The Bonneville Salt Flats is a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah. The area is a remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville and is the largest of many salt flats located west of the Great Salt Lake; the property is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is known for land speed records at the "Bonneville Speedway". Access to the flats is open to the public. Geologist Grove Karl Gilbert named the area after Benjamin Bonneville, a U. S. Army officer who explored the Intermountain West in the 1830s. In 1907 Bill Rishel and two local businessmen tested the suitability of the salt for driving on by taking a Pierce-Arrow onto the surface of the flats. A railway line across the Bonneville Salt Flats was completed in 1910, marking the first permanent crossing; the first land speed record was set there in 1914 by Teddy Tetzlaff. Entertainment filmed at the salt flats include portions of Knight Rider, Independence Day and its sequel, SLC Punk, Cremaster 2 from Cremaster Cycle, The Brown Bunny, The World's Fastest Indian, The Tree of Life, Top Gear, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
Furthermore, the Pontiac Bonneville, the Triumph Bonneville motorcycle, the Bonneville International media company are all named for the salt flats. The Bureau of Land Management has undertaken numerous studies of the salt crust thickness within the Bonneville Salt Flats and concluded in a 2007 study that there was no difference in the salt crust thickness from 1988 to 2003; the BLM concluded “despite brine withdrawal for mineral production, neither short nor long-term measurable changes in salt crust thickness could be documented.” The BLM further concluded that earlier salt crust measurement studies showing salt crust deterioration were flawed. Despite this, since 1998, the owners of the Wendover potash facility have worked diligently in conjunction with the BLM to undertake the Salt Laydown Project under which solid salt from ponds located south of Interstate 80 is dissolved and pumped onto the Bonneville Salt Flats north of I-80. During the following summer months, heat from the sun vaporizes the water and the precipitated salt becomes part of the race track surface.
Since the onset of this project, more than 10.7 million tons of salt have been pumped onto the Bonneville Salt Flats. The Salt Laydown Project is now a required element of the facility’s operating plan. Motorcar racing has taken place at the salt flats since 1914. Racing takes place at part of the Bonneville Salt Flats known as the Bonneville Speedway. There are five major land speed events. Bonneville "Speed Week" takes place mid-August followed by "World of Speed" in September and the "World Finals" take place early October; these three events welcome cars and motorcycles. The "Bub Motorcycle Speed Trials" are for motorcycles only. World records are contested at the Mike Cook ShootOut in September; the Southern California Timing Association and the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association organizes and plans the multi-vehicle events, but all event promoters contribute to prepping and maintaining the salt. "Speed Week" events in August were canceled for the second year in a row in 2015, due to poor conditions of the salt in certain parts of the flats.
The salt flats had been swamped by heavy rains earlier in the year, which happens, but the rains triggered mudslides from surrounding mountains and onto a section of the flats used for the land-speed racing courses. In 2004, the Stardust spacecraft released its sample-return capsule for a landing in the Bonneville Salt Flats after its flybys of asteroid 5535 Annefrank in 2002 and comet Wild 2 in 2004. Pontiac Bonneville, a car, named after the salt flats Triumph Bonneville, a motorcycle, named after the salt flats Black Rock Desert in Nevada, another land-speed record test ground List of vehicle speed records Bonneville Salt Flats – Bureau of Land Management FIA World Land Speed Records Mike Cook's Bonneville Shootout Speed Week on the Bonneville Salt Flats
John W. F. Bennett was an American civil engineer and football player, he played football for the University of Michigan from 1896 to 1898. As a civil engineer, he supervised the construction of important buildings in New York and London, including the Algonquin Hotel in New York and the Ritz and Waldorf Hotels in London. Bennett was born in Chicago in 1875, his father, John Wesley Bennett, was a lawyer in Chicago who had served as a lieutenant colonel in the Army of the Potomac during the American Civil War. In 1885, the family moved to Austin, a sparsely settled suburb of Chicago. Bennett played football at Austin High School. After graduating from high school, Bennett enrolled at the University of Michigan, he played for track teams for three years. He played football at the guard position in 1896 and at end in 1897 and 1898, he was the captain of the 1898 team that won the school's first Western Conference championship with an undefeated and tie-free record of 10–0. At the time of his election as the Michigan team captain, the Detroit Free Press wrote: "Bennett is a Michigan player through and through, his rise to his present position of prominence in football circles came by steady, hard work."
He graduated from Michigan in 1899 with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering. Bennett remained active in University of Michigan affairs in his years, he was the president of the University of Michigan Club from 1917 to 1918. He served as president of the "M" Club, the organization of Michigan's varsity letter winners, from 1939 to 1941. In 1943, he was elected president of the Touchdown Club of America. Bennett worked for the Thompson-Starrett Company in New York from 1901 to 1904. During these years, he supervised the construction of the St. Regis and Algonquin Hotels in New York and a factory for Bailey Banks and Biddle, jewelers, in Philadelphia. From 1904 to 1909, Bennett worked for the Waring-White Building Company of England. During this time, he supervised the construction of the Ritz Hotel, the Waldorf Hotel, the Morning Post Building, three London Underground stations, the Liverpool Cotton Exchange and the Lancaster Town Hall. Bennett returned to New York in 1910 and served as the New York City Deputing and Acting Commissioner of Water Supply.
In that position, he advised the city on engineering matters arising out of the water department's $10 million annual budget. From 1914 to 1918, Bennett was a consulting engineer working for the president of the Borough of Bronx. During World War I, Bennett served in the United States Army, he was a major in the Quartermaster Corps and supervised the construction of a supply base in Brooklyn, New York. After being discharged from the Army, Bennett worked for the American Sugar Refining Company from 1919 to 1923, he was chairman of the company's engineering consulting board and oversaw the construction of the company's refinery in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1924, Bennett was hired by Stevens & Wood, Inc.. He was a vice president of the company from 1924 to 1930. In his years, Bennett lived at 1105 Park Avenue in New York, his wife, Harriet Connable Bennett, died in 1941. Bennett died at his Park Avenue home in 1943 at age 68, he was survived by his son John Connable Bennett, serving in the U. S. Army Air Forces at the time.
His grandson, John C. Bennett, Jr. was living with Bennett at the time of Bennett's death
The Palace Tomb is a Nabataean tomb in the Petra Archaeological Park. It is situated among the Royal Tombs, a line of prominent monumental facades on the east cliffs flanking the valley in which the city lies. At 49 meters wide and 46 meters tall, its rock-hewn façade is one of the largest in Petra; the tomb's name is derived from its supposed resemblance to a Roman palace design popularized by Nero's Golden House, as well as its wide and richly decorated structure... The descriptive name is based on its appearance today, rather than historical evidence for its use by royalty or occupation as a palace; the title “Palace Tomb” is recorded in the earliest catalog of tombs in Petra. The Palace Tomb was built toward the end of the first century CE; this date is derived from the tomb's architectural style and its relationship to other nearby tombs due to the “marked deterioration” of its decorative classical elements. The facade of the Palace Tomb has three stories, the highest of, notable because it reaches beyond the face of the cliff and is built, rather than carved, in the top left corner.
This construction is significant as the Palace Tomb is one of the only monuments in Petra which mixes the carved and built structure. The first story has four aediculae, or small shrines surmounted by columns, which act as entryways into the tomb; the middle two of these thresholds are twice as wide as the outer two. A further distinction is that the middle entrances have triangular pediments, while the outer are semi-circular; these aediculae lead into four burial rooms. Additionally, several of these rooms have niches carved around them, in line with the natural patterns of the rock. Flanking the aedicula are single columns, double-engaged or decorated only with two vertical lines. Two smaller decorated columns are carved to either side of each doorway, two yet smaller columns are themselves the sides of each entrance; each gate has a small ramp to the interior, which could facilitate movement between the inner space and more publicly visible outer area. The second story has eighteen engaged columns.
These columns lack the simple decoration of those on the first story, but are otherwise identical. Between the eight inner-most second-story columns, rectangular niches have been carved at irregular intervals; these columns end at the third story's cleanly carved base. Much of the third story is not preserved, as it extends beyond the existing rock face and had to be constructed from ashlar blocks to complete the uneven shape of the facade; as a result, most of the upper-left corner of the facade is no longer extant, the stone-block support system is visible behind the carved rock to the casual observer. From what remains, there were more columns on the highest story than in the lower two, which appear to be the least elaborate