1.
Reflecting pool
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A reflecting pool or reflection pool is a water feature found in gardens, parks, and at memorial sites. It usually consists of a pool of water, undisturbed by fountain jets. Reflecting pools are designed with the outer basin floor at the rim slightly deeper than the central area to suppress wave formation. They can be as small as a bath to as large as a major civic element. Their origins are from ancient Persian gardens, the Miroir deau on Place de la Bourse in Bordeaux, France, is the worlds largest reflecting pool. The Mughal garden reflecting pools at the Taj Mahal in Agra, India Chehel Sotoun in Iran The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, the modernist Palácio do Planalto and Palácio da Alvorada in Brasília, Brazil The King Center in Atlanta, Georgia commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The National September 11 Memorial & Museum, located in New York City, has two reflecting pools on the location where the Twin Towers stood
2.
National Mall
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The National Mall is a national park in downtown Washington, D. C. the capital of the United States. The National Park Service administers the National Mall, which is part of its National Mall, a smaller designation, sometimes referred to as the Mall proper, excludes both the Capitol grounds and the Washington Monument grounds, applying only to an area between them. The National Mall contains a number of museums and memorials and receives approximately 24 million visitors each year, in his 1791 plan for the future city of Washington, D. C. The National Mall occupies the site of this grand avenue. The Washington Monument stands near the site of its namesakes equestrian statue. Mathew Careys 1802 map is reported to be the first to name the area west of the United States Capitol as the Mall, during the early 1850s, architect and horticulturist Andrew Jackson Downing designed a landscape plan for the Mall. Over the next century, federal agencies developed several naturalistic parks within the Mall in accordance with Downings plan. Two such areas were Henry Park and Seaton Park, in addition, railroad tracks crossed the Mall on 6th Street, west of the Capitol. Near the tracks, a market and a railroad station rose on the north side of the Mall. Greenhouses belonging to the U. S. Botanic Garden appeared near the east end of the Mall, the plan differed from LEnfants by replacing the 400 feet wide grand avenue with a 300 feet wide vista containing a long and broad expanse of grass. Four rows of American elm trees planted fifty feet apart between two paths or streets would line each side of the vista. Buildings housing cultural and educational institutions constructed in the Beaux-Arts style would line each outer path or street, on the opposite side of the path or street from the elms. In subsequent years, the vision of the McMillan plan was followed with the planting of American elms. In accordance with a plan that it completed in 1976, the NPS converted the two innermost boulevards into gravel walking paths, the two outermost boulevards remain paved and open to vehicular traffic. Although the Navy intended the buildings to provide quarters for the United States military during World War I. Much of the area then became Constitution Gardens, which was dedicated in 1976. From the 1970s to 1994, a model of a triceratops named Uncle Beazley stood on the Mall in front of the National Museum of Natural History. The life-size statue, which is now located at the National Zoological Park in Northwest Washington, in 2003, the 108th United States Congress enacted the Commemorative Works Clarification and Revision Act
3.
Lincoln Memorial
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The Lincoln Memorial is an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the end of the National Mall in Washington. Dedicated in 1922, it is one of several built to honor an American president. It has always been a major tourist attraction and since the 1930s has been a symbolic center focused on race relations and it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since October 15,1966. It is open to the public 24 hours a day, in 2007, it was ranked seventh on the List of Americas Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects. Since 2010, approximately 6 million people visit the memorial annually, the first public memorial to Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D. C. was a statue by Lot Flannery erected in front of the District of Columbia City Hall in 1868, three years after Lincolns assassination. Demands for a national memorial had been voiced since the time of Lincolns death. In 1867, Congress passed the first of many bills incorporating a commission to erect a monument for the sixteenth president, an American sculptor, Clark Mills, was chosen to design the monument. Subscriptions for the project were insufficient, the first five bills, proposed in the years 1901,1902, and 1908, met with defeat because of opposition from Speaker Joe Cannon. The sixth bill, introduced on December 13,1910, passed, the Lincoln Memorial Commission had its first meeting the following year and U. S. President William H. Taft was chosen as the commissions president. Progress continued at a pace and by 1913 Congress had approved of the Commissions choice of design. There were questions regarding the commissions plan, many thought that architect Henry Bacons Greek temple design was far too ostentatious for a man of Lincolns humble character. Instead they proposed a simple log cabin shrine, the site too did not go unopposed. The recently reclaimed land in West Potomac Park was seen by many to be too swampy or too inaccessible. Other sites, such as Union Station, were put forth, furthermore, the Potomac Park site had already been designated in the McMillan Plan of 1901 to be the location of a future monument comparable to that of the Washington Monument. With Congressional approval and a $300,000 allocation, the project got underway, on February 12,1914, a dedication ceremony was conducted and the following month the actual construction began. Work progressed steadily according to schedule, some changes were made to the plan. The statue of Lincoln, originally designed to be 10 feet tall, was enlarged to 19 feet to prevent it from being overwhelmed by the huge chamber
4.
Washington Monument
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It is the tallest monumental column in the world if all are measured above their pedestrian entrances. Although the stone structure was completed in 1884, internal ironwork, the knoll, a difference in shading of the marble, visible approximately 150 feet or 27% up, shows where construction was halted and later resumed with marble from a different source. The original design was by Robert Mills, but he did not include his proposed colonnade due to a lack of funds, despite many proposals to embellish the obelisk, only its original flat top was altered to a pointed marble pyramidion, in 1884. Upon completion, it became the worlds tallest structure, a previously held by the Cologne Cathedral. The monument held this designation until 1889, when the Eiffel Tower was completed in Paris, the monument was damaged during the 2011 Virginia earthquake and Hurricane Irene in the same year and remained closed to the public while the structure was assessed and repaired. After 32 months of repairs, the National Park Service and the Trust for the National Mall reopened the Washington Monument to visitors on May 12,2014, as of September 2016, the monument has been closed indefinitely due to reliability issues with the current elevator system. On December 2,2016, the National Park Service announced that the monument would be closed until 2019 in order to modernize the elevator. The $2 to 3 million project will correct the elevators ongoing mechanical, electrical and computer issues, the National Park Service has also requested funding in its FY2017 Presidents Budget Request to construct a permanent screening facility for the Washington Monument. The Washington Monument is expected to re-open to visitors in 2019, even his erstwhile enemy King George III called him the greatest character of the age. At his death in 1799 he left a legacy, he exemplified the core ideals of the American Revolution. Washington was the unchallenged public icon of American military and civic patriotism, starting with victory in the Revolution, there were many proposals to build a monument to Washington. After his death, Congress authorized a memorial in the national capital. The Republicans were dismayed that Washington had become the symbol of the Federalist Party and they also blocked his image on coins or the celebration of his birthday. Further political squabbling, along with the North-South division on the Civil War, by that time, Washington had the image of a national hero who could be celebrated by both North and South, and memorials to him were no longer controversial. As early as 1783, the Continental Congress had resolved That an equestrian statue of George Washington be erected at the place where the residence of Congress shall be established, currently, there are two equestrian statues of President Washington in Washington, D. C. Ten days after Washingtons death, a Congressional committee recommended a different type of monument, John Marshall, a Representative from Virginia proposed that a tomb be erected within the Capitol. Progress toward a memorial began in 1832. That year, which marked the 100th anniversary of Washingtons birth, in 1836, after they had raised $28,000 in donations, they announced a competition for the design of the memorial
5.
Henry Bacon
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Henry Bacon was an American Beaux-Arts architect who is best remembered for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D. C. which was his final project. Henry Bacon was born in Watseka, Illinois. C, the Confederate Memorial in Wilmington, North Carolina, and many other distinguished public buildings and monuments. In Turkey, he met his wife, Laura Florence Calvert. He traveled with another student, Albert Kahn who would become a leading industrial architect. In 1897, Bacon left MMW to found, with James Brite, an architect from the firm. There Brite was in charge of financial, administrative, and contracting aspects of the partnership, while Bacon was in charge of the architectural design and construction. The La Fetra Mansion was designed and built by Bacon, and his design was published in the September 1901 issue of Architecture, the LeFetra Mansion fully exhibits Bacons preference for Beaux-Arts Neo-Greek and Roman architecture style. His simple and elegant lines and his skill in dimensions and proportions gave rise to a stately elegance, peaceful tranquility, and a sense of divine protection. In 1897, Bacon was also approached by a group which was organized with the intent to raise public and private funds to build a monument in Washington, DC to memorialize Abraham Lincoln. The Brite and Bacon Partnership dissolved in 1902 partly resulting from Brites disagreement over Bacons passion, after that, Bacon practiced under his own name with significant success, building a large number of famous public buildings and monuments, until his death in 1924. In 1913, Bacon was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, Bacon was very active as a designer of monuments and settings for public sculpture. He designed the Court of the Four Seasons, for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, olin Memorial Library, one of Bacons buildings at Wesleyan University, houses many of Bacons documents and blueprints of the Lincoln Memorial. Bacon rarely found time to design for private residences, there are three known residential projects that are clearly his work. The first is the La Fetra Mansion in Summit, New Jersey, designed, Bacon skillfully integrated into a residential setting many of his signature Greek Revival and Roman Renaissance elements and proportions. The resulting elegance was astoundingly masterful, the La Fetra Mansion was commissioned by industrialist Harold A. La Fetra of the Royal Baking Powder Company, which merged with RJR Nebisco. The second is a mountain resort Donald McRae House in Wilmington. Its exterior bears similarity the La Fetra Mansion Bacon served as a member of the U. S, commission of Fine Arts from 1921 until his death in 1924
6.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
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Developed in response to the Great Recession, the ARRAs primary objective was to save existing jobs and create new ones as soon as possible. Other objectives were to provide relief programs for those most affected by the recession and invest in infrastructure, education, health. The approximate cost of the stimulus package was estimated to be $787 billion at the time of passage. Since its inception, the impact of the stimulus has been a subject of disagreement, studies on its effects have produced a range of conclusions, from strongly positive to strongly negative and all reactions in between. IGM Forum asked the question to leading economists in 2014. This new poll found 82% of leading economists strongly agreed or agreed that unemployment was lower in 2010 than it would have been without the stimulus. Revisiting the question about the benefits outweighing the costs, 56% strongly agreed or agreed that it did, 23% were uncertain, both the House and the Senate versions of the bills were primarily written by Democratic Congressional committee leaders and their staffs. Because work on the bills started before President Obama officially took office on January 20,2009, the House version of the bill, H. R.1, was introduced on January 26,2009. It was sponsored by Democrat David Obey, the House Appropriations Committee chairman, on January 23, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that the bill was on track to be presented to President Obama for him to sign into law before February 16,2009. Although 206 amendments were scheduled for floor votes, they were combined into only 11, on January 28,2009, the House passed the bill by a 244–188 vote. All but 11 Democrats voted for the bill, and 177 Republicans voted against it, the senate version of the bill, S.1, was introduced on January 6,2009, and later substituted as an amendment to the House bill, S. Amdt. It was sponsored by Harry Reid, the Majority Leader, co-sponsored by 16 other Democrats and Joe Lieberman, the Senate then began consideration of the bill starting with the $275 billion tax provisions in the week of February 2,2009. Republicans proposed several amendments to the bill directed at increasing the share of tax cuts, the Senate called a special Saturday debate session for February 7 at the urging of President Obama. The Senate voted, 61–36 on February 9 to end debate on the bill, on February 10, the Senate voted 61–37 All the Democrats voted in favor, but only three Republicans voted in favor. Specter switched to the Democratic Party later in the year, at one point, the Senate bill stood at $838 billion. Senate Republicans forced a near unprecedented level of changes in the House bill, the biggest losers were states and the low income workers with major gains for the elderly and high income tax-payers. Additional debt costs would add about $350 billion or more over 10 years, many provisions were set to expire in two years. The House had more funds appropriated for education, infrastructure and for aid to low income workers, direct cash payments Senate – $17 billion to give one-time $300 payments to recipients of Supplemental Security Income and Social Security, and veterans receiving disability and pensions
7.
National Park Service
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It was created on August 25,1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. As of 2014, the NPS employs 21,651 employees who oversee 417 units, the National Park Service celebrated its centennial in 2016. National parks and national monuments in the United States were originally individually managed under the auspices of the Department of the Interior, the movement for an independent agency to oversee these federal lands was spearheaded by business magnate and conservationist Stephen Mather, as well as J. Horace McFarland. With the help of journalist Robert Sterling Yard, Mather ran a publicity campaign for the Department of the Interior and they wrote numerous articles that praised the scenic and historic qualities of the parks and their possibilities for educational, inspirational, and recreational benefits. This campaign resulted in the creation of a National Park Service, Mather became the first director of the newly formed NPS. On March 3,1933, President Herbert Hoover signed the Reorganization Act of 1933, the act would allow the President to reorganize the executive branch of the United States government. It wasnt until later that summer when the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Roosevelt agreed and issued two Executive orders to make it happen. In 1951, Conrad Wirth became director of the National Park Service, the demand for parks after the end of the World War II had left the parks overburdened with demands that could not be met. In 1952, with the support of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, he began Mission 66, New parks were added to preserve unique resources and existing park facilities were upgraded and expanded. In 1966, as the Park Service turned 50 years old, emphasis began to turn from just saving great and wonderful scenery, Director George Hartzog began the process with the creation of the National Lakeshores and then National Recreation Areas. Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has managed each of the United States national parks, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the United States. In 1872, there was no government to manage it. Yosemite National Park began as a park, the land for the park was donated by the federal government to the state of California in 1864 for perpetual conservation. Yosemite was later returned to federal ownership, at first, each national park was managed independently, with varying degrees of success. In Yellowstone, the staff was replaced by the U. S. Army in 1886. Due to the irregularities in managing these national treasures, Stephen Mather petitioned the government to improve the situation. In response, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane challenged him to lobby for creating a new agency, Mather was successful with the ratification of the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916. Later, the agency was given authority over other protected areas, the National Park System includes all properties managed by the National Park Service
8.
Tidal Basin
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The Tidal Basin is a partially man-made reservoir between the Potomac River and the Washington Channel in Washington, D. C. It is part of West Potomac Park and is a point of the National Cherry Blossom Festival held each spring. The Jefferson Memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr, National Memorial, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, and the George Mason Memorial are situated adjacent to the Tidal Basin. The basin covers an area of about 107 acres and is 10 feet deep, peter Conover Hains, an engineering officer in the U. S. Army, oversaw the design and construction. The basin was initially named Twining Lake, in honor of Major William Johnson Twining, a 1917 Army Corps of Engineers map of Washington already shows the basin with the name Twining Lake. The Tidal Basin which exists today was not laid out until after World War II and it was built in 1949 by the construction firm of Alexander and Repass, which was unusual at that time because Alexander was of African descent and Repass was of European descent. The basin is designed to release 250 million US gallons of water captured at high tide twice a day, the inlet gates, located on the Potomac side of the basin, allow water to enter the basin during high tide. During this time, the gates, on the Washington Channel side, close to store incoming water and block the flow of water. As the tide begins to ebb, the outflow of water from the basin forces the inlet gates to close. This same force is applied to the gates, which open into the channel. Silt build up is swept away by the force of water running from the Tidal Basin through the channel. The gates are maintained as navigable by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, the bridge was designed by Paul Cret, begun in 1941, completed 1943 and altered with dedication in 1954. It is of concrete and steel on pilings, all granite faced, as part of the restoration and redesign of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, completed in 2012, water is pumped from the Tidal Basin to fill the pool. The Tidal Basin was the scene of a drunken incident involving the Chairman of the U. S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means. Mills was intoxicated and his face was cut from a scuffle with Foxe, when police approached the car, Foxe leapt from the car and jumped into the nearby Tidal Basin. Despite the scandal, Mills was re-elected to Congress in November 1974 with 60% of the vote, soon after this second embarrassment Mills was forced to step down from his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee. Mills eventually acknowledged his alcoholism, sought treatment at the West Palm Beach Institute and he did not seek re-election in 1976. From mid-March until October, paddle-boats are available for rent, the activity is very popular during the Cherry Blossom Festival, which takes place in April
9.
Drinking water
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Drinking water, also known as potable water or improved drinking water, is water that is safe to drink or to use for food preparation, without risk of health problems. Globally, in 2015, 91% of people had access to suitable for drinking. Nearly 4.2 billion had access to tap water while another 2.4 billion had access to wells or public taps,1.8 billion people still use an unsafe drinking water source which may be contaminated by feces. This can result in infectious diarrhea such as cholera and typhoid among others, the amount of drinking water required is variable. It depends on activity, age, health issues. It is estimated that the average American drinks about one litre of water a day with 95% drinking less than three litres per day, for those working in a hot climate, up to 16 liters a day may be required. Water makes up about 60% of weight in men and 55% of weight in women, infants are about 70% to 80% water while the elderly are around 45%. Typically in developed countries, tap water meets drinking water quality standards, other typical uses include washing, toilets, and irrigation. Greywater may also be used for toilets or irrigation and its use for irrigation however may be associated with risks. Water may also be due to levels of toxins or suspended solids. Reduction of waterborne diseases and development of water resources is a major public health goal in developing countries. Bottled water is sold for consumption in most parts of the world. The word potable came into English from the Late Latin potabilis, the amount of drinking water required is variable. It depends on activity, age, health, and environmental conditions. It is estimated that the average American drinks about one litre of water a day with 95% drinking less than three litres per day, for those working in a hot climate, up to 16 litres per day may be required. Some health authorities have suggested that at least eight glasses of eight fl oz each are required by an adult per day, the British Dietetic Association recommends 1.8 litres. However, various reviews of the evidence performed in 2002 and 2008 could not find any scientific evidence recommending eight glasses of water per day. An individuals thirst provides a guide for how much water they require rather than a specific
10.
Erosion
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In earth science, erosion is the action of surface processes that remove soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earths crust, then transport it away to another location. Eroded sediment or solutes may be transported just a few millimetres, the rates at which such processes act control how fast a surface is eroded. Feedbacks are also possible between rates of erosion and the amount of eroded material that is carried by, for example. Processes of erosion that produce sediment or solutes from a place contrast with those of deposition, while erosion is a natural process, human activities have increased by 10-40 times the rate at which erosion is occurring globally. At well-known agriculture sites such as the Appalachian Mountains, intensive farming practices have caused erosion up to 100x the speed of the rate of erosion in the region. Excessive erosion causes both on-site and off-site problems, on-site impacts include decreases in agricultural productivity and ecological collapse, both because of loss of the nutrient-rich upper soil layers. In some cases, the end result is desertification. Off-site effects include sedimentation of waterways and eutrophication of bodies, as well as sediment-related damage to roads. Intensive agriculture, deforestation, roads, anthropogenic climate change and urban sprawl are amongst the most significant human activities in regard to their effect on stimulating erosion, however, there are many prevention and remediation practices that can curtail or limit erosion of vulnerable soils. Rainfall, and the surface runoff which may result from rainfall, produces four types of soil erosion, splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion. Splash erosion is generally seen as the first and least severe stage in the erosion process. In splash erosion, the impact of a falling raindrop creates a crater in the soil. The distance these soil particles travel can be as much as 0.6 m vertically and 1.5 m horizontally on level ground. If the soil is saturated, or if the rate is greater than the rate at which water can infiltrate into the soil. If the runoff has sufficient flow energy, it will transport loosened soil particles down the slope, sheet erosion is the transport of loosened soil particles by overland flow. Rill erosion refers to the development of small, ephemeral concentrated flow paths which function as both sediment source and sediment delivery systems for erosion on hillslopes, generally, where water erosion rates on disturbed upland areas are greatest, rills are active. Flow depths in rills are typically of the order of a few centimetres or less and this means that rills exhibit hydraulic physics very different from water flowing through the deeper, wider channels of streams and rivers. Gully erosion occurs when water accumulates and rapidly flows in narrow channels during or immediately after heavy rains or melting snow
11.
Deep foundation
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A deep foundation is a type of foundation which transfers building loads to the earth farther down from the surface than a shallow foundation does, to a subsurface layer or a range of depths. A pile is a structural element of a deep foundation. There are different terms used to different types of deep foundations including the pile, the pier, drilled shafts. Piles are generally driven into the ground in situ, other foundations are typically put in place using excavation. The naming conventions may vary between engineering disciplines and firms, Deep foundations can be made out of timber, steel, reinforced concrete or prestressed concrete. Prefabricated piles are driven into the ground using a pile driver, driven piles are either wood, reinforced concrete, or steel. Wooden piles are made from the trunks of tall trees, concrete piles are available in square, octagonal, and round cross-sections. They are reinforced with rebar and are often prestressed, steel piles are either pipe piles or some sort of beam section. Foundations relying on driven piles often have groups of piles connected by a cap to distribute loads which are larger than one pile can bear. A monopile foundation utilizes a single, generally large-diameter, foundation structural element to all the loads of a large above-surface structure. A transition piece is attached to the now deeply driven pile, an additional layer of even larger stone, up to 0.5 m diameter, is applied to the surface of the seabed for longer-term erosion protection. Rotary boring techniques allow larger diameter piles than any other piling method, Construction methods depend on the geology of the site, in particular, whether boring is to be undertaken in dry ground conditions or through water-saturated strata - i. e. wet boring. Casing is often used when the sides of the borehole are likely to slough off before concrete is poured, for end-bearing piles, drilling continues until the borehole has extended a sufficient depth into a sufficiently strong layer. Depending on site geology, this can be a layer, or hardpan, or other dense. Both the diameter of the pile and the depth of the pile are highly specific to the conditions, loading conditions. Pile depths may vary substantially across a project if the layer is not level. Drilled piles can be tested using a variety of methods to verify the pile integrity during installation, under-reamed piles have mechanically formed enlarged bases that are as much as 6 m in diameter. The form is that of a cone and can only be formed in stable soils
12.
Clay
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Clay is a fine-grained natural rock or soil material that combines one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure. Clays are plastic due to water content and become hard, brittle. Depending on the content in which it is found, clay can appear in various colours from white to dull grey or brown to deep orange-red. Although many naturally occurring deposits include both silts and clay, clays are distinguished from other fine-grained soils by differences in size, silts, which are fine-grained soils that do not include clay minerals, tend to have larger particle sizes than clays. There is, however, some overlap in size and other physical properties. The distinction between silt and clay varies by discipline, geologists and soil scientists usually consider the separation to occur at a particle size of 2 µm, sedimentologists often use 4–5 μm, and colloid chemists use 1 μm. Geotechnical engineers distinguish between silts and clays based on the plasticity properties of the soil, as measured by the soils Atterberg limits, ISO14688 grades clay particles as being smaller than 2 μm and silt particles as being larger. These solvents, usually acidic, migrate through the rock after leaching through upper weathered layers. In addition to the process, some clay minerals are formed through hydrothermal activity. There are two types of deposits, primary and secondary. Primary clays form as residual deposits in soil and remain at the site of formation, secondary clays are clays that have been transported from their original location by water erosion and deposited in a new sedimentary deposit. Clay deposits are associated with very low energy depositional environments such as large lakes. Depending on the source, there are three or four main groups of clays, kaolinite, montmorillonite-smectite, illite, and chlorite. Chlorites are not always considered to be a clay, sometimes being classified as a group within the phyllosilicates. There are approximately 30 different types of clays in these categories. Varve is clay with visible annual layers, which are formed by deposition of those layers and are marked by differences in erosion. This type of deposit is common in glacial lakes
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