1.
USS Ranger (CV-61)
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The seventh USS Ranger was one of four Forrestal-class supercarriers built for the United States Navy in the 1950s. Although all four ships of the class were completed with angled decks, commissioned in 1957, she served extensively in the Pacific, especially the Vietnam War, for which she earned 13 battle stars. Near the end of her career, she served in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. Ranger appeared on television in The Six Million Dollar Man and Baa Baa Black Sheep, and in the films Top Gun, Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home, Ranger was decommissioned in 1993, and was stored at Bremerton, Washington until March 2015. She is currently being scrapped in Brownsville, Ranger was the first American aircraft carrier to be laid down as an angled-deck ship. She was laid down 2 August 1954 by Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Virginia, launched 29 September 1956, sponsored by Mrs. Arthur Radford and commissioned at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard 10 August 1957, Captain Charles T. Atlantic Fleet on 3 October 1957, just prior to sailing on 4 October for Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for shakedown, she received the men and planes of Attack Squadron 85. She conducted air operations, individual ship exercises, and final acceptance trials along the eastern seaboard and she then departed Norfolk, Virginia, with 200 Naval Reserve officer candidates for a two-month cruise that took the carrier around Cape Horn. She arrived at her new homeport, Naval Air Station Alameda, Alameda, California, on 20 August, the carrier spent the remainder of 1958 in pilot qualification training for Air Group 14 and fleet exercises along the California coast. Air operations off Okinawa were followed by maneuvers with SEATO naval units out of Subic Bay, a special weapons warfare exercise and a patrol along the southern seaboard of Japan followed. During this first WestPac deployment, Ranger launched more than 7,000 sorties in support of 7th Fleet operations and she returned to San Francisco Bay 27 July. During the next 6 months, Ranger was kept in a state of readiness through participation in exercises. With Carrier Air Group 9 embarked, she departed Alameda on 6 February 1960 for a second WestPac deployment, from 11 August 1961 through 8 March 1962, Ranger deployed to the Far East a third time. The next seven months were filled with intensive training along the seaboard in preparation for operations in Southeast Asia. Ranger departed Alameda on 9 November for brief operations off Hawaii, thence proceeded, via Okinawa and she steamed to the South China Sea 1 May 1963 to support possible Laotian operations. When the political situation in Laos relaxed 4 May, she resumed her operations schedule with the 7th Fleet, arriving at Alameda from the Far East 14 June 1963, she underwent overhaul in the San Francisco Naval Shipyard 7 August 1963 through 10 February 1964. Refresher training out of Alameda commenced 25 March, interrupted by a cruise to Hawaii from 19 June to 10 July. Ranger again sailed for the Far East on 6 August 1964 and this deployment came on the heels of the Gulf of Tonkin incident
2.
Long Beach, California
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Long Beach is the 36th most populous city in the United States and the 7th most populous in California. It is located on the Pacific Coast of the United States, as of 2010, its population was 462,257. Long Beach is the second largest city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the Port of Long Beach is the second busiest container port in the United States and is among the worlds largest shipping ports. The city also maintains a progressively declining oil industry with minor wells located both directly beneath the city as well as offshore, manufacturing sectors include those in aircraft, automotive parts, electronic equipment, audiovisual equipment, petrochemicals, precision metals and home furnishings. Long Beach lies in the corner of Los Angeles County. Downtown Long Beach is approximately 22 miles south of Downtown Los Angeles, indigenous people have lived in coastal Southern California for over 10,000 years, and several successive cultures have inhabited the present-day area of Long Beach. By the 16th-century arrival of Spanish explorers, the dominant group were the Tongva people and they had at least three major settlements within the present-day city. Tevaaxaanga was a settlement near the Los Angeles River, while Ahwaanga and Povuunga were coastal villages. Along with other Tongva villages, they were forced to relocate in the century due to missionization, political change. In 1784 the Spanish Empires King Carlos III granted Rancho Los Nietos to Spanish soldier Manuel Nieto, the Rancho Los Cerritos and Rancho Los Alamitos were divided from this territory. The boundary between the two ran through the center of Signal Hill on a southwest to northeast diagonal. A portion of western Long Beach was originally part of the Rancho San Pedro and its boundaries were in dispute for years, due to flooding changing the Los Angeles River boundary, between the ranchos of Juan Jose Dominguez and Manuel Nieto. In 1843 Jonathan Temple bought Rancho Los Cerritos, having arrived in California in 1827 from New England and he built what is now known as the Los Cerritos Ranch House, a still-standing adobe which is a National Historic Landmark. Temple created a cattle ranch and prospered, becoming the wealthiest man in Los Angeles County. Both Temple and his house played important local roles in the Mexican–American War. On an island in the San Pedro Bay, Mormon pioneers made an attempt to establish a colony. Two years previous Flint, Bixby & Co had also purchased along with Northern California associate James Irvine, to manage Rancho Los Cerritos, the company selected Lewellyns brother Jotham Bixby, the Father of Long Beach. Three years later Bixby bought into the property and would form the Bixby Land Company
3.
San Pedro, Los Angeles
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San Pedro is a community within the city of Los Angeles, California. Formerly a separate city, it consolidated with Los Angeles in 1909, the Port of Los Angeles, a major international seaport, is partially located within San Pedro. The district has grown from being dominated by the industry to become primarily a working class community within the city of Los Angeles. The site, at the end of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The peninsula, including all of San Pedro, was the homeland of the Tongva-Gabrieleño Native American people for thousands of years, in other areas of the Los Angeles Basin archeological sites date back 8, 000–15,000 years. The Tongva believe they have been here since the beginning of time, once called the lords of the ocean, due to their mastery of oceangoing canoes, many Tongva villages covered the coastline. Their first contact with Europeans in 1542 with João Cabrilho, the Portuguese explorer who also was the first to write of them, chowigna and Suangna were two Tongva settlements of many in the peninsula area, which was also a departure point for their rancherias on the Channel Islands. Legend has it that the Native Americans blessed the land of Palos Verdes, the Tongva called the San Pedro area Chaaw. San Pedro was named for St. Peter of Alexandria, a bishop in Alexandria. His feast day is November 24 on the ecclesiastical calendar of Spain. Santa Catalina Island, named after Catherine of Alexandria, was claimed for the Spanish Empire the next day, on her feast day, in 1602–1603, Sebastián Vizcaíno officially surveyed and mapped the California coastline, including San Pedro Bay, for New Spain. The anglicized pronunciation, popularized by the English-speaking people of Midwestern America, is san-PEE-dro, european settlement began in 1769 as part of an effort to populate California, although trade restrictions encouraged more smuggling than regular business. Rancho San Pedro is the site of the first Spanish land grant in Alta California, the land was granted in 1784 by King Carlos III to Juan Jose Dominguez, a retired Spanish soldier who came to California with the Gaspar de Portolà expedition. When New Spain won its independence from the Spanish Empire and Alta California became part of Mexico, the restrictions were lifted. In 1888, the War Department took control of a tract of land next to the bay and this became Fort MacArthur in 1914 and was a coastal defense site for many years. Woodrow Wilson transferred 200 United States Navy ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 1919 when tension arose between the United States and Japan over the fate of China. San Diego Bay was considered too shallow for the largest ships, local availability of fuel oil minimized transportation costs, and consistently good weather allowed frequent gunnery exercises off the nearby Channel Islands of California. The heavy cruisers of the Scouting Force were transferred from the Atlantic to San Pedro in response to the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria, by 1934,14 battleships, two aircraft carriers,14 cruisers, and 16 support ships were based at San Pedro
4.
Los Angeles International Airport
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It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually. LAX is in the southwestern Los Angeles area along the Pacific Ocean between the neighborhood of Westchester to its north and the city of El Segundo to its immediate south. It is owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports, an agency of the government of Los Angeles, formerly known as the Department of Airports. In 2015, LAX handled 74,936,256 passengers, the airport holds the claim for the worlds busiest origin and destination airport, and has for many years. To wit, relative to airports, many more travelers begin or end their trips in Los Angeles than use it as a connection. The airport also was the third busiest by aircraft movements. It is also the airport to rank among the top five U. S. airports for both passenger and cargo traffic. It is also notable for being one of the few U. S. airports with four parallel runways, LAX serves as a hub for Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and Virgin America. The airport serves as a city for Allegiant Air, Air New Zealand, Qantas, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines. LAX serves as either a hub or focus city for more Mainline US Carriers than any airport in the Country and is the only airport that all three legacy carriers have designated a hub. As the largest international airport on the U. S, West Coast, LAX is a major gateway to and from Europe, Latin America, Asia and Oceania. With its deep connections to Asia and Latin America in particular, in 1928, the Los Angeles City Council selected 640 acres in the southern part of Westchester for a new airport. The fields of wheat, barley and lima beans were converted into dirt landing strips without any terminal buildings and it was named Mines Field for William W. Mines, the real estate agent who arranged the deal. 1, was erected in 1929 and is in the National Register of Historic Places, Mines Field opened as the airport of Los Angeles in 1930 and the city purchased it to be a municipal airfield in 1937. The name became Los Angeles Airport in 1941 and Los Angeles International Airport in 1949, in the 1930s the main airline airports were Burbank Airport in Burbank and the Grand Central Airport in Glendale. Mines Field did not extend west of Sepulveda Boulevard, Sepulveda was rerouted circa 1950 to loop around the west ends of the extended east–west runways, which by November 1950 were 6,000 feet long. A tunnel was completed in 1953 allowing Sepulveda Boulevard to revert to straight, for the next few years the two runways were 8,500 feet long. Before the 1930s, existing airports used a two-letter abbreviation based on the stations at the airports
5.
Dry dock
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A dry dock is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, and repair of ships, boats, the use of dry docks in China goes at least as far back the 10th century A. D. The upper works included several decks with cabins and saloons. After many years, their hulls decayed and needed repairs, so in the Hsi-Ning reign period a palace official Huang Huai-Hsin suggested a plan. A large basin was excavated at the end of the Chin-ming Lake capable of containing the dragon ships. Then so that the quickly filled with water, after which the ships were towed in above the beams. The the water was pumped out by wheels so that the ships rested quite in the air, when the repairs were complete, the water was let in again, so that the ships were afloat once more. The first English and oldest surviving dry dock still in use was commissioned by Henry VII of England at HMNB Portsmouth in 1495 and this dry dock currently holds the worlds oldest commissioned warship, HMS Victory. Possibly the earliest description of a floating dock comes from a small Italian book printed in Venice in 1560, called Descrittione dellartifitiosa machina. In the booklet, an unknown author asks for the privilege of using a new method for the salvaging of a ship and then proceeds to describe. The included woodcut shows a ship flanked by two large floating trestles, forming a roof above the vessel, the ship is pulled in an upright position by a number of ropes attached to the superstructure. The Alfredo da Silva Dry Dock, of the Lisnave Dockyards in Almada, Portugal, was the largest in the world until 2000, harland and Wolff Heavy Industries in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is the site of a large dry dock 556 by 93 metres. The massive cranes are named after the Biblical figures Samson and Goliath, Goliath stands 96 m tall, while Samson is taller at 106 m. The Saint-Nazaires Chantiers de lAtlantique owns one of the biggest in the world,1,200 by 60 metres, the largest graving dock of the Mediterranean as of 2009 is at the Hellenic Shipyards S. A. The largest roofed dry dock is at the German Meyer Werft Shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, it is 504 m long,125 m wide, Dry Dock 12 at Newport News Shipbuilding is 662 by 76 metres the largest dry dock in the USA. The largest floating-dock in North America named The Vigorous and it is operated Vigor Industries in Portland, OR, in the Swan Island industrial area along the Willamette River. The keel blocks as well as the block are placed on the floor of the dock in accordance with the docking plan of the ship. Routine use of dry docks is for the graving i. e. the cleaning, removal of barnacles and rust, some fine-tuning of the ships position can be done by divers while there is still some water left to manoeuvre it about
6.
Kriegsmarine
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The Kriegsmarine was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire and the inter-war Reichsmarine, the Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches—along with the Heer and the Luftwaffe —of the Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany. The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly during German naval rearmament in the 1930s, Kriegsmarine ships were deployed to the waters around Spain during the Spanish Civil War, under the guise of enforcing non-intervention, but in reality supporting the Franco side of the war. In January 1939 Plan Z was ordered, calling for naval parity with the Royal Navy by 1944, however, when World War II broke out in September 1939, Plan Z was shelved in favour of building submarines and prioritizing land and air forces. The Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine was Adolf Hitler, who exercised his authority through the Oberkommando der Marine, the Kriegsmarines most famous ships were the U-boats, most of which were constructed after Plan Z was abandoned at the beginning of World War II. However, the adoption of convoy escorts, especially in the Atlantic, after the Second World War, the Kriegsmarines remaining ships were divided up amongst the Allied powers and were used for various purposes including minesweeping. Adolf Hitler was the Commander-in-Chief of all German armed forces, including the Kriegsmarine and his authority was exercised through the Oberkommando der Marine, or OKM, with a Commander-in-Chief, a Chief of Naval General Staff and a Chief of Naval Operations. The first Commander-in-Chief of the OKM was Erich Raeder who was the Commander-in-Chief of the Reichsmarine when it was renamed and reorganized in 1935, Raeder held the post until falling out with Hitler after the German failure in the Battle of the Barents Sea. He was replaced by Karl Dönitz on 30 January 1943 who held the command until he was appointed President of Germany upon Hitlers suicide in April 1945, hans-Georg von Friedeburg was then Commander-in-Chief of the OKM for the short period of time until Germany surrendered in May 1945. Subordinate to these were regional, squadron and temporary flotilla commands, regional commands covered significant naval regions and were themselves sub-divided, as necessary. They were commanded by a Generaladmiral or an Admiral, there was a Marineoberkommando for the Baltic Fleet, Nord, Nordsee, Norwegen, Ost/Ostsee, Süd and West. The Kriegsmarine used a form of encoding called Gradnetzmeldeverfahren to denote regions on a map, each squadron also had a command structure with its own Flag Officer. The commands were Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers, Submarines, Torpedo Boats, Minesweepers, Reconnaissance Forces, Naval Security Forces, Big Guns and Hand Guns, major naval operations were commanded by a Flottenchef. The Flottenchef controlled a flotilla and organized its actions during the operation, the commands were, by their nature, temporary. As a result the German surface fleet was plagued by design flaws throughout the war, military aircraft were also banned, so Germany could have no naval aviation. Under the treaty Germany could only build new ships to replace old ones, All the ships allowed and personnel were taken over from the Kaiserliche Marine, renamed Reichsmarine. From the outset, Germany worked to circumvent the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. The launching of the first pocket battleship, Deutschland in 1931 was a step in the formation of a modern German fleet, modern destroyers and light cruisers were also built
7.
USS Missouri (BB-63)
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USS Missouri is a United States Navy Iowa-class battleship and was the third ship of the U. S. Navy to be named after of the U. S. state of Missouri. Missouri was the last battleship commissioned by the United States and was best remembered as the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan which ended World War II, Missouri was ordered in 1940 and commissioned in June 1944. In the Pacific Theater of World War II she fought in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and shelled the Japanese home islands, in 1998, she was donated to the USS Missouri Memorial Association and became a museum ship at Pearl Harbor. Missouri was one of the Iowa-class fast battleship designs planned in 1938 by the Preliminary Design Branch at the Bureau of Construction and Repair. She was laid down at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on 6 January 1941, launched on 29 January 1944, the ship was the third of the Iowa class, but the fourth and final Iowa-class ship commissioned by the U. S. Navy. The ship was christened at her launching by Mary Margaret Truman, daughter of Harry S. Truman, Missouris main battery consisted of nine 16 in /50 cal Mark 7 guns, which could fire 2,700 lb armor-piercing shells some 20 mi. Her secondary battery consisted of twenty 5 in /38 cal guns in twin turrets, Missouri was the last U. S. battleship to be completed. Wisconsin, the highest-numbered U. S. battleship built, was completed before Missouri and she stood out of San Francisco Bay on 14 December and arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 24 December 1944. She departed Hawaii on 2 January 1945 and arrived in Ulithi, there she was temporary headquarters ship for Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher. Missouri then steamed with the carriers to Iwo Jima where her main guns provided direct, after TF58 returned to Ulithi on 5 March, Missouri was assigned to the Yorktown carrier task group. On 14 March, Missouri departed Ulithi in the screen of the fast carriers, during strikes against targets along the coast of the Inland Sea of Japan beginning on 18 March, Missouri shot down four Japanese aircraft. Raids against airfields and naval bases near the Inland Sea and southwestern Honshū continued, Missouri rejoined the screen of the carriers as Marine and Army units stormed the shores of Okinawa on the morning of 1 April. An attack by Japanese forces was repulsed successfully, on 11 April, a low-flying kamikaze Zero, although fired upon, crashed on Missouris starboard side, just below her main deck level. The starboard wing of the plane was thrown far forward, starting a fire at 5 in Gun Mount No.3. The battleship suffered only superficial damage, and the fire was quickly under control. The remains of the pilot were recovered on board the ship just aft of one of the 40 mm gun tubs, the following day he was buried at sea with military honors. About 23,05 on 17 April, Missouri detected an enemy submarine 12 mi from her formation and her report set off a hunter-killer operation by the light carrier Bataan and four destroyers, which sank the Japanese submarine I-56. Missouri was detached from the task force off Okinawa on 5 May
8.
USS New Jersey (BB-62)
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USS New Jersey is an Iowa-class battleship, and was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named after the US state of New Jersey. New Jersey earned more battle stars for combat actions than the three completed Iowa-class battleships, and was the only US battleship providing gunfire support during the Vietnam War. During World War II, New Jersey shelled targets on Guam and Okinawa, during the Korean War, she was involved in raids up and down the North Korean coast, after which she was decommissioned into the United States Navy reserve fleets, better known as the mothball fleet. She was briefly reactivated in 1968 and sent to Vietnam to support US troops before returning to the fleet in 1969. Reactivated once more in the 1980s as part of the 600-ship Navy program, New Jersey was modernized to carry missiles, in 1983, she participated in US operations during the Lebanese Civil War. After a brief retention in the fleet, she was donated to the Home Port Alliance in Camden, New Jersey. New Jersey was one of the Iowa-class fast battleship designs planned in 1938 by the Preliminary Design Branch at the Bureau of Construction and she was launched on 12 December 1942 and commissioned on 23 May 1943. The ship was the second of the Iowa class to be commissioned by the U. S. Navy, New Jerseys main battery consisted of nine 16/50 caliber Mark 7 guns in three three-gun turrets, which could fire 2, 700-pound armor-piercing shells some 23 miles. Her secondary battery consisted of twenty 5/38 caliber guns mounted in twin-gun dual purpose turrets, when reactivated in 1968, New Jersey had her 20 mm and 40 mm AA guns removed and was tailored for use as a heavy bombardment ship. When reactivated in 1982, New Jersey had four twin 5/38 caliber DP mounts removed, unlike the other Iowa-class battleships, New Jersey was named by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to repay a political debt, to then-New Jersey Governor Charles Edison. New Jersey completed fitting out and trained her initial crew in the Western Atlantic, on 7 January 1944 she passed through the Panama Canal war-bound for Funafuti, Ellice Islands. She reported there 22 January for duty with the United States Fifth Fleet, New Jersey began her career as a flagship 4 February in Majuro Lagoon when Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, commanding the 5th Fleet, broke his flag from her main. Her first action as a flagship was in Operation Hailstone, a two-day surface and this attack was coordinated with the assault on Kwajalein, and effectively interdicted the Japanese naval retaliation to the conquest of the Marshalls. New Jersey destroyed a trawler and, with ships, sank the destroyer Maikaze. New Jersey also fired on an aircraft that attacked her formation. The task force returned to the Marshalls 19 February, upon his return to Majuro, Admiral Spruance transferred his flag to Indianapolis. New Jerseys next war cruise,13 April –4 May 1944, began, New Jersey and her formation shot down two enemy torpedo bombers at Truk. Her 16 inch salvos pounded Ponape 1 May, destroying tanks, badly damaging the airfield
9.
Hughes H-4 Hercules
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The Hughes H-4 Hercules is a prototype strategic airlift flying boat designed and built by the Hughes Aircraft Company. Intended as a transatlantic flight transport for use during World War II, the aircraft made only one brief flight on November 2,1947, and the project never advanced beyond the single example produced. Built from wood because of restrictions on the use of aluminium and concerns about weight, it was nicknamed by critics the Spruce Goose. The Hercules is the largest flying boat built and has the largest wingspan of any aircraft in history. It remains in condition and is on display at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. War Department needed to transport war materiel and personnel to Britain, allied shipping in the Atlantic Ocean was suffering heavy losses to German U-boats, so a requirement was issued for an aircraft that could cross the Atlantic with a large payload. Wartime priorities meant the aircraft could not be made of strategic materials, the aircraft was the brainchild of Henry J. Kaiser, a leading Liberty ship builder. He teamed with aircraft designer Howard Hughes to create what would become the largest aircraft built at that time and it was designed to carry 150,000 pounds,750 fully equipped troops or two 30-ton M4 Sherman tanks. The original designation HK-1 reflected the Hughes and Kaiser collaboration, the HK-1 contract was issued in 1942 as a development contract and called for three aircraft to be constructed in two years for the war effort. Seven configurations were considered, including twin-hull and single-hull designs with combinations of four, six, the final design chosen was a behemoth, eclipsing any large transport then built. It would be mostly of wood to conserve metal, and was nicknamed the Spruce Goose or the Flying Lumberyard. While Kaiser had originated the flying cargo ship concept, he did not have a background and deferred to Hughes and his designer. Construction of the first HK-1 took place 16 months after the receipt of the development contract, Kaiser then withdrew from the project. Hughes continued the program on his own under the designation H-4 Hercules, work proceeded slowly, and the H-4 was not completed until well after the war was over. The specialized wood veneer was made by Roddis Manufacturing in Marshfield, hamilton Roddis had teams of young women ironing the strong birch wood veneer before shipping to California. A house moving company transported the airplane on streets to Pier E in Long Beach and they moved it in three large sections, the fuselage, each wing—and a fourth, smaller shipment with tail assembly parts and other smaller assemblies. After Hughes Aircraft completed final assembly, they erected a hangar around the flying boat, Howard Hughes was called to testify before the Senate War Investigating Committee in 1947 over the use of government funds for the aircraft. During a Senate hearing on August 6,1947, Hughes said and it is the largest aircraft ever built
10.
Panama Canal Zone
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The Panama Canal Zone was an unincorporated territory of the United States from 1903 to 1979, centered on the Panama Canal and surrounded by the Republic of Panama. Its border spanned two of Panamas provinces, when reservoirs were created to assure a steady supply of water for the locks, those lakes were included within the Zone. On February 26,1904, the Isthmian Canal Convention was proclaimed, from 1903 to 1979 the territory was controlled by the United States, which had built the canal and financed its construction. Proposals for a canal across the Isthmus of Panama date back to 1529, Álvaro de Saavedra Cerón, a lieutenant of conquistador Vasco Núñez de Balboa, suggested four possible routes, one of which closely tracks the present-day canal. Saavedra believed that such a canal would make it easier for European vessels to reach Asia, although King Charles I was enthusiastic and ordered preliminary works started, his officials in Panama soon realized that such an undertaking was beyond the capabilities of 16th-century technology. One official wrote to Charles, I pledge to Your Majesty that there is not a prince in the world with the power to accomplish this, the Spanish instead built a road across the isthmus. Although additional canal building proposals were made throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, the late 18th and early 19th centuries saw a number of canals built. The success of the Erie Canal in the United States and the collapse of the Spanish Empire in Latin America led to a surge of American interest in building an interoceanic canal. Beginning in 1826, US officials began negotiations with New Granada, jealous of their newly obtained independence and fearing that they would be dominated by an American presence, New Granadan officials declined American offers. The new nation was politically unstable, and Panama rebelled several times during the 19th century and his agreement was repudiated by the Jackson administration, which wanted rights to build a canal. In 1846, the new US envoy to Bogotá, Benjamin Bidlack, was surprised when, soon after his arrival, the resulting Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty allowed the United States to intervene militarily to ensure that the interoceanic road would not be disrupted. The treaty led the U. S. government to contract for service to Panama from ports on both coasts. When the California Gold Rush began in 1848, traffic through Panama greatly increased and this first transcontinental railroad opened in 1850. There were riots in Panama CIty in 1856, several Americans were killed, US warships landed Marines, who occupied the railroad station and kept the railroad service from being interrupted by the unrest. The demand was dropped in the face of resistance by New Granadan officials, through the remainder of the 19th century, the United States landed troops several times to preserve the railway connection. At the same time, it pursued a canal treaty with Colombia, one treaty, signed in 1868, was rejected by the Colombian Senate, which hoped for better terms from the incoming Grant administration. Under this treaty, the canal would have been in the middle of a 20-mile zone, under American management but Colombian sovereignty, the Grant administration did little to pursue a treaty, and in 1878, the concession to build the canal fell to a French firm. The French efforts eventually failed, but with Panama apparently unavailable, the Spanish–American War of 1898 added new life to the canal debate
11.
United States Secretary of the Navy
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The Secretary of the Navy is a statutory office and the head of the Department of the Navy, a military department within the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The Department of the Navy consists of two Uniformed Services, the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps. In effect, all authority within the Navy and Marine Corps, specifically enumerated responsibilities of the SECNAV in beforementioned section are, recruiting, organizing, supplying, equipping, training, mobilizing, and demobilizing. The Secretary also oversees the construction, outfitting, and repair of ships, equipment. The Secretary of the Navy is a member of the Defense Acquisition Board, chaired by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, the CNO and the Commandant act as the principal executive agents of the SECNAV within their respective services to implement the orders of the Secretary. The United States Navy Regulations is the principal regulatory document of the Department of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations and the Commandant of the Marine Corps have their own separate staffs, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations and Headquarters Marine Corps
12.
Gerald Desmond Bridge
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The Gerald Desmond Bridge is a through arch bridge that carries four lanes of Ocean Boulevard from Interstate 710 in Long Beach, California, west across the Back Channel to Terminal Island. The bridge is named after Gerald Desmond, a prominent civic leader, prior to 1944, the only road access to Terminal Island was via Badger Avenue over the Henry Ford Bridge. The pontoon bridge was intended to last six months, but was not replaced until 1968,24 years after it had opened, depending on the level of the tide, road traffic had to descend 17 to 25 feet below the level on the shore. When marine traffic required the bridge to open, traffic delays of up to 15 minutes could occur, an estimate of seven people died after driving off the pontoon bridge. The 1968 through-arch bridge was designed by Moffatt & Nichol Engineers and was constructed by Bethlehem Steel as a replacement for the World War II-era pontoon bridge. Gerald Desmond served as City Attorney for Long Beach and played a significant role in obtaining tideland oil funds which helped finance the bridge that would bear his name. Desmond died in office at age 48 of kidney cancer, one year after Desmonds death in January 1964, ground-breaking for the construction of the new bridge occurred on October 19,1965, and it was completed in June 1968. Desmonds son, also named Gerald, sank the final golden bolt and it has a 527-foot-long suspended main span and a 155-foot vertical clearance spanning the Cerritos Channel. The western terminus of the bridge is on the east side of Terminal Island, the bridge separates the inner harbor of the Port of Long Beach from the middle harbor. At the time of its completion in 1968, traffic was projected to be modest, by some estimates, truck traffic across the bridge tripled in the years following the closure of the Long Beach NSY. Studies to widen the bridge were funded in 1987, Caltrans rated the structural sufficiency of the Desmond Bridge at 43 points out of possible 100 in 2007. Also, since the 1968 bridge roadway lacks emergency/breakdown lanes, multiple lanes would be shut down in the event of an accident, the Gerald Desmond Bridge became a barrier for large ships entering the Inner Harbor at Long Beach, with its restrictive 155-foot vertical clearance. This restrictive vertical clearance was cited as a factor in a drop in the Port of Long Beachs share of United States container imports. According to U. S. census data, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles handled 32% of U. S. container imports in 2013, down from 39% in 2002. Port officials estimated that 10% of all cargo in the United States passed over the Desmond Bridge in 2004. In March 2012, the insufficient vertical clearance of the bridge prevented passage of the 12,562 TEU MSC Fabiola, the height restriction prevented the ship from docking at the Mediterranean Shipping Company dock, it docked at the Hanjin terminal instead. The 1968 steel arch bridge developed numerous issues, and the Port of Long Beach suggested it would be economical to replace the bridge. The new bridge will allow access to the port for the tallest container ships, for the bridge to be so tall, long approaches will be required to allow trucks to cross
