Grade separation
Grade separation is a method of aligning a junction of two or more surface transport axes at different heights so that they will not disrupt the traffic flow on other transit routes when they cross each other. The composition of such transport axes does not have to be uniform. Bridges, tunnels, or a combination of both can be built at a junction to achieve the needed grade separation. In North America, a grade-separated junction may be referred to as a grade separation or as an interchange – in contrast with an intersection, at-grade, a diamond crossing or a level crossing, which are not grade-separated. Roads with grade separation allow traffic to move with fewer interruptions, at higher overall speeds. In addition, less trouble between traffic movements reduces the risk of accidents. Grade-separated road junctions are space-intensive and costly, due to the need for large physical structures such as tunnels and bridges, their height can be obtrusive, this, combined with the large traffic volumes that grade-separated roads attract, tend to make them unpopular to nearby landowners and residents.
For these reasons, proposals for new grade-separated roads can receive significant public opposition. Rail-over-rail grade separations take up less space than road grade separations: because shoulders are not needed, there are fewer branches and side road connections to accommodate, because at-grade railway connections take up significant space on their own. However, they require significant engineering effort, are expensive and time-consuming to construct. Grade-separated pedestrian and cycling routes require modest space since they do not intersect with the facility that they cross. Grade-separation can create accessibility problems for people with disabilities due to the vertical gradient required to pass or to reach rail platforms. Grade-separated roads that permit for higher speed limits can reduce safety due to'weaving' as well as a perceived sense of safety; the term is most applied to describe a road junction in which the direct flow of traffic on one or more of the roads is not disrupted.
Instead of a direct connection, traffic must use on and off ramps or slip roads to access the other roads at the junction. The road which carries on through the junction can be referred to as grade separated. Large freeways, motorways, or dual carriageways are chosen to be grade separated, through their entire length or for part of it. Grade separation drastically increases the capacity of a road compared to an identical road with at-grade junctions. For instance, it is uncommon to find an at-grade junction on a British motorway. S. Interstate Highway, though a few do exist. If traffic can traverse the junction from any direction without being forced to come to a halt the junction is described as grade separated or free-flowing; these junctions connect two freeways: Stack interchange Cloverleaf interchange These junctions connect two roads, but only one is grade-separated, i.e. traffic on one road does not have to stop at yield lines or signals on one road, but may have to do so when switching to the other: Diamond interchange Partial cloverleaf interchange Single-point urban interchange Roundabout interchange Compact grade-separation, whereby the two roads are linked by a compact "connector road", with major-minor priority junctions at each of its ends.
This situation is most prevalent either where the junction designer has placed the on-slip to the road before the off-slip at a junction, or in urban areas with many close-spaced junctions. The ring road of Coventry, England, is a notorious example, as are parts of the southern M25, the London orbital motorway, the M6/M5 junction north-west of Birmingham, the A4/M5 junction west of Bristol. Weaving can cause side-on collisions on fast roads with top speeds of up to 200 kilometres per hour, as well as the problem of blind spots. Weaving can be alleviated by using collector/distributor roads to separate entering and exiting traffic. Attempts have been made to increase the capacity of railways by making tracks cross in a grade-separated manner, as opposed to the traditional use of flat crossings to change tracks. A grade-separated rail interchange is known as a flying junction and one, not a level junction. In 1897, the London and South Western Railway made use of a flying junction at Worting Junction south of Basingstoke to allow traffic on the Salisbury and Southampton routes to converge without conflicting movements.
In Britain, the Southern Railway made extensive use of flying junct
Slussenområdet
Slussenområdet is an area of central Stockholm, on the Söderström river connecting Södermalm and Gamla stan. The area is named after the locks between the Baltic Sea. Called Karl Johanslussen, the locks themselves allow passage between these two bodies of water. Slussen refers to the cloverleaf interchange and associated pedestrian passages and walkways opened on 15 October 1935; the Slussen metro station is a hub of public transport in Stockholm, serving the red and green lines of the Stockholm Metro, with an adjoining bus terminal and Saltsjöbanan commuter rail station serving the eastern parts of Stockholm and its surroundings. The Djurgården ferry departs adjacently, it is unclear when the channel at Slussen was created, but in the centuries up to the 17th century the differences in level between the Lake Mälaren with the Baltic Sea made it difficult to pass through the Söderström channel. The first lock was built here in Queen Christina's Lock. By the early 1700s the lock proved too small and in 1751 the Christopher Polhem Lock was completed.
In 1850 an larger lock was completed, the Nils Ericson lock. In the 1860s rail traffic started crossing the locks and in the ensuing decades more and more wagon and carriage traffic, as well as pedestrians, crossed the lock between Gamla Stan and the Södermalm suburb. Various plans to improve the traffic situation were drawn up between 1895 and 1919. With the arrival of the automobile, by the 1920s, the traffic situation was being called "Slussen Misery" in the press. In 1930 a committee was appointed with the task of solving other city traffic problems. In 1931 a total overhaul of Slussen was funded. Buildings were demolished, a new Karl-Johan Lock was built, a cloverleaf interchange was built. Pedestrian tunnels and walkways were built on three different levels; the project was praised by Le Corbusier as "the modern era's first large project". Political plans for reshaping. A vigorous discussion in Swedish media followed with some arguing that Slussen was a unique historic example of traffic engineering and thus should be preserved, while others argued that many of the original design features were either no longer needed due to other traffic relief projects such as tunnels, completed over the previous few decades, or were unusable due to physical deterioration of the structure.
After conducting a competition, in May 2009 the city of Stockholm announced that the firm of Norman Foster had been selected to create a new master plan of the Slussen area. The design of Foster and Partners features one for traffic, it removes many of the existing roads and creates several new blocks of buildings in proximity to the waterfront. The interchange was closed in 2016 and the demolition of the present structure started; the area will be a construction site for the next eight to ten years. Images of the Slussen area, 1642–1905 Historic photos of the Slussen area, 1922–1958 Slussen in the 2000s Gamla stan Karl Johanslussen Slussen metro station Södermalm See list in Swedish Wikipedia article. Media related to Slussen at Wikimedia Commons
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
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, sometimes called the Emirates, is a country in Western Asia at the southeast end of the Arabian Peninsula on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman to the east and Saudi Arabia to the south, as well as sharing maritime borders with Qatar to the west and Iran to the north. The sovereign constitutional monarchy is a federation of seven emirates consisting of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah and Umm Al Quwain, their boundaries are complex, with numerous enclaves within the various emirates. Each emirate is governed by a ruler. One of the rulers serves as the President of the United Arab Emirates. In 2013, the UAE's population was 9.2 million, of which 1.4 million are Emirati citizens and 7.8 million are expatriates. Human occupation of the present UAE has been traced back to the emergence of anatomically modern humans from Africa some 125,000 BCE through finds at the Faya-1 site in Mleiha, Sharjah. Burial sites dating back to the Neolithic Age and the Bronze Age include the oldest known such inland site at Jebel Buhais.
Known as Magan to the Sumerians, the area was home to a prosperous Bronze Age trading culture during the Umm Al Nar period, which traded between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia as well as Iran and the Levant. The ensuing Wadi Suq period and three Iron Ages saw the emergence of nomadism as well as the development of water management and irrigation systems supporting human settlement in both the coast and interior; the Islamic age of the UAE dates back to the expulsion of the Sasanians and the subsequent Battle of Dibba. The UAE's long history of trade led to the emergence of Julfar, in the present day emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, as a major regional trading and maritime hub in the area; the maritime dominance of the Persian Gulf by Emirati traders led to conflicts with European powers, including the Portuguese and British. Following decades of maritime conflict, the coastal emirates became known as the Trucial States with the signing of a Perpetual Treaty of Maritime Peace with the British in 1819, which established the Trucial States as a British Protectorate.
This arrangement ended with independence and the establishment of the United Arab Emirates on 2 December 1971 following the British withdrawal from its treaty obligations. Six emirates joined the UAE in 1971, the seventh, Ras Al Khaimah, joined the federation on 10 February 1972. Islam is the official religion and Arabic is the official language of the UAE; the UAE's oil reserves are the seventh-largest in the world while its natural gas reserves are the world's seventeenth-largest. Sheikh Zayed, ruler of Abu Dhabi and the first President of the UAE, oversaw the development of the Emirates and steered oil revenues into healthcare and infrastructure; the UAE's economy is the most diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, while its most populous city of Dubai is an important global city and an international aviation and maritime trade hub. The country is much less reliant on oil and gas than in previous years and is economically focusing on tourism and business; the UAE government does not levy income tax although there is a system of corporate tax in place and value added tax was established in 2018 at 5%.
The UAE's rising international profile has led to it being recognised as a regional and a middle power. It is a member of the United Nations, the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, OPEC, the Non-Aligned Movement and the Gulf Cooperation Council; the land of the Emirates has been occupied for thousands of years. Stone tools recovered from Jebel Faya in the emirate of Sharjah reveal a settlement of people from Africa some 127,000 years ago and a stone tool used for butchering animals discovered at Jebel Barakah on the Arabian coast suggests an older habitation from 130,000 years ago. There is no proof of contact with the outside world at that stage, although in time lively trading links developed with civilisations in Mesopotamia and the Harappan culture of the Indus Valley; this contact persisted and became wide-ranging motivated by the trade in copper from the Hajar Mountains, which commenced around 3,000 BCE. Sumerian sources talk of the UAE as home to Magan people. There are six major periods of human settlement with distinctive behaviours in the pre-Islamic UAE, which includes the Hafit period from 3,200-2,600 BCE.
From 1,200 BC to the advent of Islam in Eastern Arabia, through three distinctive Iron Ages and the Mleiha period, the area was variously occupied by Achaemenid and other forces and saw the construction of fortified settlements and extensive husbandry thanks to the development of the falaj irrigation system. In ancient times, Al Hasa adjoined Greater Oman. From the second century AD, there was a movement of tribes from Al Bahreyn towards the lower Gulf, together with a migration among the Azdite Qahtani and Quda'ah tribal groups from south-west Arabia towards central Oman; the spread of Islam to the North Eastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula is thought to have followed directly from a letter sent by the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, to the rulers of Oman in 630 AD, nine years after the hijrah. This led to a group of rulers travelling to Medina, converting to Islam and subsequently driving a successful u
Chennai
Chennai is the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal, it is the biggest cultural and educational centre of south India. According to the 2011 Indian census, it is the sixth most populous city and fourth-most populous urban agglomeration in India; the city together with the adjoining regions constitute the Chennai Metropolitan Area, the 36th-largest urban area by population in the world. Chennai is among the most visited Indian cities by foreign tourists, it was ranked the 43rd most visited city in the world for the year 2015. The Quality of Living Survey rated Chennai as the safest city in India. Chennai attracts 45 percent of health tourists visiting India, 30 to 40 percent of domestic health tourists; as such, it is termed "India's health capital". As a growing metropolitan city in a developing country, Chennai confronts substantial pollution and other logistical and socio-economic problems. Chennai had the third-largest expatriate population in India at 35,000 in 2009, 82,790 in 2011 and estimated at over 100,000 by 2016.
Tourism guide publisher Lonely Planet named Chennai as one of the top ten cities in the world to visit in 2015. Chennai is ranked as a beta-level city in the Global Cities Index, was ranked the best city in India by India Today in the 2014 annual Indian city survey. In 2015 Chennai was named the "hottest" city by the BBC, citing the mixture of both modern and traditional values. National Geographic mentioned Chennai as the only South Asian city to feature in its 2015 "Top 10 food cities" list. Chennai was named the ninth-best cosmopolitan city in the world by Lonely Planet. In October 2017, Chennai was added to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network list for its rich musical tradition; the Chennai Metropolitan Area is one of the largest municipal economies of India. Chennai is nicknamed "The Detroit of India", with more than one-third of India's automobile industry being based in the city. Home to the Tamil film industry, Chennai is known as a major film production centre. Chennai has been selected as one of the 100 Indian cities to be developed as a smart city under Smart Cities Mission.
The name Chennai is of Telugu origin. It was derived from the name of a Telugu ruler Damarla Chennappa Nayakudu, father of Damarla Venkatapathy Nayak, a Nayak ruler who served as a general under Venkata III of the Vijayanagar Empire from whom the British acquired the town in 1639; the first official use of the name Chennai is said to be in a sale deed, dated 8 August 1639, to Francis Day of the East India Company before the Chennakesava Perumal Temple was built in 1646 while some scholars argue for the contrary. The name Madras is of native origin, has been shown to be in use before the British presence in India. A Vijayanagar-era inscription dated to the year 1367 that mentions the port of Mādarasanpattanam, along with other small ports on the east coast was discovered in 2015 and it was theorised that the aforementioned port is the fishing port of Royapuram. According to some sources, Madras was derived from Madraspattinam, a fishing-village north of Fort St George. However, it is uncertain.
The British military mapmakers believed Madras was Mundir-raj or Mundiraj,which was the name of a telugu community of rulers of nayakasThere are suggestions that it may have originated from a Portuguese phrase Mãe de Deus or Madre de Dios, which means "mother of God", due to Portuguese influence on the port city referring to a Church of St. Mary. In 1996, the Government of Tamil Nadu changed the name from Madras to Chennai. At that time many Indian cities underwent a change of name. However, the name Madras continues in occasional use for the city, as well as for places named after the city such as University of Madras, IIT Madras, Madras Institute of Technology, Madras Medical College, Madras Veterinary College, Madras Christian College. Stone age implements have been found near Pallavaram in Chennai. According to the Archaeological Survey of India, Pallavaram was a megalithic cultural establishment, pre-historic communities resided in the settlement; the region around Chennai has served as an important administrative and economic centre for many centuries.
During the 1st century CE, a poet and weaver named. From the 1st–12th century the region of present Tamil Nadu and parts of South India was ruled by the Cholas; the Pallavas of Kanchi built the areas of Mahabalipuram and Pallavaram during the reign of Mahendravarman I. They defeated several kingdoms including the Cheras and Pandyas who ruled over the area before their arrival. Sculpted caves and paintings have been identified from that period. Ancient coins dating to around 500 BC have been unearthed from the city and its surrounding areas. A portion of these findings belonged to the Vijayanagara Empire, which ruled the region during the medieval period; the Portuguese first arrived in 1522 and built a port called São Tomé after the Christian apostle, St. Thomas, believed to have preached in the area between 52 and 70 CE. In 1612, the Dutch established themselves near Pulicat, north of Chennai. On 20 August 1639 Francis Day of the East India Company along with the Nayak of Kalahasti Damarla Chennappa Nayakudu, travelled to the Chandragiri palace for an audience with the Vijayanager Emperor Peda Venkata Raya.
Day was seeking to obtain a grant for land on the Coromandel coast on which the Company could build a factory and warehouse for their trading activities and was successful i
Interstate Highway System
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States; the system is named for President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Construction was authorized by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, the original portion was completed 35 years although some urban routes were cancelled and never built; the network has since been extended. In 2016, it had a total length of 48,181 miles; as of 2016, about one-quarter of all vehicle miles driven in the country use the Interstate system. In 2006, the cost of construction was estimated at about $425 billion; the United States government's efforts to construct a national network of highways began on an ad hoc basis with the passage of the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916, which provided for $75 million over a five-year period for matching funds to the states for the construction and improvement of highways.
The nation's revenue needs associated with World War I prevented any significant implementation of this policy, which expired in 1921. In December 1918, E. J. Mehren, a civil engineer and the editor of Engineering News-Record, presented his "A Suggested National Highway Policy and Plan" during a gathering of the State Highway Officials and Highway Industries Association at the Congress Hotel in Chicago. In the plan, Mehren proposed a 50,000-mile system, consisting of five east–west routes and 10 north–south routes; the system would include two percent of all roads and would pass through every state at a cost of $25,000 per mile, providing commercial as well as military transport benefits. As the landmark 1916 law expired, new legislation was passed—the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921; this new road construction initiative once again provided for federal matching funds for road construction and improvement, $75 million allocated annually. Moreover, this new legislation for the first time sought to target these funds to the construction of a national road grid of interconnected "primary highways", setting up cooperation among the various state highway planning boards.
The Bureau of Public Roads asked the Army to provide a list of roads that it considered necessary for national defense. In 1922, General John J. Pershing, former head of the American Expeditionary Force in Europe during the war, complied by submitting a detailed network of 20,000 miles of interconnected primary highways—the so-called Pershing Map. A boom in road construction followed throughout the decade of the 1920s, with such projects as the New York parkway system constructed as part of a new national highway system; as automobile traffic increased, planners saw a need for such an interconnected national system to supplement the existing non-freeway, United States Numbered Highways system. By the late 1930s, planning had expanded to a system of new superhighways. In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave Thomas MacDonald, chief at the Bureau of Public Roads, a hand-drawn map of the United States marked with eight superhighway corridors for study. In 1939, Bureau of Public Roads Division of Information chief Herbert S. Fairbank wrote a report called Toll Roads and Free Roads, "the first formal description of what became the interstate highway system" and, in 1944, the themed Interregional Highways.
The Interstate Highway System gained a champion in President Dwight D. Eisenhower, influenced by his experiences as a young Army officer crossing the country in the 1919 Army Convoy on the Lincoln Highway, the first road across America. Eisenhower gained an appreciation of the Reichsautobahn system, the first "national" implementation of modern Germany's Autobahn network, as a necessary component of a national defense system while he was serving as Supreme Commander Of Allied Forces in Europe during World War II, he recognized that the proposed system would provide key ground transport routes for military supplies and troop deployments in case of an emergency or foreign invasion. The publication in 1955 of the General Location of National System of Interstate Highways, informally known as the Yellow Book, mapped out what became the Interstate Highway System. Assisting in the planning was Charles Erwin Wilson, still head of General Motors when President Eisenhower selected him as Secretary of Defense in January 1953.
The Interstate Highway System was authorized on June 29, 1956 by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956. Three states have claimed the title of first Interstate Highway. Missouri claims that the first three contracts under the new program were signed in Missouri on August 2, 1956; the first contract signed was for upgrading a section of US Route 66 to what is now designated Interstate 44. On August 13, 1956, Missouri awarded the first contract based on new Interstate Highway funding. Kansas claims. Preliminary construction had taken place before the act was signed, paving started September 26, 1956; the state marked its portion of I-70 as the first project in the United States completed under the provisions of the new Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. The Pennsylvania Turnpike could be considered one of the first Interstate Highways. On October 1, 1940, 162 miles of the highway now designated I‑70 and I‑76 opened between Irwin and Carlisle.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania refers to the turnpike as the Granddaddy of the Pikes. Milestones in the construction of the Interstate Highway System include: October 17, 1974: Nebraska becomes
Toms River, New Jersey
Toms River is a township in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States. Its mainland portion is a census-designated place of the same name, which serves as the county seat of Ocean County. Known as the Township of Dover, in 2006 voters approved a change of the official name to the Township of Toms River, adopting the name of the largest unincorporated community within the township; as of the 2010 United States Census, the township had a total population of 91,239, with the township ranking as the 8th-most-populous municipality in the state in 2010 and the second most-populous municipality in Ocean County. The 2010 population increased by 1,533 from the 89,706 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 13,335 from the 76,371 counted in the 1990 Census. In 2006, Toms River was ranked by Morgan Quitno Press as the 15th safest city in the United States, of 369 cities nationwide. In 2007, Toms River was again ranked as the 14th-safest city in the United States of 371 cities nationwide.
Toms River can be seen in various TV and news media including MTV's Made and Jersey Shore, HBO's Boardwalk Empire and the original The Amityville Horror movie. In 1998, Toms River East Little League won the Little League World Series; the township has. Much of the early history of the settlement of Toms River is obscured by conflicting stories. Various sources list the eponym of the township as either English captain William Tom and ferryman Thomas Luker, or a Native American named Tom. In 1992, as part of celebrations commemorating the township's 225th anniversary, official recognition was granted to the tradition that the "Tom" in "Toms River" was for Thomas Luker, who ran a ferry across Goose Creek. During the 19th century, Toms River became a center for shipbuilding, whaling and iron and lumber production; the settlement and the river were spelled "Tom's River" in its early days, though its current spelling has been standard since the middle of the 19th century. Toms River was located in the southern section of the Township of Shrewsbury that obtained a royal charter to secede in 1767 and form Dover Township.
During the American Revolutionary War, Toms River was home to a strategically important salt works that supplied colonial militias, as well as a base for privateer vessels that plundered British and Tory ships off the coast. In March 1782, a group of British and loyalist soldiers attacked a blockhouse along the river that housed the colonial militia and captured Captain Joshua Huddy, hanged at Sandy Hook. Destroyed were the salt works and most of the houses in the village; the incident complicated the tense relationship between the British and colonial and was a factor in prolonging the peace negotiations that were in progress in Paris until 1783. The village of Toms River is listed on both the national and state registers of historic places. Dover Township was incorporated as one of New Jersey's first 104 townships by the Township Act of 1798 of the New Jersey Legislature on February 21, 1798. Portions of the township were taken to form Jackson Township, Union Township, Brick Township, Manchester Township, Berkeley Township, Island Heights and Seaside Heights.
The township's original name was for Dover and was changed to Toms River Township based on a referendum passed in 2006. In 1850, Toms River became the county seat of the newly created Ocean County when it was formed out of southern Monmouth County. During the second half of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th, many new towns were carved out of Dover Township, including Brick, Jackson and Berkeley; the Village of Toms River attempted twice—in 1914 and 1926—to secede from Dover Township, but residents were unsuccessful. The part of Toms River on the south side of the river stretching down to Berkeley Township incorporated as South Toms River in 1927, but the core of the original village on the north side remains part of the wider township to this day. In the last two decades of the twentieth century, the demographics of the township changed adding over 20,000 residents just in the 1990s. While the village is still the center of municipal and county government, the population in the area exploded in the decades after World War II, due in part to the completion of the Garden State Parkway.
Whereas the village was the largest and most densely populated section of the township for over two centuries, the vast majority of residents now shop and work in other sections of the town. Toms River made international headlines in the 1990s with their Little League Baseball team, nicknamed "Beast from the East", which competed in the Little League World Series three times in five years, winning in 1998 when they defeated Japan by a score of 12–9. More than 40,000 people lined Route 37 for a parade following their victory over Japan. Toms River Little League made it to Williamsport in 2010 giving Toms River its record fourth Mid-Atlantic championship. Toms River is home to many National Champion Pop Warner Football and Cheerleading titles. 1996 Toms River Raider Jr. PeeWee Football team won a National Championship. Cheerleaders from the Toms River Little Indians, Toms River Raiders, the Toms River Angels have won many National Titles; the first National Championship title was won in 1993 by the Toms River Little Indian Midget Cheer squad.
In 2001, 2002, 2003 the Toms Ri
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