The Postcard

 

A postally unused postcard that was published prior to 1995 by City Merchandise of 68, 34th. Street, Brooklyn, N.Y. The card has a divided back.

 

The photography was by Alan Schein.

 

On the back of the card is printed:

 

'Manhattan and Brooklyn

Bridges. New York.'

 

NYC - The World Trade Center 1973 - 2001

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

The 9/11 Attacks

 

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

 

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

 

Subsequent Developments

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Economic Effects of the September 11 Attacks

 

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

 

-- Financial markets

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

The Federal Reserve issued a statement, saying:

 

"We are open and operating. The

discount window is available to

meet liquidity needs."

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

-- Effect on Economic Sectors

 

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

 

-- Insurance Consequences of the Attacks

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

-- Consequences for Airlines and Aviation

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

-- Effects of the Attacks on Tourism

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

From this, she concluded that:

 

"Most participants felt more distress

(65%) and a stronger fear of flying

(55%) immediately after the event

than they did before the attacks."

 

-- Effects on Security

 

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

 

-- Effects on New York City

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

-- Other Effects of the Attacks

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

More on 9/11 below.

 

Brooklyn Bridge

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Description of Brooklyn Bridge

 

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

 

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

 

The Deck of the Brooklyn Bridge

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

The Cables of Brooklyn Bridge

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Brooklyn Bridge Anchorages

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

"Who loveth not wine, women and song,

he remaineth a fool his whole life long."

 

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

 

The Towers of the Brooklyn Bridge

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

The Brooklyn Bridge Caissons

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

History of the Brooklyn Bridge

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge

 

The Caissons

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

"The six of us were working naked to the waist

in the small iron chamber with the temperature

of about 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

In five minutes the sweat was pouring from us,

and all the while we were standing in icy water

that was only kept from rising by the terrific

pressure. No wonder the headaches were

blinding."

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

The Towers of the Brooklyn Bridge

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

The Brooklyn Bridge Cables

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Opposition to the Bridge

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

The Opening of the Brooklyn Bridge

 

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

 

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

 

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

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

and of the knowledge of many men in many ages.

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

before us today as the sum and epitome of human

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

latest glory of centuries of patient observation,

profound study and accumulated skill, gained,

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Brooklyn Bridge in Mid- to late 20th. Century

 

Upgrades to the Bridge

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Deterioration and Late-20th. Century Repair

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Brooklyn Bridge in the 21st. Century

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Usage of the Brooklyn Bridge

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

The Brooklyn Bridge Walkway

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Emergency Use of Brooklyn Bridge

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Stunts Associated With Brooklyn Bridge

 

There have been several notable jumpers from the Brooklyn Bridge:

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

"Replace violence and fear

in mass media for one day".

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Brooklyn Bridge as a Suicide Spot

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Crimes and Terrorism Associated With Brooklyn Bridge

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Brooklyn Bridge Anniversary Celebrations

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Culture

 

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

 

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

 

"No evidence exists that the bridge

has ever been sold to a 'gullible

outlander'".

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Brooklyn Bridge in the Media

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

In the piece, Schuyler wrote:

 

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

our most durable monument, and to convey some

knowledge of us to the most remote posterity, is a

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

a palace, but a bridge."

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

Featuring:

-Randy Schwimmer, Senior Managing Director, Co-Head of Senior Lending at Churchill Asset Management

-Jeff Abrams, CIO Asset Management at ORIX Corporation USA

-Matt Szwarc, Managing Director & Co-Portfolio Manager – Junior Credit at Manulife Investment Management

-Brendan Carroll, Senior Partner & Co-Founder at Victory Park Capital

-Scott Baskind, CIO, Head of Private Credit at Invesco

 

Managed to shoot off at least this pano before I was forced to bolt due to falcons.

 

Not even kidding, those suckers DO NOT like people all up in their airspace.

Managed to get out and about today - all shopping. Today's award for best salesperson goes to the staff at Richer Sounds in Hanley who were pleasant and helpful - unlike the young chap in Maplin's in Stoke who spoke with inaccurate arrogance about bluetooth transmitters..despite his company stocking them...anyway - two parcels arrived today - firstly an E-sata cable (how exciting - not) and then these - fake DM's all the way from China - £28 and they have furry linings! Well pleased - I may well buy some more, in a different colour....painted the bedroom as the new bed is arriving tomorrow, according to the nice fellow from the Ebay shop who rang me. I also emptied the bathroom of all but the bare essentials and gave it a good clean because the man is coming to fit me a new one on Monday. I don't want to be stuck in the house with no water, electricity and heat while he does it, so I've booked three nights away in London. Going on Tuesday and coming back Friday. Hopefully the worst will be over by then. There was a deal on at the YHA so I got three nights in a private room at the St Pancras YHA for £90! Bargain :)

 

Oh - and I think I've solved the stopcock issue....

View on Instagram instagr.am/p/CLhf3s7J7VO/

The secret ninja stealth bus, I managed to find (finally) when I noticed there was nothing tracking on a 354, which is pretty much guaranteed to run as it's a school route, and Bustimes had registered two of Gainsborough's 'non-trackers' on other routes. That basically narrowed the 354 - and the 17:35 107 departure - down to being run by either 17719 or this.

 

Obviously it's not a great photo due to, well, darkness, so ideally I'm still after good daylight shots of both 18040 and 18418 post-repaint. Although considering it's a Scunthorpe job, maybe not being able to see the repaint properly is for the best, and we can just imagine they did a good job of it. At least they put the offside fleet name in the proper place, rather than crammed above the front wheel arch like how Stagecoach seem to prefer it.

 

That specific Trident I do really rather like, despite being defaced into Local livery, is seen at the bottom of Norman Street in Lincoln, with a 107, on 17.1.23

Managed to get this before sunrise.

Managed a lower shot of Ischnura elegans and heavily cropped in.

Managed to get a shot of this heron through the overhanging branches hunting tiddlers 🌞

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde (3rd L) is joined on panel by Amina Mohammed (2nd L), Deputy Secretary General, United Nations; Muhtar Kent (3rd R), CEO, Coca Cola; Siv Jensen (2nd R), Minister of Finance, Norway; Winnie Byanyima (R), Executive Director, Oxfam International and moderated by Sara Eisen (L), CNBC Anchor “Worldwide Exchange” at the IMF Headquarters April 20, 2017 in Washington, DC. IMF Staff Photograph/Stephen Jaffe

 

The BLM manages about 864,000 acres in its Medford district and some of that land includes portions of the famous Pacific Crest Trail, or PCT.

 

The 43-mile stretch of PCT in southern Oregon includes countless scenic views and well-known recreation points: Mount Shasta; Pilot Rock, Hyatt Lake; Soda Mountain Wilderness; and the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, to name a few.

 

Hikers will also be able to experience a variety of natural environments, from wildflower meadows to old growth forests and rocky bluffs.

 

This photo was captured in the summer of 2015.

 

How to access the PCT on southern Oregon public lands managed by the BLM: www.blm.gov/or/resources/recreation/csnm/csnm-pct.php

Managed half an hour or so at Sefton Park Liverpool during my dinner break. Very dull and grey though.

I've managed to find a slot for uploading a few pix while we have a quiet morning here in the USA. Going back to the Granite Way and a view from Meldon Quarry Station with D4167 preparing to depart for the short journey to Okehampton station.

 

D4167 is a class 08 0-6-0 diesel shunter, TOPS number 08937, named 'Bluebell Mel', although the nameplates are currently (Dec 2015) removed for repair. Built in 1962 in Darlington, it has spent all its operational life in the South West, at Plymouth, Newton Abbot, Exeter or Meldon. It has dual brakes, and is often used for passenger services on the DR.

 

managed to get out this morning, lot of butterflies about. Mainly Red Admirals & White's. Smaller less common ones are past their best but got a few shots.

Not managing to get out and do what I like most at the moment due to doing some packshots for an (What I think is) exciting new product (details to follow at launch) and I'm also waiting for the rest of my filters before I start adventuring further afield.

 

Anyway I know this has had its day for this year but its been sitting in my "to be uploaded" file for a while and I guess now is as good a time as any!

 

EXPLORED; 2nd June 2011# 71 (My highest yet, thanks all).

 

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Nothing you see here is real, even though the model, the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

  

Some background:

The AH-1 Cobra was developed in the mid-1960s as an interim gunship for the U.S. Army for use during the Vietnam War. The Cobra shared the proven transmission, rotor system, and the T53 turboshaft engine of the UH-1 "Huey". By June 1967, the first AH-1G HueyCobras had been delivered. Bell built 1,116 AH-1Gs for the U.S. Army between 1967 and 1973, and the Cobras chalked up over a million operational hours in Vietnam.

The U.S. Marine Corps was very interested in the AH-1G Cobra, too, but it preferred a twin-engine version for improved safety in over-water operations, and also wanted a more potent turret-mounted weapon. At first, the Department of Defense had balked at providing the Marines with a twin-engine version of the Cobra, in the belief that commonality with Army AH-1Gs outweighed the advantages of a different engine fit. However, the Marines won out and awarded Bell a contract for 49 twin-engine AH-1J SeaCobras in May 1968. As an interim measure the U.S. Army passed on thirty-eight AH-1Gs to the Marines in 1969. The AH-1J also received a more powerful gun turret with a three-barrel 20 mm XM197 cannon based on the six-barrel M61 Vulcan cannon.

 

During the 1990s, the US forces gradually phased out its Cobra fleet. The withdrawn AH-1s were typically offered to other potential operators, usually NATO allies. Some were also given to the USDA's Forest Service for fire surveillance, and a handful AH-1s went into private hands, including the NASA. Among these airframes were some USMC AH-1Js, which had in part been mothballed in the Mojave Desert since their replacement through more powerful and modern AH-1 variants and the AH-64.

About twenty airframes were, after having been de-militarized, bought by the Kaman Corporation in 2003, in a bold move to quickly respond to more than 20 inquiries for the company’s K-1200 ‘K-Max’ crane synchropter since the type’s end of production in 2001 from firefighting, logging and industry transport requirements. While not such a dedicated medium lift helicopter as the K-1200, which had from the outset been optimized for external cargo load operations, the twin-engine AH-1J promised to be a very effective alternative and a powerful basis for a conversion into a crane helicopter.

 

The result of this conversion program was the Kaman K-1300, also known as the “K-Cobra” or “Crane Cobra”. While the basic airframe of the AH-1J was retained, extensive detail modifications were made. To reduce weight and compensate for the extensive hardware changes, the SeaCobra lost its armor, the chin turret, and the stub wings. Beyond that, many invisible changes were made; the internal structure between the engine mounts was beefed up with an additional cage structure and a cargo hook was installed under the fuselage in the helicopter’s center of lift.

 

To further optimize the K-Cobra’s performance, the dynamic components were modified and improved, too. While the engine remained the same, its oil cooler was enlarged and the original output limit to 1.500 shp was removed and the gearbox was strengthened to fully exploit the twin-engine’s available power of 1,800 shp (1,342 kW). The rotor system was also modified and optimized for the transport of underslung loads: the original UH-1 dual-blade rotors were replaced with new four-blade rotors. The new main rotor with rugged heavy-duty blades offered more lift at less rotor speed, and the blades’ lift sections were moved away from the hub so that downwash and turbulences directly under the helicopter’s CoG and man hook were reduced to keep the cargo load more stable. Due to the main rotor’s slightly bigger diameter the tail rotor was changed into a slightly smaller four-blade rotor, too. This new arrangement made the K-1300 more stable while hovering or during slow speed maneuvers and more responsive to steering input.

 

The Cobra’s crew of two was retained, but the cockpit was re-arranged and split into two compartments: the pilot retained the original rear position in the tandem cockpit under the original glazing, but the gunner’s station in front of him, together with the secondary dashboard, was omitted and replaced by a new, fully glazed cabin under the former gunner position. This cabin occupied the former gun station and its ammunition supply and contained a rearward-facing workstation for a second pilot with full controls. It was accessible via a separate door or a ladder from above, through a trap door in the former gunner’s station floor, where a simple foldable bench was available for a third person. This arrangement was chosen due to almost complete lack of oversight of the slung load from the normal cockpit position, despite a CCTV (closed circuit television) system with two cameras intended for observation of slung loads. The second pilot would control the helicopter during delicate load-handling maneuvers, while the primary pilot “above” would fly the helicopter during transfer flights, both sharing the workload.

 

To accommodate the cabin under the fuselage and improve ground handling, the AH-1J’s skids were replaced by a stalky, fixed four-wheel landing gear that considerably increased ground clearance (almost 7 feet), making the attachment of loads on the ground to the main ventral hook easier, as the K-1300 could be “rolled over” the cargo on the ground and did not have to hover above it to connect. However, an external ladder had to be added so that the pilot could reach his/her workstation almost 10 feet above the ground.

 

The bulky ventral cabin, the draggy landing gear and the new lift-optimized rotor system reduced the CraneCobra’s top speed by a third to just 124 mph (200 km/h), but the helicopter’s load-carrying capacity became 35% higher and the Cobra’s performance under “hot & high” conditions was markedly improved, too.

For transfer flights, a pair of external auxiliary tanks could be mounted to the lower fuselage flanks, which could also be replaced with cargo boxes of similar size and shape.

 

K-1300 buyers primarily came from the United States and Canada, but there were foreign operators, too. A major operator in Europe became Heliswiss, the oldest helicopter company in Switzerland. The company was founded as „Heliswiss Schweizerische Helikopter AG“, with headquarters in Berne-Belp on April 17, 1953, what also marked the beginning of commercial helicopter flying in Switzerland. During the following years Heliswiss expanded in Switzerland and formed a network with bases in Belp BE, Samedan GR, Domat Ems GR, Locarno TI, Erstfeld UR, Gampel VS, Gstaad BE and Gruyères FR. During the build-up of the rescue-company Schweizerische Rettungsflugwacht (REGA) as an independent network, Heliswiss carried out rescue missions on their behalf.

 

Heliswiss carried out operations all over the world, e. g. in Greenland, Suriname, North Africa and South America. The first helicopter was a Bell 47 G-1, registered as HB-XAG on September 23, 1953. From 1963 Heliswiss started to expand and began to operate with medium helicopters like the Agusta Bell 204B with a turbine power of 1050 HP and an external load of up to 1500 kg. From 1979 Heliswiss operated a Bell 214 (external load up to 2.8 t).

Since 1991 Heliswiss operated a Russian Kamov 32A12 (a civil crane version of the Ka-27 “Helix”), which was joined by two K-1300s in 2004. They were frequently used for construction of transmission towers for overhead power lines and pylons for railway catenary lines, for selective logging and also as fire bombers with underslung water bags, the latter managed by the German Helog company, operating out of Ainring and Küssnacht in Germany and Switzerland until 2008, when Helog changed its business focus into a helicopter flight training academy in Liberia with the support of Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

A second Kamov 32A12 joined the fleet in 2015, which replaced one of the K-1300s, and Heliswiss’ last K-1300 was retired in early 2022.

  

General characteristics:

Crew: 2, plus space for a passenger

Length: 54 ft 3 in (16,56 m) including rotors

44 ft 5 in (13.5 m) fuselage only

Main rotor diameter: 46 ft 2¾ in (14,11 m)

Main rotor area: 1,677.64 sq ft (156,37 m2)

Width (over landing gear): 12 ft 6 in (3.85 m)

Height: 17 ft 8¼ in (5,40 m)

Empty weight: 5,810 lb (2,635 kg)

Max. takeoff weight: 9,500 lb (4,309 kg) without slung load

13,515 lb (6,145 kg) with slung load

 

Powerplant:

1× P&W Canada T400-CP-400 (PT6T-3 Twin-Pac) turboshaft engine, 1,800 shp (1,342 kW)

 

Performance:

Maximum speed: 124 mph (200 km/h, 110 kn)

Cruise speed: 105 mph (169 km/h, 91 kn)

Range: 270 mi (430 km, 230 nmi) with internal fuel only,

360 mi (570 km 310 nmi) with external auxiliary tanks

Service ceiling: 15,000 ft (4,600 m)

Hovering ceiling out of ground effect: 3,000 m (9,840 ft)

Rate of climb: 2,500 ft/min (13 m/s) at Sea Level with flat-rated torque

 

External load capacity (at ISA +15 °C (59.0 °F):

6,000 lb (2,722 kg) at sea level

5,663 lb (2,569 kg) at 5,000 ft (1,524 m)

5,163 lb (2,342 kg) at 10,000 ft (3,048 m)

5,013 lb (2,274 kg) at 12,100 ft (3,688 m)

4,313 lb (1,956 kg) at 15,000 ft (4,600 m)

  

The kit and its assembly:

This is/was the second contribution to the late 2022 “Logistics” Group Build at whatifmodellers.com, a welcome occasion and motivation to tackle a what-if project that had been on my list for a long while. This crane helicopter conversion of a HueyCobra was inspired by the Mil Mi-10K helicopter – I had built a 1:100 VEB Plasticart kit MANY years ago and still remembered the helicopter’s unique ventral cabin under the nose with a rearward-facing second pilot. I always thought that the AH-1 might be a good crane helicopter, too, esp. the USMC’s twin-engine variant. And why not combine everything in a fictional model?

 

With this plan the basis became a Fujimi 1:72 AH-1J and lots of donor parts to modify the basic hull into “something else”. Things started with the removal of the chin turret and part of the lower front hull to make space for the ventral glass cabin. The openings for the stub wings were faired over and a different stabilizer (taken from a Revell EC 135, including the end plates) was implanted. The attachment points for the skids were filled and a styrene tube was inserted into the rotor mast opening to later hold the new four-blade rotor. Another styrene tube with bigger diameter was inserted into the lower fuselage as a display holder adapter for later flight scene pictures. Lead beads filled the nose section to make sure the CraneCobra would stand well on its new legs, with the nose down. The cockpit was basically taken OOB, just the front seat and the respective gunner dashboard was omitted.

 

One of the big challenges of this build followed next: the ventral cabin. Over the course of several months, I was not able to find a suitable donor, so I was forced to scratch the cabin from acrylic and styrene sheet. Size benchmark became the gunner’s seat from the Cobra kit, with one of the OOB pilots seated. Cabin width was less dictated through the fuselage, the rest of the cabin’s design became a rather simple, boxy thing – not pretty, but I think a real-life retrofitted cabin would not look much different? Some PSR was done to hide the edges of the rather thick all-clear walls and create a 3D frame - a delicate task. Attaching the completed thing with the second pilot and a dashboard under the roof to the Cobra’s lower hull and making it look more or less natural without major accidents was also a tricky and lengthy affair, because I ignored the Cobra’s narrowing nose above the former chin turret.

 

With the cabin defining the ground helicopter’s clearance, it was time for the next donors: the landing gear from an Airfix 1:72 Kamow Ka-25, which had to be modified further to achieve a proper stance. The long main struts were fixed to the hull, their supporting struts had to be scratched, in this case from steel wire. The front wheels were directly attached to the ventral cabin (which might contain in real life a rigid steel cage that not only protects the second crew member but could also take the front wheels’ loads?). Looks pretty stalky!

Under the hull, a massive hook and a fairing for the oil cooler were added. A PE brass ladder was mounted on the right side of the hull under the pilot’s cockpit, while a rear-view mirror was mounted for the ventral pilot on the left side.

 

The rotor system was created in parallel, I wanted “something different” from the UH-1 dual-blade rotors. The main rotor hub was taken from a Mistercraft 1:72 Westland Lynx (AFAIK a re-boxed ZTS Plastyk kit), which included the arms up to the blades. The hub was put onto a metal axis, with a spacer to make it sit well in the new styrene tube adapter inside of the hull, and some donor parts from the Revell EC 135. Deeper, tailored blades were glued to the Lynx hub, actually leftover parts from the aforementioned wrecked VEB Plasticart 1:100 Mi-10, even though their length had to be halved (what makes you aware how large a Mi-6/10 is compared with an AH-1!). The tail rotor was taken wholesale from the Lynx and stuck to the Cobra’s tail with a steel pin.

  

Painting and markings:

Another pushing factor for this build was the fact that I had a 1:72 Begemot aftermarket decal sheet for the Kamow Ka-27/32 in The Stash™, which features, among many military helicopters, (the) two civil Heliswiss machines – a perfect match!

Using the Swiss Helix’ as design benchmark I adapted their red-over-white paint scheme to the slender AH-1 and eventually ended up with a simple livery with a white belly (acrylic white from the rattle can, after extensive masking of the clear parts with Maskol/latex milk) and a red (Humbrol 19) upper section, with decorative counter-colored cheatlines along the medium waterline. A black anti-glare panel was added in front of the windscreen. The auxiliary tanks were painted white, too, but they were processed separately and mounted just before the final coat of varnish was applied. The PE ladder as well as the rotors were handled similarly.

 

The cockpit and rotor opening interior were painted in a very dark grey (tar black, Revell 06), while the interior of the air intakes was painted bright white (Revell 301). The rotor blades became light grey (Revell 75) with darker leading edges (Humbrol 140), dark grey (Humbrol 164) hubs and yellow tips.

 

For the “HELOG/Heliswiss” tagline the lower white section had to be raised to a medium position on the fuselage, so that they could be placed on the lower flanks under the cockpit. The white civil registration code could not be placed on the tail and ended up on the engine cowling, on red, but this does not look bad or wrong at all.

The cheatlines are also decals from the Ka-32 Begemot sheet, even though they had to be trimmed considerably to fit onto the Cobra’s fuselage – and unfortunately the turned out to be poorly printed and rather brittle, so that I had to improvise and correct the flaws with generic red and white decal lines from TL Modellbau. The white cross on the tail and most stencils came from the Begemot sheet, too. Black, engine soot-hiding areas on the Cobra’s tail were created with generic decal sheet material, too.

 

The rotor blades and the wheels received a black ink treatment to emphasize their details, but this was not done on the hull to avoid a dirty or worn look. After some final details like position lights the model was sealed with semi-matt acrylic varnish, while the rotors became matt.

  

A weird-looking what-if model, but somehow a crane-copter variant of the AH-1 looks quite natural – even more so in its attractive red-and-white civil livery. The stalky landing gear is odd, though, necessitated by the ventral cabin for the second pilot. I was skeptical, but scratching the latter was more successful than expected, and the cabin blend quite well into the AH-1 hull, despite its boxy shape.

 

I hesitated so long switching Lukka to a male base shape because I feared he wouldn't be as pretty. I'm glad I managed to re-capture his androgynous appearance with this year's new shape. My veela boy, still prettier than most girls. <3

Managed to lose the light on the last shot of the day. So often the case with Winter sun, starts very and cloud builds up during the day.

Managed to get over to the Northern Quarter today, which is always a good spot when you want a shot or two. So many little bits of detail, there is always something that catches my eye...

I was golfing today and thankfully managed my round just before the rain and when I got home my wife advised that we had a visitor - an overnight visitor! This was Lewis shortly after I got home "hard at work" building something with his Lego!

 

Our Daily Challenge ~ At Work ....

 

Flickr Lounge - Weekly Theme (Week 26) ~ Portraits ....

 

Thanks to everyone who views this photo, adds a note, leaves a comment and of course BIG thanks to anyone who chooses to favourite my photo .... thanks to you all.

ift.tt/29wIRs4 via /r/EarthPorn ift.tt/29556nc

Managed to capture a spectacular thunderstorm on the horison from the observatory site near Sutherland. This composite photo is an effective 30-minute exposure.

Managed to catch this shot yesterday of the moment the Kingfisher impacts the water catching a fish. — in Bishopstoke, Hampshire.

Although I have managed to catch up with most of Sanders regular and school related services/contracts, Aylsham High School services 43A & 43B have not previously featured amongst my Flickr uploads. So, looking for new locations, despite the dull, wet and distinctly chilly weather conditions, this afternoon found me in the village of Hevingham, which is served by both of them.

 

In this first shot we see Sanders former Lancashire United Wright bodied Volvo B7RLE type number 516 - FJ57 CZM on The Street in Hevingham as it works the above service 43A journey. Having reached this point from Aylsham via the A140, Marsham and Hevingham Town Corner the route makes a clockwise circuit of the village before heading back to regain the A140 at Town Corner. It then continues via Stratton Strawless, Short Thorn Road and B1149 to Horsford. At present, service 43A appears to be worked from Sanders North Walsham depot in the morning and Holt depot in the afternoon.

 

This is the first time that 516 has appeared before my camera since 4th March 2020. Back then it was still operating in Lancashire United yellow and blue so this is also the first time it has been captured since it was repainted into Sanders standard single deck livery.

 

Managed to kill most weeds on the patio with a vinegar solution, but this stubborn one here stood strong

I managed to put all of this months challenges on one card. I used the theme, Spring, the color combo, the banner and I made it a Hello card. this is a FIRST for me to get everything on one card! lol TFL.

 

For more views and details please visit my blog pagemasterdesignsonline.blogspot.com

 

Multi purpose offshore construction vessel built 1983 BY George Sommers A/S

Conveted 2000 by Ulstein Verft Norway

Length 80.77m x 18m

Gross tons 3349t

Deadweight 2490t

Flag Panama

Registered Panama City

I.M.O. 8205620

CALL SIGN H0B0

Power,twin MAK8M453 @ 3000 bhp each

Owned/managed by Atlantic Marine [Gt.Yarmouth]

Former name[s] RED7 TONJER,NORMAND TONJER.

 

Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva participates in the UN Climate Action Race to Zero | Resilience Forum Event at the Plaza Hotel hosted by Bloomberg Philanthropies

 

IMF Photo/Kim Haughton

21 September 2022

New York, New York, United States

Photo ref: KH220921035.jpg

Managed yet another outing today. Heat was becoming unbearable even in Scotland. It was more comfortable in the car with air conditioning. Things improved in the evening when the temperature dropped and I found some shade.

 

I don't know if it was growing confidence as I have been out a few times recently but I was much more comfortable today and felt the rest of the world were getting on with their own lives and didn't bother with me at all.

 

When I went into the supermarket for some lunch I used the self scanning checkout but wasn't phased when I had to call over the assistant. I hate the the self scanners - or they hate me!

managed to get him to sit for a second HARD WORK!!

Managed to get a few shots of Watson this morning. He is quite shy so I was really pleased with this :)

Managed to get a nice pic of this truck driving down Air Expressway in North Victorville.

It was really rainy weather yesterday, we hardly managed to make any shot.

Managing to be a little cuter in this one.

Managed to get cloud-screwed catching this U706 unit sand train breezing through Pesotum, Ill. The train originates near Fond du Lac, Wisc. and is headed to the UP at Kinmundy.

Managed to get a couple of hours at the Weald of Kent Steam Rally before the rain got heavier and I decided I had got wet enough.

 

1927 Burrell

Managed a walk as far as the deer this morning, so quite pleased with myself. Paying the price a little now but worth it (I think). Viewed large shows off his lovely eyes.

managed to capture this wee bird . very happy as up until now they have managed to give me the run a round. could've been clearer but it's a start

Monday, 18 July 2022: our temperature is 15°C (windchill 14°C) just after 11:00 am. Sunrise was at 5:42 am, and sunset is at 9:41 pm. Thank goodness, the heatwave has broken and today is cooler with rain! Back to warm weather tomorrow.

 

I passed this handsome fellow when I was driving along a back road that I don't think I had ever driven before. Beautiful, relaxing scenery while enjoying, and being very thankful for, my car's air-conditioning. Will be SO glad when this heat wave comes to an end!

 

Three days ago, on 14 July 2022, I found a Grizzly Bear family when there was no one else around, and pulled over way, way down the road. All the cars afterwards overtook me and some were maybe 3-6 feet away from the bears. I did eventually pull forward a little bit, but people still passed me and went and parked in front of me, sometimes blocking my view. All about getting their close photos and not giving wildlife their space.

 

I had just been exploring one of my several favourite places in Kananaskis. Once back at my car, I took a few bites of a sandwich and happened to glance way down the road. Looked like there were Bighorn Sheep, but when I zoomed in on my camera to check, I discovered that it was a family of Grizzly Bears. Not wanting to invade their space, I took what photos I could from a great distance, before pulling forward a little. Not the best photos, though one of two of the sub-adults worked out OK. So relieved that I had not encountered them on my short walk!!!

 

The main reason for my trip was simply to get out of my unbearably hot home! I had made a few drives closer to home recently, for the same reason. This time, I needed a change.

 

This time, I went to the mountains, hoping that I might see a few different things. Calling in at Highwood House, I was lucky to see a Hummingbird quickly visit the feeders. First time, it left too fast, but I managed a photo or two the second visit.

 

Partly because I left home much later than I had hoped, I didn't drive as far as I might have otherwise done. There are a few mountain peaks and ranges that I always love to see along the highway and I always stop to take a few shots.

 

On the way back to the city, I called in at my 'usual' area closer to home, but I think most of the birds must have been sheltering from the hot sun. So many birds during this heat wave have their beaks open because of the heat. A pair of Mountain Bluebirds made my decision worthwhile.

Finally managed to finish Toshiro. He is officially a boy now. ^__^

I keep on thinking of selling my other BJD's (MSDs, YOSD and an anthro). I feel like SD's are more of my thing... unsure of what to do, really. The rest is not getting any attention at all lately. :(

The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah. A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. It is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is known for land speed records at the Bonneville Speedway. Access to the Flats is open to the public.

 

The Flats are about 12 miles (19 km) long and 5 miles (8 km) wide, with a crust almost 5 ft (1.5m) thick at the center and less than one inch (2.5 cm) towards the edges. It is estimated to hold 147 million tons of salt, approximately 90% of which is common table salt.

 

Geologist Grove Karl Gilbert named the area after Benjamin Bonneville, a U.S. Army officer who explored the Intermountain West in the 1830s. In 1907, Bill Rishel and two local businessmen tested the suitability of the salt for driving by taking a Pierce-Arrow onto its surface.

 

A railway line across the Flats was completed in 1910, marking the first permanent crossing. The first land speed record was set there in 1914 by Teddy Tetzlaff.

 

Entertainment filmed at the Flats include portions of Walking with Dinosaurs Special - The Ballad of Big Al, Knight Rider, Warlock, Independence Day (1996) and its sequel, SLC Punk, Cremaster 2 from Cremaster Cycle, The Brown Bunny, The World's Fastest Indian, Gerry, The Tree of Life, Top Gear and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Furthermore, the Pontiac Bonneville (former flagship sedan of the Pontiac motor division), the Triumph Bonneville motorcycle, and the Bonneville International media company are all named for the Flats.

 

The Bonneville Salt Flats hosts the annual US Flight Archery Championships. The goal of flight archery is to shoot arrows from bows at the greatest distance possible without regard to hitting a target, and so the vast flat plane of the flats serves as an ideal location to measure the linear distance traveled by arrows without geographic interference. Both the 1977 (archer Don Brown) and 1982 (archer Alan Webster) world records were set there; while the current world record, achieved in 1987 (archer Don Brown), was set at the salt flats near Smith Creek, Nevada.

 

The thickness of salt crust is a critical factor in racing use of the salt flats. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has undertaken multiple studies on the topic; while a 2007 study determined that there was little change in the crust's thickness from 1988 to 2003, more recent studies have shown a reduction in thickness, especially in the northwest area where racing occurs. The flats' overall area has contracted significantly over the past several decades. The cause or causes of this remain unclear, but many believe adjacent evaporative potash mining is the primary factor.

 

Collaboration between racing organizations, the potash mine, and the BLM led to a pilot program begun in 1998 to release excess brine onto the salt flats during winter. Plans to increase the volume of brine returned to the salt flats are hoped to halt loss of crust thickness, or possibly restore it where it has become too thin to sustain human use.

 

Motorcar racing has taken place at the salt flats since 1914. Racing takes place at part of the Bonneville Salt Flats known as the Bonneville Speedway. There are five major land speed events that take place at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Bonneville "Speed Week" takes place mid-August followed by "World of Speed" in September and the "World Finals" take place early October.

 

These three events welcome cars, trucks, and motorcycles. The "Bub Motorcycle Speed Trials" are for motorcycles only. World records are contested at the Mike Cook ShootOut in September. The Southern California Timing Association and the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association organizes and plans the multi-vehicle events, but all event promoters contribute to prepping and maintaining the salt. "Speed Week" events in August were canceled in 2015 and 2022, due to the poor condition of the salt in certain parts of the flats. The salt flats had been swamped by heavy rains earlier in the year, as usual, but this year the rains also triggered mudslides from surrounding mountains onto a section of the flats used for the land-speed racing courses.

 

Bonneville Speedway (also known as the Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track) is an area of the Bonneville Salt Flats northeast of Wendover, Utah, that is marked out for motor sports. It is particularly noted as the venue for numerous land speed records. The Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

 

The salt flats were first used for motor sports in 1912, but did not become truly popular until the 1930s when Ab Jenkins and Sir Malcolm Campbell competed to set land speed records.

 

A reduction of available racing surface and salt thickness has led to the cancellation of events at Bonneville, such as Speed Week in 2014 and 2015. Available racing surface is much reduced with just 2.5 miles (4.0 km) available instead of the 9-mile (14 km) courses traditionally used for Speed Week.

 

Historically, the speedway was marked out by the Utah Department of Transportation at the start of each summer. Originally, two tracks were prepared; a 10-mile (16 km) long straightaway for speed trials and an oval or circular track for distance runs, which was typically between 10 and 12 miles (16 and 19 km) long depending on the condition of the salt surface.

 

Since at least the 1990s, track preparations have been the responsibility of the event organizers. Days or weeks in advance, the track preparers identify an area best suited for their track layouts and begin grading the tracks. Surveyors are brought in to survey the timing trap distances. A day before racing begins, the track markers are added.

 

Originally, the straightaway was marked with a broad black line down its center. This was eventually changed to lines down either side, as the center line wore out too quickly. As the costs for painting the lines has gone up, organizations have switched to flags and cones as track markers. The last event to use black lines was Speed Week, August 2009.

 

The number of tracks and the timed sections for each track are set according to what is most beneficial for each event. Large public meets such as Speed Week run as many as four tracks with several timed miles, usually starting with the second mile and running to the fifth mile. Smaller meets that typically only run world record attempts will utilize a single track, with one timed mile and one timed kilometer in the middle of the track. Additional marks and cones indicate the end of the track and the position of timing equipment.

 

The annual Speed Week was cancelled in both 2014 and 2015, as were many land-speed racing events, due to deteriorating track conditions. Heavy rains caused a layer of mud from surrounding mountains to flow onto the flats, covering approximately 6 mi (9.7 km) of the track. Although another section of the flats would normally be used, nearby salt mining operations had reduced the size of the alternative track.

 

The depth of the salt crust at Bonneville has also been decreasing, possibly leaching into a saltwater aquifer. Measured at as much at 3 ft (0.91 m) in the 1940s and 50s, it has been reduced to just 2 in (0.051 m) in 2015.

 

Though recent studies have been made (since 1960), the causes of this deterioration are not clear, although the evidence points toward both local climatic changes and salt mining. Some strategies were devised to revert the decreasing salt surface, such as pumping back salt, though this had no effect.

 

In August, the Southern California Timing Association and Bonneville Nationals Inc. organize Speed Week, the largest meet of the year, which attracts several hundred drivers who compete to set highest speed in a range of categories. Bonneville Speed Week has been taking place since 1949.

 

In late August, the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials are held.

 

In September each year is the World of Speed, (similar to Speed Week) organized by the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association. The USFRA also meet on the first Wednesday of each month throughout the summer.

 

In October, the Southern California Timing Association puts on World Finals, a scaled-down version of Speed Week. This event tends to have cooler weather and often drier salt that Speed Week the prior month. There are less spectators and it tends to draw serious racers, as this event is the last chance to break a land speed record and be in the SCTA record book for that year.

 

Each year, there are usually a few private meets that are not publicized scattered among the larger public meets.

 

Several motor-paced racing speed records have been attempted at Bonneville.

 

In 1985, American cyclist John Howard set a then world record of 244 km/h (152 mph).

 

On 15 October 1995, Dutch cyclist Fred Rompelberg achieved 268.831 km/h (167.044 mph), using a special bicycle behind a dragster with a large shield.

 

In 2016, Denise Mueller-Korenek claimed a women's bicycle land speed record at 147 mph (237 km/h). She was coached by Howard. It is not clear which authority was supervising the record attempt.

 

In 2018, Mueller-Korenek broke her own women's record and the men's record at a speed of 183.9 miles per hour (296.0 km/h).

 

In popular culture

In the 2003 film The Brown Bunny, Bud Clay races his motorcycle at the speedway.

In the 2005 film The World's Fastest Indian, Burt Munro and his highly modified Indian Scout motorcycle sets a world record.

In the 2015 series finale episode of Mad Men, Donald Draper drives a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS muscle car in the races at Bonneville Speedway.

 

Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Colorado to its east, Wyoming to its northeast, Idaho to its north, Arizona to its south, and Nevada to its west. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin.

 

Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo, and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in the mid-16th century, though the region's difficult geography and harsh climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico. Even while it was Mexican territory, many of Utah's earliest settlers were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States via the Mormon Trail. Following the Mexican–American War in 1848, the region was annexed by the U.S., becoming part of the Utah Territory, which included what is now Colorado and Nevada. Disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government delayed Utah's admission as a state; only after the outlawing of polygamy was it admitted in 1896 as the 45th.

 

People from Utah are known as Utahns. Slightly over half of all Utahns are Mormons, the vast majority of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which has its world headquarters in Salt Lake City; Utah is the only state where a majority of the population belongs to a single church. A 2023 paper challenged this perception (claiming only 42% of Utahns are Mormons) however most statistics still show a majority of Utah residents belong to the LDS church; estimates from the LDS church suggests 60.68% of Utah's population belongs to the church whilst some sources put the number as high as 68%. The paper replied that membership count done by the LDS Church is too high for several reasons. The LDS Church greatly influences Utahn culture, politics, and daily life, though since the 1990s the state has become more religiously diverse as well as secular.

 

Utah has a highly diversified economy, with major sectors including transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, multi-level marketing, and tourism. Utah has been one of the fastest growing states since 2000, with the 2020 U.S. census confirming the fastest population growth in the nation since 2010. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah ranks among the overall best states in metrics such as healthcare, governance, education, and infrastructure. It has the 12th-highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Utah have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Utah's water security and impacting the state's economy.

 

The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.

 

Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of humans in Utah to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Paleolithic people lived near the Great Basin's swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds, and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. Over the centuries, the mega-fauna died, this population was replaced by the Desert Archaic people, who sheltered in caves near the Great Salt Lake. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was mainly composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed and sedge. Red meat appears to have been more of a luxury, although these people used nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, and animal figures made from split-twigs. About 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years.

 

The Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately 600 to 1300 AD. These people lived in areas close to water sources that had been previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people, and may have had some relationship with them. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people. Fremont technologies include:

 

use of the bow and arrow while hunting,

building pithouse shelters,

growing maize and probably beans and squash,

building above ground granaries of adobe or stone,

creating and decorating low-fired pottery ware,

producing art, including jewelry and rock art such as petroglyphs and pictographs.

 

The ancient Puebloan culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont. The ancestral Puebloan culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, including the San Juan River region of Utah. Archaeologists debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is generally accepted that the cultural peak of these people was around the 1200 CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more elaborate adobe and masonry dwellings. They were excellent craftsmen, producing turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture, and the people created and cultivated fields of maize, beans, and squash and domesticated turkeys. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems. They also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for cultural and religious rituals.

 

These two later cultures were roughly contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have common roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their existence. These two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE. Over the next two centuries, the Fremont and ancient Pueblo people may have moved into the American southwest, finding new homes and farmlands in the river drainages of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.

 

In about 1200, Shoshonean speaking peoples entered Utah territory from the west. They may have originated in southern California and moved into the desert environment due to population pressure along the coast. They were an upland people with a hunting and gathering lifestyle utilizing roots and seeds, including the pinyon nut. They were also skillful fishermen, created pottery and raised some crops. When they first arrived in Utah, they lived as small family groups with little tribal organization. Four main Shoshonean peoples inhabited Utah country. The Shoshone in the north and northeast, the Gosiutes in the northwest, the Utes in the central and eastern parts of the region and the Southern Paiutes in the southwest. Initially, there seems to have been very little conflict between these groups.

 

In the early 16th century, the San Juan River basin in Utah's southeast also saw a new people, the Díne or Navajo, part of a greater group of plains Athabaskan speakers moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In addition to the Navajo, this language group contained people that were later known as Apaches, including the Lipan, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Apaches.

 

Athabaskans were a hunting people who initially followed the bison, and were identified in 16th-century Spanish accounts as "dog nomads". The Athabaskans expanded their range throughout the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblo peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first specifically mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River, and north west of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navaho was applied to these same people. Although the Navajo newcomers established a generally peaceful trading and cultural exchange with the some modern Pueblo peoples to the south, they experienced intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, particularly the Utes in eastern Utah and western Colorado.

 

At the time of European expansion, beginning with Spanish explorers traveling from Mexico, five distinct native peoples occupied territory within the Utah area: the Northern Shoshone, the Goshute, the Ute, the Paiute and the Navajo.

 

The Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.

 

A group led by two Spanish Catholic priests—sometimes called the Domínguez–Escalante expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. All of what is now Utah was claimed by the Spanish Empire from the 1500s to 1821 as part of New Spain (later as the province Alta California); and subsequently claimed by Mexico from 1821 to 1848. However, Spain and Mexico had little permanent presence in, or control of, the region.

 

Fur trappers (also known as mountain men) including Jim Bridger, explored some regions of Utah in the early 19th century. The city of Provo was named for one such man, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah is named for a brigade leader of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden who trapped in the Weber Valley. In 1846, a year before the arrival of members from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, the ill-fated Donner Party crossed through the Salt Lake valley late in the season, deciding not to stay the winter there but to continue forward to California, and beyond.

 

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. At the time, the U.S. had already captured the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico in the Mexican–American War and planned to keep them, but those territories, including the future state of Utah, officially became United States territory upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 10, 1848.

 

Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon pioneers found no permanent settlement of Indians. Other areas along the Wasatch Range were occupied at the time of settlement by the Northwestern Shoshone and adjacent areas by other bands of Shoshone such as the Gosiute. The Northwestern Shoshone lived in the valleys on the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake and in adjacent mountain valleys. Some years after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley Mormons, who went on to colonize many other areas of what is now Utah, were petitioned by Indians for recompense for land taken. The response of Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, was that the land belonged to "our Father in Heaven and we expect to plow and plant it." A 1945 Supreme Court decision found that the land had been treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone had been recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States.

 

Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons had to make a place to live. They created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches, and schools. Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed.

 

Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present-day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east-central Utah.

 

The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and the eastern segments of southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, a senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals, and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present-day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.

 

Prior to establishment of the Oregon and California trails and Mormon settlement, Indians native to the Salt Lake Valley and adjacent areas lived by hunting buffalo and other game, but also gathered grass seed from the bountiful grass of the area as well as roots such as those of the Indian Camas. By the time of settlement, indeed before 1840, the buffalo were gone from the valley, but hunting by settlers and grazing of cattle severely impacted the Indians in the area, and as settlement expanded into nearby river valleys and oases, indigenous tribes experienced increasing difficulty in gathering sufficient food. Brigham Young's counsel was to feed the hungry tribes, and that was done, but it was often not enough. These tensions formed the background to the Bear River massacre committed by California Militia stationed in Salt Lake City during the Civil War. The site of the massacre is just inside Preston, Idaho, but was generally thought to be within Utah at the time.

 

Statehood was petitioned for in 1849-50 using the name Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret would have been quite large, encompassing all of what is now Utah, and portions of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California. The name of Deseret was favored by the LDS leader Brigham Young as a symbol of industry and was derived from a reference in the Book of Mormon. The petition was rejected by Congress and Utah did not become a state until 1896, following the Utah Constitutional Convention of 1895.

 

In 1850, the Utah Territory was created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore (named after President Fillmore) was designated the capital. In 1856, Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital.

 

The first group of pioneers brought African slaves with them, making Utah the only place in the western United States to have African slavery. Three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with this first group in 1847. The settlers also began to purchase Indian slaves in the well-established Indian slave trade, as well as enslaving Indian prisoners of war. In 1850, 26 slaves were counted in Salt Lake County. Slavery didn't become officially recognized until 1852, when the Act in Relation to Service and the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners were passed. Slavery was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories.

 

Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the federal government intensified after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy became known. The polygamous practices of the Mormons, which were made public in 1854, would be one of the major reasons Utah was denied statehood until almost 50 years after the Mormons had entered the area.

 

After news of their polygamous practices spread, the members of the LDS Church were quickly viewed by some as un-American and rebellious. In 1857, after news of a possible rebellion spread, President James Buchanan sent troops on the Utah expedition to quell the growing unrest and to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming. The expedition was also known as the Utah War.

 

As fear of invasion grew, Mormon settlers had convinced some Paiute Indians to aid in a Mormon-led attack on 120 immigrants from Arkansas under the guise of Indian aggression. The murder of these settlers became known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. The Mormon leadership had adopted a defensive posture that led to a ban on the selling of grain to outsiders in preparation for an impending war. This chafed pioneers traveling through the region, who were unable to purchase badly needed supplies. A disagreement between some of the Arkansas pioneers and the Mormons in Cedar City led to the secret planning of the massacre by a few Mormon leaders in the area. Some scholars debate the involvement of Brigham Young. Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever convicted of the murders, and he was executed at the massacre site.

 

Express riders had brought the news 1,000 miles from the Missouri River settlements to Salt Lake City within about two weeks of the army's beginning to march west. Fearing the worst as 2,500 troops (roughly 1/3rd of the army then) led by General Albert Sidney Johnston started west, Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City and neighboring communities to prepare their homes for burning and evacuate southward to Utah Valley and southern Utah. Young also sent out a few units of the Nauvoo Legion (numbering roughly 8,000–10,000), to delay the army's advance. The majority he sent into the mountains to prepare defenses or south to prepare for a scorched earth retreat. Although some army wagon supply trains were captured and burned and herds of army horses and cattle run off no serious fighting occurred. Starting late and short on supplies, the United States Army camped during the bitter winter of 1857–58 near a burned out Fort Bridger in Wyoming. Through the negotiations between emissary Thomas L. Kane, Young, Cumming and Johnston, control of Utah territory was peacefully transferred to Cumming, who entered an eerily vacant Salt Lake City in the spring of 1858. By agreement with Young, Johnston established the army at Fort Floyd 40 miles away from Salt Lake City, to the southwest.

 

Salt Lake City was the last link of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, between Carson City, Nevada and Omaha, Nebraska completed in October 1861. Brigham Young, who had helped expedite construction, was among the first to send a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials. Soon after the telegraph line was completed, the Deseret Telegraph Company built the Deseret line connecting the settlements in the territory with Salt Lake City and, by extension, the rest of the United States.

 

Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of Utah Territory (and their fort auctioned off), leaving the territorial government in federal hands without army backing until General Patrick E. Connor arrived with the 3rd Regiment of California Volunteers in 1862. While in Utah, Connor and his troops soon became discontent with this assignment wanting to head to Virginia where the "real" fighting and glory was occurring. Connor established Fort Douglas just three miles (5 km) east of Salt Lake City and encouraged his bored and often idle soldiers to go out and explore for mineral deposits to bring more non-Mormons into the state. Minerals were discovered in Tooele County, and some miners began to come to the territory. Conner also solved the Shoshone Indian problem in Cache Valley Utah by luring the Shoshone into a midwinter confrontation on January 29, 1863. The armed conflict quickly turned into a rout, discipline among the soldiers broke down, and the Battle of Bear River is today usually referred to by historians as the Bear River Massacre. Between 200 and 400 Shoshone men, women and children were killed, as were 27 soldiers, with over 50 more soldiers wounded or suffering from frostbite.

 

Beginning in 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history. Chief Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870, but fights continued to break out until additional federal troops were sent in to suppress the Ghost Dance of 1872. The war is unique among Indian Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted Timpanogos Utes led by Antonga Black Hawk fighting federal and Utah local militia.

 

On May 10, 1869, the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes in the territory.

 

Main article: Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century

During the 1870s and 1880s, federal laws were passed and federal marshals assigned to enforce the laws against polygamy. In the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church leadership dropped its approval of polygamy citing divine revelation. When Utah applied for statehood again in 1895, it was accepted. Statehood was officially granted on January 4, 1896.

 

The Mormon issue made the situation for women the topic of nationwide controversy. In 1870 the Utah Territory, controlled by Mormons, gave women the right to vote. However, in 1887, Congress disenfranchised Utah women with the Edmunds–Tucker Act. In 1867–96, eastern activists promoted women's suffrage in Utah as an experiment, and as a way to eliminate polygamy. They were Presbyterians and other Protestants convinced that Mormonism was a non-Christian cult that grossly mistreated women. The Mormons promoted woman suffrage to counter the negative image of downtrodden Mormon women. With the 1890 Manifesto clearing the way for statehood, in 1895 Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of women's suffrage. Congress admitted Utah as a state with that constitution in 1896.

 

Though less numerous than other intermountain states at the time, several lynching murders for alleged misdeeds occurred in Utah territory at the hand of vigilantes. Those documented include the following, with their ethnicity or national origin noted in parentheses if it was provided in the source:

 

William Torrington in Carson City (then a part of Utah territory), 1859

Thomas Coleman (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1866

3 unidentified men at Wahsatch, winter of 1868

A Black man in Uintah, 1869

Charles A. Benson in Logan, 1873

Ah Sing (Chinese man) in Corinne, 1874

Thomas Forrest in St. George, 1880

William Harvey (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1883

John Murphy in Park City, 1883

George Segal (Japanese man) in Ogden, 1884

Joseph Fisher in Eureka, 1886

Robert Marshall (Black man) in Castle Gate, 1925

Other lynchings in Utah territory include multiple instances of mass murder of Native American children, women, and men by White settlers including the Battle Creek massacre (1849), Provo River Massacre (1850), Nephi massacre (1853), and Circleville Massacre (1866).

 

Beginning in the early 20th century, with the establishment of such national parks as Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, Utah began to become known for its natural beauty. Southern Utah became a popular filming spot for arid, rugged scenes, and such natural landmarks as Delicate Arch and "the Mittens" of Monument Valley are instantly recognizable to most national residents. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with the construction of the Interstate highway system, accessibility to the southern scenic areas was made easier.

 

Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has become world-renowned for its skiing. The dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range is considered some of the best skiing in the world. Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, and this has served as a great boost to the economy. The ski resorts have increased in popularity, and many of the Olympic venues scattered across the Wasatch Front continue to be used for sporting events. This also spurred the development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known as TRAX, and the re-construction of the freeway system around the city.

 

During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. In the 1970s, growth was phenomenal in the suburbs. Sandy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at that time, and West Valley City is the state's 2nd most populous city. Today, many areas of Utah are seeing phenomenal growth. Northern Davis, southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington counties are all growing very quickly. Transportation and urbanization are major issues in politics as development consumes agricultural land and wilderness areas.

 

In 2012, the State of Utah passed the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act in an attempt to gain control over a substantial portion of federal land in the state from the federal government, based on language in the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. The State does not intend to use force or assert control by limiting access in an attempt to control the disputed lands, but does intend to use a multi-step process of education, negotiation, legislation, and if necessary, litigation as part of its multi-year effort to gain state or private control over the lands after 2014.

 

Utah families, like most Americans everywhere, did their utmost to assist in the war effort. Tires, meat, butter, sugar, fats, oils, coffee, shoes, boots, gasoline, canned fruits, vegetables, and soups were rationed on a national basis. The school day was shortened and bus routes were reduced to limit the number of resources used stateside and increase what could be sent to soldiers.

 

Geneva Steel was built to increase the steel production for America during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had proposed opening a steel mill in Utah in 1936, but the idea was shelved after a couple of months. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war and the steel plant was put into progress. In April 1944, Geneva shipped its first order, which consisted of over 600 tons of steel plate. Geneva Steel also brought thousands of job opportunities to Utah. The positions were hard to fill as many of Utah's men were overseas fighting. Women began working, filling 25 percent of the jobs.

 

As a result of Utah's and Geneva Steels contribution during the war, several Liberty Ships were named in honor of Utah including the USS Joseph Smith, USS Brigham Young, USS Provo, and the USS Peter Skene Ogden.

 

One of the sectors of the beachhead of Normandy Landings was codenamed Utah Beach, and the amphibious landings at the beach were undertaken by United States Army troops.

 

It is estimated that 1,450 soldiers from Utah were killed in the war.

Managed to capture a little of the northern lights last night, after a recent run of bad luck. Better displays were recorded elsewhere, but this was still nice to see. Taken on Ayr beach.

Manage to get this dragonfly as he stay still just for a few seconds.

Whitehall, Ohio Fire Department Community Medic. This unit helps frequent flyer patients schedule medical appointments and arrange transportation, manage medications, and seek rehab for addictions, and otherwise help them live healthier while reducing the non-emergency burden on the 911 system.

Managed to do some leather photos at the end of the day

managed to find one that stayed still long enough for me to get a shot

Managed to catch some rays last night, despite the poor visibility and moonlight, although I missed the early action due to cloud cover during the evening. This geomagnetic storm was the result of a coronal hole high speed stream, reaching G2 levels for a time during the early hours. Coronal holes will likely become stronger and more numerous during the declining phase of the solar cycle.

Managed to get out onto Surprise View today...amazing how invigorating a swift walk & few clicks of the camera bring me back to life again.