Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona

Arizona is a state in the Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Its other neighboring states are Nevada to the northwest and California to the west. It also shares an international border with the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California to the south and southwest. It is the 6th-largest and the 14th-most-populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix, which is the most populous state capital in the United States.

Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union, achieving statehood on February 14, 1912. Historically part of the territory of Alta California and Nuevo México in New Spain, it became part of independent Mexico in 1821. After being defeated in the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded much of this territory to the United States in 1848, where the area became part of the territory of New Mexico. The southernmost portion of the state was acquired in 1853 through the Gadsden Purchase.

Southern Arizona is known for its desert climate, with extremely hot summers and mild winters. Northern Arizona features forests of pine, Douglas fir, and spruce trees; the Colorado Plateau; mountain ranges (such as the San Francisco Mountains); as well as large, deep canyons, with much more moderate summer temperatures and significant winter snowfalls. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff, Sunrise, and Tucson. In addition to the internationally known Grand Canyon National Park, which is one of the world's seven natural wonders, there are several national forests, national parks, and national monuments.

Arizona is home to a diverse population. About one-quarter of the state is made up of Indian reservations that serve as the home of 27 federally recognized Native American tribes, including the Navajo Nation, the largest in the state and the country, with more than 300,000 citizens. Since the 1980s, the proportion of Hispanics has grown significantly owing to migration from Mexico and Central America. A substantial portion of the population are followers of the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Arizona's population and economy have grown dramatically since the 1950s because of inward migration, and the state is now a major hub of the Sun Belt. Cities such as Phoenix and Tucson have developed large, sprawling suburban areas. Many large companies, such as PetSmart and Circle K, have headquarters in the state, and Arizona is home to major universities, including the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University. The state is known for a history of conservative politicians such as Barry Goldwater and John McCain, though it has become a swing state in recent years.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page,_Arizona

Page is a city in Coconino County, Arizona, United States, near the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 7,247.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_Bend_(Arizona)

Horseshoe Bend is a horseshoe-shaped incised meander of the Colorado River located near the town of Page, Arizona, United States. It is also referred to as the "east rim of the Grand Canyon."

Horseshoe Bend is located 5 miles (8 km) downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell within Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, about 4 miles (6 km) southwest of Page.]

It is accessible via hiking a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) round trip from a parking area just off U.S. Route 89 within southwestern Page. The land south of the Bend's parking area, trail, and overlook are on the Navajo Nation territory.

Horseshoe Bend can be viewed from the steep cliff above.

The overlook is 4,200 feet (1,300 m) above sea level, and the Colorado River is at 3,200 feet (1,000 m) above sea level, making it a 1,000-foot (300 m) drop.

Source: www.nps.gov/glca/planyourvisit/horseshoe-bend.htm

A social media darling, Horseshoe Bend has become one of the most recognized and visited places in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. The parking lot and trailhead is located off US Highway 89, approximately 5 miles (8 km) south of the Carl Hayden Visitor Center.

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "米国" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis" "ארצות הברית" "संयुक्त राज्य" "США"

(Arizona) "أريزونا" "亚利桑那州" "אריזונה" "एरिजोना" "アリゾナ州" "애리조나" "Аризона"

Charleston est. 1670, pop. 127,999 (2013)

• black stars on facade are earthquake bolts

• 3½-story stuccoed brick Charleston single house, among the largest ever • built by Caspar Christian Shutt (c. 1750-1803), wealthy German merchant who lived here & operated his counting house on the ground floor • outbuildings included a kitchen, carriage house, servants’ quarters & stables • acquired, 1821, by John Fraser (1777-1854), partner in cotton export firms John Fraser & Co. & Fraser Trenholm & Co., which operated a fleet of blockade runners during the American Civil War

• wealthy merchant Charles T. Lowndes purchased the property in 1836 • remained in the Lowndes family until 1930 • son, Rawlins Lowndes, rice planter & Confederate captain, inherited the house, 1886 • wife, Sarah “Buck” Buchanan Preston was the niece of Wade Hampton (1818-1902), Confederate general & later, South Carolina Governor • also a prominent subject of Mary Boykin Chesnut (1823-1886) in her Confederate memoir, "A Diary from Dixie" • The Mary Chesnut Project

• property enhanced & enlarged during Lowndes family ownership • adjacent lot purchased & the building on it demolished to create a formal garden • 3-tiered piazzsa constructed, distinguished by graduating orders: Doric on the 1st level, lonic on the 2nd & Corinthian on the 3rd • restored in the 1990s -Preservation Society of Charleston, 2007

• Charleston Historic District, National Register # 66000964, 1969 • declared National Historic Landmark District, 1973

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Horse_Memorial

The Crazy Horse Memorial is a mountain monument under construction on privately held land in the Black Hills, in Custer County, South Dakota, United States. It will depict the Oglala Lakota warrior Crazy Horse, riding a horse and pointing to his tribal land. The memorial was commissioned by Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota elder, to be sculpted by Korczak Ziolkowski. It is operated by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

The monument has been in progress since 1948 and is far from completion. If completed as designed, it will become the world's second tallest statue, after the Statue of Unity in India.

Source: www.blackhillsbadlands.com/parks-monuments/crazy-horse-me...

A Lakota Sioux warrior, a famed artist, his family and a canvas composed of granite are the elements that comprise the legendary past, present and future of the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski began the world’s largest mountain carving in 1948. Members of his family and their supporters are continuing his artistic intent to create a massive statue that will be 641 feet long and 563 feet high. To give that some perspective, the heads at Mount Rushmore National Memorial are each 60 feet high. Workers completed the carved 87½-foot-tall Crazy Horse face in 1998, and have since focused on thinning the remaining mountain to form the 219-foot-high horse’s head.

Crazy Horse Memorial hosts between 1 and 1½ million visitors a year. The number of foreign travelers, particularly group tours from Asia, is increasing.

The Indian Museum of North America, and the adjoining Welcome Center and Native American Educational and Cultural Center, feature more than 12,000 contemporary and historic items, from pre-Colombian to contemporary times. The new Mountain Museum wing helps explain the work behind the scenes, augmenting the introductory “Dynamite & Dreams” movie at the Welcome Center.

Crazy Horse Memorial is open every day, from 8 a.m. to dark during the summer season. Memorial Day weekend through the end of September, the storytelling continues each night at dark with the “Legends in Light” laser-light show projected on the mountain carving.

Source: www.britannica.com/topic/Crazy-Horse-Memorial

Crazy Horse Memorial, massive memorial sculpture being carved from Thunderhead Mountain, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, U.S. It depicts the Lakota leader Crazy Horse.

In 1939 Chief Henry Standing Bear wrote to the Polish sculptor Korczak Ziółkowski and asked if he would create a monument to honor Native Americans. That request sparked what would become one of the largest and, at times, most controversial memorial projects in the United States. Ziółkowski’s vision, which his family has perpetuated, was for a sculpture of Crazy Horse, who was among the warriors who fought under Sitting Bull at the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1876), where Colonel George Armstrong Custer and his men were killed; about 50 Lakota and Northern Cheyenne also died. Ziółkowski and members of the Lakota tribe chose the location of Thunderhead Mountain, but some Lakota are offended at their sacred ground being destroyed. The Crazy Horse Memorial, which on its completion will be the largest in the world, is being carved from the mountainside with a series of controlled explosions.

The site also encompasses a visitor center, a museum documenting Native American history, and a university. The complex is owned by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation.

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis"

(South Dakota) "داكوتا الجنوبية" "南达科他州" "Dakota du Sud" "दक्षिण डकोटा" "サウスダコタ" "사우스다코타" "Южная Дакота" "Dakota del Sur"

(Crazy Horse Memorial) "نصب كريزي هورس التذكاري" "疯马纪念馆" "Mémorial du Crazy Horse" "पागल घोड़े का स्मारक" "クレイジーホースメモリアル" "크레이지 호스 메모리얼" "Мемориал сумасшедшей лошади" "Memorial del Caballo Loco"

Information From: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn_bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Brooklyn bridge)

Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Brooklyn Bridge (disambiguation).

Brooklyn Bridge

Carries Motor vehicles (cars only)

Elevated trains (until 1944)

Streetcars (until 1950)

Pedestrians, and bicycles

Crosses East River

Locale New York City (Manhattan–Brooklyn)

Maintained by New York City Department of Transportation

Designer John Augustus Roebling

Design Suspension/Cable-stay Hybrid

Total length 5,989 feet (1825 m)[1]

Width 85 feet (26 m)

Longest span 1,595 feet 6 inches (486.3 m)

Clearance below 135 feet (41 m) at mid-span

Opened May 24, 1883

Toll Free both ways

Daily traffic 123,781 (2008)[2]

Coordinates 40°42′20″N 73°59′47″W / 40.70569°N 73.99639°W / 40.70569; -73.99639 (Brooklyn Bridge)Coordinates: 40°42′20″N 73°59′47″W / 40.70569°N 73.99639°W / 40.70569; -73.99639 (Brooklyn Bridge)

Brooklyn Bridge

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

U.S. National Historic Landmark

NYC Landmark

Built/Founded: 1883

Architectural style(s): Gothic

Added to NRHP: 1966[3]

Designated NHL: January 29, 1964[4]

NRHP Reference#: 75001237

The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. With a main span of 1,595.5 feet (486.3 m), it was the longest suspension bridge in the world from its opening until 1903, and the first steel-wire suspension bridge.

Originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, it was dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge in a January 25, 1867 letter to the editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle,[5] and formally so named by the city government in 1915. Since its opening, it has become an iconic part of the New York skyline. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964[4][6][7] and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.[8]

Contents [hide]

1 Construction

2 Pedestrian and vehicular access

2.1 Notable events

2.2 100th anniversary celebrations

2.3 125th anniversary celebrations

3 Cultural significance

4 References

5 Further reading

6 External links

[edit] Construction

The Brooklyn Bridge was initially designed by German immigrant John Augustus Roebling, who had previously designed and constructed shorter suspension bridges, such as Roebling's Delaware Aqueduct in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, and the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati, Ohio.

While conducting surveys for the bridge project, 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 which left him incapacitated and soon resulted in his death, not long after he had placed his 32 year-old son Washington Roebling in charge of the project.[9]

Washington Roebling also suffered a paralyzing injury as a result of decompression sickness shortly after the beginning of construction on January 3, 1870.[10] This condition, first called "caisson disease" by the project physician Dr. Andrew Smith, afflicted many of the workers working within the caissons.[11][12] After Roebling's debilitating condition left him unable to physically supervise the construction firsthand, his wife Emily Warren Roebling stepped in and provided the critical written link between her husband and the engineers on-site.[13] Under her husband's guidance, Emily had studied higher mathematics, the calculations of catenary curves, the strengths of materials, bridge specifications, and the intricacies of cable construction.[14][15][16] She spent the next 11 years assisting Washington Roebling helping to supervise the bridge's construction.

When iron probes underneath the caisson found the bedrock to be even deeper than expected, Roebling halted construction due to the increased risk of decompression sickness. He deemed the aggregate overlying the bedrock 30 feet (9 m) below it to be firm enough to support the tower base.[17]

The Brooklyn Bridge was completed thirteen years later and was opened for use on May 24, 1883. The opening ceremony was attended by several thousand people and many ships were present in the East Bay for the occasion. President Chester A. Arthur and New York Mayor Franklin Edson crossed the bridge to celebratory cannon fire and were greeted by Brooklyn Mayor Seth Low when they reached the Brooklyn-side tower. Arthur shook hands with Washington Roebling at the latter's home, after the ceremony. Roebling was unable to attend the ceremony (and in fact rarely visited the site again), but held a celebratory banquet at his house on the day of the bridge opening. Further festivity included the performance of a band, gunfire from ships, and a fireworks display.[18]

On that first day, a total of 1,800 vehicles and 150,300 people crossed what was then the only land passage between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Emily Warren Roebling was the first to cross the bridge. The bridge's main span over the East River is 1,595 feet 6 inches (486.3 m). The bridge cost $15.5 million to build and approximately 27 people died during its construction.[19]

One week after the opening, on May 30, 1883, a rumor that the Bridge was going to collapse caused a stampede, which crushed and killed at least twelve people.[20] On May 17, 1884, P. T. Barnum helped to squelch doubts about the bridge's stability—while publicizing his famous circus—when one of his most famous attractions, Jumbo, led a parade of 21 elephants over the Brooklyn Bridge.[21][22][23][24]

Plan of one tower for the Brooklyn Bridge, 1867At the time it opened, and for several years, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world—50% longer than any previously built — and it has become a treasured landmark. Since the 1980s, it has been floodlit at night to highlight its architectural features. The towers are built of limestone, granite, and Rosendale cement. Their architectural style is neo-Gothic, with characteristic pointed arches above the passageways through the stone towers. The paint scheme of the bridge is "Brooklyn Bridge Tan", although is has been argued that the original paint was "Rawlins Red".[25]

At the time the bridge was built, the aerodynamics of bridge building had not been worked out. Bridges were not tested in wind tunnels until the 1950s—well after the collapse of the original Tacoma Narrows Bridge (Galloping Gertie) in 1940. It is therefore fortunate that the open truss structure supporting the deck is by its nature less subject to aerodynamic problems. Roebling designed a bridge and truss system that was six times as strong as he thought it needed to be. Because of this, the Brooklyn Bridge is still standing when many of the bridges built around the same time have vanished into history and been replaced. This is also in spite of the substitution of inferior quality wire in the cabling supplied by the contractor J. Lloyd Haigh—by the time it was discovered, it was too late to replace the cabling that had already been constructed. Roebling determined that the poorer wire would leave the bridge four rather than six times as strong as necessary, so it was eventually allowed to stand, with the addition of 250 cables. Diagonal cables were installed from the towers to the deck, intended to stiffen the bridge. They turned out to be unnecessary, but were kept for their distinctive beauty.

After the collapse in 2007 of the I-35W highway bridge in the city of Minneapolis, increased public attention has been brought to bear on the condition of bridges across the US, and it has been reported that the Brooklyn Bridge approach ramps received a rating of "poor" at its last inspection.[26] According to a NYC Department of Transportation spokesman, "The poor rating it received does not mean it is unsafe. Poor means there are some components that have to be rehabilitated." A $725 million project to replace the approaches and repaint the bridge was scheduled to begin in 2009.[27]

The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge is detailed in the 1978 book The Great Bridge by David McCullough[13] and Brooklyn Bridge (1981), the first PBS documentary film ever made by Ken Burns.[28] Burns drew heavily on McCullough's book for the film and used him as narrator.[29] It is also described in Seven Wonders of the Industrial World, a BBC docudrama series with accompanying book.

[edit] Pedestrian and vehicular access

Cross section diagramAt various times, the bridge has carried horse-drawn and trolley traffic; at present, it has six lanes for motor vehicles, with a separate walkway along the centerline for pedestrians and bicycles. Due to the roadway's height (11 ft (3.4 m) posted) and weight (6,000 lb (2,700 kg) posted) restrictions, commercial vehicles and buses are prohibited from using this bridge. The two inside traffic lanes once carried elevated trains of the BMT from Brooklyn points to a terminal at Park Row via Sands Street. Streetcars ran on what are now the two center lanes (shared with other traffic) until the elevated lines stopped using the bridge in 1944, when they moved to the protected center tracks. In 1950 the streetcars also stopped running, and the bridge was rebuilt to carry six lanes of automobile traffic.

The Brooklyn Bridge is accessible from the Brooklyn entrances of Tillary/Adams Streets, Sands/Pearl Streets, and Exit 28B of the eastbound Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. In Manhattan, motor cars can enter from either direction of the FDR Drive, Park Row, Chambers/Centre Streets, and Pearl/Frankfort Streets. Pedestrian access to the bridge from the Brooklyn side is from either Tillary/Adams Streets (in between the auto entrance/exit), or a staircase on Prospect St between Cadman Plaza East and West. In Manhattan, the pedestrian walkway is accessible from the end of Centre Street, or through the unpaid south staircase of Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall IRT subway station.

View from the pedestrian walkway. The bridge's cable arrangement forms a distinct weblike pattern.The Brooklyn Bridge has a wide pedestrian walkway open to walkers and cyclists, in the center of the bridge and higher than the automobile lanes. While the bridge has always permitted the passage of pedestrians across its span, its role in allowing thousands to cross takes on a special importance in times of difficulty when usual means of crossing the East River have become unavailable.

During transit strikes by the Transport Workers Union in 1980 and 2005, the bridge was used by people commuting to work, with Mayors Koch and Bloomberg crossing the bridge as a gesture to the affected public.[30][31]

Following the 1965, 1977 and 2003 Blackouts and most famously after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, the bridge was used by people in Manhattan to leave the city after subway service was suspended. The massive numbers of people on the bridge could not have been anticipated by the original designer, yet John Roebling designed it with three separate systems managing even unanticipated structural stresses. The bridge has a suspension system, a diagonal stay system, and a stiffening truss. "Roebling himself famously said if anything happens to one of [his] systems, 'The bridge may sag, but it will not fall.'"[32] The movement of large numbers of people on a bridge creates pedestrian oscillations or "sway" as the crowd lifts one foot after another, some falling inevitably in synchronized cadences. The natural sway motion of people walking causes small sideways oscillations in a bridge, which in turn cause people on the bridge to sway in step, increasing the amplitude of the bridge oscillations and continually reinforcing the effect. High-density traffic of this nature causes a bridge to appear to move erratically or "to wobble" as happened at opening of the London Millennium Footbridge in 2000.[33]

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper c.1883[edit] Notable events

First jumper

The first person to jump from the bridge was Robert E. Odlum on May 19, 1885. He struck the water at an angle and died shortly thereafter from internal injuries.[34] Steve Brodie was the most famous jumper, or self-proclaimed jumper (in 1886).

Bungee jump

On June 1993, following 13 reconnoiters inside the metal structure, and with the help of a mountain guide, Thierry Devaux performed (illegally) eight acrobatic bungee jumps above the East River close to the Brooklyn pier, in the early morning. He used an electric winch between each acrobatic figure.[35]

1994 Brooklyn Bridge shooting

Main article: Brooklyn Bridge Shooting

On March 1, 1994, Lebanese-born Rashid Baz opened fire on a van carrying members of the Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish Movement, striking sixteen-year-old student Ari Halberstam and three others traveling on the bridge.[36] Halberstam died five days later from his wounds. Baz was apparently acting out of revenge for the Hebron massacre of 29 Muslims by Baruch Goldstein that had taken place days earlier on February 25, 1994. Baz was convicted of murder and sentenced to a 141-year prison term. After initially classifying the murder 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 named the Ari Halberstam Memorial Ramp in memory of the victim.[37]

The 2003 plot

In 2003, truck driver Iyman Faris was sentenced to about 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 through information the National Security Agency uncovered through wiretapped phone conversations and interrogation of Al-Qaeda militants.[38]

2006 bunker discovery

In 2006, a Cold War era bunker was found by city workers near the East River shoreline of Manhattan's Lower East Side. The bunker, hidden within the masonry anchorage, still contained the emergency supplies that were being stored for a potential nuclear attack by the Soviet Union.[39]

[edit] 100th anniversary celebrations

The centennary celebrations on May 24, 1983, saw a cavalcade of cars crossing the bridge, led by President Ronald Reagan. A flotilla of ships visited the harbor, parades were held, and in the evening the sky over the bridge was illuminated by Grucci fireworks.[40] The Brooklyn Museum exhibited a selection of the original drawings made for the bridge's construction, some by Washington Roebling himself.

[edit] 125th anniversary celebrations

Beginning on May 22, 2008, festivities were held over a five-day period to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the opening of the Brooklyn Bridge. The events kicked off with a live performance of the Brooklyn Philharmonic in Empire–Fulton Ferry State Park, followed by special lighting of the bridge's towers and a fireworks display.[41] Other events held during the 125th anniversary celebrations, which coincided with the Memorial Day weekend, included a film series, historical walking tours, information tents, a series of lectures and readings, a bicycle tour of Brooklyn, a miniature golf course featuring Brooklyn icons, and other musical and dance performances.[42]

Just before the anniversary celebrations, the Telectroscope, which created a video link between New York and London, was installed on the Brooklyn side of the bridge. The installation lasted for a few weeks and permitted viewers in New York to see people looking into a matching telectroscope in front of London's Tower Bridge.[43] A newly renovated pedestrian connection to DUMBO was also unveiled before the anniversary celebrations.[44]

[edit] Cultural significance

Contemporaries marveled at what technology was capable of and the bridge became a symbol of the optimism of the time. John Perry Barlow wrote in the late 20th century of the "literal and genuinely religious leap of faith" embodied in the Brooklyn Bridge ... "the Brooklyn Bridge required of its builders faith in their ability to control technology."[45]

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. For example, "If you believe that, I've got a bridge to sell you."[citation needed] References are often nowadays more oblique, such as "I could sell you some lovely riverside property in Brooklyn ...".[citation needed] George C. Parker and William McCloundy are two early 20th-century con-men who had (allegedly) successfully perpetrated this scam on unwitting tourists.[46] The 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon Bowery Bugs is a joking reference to Bugs "selling" a story of the Brooklyn Bridge to a naive tourist.

In his second book The Bridge, Hart Crane begins with a poem entitled "Proem: To Brooklyn Bridge." The bridge was a source of inspiration for Crane and he owned different apartments specifically to have different views of the bridge.

[edit] References

^ "NYCDOT Bridges Information". New York City Department of Transportation. www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bridges/bridges.shtml#brooklyn. Retrieved 2008-08-23.

^ "New York City Bridge Traffic Volumes 2008" (PDF). New York City Department of Transportation. March 2010. p. 63. www.nyc.gov/html/dot/downloads/pdf/bridgetrafrpt08.pdf. Retrieved 2010-07-10.

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. www.nr.nps.gov/.

^ a b "Brooklyn Bridge". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=376&Resource....

^ E.P.D. (January 25, 1867). "Bridging the East River – Another Project". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle: p. 2. www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/eagle/. Retrieved 2007-11-26.

^ "The Brooklyn Bridge", February 24, 1975, by James B. Armstrong and S. Sydney Bradford "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination"]. National Park Service. 1975-02-24. pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/66000523.pdf "The Brooklyn Bridge", February 24, 1975, by James B. Armstrong and S. Sydney Bradford].

^ The Brooklyn Bridge—Accompanying three photos, from 1975. "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination"]. National Park Service. 1975-02-24. pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Photos/66000523.pdf The Brooklyn Bridge—Accompanying three photos, from 1975.].

^ "Brooklyn Bridge". ASCE Metropolitan Section. www.ascemetsection.org/content/view/339/872/. Retrieved 2010-06-30.

^ "THE BUILDING OF THE BRIDGE.; ITS COST AND THE DIFFICULTIES MET WITH-- DETAILS OF THE HISTORY OF A GREAT ENGINEERING TRIUMPH.". The New York Times. May 24, 1883. query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F01E5DC1431E433A.... Retrieved 2009-10-27.

^ Butler WP (2004). "Caisson disease during the construction of the Eads and Brooklyn Bridges: A review". Undersea Hyperb Med 31 (4): 445–59. PMID 15686275. archive.rubicon-foundation.org/4028. Retrieved 2008-06-19.

^ Smith, Andrew Heermance (1886). The Physiological, Pathological and Therapeutical Effects of Compressed Air. Detroit: George S. Davis. books.google.com/?id=hLq981_A5bMC&printsec=frontcover.... Retrieved 2009-04-17.

^ Acott, Chris (1999). "A brief history of diving and decompression illness.". South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society journal 29 (2). ISSN 0813-1988. OCLC 16986801. archive.rubicon-foundation.org/6004. Retrieved 2009-04-17.

^ a b Amazon.com: The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge: J'aime Drisdelle: Books

^ Weigold, Marilyn (1984). Silent Builder: Emily Warren Roebling and the Brooklyn Bridge. Associated Faculty Press.

^ McCullough, David (1983). The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 421.

^ "Emily Warren Roebling". American Society of Civil Engineers. www.asce.org/PPLContent.aspx?id=2147487328. Retrieved 2010-06-30.

^ "GlassSteelandStone: Brooklyn Bridge-tower rests on sand". www.glasssteelandstone.com/BuildingDetail/435.php. Retrieved 2007-02-20.

^ Reeves, Thomas C. (1975). Gentleman Boss. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 359–360. ISBN 0-394-46095-2.

^ "Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1841–1902 Online". Archived from the original on 2007-11-14. web.archive.org/web/20071114135249/http://eagle.brooklynp.... Retrieved 2007-11-23.

^ "Dead on the New Bridge; Fatal Crush at the Western Approach". The New York Times. May 31, 1883. query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=980DE3DA1431E433A.... Retrieved 2010-02-20.

^ Bildner, Phil (2004). Twenty-One Elephants. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0689870116.

^ Prince, April Jones (2005). Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 061844887X.

^ "P.T. Barnum – MSN Encarta". Archived from the original on 2009-10-31. www.webcitation.org/5kwQPajtQ.

^ Strausbaugh, John (November 9, 2007). "When Barnum Took Manhattan". The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2007/11/09/arts/09expl.html. Retrieved 2008-09-21.

^ Gary Buiso, New York Post (May 25, 2010). "A True Cover Up. Brooklyn Bridge Paint Job Glosses over History". www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/true_cover_up_brookl.... Retrieved October 23, 2010.

^ Chan, Sewell (August 2, 2007). "Brooklyn Bridge Is One of 3 With Poor Rating". The New York Times. cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/brooklyn-bridge-is-.... Retrieved 2007-09-10.

^ "Brooklyn Bridge called 'safe' – DOT says span is okay despite getting a 'poor' rating". Courier-Life Publications. www.baynewsbrooklyn.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18685076&amp.... Retrieved 2007-08-12.

^ Burns, Ken. "Why I Decided to Make Brooklyn Bridge". Public Broadcasting Service. www.pbs.org/kenburns/brooklynbridge/about/. Retrieved 2010-02-20.

^ "Burns, Ken – U.S. Documentary Film Maker". The Museum of Broadcast Communications. www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=burnsken. Retrieved 2010-02-20.

^ Quindlen, Anna (April 2, 1980). "Koch Faces Day Ebulliently; He Looks Well Rested". The New York Times. select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F3061EFB395C1272.... Retrieved 2010-06-30.

^ Rutenberg, Jim (December 21, 2005). "On Foot, on Bridge and at City Hall, Bloomberg Is Irate". The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/nyregion/nyregionspecial3/21ma.... Retrieved 2010-06-30.

^ Julavits, Robert (August 26, 2003). "Point of Collapse". The Village Voice. www.villagevoice.com/2003-08-26/news/point-of-collapse/. Retrieved 2010-02-20.

^ Steven Henry, Strogatz (2003). Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order. New York: Hyperion. pp. 174–175, 312, 320. ISBN 0786868449.

^ "Odlum's Leap to Death". The New York Times: p. 1. May 20, 1885. query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990DE4D91739E533A.... Retrieved 2008-04-15.

^ "Brooklyn Bridge". SunnyDream. www.sunnydream.info/index.php?page=brooklyn. Retrieved 2010-06-25.

^ Sexton, Joe (March 2, 1994). "4 Hasidic Youths Hurt in Brooklyn Bridge Shooting". The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/1994/03/02/nyregion/4-hasidic-youths-hurt.... Retrieved 2010-06-30.

^ "In Memoriam". Ari Halberstam Memorial Site. www.arihalberstam.com/in-memoriam/. Retrieved 2010-06-30.

^ "Iyman Faris". GlobalSecurity.org. www.globalsecurity.org/security/profiles/iyman_faris.htm. Retrieved 2010-06-30.

^ Lovgren, Stefan (March 24, 2006). "Cold War "Time Capsule" Found in Brooklyn Bridge". National Geographic. news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/03/0324_060324_broo.... Retrieved 2010-02-20.

^ NYC Roads. "The Brooklyn Bridge". www.nycroads.com/crossings/brooklyn/. Retrieved October 23, 2010.

^ Burke, Kerry; Hutchinson, Bill (May 23, 2008). "Brooklyn Bridge turns 125 with a bang". Daily News (New York). www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/05/22/2008-05-.... Retrieved 2009-08-01.

^ "Brooklyn Bridge 125th Anniversary Celebration". ASCE Metropolitan Section. www.ascemetsection.org/content/view/121/830/. Retrieved 2009-08-01.

^ Ryzik, Melena (May 21, 2008). "Telescope Takes a Long View, to London". The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/arts/design/21tele.html. Retrieved 2009-08-01.

^ Farmer, Ann (May 21, 2008). "This Way to Brooklyn, This Way". The New York Times. cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/21/welcome-to-dumbo-it.... Retrieved 2009-08-01.

^ Cultural Significance

^ Cohen, Gabriel (November 27, 2005). "For You, Half Price". The New York Times. www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/nyregion/thecity/27brid.htm. Retrieved 2010-02-20.

[edit] Further reading

Cadbury, Deborah. (2004), Dreams of Iron and Steel. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-716307-X

Haw, Richard. (2005). The Brooklyn Bridge: A Cultural History. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-3587-5

Haw, Richard. (2008). Art of the Brooklyn Bridge: A Visual History. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-95386-3

McCullough, David. (1972). The Great Bridge. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-21213-3

Strogatz, Steven. (2003). Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order. New York: Hyperion books. 10-ISBN 0-7868-6844-9; 13-ISBN 978-0-7868-6844-5 (cloth) [2nd ed., Hyperion, 2004. 10-ISBN 0-7868-8721-4; 13-ISBN 978-0-7868-8721-7 (paper)]

Strogartz, Steven, Daniel M. Abrams, Allan McRobie, Bruno Eckhardt, and Edward Ott. et al. (2005). "Theoretical mechanics: Crowd synchrony on the Millennium Bridge," Nature, Vol. 438, pp, 43–44.link to Nature articleMillennium Bridge opening day video illustrating "crowd synchrony" oscillations

Trachtenberg, Alan. (1965). Brooklyn Bridge: Fact and Symbol. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226811158 [2nd ed., 1979, ISBN 0-226-81115-8 (paper)]

[edit] External links

New York City portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brooklyn Bridge

360° Interactive panorama from the top of the Brooklyn Bridge

The Brooklyn Bridge: A Study in Greatness

NYCroads.com – Brooklyn Bridge

Transportation Alternatives Fiboro Bridges – Brooklyn Bridge

The story of Brooklyn Bridge – by CBS Forum

Panorama of Brooklyn Bridge 1899 – Extreme Photo Constructions

Structurae: Brooklyn Bridge

Great Buildings entry for the Brooklyn Bridge

American Society of Civil Engineers

Railroad Extra – Brooklyn Bridge and its Railway

Images of the Brooklyn Bridge from the Brooklyn Museum

Brooklyn Bridge Photo Gallery with a Flash VR 360 of the Brooklyn Bridge Pedestrian Walkway

Opening Ceremonies of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge, May 24, 1883 at Project Gutenberg

Brooklyn Bridge at Historical Marker Database

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis,_Tennessee

Memphis is a city along the Mississippi River in southwestern Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. The 2019 population was 651,073, making Memphis the largest city on the Mississippi River, the second most populous in Tennessee, as well as the 26th largest city in the United States. Greater Memphis is the 42nd largest metropolitan area in the United States, with a population of 1,348,260 in 2017. The city is the anchor of West Tennessee and the greater Mid-South region, which includes portions of neighboring Arkansas, Mississippi, and the Missouri Bootheel. Memphis is the seat of Shelby County, Tennessee's most populous county. One of the more historic and culturally significant cities of the southern United States, Memphis has a wide variety of landscapes and distinct neighborhoods.

The first European explorer to visit the area of present-day Memphis was Spanish conquistador Hernando de Soto in 1541 with his expedition into the New World. The high Chickasaw Bluffs protecting the location from the waters of the Mississippi was then contested by the Spanish, French, and the English as Memphis took shape. Modern Memphis was founded in 1819 by three prominent Americans: John Overton, James Winchester, and future president Andrew Jackson.

Memphis grew into one of the largest cities of the Antebellum South as a market for agricultural goods, natural resources like lumber, and the American slave trade. After the American Civil War and the end of slavery, the city experienced even faster growth into the 20th century as it became among the largest world markets for cotton and lumber.

Home to Tennessee's largest African-American population, Memphis played a prominent role in the American civil rights movement and was the site of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 1968 assassination. The city now hosts the National Civil Rights Museum—a Smithsonian affiliate institution. Since the civil rights era, Memphis has become one of the nation's leading commercial centers in transportation and logistics. Its largest employer is the multinational courier corporation FedEx, which maintains its global air hub at Memphis International Airport, making it the second-busiest cargo airport in the world. In addition to being a global air cargo leader, the International Port of Memphis also hosts the 5th busiest inland water port in the U.S., with access to the Mississippi River allowing shipments to arrive from around the world for conversion to train and trucking transport throughout the United States, making Memphis a multi-modal hub for trading goods for imports and exports despite its inland location.

Memphis is a regional center for commerce, education, media, art, and entertainment. It has long had a prominent music scene, with historic blues clubs on Beale Street originating the unique Memphis blues sound in the early 20th century. The city's music has continued to be shaped by a multicultural mix of influences: the blues, country, rock n' roll, soul, and hip-hop. Memphis barbecue has achieved international prominence, and the city hosts the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, which attracts over 100,000 visitors to the city annually.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_Island,_Memphis

Mud Island (not actually an island) is a small peninsula, surrounded by the Mississippi River to the west and the Wolf River Harbor to the east. In 1960, the Wolf River was diverted so that it flows into the Mississippi River north of Mud Island. Mud Island River Park, located on the south end of the island, opened to the public in 1982. It is located within the Memphis city limits, 1.2 miles from the coast of downtown, and houses a museum, restaurants, and an amphitheater. It is accessible by the Memphis Suspension Railway (a monorail), by foot (via a footbridge located on top of the monorail), by ferry, or automobile.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago

Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the third-most-populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,705,994 (2018), it is also the most populous city in the Midwestern United States. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second-most-populous county in the US, with a small portion of the northwest side of the city extending into DuPage County near O'Hare Airport. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland. At nearly 10 million people, the metropolitan area is the third most populous in the United States.

Located on the shores of freshwater Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed and grew rapidly in the mid-19th century. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, the city made a concerted effort to rebuild. The construction boom accelerated population growth throughout the following decades, and by 1900, less than 30 years after the great fire, Chicago was the fifth-largest city in the world. Chicago made noted contributions to urban planning and zoning standards, including new construction styles (including the Chicago School of architecture), the development of the City Beautiful Movement, and the steel-framed skyscraper.

Chicago is an international hub for finance, culture, commerce, industry, education, technology, telecommunications, and transportation. It is the site of the creation of the first standardized futures contracts, issued by the Chicago Board of Trade, which today is the largest and most diverse derivatives market in the world, generating 20% of all volume in commodities and financial futures alone. Depending on the particular year, the city's O'Hare International Airport is routinely ranked as the world's fifth or sixth busiest airport according to tracked data by the Airports Council International. The region also has the largest number of federal highways and is the nation's railroad hub. Chicago was listed as an alpha global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and it ranked seventh in the entire world in the 2017 Global Cities Index. The Chicago area has one of the highest gross domestic products (GDP) in the world, generating $689 billion in 2018. In addition, the city has one of the world's most diversified and balanced economies, with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. Chicago is home to several Fortune 500 companies, including Allstate, Boeing, Caterpillar, Exelon, Kraft Heinz, McDonald's, Mondelez International, Sears, United Airlines Holdings, and Walgreens.

Chicago's 58 million domestic and international visitors in 2018 made it the second most visited city in the nation, as compared with New York City's 65 million visitors in 2018. The city was ranked first in the 2018 Time Out City Life Index, a global quality of life survey of 15,000 people in 32 cities. Landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis (Sears) Tower, Grant Park, the Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicago's culture includes the visual arts, literature, film, theatre, comedy (especially improvisational comedy), food, and music, particularly jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop, gospel, and electronic dance music including house music. Of the area's many colleges and universities, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago are classified as "highest research" doctoral universities. Chicago has professional sports teams in each of the major professional leagues, including two Major League Baseball teams.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Park

Lincoln Park is a 1,208-acre (489-hectare) park situated along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US President Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for seven miles (11 km) from Grand Avenue (500 N) on the south to near Ardmore Avenue (5800 N) on the north, just north of the Lake Shore Drive terminus at Hollywood Avenue. Several museums and a zoo are located between North Avenue (1600 N) and Diversey Parkway (2800 N) in the eponymous neighborhood. Further to the north, the park is characterized by parkland, beaches, recreational areas, nature reserves, and harbors. To the south, there is a more narrow strip of beaches east of Lake Shore Drive, almost to downtown. With 20 million visitors per year, Lincoln Park is the second-most-visited city park in the United States, behind Central Park.

The park's recreational facilities include baseball/softball fields, basketball courts, beach volleyball courts, cricket pitches, football/soccer fields, a golf course, lacrosse fields, rugby pitches, tennis courts, volleyball courts, field houses, a target archery field, a skate park, and a driving range.

The park also features several harbors with boating facilities, as well as public beaches for swimming. There are landscaped gardens, public art, bird refuges, a zoo, the Lincoln Park Conservatory, the Chicago History Museum, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, the Alfred Caldwell Lily Pool, and a theater on the lake with regular outdoor performances held during the summer.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_History_Museum

Chicago History Museum (formerly known as the Chicago Historical Society (CHS)) was founded in 1856 to study and interpret Chicago's history. It is located in Lincoln Park at 1601 North Clark Street at the intersection of North Avenue in the Old Town Triangle neighborhood. The CHS adopted the name, Chicago History Museum, in September 2006 for its public presence.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mascoutah,_Illinois

Mascoutah is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States, named for the Mascoutens, a tribe of the Michigan Indians. The population was 7,483 at the 2010 census. According to the US Census Bureau, the population was estimated at 7,994 in 2019.

Source: www.mascoutah.org/about-mascoutah

Mascoutah offers small town feel with modern amenities. Located just off Interstate 64, Mascoutah is in close proximity to St. Louis, Missouri. Mascoutah is easily accessible to St. Louis and Lambert Airport by Metrolink with stations minutes away from town. Mascoutah is home to Mid America Airport which currently flies to Daytona Beach, FL; St. Pete/Clearwater/Tampa Bay, FL; and Las Vegas, NV.

Mascoutah has some of the first rate public and private schools in the area. The Mascoutah School District has more than 4,100 students. There are three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. Mascoutah is 15 minutes away from McKendree College and Southwestern Illinois College, and thirty minutes away from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, St. Louis University, and Washington University.

Mascoutah is a growing community and is well positioned for growth. There have been numerous construction projects in the past year that have provided many new homes and businesses in the community.

There are three parks in town that offer a wide array of activities. Scheve Park has two swimming pools, baseball diamonds, two lighted tennis courts, a lighted sand volleyball court, lighted horseshoe pits, two soccer fields, skate park, ten pavilions varying in size, and several playground areas. Scheve Park also has a restored train caboose that visitors can tour. Maple Park is equipped with outdoor basketball facilities, a ball playing area, playground equipment, and a family sized pavilion. Prairie Park has two fishing lakes, a fountain, and a pavilion.

Mascoutah has 21 organizations in town, men and women’s sports teams, festivals, parades, and lots of other events year-round! Come see us in Mascoutah

Jerry came to stay in my little house and care for it and Wiki for several months last winter when I was gone. I think its accurate to say that the two of them fell in love. He came by yesterday to visit her. Another photo of them follows.

Jerry is on Flickr -

www.flickr.com/photos/frobnobbitz

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis

Indianapolis, colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most-populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the United States Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion County in 2020 was 977,642. The "balance" population, which excludes semi-autonomous municipalities in Marion County, was 887,642. It is the 15th most populous city in the U.S., the third-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, Illinois and Columbus, Ohio, and the fourth-most populous state capital after Phoenix, Arizona; Austin, Texas; and Columbus. The Indianapolis metropolitan area is the 33rd most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S., with 2,048,703 residents. Its combined statistical area ranks 28th, with a population of 2,431,361. Indianapolis covers 368 square miles (950 km2), making it the 16th largest city by land area in the U.S.

Indigenous peoples inhabited the area dating to as early as 10,000 BC. In 1818, the Delaware relinquished their tribal lands in the Treaty of St. Mary's. In 1821, Indianapolis was founded as a planned city for the new seat of Indiana's state government. The city was platted by Alexander Ralston and Elias Pym Fordham on a 1-square-mile (2.6 km2) grid next to the White River. Completion of the National and Michigan roads and arrival of rail later solidified the city's position as a manufacturing and transportation hub. Two of the city's nicknames reflect its historical ties to transportation—the "Crossroads of America" and "Railroad City". Since the 1970 city-county consolidation, known as Unigov, local government administration operates under the direction of an elected 25-member city-county council headed by the mayor.

Indianapolis anchors the 29th largest economic region in the U.S., based primarily on the sectors of finance and insurance, manufacturing, professional and business services, education and health care, government, and wholesale trade. The city has notable niche markets in amateur sports and auto racing. The city is home to three Fortune 500 companies, two major league sports clubs, four university campuses, and several museums, including the world's largest children's museum. However, the city is perhaps best known for annually hosting the world's largest single-day sporting event, the Indianapolis 500. Among the city's historic sites and districts, Indianapolis is home to the largest collection of monuments dedicated to veterans and war casualties in the U.S. outside of Washington, D.C.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Statehouse

The Indiana Statehouse is the state capitol building of the U.S. state of Indiana. It houses the Indiana General Assembly, the office of the Governor of Indiana, the Indiana Supreme Court, and other state officials. The Statehouse is located in the capital city of Indianapolis at 200 West Washington Street. Built in 1888, it is the fifth building to house the state government.

The first state house, located in Corydon, Indiana, is still standing and is maintained as a state historic site. The second building was the old Marion County courthouse which was demolished and replaced in the early 20th century. The third building was a structure modeled on the Parthenon, but was condemned in 1877 because of structural defects and razed so the current statehouse could be built on its location.

A visit to Coughton Court in Warwickshire, on the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend in late May 2018. A National Trust property, it was the home of the Throckmorton family.

Coughton Court is an English Tudor country house, situated on the main road between Studley and Alcester in Warwickshire. It is a Grade I listed building.

The house has a long crenelated façade directly facing the main road, at the centre of which is the Tudor Gatehouse, dating from 1530; this has hexagonal turrets and oriel windows in the English Renaissance style. The gatehouse is the oldest part of the house and is flanked by later wings, in the Strawberry Hill Gothic style, popularised by Horace Walpole.

The Coughton estate has been owned by the Throckmorton family since 1409. The estate was acquired through marriage to the De Spinney family. Coughton was rebuilt by Sir George Throckmorton, the first son of Sir Robert Throckmorton of Coughton Court by Catherine Marrow, daughter of William Marrow of London. The great gatehouse at Coughton was dedicated to King Henry VIII by Throckmorton, a favorite of the King. Throckmorton would become notorious due to his almost fatal involvement in the divorce between King Henry and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Throckmorton favoured the queen and was against the Reformation. Throckmorton spent most of his life rebuilding Coughton. In 1549, when he was planning the windows in the great hall, he asked his son Nicholas to obtain from the heralds the correct tricking (colour abbreviations) of the arms of his ancestors' wives and his own cousin and niece by marriage Queen Catherine Parr. The costly recusancy (refusal to attend Anglican Church services) of Robert Throckmorton and his heirs restricted later rebuilding, so that much of the house still stands largely as he left it.

After Throckmorton's death in 1552, Coughton passed to his eldest son, Robert. Robert Throckmorton and his family were practicing Catholics therefore the house at one time contained a priest hole, a hiding place for priests during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law in England, from the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The Hall also holds a place in English history for its roles in both the Throckmorton Plot of 1583 to murder Queen Elizabeth I of England, and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, although the Throckmorton family were themselves only indirectly implicated in the latter, when some of the Gunpowder conspirators rode directly there after its discovery.

The house has been in the ownership of the National Trust since 1946. The family, however, hold a 300-year lease and previously managed the property on behalf of the Trust. In 2007, however, the house reverted to management by the National Trust. The management of the property is renewed every 10 years. The family tenant until recently was Clare McLaren-Throckmorton, known professionally as Clare Tritton QC, until she died on 31 October 2017.

The house, which is open to the public all year round, is set in extensive grounds including a walled formal garden, a river and a lake.

The gatehouse at Coughton was built at the earliest in 1536, as it is built of stones which came from Bordesley Abbey and Evesham Abbey after the Dissolution of the Monasteries Act in 1536. As with other Tudor houses, it was built around a courtyard, with the gatehouse used for deliveries and coaches to travel through to the courtyard. The courtyard was closed on all four sides until 1651, when Parliamentary soldiers burnt the fourth (east) wing, along with many of the Throckmorton's family papers, during the English Civil War.

After the Roman Catholic Relief Act was passed in 1829, the Throckmorton family were able to afford large-scale building works, allowing them to remodel the west front.

Grade I Listed Building

Coughton Court

Listing Text

COUGHTON

SP06SE

1/144 Coughton Court

10/02/56

GV I

Country house, Gatehouse late C15, and after 1518; early and late C16; late C17

additions; west front remodelled 1780; additions and remodelling of 1835(VCH).

Limestone ashlar gatehouse. Timber framed with lath and plaster infill; brick;

imitation stone render. Tile and lead roofs; brick stacks, U-plan, formerly

courtyard. 2 and 3 storeys; 13-window range. Entrance (west) front symmetrical.

3 storey central gatehouse range has moulded plinth and double string course.

Square ground floor with corner turrets. C19 Gothic panelled part-glazed

double-leaf doors in 4-centred moulded arch with square head, hood mould and

carved spandrels. Stone mullioned and transomed windows with arched lights

throughout. Upper floors of different coloured stone. 2-storey canted oriel with

flanking lights and glazed octagonal turrets; 2 transoms on first floor, one on

second. Shield of arms on each floor. Turrets continued up another floor'; left

turret unglazed. Remainder 2 storeys only. Single 5-light window with transom

and hood mould. Clasping buttresses with quatrefoil panels projecting above

roof. Crenellated parapets with string course throughout. Remainder of front of '

scored imitation ashlar with stucco hood moulds. Ground floor has leaded 2-light

casements, 3 slightly recessed bays have Gothick sashes and moulded surrounds on

first floor. Projecting end bays with clasping buttresses. First floor: leaded

cross windows. String course above first floor. Attic with quatrefoil panels,

some part glazed. String course and crenellated parapet. Right return side of

thin bricks. Two C17 shaped gables with stone coping. Left gable between 2

external brick stacks; right gable has ball finials. 5-window range, mostly C17

stone cross windows. Narrow gabled wing set back. High single-storey range with

early C20 window, and plaster eaves cove. East front of gatehouse has unglazed

turrets and inscription over entrance. Irregular ranges to courtyard. Timber

framed with brick ground floor. Corresponding small 4-centred door. Irregular

fenestration with moulded stone mullioned windows ground floor, wood mullions

and casements above; some with transoms. 2 storey south range has close studding

with middle rail. Left section breaks forward and has 4 framed gables with

brackets. Entrance in recessed bay below third gable has 4-centred moulded

doorway with square head, hood mould and carved spandrels. Paired 6-panelled

doors with Gothick overlight. Right section has 2 large gables, and another

behind and above in roof, with decorative panel framing. Elaborately carved

scrolled bargeboards with finials and openwork pendants. End wall has gable.

Ground floor has 2 stone cross windows with arched lights. Blocked arches above

and in centre. 2-storey and attic north range. Close studding. 3 large framed

gables and smaller end gable all with casements and brackets. Ground floor has

four 3-light mullioned and transomed windows. First floor projects on plaster

cove. Blank gabled end wall. Left return side: range of c.1690. Scored render

with quoins. 3 projecting bays with hipped roofs. 4-centred doorway. Slightly

projecting first floor. Irregular fenestration with wood mullioned and transomed

windows. Interior: Entrance Hall with plaster fan vault. Late C18 open well

cantilevered staircase with moulded soffit and simple handrail; Gothick

plasterwork cornice. Drawing Room has simple early Cl6 stone fireplace. Windows

with C16,C17 and C19 armorial glass. Gothick plasterwork cornice. 6-panelled

doors. Little Drawing Room has C18 style carved wooden fireplace. Newel

staircase to roof. Tower Room has moulded 4-centred fireplace with carved

spandrels and projecting top. Two 4-centred doorways. North east turret has 2

hiding places. Dining Room and Tribune have fine C16 panelling possibly with

later work, turned balusters, grotesques and medallions with heads. Fine marble

chimneypiece with paired Ionic and Corinthian columns, cartouche and coat of

arms, Saloon, formed 1910, has arcaded panelled screen c.1660 (VCH) to Tribune.

C16 double-flight staircase from Harvington hall with heavy turned balusters and

square newel posts with finials. Study has fine C17 panelling with pilasters.

Ground floor with broad-chamfered ceiling beams. North range has part of a fine

C16 panelled timber cieling with moulded ribs and carved bosses. Dog-leg

staircase with C17 turned balusters. The Throckmortons were Catholics, and were

deeply involved in the Throckmorton plot of 1583. In 1605 the wives of the

Gunpowder Plotters awaited news at Coughton. In 1688 the east wing was destroyed

by a Protestant mob, and was finally cleared away in 1780.

(V.C.H.: Warwickshire, Vol.III, pp.75-78; Buldings of England: Warwickshire,

pp.245-6; Coughton Court; The National Trust 1984).

Listing NGR: SP0831160624

This text is from the original listing, and may not necessarily reflect the current setting of the building.

View of the house from within the house.

The North Wing from The South Wing. Couldn't go into The North Wing as it was private.

alexandra daddario wiki, alexandra daddario IMDB,

alexandra daddario Photo,

alexandra daddario Biography,

alexandra daddario Instagram,

alexandra daddario facebook,

alexandra daddario Height,

alexandra daddario age,

alexandra daddario movies List,

alexandra daddario Movies.

substatus.com/alexandra-daddario/

Silverton is a former silver mining camp, most or all of which is now included in a federally designated National Historic Landmark District, the Silverton Historic District. The town population was 531 at U.S. Census 2000.

Silverton is linked to Durango by the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, a National Historic Landmark. Silverton no longer has active mining, but subsists by tourism, maintenance of US 550 (highway which links Montrose with Durango via Silverton), mine pollution remediation, and retirees.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis

St. Louis is an independent city and inland port in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is situated along the western bank of the Mississippi River, which marks Missouri's border with Illinois. The Missouri River merges with the Mississippi River just north of the city. These two rivers combined form the fourth longest river system in the world. The city had an estimated 2017 population of 308,626 and is the cultural and economic center of the St. Louis metropolitan area (home to nearly 3,000,000 people), which is the largest metropolitan area in Missouri, the second-largest in Illinois (after Chicago), and the 22nd-largest in the United States.

Before European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, and named after Louis IX of France. In 1764, following France's defeat in the Seven Years' War, the area was ceded to Spain and retroceded back to France in 1800. In 1803, the United States acquired the territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase. During the 19th century, St. Louis became a major port on the Mississippi River; at the time of the 1870 Census it was the fourth-largest city in the country. It separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics.

The economy of metropolitan St. Louis relies on service, manufacturing, trade, transportation of goods, and tourism. Its metro area is home to major corporations, including Anheuser-Busch, Express Scripts, Centene, Boeing Defense, Emerson, Energizer, Panera, Enterprise, Peabody Energy, Ameren, Post Holdings, Monsanto, Edward Jones, Go Jet, Purina and Sigma-Aldrich. Nine of the ten Fortune 500 companies based in Missouri are located within the St. Louis metropolitan area. The city has also become known for its growing medical, pharmaceutical, and research presence due to institutions such as Washington University in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. St. Louis has two professional sports teams: the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball and the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League. One of the city's iconic sights is the 630-foot (192 m) tall Gateway Arch in the downtown area.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grove,_St._Louis

The Grove is a business district located along Manchester Avenue (Missouri Route 100) between Kingshighway Boulevard and Vandeventer Avenue in the Forest Park Southeast (FPSE) neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. Formerly known as the Manchester Strip, the retail drag was first developed in the late 19th century to serve the working-class population of Forest Park Southeast. Today, the Grove is home to a variety of restaurants, bars, and clubs, including a significant number of LGBT-oriented establishments. The district is supported by a community improvement district (CID), created in 2009, which levies an additional sales tax on businesses within its boundaries to fund infrastructure and branding services.

The Grove is within walking distance of the Washington University Medical Center, Forest Park, and the Central West End and Cortex MetroLink light rail stations.

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarinente

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Dam

Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. Constructed between 1931 and 1936, during the Great Depression, it was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over 100 lives. In bills passed by Congress during its construction, it was referred to as the Hoover Dam, after President Herbert Hoover, but was named Boulder Dam by the Roosevelt administration. In 1947, the name Hoover Dam was restored by Congress.

Since about 1900, the Black Canyon and nearby Boulder Canyon had been investigated for their potential to support a dam that would control floods, provide irrigation water, and produce hydroelectric power. In 1928, Congress authorized the project. The winning bid to build the dam was submitted by a consortium named Six Companies, Inc., which began construction in early 1931. Such a large concrete structure had never been built before, and some of the techniques used were unproven. The torrid summer weather and lack of facilities near the site also presented difficulties. Nevertheless, Six Companies turned the dam over to the federal government on March 1, 1936, more than two years ahead of schedule.

Hoover Dam impounds Lake Mead and is located near Boulder City, Nevada, a municipality originally constructed for workers on the construction project, about 30 mi (48 km) southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. The dam's generators provide power for public and private utilities in Nevada, Arizona, and California. Hoover Dam is a major tourist attraction, with 7 million tourists a year. The heavily traveled U.S. Route 93 (US 93) ran along the dam's crest until October 2010, when the Hoover Dam Bypass opened.

Source: hoover.archives.gov/hoovers/hoover-dam

85 years after its completion, Hoover dam is still considered an engineering marvel. It is named in honor of President Herbert Hoover, who played a crucial role in its creation.

For many years, residents of the American southwest sought to tame the unpredictable Colorado River. Disastrous floods during the early 1900’s led residents of the area to look to the federal government for aid, and experiments with irrigation on a limited scale had shown that this arid region could be transformed into fertile cropland, if only the river could be controlled. The greatest obstacle to the construction of such a dam was the allocation of water rights among the seven states comprising the Colorado River drainage basin. Meetings were held in 1918, 1919 and 1920, but the states could not reach a consensus.

Herbert Hoover had visited the Lower Colorado region in the years before World War I and was familiar with its problems and the potential for development. Upon becoming Secretary of Commerce in 1921, Hoover proposed the construction of a dam on the Colorado River. In addition to flood control and irrigation, it would provide a dependable supply of water for Los Angeles and Southern California. The project would be self-supporting, recovering its cost through the sale of hydroelectric power generated by the dam.

In 1921, the state legislatures of the Colorado River basin authorized commissioners to negotiate an interstate agreement. Congress authorized President Harding to appoint a representative for the federal government to serve as chair of the Colorado River Commission and on December 17, 1921, Harding appointed Hoover to that role.

When the commission assembled in Santa Fe in November 1922, the seven states still disagreed over the fair distribution of water. The upstream states feared that the downstream states, with their rapidly developing agricultural and power demands, would quickly preempt rights to the water by the “first in time, first in right” doctrine. Hoover suggested a compromise that the water be divided between the upper and lower basins without individual state quotas. The resulting Colorado River Compact was signed on November 24, 1922. It split the river basin into upper and lower halves with the states within each region deciding amongst themselves how the water would be allocated.

A series of bills calling for Federal funding to build the dam were introduced by Congressman Phil D. Swing and Senator Hiram W. Johnson between 1922 and 1928, all of which were rejected. The last Swing-Johnson bill, titled the Boulder Canyon Project Act, was largely written by Hoover and Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work. Congress finally agreed, and the bill was signed into law on December 21, 1928 by President Coolidge. The dream was about to become reality.

On June 25, 1929, less than four months after his inauguration, President Herbert Hoover signed a proclamation declaring the Colorado River Compact effective at last. Appropriations were approved and construction began in 1930. The dam was dedicated in 1935 and the hydroelectric generators went online in 1937. In 1947, Congress officially "restored" Hoover's name to the dam, after FDR's Secretary of the Interior tried to remove it. Hoover Dam was built for a cost of $49 million (approximately $1 billion adjusted for inflation). The power plant and generators cost an additional $71 million, more than the cost of the dam itself. The sale of electrical power generated by the dam paid back its construction cost, with interest, by 1987.

Today the Hoover Dam controls the flooding of the Colorado River, irrigates more than 1.5 million acres of land, and provides water to more than 16 million people. Lake Mead supports recreational activities and provides habitats to fish and wildlife. Power generated by the dam provides energy to power over 500,000 homes. The Hoover Compromise still governs how the water is shared.

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis"

(Nevada) "نيفادا" "内华达州" "नेवादा" "ネバダ" "네바다" "Невада"

(Arizona) "أريزونا" "亚利桑那州" "एरिजोना" "アリゾナ州" "애리조나" "Аризона"

(Hoover Dam) "سد هوفر" "胡佛水坝" "हूवर बांध" "フーバーダム" "후버 댐" "Гувера" "Presa Hoover"

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis

Indianapolis, colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most-populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the United States Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion County in 2020 was 977,642. The "balance" population, which excludes semi-autonomous municipalities in Marion County, was 887,642. It is the 15th most populous city in the U.S., the third-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, Illinois and Columbus, Ohio, and the fourth-most populous state capital after Phoenix, Arizona; Austin, Texas; and Columbus. The Indianapolis metropolitan area is the 33rd most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S., with 2,048,703 residents. Its combined statistical area ranks 28th, with a population of 2,431,361. Indianapolis covers 368 square miles (950 km2), making it the 16th largest city by land area in the U.S.

Indigenous peoples inhabited the area dating to as early as 10,000 BC. In 1818, the Delaware relinquished their tribal lands in the Treaty of St. Mary's. In 1821, Indianapolis was founded as a planned city for the new seat of Indiana's state government. The city was platted by Alexander Ralston and Elias Pym Fordham on a 1-square-mile (2.6 km2) grid next to the White River. Completion of the National and Michigan roads and arrival of rail later solidified the city's position as a manufacturing and transportation hub. Two of the city's nicknames reflect its historical ties to transportation—the "Crossroads of America" and "Railroad City". Since the 1970 city-county consolidation, known as Unigov, local government administration operates under the direction of an elected 25-member city-county council headed by the mayor.

Indianapolis anchors the 29th largest economic region in the U.S., based primarily on the sectors of finance and insurance, manufacturing, professional and business services, education and health care, government, and wholesale trade. The city has notable niche markets in amateur sports and auto racing. The city is home to three Fortune 500 companies, two major league sports clubs, four university campuses, and several museums, including the world's largest children's museum. However, the city is perhaps best known for annually hosting the world's largest single-day sporting event, the Indianapolis 500. Among the city's historic sites and districts, Indianapolis is home to the largest collection of monuments dedicated to veterans and war casualties in the U.S. outside of Washington, D.C.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiteljorg_Museum_of_American_Indian...

The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is located in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, and houses an extensive collection of visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas, as well as Western American paintings and sculptures collected by businessman and philanthropist Harrison Eiteljorg (1903–1997). The museum houses one of the finest collections of Native contemporary art in the world.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona

Arizona is a state in the Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Its other neighboring states are Nevada to the northwest and California to the west. It also shares an international border with the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California to the south and southwest. It is the 6th-largest and the 14th-most-populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix, which is the most populous state capital in the United States.

Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union, achieving statehood on February 14, 1912. Historically part of the territory of Alta California and Nuevo México in New Spain, it became part of independent Mexico in 1821. After being defeated in the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded much of this territory to the United States in 1848, where the area became part of the territory of New Mexico. The southernmost portion of the state was acquired in 1853 through the Gadsden Purchase.

Southern Arizona is known for its desert climate, with extremely hot summers and mild winters. Northern Arizona features forests of pine, Douglas fir, and spruce trees; the Colorado Plateau; mountain ranges (such as the San Francisco Mountains); as well as large, deep canyons, with much more moderate summer temperatures and significant winter snowfalls. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff, Sunrise, and Tucson. In addition to the internationally known Grand Canyon National Park, which is one of the world's seven natural wonders, there are several national forests, national parks, and national monuments.

Arizona is home to a diverse population. About one-quarter of the state is made up of Indian reservations that serve as the home of 27 federally recognized Native American tribes, including the Navajo Nation, the largest in the state and the country, with more than 300,000 citizens. Since the 1980s, the proportion of Hispanics has grown significantly owing to migration from Mexico and Central America. A substantial portion of the population are followers of the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Arizona's population and economy have grown dramatically since the 1950s because of inward migration, and the state is now a major hub of the Sun Belt. Cities such as Phoenix and Tucson have developed large, sprawling suburban areas. Many large companies, such as PetSmart and Circle K, have headquarters in the state, and Arizona is home to major universities, including the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University. The state is known for a history of conservative politicians such as Barry Goldwater and John McCain, though it has become a swing state in recent years.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antelope_Canyon

Navajo Upper Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon in the American Southwest, on Navajo land east of Lechee, Arizona. It includes six separate, scenic slot canyon sections on the Navajo Reservation, referred to as Upper Antelope Canyon (or The Crack), Rattle Snake Canyon, Owl Canyon, Mountain Sheep Canyon, Canyon X and Lower Antelope Canyon (or The Corkscrew). It is the primary attraction of Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park, along with a hiking trail to Rainbow Bridge National Monument.

The Navajo name for Upper Antelope Canyon is Tsé bighánílíní, which means 'the place where water runs through the (Slot Canyon) rocks'. Lower Antelope Canyon is Hazdistazí (called "Hasdestwazi" by the Navajo Parks and Recreation Department), or 'spiral rock arches'. Both are in the LeChee Chapter of the Navajo Nation. They are accessible by Navajo guided tour only.

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "米国" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis" "ארצות הברית" "संयुक्त राज्य" "США"

(Arizona) "أريزونا" "亚利桑那州" "אריזונה" "एरिजोना" "アリゾナ州" "애리조나" "Аризона"

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona

Arizona is a state in the Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Its other neighboring states are Nevada to the northwest and California to the west. It also shares an international border with the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California to the south and southwest. It is the 6th-largest and the 14th-most-populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix, which is the most populous state capital in the United States.

Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union, achieving statehood on February 14, 1912. Historically part of the territory of Alta California and Nuevo México in New Spain, it became part of independent Mexico in 1821. After being defeated in the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded much of this territory to the United States in 1848, where the area became part of the territory of New Mexico. The southernmost portion of the state was acquired in 1853 through the Gadsden Purchase.

Southern Arizona is known for its desert climate, with extremely hot summers and mild winters. Northern Arizona features forests of pine, Douglas fir, and spruce trees; the Colorado Plateau; mountain ranges (such as the San Francisco Mountains); as well as large, deep canyons, with much more moderate summer temperatures and significant winter snowfalls. There are ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff, Sunrise, and Tucson. In addition to the internationally known Grand Canyon National Park, which is one of the world's seven natural wonders, there are several national forests, national parks, and national monuments.

Arizona is home to a diverse population. About one-quarter of the state is made up of Indian reservations that serve as the home of 27 federally recognized Native American tribes, including the Navajo Nation, the largest in the state and the country, with more than 300,000 citizens. Since the 1980s, the proportion of Hispanics has grown significantly owing to migration from Mexico and Central America. A substantial portion of the population are followers of the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Arizona's population and economy have grown dramatically since the 1950s because of inward migration, and the state is now a major hub of the Sun Belt. Cities such as Phoenix and Tucson have developed large, sprawling suburban areas. Many large companies, such as PetSmart and Circle K, have headquarters in the state, and Arizona is home to major universities, including the University of Arizona, Arizona State University, and Northern Arizona University. The state is known for a history of conservative politicians such as Barry Goldwater and John McCain, though it has become a swing state in recent years.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antelope_Canyon

Navajo Upper Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon in the American Southwest, on Navajo land east of Lechee, Arizona. It includes six separate, scenic slot canyon sections on the Navajo Reservation, referred to as Upper Antelope Canyon (or The Crack), Rattle Snake Canyon, Owl Canyon, Mountain Sheep Canyon, Canyon X and Lower Antelope Canyon (or The Corkscrew). It is the primary attraction of Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park, along with a hiking trail to Rainbow Bridge National Monument.

The Navajo name for Upper Antelope Canyon is Tsé bighánílíní, which means 'the place where water runs through the (Slot Canyon) rocks'. Lower Antelope Canyon is Hazdistazí (called "Hasdestwazi" by the Navajo Parks and Recreation Department), or 'spiral rock arches'. Both are in the LeChee Chapter of the Navajo Nation. They are accessible by Navajo guided tour only.

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "米国" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis" "ארצות הברית" "संयुक्त राज्य" "США"

(Arizona) "أريزونا" "亚利桑那州" "אריזונה" "एरिजोना" "アリゾナ州" "애리조나" "Аризона"

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,731,571 in 2016, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor of the Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration of 9,245,438 people (as of 2016) surrounding the western end of Lake Ontario, while the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) proper had a 2016 population of 6,417,516. Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world.

People have travelled through and inhabited the Toronto area, located on a broad sloping plateau interspersed with rivers, deep ravines, and urban forest, for more than 10,000 years. After the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase, when the Mississauga surrendered the area to the British Crown, the British established the town of York in 1793 and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York and suffered heavy damage by American troops. York was renamed and incorporated in 1834 as the city of Toronto. It was designated as the capital of the province of Ontario in 1867 during Canadian Confederation. The city proper has since expanded past its original borders through both annexation and amalgamation to its current area of 630.2 km2 (243.3 sq mi).

The diverse population of Toronto reflects its current and historical role as an important destination for immigrants to Canada. More than 50 percent of residents belong to a visible minority population group, and over 200 distinct ethnic origins are represented among its inhabitants. While the majority of Torontonians speak English as their primary language, over 160 languages are spoken in the city.

Toronto is a prominent centre for music, theatre, motion picture production, and television production, and is home to the headquarters of Canada's major national broadcast networks and media outlets. Its varied cultural institutions, which include numerous museums and galleries, festivals and public events, entertainment districts, national historic sites, and sports activities, attract over 43 million tourists each year. Toronto is known for its many skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, the CN Tower.

The city is home to the Toronto Stock Exchange, the headquarters of Canada's five largest banks, and the headquarters of many large Canadian and multinational corporations. Its economy is highly diversified with strengths in technology, design, financial services, life sciences, education, arts, fashion, aerospace, environmental innovation, food services, and tourism.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CN_Tower

The CN Tower (French: Tour CN) is a 553.3 m-high (1,815.3 ft) concrete communications and observation tower located in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Built on the former Railway Lands, it was completed in 1976. Its name "CN" originally referred to Canadian National, the railway company that built the tower. Following the railway's decision to divest non-core freight railway assets prior to the company's privatization in 1995, it transferred the tower to the Canada Lands Company, a federal Crown corporation responsible for real estate development.

The CN Tower held the record for the world's tallest free-standing structure for 32 years until 2007 when it was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa, and was the world's tallest tower until 2009 when it was surpassed by the Canton Tower. It is now the ninth tallest free-standing structure in the world and remains the tallest free-standing structure on land in the Western Hemisphere. In 1995, the CN Tower was declared one of the modern Seven Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. It also belongs to the World Federation of Great Towers.

It is a signature icon of Toronto's skyline and attracts more than two million international visitors annually.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Centre

Rogers Centre, originally named SkyDome, is a multi-purpose stadium in Downtown Toronto, Canada, situated just southwest of the CN Tower near the northern shore of Lake Ontario. Opened in 1989 on the former Railway Lands, it is home to the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB). Previously, the stadium was also home to the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the Toronto Raptors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL) played an annual game at the stadium as part of the Bills Toronto Series from 2008 to 2013. While it is primarily a sports venue, it also hosts other large events such as conventions, trade fairs, concerts, travelling carnivals, circuses and monster truck shows.

The stadium was renamed "Rogers Centre" following the 2005 purchase of the stadium by Rogers Communications, which also owns the Toronto Blue Jays. The venue was noted for being the first stadium to have a fully retractable motorized roof, as well as for the 348-room hotel attached to it with 70 rooms overlooking the field. It is also the last North American major-league stadium built to accommodate both football and baseball. The stadium served as the site of both the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2015 Pan American Games (renamed the Pan-Am Dome or Pan-Am Ceremonies Venue due to sponsorship regulations).

alexandra daddario wiki, alexandra daddario IMDB,

alexandra daddario Photo,

alexandra daddario Biography,

alexandra daddario Instagram,

alexandra daddario facebook,

alexandra daddario Height,

alexandra daddario age,

alexandra daddario movies List,

alexandra daddario Movies.

substatus.com/alexandra-daddario/

From WIKI:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SlutWalk

SlutWalk is a transnational movement[1] of protest marches which began on April 3, 2011,[2] in Toronto, Ontario, with subsequent rallies occurring globally.[3] Participants protest against explaining or excusing rape by referring to any aspect of a woman's appearance,[4] and call for an end to rape culture.[5] The rallies began after Constable Michael Sanguinetti, a Toronto Police officer, suggested that "women should avoid dressing like sluts"[6][7] as a precaution against sexual assault.

The protest takes the form of a march, mainly by young women, where some dress as "sluts" in revealing, sexy attire such as short skirts, stockings and scanty tops. In the various Slutwalks around the world, there are usually speaker meetings and workshops, live music, sign-making sessions, leafleting, open microphones, chanting, dances, martial arts, and receptions or after-parties with refreshments.[1][8] In many of the rallies and online, women speak publicly for the first time about their identity as rape survivors.[9][10]

Wiki and I had good timing this afternoon when she lept from the roof of the house to the roof of the studio twice for me. She does this several times a day. Wiki really likes her 'airs above the ground.'

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid

Madrid is the capital of Spain and the largest municipality in both the Community of Madrid and Spain as a whole. The city has almost 3.3 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.5 million. It is the third-largest city in the European Union (EU), smaller than only London and Berlin, and its monocentric metropolitan area is the third-largest in the EU, smaller only than those of London and Paris. The municipality covers 604.3 km2 (233.3 sq mi).

Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid (which comprises the city of Madrid, its conurbation and extended suburbs and villages); this community is bordered by the autonomous communities of Castile and León and Castile-La Mancha. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political, economic and cultural centre of the country. The current mayor is Manuela Carmena from the party Ahora Madrid.

The Madrid urban agglomeration has the third-largest GDP in the European Union and its influence in politics, education, entertainment, environment, media, fashion, science, culture, and the arts all contribute to its status as one of the world's major global cities. Madrid is home to two world-famous football clubs, Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. Due to its economic output, high standard of living, and market size, Madrid is considered the leading economic hub of the Iberian Peninsula and of Southern Europe. It hosts the head offices of the vast majority of major Spanish companies, such as Telefónica, IAG or Repsol. Madrid is also the 10th most liveable city in the world according to Monocle magazine, in its 2017 index.

Madrid houses the headquarters of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), belonging to the United Nations Organization (UN), the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI), and the Public Interest Oversight Board (PIOB). It also hosts major international regulators and promoters of the Spanish language: the Standing Committee of the Association of Spanish Language Academies, headquarters of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), the Cervantes Institute and the Foundation of Urgent Spanish (Fundéu BBVA). Madrid organises fairs such as FITUR, ARCO, SIMO TCI and the Madrid Fashion Week.

While Madrid possesses modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighbourhoods and streets. Its landmarks include the Royal Palace of Madrid; the Royal Theatre with its restored 1850 Opera House; the Buen Retiro Park, founded in 1631; the 19th-century National Library building (founded in 1712) containing some of Spain's historical archives; a large number of national museums, and the Golden Triangle of Art, located along the Paseo del Prado and comprising three art museums: Prado Museum, the Reina Sofía Museum, a museum of modern art, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, which complements the holdings of the other two museums. Cibeles Palace and Fountain have become one of the monument symbols of the city.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_of_San_Miguel

The Market of San Miguel (Spanish: Mercado de San Micuel) is a covered market located in Madrid, Spain. Originally built in 1916, it was purchased by private investors in 2003 who renovated the iron structure and reopened it in 2009.

San Miguel Market is the most popular market in Madrid among tourists since it is located in the center of Madrid, within walking distance from Plaza Mayor. The market is not a traditional grocery market but a gourmet tapas market, with over 30 different vendors selling a wide variety of freshly prepared tapas, hams, olives, baked goods and other foods. Beer, wine and champagne are also available.

Nimrat Khaira ( Singer ) Wiki, Height, Biography, Weight, Relation [ Unknown Fact ] – Nimrat Khaira Full Name Nimratpal Kaur Khaira Beautifull Punjabi Female Singer. She is Very Talented Punjabi Singer and Winner of Voice Punjab Season 3 (2013) Nimrat Khaira Was Born on 22 December 1992. N...

punjabitoday.com/celebrity/nimrat-khaira-singer-wiki-heig...

Excerpt from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_the_Assumption_(Windsor,_Ontario):

Our Lady of the Assumption, currently located at 350 Huron Church Road in Windsor, Ontario, is a Roman Catholic church and is the oldest continuous parish in Canada, west of Montreal.

The current church, which opened in 1845, is the fourth to be built on the site. The building closed in 2014 when it was determined the building needed approximately C$15 million in restoration work.

After a fundraising campaign, construction began in early 2019 on the first phase of a four phase restoration plan and included the installation of a long-term copper roof, a new heating system, major electrical work, and structural repairs.

The building reopened for regular weekend mass on September 8, 2019.

The parish began the second phase of the restoration plan in 2020. The second phase includes restoration of the church's ceiling.

It was originally established as "The Mission of Our Lady of the Assumption among the Hurons in Detroit" in 1728 by the Jesuit missionary Fr. Armand De La Richardie, S.J. In 1765, a 60 by 30 feet (18 m × 9 m) church was erected for the Hurons and some sixty French settler families. Assumption became an official, canonical institution in 1767 under its first pastor, Fr. Pierre Potier S.J. who remained at his post until his death in 1781.

That year, the bishop of Quebec sent his Vicar-General, Fr. Francois-Xavier Hubert to be pastor of Assumption parish. Fr. Hubert initiated plans to build a rectory and a school. A shortage of land for this project was rectified by a donation of land from the Hurons on March 6, 1782. The rectory was built in 1785 and in 1786 as coadjutor to the bishop of Quebec, Fr. Hubert, who had since relocated for his new post, contributed to the building of a new church and sent two women from Quebec to establish a school.

The new church opened in 1787 under Fr. François-Xavier Dufaux, who had replaced the interim pastor, Fr. Pierre Fréchette in 1786. In 1796, Fr. Jean-Baptiste Marchand began his thirty-year pastorate of Assumption parish. Upon Fr. Marchand's death in 1825, his assistant, Fr. Joseph Crevier, succeeded him. Fr. Crevier was pastor until 1831 when he was replaced by Fr. Angus Macdonell.

On July 7, 1842, the cornerstone of the present church was laid. Three years later, on July 20, 1845, the new 60 by 120 feet (18 m × 37 m) rectangular church was inaugurated under Fr. Pierre Point S.J. This rectangular structure forms the nave of the present parish. In 1857, Assumption College was opened, and two years later, in 1859, the bishop of the London Diocese, the Most Reverend Pierre Adolphe Pinsonneault, transferred his see to Sandwich and made Assumption church his cathedral.

On November 10, 1867, following a year-long interregnum, the Most Reverend John Walsh became bishop. In 1869, he returned the see to London, leaving Assumption in the care of Fr. Pierre Dominic Laurent.

In 1870, the Basilian Fathers of Toronto took control of Assumption parish and college under their first superior, Fr. Dennis O’Connor, and parish priest Fr. Jean Joseph Marie Abouli. Four years later, in 1874, Fr. O’Connor oversaw the addition of the tower and sanctuary of the present church.

In 1893, Fr. François-Xavier Semande, an alumnus of Assumption College, became the pastor and installed a new tower bell. In 1896, a new, brick rectory was built and in 1902 both it, and the church, were wired for electricity. In 1907, Fr. Alfred J. Côté became pastor. During his tenure, rosary chapel and the sacristy, begun under Fr. Semande, were completed.

From 1921 to 1926, the pastor was Fr. Edmund Toussaint Burns, who expanded the side altars and added the communion rail of the present church. From 1926 to 1937, the pastor was Fr. Edward William Allor. He created the Sunday Bulletin, which began on May 6, 1927. Fr. Allor was succeeded by Fr. Luke Léon Beuglet, who was pastor until 1944.

Fr. James Alexander Donlon was pastor from 1944 to 1962. During this time, the statue of Our Lady of the Assumption was erected in the front courtyard. In relatively quick succession, from 1962 to 1973, Frs. Thomas Roland Janisse, Francis J. McCarty, and Clifford J. Crowley had terms as pastor. Fr. Crowley's term witnessed the building of a new rectory, and ended in 1973 with the succession of Fr. Roger F. deBilly, who was replaced two years later, in 1975, by Fr. Lawrence J. Carney, during whose pastorate Assumption church was named a historical building by the City of Windsor.

In 1982, Fr. Patrick J. Gorman was named Pastor, followed by Fr. John Burke in 1985, Fr. Steve Rus in 1986, and in recent years, Fr. George Beaune, Fr. Daniel Zorzi, Fr. John Reddy, Fr. Paul Walsh, Fr. William Riegel, Fr. Don McCleod and Fr. Maurice Restivo. Under Fr. Zorzi's administration, Rosary Chapel was completely redone.

In 2007, Assumption Church added to its schedule the celebration of the Tridentine Latin Mass on Sundays at 2:00 p.m. The church's high altar, sanctuary, communion rail, and pipe organ make it well-suited to this type of liturgy, which attracts churchgoers from throughout southern Ontario and southeastern Michigan. Assumption's Latin Mass Community hosts regular special events, and the Latin Mass Choir is regularly called upon to sing at special Latin Masses throughout the region.

In 2007, it was learned that Assumption church needed C$9.8 million in extensive restoration repairs. In 2012, a re-assessment of repair costs saw this amount rise to approximately C$15 million.

Assumption Church was closed in November 2014 after the building's condition deteriorated. Worship continued daily in the Rosary Chapel and on weekends at the former Holy Name of Mary Church. The Roman Catholic Diocese of London has stated its commitment to the church's restoration and reopening if a donor comes forward.

In 2017, Assumption parishioners began hosting a series of events to celebrate the parish's 250th year.

In early 2019, local lawyer Paul Mullins spearheaded a fundraising campaign and four-phase restoration plan for the church building.

Construction began in the spring of 2019 on the first phase. Work included the installation of a long-term copper roof, a new heating system, major electrical work, and structural repairs.

The parish moved back into the church on September 8, 2019, and began celebrating weekend masses there again.

The parish began the second phase of the restoration plan in 2020. The second phase includes restoration of the church's ceiling.

A visit to Beaumaris Castle on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales. Our 2nd visit in around 20 years.

Within the Inner Wall of Beaumaris Castle.

Beaumaris Castle (Welsh: Castell Biwmares), located in the town of the same name on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, was built as part of Edward I's campaign to conquer the north of Wales after 1282. Plans were probably first made to construct the castle in 1284, but this was delayed due to lack of funds and work only began in 1295 following the Madog ap Llywelyn uprising. A substantial workforce was employed in the initial years under the direction of James of St George. Edward's invasion of Scotland soon diverted funding from the project, however, and work stopped, only recommencing after an invasion scare in 1306. When work finally ceased around 1330 a total of £15,000 had been spent, a huge sum for the period, but the castle remained incomplete.

Beaumaris Castle was taken by Welsh forces in 1403 during the rebellion of Owain Glyndŵr, but was recaptured by royal forces in 1405. Following the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, the castle was held by forces loyal to Charles I, holding out until 1646 when it surrendered to the Parliamentary armies. Despite forming part of a local royalist rebellion in 1648 the castle escaped slighting and was garrisoned by Parliament, but fell into ruin around 1660, eventually forming part of a local stately home and park in the 19th century. In the 21st century the ruined castle is managed by Cadw as a tourist attraction.

Historian Arnold Taylor described Beaumaris Castle as Britain's "most perfect example of symmetrical concentric planning". The fortification is built of local stone, with a moated outer ward guarded by twelve towers and two gatehouses, overlooked by an inner ward with two large, D-shaped gatehouses and six massive towers. The inner ward was designed to contain ranges of domestic buildings and accommodation able to support two major households. The south gate could be reached by ship, allowing the castle to be directly supplied by sea. UNESCO considers Beaumaris to be one of "the finest examples of late 13th century and early 14th century military architecture in Europe", and it is classed as a World Heritage site.

Grade I listed building

Beaumaris Castle

History

Beaumaris Castle was begun in 1295, the last of the castles built by Edward I to create a defensive ring around the N Wales coast from Aberystwyth to Flint. The master mason was probably James of St George, master of the king's works in Wales, who had already worked on many of Edward's castles, including Harlech, Conwy and Caernarfon. Previously he had been employed by Philip of Savoy and had designed for him the fortress palace of St Georges d'Esperanche.

Unlike most of its contemporaries, Beaumaris Castle was built on a flat site and was designed on the concentric principle to have 4 defensive rings - moat, outer curtain wall, outer ward and inner curtain wall. It was originally intended to have 5 separate accommodation suites. In the event they were not built as work ceased c1330 before the castle was complete. A survey made in 1343 indicates that little has been lost of the fabric in subsequent centuries, despite being besieged during the revolt of Owain Glyndwr. However it was described as ruinous in 1539 and in 1609 by successive members of the Bulkeley family, who had settled in Anglesey and senior officials at Beaumaris from the C15, although they were probably unaware that the castle had never been finished. During the Civil War the castle was held for the king by Thomas, Viscount Bulkeley, who is said to have spent £3000 on repairs, and his son Colonel Richard Bulkeley. After the Restoration it was partly dismantled. The castle was purchased from the crown by the 6th Viscount Bulkeley in 1807, passing to his nephew Sir Richard Bulkeley Williams-Bulkeley in 1822. Sir Richard opened the castle grounds to the public and in 1832 Princess Victoria attended a Royal Eisteddfod held in the inner ward. Since 1925 it has been in the guardianship of the state, during which time the ruins have been conserved and the moat reinstated.

Exterior

A concentrically planned castle comprising an inner ward, which is square in plan, with high inner curtain wall incorporating gatehouses and towers, an outer ward and an outer curtain wall which is nearly square in plan but has shallow facets to form an octagon. The outer curtain wall faces the moat. The castle is built mainly of coursed local limestone and local sandstone, the latter having been used for dressings and mouldings. Openings have mainly shouldered lintels.

The main entrance was the S side, or Gate Next the Sea. This has a central gateway with tall segmental arch, slots in the soffit for the drawbridge chains, loop above it and machicolations on the parapet. The entrance is flanked by round gatehouse towers which, to the L, is corbelled out over a narrower square base set diagonally, and on the R is corbelled out with a square projecting shooting platform to the front. The towers have loops in both stages, and L-hand (W) tower has a corbelled latrine shaft in the angle with the curtain wall. The shooting platform has partially surviving battlements, and is abutted by the footings of the former town wall, added in the early C15. On the R side of the gatehouse is the dock, where the curtain wall has a doorway for unloading provisions. The dock wall, projecting at R angles further R has a corbelled parapet, a central round tower that incorporated a tidal mill and, at the end, a corbelled shooting platform, perhaps for a trebuchet, with machicolations to the end (S) wall. The E side of the dock wall has loops lighting a mural passage.

The curtain walls have loops at ground level of the outer ward, some blocked, and each facet to the E, W and N sides has higher end and intermediate 2-stage round turrets, and all with a corbelled parapet. The northernmost facet of the W side and most of the northern side were added after 1306 and a break in the building programme. The towers at the NW and NE corners are larger and higher than the other main turrets. On the N side, in the eastern facet, is the N or Llanfaes Gate. This was unfinished in the medieval period and has survived much as it was left. The gateway has a recessed segmental arch at high level, a portcullis slot and a blocked pointed arch forming the main entrance, into which a modern gate has been inserted. To the L and R are irregular walls, square in plan, of the proposed gatehouse towers, the N walls facing the moat never having been built. Later arches were built to span the walls at high level in order to facilitate a wall walk. The NE tower of the outer curtain wall has a corbelled latrine shaft in the angle with the E curtain wall, and in the same stretch of wall is a corbelled shaft retaining a gargoyle. The SE tower also has a corbelled latrine shaft in the angle with the E curtain wall.

In the Gate Next the Sea the passage is arched with 2 murder slots, a loop to either side, and a former doorway at the end, of which draw-bar slots have survived. In the R-hand (E) gatehouse is an irregular-shaped room with garderobe chamber. On its inner (N) side are mural stair leading to the wall walk and to a newel stair to the upper chamber. The upper chamber has a fireplace with missing lintel, and a garderobe. The L-hand (W) gatehouse has an undercroft. Its lower storey was reached by external stone steps against the curtain wall, and retains a garderobe chamber and fireplace, formerly with projecting hood. The upper chamber was reached from the wall walk.

On the inner side facing the outer ward, the outer curtain wall is corbelled out to the upper level, except on the N side where only a short section is corbelled out. To the W of the gatehouse are remains of stone steps to the gatehouse, already mentioned, and stone steps to the wall walk. Further R the loops in the curtain wall are framed by an arcade of pointed arches added in the mid C14. The curtain wall towers have doorways to the lower stage, and were entered from the wall walk in the upper stage. In some places the wall walk is corbelled out and/or stepped down at the entrances to the towers. On the W side, the southernmost facet has a projecting former garderobe, surviving in outline form on the ground and with evidence of a former lean-to stone roof. Just N of the central tower on the W side are the footings of a former closing wall defining the original end of the outer ward before the curtain wall was completed after 1306. Further N in the same stretch of wall are stone steps to the wall walk. The NW corner tower has a doorway with draw-bar socket, passage with garderobe chamber to its L, and a narrow fireplace which formerly had a projecting hood. The upper stage floor was carried on a cross beam, of which large corbels survive, and corbel table that supported joists. In the upper stage details of a former fireplace have been lost.

In the Llanfaes Gate the proposed gatehouses both have doorways with ovolo-moulded surrounds. The L-hand (W) doorway leads to a newel stair. The NE curtain wall tower is similar to the NW tower, with garderobe, fireplaces and corbels supporting the floor of the upper stage. Both facets on the E side have remains of garderobes with stone lean-to roofs, of which the northernmost is better preserved. The SE tower was heated in the upper stage but the fireplace details are lost. In the dock wall, a doorway leads to a corbelled mural passage.

The inner ward is surrounded by higher curtain walls with corbelled parapets. It has S and N gatehouses, and corner and intermediate round towers in the E and W walls. The towers all have battered bases and in the angles with the curtain walls are loops lighting the stairs. The curtain walls have loops lighting a first floor mural passage, and the S and N sides also have shorter passages with loops in the lower storey. The inner curtain wall has a more finely moulded corbel table than the outer curtain wall, and embattlements incorporating arrow loops. The main entrance to the inner ward was by the S Gatehouse. It has an added barbican rectangular in plan. The entrance in the W end wall has a plain pointed arch, of which the voussoirs and jamb are missing on the L side. The S wall has 3 loops and 2 gargoyles, the L-hand poorly preserved, and has a single loop in the E wall. Inside are remains of stone steps against the E wall leading to the parapet. The 2-storey S gatehouse has a 2-centred arch, a pointed window above, retaining only a fragment of its moulded dressings, spanned by a segmental arch with murder slot at high level. The towers to the R and L are rounded and have loops in the lower stage, and square-headed windows in the middle stage.

The SW, W (Middle) and NW towers have similar detail, a loop in the lower stage and blocked 2-light mullioned window in the middle stage. The 3-storey N Gatehouse, although similar in plan and conception to the S Gatehouse, differs in its details. It has a central 2-centred arch and pintles of former double gates. In the middle storey is a narrow square-headed window and in the upper storey a 2-light window with cusped lights and remains of a transom. A high segmental arch, incorporating a murder slot, spans the entrance. The rounded towers have loops in the lower stage. The R-hand (W) has a window opening in the middle storey, of which the dressings are missing, and in the upper storey a single cusped light to the N and remains of a pair of cusped lights, with transom, on the W side. The L-hand (E) tower has a single square-headed window in the middle storey (formerly 2-light but its mullion is missing) and in the upper storey a single cusped light and square-headed window on the E side. The NE and SE towers are similar to the towers on the W side. In the middle of the E curtain wall is the chapel tower, which has 5 pointed windows in the middle storey.

The S gateway has a well-defended passage. The outer doorway has double draw-bar sockets, followed by a portcullis slot, 4 segmental arches between murder slots, loops in each wall, then another portcullis slot and a segmental arch where the position of a doorway is marked by double draw-bar sockets. Beyond, the passage walls were not completed, but near the end is the position of another doorway with draw-bar socket and the base of a portcullis slot.

The gatehouses have a double depth plan, but only the outer (S) half was continued above ground-floor level. The N side has the footings of guard rooms, each with fireplaces and NE and NW round stair turrets, of which the NW retains the base of a newel stair. Above ground floor level the N wall of the surviving building, originally intended as a dividing wall, has doorways in the middle storey. Both gatehouses have first-floor fireplaces, of which the moulded jambs and corbels have survived, but the corbelled hood has been lost.

Architectural refinement was concentrated upon the N gatehouse, which was the principal accommodation block, and the chapel. The S elevation of the N gatehouse has a central segmental arch to the entrance passage. To its R is a square-headed window and to its L are 2 small dressed windows, set unusually high because an external stone stair was originally built against the wall. In the 5-bay middle storey are a doorway at the L end and 4 windows to a first-floor hall. All the openings have 4-centred arches with continuous mouldings, sill band and string course at half height. The R-hand window retains a transom but otherwise no mullions or transoms have survived. Projecting round turrets to the R and L house the stairs, lit by narrow loops. To the N of the R-hand (E) stair tower the side wall of the gatehouse has the segmental stone arch of a former undercroft.

The N gate passage is best described from its outer side, and is similar to the S gate. It has a doorway with double draw-bar sockets, portcullis slot, springers of former arches between murder slots, loops in each wall, another portcullis slot, a pointed doorway with double draw-bar sockets, doorways to rooms on the R and L, and a 3rd portcullis slot. The gatehouses have, in the lower storey, 2 simple unheated rooms. The first-floor hall has pointed rere arches, moulded C14 corbels and plain corbel table supporting the roof, a lateral fireplace formerly with corbelled hood, and a similar fireplace in the E wall (suggesting that the hall was partitioned) of which the dressings are mostly missing. Rooms on the N side of the hall are faceted in each gatehouse, with fireplaces and window seats in both middle and upper storeys. Stair turrets have newels stairs, the upper portion of which is renewed in concrete on the W side.

The Chapel tower has a pointed rubble-stone tunnel vault in the lower storey. In the middle storey is a pointed doorway with 2 orders of hollow moulding, leading to the chapel. Above are 2 corbelled round projections in the wall walk. The chapel doorway opens to a small tunnel-vaulted lobby. Entrance to the chapel itself is through double cusped doorways, which form part of a blind arcade of cusped arches with trefoiled spandrels, 3 per bay, to the 2-bay chapel. The chapel has a polygonal apse and rib vault on polygonal wall shafts. The W side, which incorporates the entrance, also has small lancet openings within the arcading that look out to the mural passage. Windows are set high, above the arcading. The W bay has blind windows, into which small windows were built that allowed proceedings to be viewed from small chambers contained within the wall on the N and S sides of the chapel, reached from the mural passage and provided with benches.

The SW, NW, NE, SE and the Middle tower are built to a standard form, with round lower-storey rooms, octagonal above. They incorporate newel stairs, of which the NW has mostly collapsed, and the SW is rebuilt in concrete at the upper level. The lower storey, which has a floor level lower than the passage from the inner ward, was possibly used as a prison and has a single inclined vent but no windows. Upper floors were supported on diaphragm arches, which have survived supporting the middle storeys of the Middle and SE towers, whereas the SW and NE towers retain only the springers of former arches, and the NE tower has a diaphragm arch supporting the upper storey. In the middle storey of each tower is the remains of a fireplace with corbelled hood.

Each section of curtain wall contains a central latrine shaft, with mural passages at first-floor level incorporating back-to-back garderobes. The N and S walls also have short mural passages in the lower storey to single garderobes in each section of wall. Mural passages have corbelled roofs. The S side is different as it has tunnel-vaulted lobbies adjacent to the towers, between which are short sections of corbelled passage with garderobes. The wall walk also incorporates back-to-back latrines, in this case reached down stone steps.

There is evidence of buildings within the inner ward. Footings survive of a building constructed against the E end of the N wall. In the curtain wall are 2 fireplaces, formerly with corbelled hoods, to a first-floor hall. On the S side of the chapel tower is the stub wall of a larger building. On the N side of the W curtain wall are the moulded jambs of a former kitchen fireplace, and adjacent to it against the N wall is the base of a bake oven. On the E side of the S curtain wall the wall is plastered to 2-storey height.

Reasons for Listing

Listed grade I as one of the outstanding Edwardian medieval castles of Wales.

Scheduled Ancient Monument AN001

World Heritage Site

The Inner Wall walk from approx the South-West Tower towards the North-West Tower.

Wasn't a way down from the North-West Tower end so had to go back to the South-West Tower then go back down.

Nice views from up here though!

pigeon

"One Times Square (also known as 1475 Broadway, New York Times Building and New York Times Tower) is a 25 story, 365 foot (110.6 m)[1] high skyscraper at 42nd and Broadway in Times Square.

It was the second-tallest building in the world when it opened. The famous New Year's Times Square Ball drop is performed annually from its roof. It was originally built to be the headquarters of The New York Times. The Times was to start the tradition of dropping the ball. It also introduced a news ticker (the "zipper") that has made it the gathering spot during world events." (in Wikipedia)

A bola no topo desta torre (o nº 1 de Times Square - vemos aqui a sua vertente virada a Nascente) é o centro das atenções a cada véspera de Ano Novo em Times Square.

Jaspinder Cheema ( Actress ) Bio, Hieght, Wiki, Weight, Family [ Unknown Fact ] – Jaspinder Cheema Punjabi Actress. Born 12 August 1988 in Batala, Punjab, India. Jaspinder Cheema Punjabi Model and Actress. She Done Schooling From Batala. After That M.A in Theatre From Punjab University C...

punjabitoday.com/celebrity/jaspinder-cheema-actress-bio-h...

=== Français ===

"Le USA PATRIOT Act (qui signifie : Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act ou en français : Loi pour unir et renforcer l'Amérique en fournissant les outils appropriés pour déceler et contrer le terrorisme) est une loi anti-terroriste qui a été votée par le Congrès des États-Unis et signée par George W. Bush le 26 octobre 2001. L'un des axes centraux de ce long texte (132 pages) est d'effacer la distinction juridique entre les enquêtes effectuées par les services de renseignement extérieur et les agences fédérales responsables des enquêtes criminelles (FBI) dès lors qu'elles impliquent des terroristes étrangers. Elle crée aussi les statuts de combattant ennemi et combattant illégal, qui permettent au gouvernement des États-Unis de détenir sans limite et sans inculpation toute personne soupçonnée de projet terroriste."

- Wikipedia

"Cette loi est l'objet de vives critiques, notamment des organisations de défense des droits de l'homme (ACLU, etc.) et des juristes, qui la considèrent liberticide. Selon eux, les libertés individuelles ont été largement diminuées au profit de la répression policière.

- Wikipedia

---

La présente photo a été inspirée à partir de celle-ci et fait partie de mon projet photo "52 légo". En 2011, je dénoncerai une injustice à chaque semaine. Les photos de ce projet peuvent être utilisées librement pour des fins non-commerciales.

Changeons le monde, une photo à la fois.

=== English ===

"The USA PATRIOT Act (commonly known as the "Patriot Act") is an Act of the U.S. Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. The title of the act is a ten letter acronym (USA PATRIOT) that stands for: Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001.

Let's change the world, one photo at a time.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,731,571 in 2016, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor of the Golden Horseshoe, an urban agglomeration of 9,245,438 people (as of 2016) surrounding the western end of Lake Ontario, while the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) proper had a 2016 population of 6,417,516. Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, and culture, and is recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world.

People have travelled through and inhabited the Toronto area, located on a broad sloping plateau interspersed with rivers, deep ravines, and urban forest, for more than 10,000 years. After the broadly disputed Toronto Purchase, when the Mississauga surrendered the area to the British Crown, the British established the town of York in 1793 and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York and suffered heavy damage by American troops. York was renamed and incorporated in 1834 as the city of Toronto. It was designated as the capital of the province of Ontario in 1867 during Canadian Confederation. The city proper has since expanded past its original borders through both annexation and amalgamation to its current area of 630.2 km2 (243.3 sq mi).

The diverse population of Toronto reflects its current and historical role as an important destination for immigrants to Canada. More than 50 percent of residents belong to a visible minority population group, and over 200 distinct ethnic origins are represented among its inhabitants. While the majority of Torontonians speak English as their primary language, over 160 languages are spoken in the city.

Toronto is a prominent centre for music, theatre, motion picture production, and television production, and is home to the headquarters of Canada's major national broadcast networks and media outlets. Its varied cultural institutions, which include numerous museums and galleries, festivals and public events, entertainment districts, national historic sites, and sports activities, attract over 43 million tourists each year. Toronto is known for its many skyscrapers and high-rise buildings, in particular the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere, the CN Tower.

The city is home to the Toronto Stock Exchange, the headquarters of Canada's five largest banks, and the headquarters of many large Canadian and multinational corporations. Its economy is highly diversified with strengths in technology, design, financial services, life sciences, education, arts, fashion, aerospace, environmental innovation, food services, and tourism.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Station_(Toronto)

Union Station is a major railway station and intermodal transportation hub in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Front Street West, on the south side of the block bounded by Bay Street and York Street in downtown Toronto. The municipal government of Toronto owns the station building while the provincial transit agency Metrolinx owns the train shed and trackage. Union Station has been a National Historic Site of Canada since 1975, and a Heritage Railway Station since 1989. It is operated by the Toronto Terminals Railway, a joint venture of the Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway that directs and controls train movement along the Union Station Rail Corridor, the largest and busiest rail corridor in Canada.

Its central position in Canada's busiest inter-city rail service area, "The Corridor", as well as being the central hub of GO Transit's commuter rail service, makes Union Station Canada's busiest transportation facility and the second-busiest railway station in North America, serving over 72 million passengers each year. More than half of all Canadian inter-city passengers and 91% of Toronto commuter train passengers travel through Union Station.

Via Rail and Amtrak provide inter-city train services while GO Transit operates regional rail services. The station is also connected to the subway and streetcar system of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) at its adjacent namesake subway station. GO Transit's Union Station Bus Terminal, across Bay Street from the station building, is connected by the trainshed. The Union Pearson Express, the train service to Toronto Pearson International Airport, platform is a short walk west of the main station building, accessible by the SkyWalk.

A visit to the National Trust property of Tyntesfield in North Somerset, on the way down for the mid autumn holiday in Dorset.

It is to the west of Bristol and the M5.

Heading to the entrance of Tyntesfield House, past the Chapel (we would go in there later during this visit).

Grade I Listed Building

Tyntesfield House, Servants Wing and Chapel

Description

WRAXALL

121/4/194 TYNTESFIELD PARK

24-APR-1973 TYNTESFIELD HOUSE, SERVANTS' WING AND CHAPEL

GV I

Large country house. Built 1813 for John Seymour. Extensively remodelled 1863-66 by John Norton for William Gibbs; altered 1885-89 by Henry Woodyer; chapel, 1873-75 by Arthur Blomfield, further alterations c. 1890. Ashlar; Cotswold stone slate, plain tiled and lead roofs; ashlar octagonal stacks on tall bases. Irregular and asymmetrical in the High Victorian Gothic Revival style.

The south elevation is an asymmetrical but balanced composition with the core of the older house as a 3 bay central section of 3 storeys. The centre is advanced and has a 3 storey canted bay of 1:4:1 light cross windows with cusped heads, bands of quatrefoils above; thin octagonal corner turrets; panelled parapet with a tall, central 2-light attic window; steeply pitched, pyramidal lead roof with ornamental cresting; flanking clustered stacks. The outer bays of the centre terminate in gables with finials: 4-light cross windows under square hoodmoulds; to the right is a tourelle supported on a buttress and terminating in a conical lead roof; the left bay has a thin octagonal turret and one bay of a veranda of c.1885. The veranda extends, for 3 large 4-centred arches and 2 small pointed arches, in front of the single storey drawing room wing. This wing has an arcaded parapet, 3-light windows with cusped ogee heads and buttresses terminating in pinnacle. The arches of the veranda are supported on clustered granite columns; open arcading in the spandrels; double row of quatrefoils to the parapet. At the right [east] end the single storey library wing is of 3 bays with 3-light Perpendicular style windows under hoodmoulds; pierced quatrefoil parapet. The east elevation begins with the gable end of the library: canted bay of 2:4:2 lights, cusped tracery, and a pierced quatrefoil parapet with pinnacles. Central part is 3-storeys and attics in 4 gables with cusped lancet windows: three 2 storey bay windows of 1:3:1 light cross windows with cusped ogee heads and a pierced quatrefoil parapet (1885). At the left, adjoining the library wing, a corridor projects, ending in gabled porch with a moulded arch, under a dripmould and resting on squat granite columns on ashlar plinths; the tympanum bears a carved panel of arms and an inscription. To the north a double pitched servants' wing projects: 4 bays of 3-light Gothic style windows with an oriel to the second bay and a projecting square tower corbelled o,ut at the end. An archway from the rear of the servants' wing carries an enclosed bridge to the Chapel: ashlar on a coursed rubble base; plain tiled roof with a crested ridge and behind an open arcaded parapet with pinnacles. The details are in a Geommetrical style: three 2-light windows to the nave with trefoil heads; buttresses with off-sets between; gable transepts or side chapels project slightly and have smaller 2-light windows; 5 sided apse with a blank arcading on the lower part and 2-light windows with deeply cusped circles to the upper part; rose window to west gable; octagonal tower with a spire on an arcaded base to the south-west corner.

INTERIOR retains a remarkable number of its original fixtures and fittings by Crace, Norton, Blomfield and Woodyer. The porch and entrance corridor have stone vaulted roofs, panelled doors and Minton tiled floors. The Library (1860's) has an arch-braced collar beam roof with windbraces; panelled walls and inscribed frieze; coloured marble Gothic fireplace with twisted columns and an ogee head. Dining Room (1880's): stone carved pointed-arched outer doorway (dated 1889); panelled ceiling and dado; parquet floor; pink polished granite fireplace in the 'muscular' Gothic style with a segmental head and carved wooden overmantel with inset mirror; 'lincrusta' wallpaper by Morris and Co; 4 octagonal granite piers. The Staircase Hall (1860's, remodelled 1880's): large open well stone staircase and galleries with decoration of fleurons and paterae; decorative wrought iron balustrading with twisted columns; large ashlar fireplace with quatrefoil parapet and pinnacles and inset statues; large open timber lantern to the roof; stencilled walls. Drawing Room: panelled and stencilled ceiling and elaborate carved frieze now covered in later wall paper, late-nineteenth century Venetian marble fireplace. Billiard Room; panelling including fitted seatsand scoreboard; heated billiard table carved by James Plunket; inglenook fireplace; elaborate timber roof. The smaller rooms also contain many important fittings: parquet floors; stencilled walls; panelling, fireplaces and doors, carved or moulded in a Gothic style.

Chapel: Nave has quadripartite rib vaults, all stencilled, and blank arcading to the walls; the glass is very fine (designed by H.E. Wooldridge in the Nave) and made by Powell's; mosaic floors and walls of apse, by Salviati (designed by Wooldridge); fine decorative ironwork by Hart, Son, Pearce and Co. The bedrooms, service rooms and servants rooms all retain most of their original features including doors, doorcases, shutters, skirting boards and plaster ceilings. Many of the bedrooms retain their original early-nineteenth century 'Tudor' Gothic style decoration, especially their doorcases, doors and marble fireplaces. Most of the service rooms retain all their original fittings and cupboards; some with tiling.

Service court to rear has various outbuildings including a dog or hound cage with iron bars.

This important High Victorian country house survives remarkably well with almost all its original Victorian fittings. It also still retains much of its original hot-air heating and ventilation system.

SOURCES. The Builder, 10.II.1866. Country Life, 17.V.1902. N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England : North Somerset and Bristol, 1958. M. Girouard, The Victorian Country House, 1979).

Nederland Nederlande Netherlands Paises Bajos

Holanda

Limburg

Maastricht

Meuse - Maas

fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maastricht

www.holland.com/fr/tourisme/villes/maastricht-1.htm

The Pintail or Northern Pintail (Anas acuta) is a duck of open wetlands with wide geographic distribution that breeds in the northern areas of Europe, Asia and North America. It is migratory and winters south of its breeding range to the equator in northern sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South Asia. Unusually for a bird with such a large range, it has no geographical subspecies .

Mangalajodi, an extensive wetland spanning over 300 sq. km, primarily a freshwater swamp, spotted at the north-eastern fringe along the brackish water of the Chilka Lake in the Khurda district of Orissa, India. Mangalajodi is fed by a number of channels that crisscross through the sprawling vegetation and reed beds, comprised mostly of Nala, Tall Reed (Phragmites karka) and Hogla, Lesser Indian Reed Mace (Typha angustata). The wetland is a safe haven of around 236 species of birds (84 resident species), primarily the waterfowls, which attracts a number of winter migrants. Birds from as far as the Caspian Sea, Lake Baikal, Aral Sea and other remote parts of Russia, Kirghiz steppes of Mongolia, Central and southeast Asia, Ladakh and Himalayas winter here. Mangalajodi now host 200,000 waterfowls in the peak season (November to March) and has been designated the status of ‘Important Bird Area’ by Birdlife International for its importance as a significant global waterfowl habitat.

Few years back, hunters were very active at Mangalajodi, who used to travel around this wetland with loaded guns in search of migratory birds. After many battles and years of deliberation, the erstwhile poachers today actively patrol and protect their marshes from bird poachers. Born naturalists, they monitor the bird population, co-ordinate with the forest department, assist in research and take tourists around on birding trips into the marshes. The remarkable change from indiscriminate hunting to ardent conservation took place due to the work of the NGO, Wild Orissa with the active support from Chilika Development Authority, Department of Forest and Environment, and the leadership shown by some of the village youth in forming the Sri Sri Mahavir Pakshi Suraksha Samiti (Bird Protection Committee) in 2000. The Samiti has begun a fledgling ecotourism initiative; Wild Orissa has trained some youth as birding guides, while Chilika Development Authority has funded a watchtower and visitors’ centre.

How do you convert a village of hardened poachers into committed conservationists? Read:

Mangalajodi — A Village Of Bird Protectors In Orissa

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan

Milan (Italian: Milano) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome, with the city proper having a population of 1,372,810 while its metropolitan city has a population of 3,245,308. Its continuously built-up urban area (that stretches beyond the boundaries of the Metropolitan City of Milan) has a population estimated to be about 5,270,000 over 1,891 square kilometres (730 square miles). The wider Milan metropolitan area, known as Greater Milan, is a polycentric metropolitan region that extends over central Lombardy and eastern Piedmont and which counts an estimated total population of 7.5 million, making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and the 54th largest in the world. Milan served as capital of the Western Roman Empire from 286 to 402 and the Duchy of Milan during the medieval period and early modern age.

Milan is considered a leading alpha global city, with strengths in the field of the art, commerce, design, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, services, research and tourism. Its business district hosts Italy's stock exchange and the headquarters of national and international banks and companies. In terms of GDP, it has the third-largest economy among European cities after Paris and London, but the fastest in growth among the three, and is the wealthiest among European non-capital cities. Milan is considered part of the Blue Banana and one of the "Four Motors for Europe".

The city has been recognized as one of the world's four fashion capitals thanks to several international events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Furniture Fair, which are currently among the world's biggest in terms of revenue, visitors and growth. It hosted the Universal Exposition in 1906 and 2015. The city hosts numerous cultural institutions, academies and universities, with 11% of the national total enrolled students. Milan is the destination of 8 million overseas visitors every year, attracted by its museums and art galleries that boast some of the most important collections in the world, including major works by Leonardo da Vinci. The city is served by a large number of luxury hotels and is the fifth-most starred in the world by Michelin Guide. The city is home to two of Europe's most successful football teams, A.C. Milan and F.C. Internazionale, and one of Italy's main basketball teams, Olimpia Milano.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milan_Cathedral

Milan Cathedral (Italian: Duomo di Milano; Lombard: Domm de Milan) is the cathedral church of Milan, Lombardy, Italy. Dedicated to St Mary of the Nativity (Santa Maria Nascente), it is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan, currently Archbishop Mario Delpini. The cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete. It is the largest church in Italy (the larger St. Peter's Basilica is in the State of Vatican City), the third largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_d%27Agrate

Marco d'Agrate (c. 1504 – c. 1574) was an Italian sculptor of the Renaissance period, active mainly in Lombardy.

He was born to a family of sculptors, and collaborated with his brother Gian Francesco in a monument to Sforzino Sforza found in Basilica of Santa Maria della Steccata in Parma. Also worked on the tomb of Giovanni del Conte in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Milan, and for the facade of the Certosa of Pavia.

His best known work is the statue of St Bartholomew Flayed (1562) found in the transept of the Cathedral of Milan. He signed it with a line that states: I was not made by Praxiteles but by Marco d'Agrate.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartholomew_the_Apostle

Bartholomew (Ancient Greek: Βαρθολομαῖος, translit. Bartholomaîos; Latin: Bartholomaeus; Coptic: ⲃⲁⲣⲑⲟⲗⲟⲙⲉⲟⲥ) was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. He has also been identified as Nathanael or Nathaniel, who appears in the Gospel of John when introduced to Jesus by Philip (who would also become an apostle),[Jn 1:43-51] although many modern commentators reject the identification of Nathanael with Bartholomew.

According to the Synaxarium of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, Bartholomew's martyrdom is commemorated on the first day of the Coptic calendar (i.e. the first day of the month of Thout), which currently falls on September 11 (corresponding to August 29 in the Julian calendar). Eastern Christianity honours him on June 11 and the Roman Catholic Church honours him on August 24. The Church of England and other Anglican churches also honor him on August 24.

The Armenian Apostolic Church honours Saint Bartholomew along with Saint Thaddeus as its patron saints.

Bartholomew English for Bar Talmai (Greek: Βαρθολομαῖος, transliterated "Bartholomaios" in Greek) comes from the Aramaic: בר-תולמי‎ bar-Tolmay native to Israel "son of Talmai" or "son of the furrows". Bartholomew is listed among the Twelve Apostles of Jesus in the three synoptic gospels: Matthew,[10:1–4] Mark,[3:13–19] and Luke,[6:12–16] and also appears as one of the witnesses of the Ascension[Acts 1:4,12,13]; on each occasion, however, he is named in the company of Philip. He is not mentioned by the name Bartholomew in the Gospel of John, nor are there any early acta, the earliest being written by a pseudepigraphical writer, Pseudo-Abdias, who assumed the identity of Abdias of Babylon and to whom is attributed the Saint-Thierry (Reims, Bibl. mun., ms 142) and Pseudo-Abdias manuscripts.

In art Bartholomew is most commonly depicted with a beard and curly hair at the time of his martyrdom. According to legends he was skinned alive and beheaded so is often depicted holding his flayed skin or the curved flensing knife with which he was skinned.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta,_Georgia

Augusta, officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Georgia's second-largest city after Atlanta, Augusta is located in the Piedmont section of the state.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Augusta–Richmond County had a 2017 estimated population of 197,166, not counting the unconsolidated cities of Blythe and Hephzibah. It is the 123rd largest city in the United States. The process of consolidation between the City of Augusta and Richmond County began with a 1995 referendum in the two jurisdictions. The merger was completed on July 1, 1996. Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta metropolitan area, situated in both Georgia and South Carolina on both sides of the Savannah River. In 2017 it had an estimated population of 600,151, making it the second-largest metro area in the state. It is the 93rd largest metropolitan area in the United States.

Augusta was established in 1736 and is named for Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (1719–1772), the bride of Frederick, Prince of Wales and the mother of the British monarch George III. During the American Civil War, Augusta housed the principal Confederate powder works. Augusta's warm climate made it a major resort town of the Eastern United States in the early and mid-20th century. Internationally, Augusta is best known for hosting The Masters golf tournament each spring. The Masters brings over 200,000 visitors from across the world to the Augusta National Golf Club. Membership at Augusta National is widely considered to be the most exclusive in the sport of golf across the world.

Augusta lies approximately two hours east of downtown Atlanta by car via I-20. The city is home to Fort Gordon, a major U.S. Army base. In 2016, it was announced that the new National Cyber Security Headquarters would be based in Augusta, bringing as many as 10,000 cyber security specialists to the Fort Gordon area.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springfield,_Illinois

Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 116,250 at the 2010 U.S. Census, which makes it the state's sixth most-populous city, the second largest outside of the Chicago metropolitan area (after Rockford), and the largest in central Illinois. As of 2019, the city's population was estimated to have decreased to 114,230, with just over 211,700 residents living in the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Sangamon County and the adjacent Menard County.

Present-day Springfield was settled by European Americans in the late 1810s, around the time Illinois became a state. The most famous historic resident was Abraham Lincoln, who lived in Springfield from 1837 until 1861, when he went to the White House as President of the United States. Major tourist attractions include multiple sites connected with Lincoln including the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Lincoln-Herndon Law Offices State Historic Site, and the Lincoln Tomb at Oak Ridge Cemetery.

The city lies in a valley and plain near the Sangamon River. Lake Springfield, a large artificial lake owned by the City Water, Light & Power company (CWLP), supplies the city with recreation and drinking water. Weather is fairly typical for middle latitude locations, with four distinct seasons, including, hot summers and cold winters. Spring and summer weather is like that of most midwestern cities; severe thunderstorms may occur. Tornadoes hit the Springfield area in 1957 and 2006.

The city has a mayor–council form of government and governs the Capital Township. The government of the state of Illinois is based in Springfield. State government institutions include the Illinois General Assembly, the Illinois Supreme Court and the Office of the Governor of Illinois. There are three public and three private high schools in Springfield. Public schools in Springfield are operated by District No. 186. Springfield's economy is dominated by government jobs, plus the related lobbyists and firms that deal with the state and county governments and justice system, and health care and medicine.

Source: www.visitspringfieldillinois.com/BlogDetails/Street_Art

The concept came to life during an event that started September 2017, to help raise funds to benefit downtown revitalization. It’s a pop up art event in where you can watch artists compete to create a mural in one day and unveil it during a reception party that night. Each year the murals change, making this a great spot to visit and wander through and take pics or the amazing artwork!

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston

Boston, officially the City of Boston, is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the Northeastern United States. The city boundaries encompass an area of about 48.4 sq mi (125 km2) and a population of 675,647 as of 2020. The city is the economic and cultural anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area known as Greater Boston, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) home to 4,941,632 people as of 2020, ranking as the eleventh-largest MSA in the country. A broader combined statistical area (CSA), generally corresponding to the commuting area and including Worcester, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island, is home to approximately 8.2 million people, making it the seventh-most populous in the United States.

Boston is one of the nation's oldest municipalities, founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by Puritan settlers from the English town of the same name. During the American Revolution and the nation's founding, Boston was the location of several key events, including the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the hanging of Paul Revere's lantern signal in Old North Church, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the siege of Boston. Following American independence from Great Britain, the city continued to play an important role as a port, manufacturing hub, and center for American education and culture. The city has expanded beyond the original peninsula through land reclamation and municipal annexation. Its rich history attracts many tourists, with Faneuil Hall alone drawing more than 20 million visitors per year. Boston's many firsts include the United States' first public park (Boston Common, 1634), the first public school (Boston Latin School, 1635), the first subway system (Tremont Street subway, 1897), and the first large public library (Boston Public Library, 1848).

In the 21st century, Boston has emerged as a global leader in higher education and academic research. Greater Boston's many colleges and universities include Harvard University and MIT, both located in suburban Cambridge and both routinely included among the world's most highly ranked universities. The city is also a national leader in scientific research, law, medicine, engineering, and business. With nearly 5,000 startup companies, the city is considered a global pioneer in innovation and entrepreneurship. Boston's economic base also includes finance, professional and business services, biotechnology, information technology, and government activities. Households in the city claim the highest average rate of philanthropy in the United States. Boston businesses and institutions rank among the top in the country for environmental sustainability and new investment.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_International_Airport

General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport (IATA: BOS, ICAO: KBOS, FAA LID: BOS), also known as Boston Logan International Airport and commonly as Boston Logan, Logan Airport or simply Logan, is an international airport that is located mostly in East Boston and partially in Winthrop, Massachusetts. It opened in 1923, covers 2,384 acres (965 ha), has six runways and four passenger terminals, and employs an estimated 16,000 people. It is the largest airport in both the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the New England region in terms of passenger volume and cargo handling as well as the busiest airport in the Northeastern United States outside the New York metropolitan area. The airport saw 42 million passengers in 2019, the most in its history. It is named after General Edward Lawrence Logan, a 20th-century war hero native to Boston.

Logan has non-stop service to destinations throughout the United States and the world. BOS is the northeastern hub for Cape Air and is the secondary transatlantic hub for Delta Air Lines, serving several destinations in Europe. It is also an operating base for JetBlue. American Airlines and United Airlines also carry out significant operations from the airport, including daily transcontinental flights, as well as daily flights to London-Heathrow. All of the major U.S. air carriers offer flights from Boston to all or the majority of their primary and secondary hubs.

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis"

(Massachusetts) "ماساتشوستس" "麻萨诸塞州" "मैसाचुसेट्स" "マサチューセッツ" "매사추세츠 주" "Массачусетс"

(Boston) "بوسطن" "波士顿" "बोस्टन" "ボストン" "보스턴" "Бостон"

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis

St. Louis is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers, on the western bank of the latter. As of 2020, the city proper had a population of around 301,500, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which extends into Illinois, had an estimated population of over 2.8 million, making it the largest metropolitan area in Missouri, the second-largest in Illinois, the seventh-largest in the Great Lakes Megalopolis, and the 20th-largest in the United States.

Before European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. St. Louis was founded on February 14, 1764, by French fur traders Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent, Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, who named it for Louis IX of France. In 1764, following France's defeat in the Seven Years' War, the area was ceded to Spain. In 1800, it was retroceded to France, which sold it three years later to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase; the city was then the point of embarkation for the Corps of Discovery on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In the 19th century, St. Louis became a major port on the Mississippi River; from 1870 until the 1920 census, it was the fourth-largest city in the country. It separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. St. Louis had a brief run as a world-class city in the early 20th century. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics.

A "Gamma" global city with a metropolitan GDP of more than $160 billion in 2017, metropolitan St. Louis has a diverse economy with strengths in the service, manufacturing, trade, transportation, and tourism industries. It is home to nine of the ten Fortune 500 companies based in Missouri. Major companies headquartered or with significant operations in the city include Ameren Corporation, Peabody Energy, Nestlé Purina PetCare, Anheuser-Busch, Wells Fargo Advisors, Stifel Financial, Spire, Inc., MilliporeSigma, FleishmanHillard, Square, Inc., U.S. Bank, Anthem BlueCross and Blue Shield, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Centene Corporation, and Express Scripts.

Major research universities include Saint Louis University and Washington University in St. Louis. The Washington University Medical Center in the Central West End neighborhood hosts an agglomeration of medical and pharmaceutical institutions, including Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

St. Louis has three professional sports teams: the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League, and the St. Louis BattleHawks of the newly formed XFL. In 2019, the city was awarded a Major League Soccer franchise, St. Louis City SC, which is expected to begin play upon the completion of a 22,500-seat stadium in the city's Downtown West neighborhood in 2023. Among the city's notable sights is the 630-foot (192 m) Gateway Arch in the downtown area. St. Louis is also home to the St. Louis Zoo and the Missouri Botanical Garden, which has the second-largest herbarium in North America.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_Louis

Paint Louis is an annual global community event happening over the American holiday Labor Day bringing together people practicing all four elements of Hip hop including Graffiti, Breakdancing, Rapping and DJs to St. Louis for three days of creation and performance. The event started informally in 1995 as a "graffiti jam" and became more formalized in 1997 as noted with its 20th anniversary celebration in 2017. One of the originators, if not the man outright credited with the genesis of Paint Louis, is Stun1.

The event is well known as the largest gathering of Graffiti writers who have permission to legally paint the 1.9 mile Guinness Records deemed "longest mural in the world", the Mississippi River flood wall, along the Mississippi river all south of the Gateway Arch.

Source: racstl.org/public-art/the-mural-mile-floodwall/

The Mural Mile is located along the Riverfront between Victor and Chouteau Avenues, south of the Gateway Arch. Started in 1997, the project became an annual event held every labor day weekend. Organized by the organization Paint Louis, more than 250 graffiti artists from around the country came to St. Louis to add to this mural on the Mississippi River floodwall.

Graffiti artists from across the nation periodically assemble for a local event known as “Paint Louis,” during which they each leave their artistic mark on an industrial wall or structure that has been designated for the task. After the event has finished, paint-overs become increasingly common, and the piece takes on additional lives and identities as the original work slowly disappears.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia

Philadelphia, commonly referred to as Philly, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the second-most populous city in the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Philadelphia is known for its extensive contributions to United States history, especially the American Revolution, and served as the nation's capital until 1800. It maintains contemporary influence in business and industry, culture, sports, and music. Philadelphia is the nation's sixth-most populous city with a population of 1,603,797 as of the 2020 census and is the urban core of the larger Delaware Valley (or Philadelphia metropolitan area), the nation's seventh-largest and one of the world's largest metropolitan regions consisting of 6.245 million residents in the metropolitan statistical area and 7.366 million residents in its combined statistical area.

Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, an English Quaker and advocate of religious freedom. The city served as the capital of the Pennsylvania Colony during the British colonial era and went on to play a historic and vital role as the central meeting place for the nation's founding fathers whose plans and actions in Philadelphia ultimately inspired the American Revolution and the nation's independence following the Revolutionary War. Philadelphia hosted the First Continental Congress in 1774, preserved the Liberty Bell, and hosted the Second Continental Congress during which the founders signed the Declaration of Independence, which historian Joseph Ellis has described as "the most potent and consequential words in American history". Once the Revolutionary War commenced, the Battle of Germantown and the siege of Fort Mifflin were fought within Philadelphia's city limits. The U.S. Constitution was later ratified in Philadelphia at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. Philadelphia remained the nation's largest city until 1790, when it was surpassed by New York City, and it served as the nation's first capital from May 10, 1775, until December 12, 1776, and on four subsequent occasions during and following the American Revolution, including from 1790 to 1800 during the construction of the new national capital of Washington, D.C.

With 18 four-year universities and colleges, Philadelphia is one of the nation's leading centers for higher education and academic research. As of 2018, the Philadelphia metropolitan area was the state's largest and nation's ninth-largest metropolitan economy with a gross metropolitan product of US$444.1 billion. The city is home to five Fortune 500 corporate headquarters as of 2022. As of 2023, metropolitan Philadelphia ranks among the top five U.S. venture capital centers, facilitated by its proximity to New York City's entrepreneurial and financial ecosystems. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange, owned by Nasdaq since 2008, is the nation's oldest stock exchange and a global leader in options trading. 30th Street Station, the city's primary rail station, is the third-busiest Amtrak hub in the nation, and the city's multimodal transport and logistics infrastructure, includes Philadelphia International Airport, and the rapidly-growing PhilaPort seaport. A migration pattern has been established from New York City to Philadelphia by residents opting for a large city with relative proximity and a lower cost of living.

Philadelphia is a national cultural center, hosting more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other city in the nation. Fairmount Park, when combined with adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the same watershed, is 2,052 acres (830 ha), representing one of the nation's largest and the world's 45th-largest urban park. The city is known for its arts, culture, cuisine, and colonial and Revolution-era history; in 2016, it attracted 42 million domestic tourists who spent $6.8 billion, representing $11 billion in economic impact to the city and its surrounding Pennsylvania counties.

With five professional sports teams and one of the nation's most loyal fan bases, Philadelphia is often ranked as the nation's best city for professional sports fans. The city has a culturally and philanthropically active LGBTQ+ community. Philadelphia also has played an immensely influential historic and ongoing role in the development and evolution of American music, especially R&B, soul, and rock.

Philadelphia is a city of many firsts, including the nation's first library (1731), hospital (1751), medical school (1765), national capital (1774), university (by some accounts) (1779), stock exchange (1790), zoo (1874), and business school (1881). Philadelphia contains 67 National Historic Landmarks, including Independence Hall. From the city's 17th century founding through the present, Philadelphia has been the birthplace or home to an extensive number of prominent and influential Americans. In 2021, Time magazine named Philadelphia one of the world's greatest 100 places.

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis"

(Pennsylvania) "بنسلفانيا" "宾夕法尼亚州" "Pennsylvanie" "पेंसिल्वेनिया" "ペンシルベニア" "펜실베니아" "Пенсильвания" "Pensilvania"

(Philadelphia) "فيلادلفيا" "费城" "Philadelphie" "फिलाडेल्फिया" "フィラデルフィア" "필라델피아" "Филадельфия" "Filadelfia"

Gene Snyder United States Courthouse -

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Snyder_United_States_Courthouse

United States Post Office, Court House and Custom House

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Gene Snyder US Courthouse.jpg

View from the southwest

Location601 W. Broadway, Louisville, Kentucky

Coordinates38°14′51″N 85°45′45″WCoordinates: 38°14′51″N 85°45′45″W

Built1931-32; 1936

ArchitectJames A. Wetmore; Fike and Cook Co.

Architectural styleClassical Revival

NRHP reference #99000334[1]

Added to NRHPMarch 18, 1999

The Gene Snyder U.S. Courthouse and Custom House, also known as United States Post Office, Court House and Custom House, is a historic courthouse, custom house, and post office located at Louisville in Jefferson County, Kentucky. It is the courthouse for the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places under the "United States Post Office, Court House and Custom House" name.

Contents [hide]

1Building history

2Architecture

3See also

4References

5Attribution

Building history[edit]

Construction of the Post Office, Court House and Custom House, as it was known historically, came at the end of a prosperous decade for the city of Louisville. The largest city in Kentucky, Louisville played a major role in the regional manufacturing and shipping industries, fostering an increasing population and urban development. New building projects highlighted the city's growth and prosperity, and the planned construction of the new federal building was another indication of Louisville's rising prominence. The new federal building was constructed from 1931 to 1932, under the Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury Department James A. Wetmore.[2]

The building was among the first recipients of artwork commissioned by the Treasury Relief Art Project, that employed painters and sculptors to incorporate art within the interiors of federal buildings nationwide. In 1935, artist Frank Weathers Long, a Kentucky native, was commissioned to paint ten murals depicting regional themes of commerce, agriculture, and sport. In 1936, with a growing need for more offices and courtrooms, the PWA also funded the addition of the sixth floor.[2] The interior of the building was renovated in 1950, and in 1958 the sixth story was damaged by a fire, prompting additional renovations.

In 1986, the building was renamed in honor of Marion Gene Snyder. Born in Louisville in 1928, Snyder was a prominent figure in Kentucky politics, serving several public offices, including U.S. Congressional Representative from 1963 to 1965 and 1967 to 1987.[2]

File:Gov.gsa.historic.louisville.ogv

An American Classic: Gene Snyder U.S. Courthouse and Custom House, Louisville, Kentucky[3]

In 1986, the Post Office moved out, and Congress appropriated funds for a four-year renovation project to modernize the interiors and restore the key historic spaces on the first and second floors. As a result of the project, the building received numerous stewardship awards, including the 1997/98 and 1998/99 Office Building of the Year, Historic Building Category from the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA); BOMA's 1999/2000 International Award for Government Building of the Year, Historic Building Category; and the 2001 Modernization Project award from Buildings Magazine. In 1999, the Gene Snyder U.S. Courthouse and Custom House was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[2]

Architecture[edit]

The Gene Snyder U.S. Courthouse and Custom House is an excellent example of Classical Revival architecture, a style that federal government architects embraced during the early twentieth century as a method of symbolizing democratic ideals of government and power. More specifically, the building was inspired by the architecture of the U.S. Treasury Department Building in Washington, DC, designed a century earlier. Both buildings prominently feature a limestone facade composed of a long colonnade of tall, colossal columns raised on a ground-story base to an imposing and impressive effect. Unlike the Treasury Building, the Courthouse was constructed not of solid masonry, but of modern materials, including concrete and steel columns and beams, with Bedford limestone for the exterior veneer.[2]

Encompassing an entire city block, the rectangular building rises six stories (the fifth floor is concealed on the exterior behind the limestone entablature). The facade (south elevation) facing Broadway Street features a row of 18 engaged Corinthian columns with fluted shafts poised upon a rusticated base of arched windows aligned with the fenestration above. The colonnade is framed at each end by projecting pavilions, each with four columns and crowning pediments. The secondary east and west elevations are composed of 12 colossal Corinthian columns to match those of the facade. A continuous limestone entablature, composed of an architrave, frieze, dentil molding, and cornice, and a balustraded parapet cap the south, east, and west elevations. Above this, the unadorned smooth stone walls of the sixth story are subordinate to the articulated rhythm of the lower stories. The two primary entrances are recessed within the tripartite arches at the ends of the facade, and are accessed by stairs flanked by original bronze and glass light standards with claw feet and fluted columns. The glass and bronze doors are original, and retain their decorative surrounds and elliptical transoms containing bronze grilles.[2]

Post office mural

The building's interior is primarily composed of individual offices connected by central corridors, with the exception of the main lobby on the first floor. Originally designed to provide space for post office patrons, the lobby is a grand space, with an arcade extending the length of the building. The lobby is finely detailed with original pink, green, and beige marble flooring with geometric insets, marble veneer for the walls and pilasters, and a pair of marble Doric order columns at each end. Paintings by Frank Weathers Long embellish the lobby walls, with murals titled Stock Farming and Agriculture in the east lobby and Ohio River Traffic and Coal Mining in the west lobby.[2]

The two main stairwells feature marble staircases with wrought-iron balusters and floral designs inset into wood handrails. Adjacent elevators retain their original bronze doors, displaying decorative medallions and Greek fretwork. Above the elevator doors are bronze acanthus-leaf moldings and lunettes with murals depicting postal delivery themes, also painted by Long.[2]

The second floor includes two original federal courtrooms designed with coffered wood ceilings, marble wainscoting, decorative pilasters, and arched windows.[2]

The law library features elegant details including Doric fluted, wood pilasters and an original plaster ceiling decorated with Greek fret band and wave molding.[2]

From 1986 to 1990, GSA launched an extensive renovation project. The office spaces were remodeled with modern amenities and contemporary interior design, including new floor and wall finishes. At the same time, original finishes and fixtures in the historic courtrooms and lobbies were rehabilitated and restored to their 1932 condition.[2]

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Air_Force_Base

Scott Air Force Base (IATA: BLV, ICAO: KBLV, FAA LID: BLV) is a United States Air Force base in St. Clair County, Illinois, near Belleville and O'Fallon, 17 miles east-southeast of downtown St. Louis. Scott Field was one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established after the United States entered World War I in April 1917. It is headquarters of Air Mobility Command (AMC), and is also the headquarters of the U.S. Transportation Command, a Unified Combatant Command that coordinates transportation across all the services.

The base is operated by the 375th Air Mobility Wing (375 AMW) and is also home to the Air Force Reserve Command's 932d Airlift Wing (932 AW) and the Illinois Air National Guard's 126th Air Refueling Wing (126 ARW), the latter two units being operationally gained by AMC.

The base currently employs 13,000 people, 5,100 civilians with 5,500 active-duty Air Force, and an additional 2,400 Air National Guard and Reserve personnel. It was announced in June 2014 that two new cybersecurity squadrons will be added to the three currently on base.

Its airfield is also used by civilian aircraft, with civilian operations at the base referring to the facility as MidAmerica St. Louis Airport. MidAmerica has operated as a Joint Use Airport since beginning operations in November 1997. Allegiant Air, the only commercial airline with scheduled flights at the airport, pulled out of the airport on January 3, 2009, but now has multiple nonstop destinations.

Additional Foreign Language Tags:

(United States) "الولايات المتحدة" "Vereinigte Staaten" "アメリカ" "美国" "미국" "Estados Unidos" "États-Unis"

(Illinois) "الينوي" "伊利诺伊州" "इलिनोइस" "イリノイ" "일리노이" "Иллинойс"

(Scott Air Force Base) "قاعدة سكوت الجوية" "斯科特空军基地" "Base aérienne de Scott" "स्कॉट एयर फोर्स बेस" "スコット空軍基地" "스콧 공군 기지" "База ВВС Скотт" "Base de la Fuerza Aérea Scott"

The Avenue des Champs-Élysées is a street in Paris. With its cinemas, cafés, luxury specialty shops and clipped horse-chestnut trees, the Champs-Élysées is arguably the most famous street – and one of the most expensive strips of real estate – in the world. Several French monuments are also on the street, including the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la Concorde. The name is French for Elysian Fields, the place of the blessed dead in Greek mythology. Source: en.wikipedia.org

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

The 8th Arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements (administrative districts) of the capital city of France.

Situated on the right bank of the River Seine and centred on the Champs-Élysées, the 8th is, together with the 1st, 9th, 16th and 17th arrondissement, one of Paris's main business districts.

According to the 1999 census, it was the place of employment of more people than any other single arrondissement of the capital. It is also the location of many places of interest, among them the Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe and the Place de la Concorde, as well as the Élysée Palace, official residence of the President of France. Source: en.wikipedia.org

Vicksburg, Mississippi (est. 1825, pop. (2013) 23,542) • MS Delta

• 3-story, stone Second Italian Renaissance Revival style bldg. w/ hand-carved limestone & marble steps • designed by Louisiana-born Jewish-American architect, Leon C. Weiss (1882-1953) • sometimes mistakenly attributed to Vicksburg architect William Stanton (1840-1908) [photo], Confederate war vet & designer of the original (1887) B'nai B'rith Literary Stock Club at Cherry & Crawford Sts., which burned in 1915 • the present structure resembles Weiss's 1908 Elk's Club building (demolished, 1968) —MS Preservation

• Weiss became a partner at New Orleans architectural firm, Weiss, Dreyfus & Seiferth • political connections with Governor Huey "The Kingfish" Long resulted in a portfolio of public buildings that included Louisiana's skyscraper State Capitol • following his conviction in a 1940 trial which critics claimed was tainted by anti-semitism & "guilt by association," Weiss was imprisoned for fraudulent use of the US Mail • he went back to work after his 1952 release, died a year later

• this building served as a social club for Vicksburg's growing Jewish community, which had provided ~80 members by the 1890s • renowned from Memphis to New Orleans for its swimming pool, meeting rooms, ballroom & library • banquet hall could accommodate 500 guests

"The club and club house is known all over this part of the Mississippi valley as the center of the most lavish, yet refined, hospitality, while its cuisine under the direction of its accomplished caterers, past and present, is no less celebrated," —Picturesque Vicksburg, 1891

• with Vicksburg's Jewish population dwindling, the bldg. was sold to the City in 1967 • housed the Police Department for 35 yrs. • restored to by mayor Laurence Leyens, a descendant of an early Jewish Vicksburg family —Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South, Marcie Cohen Ferris, 2005

• now called B'nai B'rith Literary Club (aka BB Club) • houses Story Cook Favorites catering company which leases out the building's lavish rooms for various events

• Jews in Mississippi —Mississippi History Now

• The End of a Deep South Way of Life —BBC

• Anshe Chesed Cemetery —National Park Service

• As Numbers Fall, Jews Hope to Save Cemetery —Vicksburg Post

• designated Mississippi Landmark, 1988 • Uptown Vicksburg Historic District, National Register 93000850, 1993

Tombstone of Frederick "Big Daddy" Gardiner and his wife.He was the first chairman of the Metropolitan Toronto council. Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto, Canada. Spring evening, 2020. Pentax K1 II.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Gardiner

Frederick Goldwin "Fred" Gardiner, QC (January 21, 1895 – August 22, 1983) was a Canadian politician, lawyer and businessman. He was the first chairman of Metropolitan Toronto council, the governing body for the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, from 1953 to 1961. As Metro Chairman, Gardiner, nicknamed "Big Daddy", was a staunch advocate of growth and expansion and was responsible for many capital works projects, including the Gardiner Expressway (named for him) and the Don Valley Parkway.

Gardiner, after graduating first in his law class, became a well-known criminal lawyer. He invested in various businesses, including consumer credit, sawmills, manufacturing and mining. At one time he was the largest share-holder in the Toronto-Dominion Bank.

Gardiner was a prominent member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in both federal and provincial politics, organizing conventions and developing policy in the 1930s and 1940s. He was instrumental in the updating of the Conservative Party as it was then known to the Progressive Conservative Party to acknowledge its change in policy to incorporate progressive values. He was a close adviser to Ontario PC premiers George Drew and Leslie Frost.

Early life

Fred Gardiner was born on January 21, 1895 in Toronto, one of three children born to David and Victoria Gardiner, the others being Myrtle and Samuel. David Gardiner was born in October 1854 in county Monaghan, Ireland, one of ten children. David emigrated to Toronto in 1874, first working as a labourer, then as a carpenter, eventually working as an attendant at the Toronto Asylum for the Insane, and a longer-term position as a guard at the Central Prison on Strachan Avenue. While working at the Asylum, he met Victoria Robertson from Port Hope, Ontario. The two married in April 1888. Son Samuel was born in 1893, Fred in 1895 and daughter Myrtle in 1899. The family lived on Arthur Street (today's Dundas Street West), near Euclid Street in the west-end of Toronto, before settling at 199½ Euclid in 1911.

As a child, Fred, known as Ted, assisted his father, who was a landlord for several properties in the Arthur-Euclid area. Fred also delivered telegrams by bicycle on holidays and weekends. Fred attended Grace Street School, (where he had to repeat fourth grade) until 1909 when he started to attend Parkdale Collegiate Institute on Jameson Avenue. It was in the third year at Parkdale that Gardiner started to develop his competitiveness, a trait he would use for material gain and political ends later in life.

In 1911, Gardiner first became involved in politics. His father, a member of the Loyal Orange Lodge, was also a member of the Conservative Party. Fred first helped out on a campaign for the board of education. In December 1911, he worked on the campaign for E. W. J. Owens in the provincial election.

In 1913, Gardiner entered the University of Toronto, in general arts, transferring in the second year to honours political science. Gardiner paid for his tuition out of his own savings. Gardiner joined the varsity rugby team in 1914, a year that the team won the national championship. Gardiner had to drop out of the varsity team when he did not have enough money for the fees and his father refused to pay. Gardiner worked hard at his studies and he won the political economy department's Alexander Mackenzie Medal in 1916.

After his third year, Gardiner enlisted in the militia in the spring of 1916. He signed on with the Depot Regiment of the Canadian Mounted Rifles. The Regiment was disbanded in 1917, but Gardiner was transferred to an infantry battalion in the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He took an officer's course at Reading University and was assigned as an officer with the Royal Flying Corps, serving as a flight instructor. Gardiner only saw action after September 1918, piloting a Handley-Page night bomber on several missions.

While serving in the army, Gardiner developed a lifelong interest in gambling, becoming proficient at cards and dice; he played poker on the return voyage after the war, doubling his $1,500 stake. He also developed a taste for Scotch whisky.

Because of his service in the war, Gardiner was given an honours degree by the University, and he did not have to finish his fourth year of studies. Gardiner enrolled at Osgoode Hall in law, where returning soldiers could skip the first year, and take the second year in one summer semester. Gardiner was not impeded by the accelerated schedule, and he placed first in the class of 1920. He received the Chancellor Van Koughnet scholarship, a $400 cash prize and the Law Society's gold medal. Gardiner treasured the gold medal, and kept it on his desk for the length of his career.

Gardiner used most of his $400 prize to buy an engagement ring for Audrey Seaman, a railway clerk and daughter of the proprietor of a prosperous flooring company. Gardiner had known her since 1913. They married in October 1921. They had two children, William Warren and Anne. Anne would later marry a law partner of Gardiner's, J. B. Conlin.

Early career

Gardiner started his law career with Crooks, Roebuck and Parkinson. Gardiner turned down a partnership with the firm because Arthur Roebuck (a future attorney-general of Ontario) was too liberal, even though Roebuck took it as a personal slight. Gardiner left the practice in 1921 and joined Commercial Credit Company of Canada, as a legal associate. In 1923, Gardiner returned to law practice partnering with Harry Parkinson. The firm added H. Fred Parkinson and Donald H. Rowan to become the firm of Parkinson, Gardiner and Willis. Gardiner took criminal cases, litigation and continued to handle legal work with Commercial Credit. Gardiner attained the title of King's Counsel in 1938.

By 1945, Gardiner was considered one of the top half-dozen trial lawyers in the province and he commanded high fees. Gardiner was perceived as a stubborn and sometimes acid-tongued negotiator, and not a man to be crossed lightly as an opponent. Gardiner worked hard at research and marshalled detailed evidence with self-assurance.

Gardiner started investing in 1925, starting with $10,000, invested in industrial and mining stocks. He sold out in 1929 in time to avoid the crash, holding on only to shares of Noranda Mines. After the crash, he invested all of his capital in the Bank of Toronto, which became through merger today's Toronto-Dominion Bank. Gardiner also accepted stocks as payment for his legal fees and he amassed investments in a diverse number of companies. He was involved in real estate, metal stamping, manufacturing, forest products, aluminum products and car rentals. He partnered with Sam Steinberg in Drayton Motors, a large used car dealership. He also partnered with Steinberg in Sage Enterprises, managing hotels.

Gardiner began chartering aircraft for weekends of fishing. He continued to gamble, losing $6,000 in one night in the late 1930s. Gardiner's drinking increased until 1940, when Audrey convinced him to give it up. He did not drink again until 1949, and when he started, he drank more moderately. Gardiner also lessened his gambling and took up golf. He also developed an interest in growing red roses, for which he won horticultural prizes. He also assembled a collection of landscape and portrait paintings, and collected modern and antique silver artifacts.

Entry into politics

It was after the provincial election of 1934, when the Conservatives were defeated, that Gardiner started to become more involved in politics in the Conservative party, and politics in Forest Hill, then a small and affluent suburb of Toronto. He joined the Conservative Businessman's Association in 1934. He first ran for deputy reeve of Forest Hill Village council in 1935. In his first campaign he spent $800, when candidates normally spent $200. He went door-to-door canvassing and received the endorsement of past reeve Andrew Hazlett. A Jewish car dealer named Ben Sadowski, whom Gardiner had befriended at Parkdale and intervened in a fight, canvassed for Gardiner among Jewish families of the area. Gardiner won the post by 1,211 to his challenger's 919 votes.[16] Gardiner would go on to serve as reeve of the Village of Forest Hill for twelve years. In 1946, his final year as reeve, Gardiner was also Warden of the County of York, a title similar in some respects to his later chairmanship of Metropolitan Toronto.

In 1936, Gardiner started getting more involved in Conservative politics. He backed W. Earl Rowe for Conservative leader of Ontario. Rowe would lose the 1937 election to Mitchell Hepburn, and eventually give up the post in 1938. Gardiner's outward role in the election was to give speeches. One of Gardiner's first speeches was a rally for Leslie Frost, older brother of Cecil Frost, who organized the 1937 campaign. Cecil Frost and Gardiner would become the president and first vice-president, respectively, of the party in 1938. Gardiner, who had decided not to run for provincial politics in 1938, also chose not to run for federal politics in the 1939 federal election, although the South York nomination was his, if he wanted it. Gardiner chose not to run, because thought the Conservatives would remain in opposition and Gardiner would "sit in the back row of the Commons and wait for the boss to tell me when to make a speech."

Gardiner's largest role in the Conservative Party would be in reforming the party's policies to be more progressive. Gardiner was instrumental in the 1942 Port Hope policy conference, chairing the discussions of the labour committee. Gardiner came out in favour of legal safeguards for collective bargaining and uniform and general standards in wages and working conditions, including support for a 'closed shop' in collective agreements. The Port Hope policies were adopted at the Winnipeg national leadership convention in Winnipeg in December 1942, giving the party a systematically drafted platform. Gardiner again chaired the labour committee and acted in favour of reformed social security, as lieutenant of the resolution and policy committee. At the convention, the party would choose John Bracken as leader, and change its name to the Progressive Conservative Party.

Gardiner would continue his work inside the PC party for the rest of the 1940s, chairing the resolution and policy committee himself at the 1948 federal leadership convention. Gardiner turned down several chances to run provincially and federally. Gardiner chose instead to concentrate on his own career in business. "There is nothing you can do in politics that makes the cash register ring." Gardiner was even considered to run for the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party (and therefore provincial premier) in 1948, but chose to support Leslie Frost instead. Gardiner would become one of Frost's closest political confidantes and advisers.

Metropolitan Toronto

By the 1940s, urban development had expanded beyond the borders of the City of Toronto. Planning studies anticipated that the townships and villages surrounding Toronto would be the scene of any future growth. However, spending to build any capital projects was limited by the lack of capital borrowing ability of the suburbs. The trunk sewers and sewage treatment plant for the Don Mills development was financed by its developer, E. P. Taylor, when North York Township could not.[20] Planning boards, including the Toronto and Suburban Planning Board of which Gardiner was chairman, proposed several projects, one being the Spadina Road Extension, which were rejected by the local governments.

The Ontario government, in concert with the City of Toronto, and Gardiner's Planning Board, proposed an amalgamated city to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) to overcome the roadblocks in building capital projects and facilitate growth. The OMB deliberated over the plan from 1951 until 1953, when it proposed a two-tier federal government named 'Metropolitan Toronto'. The Frost government approved the idea and passed it in April 1953, naming Gardiner the first chairman of the Metropolitan Council, made up equally of city and suburban representatives. Gardiner was also the chief administrative officer of the Metro Toronto organization. The two-tier plan was not new, it had been first proposed in 1934.

The Metro Toronto federation was charged with the responsibility of providing the thirteen municipalities with those services which were metropolitan in nature, while those services which were local in nature were to be left to the thirteen local municipalities. Metro was responsible for administration of justice, arterial roads, metropolitan parks, metropolitan planning, public education, public transportation, sewage treatment and water facilities and some housing activities and some social services. Metro Toronto, which now had the credit of all of the municipalities could finance capital projects with bonds.

Gardiner was chairman from 1953 until the end of 1961, and he deeply immersed himself in the job. He would be driven from home at 9:00 a.m. and return home some twelve hours later. Gardiner worked on weekends and late at night. During his nine years as chairman, he only took two summer vacations and four mid-winter holidays. On weekends, he would tour Metro Toronto public works projects, rapid transit facilities, urban renewal sites and tracts of suburban housing. The grueling routine took a toll on his health. Gardiner was hospitalized in March 1958 with arthritis and intestinal inflammation. Gardiner gave up his law practice, giving his cases to others and he parted company with long-time partners Harry Parkinson and Harry Willis.

During Gardiner's tenure, Metro Toronto grew to 1.6 million people and Metro government was busy. To provide the population with water, Metro built water filtration and sewage treatment plants and laid hundreds of miles of subterranean pipes. Metro invested $60 million, which doubled the supply of water to the entire region. A Metro Parks Department was created. Amongst the 3,500 acres (14 km2) of natural parkland developed by Metro was the 600-acre (2.4 km2) Toronto Islands Park. Two major highways, the Lakeshore Expressway, renamed the Frederick G. Gardiner Expressway and the Don Valley Parkway were started. The Bloor-Danforth and University subway lines were started. Metro built homes for the aged, and some for families with children. Metro formed the Metropolitan Toronto School Board and invested $230 million in new schools. The capital works program cost about $1 billion, at the rate of about $100 million a year, over the ten years.

As Metro Chairman, Gardiner dominated the Metro Council. He was only allowed to vote to break tie votes, but Gardiner made his voting preference known before votes. Over Gardiner's tenure, over 11,539 votes, Council voted over 80% in agreement with Gardiner's position. Gardiner only voted eight times.

Gardiner ruled Council meetings strictly. He controlled procedural questions strictly, challenging dissident members to appeal his decisions, something no-one was able to do throughout his term. Members were scolded for talking inaudibly. Meetings went through agenda items quickly. Often, he would not pause to ask for dissenting votes. Leslie Frost commended his performance in 1956 by that stating that the success of Metro to date "has been very largely dependent upon your own personality." Nathan Phillips described his style: "When he really wanted something, he just came and beat it out of you." Philip Givens, who was on several occasions brought to tears, described Gardiner's temper as "He scared the hell out of you. If he cut you up, he did it thoroughly. He eviscerated you, he left your entrails all over the floor."

While Gardiner was only allowed to vote in Metro Council to break ties, he was a voting member of all four policy committees. The committees would do the early work of working through proposals preparing them for Council. Gardiner prided himself on his work ethic, the same style he had used since his days at high school. "I was not going to change my way of proceeding. It was more necessary than ever. My diagnosis was that if I was going to get anywhere I had to know more about any given subject than any individual councillor, and more about metropolitan business as than all the members of council combined." Gardiner would wait to speak on important resolutions after others had spoken. When a close vote was anticipated, Gardiner went around the council table, rebutting objections one by one.

Gardiner was also known for controlling consideration of issues until the political time was right. The Bloor-Danforth subway was proposed by the City in 1956, but Gardiner stalled it until 1958 by starting three successive studies. When it reached Council, Gardiner gave it his full support, and he used tactics to build Council support through the use of preliminary and tentative council commitments. "Once you get those bulldozers in the ground, it is pretty hard to get them out."

One area of capital projects that especially was keen to Gardiner's interest was Metro's expressway program. Gardiner won executive approval for the drawing up of plans for the lakeshore expressway in July 1953. While the route through the central section was controversial, especially around Fort York, which he proposed moving, Gardiner was successful in convincing Council to approve the less-controversial east and west sections first. With the ends built, the central section was inevitable.

Gardiner used similar methods to push the Don Valley Parkway project along. Engineers were interested in studying alternate routes, which Gardiner was able to prevent because "councillors could not afford to stop, look and listen. Either the project was started forthwith, or the whole east end of the city will be on our shoulders like three tons of bricks." Metro executive committee approved the preliminary plans one month later. When the plans were in draft, he secured section-by-section approval. The Parkway project went from proposal to approved policy in about two years, from January 1955 until February 1957.

While the routes of the lakeshore expressway and the Don Valley Parkway were mostly uncontentious, the other parts of the expressway program went through developed areas and sure to be controversial. In 1954, Gardiner deferred the extension of the lakeshore expressway to the east, and the cross-town expressway was deferred in 1955. The Spadina expressway was similarly shelved in 1956. While all of the expressways were part of the official transportation plan in 1959, only the Spadina expressway was approved by the time Gardiner left office in 1961. The Spadina was formally approved at the final meeting Gardiner chaired, and the Cross-town deferred again.

However, Gardiner also saw the value of public transit. At the 1956 inaugural meeting of Metro Council, Gardiner stated that "it is a snare and a delusion to spend millions on expressways in the belief that they alone will solve traffic problems." He also stated that "the irresistible fact is, you simply cannot provide sufficient highways and parking space to accommodate every person who desires to drive his car downtown." He also estimated that $1 in expenditure on transit was worth $5 spent on arterial highways and parking spaces.

Metro Toronto greatly expanded the ability to finance capital works projects and Gardiner followed three principles in the allocation of money. Gardiner chose under his chairmanship to negotiate the amount of money to go to local municipalities, but did not interfere in the actual ways the local municipalities spent the money. He also pursued a policy of balance between the city and the suburbs. He pushed for the Bloor-Danforth subway, located mostly in the City, but he also pushed for a uniform water rate, a policy that favoured the suburbs. His third principle was to limit demand. While in 1953, he claimed that "there was nothing we could not afford", in 1954, he cautioned against the belief that "Metro has more money in the aggregate than we all had individually." Later in his term, Gardiner named $100 million as the upper limit of annual capital borrowing. He held onto the total figure "it was a nice round number" until 1961, when he agreed to a five per-cent increase.

Later life

Gardiner left City Hall in the second week of January 1962. Gardiner returned to his law practice, but he did not take on many law cases. He also became a director of the Toronto Dominion Bank; his 100,000 shares made him the largest shareholder in the bank. He also became a director of eleven other corporations. He became involved in several land quarry businesses. He retained one public office: he became Commissioner of Toronto Hydro in 1965 and retired in 1979. He was also a member of the board of governors of York University, to which he donated $50,000. He served as vice-president of the Canadian National Exhibition

Gardiner had retired from the Metro Chairmanship due to his ill health, particularly arthritis. He underwent surgery for his conditions in 1962. In 1967, he suffered as stroke, which caused slurring of his speech and problems with memory retention. He received an artificial hip in 1971, however the operation was not a success. Gardiner had to use a wheelchair for mobility. After that, Gardiner became less involved in business and had no directorships by 1975. He retired as partner from his law practice, although he kept an honorary title and small office.

After 18 months of illness related to a stroke and arthritis, Gardiner died on August 22, 1983. Gardiner was praised by past and present political colleagues. Phil Givens considered Gardiner the "catalyst for it all, the transition that transformed Metro into one of the great cities of the world." Allan Lamport praised him for his ability to put in long hours on the job. Paul Godfrey considered Gardiner his idol, admiring his ability to "solve political problems and bring people together". Bill Davis praised Gardiner for his "remarkable contributions and selfless service." Art Eggleton said that "a towering giant" was lost from the political scene. Gardiner is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto, Ontario.

The opening day of the fifty-ninth year of The Empire Club of Canada was designated "Frederick G. Gardiner Day" in honour of a life member of the club, who announced his retirement as Chairman of the Municipality of Metro Toronto.

Gardiner's services to the community, in the field of politics and in other areas of civic welfare, were recognized by the University of Toronto when he was granted the degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa.

Famous quotes

Gardiner was well-practiced as a speech-maker for the Conservatives, in his summations as a lawyer, and in Metro Toronto business. He often expressed his beliefs in turns of phrases:

"I don't care if I win or lose. But I'll win"

"The only symphony I understand is the one played on a cash register"

"You'll never leave footprints in the sands of time if you sit in your cabana on the beach"

"Nobody has ever borrowed their way to prosperity"

"A mathematical phenomenon exists in our suburbs - multiplication by sub-division"

"Toronto has shrunk at the core and burst at the seams"

"It's not too much of a tempest and not much of a teapot"

"Smile and the world smiles with you; tax and you tax alone"

"An ability to shoot golf in the low 60s is an indication of at least a partially misspent life"

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis

St. Louis is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers, on the western bank of the latter. As of 2020, the city proper had a population of around 301,500, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which extends into Illinois, had an estimated population of over 2.8 million, making it the largest metropolitan area in Missouri, the second-largest in Illinois, the seventh-largest in the Great Lakes Megalopolis, and the 20th-largest in the United States.

Before European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. St. Louis was founded on February 14, 1764, by French fur traders Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent, Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, who named it for Louis IX of France. In 1764, following France's defeat in the Seven Years' War, the area was ceded to Spain. In 1800, it was retroceded to France, which sold it three years later to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase; the city was then the point of embarkation for the Corps of Discovery on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In the 19th century, St. Louis became a major port on the Mississippi River; from 1870 until the 1920 census, it was the fourth-largest city in the country. It separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. St. Louis had a brief run as a world-class city in the early 20th century. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics.

A "Gamma" global city with a metropolitan GDP of more than $160 billion in 2017, metropolitan St. Louis has a diverse economy with strengths in the service, manufacturing, trade, transportation, and tourism industries. It is home to nine of the ten Fortune 500 companies based in Missouri. Major companies headquartered or with significant operations in the city include Ameren Corporation, Peabody Energy, Nestlé Purina PetCare, Anheuser-Busch, Wells Fargo Advisors, Stifel Financial, Spire, Inc., MilliporeSigma, FleishmanHillard, Square, Inc., U.S. Bank, Anthem BlueCross and Blue Shield, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Centene Corporation, and Express Scripts.

Major research universities include Saint Louis University and Washington University in St. Louis. The Washington University Medical Center in the Central West End neighborhood hosts an agglomeration of medical and pharmaceutical institutions, including Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

St. Louis has three professional sports teams: the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League, and the St. Louis BattleHawks of the newly formed XFL. In 2019, the city was awarded a Major League Soccer franchise, St. Louis City SC, which is expected to begin play upon the completion of a 22,500-seat stadium in the city's Downtown West neighborhood in 2023. Among the city's notable sights is the 630-foot (192 m) Gateway Arch in the downtown area. St. Louis is also home to the St. Louis Zoo and the Missouri Botanical Garden, which has the second-largest herbarium in North America.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_Louis

Paint Louis is an annual global community event happening over the American holiday Labor Day bringing together people practicing all four elements of Hip hop including Graffiti, Breakdancing, Rapping and DJs to St. Louis for three days of creation and performance. The event started informally in 1995 as a "graffiti jam" and became more formalized in 1997 as noted with its 20th anniversary celebration in 2017. One of the originators, if not the man outright credited with the genesis of Paint Louis, is Stun1.

The event is well known as the largest gathering of Graffiti writers who have permission to legally paint the 1.9 mile Guinness Records deemed "longest mural in the world", the Mississippi River flood wall, along the Mississippi river all south of the Gateway Arch.

Source: racstl.org/public-art/the-mural-mile-floodwall/

The Mural Mile is located along the Riverfront between Victor and Chouteau Avenues, south of the Gateway Arch. Started in 1997, the project became an annual event held every labor day weekend. Organized by the organization Paint Louis, more than 250 graffiti artists from around the country came to St. Louis to add to this mural on the Mississippi River floodwall.

Graffiti artists from across the nation periodically assemble for a local event known as “Paint Louis,” during which they each leave their artistic mark on an industrial wall or structure that has been designated for the task. After the event has finished, paint-overs become increasingly common, and the piece takes on additional lives and identities as the original work slowly disappears.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis

Indianapolis, colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most-populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the United States Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion County in 2020 was 977,642. The "balance" population, which excludes semi-autonomous municipalities in Marion County, was 887,642. It is the 15th most populous city in the U.S., the third-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, Illinois and Columbus, Ohio, and the fourth-most populous state capital after Phoenix, Arizona; Austin, Texas; and Columbus. The Indianapolis metropolitan area is the 33rd most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S., with 2,048,703 residents. Its combined statistical area ranks 28th, with a population of 2,431,361. Indianapolis covers 368 square miles (950 km2), making it the 16th largest city by land area in the U.S.

Indigenous peoples inhabited the area dating to as early as 10,000 BC. In 1818, the Delaware relinquished their tribal lands in the Treaty of St. Mary's. In 1821, Indianapolis was founded as a planned city for the new seat of Indiana's state government. The city was platted by Alexander Ralston and Elias Pym Fordham on a 1-square-mile (2.6 km2) grid next to the White River. Completion of the National and Michigan roads and arrival of rail later solidified the city's position as a manufacturing and transportation hub. Two of the city's nicknames reflect its historical ties to transportation—the "Crossroads of America" and "Railroad City". Since the 1970 city-county consolidation, known as Unigov, local government administration operates under the direction of an elected 25-member city-county council headed by the mayor.

Indianapolis anchors the 29th largest economic region in the U.S., based primarily on the sectors of finance and insurance, manufacturing, professional and business services, education and health care, government, and wholesale trade. The city has notable niche markets in amateur sports and auto racing. The city is home to three Fortune 500 companies, two major league sports clubs, four university campuses, and several museums, including the world's largest children's museum. However, the city is perhaps best known for annually hosting the world's largest single-day sporting event, the Indianapolis 500. Among the city's historic sites and districts, Indianapolis is home to the largest collection of monuments dedicated to veterans and war casualties in the U.S. outside of Washington, D.C.

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_Square,_Indianapolis

Fountain Square (abbreviated as FSQ) is one of seven designated cultural districts in Indianapolis, Indiana. Located right outside the city's downtown district, Fountain Square is home to three designated national historic districts, the Laurel and Prospect, the State and Prospect, and the Virginia Avenue districts, all of which were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. The neighborhood derives its name from the successive fountains that have been prominently featured at the intersection of Virginia Avenue, East Prospect Street, and Shelby Street.

Fountain Square is the first commercial historic district in Indiana, and it is the only portion of the city outside the initial mile square that has continually operated as a recognized commercial area, dating back to the 1870s. Its significance is not only as an early commercial district, but also as one that was developed and dominated by German-American immigrants, merchants, and entrepreneurs, who established a strong German character on the city's southside. From the 1920s to the 1950s, Fountain Square was the city's main entertainment district, with as many as seven theaters in operation at one point in time.

After the construction of the interstate through Indianapolis, a portion of Fountain Square was demolished, with the remaining neighborhood disconnected from the surrounding areas. After decades of a declining population, the neighborhood is currently estimated to have 9,839 inhabitants. Historic preservation efforts began in the late 1990s, and the neighborhood slowly emerged as a vibrant commercial center once again. Today, Fountain Square is widely considered to be Indianapolis's newest trendy neighborhood, with an eclectic mix of retro architecture and modern, urban design.