Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, established in 1846 and was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was so named; the PRR was the largest railroad by traffic and revenue in the U. S. for the first half of the 20th century. Over the years, it acquired, merged with or owned part of at least 800 other rail lines and companies. At the end of 1925, it operated 10,515 miles of rail line, its only formidable rival was the New York Central, which carried around three-quarters of PRR's ton-miles. By 1882 it had become the largest railroad, the largest transportation enterprise, the largest corporation in the world. With 30,000 miles of track, it had longer mileage than any other country in the world, except Britain and France, its budget was second only to the U. S. government. The corporation still holds the record for the longest continuous dividend history: it paid out annual dividends to shareholders for more than 100 consecutive years. In 1968, PRR merged with rival NYC to form the Penn Central Transportation Company, which filed for bankruptcy within two years.
The viable parts were transferred in 1976 to Conrail, itself broken up in 1999, with 58 percent of the system going to the Norfolk Southern Railway, including nearly all of the former PRR. Amtrak received the electrified segment of the Main Line east of Harrisburg. With the opening of the Erie Canal and the beginnings of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Philadelphia business interests became concerned that the port of Philadelphia would lose traffic; the state legislature was pressed to build a canal across Pennsylvania and thus the Main Line of Public Works was commissioned in 1826. It soon became evident that a single canal would not be practical and a series of railroads, inclined planes, canals was proposed; the route consisted of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, canals up the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers, an inclined plane railroad and tunnel across the Allegheny Mountains, canals down the Conemaugh and Allegheny rivers to Pittsburgh on the Ohio River. Because freight and passengers had to change cars several times along the route and canals froze in winter, it soon became apparent that the system was cumbersome and a better way was needed.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania granted a charter to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1846 to build a private rail line that would connect Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. The Directors chose John Edgar Thomson, an engineer from the Georgia Railroad, to survey and construct the line, he chose a route that followed the west bank of the Susquehanna River northward to the confluence with the Juniata River, following its banks until the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains were reached at a point that would become Altoona, Pennsylvania. To traverse the mountains, the line climbed a moderate grade for 10 miles until it reached a split of two mountain ravines which were cleverly crossed by building a fill and having the tracks ascend a 220-degree curve known as Horseshoe Curve that limited the grade to less than 2 percent; the crest of the mountain was penetrated by the 3,612-foot Gallitzin Tunnels and descended by a more moderate grade to Johnstown. At the end of its first year of operation, it paid a dividend, continued the dividend without interruption until 1946.
The western end of the line was built from Pittsburgh east along the banks of the Allegheny and Conemaugh rivers to Johnstown. PRR was granted trackage rights over the Philadelphia and Columbia and gained control of the three short lines connecting Lancaster and Harrisburg, instituting an all-rail link between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh by 1854. In 1857, the PRR purchased the Main Line of Public Works from the state of Pennsylvania, abandoned most of its canals and inclined planes; the line was double track from its inception, by the end of the century a third and fourth track were added. Over the next 50 years, PRR expanded by gaining control of other railroads by stock purchases and 999-year leases. Thomson was the entrepreneur who led the PRR from 1852 until his death in 1874, making it the largest business enterprise in the world and a world-class model for technological and managerial innovation, he served as PRR's first Chief Engineer and third President. Thomson's sober, technical and non-ideological personality had an important influence on the Pennsylvania Railroad, which in the mid-19th century was on the technical cutting edge of rail development, while nonetheless reflecting Thomson's personality in its conservatism and its steady growth while avoiding financial risks.
His Pennsylvania Railroad was in his day the largest railroad in the world, with 6,000 miles of track, was famous for steady financial dividends, high quality construction improving equipment, technological advances, innovation in management techniques for a large complex organization. In 1861 the PRR gained control of the Northern Central Railway, giving it access to Baltimore, Maryland, as well as points along the Susquehanna River via connections at Columbia, Pennsylvania or Harrisburg. On December 1, 1871, the PRR leased the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company, which included the original Camden and Amboy Railroad from Camden, New Jersey to South Amboy, New Jersey, as well as a newer line from Philadelphia to Jersey City, New Je
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U. S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County; the population was 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the northern terminus of the extensive and fast-growing Front Range Urban Corridor that stretches from Cheyenne to Pueblo, Colorado which has a population of 4,333,742 according to the 2010 United States Census. Cheyenne is situated on Dry Creek; the Cheyenne, Wyoming Metropolitan Area had a 2010 population of 91,738, making it the 354th-most populous metropolitan area in the United States. On July 5, 1867, General Grenville M. Dodge and his survey crew plotted the site now known as Cheyenne in Dakota Territory; this site was chosen as the point at which the Union Pacific Railroad crossed Crow Creek, a tributary of the South Platte River. The city was not named by Dodge, as his memoirs state, but rather by friends who accompanied him to the area Dodge called "Crow Creek Crossing".
It was named for the American Indian Cheyenne tribe, one of the most famous and prominent Great Plains tribes allied with the Arapaho. The construction of the Union Pacific Railroad brought hopes of prosperity to the region when it reached Cheyenne on November 13, 1867; the population at the time numbered over 4,000, grew rapidly. This rapid growth earned the city the nickname "Magic City of the Plains". In 1867, Fort D. A. Russell was established, three miles west of the city; the fort was renamed Francis E. Warren Air Force Base; the Wyoming State Capitol was constructed between 1886 and 1890, with further improvements being completed in 1917. The Wyoming Stock Growers Association met at The Cheyenne Club, which acted as an interim government for the territory. Many of the WSGA's rules and regulations became state laws; the Cheyenne Regional Airport was opened in 1920 serving as a stop for airmail. It soon developed into a civil-military airport, serving various military craft. During World War II, hundreds of B-17s, B-24s, PBYs were outfitted and upgraded at the airfield.
Today, it serves a number of military functions, as well as a high-altitude testbed for civilian craft. Lying near the southeast corner of the state, Cheyenne is one of the least centrally located state capitals in the nation. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 24.63 square miles, of which 24.52 square miles is land and 0.11 square miles is water. Cheyenne, like most of the rest of Wyoming, has a cool semi-arid climate, is part of USDA Hardiness zone 5b, with the suburbs falling in zone 5a. Winters are cold and moderately long, but dry, with a December average of 28.8 °F, highs that fail to breach freezing occur 35 days per year, lows dip to the 0 °F mark on 9.2 mornings. However, the cold is interrupted, with chinook winds blowing downslope from the Rockies that can bring warm conditions, bringing the high above 50 °F on twenty days from December to February. Snowfall is greatest in March and April, seasonally averaging 60 inches ranging from 13.1 inches between July 1965 and June 1966 up to 121.5 inches between July 1979 and June 1980, yet thick snow cover stays.
Summers are warm, with a high diurnal temperature range. Spring and autumn are quick transitions, with the average window for freezing temperatures being September 29 thru May 14, allowing a growing season of 106 days. Official record temperatures range from −38 °F on January 9, 1875, up to 100 °F on June 23, 1954, the last of four occurrences; the annual precipitation of 15.9 inches tends to be concentrated from May to August and is low during fall and winter. The city averages below 60% daily relative humidity in each month and receives an average 2,980 hours of sunshine annually. On July 16, 1979 an F3 tornado struck Cheyenne causing 40 injuries, it was the most destructive tornado in Wyoming history. At the 2005–2007 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates, the city's population was 87.2% White or European American, 12.7% Hispanic or Latino, 4.5% Black or African American, 2.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 2.1% Asian and 6.4% from some other race. 22.5 % of the total population had higher.
As of the census of 2010, there were 59,467 people, 25,558 households, 15,270 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,425.2 inhabitants per square mile. There were 27,284 housing units at an average density of 1,112.7 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 77.44% European American, 2.88% African American, 0.96% Native American, 1.24% Asian, 0.20% Pacific Islander, 4.0% from other races, 3.28% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 14.45% of the population. There were 25,558 households of which 30.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.1% were married couples living together, 12.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.7% had a male householder with no wife present, 40.3% were non-families. 33.5%
Canal
Canals, or navigations, are human-made channels, or artificial waterways, for water conveyance, or to service water transport vehicles. In most cases, the engineered works will have a series of dams and locks that create reservoirs of low speed current flow; these reservoirs are referred to as slack water levels just called levels. A canal is known as a navigation when it parallels a river and shares part of its waters and drainage basin, leverages its resources by building dams and locks to increase and lengthen its stretches of slack water levels while staying in its valley. In contrast, a canal cuts across a drainage divide atop a ridge requiring an external water source above the highest elevation. Many canals have been built at elevations towering over valleys and other water ways crossing far below. Canals with sources of water at a higher level can deliver water to a destination such as a city where water is needed; the Roman Empire's aqueducts were such water supply canals. A navigation is a series of channels that run parallel to the valley and stream bed of an unimproved river.
A navigation always shares the drainage basin of the river. A vessel uses the calm parts of the river itself as well as improvements, traversing the same changes in height. A true canal is a channel that cuts across a drainage divide, making a navigable channel connecting two different drainage basins. Most commercially important canals of the first half of the 19th century were a little of each, using rivers in long stretches, divide crossing canals in others; this is true for many canals still in use. Both navigations and canals use engineered structures to improve navigation: weirs and dams to raise river water levels to usable depths. Since they cut across drainage divides, canals are more difficult to construct and need additional improvements, like viaducts and aqueducts to bridge waters over streams and roads, ways to keep water in the channel. There are two broad types of canal: Waterways: canals and navigations used for carrying vessels transporting goods and people; these can be subdivided into two kinds:Those connecting existing lakes, other canals or seas and oceans.
Those connected in a city network: such as the Canal Grande and others of Venice Italy. Aqueducts: water supply canals that are used for the conveyance and delivery of potable water for human consumption, municipal uses, hydro power canals and agriculture irrigation. Canals were of immense importance to commerce and the development and vitality of a civilization. In 1855 the Lehigh Canal carried over 1.2 million tons of anthracite coal. The few canals still in operation in our modern age are a fraction of the numbers that once fueled and enabled economic growth, indeed were a prerequisite to further urbanization and industrialization – for the movement of bulk raw materials such as coal and ores are difficult and marginally affordable without water transport; such raw materials fueled the industrial developments and new metallurgy resulting of the spiral of increasing mechanization during 17th–20th century, leading to new research disciplines, new industries and economies of scale, raising the standard of living for any industrialized society.
The surviving canals, including most ship canals, today service bulk cargo and large ship transportation industries, whereas the once critical smaller inland waterways conceived and engineered as boat and barge canals have been supplanted and filled in, abandoned and left to deteriorate, or kept in service and staffed by state employees, where dams and locks are maintained for flood control or pleasure boating. Their replacement was gradual, beginning first in the United States in the mid-1850s where canal shipping was first augmented by began being replaced by using much faster, less geographically constrained & limited, cheaper to maintain railways. By the early 1880s, canals which had little ability to economically compete with rail transport, were off the map. In the next couple of decades, coal was diminished as the heating fuel of choice by oil, growth of coal shipments leveled off. After World War I when motor-trucks came into their own, the last small U. S. barge canals saw a steady decline in cargo ton-miles alongside many railways, the flexibility and steep slope climbing capability of lorries taking over cargo hauling as road networks were improved, which had the freedom to make deliveries well away from rail lined road beds or ditches in the dirt which couldn't operate in the winter.
Canals are built in one of three ways, or a combination of the three, depending on available water and available path: Human made streamsA canal can be created where no stream presently exists. Either the body of the canal is dug or the sides of the canal are created by making dykes or levees by piling dirt, concrete or other building materials; the finished shape of the canal as seen in cross section is known as the canal prism. The water for the canal must be provided like streams or reservoirs. Where the new waterway must change elevation engineering works like locks, lifts or elevators are constructed to raise and lower vessels. Examples include canals that connect valleys over a higher body of land, like Canal du Midi, Canal de Briare and the Panama Canal. A canal can be constructed by dredging a channel in the bottom of an existing lake; when the channel is complete, the lake is drained and the channel becom
United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
Rosslyn, Virginia
Rosslyn is a urbanized unincorporated area in Northern Virginia located in the northeastern corner of Arlington County, north of Arlington National Cemetery and directly across the Potomac River from Georgetown and Foggy Bottom in Washington, D. C. Rosslyn encompasses the Arlington neighborhoods of North Radnor/Ft. Myer Heights, is located east of Courthouse, another urbanized Arlington neighborhood. Characterized as one of several "urban villages" by the County, the numerous skyscrapers in the dense business section of Rosslyn make its appearance in some ways more urban than nearby Washington. Rosslyn residents have an average household income of $105,000 and 81% are college graduates. Notable establishments in the neighborhood include ABC 7 located in the Rosslyn Twin Towers, Marriott International's longest operating hotel, the Key Bridge Marriott. Notable structures include the United States Marine Corps War Memorial, the Netherlands Carillon and Freedom Park offer views of the Washington Monument and other Washington landmarks.
In Virginia's colonial period, Rosslyn's shoreline contained a landing for Awbrey's ferry, which transported travelers to and from Georgetown. A community that developed behind the shore became known as Ross Lynn, the name of a local farm owned by William and Carolyn Ross. During the 1830s and 1840s, the Aqueduct Bridge was constructed between Rosslyn; when completed in 1843, this bridge carried the Alexandria Canal, which transported canal boats from the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Georgetown to the downstream port of Alexandria, Virginia. Following the American Civil War in the 1860s, a lawless community developed at the base of the bridge. Known for its gambling halls, saloons and unsavory inhabitants, the community failed to attract much development other than the Arlington Brewery, which became a Cherry Smash soft drink bottling plant after Prohibition went into effect. Spurred by the real estate potential that the arrival of electric trolleys in the 1890s inspired and reformers ousted Rosslyn's more unsavory elements in the early 20th century.
They organized under the name "Good Citizen's League" and nominated Captain Crandal Mackey as the Commonwealth's Attorney to fight corruption. Mackey, after being unsuccessfully challenged by the incumbent on legal grounds, won the election by two votes; when the sheriff did not execute Mackey's orders to clean up in Rosslyn, Mackey organized a group of thirty citizens to raid and destroy the saloons and gambling houses. This expedition took place of May 30, 1904. Rosslyn remained known for its pawnshops and used car dealerships for many years; the Aqueduct Bridge connecting Rosslyn to Georgetown was replaced by the Francis Scott Key Memorial Bridge in 1923. In 1964, the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge opened to carry Interstate 66 between Washington, D. C. and Rosslyn. Soon afterwards, a development boom in the 1960s began to revitalize Rosslyn with the construction of a large number of high-rise office buildings and hotels in its center and a smaller number of residential buildings on its outskirts.
Arlington County widened Rosslyn's major streets to accommodate the increased motor vehicle traffic that this new development would bring. A skywalk system carried pedestrian traffic over these widened streets. While planners expected retail establishments to develop along the skywalks, few such establishments opened; as a result, the skywalk system attracted few pedestrians. The Arlington County government has since announced plans to dismantle some or all of the bridges that carry the skywalks over Rosslyn's broad streets. During the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s, "Deep Throat" passed information to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in the middle of the night in an underground parking garage at 1401 Wilson Boulevard in Rosslyn. In 1977, Metrorail's Blue Line reached Rosslyn. In subsequent years, the Blue Line and the Orange Line were extended from an underground junction near the Rosslyn station to serve Northern Virginia's suburbs. In the early 1980s, I-66 was extended through Rosslyn to reach the Capital Beltway.
The extensions of Metrorail and I-66 attracted additional high-rise development to Rosslyn. In 2003, the Virginia Baseball Stadium Authority attempted to attract the relocating Montréal Expos to Northern Virginia by proposing three Arlington County locations for a new baseball stadium. Two sites were in the urban village of Pentagon City; the issue proved divisive, Virginia's bid failed when Virginia Governor Mark Warner ruled out state financing for stadium construction. The Expos moved to D. C. after the 2004 season to become the Washington Nationals, with a new stadium built in southeast Washington. In 2013 the Georgetown Business Improvement District proposed a gondola lift between Georgetown and Rosslyn as an alternative to placing a Metro stop at Georgetown in its 2013-2028 economic plans. Washington, D. C and Arlington County have been conducting feasibility studies for it since 2016; the original corporate headquarters of the USA Today newspaper, owned by the Gannett Company, was located in Rosslyn.
Both the company and the newspaper occupied two high-rise silver-colored towers, built in the early 1980s, which adjoin each other at 1000 and 1100 Wilson Boulevard. Gannett did not own these buildings, moved from their original home to a new campus in Fairfax County, Virginia, in 2002. In the same year, the ABC-affiliate for Washington, D. C. move
Key Bridge (Washington, D.C.)
The Francis Scott Key Bridge, more known as the Key Bridge, is a six-lane reinforced concrete arch bridge conveying U. S. Route 29 traffic across the Potomac River between the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington County and the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D. C. Completed in 1923, it is Washington's oldest surviving road bridge across the Potomac River. Key Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996; the Key Bridge replaced. The first Aqueduct Bridge was built in 1830 to carry the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal across the Potomac to connect with the Alexandria Canal on the Virginia shore; the bridge was converted into a roadway during the American Civil War. In 1866, the canal was restored and a new wooden roadway built over it atop trestles; the 1830 bridge was torn down in 1884, a new structure built which opened in 1889. The Washington and Virginia abutments still survive. Both are located a short distance west of the Key Bridge. Between the two abutments, a pier remains in the river near the Virginia shore.
Proposals were made to replace the Aqueduct Bridge as early as 1901. But these proposals were delayed when the McMillan Plan was issued in 1902; the plan's proposals for new bridges across the Potomac called into question whether Aqueduct Bridge should be replaced or torn down. In the meantime, Congress approved repairs to the bridge in 1902 1908, 1913. In March 1914, Representative Charles Creighton Carlin of Virginia sponsored legislation to replace Aqueduct Bridge with a new, $1 million structure; the Commissioners of the District of Columbia approved the new bridge in June. Controversy over the new bridge broke out. Senator Claude A. Swanson, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Works, wanted the new bridge built about 3,000 feet downstream at the mouth of Rock Creek, where it would cross Analostan Island and the Potomac River to Rosslyn. Georgetown merchants opposed this plan. There were some in Congress who wanted to repair the existing bridge, but a study by the United States Army Corps of Engineers in August 1914 showed that the existing structure was inadequate for the amount of traffic and too unstable to be saved.
Secretary of War Lindley Miller Garrison, who oversaw the Corps, agreed that a new bridge was necessary in December. Rep. William C. Adamson, chairman of the House Committee on Public Works, challenged Swanson and declared that the new bridge should be placed where the old one was; the Carlin bill began moving through the House in January 1915. But House members balked at the cost. Garrison tried to break the deadlock on January 9 by issuing a report that declared the existing bridge unsafe, requesting that the new one be built in the same location; the D. C. Commissioners said the location of the bridge was up to them, the Corps warned that not only could the existing bridge not be enlarged but agreed with Garrison that it was structurally unsound. Swanson changed his mind, agreed in January 1916 that the new bridge should be built on the existing site. Garrison endorsed the Carlin bill on January 27. On February 3, 1916, vehicular traffic over Aqueduct Bridge was limited by the city to a single automobile at a time due to its dangerous nature.
The House passed legislation appropriating $1.175 million for construction of a new bridge on March 6. D. C. commissioners held hearings on the bridge site in late March, approved the site in early April. The Senate passed some minor amendments to the House bill, after some legislative discussions and a conference committee, the Carlin bill passed Congress on May 2, 1916. President Woodrow Wilson signed the legislation on May 19. On June 1, 1916, the Army Corps of Engineers named the new bridge "Francis Scott Key Bridge," in honor of the man who had written the lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner whose home was just a few blocks from the bridge's abutment. Plans began to be drawn up at that time; the Classical Revival bridge was designed by Nathan C. Wyeth, an architect in private practice in the city, Major Max C. Tyler, an engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers; the legislation authorizing the bridge's construction required that the United States Department of War consult with the United States Commission of Fine Arts in the design of the bridge.
Subsequently, the Chief of Engineers of the Army Corps of Engineers asked the CFA for a list of architects whom the CFA believed would be competent to design an aesthetically pleasing bridge. The CFA swiftly provided a list, in July 1916 Tyler met with the CFA to discuss a short list of potential architects; the CFA and Tyler conferred on the bridge's orientation and approaches. Tyler selected Wyeth; the plans were nearly complete by September. Wyeth and Tyler's initial design for the bridge was a double-deck structure with a single, high span, but with World War I erupting in Europe, inflation made this structure too costly. Wyeth submitted a design for a single-deck, single-span bridge on January 12, 1917; the CFA asked Wyeth to design a multi-span bridge, or, failing that, to construct non-structural decorative elements that would make it look as if the bridge had multiple spans. Wyeth agreed, the CFA approved the bridge design. In January 1917, the Corps of Engineers found that inflation in the price of construction materials made it necessary to ask for $300,000 more in funding from Congress.
Congress balked at paying. But citizen pressure and the danger of Aqueduct Bridge's collapse due to ice flows in the spring convinced Congress to pay the money. Construction contracts were drawn up in late February, excavation work on the D. C. abutments began in March. The first coffer dam for cons
Blue Line (Washington Metro)
The Blue Line is a rapid transit line of the Washington Metro system, consisting of 27 stations in Fairfax County and Arlington, Virginia. The Blue Line runs from Franconia–Springfield to Largo Town Center; the line shares tracks with the Orange Line for 13 stations, the Silver Line for 18, the Yellow Line for six. Only three stations are exclusive to the Blue Line. Planning for Metro began with the Mass Transportation Survey in 1955 which attempted to forecast both freeway and mass transit systems sufficient to meet the needs of 1980. In 1959, the study's final report included two rapid transit lines which anticipated subways in downtown Washington; because the plan called for extensive freeway construction within the District of Columbia, alarmed residents lobbied for federal legislation creating a moratorium on freeway construction through July 1, 1962. The National Capital Transportation Agency's 1962 Transportation in the National Capital Region report anticipated much of the present Blue Line route in Virginia with the route following the railroad right-of-way inside Arlington and Alexandria to Springfield.
It did not include a route in Prince George's County. The route continued in rapid transit plans until the formation of WMATA. With the formation of WMATA in October 1966, planning of the system shifted from federal hands to a regional body with representatives of the District and Virginia. Congressional route approval was no longer a key consideration. Instead, routes had to serve each local suburban jurisdiction to assure that they would approve bond referenda to finance the system; the Blue Line took much of its present form along the Richmond and Potomac Railroad right-of-way to Colchester, Virginia, as construction along existing right-of-way is the least expensive way to build into the suburbs. In March 1968, the WMATA board approved its 98-mile Adopted Regional System which included the Blue Line from Huntington to Addison Road, with a possible extension to Largo; the ARS contained a Blue Line/Orange Line station at Oklahoma Avenue between Stadium/Armory and the Anacostia River Bridge.
Local residents objected to a proposed 1,000-car commuter parking lot at that station and the traffic that it would generate in the neighborhood. In reaction to their lobbying, the DC government insisted that the station be removed and that the tunnel for the line be extended through the neighborhood; this made the line the only one to have a station canceled due to neighborhood opposition. To be constructed as an above ground station in the parking lot north of RFK Stadium near Oklahoma Avenue, the station was canceled saving Metro $12 million and the alignment of the line was shifted to the east to address neighbor concerns. To better accommodate tourists, a Smithsonian station exit was added on the Mall and the federal government requested in 1972 that the Arlington Cemetery Station be added to the Blue Line; the federal government paid the cost of both design changes. Service on the Blue Line began on July 1, 1977, on 18 stations between National Airport in Arlington and Stadium-Armory in Washington – the first link of the Metro to Virginia.
The line was extended by three stations to Addison Road on November 22, 1980. Service south of National Airport began on June 1991 when Van Dorn Street opened; the original plan for the line was completed when this link was extended to Franconia–Springfield on June 29, 1997. Two new stations in Maryland – Morgan Boulevard and Largo Town Center – opened on December 18, 2004. From its opening on November 20, 1978, until December 11, 1979, the Orange Line was co-aligned with the Blue Line from National Airport to Stadium-Armory, with the Orange Line continuing east from Stadium-Armory to New Carrollton. Beginning December 1, 1979, the Orange Line diverged westward from Rosslyn to Ballston; the Blue and Orange Lines remain co-aligned from Rosslyn to Stadium-Armory and the Silver Line is co-signed along the same route as well. The Blue Line was planned to follow a different route; the plan would have sent Blue Line trains to Huntington, with Yellow Line trains serving Franconia–Springfield. This was changed due to a shortage of rail cars at the time of the completion of the line to Huntington.
Because fewer rail cars were required to operate Yellow Line service than would be required to run Blue Line service out to Huntington – due to the Yellow Line's shorter route – the line designations were switched. From 1999 to 2008, the Blue Line operated to Huntington on July 4, as part of Metro's special Independence Day service pattern; the ARS had the Blue Line end at Addison Road. However, sports fans continually argued for a three-mile extension to the Capital Centre sports arena in Largo, Maryland. On February 27, 1997, the WMATA board approved construction of the extension. By the time the extension opened in 2004, professional basketball and hockey had relocated to a new arena atop the Gallery Place Station and the Capital Centre was replaced with a shopping mall. However, the extension still drew considerable sport spectator traffic because it is within walking distance of the FedExField football stadium; the extension cost $456 million. In 1998, Congress changed the name of the Washington National Airport to the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport with the law specifying that no money be spent to implement the name change.
As a result, WMATA did not change the name of the National Airport Station. In response to repeated inquiries from Republican congressmen that the station be renamed, WMATA stated that stations are renamed only at the request of the local jurisdiction; because both Arlington County and the District of Col
