the change in May 1902 and set on their own markings. The lines of the urban trams and the meterspurigen lines of the Teltower circular orbits were still marked with signal panels, on the other hand, the BESTAG and in Heiligensee, not the lines, but only the targets were marked with different colored signs. In 1908, the Spandauer Straßenbahn introduced the line identification with letters, which corresponded to the initial letter of the destination (line P to Pichelsdorf, etc.), in 1917 the company switched to numbers. In Cöpenick, the lines were marked from 1906 with numbers, from 1910 additionally with colored signal panels for the individual routes (red lines to Friedrichshagen, etc.). The Berlin Ostbahnen used from 1913 also like the SBV Roman numbers as line numbers. The other companies, including the standard-gauge lines of the Teltower Kreisbahnen, did not use a line marking.
With the merger of companies for the Berlin tram, the GBS's numbering scheme was extended to cover the rest of the network. Usually, those numbers are assigned, whose lines were continued during the World War I. For example, it came about that the lines operating in Köpenick received mainly 80s numbers. Letters were still awarded to the tram lines in the BVG until 1924, after which it was reserved for the suburban tariff buses.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Berlin public transport companies had to stop a large part of the bus traffic to save fuel. Tram traffic has been extended accordingly. The newly established amplifier lines contributed to the distinction of the master lines 200 and 300 numbers. From 1941, the night routes of the bus and the tram networks were later classified into the 400-series numbers. The measures were existed until the end of the war. The last 100 numbers were renumbered in May 31, 1949.
After the administrative separation of the BVG initially only changed the numbering scheme. Tram lines running from the east to the west of Berlin kept their number after the grid separation in 1953 and as a result of network thinning, individual lines were disappeared. The BVG-West waived from July 1966, the prefix A on the bus lines, the BVG-Ost waived in 1 January 1968. While in the west tram traffic was stopped 15 months later, the passenger in the east could not tell from the line number whether it was a tram or bus line. The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe therefore planned to systematise their network in the 1970s. The city center lines of the tram should receive the line numbers 1 to 30, in Köpenick should retain their 80s numbers. The remaining numbers were intended for the bus. Night lines received from 1973 uniformly 100 numbers, for the tram were initially provided only the numbers from 120. The conversion of the daily lines was only partially completed.
After the reunification, in two steps, a uniform numbering scheme was introduced, which included the lines in the state of Brandenburg. The Berlin tram was assigned the line number range from 1 to 86, then followed by the overland operations in Woltersdorf, Schöneiche and Strausberg with the numbers 87 to 89. The Potsdam tram received the 90s line numbers. E-lines were no longer listed separately in the timetable, but the amplifiers continued to operate as such until 2004. Night lines were indicated on both means of transport by a preceding N and the three-digit line numbers were henceforth intended for the bus routes. The first conversion of 2 June 1991 followed the Berlin tram lines on 23 May 1993. The network was reorganized and divided into five number ranges. The main focus was on the focus on the historical center. Single lines formed the radial main network, 10 lines their supplementary network. 20er lines were intended for the ring and Tangentiallinien. There were 50 lines in the district of Pankow, 60 lines in the district of Köpenick analogous to the bus lines there.
BVG had instituted a new line structure, where the BVG has 22 lines since 2004. MetroTram also uses the symbol MetroTram.svg. On 12 December 2004, BVG had introduced the transport concept, BVG 2005+. The main content was the introduction of metro lines on busy routes where there are no S-Bahn or U-Bahn. In the tram network, therefore, nine tram lines under MetroTram were introduced, and the other lines have permanently rearranged. The numbering scheme is that it was similar to the 1993 scheme, but has undergone major adjustments.
Metro lines with a single digit number travel through the radial main network, as a rule, the line number corresponds to that of 1993, so the lines became 2, 3, and 4 into M4, the 5 into M5 and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines, 52 and 53 were included as line M1 in the main scheme. The supplementary lines of the radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have been merged into the amplifier of the metro line. Metro lines of the ring and tangential network received the numbers in the 10 range, whose supplementary lines retain the 20 range. An example is the retrofitted line, route 37, which together with the lines of M17 and 27 runs a common route. Of the 50 routes remained, the only one of the 50, the 60 lines were remained untouched by these measures.
FLEET
The Berlin tram has three different families of vehicles. In addition to Tatra high-floor vehicles there are low floor six-axle double articulated trams in unidirectional and bidirectional version (GT6N and GT6N-ZR), and since 2008, the new Flexity Berlin. The Tatra KT4 trams were phased out by 2017, and T6A2/B6A2 trams were phased out by 2007, those are Communism-era trams.
The number of trams has shrunk continuously. The BVB had 1,024 vehicles, while currently there are about 600. The reduction is possible because the new low-floor cars on average achieve more than twice the mileage per year (100,000 km), and, being longer, carry more passengers and therefore rarely operate in double header.
In July 2006, the cost of energy per vehicle-kilometer was:
tram €0.33
coupled set €0.45
bus €0.42
underground train €1.18
GT6N
Between 1992 and 2003 45 bidirectional T6N-ZRs and 105 unidirectional GT6Ns were purchased. The cars have a width of 2.30 m and a length of 26.80 m. They can carry 150 passengers and can run as coupled sets.
134 cars were in a risky transaction leased to a US investor and leased back. The SNB has accrued more than €157 million to hedge potential losses from cross-border business.
In the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 the SNB began the carriage 1006 and 1016 a sample exercise. They were provided with a new drive technology and new software such as the Flexcitys. The only mutually detachable vehicles had to distinguish the new car numbers 1506 and the 1516.
FLEXITY BERLIN
In April 2005, a European tender was issued for low floor trams, half unidirectional, and half bidirectional vehicles. The latter will respond better to the BVG and construction faults and build on certain routes for cost savings. The Vienna tramway tram type ULF was tested in passenger service.
On 12 June 2006, the BVG decided to procure new trams. These are based on the tested Incentro, referred to by Bombardier as Flexity Berlin. In October 2008, for €13 million, four prototypes were ordered and since then extensively tested. There are one- and two-way cars, respectively 30.8 and 40 m in length, carrying about 180 or 240 passengers. Use in coupled sets is not possible.
On 29 June 2009, the Supervisory Board of the BVG decided to buy 99 Flexity cars, 40 of which will be long and 59 short versions, for €305.3 million. In September 2011 the first 13 long cars began to be delivered. To replace all old Tatra cars, a further 33 costing €92.3 million may need to be ordered in 2017. The trams will be manufactured at Bombardier's Bautzen works or Hennigsdorf.
In June 2012 the Supervisory Board approved the BVG 2nd Serial recall of an additional 39 trams of type "Flexity Berlin". Considering the order of over 99 vehicles from 2010, that means a total of 38 vehicles and 47 long bidirectional vehicles, as well as 53 short bidirectional vehicles will be ordered from the manufacturer, Bombardier Transportation. Thus, the SNB responds to both the very positive development of passenger numbers at the tram and allows bidirectional vehicles the eventual abandonment of turning loops and enhancing the design stops. Once this procurement is secured in 2017, then the old Tatra cars can be scrapped. The State of Berlin's funded budget is €439.1 million.
The new cars are equipped with 2.40 m wheel spacing, 10 cm wider than the existing low-floor trams. The track width was chosen so that modifications in the network are not necessary This affects only the routes, which will operate on the Flexity. Köpenick and parts of the Pankow network, the web is unable to drive.
In December 2015, BVG exercised an option for another 47 Flexity trams from Bombardier to handle increased ridership.
TRAM DEPOTS
Depots are required for storage and maintenance purposes. BVG has seven operational tram depots, five of which are used for storage of service trams:
Kniprodestraße, in Friedrichshain on the east side of the junction of Kniprodestraße and Conrad-Blenkle-Straße. This depot is used for track storage and rail-grinding machinery only. It is on bus route 200, and the access tracks connect to tram line M10.
Köpenick, on the west side of Wendenschloßstraße, south of the junction with Müggelheimer Straße. The depot entrance is on tram route 62.
Lichtenberg, on the east side of Siegfriedstraße, north of Lichtenberg U-Bahn station. The depot entrance is on tram routes 21 & 37 and bus routes 240 & 256.
Marzahn, on the south side of Landsberger Allee, east of Blumberger Damm. The depot has a tram stop on the M6 and 18 lines. Bus route 197 also passes the depot.
Nalepastraße, on the east side of Nalepastraße, in Oberschöneweide. It is not on any tram or bus route, but its access line connects with tram routes M17, 21, 37, 63 and 67 at the junction of Wilhelminenhofstraße and Edisonstraße.
Niederschönhausen, on the north-east corner of the junction of Deitzgenstraße and Schillerstraße. The line is on tram line M1. The depot is used for the storage of works machinery and historic, and preserved trams.
Weissensee, on the north side of Bernkasteler Straße near the junction of Berliner Allee and Rennbahnstraße. The depot entrance is not directly passed by any bus or tram route, but tram routes 12 & 27 and bus routes 156, 255 & 259 serve the adjacent Berliner Allee/Rennbahnstraße tram stop.
Out-of-service trams returning to Nalepastraße and Weissensee depot remain in-service until reaching the special tram stop at each depot.
GENERAL VIEW
The Berlin tram network is today the third largest in Germany
Around Berlin there are some additional tram systems that do not belong to the BVG:
the Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam (operators of the Potsdam Tramway)
the Strausberg Railway (actually, a tram line located in the town of Strausberg)
the Woltersdorf Tramway (line 87, partly in Berlin)
the Schöneiche-Rüdersdorf Tramway (line 88, partly in Berlin)
The last three companies are located in the eastern suburbs at the eastern edge of Berlin. Each of them has only one line.
WIKIPEDIA
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Sufism (Arabic: تصوّف) taṣawwuf,(Persian: صوفی گری) also spelled as tasavvuf and tasavvof according to the Persian pronunciation, is generally understood to be the inner, mystical dimension of Islam.[1][2][3] A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a ṣūfī (صُوفِيّ), though some adherents of the tradition reserve this term only for those practitioners who have attained the goals of the Sufi tradition. Another name used for the Sufi seeker is Dervish.
Classical Sufi scholars have defined Sufism as "a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but God."[4] Alternatively, in the words of the renowned Darqawi Sufi teacher Ahmad ibn Ajiba, "a science through which one can know how to travel into the presence of the Divine, purify one’s inner self from filth, and beautify it with a variety of praiseworthy traits."[5]
hile all Muslims believe that they are on the pathway to God and will become close to God in Paradise — after death and after the "Final Judgment" — Sufis also believe that it is possible to draw closer to God and to more fully embrace the Divine Presence in this life.[14] The chief aim of all Sufis is to seek the pleasing of God by working to restore within themselves the primordial state of fitra,[15] described in the Qur'an. In this state nothing one does defies God, and all is undertaken by the single motivation of love of God.Template:Fact=November 2009 A secondary consequence of this is that the seeker may be led to abandon all notions of dualism or multiplicity, including a conception of an individual self, and to realize the Divine Unity.Template:Fact=November 2009
Thus Sufism has been characterized[by whom?] as the science of the states of the lower self (the ego), and the way of purifying this lower self of its reprehensible traits, while adorning it instead with what is praiseworthy, whether or not this process of cleansing and purifying the heart is in time rewarded by esoteric knowledge of God. This can be conceived in terms of two basic types of law (fiqh), an outer law concerned with actions, and an inner law concerned with the human heart.[citation needed] The outer law consists of rules pertaining to worship, transactions, marriage, judicial rulings, and criminal law — what is often referred to, a bit too broadly, as shariah. The inner law of Sufism consists of rules about repentance from sin, the purging of contemptible qualities and evil traits of character, and adornment with virtues and good character.[16]
To enter the way of Sufism, the seeker begins by finding a teacher, as the connection to the teacher is considered necessary for the growth of the pupil. The teacher, to be genuine, must have received the authorization to teach (ijazah) of another Master of the Way, in an unbroken succession (silsilah) leading back to Sufism's origin with Muhammad. It is the transmission of the divine light from the teacher's heart to the heart of the student, rather than of worldly knowledge transmitted from mouth to ear, that allows the adept to progress. In addition, the genuine teacher will be utterly strict in his adherence to the Divine Law.[17]
Scholars and adherents of Sufism are unanimous in agreeing that Sufism cannot be learned through books.[dubious – discuss] To reach the highest levels of success in Sufism typically requires that the disciple live with and serve the teacher for many, many years.[citation needed] For instance, Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari, considered founder of the Naqshbandi Order, served his first teacher, Sayyid Muhammad Baba As-Samasi, for 20 years, until as-Samasi died. He subsequently served several other teachers for lengthy periods of time. The extreme arduousness of his spiritual preparation is illustrated by his service, as directed by his teacher, to the weak and needy members of his community in a state of complete humility and tolerance for many years. When he believed this mission to be concluded, his teacher next directed him to care for animals, curing their sicknesses, cleaning their wounds, and assisting them in finding provision. After many years of this he was next instructed to spend many years in the care of dogs in a state of humility, and to ask them for support.[18]
As a further example, the prospective adherent of the Mevlevi Order would have been ordered to serve in the kitchens of a hospice for the poor for 1,001 days prior to being accepted for spiritual instruction, and a further 1,001 days in solitary retreat as a precondition of completing that instruction.[19]
Some teachers, especially when addressing more general audiences, or mixed groups of Muslims and non-Muslims, make extensive use of parable, allegory, and metaphor.[20] Although approaches to teaching vary among different Sufi orders, Sufism as a whole is primarily concerned with direct personal experience, and as such has sometimes been compared to other, non-Islamic forms of mysticism (e.g., as in the books of Seyyed Hossein Nasr).
Sufism, which is a general term for Muslim mysticism, sprang up largely in reaction against the worldliness which infected Islam when its leaders became the powerful and wealthy rulers of multitudes of people and were influenced by foreign cultures. Harun al-Rashid, eating off gold and silver, toying with a harem of scented beauties, surrounded by an impenetrable retinue of officials, eunuchs and slaves, was a far cry from the stern simplicity of an Umar, who lived in the modest house, wore patched clothes and could be approached by any of his followers.[21][neutrality disputed]
The typical early Sufi lived in a cell of a mosque and taught a small band of disciples. The extent to which Sufism was influenced by Buddhist and Hindu mysticism, and by the example of Christian hermits and monks, is disputed, but self-discipline and concentration on God quickly led to the belief that by quelling the self and through loving ardour for God it was possible to maintain a union with the divine in which the human self melted away.[21]
During the primary stages of Sufism, Sufis were characterised by their particular attachment to dhikr "remembrance [of God]" and asceticism. Sufism arose among a number of Muslims as a reaction against the worldliness of the early Umayyad Caliphate (661-750 CE[6]). The Sufi movement has spanned several continents and cultures over a millennium, at first expressed through Arabic, then through Persian, Turkish and a dozen other languages.[7] ṭuruq "Orders", which are either Sunnī or Shī‘ī in doctrine, mostly trace their origins from the Islamic Prophet Muhammad through his cousin ‘Alī, with the notable exception of the Naqshbandi who trace their origins through the first Caliph, Abu Bakr.[8]
According to Idries Shah, the Sufi philosophy is universal in nature, its roots predating the arising of Islam and the other modern-day religions; likewise, some Muslims[who?] feel that Sufism is outside the sphere of Islam,[1][9][10] although generally scholars of Islam contend that it is simply the name for the inner or esoteric dimension of Islam.[1]
The lexical root of Sufi is variously traced to صُوف ṣūf "wool", referring either to the simple cloaks the early Muslim ascetics wore, or possibly to صَفا ṣafā "purity". The two were combined by al-Rudhabari who said, "The Sufi is the one who wears wool on top of purity."[11] The wool cloaks were sometimes a designation of their initiation into the Sufi order. The early Sufi orders considered the wearing of this coat an imitation of Jesus. Sufism is known as "Islamic Mysticism," in which Muslims seek to find divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God.[12] Mysticism is defined as the experience of mystical union or direct communion with ultimate reality, and the belief that direct knowledge of God, spiritual truth, or ultimate reality can be attained through subjective experience (as intuition or insight).[13]
Others[who?] suggest the origin of the word ṣufi is from Aṣhab aṣ-ṣuffa "Companions of the Porch", who were a group of impoverished Muslims during the time of Muhammad who spent much of their time on the veranda of Al-Masjid al-Nabawi, devoted to prayer and eager to memorize each new increment of the Qur'an as it was revealed. Yet another etymology, advanced by the 10th century Persian historian Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī is that the word is linked with Greek word sophia "wisdom".
Bayazid Tayfur al-Bistami
Bayazid is considered to be "of the six bright stars in the firmament of the Prophet (sallallaahu 'alaihi wa sallam)",[22] and a link in the Golden Chain of the Naqshibandi Tariqah. Bayazid al-Bistami was the first one to spread the reality of Annihilation (Fana'), whereby the Mystic becomes fully absorbed to the point of becoming unaware of himself or the objects around him. Every existing thing seems to vanish, and he feels free of every barrier that could stand in the way of his viewing the Remembered One. In one of these states, Bayazid cried out: "Praise to Me, for My greatest Glory!" Bistami's belief in the Unity of all religions became apparent when asked the question: "How does Islam view other religions?" His reply was "All are vehicles and a path to God's Divine Presence." From a young age, he left his mother stating to her that he could not serve Allah and his mother at the same time.[23]
[edit] Ibn Arabi
Muhyiddin Muhammad b. 'Ali [Ibn 'Arabi][1] (or Ibn al-'Arabi) is considered to be one of the most important Sufi masters, although he never founded any order (tariqa). His writings, especially al-Futuhat al-Makkiyya and Fusus al-hikam, have been studied within all the Sufi orders as the clearest expression of tawhid (Divine Unity), though because of their recondite nature they were often only given to initiates. Later those who followed his teaching became known as the school of wahdat al-wujud (the Oneness of Being). He himself considered his writings to have been divinely inspired. As he expressed the Way to one of his close disciples, his legacy is that 'you should never ever abandon your servanthood ('ubudiyya), and that there may never be in your soul a longing for any existing thing'[24]. The following quotations give a flavour of his teaching: 'Whoever witnesses without ceasing what he was created for, in both this world and the next, is the Perfect Servant, the intended goal of the cosmos, the deputy of the whole cosmos'[25]. 'The self is an ocean without a shore. There is no end to the contemplation of it in this world or the next'[26]. 'God seeks from you your heart and gives to you all that you are. So purify and cleanse it [the heart] through presence, wakefulness and reverential fear'[27].
[edit] Junayd
Junayd al-Baghdadi (830-910 AD) was one of the great early Sufis and is a central figure in the golden chain of many Sufi orders. He laid the groundwork for sober mysticism in contrast to that of God-intoxicated Sufis like al-Hallaj, Bayazid Bastami and Abusaeid Abolkheir. In the process of trial* of al-Hallaj, his former disciple, Caliph of the time demanded his fatwa and he issued this fatwa: "From the outward appearance he is to die and we judge according to the outward appearance and God knows better". He is referred to by the Sufis as Sayyid-ut Taifa i.e. the leader of the group. He lived and died in the city of Baghdad.
* The utterances of Arabic: أنا الحق Anā l-Ḥaqq "I am The Truth," by Mansur Al-Hallaj led to a long trial, and his subsequent imprisonment for 11 years in a Baghdad prison. He was tortured and publicly crucified on March 26, 922.
[edit] Mansur al-Hallaj
Mansur al-Hallaj is renowned for his claim "Ana-l-Haq" (I am the Truth), for which he was executed for apostasy. He is still revered by Sufis for his forthrightness. It is also said that during his prayers, he would say "O Lord! You are the guide of those who are passing through the Valley of Bewilderment. If I am a heretic, enlarge my heresy." [28]
[edit] History of Sufism
Main article: History of Sufism
[edit] Origins
In its early stages of development Sufism effectively referred to nothing more than the internalization of Islam.[29] According to one perspective, it is directly from the Qur’an, constantly recited, meditated, and experienced, that Sufism proceeded, in its origin and its development.[30] Others have held that Sufism is the strict emulation of the way of Muhammad, through which the heart's connection to the Divine is strengthened.[31]
From the traditional Sufi point of view, the esoteric teachings of Sufism were transmitted from Muhammad to those who had the capacity to acquire the direct experiential gnosis of God, which was passed on from teacher to student through the centuries. Some of this transmission is summarized in texts, but most is not. Important contributions in writing are attributed to Uwais al-Qarni, Harrm bin Hian, Hasan Basri and Sayid ibn al-Mussib, who are regarded as the first Sufis in the earliest generations of Islam. Harith al-Muhasibi was the first one to write about moral psychology. Rabia Basri was a Sufi known for her love and passion for God, expressed through her poetry. Bayazid Bastami was among the first theorists of Sufism; he concerned himself with fanā and baqā, the state of annihilating the self in the presence of the divine, accompanied by clarity concerning worldly phenomena derived from that perspective.[32]
Sufism had a long history already before the subsequent institutionalization of Sufi teachings into devotional orders (tarîqât) in the early Middle Ages.[33] Almost all extant Sufi orders trace their chains of transmission (silsila) back to Muhammad via his cousin and son-in-law Ali. The Naqshbandi order is a notable exception to this rule, as it traces the origin of its teachings from Muhammad to the first Islamic Caliph Abu Bakr.[8]
Different devotional styles and traditions developed over time, reflecting the perspectives of different masters and the accumulated cultural wisdom of the orders. Typically all of these concerned themselves with the understanding of subtle knowledge (gnosis), education of the heart to purify it of baser instincts, the love of God, and approaching God through a well-described hierarchy of enduring spiritual stations (maqâmât) and more transient spiritual states (ahwâl).
Towards the end of the first millennium CE, a number of manuals began to be written summarizing the doctrines of Sufism and describing some typical Sufi practices. Two of the most famous of these are now available in English translation: the Kashf al-Mahjûb of Hujwiri, and the Risâla of Qushayri.[34]
Two of Imam Al Ghazali's greatest treatises, the "Revival of Religious Sciences" and the "Alchemy of Happiness," argued that Sufism originated from the Qur'an and was thus compatible with mainstream Islamic thought, and did not in any way contradict Islamic Law — being instead necessary to its complete fulfillment. This became the mainstream position among Islamic scholars for centuries, challenged only recently on the basis of selective use of a limited body of texts. Ongoing efforts by both traditionally-trained Muslim scholars and Western academics are making Imam Al-Ghazali's works available in English translation for the first time,[35] allowing readers to judge for themselves the compatibility between Islamic Law and Sufi doctrine.
The spread of Sufism has been considered a definitive factor in the spread of Islam, and in the creation of integrally Islamic cultures, especially in Africa[36] and Asia. Recent academic work on these topics has focused on the role of Sufism in creating and propagating the culture of the Ottoman world,[37] and in resisting European imperialism in Africa and South Asia.[38]
Between the 13th and 16th centuries CE, Sufism produced a flourishing intellectual culture throughout the Islamic world, a sort of "Golden Age" whose physical artifacts are still present. In many places, a lodge (known variously as a zaouia, khanqah, or tekke) would be endowed through a pious foundation in perpetuity (waqf) to provide a gathering place for Sufi adepts, as well as lodging for itinerant seekers of knowledge. The same system of endowments could also be used to pay for a complex of buildings, such as that surrounding the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, including a lodge for Sufi seekers, a hospice with kitchens where these seekers could serve the poor and/or complete a period of initiation, a library, and other structures. No important domain in the civilization of Islam remained unaffected by Sufism in this period.[39]
[edit] Contemporary Sufism
Sufism suffered many setbacks in the modern era, particularly (though not exclusively) at the hands of European imperialists in the colonized nations of Asia and Africa. The life of the Algerian Sufi master Emir Abd al-Qadir is instructive in this regard.[40] Notable as well are the lives of Amadou Bamba and Hajj Umar Tall in sub-Saharan Africa, and Sheikh Mansur Ushurma and Imam Shamilin the Caucasus region. In the twentieth century some more modernist Muslims have called Sufism a superstitious religion that holds back Islamic achievement in the fields of science and technology. [41]
In spite of this recent history of official repression, there remain many places in the world with vital Sufi traditions. Sufism is popular in such African countries as Senegal, where it is seen as a mystical expression of Islam.[42] Mbacke suggests that one reason Sufism has taken hold in Senegal is because it can accommodate local beliefs and customs, which tend toward the mystical.[43]
In South Asia, four major Sufi orders persist, namely the Chishti Order, the Qadiriyyah, the Naqshbandiyya, and the Suhrawardiyya. The Barelwis and Deobandis are significant Islamic movements in this region whose followers often belong to one of these orders.[44]
For a more complete summary of currently active groups and teachers, readers are referred to links in the site of Dr. Alan Godlas of the University of Georgia.[45][46]
A number of Westerners have embarked with varying degrees of success on the path of Sufism. One of the first to return to Europe as an official representative of a Sufi path, and with the specific purpose to spread Sufism in Western Europe, was the Swedish-born wandering Sufi Abd al-Hadi Aqhili (also known as Ivan Aguéli). The ideas propagated by such spiritualists may or may not conform to the tenets of Sufism as understood by orthodox Muslims, as for instance with G. I. Gurdjieff and Shawni. On the other hand, American- and British-born teachers such as Nuh Ha Mim Keller, Hamza Yusuf, and Abdal Hakim Murad have been instrumental in spreading messages that conform fully with the normative tenets of Islam.
Other noteworthy Sufi teachers who have been active in the West in recent years include Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, Nader Angha, Inayat Khan, Nazim al-Qubrusi, Javad Nurbakhsh, Bulent Rauf[2]and Muzaffer Ozak.
[edit] Theoretical perspectives in Sufism
Traditional Islamic scholars have recognized two major branches within the practice of Sufism, and use this as one key to differentiating among the approaches of different masters and devotional lineages.[47]
On the one hand there is the path from the signs to the Signifier (or from the arts to the Artisan). In this branch, the seeker begins by purifying the lower self of every corrupting influence that stands in the way of recognizing all of creation as the work of God, as God's active Self-disclosure or theophany.[48] This is the way of Imam Al-Ghazali and of the majority of the Sufi orders.
On the other hand there is the path from the Signifier to His signs, from the Artisan to His works. In this branch the seeker experiences divine attraction (jadhba), and is able to enter the path with a glimpse of its endpoint, of direct apprehension of the Divine Presence towards which all spiritual striving is directed. This does not replace the striving to purify the heart, as in the other branch; it simply stems from a different point of entry into the path. This is the way primarily of the masters of the Naqshbandi and Shadhili orders.[49]
Contemporary scholars may also recognize a third branch, attributed to the late Ottoman scholar Said Nursi and explicated in his vast Qur'ân commentary called the Risale-i Nur. This approach entails strict adherence to the way of Muhammad, in the understanding that this wont, or sunnah, proposes a complete devotional spirituality adequate to those without access to a master of the Sufi way.[50]
[edit] Contributions to other domains of scholarship
Sufism has contributed significantly to the elaboration of theoretical perspectives in many domains of intellectual endeavor. For instance, the doctrine of "subtle centers" or centers of subtle cognition (known as Lataif-e-sitta) addresses the matter of the awakening of spiritual intuition[51] in ways that some consider similar to certain models of chakra in Hinduism. In general, these subtle centers or latâ'if are thought of as faculties that are to be purified sequentially in order to bring the seeker's wayfaring to completion. A concise and useful summary of this system from a living exponent of this tradition has been published by Muhammad Emin Er.[47]
Sufi psychology has influenced many areas of thinking both within and outside of Islam, drawing primarily upon three concepts. Ja'far al-Sadiq (both an imam in the Shia tradition and a respected scholar and link in chains of Sufi transmission in all Islamic sects) held that human beings are dominated by a lower self called the nafs, a faculty of spiritual intuition called the qalb or spiritual heart, and a spirit or soul called ruh. These interact in various ways, producing the spiritual types of the tyrant (dominated by nafs), the person of faith and moderation (dominated by the spiritual heart), and the person lost in love for God (dominated by the ruh).[52]
Of note with regard to the spread of Sufi psychology in the West is Robert Frager, a Sufi teacher authorized in the Halveti Jerrahi order. Frager was a trained psychologist, born in the United States, who converted to Islam in the course of his practice of Sufism and wrote extensively on Sufism and psychology.[53]
Sufi cosmology and Sufi metaphysics are also noteworthy areas of intellectual accomplishment.
[edit] Sufi practices
The devotional practices of Sufis vary widely. This is because an acknowledged and authorized master of the Sufi path is in effect a physician of the heart, able to diagnose the seeker's impediments to knowledge and pure intention in serving God, and to prescribe to the seeker a course of treatment appropriate to his or her maladies. The consensus among Sufi scholars is that the seeker cannot self-diagnose, and that it can be extremely harmful to undertake any of these practices alone and without formal authorization.[54]
Prerequisites to practice include rigorous adherence to Islamic norms (ritual prayer in its five prescribed times each day, the fast of Ramadan, and so forth). Additionally, the seeker ought to be firmly grounded in supererogatory practices known from the life of Muhammad (such as the "sunna prayers"). This is in accordance with the words, attributed to God, of the following, a famous Hadith Qudsi:
My servant draws near to Me through nothing I love more than that which I have made obligatory for him. My servant never ceases drawing near to Me through supererogatory works until I love him. Then, when I love him, I am his hearing through which he hears, his sight through which he sees, his hand through which he grasps, and his foot through which he walks.
It is also necessary for the seeker to have a correct creed (Aqidah),[55] and to embrace with certainty its tenets.[56] The seeker must also, of necessity, turn away from sins, love of this world, the love of company and renown, obedience to satanic impulse, and the promptings of the lower self. (The way in which this purification of the heart is achieved is outlined in certain books, but must be prescribed in detail by a Sufi master.) The seeker must also be trained to prevent the corruption of those good deeds which have accrued to his or her credit by overcoming the traps of ostentation, pride, arrogance, envy, and long hopes (meaning the hope for a long life allowing us to mend our ways later, rather than immediately, here and now).
Sufi practices, while attractive to some, are not a means for gaining knowledge. The traditional scholars of Sufism hold it as absolutely axiomatic that knowledge of God is not a psychological state generated through breath control. Thus, practice of "techniques" is not the cause, but instead the occasion for such knowledge to be obtained (if at all), given proper prerequisites and proper guidance by a master of the way. Furthermore, the emphasis on practices may obscure a far more important fact: The seeker is, in a sense, to become a broken person, stripped of all habits through the practice of (in the words of Imam Al-Ghazali words) solitude, silence, sleeplessness, and hunger.[57]
[edit] Dhikr
Main article: Dhikr
Allah as having been written on the disciple's heart according to Qadiri Al-Muntahi order
Dhikr is the remembrance of God commanded in the Qur'an for all Muslims through a specific devotional act, such as the repetition of divine names, supplications and aphorisms from hadith literature and the Qur'an. More generally, dhikr is any activity in which the Muslim maintains awareness of God.. To engage in dhikr is to practice consciousness of the Divine Presence and love, or "to seek a state of godwariness". Some types of dhikr are prescribed for all Muslims, and do not require Sufi initiation or the prescription of a Sufi master because they are deemed to be good for every seeker under every circumstance.[58]
Some Sufi orders engage in ritualized dhikr ceremonies, or sema. Sema includes various forms of worship such as: recitation, singing (the most well known being the Qawwali music of the Indian sub-continent), instrumental music, dance (most famously the Sufi whirling of the Mevlevi order), incense, meditation, ecstasy, and trance.[59]
Some Sufi orders stress and place extensive reliance upon Dhikr, and likewise in Qadri Al-Muntahi Sufi tariqa, which was originated by Riaz Ahmed Gohar Shahi. This practice of Dhikr is called Dhikr-e-Qulb (remembrance of Allah by Heartbeats). The basic idea in this practice is to visualize the Arabic name of God, Allah, as having been written on the disciple's heart.[60]
[edit] Muraqaba
Main article: Muraqaba
The practice of muraqaba can be likened to the practices of meditation attested in many faith communities. The word muraqaba is derived from the same root (r-q-b) occurring as one of the 99 Names of God in the Qur'an, al-Raqîb, meaning "the Vigilant" and attested in verse 4: 1 of the Qur'an. Through muraqaba, a person watches over or takes care of the spiritual heart, acquires knowledge about it, and becomes attuned to the Divine Presence, which is ever vigilant.
While variation exists, one description of the practice within a Naqshbandi lineage reads as follows:
He is to collect all of his bodily senses in concentration, and to cut himself off from all preoccupation and notions that inflict themselves upon the heart. And thus he is to turn his full consciousness towards God Most High while saying three times: “Ilahî anta maqsûdî wa-ridâka matlûbî — my God, you are my Goal and Your good pleasure is what I seek.” Then he brings to his heart the Name of the Essence — Allâh — and as it courses through his heart he remains attentive to its meaning, which is “Essence without likeness.” The seeker remains aware that He is Present, Watchful, Encompassing of all, thereby exemplifying the meaning of his saying (may God bless him and grant him peace): “Worship God as though you see Him, for if you do not see Him, He sees you.” And likewise the prophetic tradition: “The most favored level of faith is to know that God is witness over you, wherever you may be.”[61]
[edit] Sufi pilgrimages
The Darbar-e-Gohar Shahi Tomb in Kotri Sharif.
In popular Sufism (i.e., devotional practices that have achieved currency in world cultures through Sufi influence), one common practice is to visit the tombs of saints, great scholars, and righteous people. This is a particularly common practice in South Asia, where famous tombs include those of Khoja Afāq, near Kashgar, in China; Sachal Sarmast, in Sindh, Pakistan; and the Darbar-e-Gohar Shahi in Kotri Sharif. Likewise, in Fez, Morocco, a popular destination for such pious visitation is the Zaouia Moulay Idriss II and the yearly visitation to see the current Sheikh of the Qadiri Boutchichi Tariqah, Sheikh Sidi Hamza al Qadiri al Boutchichi to celebrate the Mawlid (which is usually televised on Mocorran National television).
Visitors may invoke blessings upon those interred, and seek divine favor and proximity.
[edit] Islam and Sufism
[edit] Sufism and Islamic law
Tomb of Shaikh Salim Chisti, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Scholars and adherents of Sufism sometimes describe Sufism in terms of a threefold approach to God as explained by a tradition (hadîth) attributed to Muhammad,"The Shariah is my words, the tariqa is my actions, and the haqiqa is my interior states". Sufis believe the shariah, tariqa and haqiqa are mutually interdependent.[62] The tariqa, the ‘path’ on which the mystics walk, has been defined as ‘the path which comes out of the Shariah, for the main road is called shar, the path, tariq.’ No mystical experience can be realized if the binding injunctions of the Shariah are not followed faithfully first. The path, tariqa, however, is narrower and more difficult to walk. It leads the adept, called sâlik (wayfarer), in his sulûk (wayfaring), through different stations (maqâmât) until he reaches his goal, the perfect tawhîd, the existential confession that God is One.[63] Jalaluddin Ar Rumi, the initiator of the Mavlevi Tariqah, spoke of the Shariah and Sufism in such terms, " To be a real Sufi, is to be to Muhammad, salalahu alaihy wasallam, just as Abu Bakr was to him, peace be upon him." Shaykh al-Akbar Muhiuddeen Ibn Arabi mentions," When we see someone in this Community who claims to be able to guide others to Allah, but is remiss in but one rule of the Sacred Law - even if he manifests miracles that stagger the mind - asserting that his shortcoming is a special dispensation for him, we do not even turn to look at him, for such a person is not a sheikh, nor is he speaking the truth, for no one is entrusted with the secrets of Allah Most High save one in whom the ordinances of the Sacred Law are preserved. (Jami' karamat al-awliya')" [64]
[edit] Traditional Islamic thought and Sufism
The literature of Sufism emphasizes highly subjective matters that resist outside observation, such as the subtle states of the heart. Often these resist direct reference or description, with the consequence that the authors of various Sufi treatises took recourse to allegorical language. For instance, much Sufi poetry refers to intoxication, which Islam expressly forbids. This usage of indirect language and the existence of interpretations by people who had no training in Islam or Sufism led to doubts being cast over the validity of Sufism as a part of Islam. Also, some groups emerged that considered themselves above the Sharia and discussed Sufism as a method of bypassing the rules of Islam in order to attain salvation directly. This was disapproved of by traditional scholars.
For these and other reasons, the relationship between traditional Islamic scholars and Sufism is complex and a range of scholarly opinion on Sufism in Islam has been the norm. Some scholars, such as Al-Ghazali, helped its propagation while other scholars opposed it. W. Chittick explains the position of Sufism and Sufis this way:
In short, Muslim scholars who focused their energies on understanding the normative guidelines for the body came to be known as jurists, and those who held that the most important task was to train the mind in achieving correct understanding came to be divided into three main schools of thought: theology, philosophy, and Sufism. This leaves us with the third domain of human existence, the spirit. Most Muslims who devoted their major efforts to developing the spiritual dimensions of the human person came to be known as Sufis.
[edit] Traditional and non-traditional Sufi groups
The mausoleum (gongbei) of Ma Laichi in Linxia City, China.
The traditional Sufi orders, which are in majority, emphasize the role of Sufism as a spiritual discipline within Islam. Therefore, the Sharia (traditional Islamic law) and the Sunnah are seen as crucial for any Sufi aspirant. One proof traditional orders assert is that almost all the famous Sufi masters of the past Caliphates were experts in Sharia and were renowned as people with great Iman (faith) and excellent practice. Many were also Qadis (Sharia law judges) in courts. They held that Sufism was never distinct from Islam and to fully comprehend and practice Sufism one must be an observant Muslim.
There is some speculation that some Sufi orders in India might have become influenced by other traditions after the translation of Greek philosophical works into Arabic during the third Islamic century. Sharda highlights these unsurprising similarities by stating that: "After the fall of Muslim orthodoxy from power at the centre of India for about a century, due to the invasion of Timur, the Sufi became free from the control of the Muslim orthodoxy and consorted with Hindu saints, who influenced them to an amazing extent. The Sufi adopted Monism and wifely devotion from the Vaishnava Vedantic school and Bhakti and Yogic practices from the Vaishnava Vedantic school. By that time, the popularity of the Vedantic pantheism among the Sufis had reached its zenith."[65]
In recent decades there has been a growth of non-traditional Sufi movements in the West. Examples include the Universal Sufism movement, the Golden Sufi Center, the Sufi Foundation of America, the neo-sufism of Idries Shah, Sufism Reoriented and the International Association of Sufism. Rumi has become one of the most widely read poets in the United States, thanks largely to the translations published by Coleman Barks.
[edit] Islamic positions on non-Islamic Sufi groups
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The use of the title Sufi by non-traditional groups to refer to themselves, and their appropriation of traditional Sufi masters (most notably Jalaluddin Rumi) as sources of authority or inspiration, is not accepted by some Muslims who are Sufi adherents.
Many of the great Sufi masters of the present and the past instruct that: one needs the form of the religious practices and the outer dimension of the religion to fulfill the goals of the inner dimension of Sufism (Proximity to God). The exoteric practices prescribed by God contain inner meanings and provide the means for transformation with the proper spiritual guidance of a master. It is thought that through the forms of the ritual and prescribed Islamic practices (prayer, pilgrimage, fasting, charity and affirmation of Divine Unity) the soul may be purified and one may then begin to embark on the mystical quest. In fact it is considered psychologically dangerous by some Sufi masters to participate in Sufi practices, such as "dhikr", without adhering to the outer aspects of the religion which add spiritual balance and grounding to the practice.
Some traditional Sufis also object to interpretations of classical Sufis texts by writers who have no grounding in the traditional Islamic sciences and therefore no prerequisites for understanding such texts. These are considered by certain conventional Islamic scholars as beyond the pale of the religion.[66] This being said, there are Islamic Sufi groups that are open to non-Muslim participation.
[edit] Reception
[edit] Perception outside Islam
Sufi mysticism has long exercised a fascination upon the Western world, and especially its orientalist scholars.[67] Figures like Rumi have become household names in the United States, where Sufism is perceived as quietist and less political.[67]
The Islamic Institute in Mannheim, Germany, which works towards the integration of Europe and Muslims, sees Sufism as particularly suited for interreligious dialogue and intercultural harmonisation in democratic and pluralist societies; it has described Sufism as a symbol of tolerance and humanism – undogmatic, flexible and non-violent.[68]
[edit] The Influence of Sufism on Judaism
A great influence was exercised by Sufism upon the ethical writings of Jews in the Middle Ages. In the first writing of this kind, we see "Kitab al-Hidayah ila Fara'iḍ al-Ḳulub", Duties of the Heart, of Bahya ibn Pakuda. This book was translated by Judah ibn Tibbon into Hebrew under the title "Ḥovot ha-Levavot".[69]
The precepts prescribed by the Torah number 613 only; those dictated by the intellect are innumerable.
This was precisely the argument used by the Sufis against their adversaries, the Ulamas. The arrangement of the book seems to have been inspired by Sufism. Its ten sections correspond to the ten stages through which the Sufi had to pass in order to attain that true and passionate love of God which is the aim and goal of all ethical self-discipline.
It is noteworthy that in the ethical writings of the Sufis Al-Kusajri and Al-Harawi there are sections which treat of the same subjects as those treated in the "Ḥobot ha-Lebabot" and which bear the same titles: e.g., "Bab al-Tawakkul"; "Bab al-Taubah"; "Bab al-Muḥasabah"; "Bab al-Tawaḍu'"; "Bab al-Zuhd". In the ninth gate, Baḥya directly quotes sayings of the Sufis, whom he calls Perushim. However, the author of the Ḥovot ha-Levavot did not go so far as to approve of the asceticism of the Sufis, although he showed a marked predilection for their ethical principles.
The Jewish writer Abraham bar Ḥiyya teaches the asceticism of the Sufis. His distinction with regard to the observance of Jewish law by various classes of men is essentially a Sufic theory. According to it there are four principal degrees of human perfection or sanctity; namely:
(1) of "Shari'ah," i.e., of strict obedience to all ritual laws of Islam, such as prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, almsgiving, ablution, etc., which is the lowest degree of worship, and is attainable by all
(2) of Ṭariqah, which is accessible only to a higher class of men who, while strictly adhering to the outward or ceremonial injunctions of religion, rise to an inward perception of mental power and virtue necessary for the nearer approach to the Divinity
(3) of "Ḥaḳikah," the degree attained by those who, through continuous contemplation and inward devotion, have risen to the true perception of the nature of the visible and invisible; who, in fact, have recognized the Godhead, and through this knowledge have succeeded in establishing an ecstatic relation to it; and
(4) of the "Ma'arifah," in which state man communicates directly with the Deity.
[edit] In popular culture
[edit] In movies
The movie Bab´Aziz (2005) directed by Nacer Khemir tells the story of an old and blind dervish who must cross the desert with his little granddaughter during many days and nights to get to his last dervish reunion celebrated every 30 years. The movie is full of Sufi mysticism and even contain quotes of Rumi and other sufi poets and shows an ecstatic sufi dance. In Monsieur Ibrahim Omar Sherrif's character professes to be a Muslim in the sufi tradition.
[edit] In music
Madonna, on her 1994 record Bedtime Stories sings a song called "Bedtime Story" that discusses achieving a high unconsciousness level. The video for the song shows an ecstatic Sufi ritual with many dervishes dancing, Arabic calligraphy and some other Sufi elements. In her 1998 song Bittersweet, she recites Rumi´s poem by the same name. In her 2001 Drowned World Tour, Madonna sang the song Secret showing rituals from many religions, including a Sufi dance.
Singer/songwritter Loreena McKennitt, on her record The Mask And Mirror (1994), has a song called The Mystic's Dream, influenced by Sufi music and poetry. The band, MewithoutYou, has made references to Sufi parables, including the name of their upcoming album It’s all crazy! It’s all false! It’s all a dream! It’s alright (2009). Lead singer, Aaron Weiss, claims this influence comes from his parents, who are both Sufi converts.
A.R. Rahman scored a Sufi Qawwali, Khwaja Mere Khwaja, in the Bollywood film Jodhaa Akbar.
Junoon, a band from Pakistan, is famous for creating the genre of Sufi rock by combining elements of modern hard rock and traditional folk music with Sufi poetry.
[edit] See also
The Berlin tramway (German: Straßenbahn Berlin) is the main tram system in Berlin, Germany. It is one of the oldest tram networks in the world having its origins in 1865 and is operated by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), which was founded in 1929. It is notable for being the third-largest tram system in the world, after Melbourne and St. Petersburg. Berlin's streetcar system is made up of 22 lines that operate across a standard gauge network, with almost 800 stops and measuring almost 190 kilometres in route length and 430 kilometres in line length. Nine of the lines, called Metrotram, are operated continuously around the clock, and are identified with the letter "M" before their number; the other thirteen lines are regular city tram lines and are identified by just a line number.
Most of the recent network is within the confines of the former East Berlin - tram lines within West Berlin having been replaced by buses during the division of Berlin (the first extension into West Berlin opened in 1994 on today's M13). In the eastern vicinity of the city there are also three private tram lines that are not part of the main system, whereas to the south-west of Berlin is the Potsdam tram system with its own network of lines.
HISTORY
In 1865, a horse tramway was established in Berlin. In 1881, the world's first electric tram line opened. Numerous private and municipal operating companies constructed new routes, so by the end of the 19th century the network developed quite rapidly, and the horse trams were changed into electric ones. By 1930, the network had a route length of over 630 km with more than 90 lines. In 1929, all operating companies were unified into the BVG. After World War II, BVG was divided into an eastern and a western company but was once again reunited in 1992, after the fall of East Germany. In West Berlin, by 1967 the last tram lines had been shut down. With the exception of two lines constructed after German reunification, the Berlin tram continues to be limited to the eastern portion of Berlin.
HORSE BUSES
The public transport system of Berlin is the oldest one in Germany. In 1825, the first bus line from Brandenburger Tor to Charlottenburg was opened by Simon Kremser, already with a timetable. The first bus service inside the city has operated since 1840 between Alexanderplatz and Potsdamer Bahnhof. It was run by Israel Moses Henoch, who had organized the cab service since 1815. On 1 January 1847, the Concessionierte Berliner Omnibus Compagnie (Concessionary Berlin Bus Company) started its first horse-bus line. The growing market witnessed the launch of numerous additional companies, with 36 bus companies in Berlin by 1864.
HORSE TRAMS
On 22 June 1865, the opening of Berlin's first horse tramway marked the beginning of the age of trams in Germany, spanning from Brandenburger Tor along today's Straße des 17. Juni (17 June Road) to Charlottenburg. Two months later, on 28 August, it was extended along Dorotheenstraße to Kupfergraben near today's Museumsinsel (Museum Island), a terminal stop which is still in service today. Like the horse-bus, many companies followed the new development and built horse-tram networks in all parts of the today's urban area. In 1873, a route from Rosenthaler Platz to the Gesundbrunnen was opened, to be operated by the new Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway) which would later become the dominant company in Berlin under the name of Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS; Great Berlin Tramway).
ELECTRIFICATION
On 16 May 1881, the region of Berlin again wrote transport history. In the village of Groß-Lichterfelde, which was incorporated into Berlin-Steglitz 39 years later, Werner von Siemens opened the world's first electric tramway. The electric tram in Groß-Lichterfelde was built to 1,000 mm metre gauge and ran from today's suburban station, Lichterfelde Ost, to the cadet school on Zehlendorfer Straße (today Finckensteinallee). Initially, the route was intended merely as a testing facility. Siemens named it an "elevated line taken down from its pillars and girders" because he wanted to build a network of electric elevated lines in Berlin. But the skeptical town council did not allow him to do this until 1902, when the first elevated line opened.
The first tests of electric traction on Berlin's standard gauge began on 1 May 1882, with overhead supply and in 1886 with chemical accumulators, were not very successful. Definitively, electric traction of standard-gauge trams in Berlin was established in 1895. The first tram line with an overhead track supply ran in an industrial area near Berlin-
Gesundbrunnen station. The first line in more a representative area took place with accumulators for its first year, but got a catenary, too, four years later. In 1902, the electrification with overhead wiring had been completed, except for very few lines on the periphery.
The last horse-drawn tram line closed in 1910.
UNDERGROUND TRAMS
On 28 December 1899, it became possible to travel underground, even under the Spree, upon completion of the Spreetunnel between Stralau and Treptow. Owing to structural problems, it was closed on 25 February 1932. From 1916 to 1951, the tram had a second tunnel, the Lindentunnel, passing under the well-known boulevard Unter den Linden.
GREAT VARIETY OF COMPANIES UNTIL THE FORMATION OF THE BVG
The history of tramway companies of the Berlin Strassenbahn is very complicated. Besides the private companies, which often changed because of takeovers, mergers, and bankruptcies, the cities of Berlin, Spandau, Köpenick, Rixdorf; the villages Steglitz, Mariendorf, Britz, Niederschönhausen, Friedrichshagen, Heiligensee and Französisch Buchholz, and the Kreis Teltow (Teltow district) had municipal tramway companies.
The most important private operating company was the Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway), which called itself Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS) (Great Berlin Tramway) after starting the electrification. GBS acquired nearly all of the other companies through the years. In 1920, the GBS merged with the municipal companies BESTAG and SSB to become the Berliner Straßenbahn (Berlin Tramway), which was reorganized in 1929 into the newly formed municipal Berliner Verkehrs-AG (BVG) (Berlin Transport Company). Besides the tramway, the BVG also took over the elevated and underground rail lines and the bus routes which were previously operated primarily by the Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus-Actien-Gesellschaft (ABOAG) (General Berlin Bus Corporation).
The following table includes all companies that operated tramways in today's Berlin before the formation of the BVG. The background color of each line marks the drive method which the respective company used to serve their lines at the time of the formation (blue = horse tram, yellow = steam tram, white = electric tram, red = benzole tram).
On the day of its formation, the BVG had 89 tramway lines: a network of 634 km in length, over 4,000 tramway cars, and more than 14,400 employees. An average tram car ran over 42,500 km per year. The Berlin tramway had more than 929 million passengers in 1929, at which point, the BVG already had increased its service to 93 tramway lines.
In the early 1930s, the Berlin tramway network began to decline; after partial closing of the world's first electric tram in 1930, on 31 October 1934, the oldest tramway of Germany followed. The Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni) was rebuilt by Nazi planners following a monumental East-West-Axis, and the tramway had to leave. In 1938, however, there were still 71 tramway lines, 2,800 tram cars and about 12,500 employees. Consequently, the bus network was extended during this time. Since 1933, Berlin also had trolley buses.
During World War II, some transport tasks were given back to the tramway to save oil. Thus an extensive transport of goods was established. Bombings (from March 1943 on) and the lack of personnel and electricity caused the transportation performance to decline. Due to the final Battle for Berlin, the tramway system collapsed on 23 April 1945.
THE NETWORK SINCE 1945
The BVG was - like most other Berlin institutions—split into two different companies on 1 August 1949. Two separate companies were installed, the BVG West in the three western sections (with 36 tram lines) and the BVG Ost (Berlin Public Transit Authority East) (with 13 lines) in the Soviet sector. The latter became in 1969 the VEB Kombinat Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVB). On 14 October 1950, traffic on the lines from West Berlin to the Brandenburgian suburbs Kleinmachnow and Schönefeld stopped, and on 15 January 1953, traffic over the downtown sector border did, too.
From 1949 to 1955, both companies exchanged the Thomson-Houston type trolley poles of their tramcars line by line for pantographs.
WEST
From 1954 onwards, a shift took place in the public transit plans of West-Berlin. From that moment, plans aimed at discontinuing the tramway service and replacing it with extended underground and bus lines. The tramway was considered old-fashioned and unnecessary since Berlin already had a well-developed underground network. From 1954 to 1962 numerous tram lines were replaced with bus routes and extended underground lines and stops. By 1962, the western part of the city had only 18 tram lines left out of the original 36.
On 2 October 1967 the last tramcar traveled through West-Berlin over the last line, which carried number 55 - from Zoo Station via Ernst-Reuter-Square, the City Hall in Charlottenburg, Jungfernheide S-Bahn station, Siemensdamm, Nonnendammallee,
Falkenseer Platz, and Neuendorfer Allee to Spandau, Hakenfelde.
Today, many MetroBus lines follow the routes of former tram lines.
The separation of the city resulted in many problems and difficulties for the public transportation system. Tram lines could no longer travel through the city's center as usual, and the main tram garage was moved to Uferstraße in Western Berlin.
EAST
Soviet Moscow was, with its tram-free avenues, the role model for East-Berlin's transport planning. The car-oriented mentality of West Berlin also settled in the East since a lot of tram lines closed here as well in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, the lines through the city center closed down at the same time as the new city expansion on Alexanderplatz started to grow.
However, complete elimination of the city's tram network was neither planned nor even discussed.
Those lines were built in order to connect the new housing estates Marzahn, Hohenschönhausen, and finally Hellersdorf to the city's tram network from the late 1970s to the early 1990s:
AFTER REUNIFICATION
In 1992, the West Berlin transport company BVG took over the East Berlin's BVB. (In addition to bus and subway lines, the new BVG also ran the trams, which now only circulated in the former East Berlin districts.)
There was an attempt to shut down the tram routes running to Pankow, because the trams in Schönhauser Allee run parallel to the U2 line, which does not run to Rosenthal, however.
In 1995, the first stretch of tram route along Bornholmer Straße was opened to the west in two stages. The Rudolf-Virchow-Klinikum and the metro stations located in Seestraße, Wedding, and Osloer Straße in Gesundbrunnen have since re-connected to the tram network.
Since 1997, the tram stops right at the Friedrichstraße station. Previously, passengers changing between modes of transport here had to take a long walk to get to the restored train station. Since then, the trams terminate along the reversing loop "Am Kupfergraben" near the Humboldt University and the Museum Island.
The following year saw the re-opening of tram facilities at Alexanderplatz. These routes now come directly from the intersection with Otto-Braun-Straße across the square, stopping both at the U2 underground station and the overground station for regional and commuter trains, where there is a direct interchange to the U5 and U8 lines. The increase of tram accident victims in the pedestrian
zone feared by critics has not occurred.
In 2000, the tram tracks were extended from the previous terminus at Revalerstraße past the Warschauer Straße S-Bahn station to the U-Bahn station of the same name. Since there is no room for a return loop, a blunt ending track was established. In order to accomplish this, bi-directional vehicles were procured. However, the tracks, which were further extended in 1995 to the Oberbaumbrücke, have not yet been expanded to Hermannplatz as had been planned long before.
Since 2000, the tram in Pankow runs beyond the previous terminus Pankow Kirche on to Guyotstraße, connecting the local development areas to the network.
On 12 December 2004, BVG introduced the BVG 2005 plus transport concept. The main focus was the introduction of Metro lines on densely traveled routes, which do not have any subway or suburban traffic. In the tram network, therefore, nine MetroTram lines were introduced and the remaining lines were partially rearranged. The numbering scheme is based on that of 1993, but has undergone minor adjustments. MetroTram and MetroBus lines carry a "M" in front of the line number.
Single metro lines operate on the main radial network; As a rule the line number corresponds to that of 1993; The M4 from the lines 2, 3 and 4, the M5 from the 5, and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines 52 and 53 were included as a line M1 in the scheme. The supplementary lines of these radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have acted as amplifiers of the respective metro service. Metro services of the ring and tangential net received a number in the 10er range, the supplementary lines retained the 20er number. An exception is the subsequently established line 37, which, together with the lines M17 and 27, travels a common route. Of the 50 lines the only remaining was the 50, the 60 lines remained largely unaffected by the measures.
M1: Niederschönhausen, Schillerstraße and Rosenthal to Mitte, Am Kupfergraben replacing 52 and 53
M2: Heinersdorf to Hackescher Markt
M4: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt
M5: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt
M6: Hellersdorf, Riesaer Straße to Schwartzkopffstraße
M8: Ahrensfelde to Schwartzkopffstraße
M10: Prenzlauer Berg, Eberswalder Straße to Warschauer Straße replacing 20
M13: Wedding to Warschauer Straße replacing 23
M17: Falkenberg to Schöneweide
In 2006, the second line was opened in the western part of the city, and the M10 line moved beyond its former terminus Eberswalderstraße along Bernauer Straße in Gesundbrunnen to the Nordbahnhof in the district of Mitte, before it was being extended to Hauptbahnhof in 2015.
In May 2007, a new line from Prenzlauer Tor along Karl-Liebknecht-Straße towards Alexanderplatz was put into operation, where the line M2 leads directly to the urban and regional train station instead of the current circulation through Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz to Hackescher Markt. The previous route along Alt and Neu Schönhauser Straße no longer carries regular services but operates only as a feeder line.
On September 4, 2011, the one and a half kilometer long new line from the S-Bahn station Adlershof was taken by the science and business location Adlershof to the provisional endpoint Karl-Ziegler-Straße at the campus Adlershof, the Humboldt University in operation. The route with three newly built stops cost 13 million euros and was first operated by the lines 60 and 61 in the overlapping 10-minute intervals. Since 13 December 2015, the line 63 runs instead of the line 60 to Karl Ziegler Street. Originally, the connection should already be completed in 1999. However, the plan approval procedure was only completed in 2002. Shortly before the plan approval decision expired after five years, the project was approved on August 9, 2007, and soon after the first masts for the overhead line were set up. It is expected to have 9000 passengers per working day. This is just as similar to the tram line being built along the Upper Changi Road East and the Flora Drive, and the subsequent linking of Flora Estate into the Upper Changi area.
TOWARDS THE HAUPTBAHNHOF
At the timetable change on 14 December 2014, a new tram line was opened from Naturkundemuseum to Hauptbahnhof via Invalidenstraße, with the final stop at Lüneburger Straße in the district of Alt-Moabit. The double-track line is 2.3 kilometers long to the main station, and new stops have been built on the Chausseestraße, the Invalidenpark and the Hauptbahnhof. This is followed by the 1.1 km single track block bypass that has three stops at Lesser-Ury-Weg, Lueneburger Straße and Clara-Jaschke-Straße, as well as the installation area. The planned opening date has already been postponed several times. Originally planned to complete in 2002. However, the plan was caught by the Administrative Court in 2004 and revised to either 2006 and 2007. However, the first 80 metres of the track has already been built during the construction of Berlin Hauptbahnhof.
A new approval procedure was completed on 15 January 2010. In April 2011, the preparatory construction work had begun. The Ministry of Transport revised the 50 metres of the length, a two-meter-wide strip of garden to the state of Berlin to provide enough space for all road users. In the course of the work on the new line sector, the line branch along, Chausseestraße (between Invalidenstraße and Wöhlertstraße), Schwartzkopffstraße, Pflugstraße, Wöhlertstraße was permanently closed on 26 August 2013. The commissioning of the new line was initially only with the line M5. With the restoration of the connection from the Nordbahnhof to the underground station Naturkundemuseum, the new line from 28 August 2015 could also be used by the lines M8 and M10.
The first horse-drawn tramlines did not use any special labeling as they were radially inferior from the respective endpoints in the center and thus had few points of contact with other lines. Only with the expansion of the network into the city center was there a need to distinguish the lines from each other. From the 1880s, most major German cities therefore used colored target signs or signal boards, sometimes both together. In Berlin, these were always kept in the same combination. As identification colors red, yellow, green and white were used, from 1898 additionally blue. The panels were one or two colors, the latter either half / half divided or in thirds with a line in the second color. However, the number of signal panels used was not sufficient to equip each line with its own color code. In addition, crossing or side by side lines should run with different signal panels. This meant that individual lines had to change their color code several times in the course of their existence. As a result of the electrification and the takeover of the New Berlin Horse Ride by the Great Berlin Horse Railways / Great Berlin Tram (GBPfE / GBS) increased their number of lines at the turn of the century abruptly. With a view of the Hamburg tram, where in the summer of 1900 for the first time in German-speaking countries line numbers were introduced, experimented the GBS from 1901 also with the numbers. In the timetables of this time, the lines were numbered, but could change their order every year. The numbering scheme should include not only the GBS but also its secondary lines. At the same time, letter-number combinations as they appeared in the timetable booklet should be avoided.
The scheme introduced on May 6, 1902 was relatively simple: single numbers were reserved for the ring lines, two-digit for the remaining lines. Initially, the tens gave information about where the line was going; 10 lines were to be found in Moabit, 60 lines in Weissensee and 70 lines in Lichtenberg. The lines of the West Berlin suburban railway were assigned the letters A to M, the Berlin-Charlottenburg tram the letters N to Z and the lines of the Southern Berlin suburban railway were numbered with Roman numerals. The 1910 taken over by the GBS northeastern Berliner Vorortbahn received in 1913 the line designation NO. The colored signal panels remained in parallel until about 1904. In addition, the lines created during this period were still colored signal panels with new, sometimes even three-color color combinations.
Insertors were marked separately from the March 1903. They bore the letter E behind the line number of their main line. In later years, these lines increasingly took over the tasks of booster drives and were therefore shown in the timetables as separate lines. On April 15, 1912, the GBS introduced the first line with three-digit number. The 164 was created by extending the 64, which was maintained in parallel. In the following months more lines were provided with 100 numbers or newly set up, usually as a line pair to the existing line.
The surrounding businesses were not affected by the change in May 1902 and set on their own markings. The lines of the urban trams and the meterspurigen lines of the Teltower circular orbits were still marked with signal panels, on the other hand, the BESTAG and in Heiligensee, not the lines, but only the targets were marked with different colored signs. In 1908, the Spandauer Straßenbahn introduced the line identification with letters, which corresponded to the initial letter of the destination (line P to Pichelsdorf, etc.), in 1917 the company switched to numbers. In Cöpenick, the lines were marked from 1906 with numbers, from 1910 additionally with colored signal panels for the individual routes (red lines to Friedrichshagen, etc.). The Berlin Ostbahnen used from 1913 also like the SBV Roman numbers as line numbers. The other companies, including the standard-gauge lines of the Teltower Kreisbahnen, did not use a line marking.
With the merger of companies for the Berlin tram, the GBS's numbering scheme was extended to cover the rest of the network. Usually, those numbers are assigned, whose lines were continued during the World War I. For example, it came about that the lines operating in Köpenick received mainly 80s numbers. Letters were still awarded to the tram lines in the BVG until 1924, after which it was reserved for the suburban tariff buses.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Berlin public transport companies had to stop a large part of the bus traffic to save fuel. Tram traffic has been extended accordingly. The newly established amplifier lines contributed to the distinction of the master lines 200 and 300 numbers. From 1941, the night routes of the bus and the tram networks were later classified into the 400-series numbers. The measures were existed until the end of the war. The last 100 numbers were renumbered in May 31, 1949.
After the administrative separation of the BVG initially only changed the numbering scheme. Tram lines running from the east to the west of Berlin kept their number after the grid separation in 1953 and as a result of network thinning, individual lines were disappeared. The BVG-West waived from July 1966, the prefix A on the bus lines, the BVG-Ost waived in 1 January 1968. While in the west tram traffic was stopped 15 months later, the passenger in the east could not tell from the line number whether it was a tram or bus line. The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe therefore planned to systematise their network in the 1970s. The city center lines of the tram should receive the line numbers 1 to 30, in Köpenick should retain their 80s numbers. The remaining numbers were intended for the bus. Night lines received from 1973 uniformly 100 numbers, for the tram were initially provided only the numbers from 120. The conversion of the daily lines was only partially completed.
After the reunification, in two steps, a uniform numbering scheme was introduced, which included the lines in the state of Brandenburg. The Berlin tram was assigned the line number range from 1 to 86, then followed by the overland operations in Woltersdorf, Schöneiche and Strausberg with the numbers 87 to 89. The Potsdam tram received the 90s line numbers. E-lines were no longer listed separately in the timetable, but the amplifiers continued to operate as such until 2004. Night lines were indicated on both means of transport by a preceding N and the three-digit line numbers were henceforth intended for the bus routes. The first conversion of 2 June 1991 followed the Berlin tram lines on 23 May 1993. The network was reorganized and divided into five number ranges. The main focus was on the focus on the historical center. Single lines formed the radial main network, 10 lines their supplementary network. 20er lines were intended for the ring and Tangentiallinien. There were 50 lines in the district of Pankow, 60 lines in the district of Köpenick analogous to the bus lines there.
BVG had instituted a new line structure, where the BVG has 22 lines since 2004. MetroTram also uses the symbol MetroTram.svg. On 12 December 2004, BVG had introduced the transport concept, BVG 2005+. The main content was the introduction of metro lines on busy routes where there are no S-Bahn or U-Bahn. In the tram network, therefore, nine tram lines under MetroTram were introduced, and the other lines have permanently rearranged. The numbering scheme is that it was similar to the 1993 scheme, but has undergone major adjustments.
Metro lines with a single digit number travel through the radial main network, as a rule, the line number corresponds to that of 1993, so the lines became 2, 3, and 4 into M4, the 5 into M5 and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines, 52 and 53 were included as line M1 in the main scheme. The supplementary lines of the radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have been merged into the amplifier of the metro line. Metro lines of the ring and tangential network received the numbers in the 10 range, whose supplementary lines retain the 20 range. An example is the retrofitted line, route 37, which together with the lines of M17 and 27 runs a common route. Of the 50 routes remained, the only one of the 50, the 60 lines were remained untouched by these measures.
FLEET
The Berlin tram has three different families of vehicles. In addition to Tatra high-floor vehicles there are low floor six-axle double articulated trams in unidirectional and bidirectional version (GT6N and GT6N-ZR), and since 2008, the new Flexity Berlin. The Tatra KT4 trams were phased out by 2017, and T6A2/B6A2 trams were phased out by 2007, those are Communism-era trams.
The number of trams has shrunk continuously. The BVB had 1,024 vehicles, while currently there are about 600. The reduction is possible because the new low-floor cars on average achieve more than twice the mileage per year (100,000 km), and, being longer, carry more passengers and therefore rarely operate in double header.
In July 2006, the cost of energy per vehicle-kilometer was:
tram €0.33
coupled set €0.45
bus €0.42
underground train €1.18
GT6N
Between 1992 and 2003 45 bidirectional T6N-ZRs and 105 unidirectional GT6Ns were purchased. The cars have a width of 2.30 m and a length of 26.80 m. They can carry 150 passengers and can run as coupled sets.
134 cars were in a risky transaction leased to a US investor and leased back. The SNB has accrued more than €157 million to hedge potential losses from cross-border business.
In the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 the SNB began the carriage 1006 and 1016 a sample exercise. They were provided with a new drive technology and new software such as the Flexcitys. The only mutually detachable vehicles had to distinguish the new car numbers 1506 and the 1516.
FLEXITY BERLIN
In April 2005, a European tender was issued for low floor trams, half unidirectional, and half bidirectional vehicles. The latter will respond better to the BVG and construction faults and build on certain routes for cost savings. The Vienna tramway tram type ULF was tested in passenger service.
On 12 June 2006, the BVG decided to procure new trams. These are based on the tested Incentro, referred to by Bombardier as Flexity Berlin. In October 2008, for €13 million, four prototypes were ordered and since then extensively tested. There are one- and two-way cars, respectively 30.8 and 40 m in length, carrying about 180 or 240 passengers. Use in coupled sets is not possible.
On 29 June 2009, the Supervisory Board of the BVG decided to buy 99 Flexity cars, 40 of which will be long and 59 short versions, for €305.3 million. In September 2011 the first 13 long cars began to be delivered. To replace all old Tatra cars, a further 33 costing €92.3 million may need to be ordered in 2017. The trams will be manufactured at Bombardier's Bautzen works or Hennigsdorf.
In June 2012 the Supervisory Board approved the BVG 2nd Serial recall of an additional 39 trams of type "Flexity Berlin". Considering the order of over 99 vehicles from 2010, that means a total of 38 vehicles and 47 long bidirectional vehicles, as well as 53 short bidirectional vehicles will be ordered from the manufacturer, Bombardier Transportation. Thus, the SNB responds to both the very positive development of passenger numbers at the tram and allows bidirectional vehicles the eventual abandonment of turning loops and enhancing the design stops. Once this procurement is secured in 2017, then the old Tatra cars can be scrapped. The State of Berlin's funded budget is €439.1 million.
The new cars are equipped with 2.40 m wheel spacing, 10 cm wider than the existing low-floor trams. The track width was chosen so that modifications in the network are not necessary This affects only the routes, which will operate on the Flexity. Köpenick and parts of the Pankow network, the web is unable to drive.
In December 2015, BVG exercised an option for another 47 Flexity trams from Bombardier to handle increased ridership.
TRAM DEPOTS
Depots are required for storage and maintenance purposes. BVG has seven operational tram depots, five of which are used for storage of service trams:
Kniprodestraße, in Friedrichshain on the east side of the junction of Kniprodestraße and Conrad-Blenkle-Straße. This depot is used for track storage and rail-grinding machinery only. It is on bus route 200, and the access tracks connect to tram line M10.
Köpenick, on the west side of Wendenschloßstraße, south of the junction with Müggelheimer Straße. The depot entrance is on tram route 62.
Lichtenberg, on the east side of Siegfriedstraße, north of Lichtenberg U-Bahn station. The depot entrance is on tram routes 21 & 37 and bus routes 240 & 256.
Marzahn, on the south side of Landsberger Allee, east of Blumberger Damm. The depot has a tram stop on the M6 and 18 lines. Bus route 197 also passes the depot.
Nalepastraße, on the east side of Nalepastraße, in Oberschöneweide. It is not on any tram or bus route, but its access line connects with tram routes M17, 21, 37, 63 and 67 at the junction of Wilhelminenhofstraße and Edisonstraße.
Niederschönhausen, on the north-east corner of the junction of Deitzgenstraße and Schillerstraße. The line is on tram line M1. The depot is used for the storage of works machinery and historic, and preserved trams.
Weissensee, on the north side of Bernkasteler Straße near the junction of Berliner Allee and Rennbahnstraße. The depot entrance is not directly passed by any bus or tram route, but tram routes 12 & 27 and bus routes 156, 255 & 259 serve the adjacent Berliner Allee/Rennbahnstraße tram stop.
Out-of-service trams returning to Nalepastraße and Weissensee depot remain in-service until reaching the special tram stop at each depot.
GENERAL VIEW
The Berlin tram network is today the third largest in Germany
Around Berlin there are some additional tram systems that do not belong to the BVG:
the Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam (operators of the Potsdam Tramway)
the Strausberg Railway (actually, a tram line located in the town of Strausberg)
the Woltersdorf Tramway (line 87, partly in Berlin)
the Schöneiche-Rüdersdorf Tramway (line 88, partly in Berlin)
The last three companies are located in the eastern suburbs at the eastern edge of Berlin. Each of them has only one line.
WIKIPEDIA
Headphones are just simple Sony Professional monitors.
Tablet is a new Windows tablet I'm still breaking in.
Hyper-v server is on the right-hand cart (domain controller, seedbox, database server, web server, VPN endpoint). My Oculus Rift DK1 is on the shelf above that.
Route 66 | Seligman 04/12/2009 11h10
Vintage cars and some humour are a perfect combination at the Route 66, the 'Mother Road of America'.
Route 66
U.S. Route 66 (also known as the Will Rogers Highway after the humorist, and colloquially known as the "Main Street of America" or the "Mother Road") was a highway in the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66, US Highway 66, was established on November 11, 1926. However, road signs did not go up until the following year.
The famous highway originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, encompassing a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km). It was recognized in popular culture by both a hit song (written by Bobby Troup and performed by the Nat King Cole Trio and The Rolling Stones, among others) and the Route 66 television show in the 1960s. More recently, the 2006 Disney/Pixar film Cars featured U.S. 66.
Route 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, changing its path and overall length. Many of the realignments gave travelers faster or safer routes, or detoured around city congestion. One realignment moved the western endpoint farther west from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica.
Route 66 was a major path of the migrants who went west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive even with the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.
US 66 was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27, 1985 after it was decided the route was no longer relevant and had been replaced by the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona have been designated a National Scenic Byway of the name "Historic Route 66". It has begun to return to maps in this form. Some portions of the road in southern California have been redesignated "State Route 66", and others bear "Historic Route 66" signs and relevant historic information.
[ Source and more information: Wikipedia - Route 66 ]
The Berlin tramway (German: Straßenbahn Berlin) is the main tram system in Berlin, Germany. It is one of the oldest tram networks in the world having its origins in 1865 and is operated by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), which was founded in 1929. It is notable for being the third-largest tram system in the world, after Melbourne and St. Petersburg. Berlin's streetcar system is made up of 22 lines that operate across a standard gauge network, with almost 800 stops and measuring almost 190 kilometres in route length and 430 kilometres in line length. Nine of the lines, called Metrotram, are operated continuously around the clock, and are identified with the letter "M" before their number; the other thirteen lines are regular city tram lines and are identified by just a line number.
Most of the recent network is within the confines of the former East Berlin - tram lines within West Berlin having been replaced by buses during the division of Berlin (the first extension into West Berlin opened in 1994 on today's M13). In the eastern vicinity of the city there are also three private tram lines that are not part of the main system, whereas to the south-west of Berlin is the Potsdam tram system with its own network of lines.
HISTORY
In 1865, a horse tramway was established in Berlin. In 1881, the world's first electric tram line opened. Numerous private and municipal operating companies constructed new routes, so by the end of the 19th century the network developed quite rapidly, and the horse trams were changed into electric ones. By 1930, the network had a route length of over 630 km with more than 90 lines. In 1929, all operating companies were unified into the BVG. After World War II, BVG was divided into an eastern and a western company but was once again reunited in 1992, after the fall of East Germany. In West Berlin, by 1967 the last tram lines had been shut down. With the exception of two lines constructed after German reunification, the Berlin tram continues to be limited to the eastern portion of Berlin.
HORSE BUSES
The public transport system of Berlin is the oldest one in Germany. In 1825, the first bus line from Brandenburger Tor to Charlottenburg was opened by Simon Kremser, already with a timetable. The first bus service inside the city has operated since 1840 between Alexanderplatz and Potsdamer Bahnhof. It was run by Israel Moses Henoch, who had organized the cab service since 1815. On 1 January 1847, the Concessionierte Berliner Omnibus Compagnie (Concessionary Berlin Bus Company) started its first horse-bus line. The growing market witnessed the launch of numerous additional companies, with 36 bus companies in Berlin by 1864.
HORSE TRAMS
On 22 June 1865, the opening of Berlin's first horse tramway marked the beginning of the age of trams in Germany, spanning from Brandenburger Tor along today's Straße des 17. Juni (17 June Road) to Charlottenburg. Two months later, on 28 August, it was extended along Dorotheenstraße to Kupfergraben near today's Museumsinsel (Museum Island), a terminal stop which is still in service today. Like the horse-bus, many companies followed the new development and built horse-tram networks in all parts of the today's urban area. In 1873, a route from Rosenthaler Platz to the Gesundbrunnen was opened, to be operated by the new Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway) which would later become the dominant company in Berlin under the name of Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS; Great Berlin Tramway).
ELECTRIFICATION
On 16 May 1881, the region of Berlin again wrote transport history. In the village of Groß-Lichterfelde, which was incorporated into Berlin-Steglitz 39 years later, Werner von Siemens opened the world's first electric tramway. The electric tram in Groß-Lichterfelde was built to 1,000 mm metre gauge and ran from today's suburban station, Lichterfelde Ost, to the cadet school on Zehlendorfer Straße (today Finckensteinallee). Initially, the route was intended merely as a testing facility. Siemens named it an "elevated line taken down from its pillars and girders" because he wanted to build a network of electric elevated lines in Berlin. But the skeptical town council did not allow him to do this until 1902, when the first elevated line opened.
The first tests of electric traction on Berlin's standard gauge began on 1 May 1882, with overhead supply and in 1886 with chemical accumulators, were not very successful. Definitively, electric traction of standard-gauge trams in Berlin was established in 1895. The first tram line with an overhead track supply ran in an industrial area near Berlin-
Gesundbrunnen station. The first line in more a representative area took place with accumulators for its first year, but got a catenary, too, four years later. In 1902, the electrification with overhead wiring had been completed, except for very few lines on the periphery.
The last horse-drawn tram line closed in 1910.
UNDERGROUND TRAMS
On 28 December 1899, it became possible to travel underground, even under the Spree, upon completion of the Spreetunnel between Stralau and Treptow. Owing to structural problems, it was closed on 25 February 1932. From 1916 to 1951, the tram had a second tunnel, the Lindentunnel, passing under the well-known boulevard Unter den Linden.
GREAT VARIETY OF COMPANIES UNTIL THE FORMATION OF THE BVG
The history of tramway companies of the Berlin Strassenbahn is very complicated. Besides the private companies, which often changed because of takeovers, mergers, and bankruptcies, the cities of Berlin, Spandau, Köpenick, Rixdorf; the villages Steglitz, Mariendorf, Britz, Niederschönhausen, Friedrichshagen, Heiligensee and Französisch Buchholz, and the Kreis Teltow (Teltow district) had municipal tramway companies.
The most important private operating company was the Große Berliner Pferde-Eisenbahn (Great Berlin Horse Railway), which called itself Große Berliner Straßenbahn (GBS) (Great Berlin Tramway) after starting the electrification. GBS acquired nearly all of the other companies through the years. In 1920, the GBS merged with the municipal companies BESTAG and SSB to become the Berliner Straßenbahn (Berlin Tramway), which was reorganized in 1929 into the newly formed municipal Berliner Verkehrs-AG (BVG) (Berlin Transport Company). Besides the tramway, the BVG also took over the elevated and underground rail lines and the bus routes which were previously operated primarily by the Allgemeine Berliner Omnibus-Actien-Gesellschaft (ABOAG) (General Berlin Bus Corporation).
The following table includes all companies that operated tramways in today's Berlin before the formation of the BVG. The background color of each line marks the drive method which the respective company used to serve their lines at the time of the formation (blue = horse tram, yellow = steam tram, white = electric tram, red = benzole tram).
On the day of its formation, the BVG had 89 tramway lines: a network of 634 km in length, over 4,000 tramway cars, and more than 14,400 employees. An average tram car ran over 42,500 km per year. The Berlin tramway had more than 929 million passengers in 1929, at which point, the BVG already had increased its service to 93 tramway lines.
In the early 1930s, the Berlin tramway network began to decline; after partial closing of the world's first electric tram in 1930, on 31 October 1934, the oldest tramway of Germany followed. The Charlottenburger Chaussee (today Straße des 17. Juni) was rebuilt by Nazi planners following a monumental East-West-Axis, and the tramway had to leave. In 1938, however, there were still 71 tramway lines, 2,800 tram cars and about 12,500 employees. Consequently, the bus network was extended during this time. Since 1933, Berlin also had trolley buses.
During World War II, some transport tasks were given back to the tramway to save oil. Thus an extensive transport of goods was established. Bombings (from March 1943 on) and the lack of personnel and electricity caused the transportation performance to decline. Due to the final Battle for Berlin, the tramway system collapsed on 23 April 1945.
THE NETWORK SINCE 1945
The BVG was - like most other Berlin institutions—split into two different companies on 1 August 1949. Two separate companies were installed, the BVG West in the three western sections (with 36 tram lines) and the BVG Ost (Berlin Public Transit Authority East) (with 13 lines) in the Soviet sector. The latter became in 1969 the VEB Kombinat Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVB). On 14 October 1950, traffic on the lines from West Berlin to the Brandenburgian suburbs Kleinmachnow and Schönefeld stopped, and on 15 January 1953, traffic over the downtown sector border did, too.
From 1949 to 1955, both companies exchanged the Thomson-Houston type trolley poles of their tramcars line by line for pantographs.
WEST
From 1954 onwards, a shift took place in the public transit plans of West-Berlin. From that moment, plans aimed at discontinuing the tramway service and replacing it with extended underground and bus lines. The tramway was considered old-fashioned and unnecessary since Berlin already had a well-developed underground network. From 1954 to 1962 numerous tram lines were replaced with bus routes and extended underground lines and stops. By 1962, the western part of the city had only 18 tram lines left out of the original 36.
On 2 October 1967 the last tramcar traveled through West-Berlin over the last line, which carried number 55 - from Zoo Station via Ernst-Reuter-Square, the City Hall in Charlottenburg, Jungfernheide S-Bahn station, Siemensdamm, Nonnendammallee,
Falkenseer Platz, and Neuendorfer Allee to Spandau, Hakenfelde.
Today, many MetroBus lines follow the routes of former tram lines.
The separation of the city resulted in many problems and difficulties for the public transportation system. Tram lines could no longer travel through the city's center as usual, and the main tram garage was moved to Uferstraße in Western Berlin.
EAST
Soviet Moscow was, with its tram-free avenues, the role model for East-Berlin's transport planning. The car-oriented mentality of West Berlin also settled in the East since a lot of tram lines closed here as well in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, the lines through the city center closed down at the same time as the new city expansion on Alexanderplatz started to grow.
However, complete elimination of the city's tram network was neither planned nor even discussed.
Those lines were built in order to connect the new housing estates Marzahn, Hohenschönhausen, and finally Hellersdorf to the city's tram network from the late 1970s to the early 1990s:
AFTER REUNIFICATION
In 1992, the West Berlin transport company BVG took over the East Berlin's BVB. (In addition to bus and subway lines, the new BVG also ran the trams, which now only circulated in the former East Berlin districts.)
There was an attempt to shut down the tram routes running to Pankow, because the trams in Schönhauser Allee run parallel to the U2 line, which does not run to Rosenthal, however.
In 1995, the first stretch of tram route along Bornholmer Straße was opened to the west in two stages. The Rudolf-Virchow-Klinikum and the metro stations located in Seestraße, Wedding, and Osloer Straße in Gesundbrunnen have since re-connected to the tram network.
Since 1997, the tram stops right at the Friedrichstraße station. Previously, passengers changing between modes of transport here had to take a long walk to get to the restored train station. Since then, the trams terminate along the reversing loop "Am Kupfergraben" near the Humboldt University and the Museum Island.
The following year saw the re-opening of tram facilities at Alexanderplatz. These routes now come directly from the intersection with Otto-Braun-Straße across the square, stopping both at the U2 underground station and the overground station for regional and commuter trains, where there is a direct interchange to the U5 and U8 lines. The increase of tram accident victims in the pedestrian
zone feared by critics has not occurred.
In 2000, the tram tracks were extended from the previous terminus at Revalerstraße past the Warschauer Straße S-Bahn station to the U-Bahn station of the same name. Since there is no room for a return loop, a blunt ending track was established. In order to accomplish this, bi-directional vehicles were procured. However, the tracks, which were further extended in 1995 to the Oberbaumbrücke, have not yet been expanded to Hermannplatz as had been planned long before.
Since 2000, the tram in Pankow runs beyond the previous terminus Pankow Kirche on to Guyotstraße, connecting the local development areas to the network.
On 12 December 2004, BVG introduced the BVG 2005 plus transport concept. The main focus was the introduction of Metro lines on densely traveled routes, which do not have any subway or suburban traffic. In the tram network, therefore, nine MetroTram lines were introduced and the remaining lines were partially rearranged. The numbering scheme is based on that of 1993, but has undergone minor adjustments. MetroTram and MetroBus lines carry a "M" in front of the line number.
Single metro lines operate on the main radial network; As a rule the line number corresponds to that of 1993; The M4 from the lines 2, 3 and 4, the M5 from the 5, and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines 52 and 53 were included as a line M1 in the scheme. The supplementary lines of these radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have acted as amplifiers of the respective metro service. Metro services of the ring and tangential net received a number in the 10er range, the supplementary lines retained the 20er number. An exception is the subsequently established line 37, which, together with the lines M17 and 27, travels a common route. Of the 50 lines the only remaining was the 50, the 60 lines remained largely unaffected by the measures.
M1: Niederschönhausen, Schillerstraße and Rosenthal to Mitte, Am Kupfergraben replacing 52 and 53
M2: Heinersdorf to Hackescher Markt
M4: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt
M5: Hohenschönhausen, Zingster Straße to Hackescher Markt
M6: Hellersdorf, Riesaer Straße to Schwartzkopffstraße
M8: Ahrensfelde to Schwartzkopffstraße
M10: Prenzlauer Berg, Eberswalder Straße to Warschauer Straße replacing 20
M13: Wedding to Warschauer Straße replacing 23
M17: Falkenberg to Schöneweide
In 2006, the second line was opened in the western part of the city, and the M10 line moved beyond its former terminus Eberswalderstraße along Bernauer Straße in Gesundbrunnen to the Nordbahnhof in the district of Mitte, before it was being extended to Hauptbahnhof in 2015.
In May 2007, a new line from Prenzlauer Tor along Karl-Liebknecht-Straße towards Alexanderplatz was put into operation, where the line M2 leads directly to the urban and regional train station instead of the current circulation through Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz to Hackescher Markt. The previous route along Alt and Neu Schönhauser Straße no longer carries regular services but operates only as a feeder line.
On September 4, 2011, the one and a half kilometer long new line from the S-Bahn station Adlershof was taken by the science and business location Adlershof to the provisional endpoint Karl-Ziegler-Straße at the campus Adlershof, the Humboldt University in operation. The route with three newly built stops cost 13 million euros and was first operated by the lines 60 and 61 in the overlapping 10-minute intervals. Since 13 December 2015, the line 63 runs instead of the line 60 to Karl Ziegler Street. Originally, the connection should already be completed in 1999. However, the plan approval procedure was only completed in 2002. Shortly before the plan approval decision expired after five years, the project was approved on August 9, 2007, and soon after the first masts for the overhead line were set up. It is expected to have 9000 passengers per working day. This is just as similar to the tram line being built along the Upper Changi Road East and the Flora Drive, and the subsequent linking of Flora Estate into the Upper Changi area.
TOWARDS THE HAUPTBAHNHOF
At the timetable change on 14 December 2014, a new tram line was opened from Naturkundemuseum to Hauptbahnhof via Invalidenstraße, with the final stop at Lüneburger Straße in the district of Alt-Moabit. The double-track line is 2.3 kilometers long to the main station, and new stops have been built on the Chausseestraße, the Invalidenpark and the Hauptbahnhof. This is followed by the 1.1 km single track block bypass that has three stops at Lesser-Ury-Weg, Lueneburger Straße and Clara-Jaschke-Straße, as well as the installation area. The planned opening date has already been postponed several times. Originally planned to complete in 2002. However, the plan was caught by the Administrative Court in 2004 and revised to either 2006 and 2007. However, the first 80 metres of the track has already been built during the construction of Berlin Hauptbahnhof.
A new approval procedure was completed on 15 January 2010. In April 2011, the preparatory construction work had begun. The Ministry of Transport revised the 50 metres of the length, a two-meter-wide strip of garden to the state of Berlin to provide enough space for all road users. In the course of the work on the new line sector, the line branch along, Chausseestraße (between Invalidenstraße and Wöhlertstraße), Schwartzkopffstraße, Pflugstraße, Wöhlertstraße was permanently closed on 26 August 2013. The commissioning of the new line was initially only with the line M5. With the restoration of the connection from the Nordbahnhof to the underground station Naturkundemuseum, the new line from 28 August 2015 could also be used by the lines M8 and M10.
The first horse-drawn tramlines did not use any special labeling as they were radially inferior from the respective endpoints in the center and thus had few points of contact with other lines. Only with the expansion of the network into the city center was there a need to distinguish the lines from each other. From the 1880s, most major German cities therefore used colored target signs or signal boards, sometimes both together. In Berlin, these were always kept in the same combination. As identification colors red, yellow, green and white were used, from 1898 additionally blue. The panels were one or two colors, the latter either half / half divided or in thirds with a line in the second color. However, the number of signal panels used was not sufficient to equip each line with its own color code. In addition, crossing or side by side lines should run with different signal panels. This meant that individual lines had to change their color code several times in the course of their existence. As a result of the electrification and the takeover of the New Berlin Horse Ride by the Great Berlin Horse Railways / Great Berlin Tram (GBPfE / GBS) increased their number of lines at the turn of the century abruptly. With a view of the Hamburg tram, where in the summer of 1900 for the first time in German-speaking countries line numbers were introduced, experimented the GBS from 1901 also with the numbers. In the timetables of this time, the lines were numbered, but could change their order every year. The numbering scheme should include not only the GBS but also its secondary lines. At the same time, letter-number combinations as they appeared in the timetable booklet should be avoided.
The scheme introduced on May 6, 1902 was relatively simple: single numbers were reserved for the ring lines, two-digit for the remaining lines. Initially, the tens gave information about where the line was going; 10 lines were to be found in Moabit, 60 lines in Weissensee and 70 lines in Lichtenberg. The lines of the West Berlin suburban railway were assigned the letters A to M, the Berlin-Charlottenburg tram the letters N to Z and the lines of the Southern Berlin suburban railway were numbered with Roman numerals. The 1910 taken over by the GBS northeastern Berliner Vorortbahn received in 1913 the line designation NO. The colored signal panels remained in parallel until about 1904. In addition, the lines created during this period were still colored signal panels with new, sometimes even three-color color combinations.
Insertors were marked separately from the March 1903. They bore the letter E behind the line number of their main line. In later years, these lines increasingly took over the tasks of booster drives and were therefore shown in the timetables as separate lines. On April 15, 1912, the GBS introduced the first line with three-digit number. The 164 was created by extending the 64, which was maintained in parallel. In the following months more lines were provided with 100 numbers or newly set up, usually as a line pair to the existing line.
The surrounding businesses were not affected by the change in May 1902 and set on their own markings. The lines of the urban trams and the meterspurigen lines of the Teltower circular orbits were still marked with signal panels, on the other hand, the BESTAG and in Heiligensee, not the lines, but only the targets were marked with different colored signs. In 1908, the Spandauer Straßenbahn introduced the line identification with letters, which corresponded to the initial letter of the destination (line P to Pichelsdorf, etc.), in 1917 the company switched to numbers. In Cöpenick, the lines were marked from 1906 with numbers, from 1910 additionally with colored signal panels for the individual routes (red lines to Friedrichshagen, etc.). The Berlin Ostbahnen used from 1913 also like the SBV Roman numbers as line numbers. The other companies, including the standard-gauge lines of the Teltower Kreisbahnen, did not use a line marking.
With the merger of companies for the Berlin tram, the GBS's numbering scheme was extended to cover the rest of the network. Usually, those numbers are assigned, whose lines were continued during the World War I. For example, it came about that the lines operating in Köpenick received mainly 80s numbers. Letters were still awarded to the tram lines in the BVG until 1924, after which it was reserved for the suburban tariff buses.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, the Berlin public transport companies had to stop a large part of the bus traffic to save fuel. Tram traffic has been extended accordingly. The newly established amplifier lines contributed to the distinction of the master lines 200 and 300 numbers. From 1941, the night routes of the bus and the tram networks were later classified into the 400-series numbers. The measures were existed until the end of the war. The last 100 numbers were renumbered in May 31, 1949.
After the administrative separation of the BVG initially only changed the numbering scheme. Tram lines running from the east to the west of Berlin kept their number after the grid separation in 1953 and as a result of network thinning, individual lines were disappeared. The BVG-West waived from July 1966, the prefix A on the bus lines, the BVG-Ost waived in 1 January 1968. While in the west tram traffic was stopped 15 months later, the passenger in the east could not tell from the line number whether it was a tram or bus line. The Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe therefore planned to systematise their network in the 1970s. The city center lines of the tram should receive the line numbers 1 to 30, in Köpenick should retain their 80s numbers. The remaining numbers were intended for the bus. Night lines received from 1973 uniformly 100 numbers, for the tram were initially provided only the numbers from 120. The conversion of the daily lines was only partially completed.
After the reunification, in two steps, a uniform numbering scheme was introduced, which included the lines in the state of Brandenburg. The Berlin tram was assigned the line number range from 1 to 86, then followed by the overland operations in Woltersdorf, Schöneiche and Strausberg with the numbers 87 to 89. The Potsdam tram received the 90s line numbers. E-lines were no longer listed separately in the timetable, but the amplifiers continued to operate as such until 2004. Night lines were indicated on both means of transport by a preceding N and the three-digit line numbers were henceforth intended for the bus routes. The first conversion of 2 June 1991 followed the Berlin tram lines on 23 May 1993. The network was reorganized and divided into five number ranges. The main focus was on the focus on the historical center. Single lines formed the radial main network, 10 lines their supplementary network. 20er lines were intended for the ring and Tangentiallinien. There were 50 lines in the district of Pankow, 60 lines in the district of Köpenick analogous to the bus lines there.
BVG had instituted a new line structure, where the BVG has 22 lines since 2004. MetroTram also uses the symbol MetroTram.svg. On 12 December 2004, BVG had introduced the transport concept, BVG 2005+. The main content was the introduction of metro lines on busy routes where there are no S-Bahn or U-Bahn. In the tram network, therefore, nine tram lines under MetroTram were introduced, and the other lines have permanently rearranged. The numbering scheme is that it was similar to the 1993 scheme, but has undergone major adjustments.
Metro lines with a single digit number travel through the radial main network, as a rule, the line number corresponds to that of 1993, so the lines became 2, 3, and 4 into M4, the 5 into M5 and so on. In addition, the two Pankow lines, 52 and 53 were included as line M1 in the main scheme. The supplementary lines of the radials continue to carry 10 numbers, unless they have been merged into the amplifier of the metro line. Metro lines of the ring and tangential network received the numbers in the 10 range, whose supplementary lines retain the 20 range. An example is the retrofitted line, route 37, which together with the lines of M17 and 27 runs a common route. Of the 50 routes remained, the only one of the 50, the 60 lines were remained untouched by these measures.
FLEET
The Berlin tram has three different families of vehicles. In addition to Tatra high-floor vehicles there are low floor six-axle double articulated trams in unidirectional and bidirectional version (GT6N and GT6N-ZR), and since 2008, the new Flexity Berlin. The Tatra KT4 trams were phased out by 2017, and T6A2/B6A2 trams were phased out by 2007, those are Communism-era trams.
The number of trams has shrunk continuously. The BVB had 1,024 vehicles, while currently there are about 600. The reduction is possible because the new low-floor cars on average achieve more than twice the mileage per year (100,000 km), and, being longer, carry more passengers and therefore rarely operate in double header.
In July 2006, the cost of energy per vehicle-kilometer was:
tram €0.33
coupled set €0.45
bus €0.42
underground train €1.18
GT6N
Between 1992 and 2003 45 bidirectional T6N-ZRs and 105 unidirectional GT6Ns were purchased. The cars have a width of 2.30 m and a length of 26.80 m. They can carry 150 passengers and can run as coupled sets.
134 cars were in a risky transaction leased to a US investor and leased back. The SNB has accrued more than €157 million to hedge potential losses from cross-border business.
In the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012 the SNB began the carriage 1006 and 1016 a sample exercise. They were provided with a new drive technology and new software such as the Flexcitys. The only mutually detachable vehicles had to distinguish the new car numbers 1506 and the 1516.
FLEXITY BERLIN
In April 2005, a European tender was issued for low floor trams, half unidirectional, and half bidirectional vehicles. The latter will respond better to the BVG and construction faults and build on certain routes for cost savings. The Vienna tramway tram type ULF was tested in passenger service.
On 12 June 2006, the BVG decided to procure new trams. These are based on the tested Incentro, referred to by Bombardier as Flexity Berlin. In October 2008, for €13 million, four prototypes were ordered and since then extensively tested. There are one- and two-way cars, respectively 30.8 and 40 m in length, carrying about 180 or 240 passengers. Use in coupled sets is not possible.
On 29 June 2009, the Supervisory Board of the BVG decided to buy 99 Flexity cars, 40 of which will be long and 59 short versions, for €305.3 million. In September 2011 the first 13 long cars began to be delivered. To replace all old Tatra cars, a further 33 costing €92.3 million may need to be ordered in 2017. The trams will be manufactured at Bombardier's Bautzen works or Hennigsdorf.
In June 2012 the Supervisory Board approved the BVG 2nd Serial recall of an additional 39 trams of type "Flexity Berlin". Considering the order of over 99 vehicles from 2010, that means a total of 38 vehicles and 47 long bidirectional vehicles, as well as 53 short bidirectional vehicles will be ordered from the manufacturer, Bombardier Transportation. Thus, the SNB responds to both the very positive development of passenger numbers at the tram and allows bidirectional vehicles the eventual abandonment of turning loops and enhancing the design stops. Once this procurement is secured in 2017, then the old Tatra cars can be scrapped. The State of Berlin's funded budget is €439.1 million.
The new cars are equipped with 2.40 m wheel spacing, 10 cm wider than the existing low-floor trams. The track width was chosen so that modifications in the network are not necessary This affects only the routes, which will operate on the Flexity. Köpenick and parts of the Pankow network, the web is unable to drive.
In December 2015, BVG exercised an option for another 47 Flexity trams from Bombardier to handle increased ridership.
TRAM DEPOTS
Depots are required for storage and maintenance purposes. BVG has seven operational tram depots, five of which are used for storage of service trams:
Kniprodestraße, in Friedrichshain on the east side of the junction of Kniprodestraße and Conrad-Blenkle-Straße. This depot is used for track storage and rail-grinding machinery only. It is on bus route 200, and the access tracks connect to tram line M10.
Köpenick, on the west side of Wendenschloßstraße, south of the junction with Müggelheimer Straße. The depot entrance is on tram route 62.
Lichtenberg, on the east side of Siegfriedstraße, north of Lichtenberg U-Bahn station. The depot entrance is on tram routes 21 & 37 and bus routes 240 & 256.
Marzahn, on the south side of Landsberger Allee, east of Blumberger Damm. The depot has a tram stop on the M6 and 18 lines. Bus route 197 also passes the depot.
Nalepastraße, on the east side of Nalepastraße, in Oberschöneweide. It is not on any tram or bus route, but its access line connects with tram routes M17, 21, 37, 63 and 67 at the junction of Wilhelminenhofstraße and Edisonstraße.
Niederschönhausen, on the north-east corner of the junction of Deitzgenstraße and Schillerstraße. The line is on tram line M1. The depot is used for the storage of works machinery and historic, and preserved trams.
Weissensee, on the north side of Bernkasteler Straße near the junction of Berliner Allee and Rennbahnstraße. The depot entrance is not directly passed by any bus or tram route, but tram routes 12 & 27 and bus routes 156, 255 & 259 serve the adjacent Berliner Allee/Rennbahnstraße tram stop.
Out-of-service trams returning to Nalepastraße and Weissensee depot remain in-service until reaching the special tram stop at each depot.
GENERAL VIEW
The Berlin tram network is today the third largest in Germany
Around Berlin there are some additional tram systems that do not belong to the BVG:
the Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam (operators of the Potsdam Tramway)
the Strausberg Railway (actually, a tram line located in the town of Strausberg)
the Woltersdorf Tramway (line 87, partly in Berlin)
the Schöneiche-Rüdersdorf Tramway (line 88, partly in Berlin)
The last three companies are located in the eastern suburbs at the eastern edge of Berlin. Each of them has only one line.
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