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A tug heads west towards Vancouver after passing underneath the Ironworkers Bridge at Second Narrows. I spied this vantage point while driving home from a previous shoot and decided I had to return the following night for sunset. The bridge is heavily trafficked by vehicles (it is part of the Trans Canada Highway) and has a fair amount of vibration mid-span. You can just make out the other North Shore road connection, the Lions Gate Bridge, in the distance. I was lucky enough to have a tug picturesquely head towards the sunset. Thanks tug dude!
Balat (IsIstanbul
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul,_Turkey
Toponymy
Main article: Names of Istanbul
Byzantium (Greek: Βυζάντιον, Byzántion) is the first known name of the city. Around 660 BC,[note 1] Greek settlers from the city-state of Megara founded a Doric colony on the present-day Istanbul, and named the new colony after their king, Byzas.[12] After Constantine I (Constantine the Great) made the city the new eastern capital of the Roman Empire in 330 AD, the city became widely known as Constantinopolis or Constantinople, which, as the Latinised form of "Κωνσταντινούπολις" (Kōnstantinoúpolis), means the "City of Constantine".[13] He also attempted to promote the name Nea Roma ("New Rome"), but this never caught on.[14] Constantinople remained the official name of the city throughout the Byzantine period, and the most common name used for it in the West until the establishment of the Republic of Turkey.
By the 19th century, the city had acquired a number of names used by either foreigners or Turks. Europeans often used Stamboul alongside Constantinople to refer to the whole of the city, but Turks used the former name only to describe the historic peninsula between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara. Pera was used to describe the area between the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, but Turks also used the name Beyoğlu, which is still in use today.[15] However, with the Turkish Postal Service Law of 28 March 1930, the Turkish authorities formally requested foreigners to adopt İstanbul, a name in existence since the 10th century,[16] as the sole name of the city within their own languages.[17]
Etymologically, the name "İstanbul" (Turkish pronunciation: [isˈtanbuɫ], colloquially [ɯsˈtambuɫ]) derives from the Medieval Greek phrase "εἰς τὴν Πόλιν" [is tin ˈpolin] or, in the Aegean dialect, "εἰς τὰν Πόλιν" [is tan ˈpolin] (Modern Greek "στην Πόλη" [stin ˈpoli]), which means "in the city" or "to the city".[13][16] In modern Turkish, the name is written "İstanbul", with a dotted İ, as the Turkish alphabet distinguishes between a dotted and dotless I. Also, while in English the stress is on the first syllable ("Is"), in Turkish it is on the second syllable ("tan"). Like Rome, Istanbul has been called "The City of Seven Hills" because the oldest part of the city is supposedly built on seven hills, each of which bears a historic mosque.[18]
History
First settlements
Main article: Byzantium
Byzantine remains of a column found at Byzantium's acropolis, located today within the Topkapı Palace complex.
Recent construction of the Marmaray tunnel unearthed a Neolithic settlement underneath Yenikapı on Istanbul's peninsula. Dating back to the 7th millennium BC, before the Bosphorus was even formed, the discovery indicated that the peninsula was settled thousands of years earlier than previously thought.[19] Thracian tribes established two settlements—Lygos and Semistra—on the Sarayburnu, near where Topkapı Palace now stands, between the 13th and 11th centuries BC. On the Asian side, artifacts have been found in Fikirtepe (present-day Kadıköy) that date back to the Chalcolithic period.[20] The same location was the site of a Phoenician trading post at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC as well as the town of Chalcedon, which was established by Greek settlers from Megara in 685 BC.[10]
However, the history of Istanbul generally begins around 660 BC,[note 1] when the settlers from Megara, under the command of King Byzas, established Byzantion (Latinised as Byzantium) on the European side of the Bosphorus. By the end of the century, an acropolis was established at the former locations of Lygos and Semistra, on the Sarayburnu.[12] The city experienced a brief period of Persian rule at the turn of the 5th century BC, but the Greeks recaptured it during the Greco-Persian Wars.[21] Byzantium then continued as part of the Athenian League and its successor, the Second Athenian Empire, before ultimately gaining independence in 355 BC.[22] Long protected by the Roman Republic, Byzantium officially became a part of the Roman Empire in AD 73.
Byzantium's decision to side with the usurper Pescennius Niger against Roman Emperor Septimus Severus cost it dearly; by the time it surrendered at the end of 195, two years of siege had left the city devastated.[23] Still, five years later, Severus began to rebuild Byzantium, and the city regained—and, by some accounts, surpassed—its previous prosperity.[24]
Rise and fall of Constantinople
Main article: Constantinople
Further information: Fall of Constantinople
Created in 1422 by Cristoforo Buondelmonti, this is the oldest surviving map of Constantinople and the only one that predates the Ottoman conquest.
When Constantine I defeated Licinius at the Battle of Chrysopolis in September 324, he effectively became the emperor of the whole of the Roman Empire.[25] Just two months later, Constantine laid out the plans for a new, Christian city to replace Byzantium. Intended to replace Nicomedia as the eastern capital of the empire, the city was named Nea Roma (New Rome); however, most simply called it Constantinople ("the city of Constantine"), a name that persisted into the 20th century.[26] Six years later, on 11 May 330, Constantinople was proclaimed the capital of an empire that eventually became known as the Byzantine Empire or Eastern Roman Empire.[27]
The establishment of Constantinople served as one of Constantine's most lasting accomplishments, shifting Roman power eastward and becoming a center of Greek culture and Christianity.[27][28] Numerous churches were built across the city, including the Hagia Sofia, which remained the world's largest cathedral for a thousand years.[29] The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople developed in the city, and its leader is still one of the foremost figures in the Greek Orthodox Church. Constantinople's location also ensured its existence would stand the test of time; for many centuries, its walls and seafront protected Europe against invaders from the east as well as from the advance of Islam.[28] During most of the Middle Ages and the latter part of the Byzantine period, Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in the western world.[30]
The Fall of Constantinople in 1453 signaled the end of the Byzantine Empire.
Constantinople began to decline after the Fourth Crusade, during which it was sacked and pillaged.[32] The city subsequently became the center of the Latin Empire, created by Catholic crusaders to replace the Orthodox Byzantine Empire, which was divided into splinter states.[33] However, the Latin Empire was short-lived, and the Byzantine Empire was restored, weakened, in 1261.[34] Constantinople's churches, defenses, and basic services were in disrepair,[35] and its population had dwindled to forty thousand from nearly half a million during the 9th century.[36][37]
Various economic and military policies instituted by Andronikos II, such as the reduction of forces, weakened the empire and left it more vulnerable to attack.[38] In the mid-14th century, the Ottoman Turks began a strategy by which they took smaller towns and cities over time, cutting off Constantinople's supply routes and strangling it slowly.[39] Finally, on 29 May 1453, after an eight-week siege (during which the last Roman Emperor, Constantine XI, was killed), Sultan Mehmed II "the Conqueror" captured Constantinople and declared it the new capital of the Ottoman Empire.[40][41] Hours later, the sultan rode to the Hagia Sofia and summoned an imam to proclaim the Islamic creed, converting the grand cathedral into an imperial mosque.[42]
Image: ©Margaret Brown MFLphoto 2011
Fashion Designer: Emma Loughlin
emmaloughlin@gmail.com
Tel.00353 87.9517819
Photo Shoot Makeup: Danyelle Behan, Jen Lyons
Nikon D3. Nikon SB900 powered by SB800 on camera. Settings not kept.
Whilst a geologist might quibble with the detail, the story of these and other nearby rocks is amazing. At times they were laid down at the bottom of seas. They were uplifted into an enormous mountain range (The Delamerian Orogeny). They were metamorphosed into marble by enormous pressure and heat. Nearby, volcanic activity forced granite close to the surface and which can now be seen a little to the east. Perhaps more surprisingly given Australia's generally hot and dry climate, the top layers of the landforms were covered in an ice sheet (Ca 300 million years ago) and gradually smoothed. The rocks were part of the Antarctic / Australian landmass which tore apart about 55 - 45 mya allowing the formation of the Southern Ocean with its resulting change to the Australian climate.
I believe the dark rocks are slate-based and the lighter ones quartz-based.
...............and today we can admire the beauty of these rocks with their tiny (and nearby, not so tiny) folds.
Second Rockcress (Boechera retrofracta) a/k/a Holboell's Rockcress. Near Porcupine Creek. Yosemite National Park. Mariposa Co., Calif.
EASTERN COAST OKINAWA (Feb. 21, 2016) Amphibious dock landing ship USS Germantown (LSD 42) conducts small boat operations. Germantown is assigned to the Bonhomme Richard Amphibious Ready Group (BHRARG) and is participating in a certification exercise (CERTEX) with the embarked 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class James Vazquez/Released)
The second Q434 to show up on the scene in less than 10 minutes. I missed the first one while hiking up to this spot, but was rewarded with the lash-up on the second train. The first was was delayed by a day and they sent the delayed train up right ahead of the on time train. The crews where calling off as Q434-06 and Q434-07 to differentiate themselves.
CSX Q434 @ Iona Island, NY
CSXT AC4400CW 98
CSXT ES44DC 5372
CSXT C40-8 7602
CSXT SD40-2 8049
CSXT GP40-2 4441