1.
United States Department of Transportation
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The United States Department of Transportation is a federal Cabinet department of the U. S. government concerned with transportation. It was established by an act of Congress on October 15,1966 and it is governed by the United States Secretary of Transportation. Prior to the Department of Transportation, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Transportation administered the functions now associated with the DOT, the awardees include light rail projects. Other projects include both a rail extension and a subway project in New York City, and a bus rapid transit system in Springfield. The budget provided funding for all of the projects currently receiving Recovery Act funding. It also continued funding for another 18 transit projects that are currently under construction or soon will be. Following the same the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014 delegates $600 million for Infrastructure Investments, the Department of Transportation was authorized a budget for Fiscal Year 2016 of $75.1 billion. e. Did not earn an overall grade
2.
United States Maritime Administration
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The United States Maritime Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Transportation. Its programs promote the use of transportation and its seamless integration with other segments of the transportation system. The Maritime Administration works in areas involving ships and shipping, shipbuilding, port operations, vessel operations, national security, environment. On June 4, Deputy Maritime Administrator Paul “Chip” Jaenichen was named Acting Maritime Administrator and he will serve in this role until the appointment and confirmation of a new Maritime Administrator. On August 6,1981, MARAD came under control of the Department of Transportation thereby bringing all transportation programs under one cabinet-level department, MARAD administers financial programs to develop, promote, and operate the U. S. Maritime Service and the U. S. S. Documented vessels to foreign registries, maintains equipment, shipyard facilities, the Maritime Subsidy Board negotiates contracts for ship construction and grants operating-differential subsidies to shipping companies. The Maritime Security Program authorizes MARAD to enter contracts with U. S. -flag commercial ship owners to provide service during times of war or national emergencies. As of 2007, ten companies have signed contracts providing the MSP with a reserve of sixty cargo vessels, United States Maritime Service, a training organization for the U. S
3.
United States Navy reserve fleets
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The United States Navy maintains a number of its ships as part of a reserve fleet, often called the Mothball Fleet. While the details of the maintenance activity have changed several times, in some cases, many ships were successfully reactivated at a considerable savings in time and money. The usual fate of ships in the fleet, though, is to become too old and obsolete to be of any use. In November 1976, the organization was the Inactive Ship Division of the Naval Ship Systems Command. Since 2004, the organization is called the Navy Inactive Fleet. As of 2011, the organization actually appears to be the Inactive Ships Management Office of the Program Executive Officer - Ships, Naval Sea Systems Command, Portsmouth. Merchant ships held in reserve are managed as part of the separate National Defense Reserve Fleet within MARAD, several of its sites, such as at Suisun Bay in California, are also used to store regular Navy ships. Ships placed in the fleets are categorized depending on priority, funding. Category B Ships in this category are prioritized over the other categories when it comes to maintenance and they are retained for possible future mobilization and will receive updates and upgrades as funding permits. Category C These are ships that will be maintained as-is, meaning no updates or improvements unless funding becomes available after that assigned for category B ships has been exhausted, category D Temporary state pending planned usage by the Navy, will be maintained as-is. Category X Ships stricken from the Naval Vessel Register awaiting disposal, receives no maintenance except ships on donation hold which undergoes dehumidification and cathodic protection. Category Z This category is for nuclear-powered ships and related support ships pending disposal, around 1912, the Atlantic Reserve Fleet and the Pacific Reserve Fleet were established as reserve units, still operating ships, but on a greatly reduced schedule. For example, USS Brock was underway for Green Cove Springs, Florida, Brock arrived there on 13 April 1945, and joined the Florida Group, 16th Fleet, which later became the Florida Group, Atlantic Reserve Fleet. S. These Liberty Ships were also used as the support vessel for its fleet of warships. It was a race between how fast the U. S. could build ships and how fast the German U-Boats could sink them. Most of these Liberty Ships when deactivated were put into mothball fleets strategically located around the coasts of the U. S and they began to be deactivated and scrapped in the early 1970s. The groups of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet were at Boston, Charleston, Green Cove Springs, Florida, New London, MOTBY/New York Harbor, Norfolk, Philadelphia, and Texas. The groups of the Pacific Reserve Fleet were at Alameda, Bremerton, Columbia River, Long Beach, Mare Island, San Diego, San Francisco, Stockton, Tacoma and Olympia, Washington
4.
James River
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The James River is a river in the U. S. state of Virginia. It is 348 miles long, extending to 444 miles if one includes the Jackson River, the James River drains a catchment comprising 10,432 square miles. The watershed includes about 4% open water and an area with a population of 2.5 million people and it is the 12th longest river in the United States that remains entirely within a single state. Tidal waters extend west to Richmond, the capital of Virginia, larger tributaries draining to the tidal portion include the Appomattox River, Chickahominy River, Warwick River, Pagan River, and the Nansemond River. At its mouth near Newport News Point, the Elizabeth River, many boats pass through this river to import and export Virginia products. The navigable portion of the river was the highway of the Colony of Virginia during its first 15 years, facilitating supply ships delivering supplies. However, for the first five years, despite many hopes of gold and riches, in 1612, businessman John Rolfe successfully cultivated a non-native strain of tobacco which proved popular in England. Soon, the became the primary means of exporting the large hogsheads of this cash crop from an ever-growing number of plantations with wharfs along its banks. This development made the efforts of the Virginia Company of London successful financially, spurring even more development, investments. The upper reaches of the river above the head of navigation at the line were explored by fur trading parties sent by Abraham Wood during the late 17th century. Although ocean-going ships were unable to navigate beyond present-day Richmond, portage of products, produce from the Piedmont and Great Valley regions traveled down the river to seaports at Richmond and Manchester through such port towns as Lynchburg, Scottsville, Columbia and Buchanan. The James River was considered as a route for transport of produce from the Ohio Valley, the James River and Kanawha Canal was built for this purpose, to provide a navigable portion of the Kanawha River, a tributary of the Ohio River. For the most mountainous section between the two points, the James River and Kanawha Turnpike was built to provide a link via wagons. However, before the canal could be completed, in the mid-19th century, railroads emerged as a more practical technology. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway was completed between Richmond and the Ohio River at the new city of Huntington, West Virginia by 1873, dooming the canals economic prospects. In the 1880s, the Richmond and Alleghany Railroad was laid along the portion of the canals towpath. In modern times, this line is used primarily in transporting West Virginia coal to export coal piers at Newport News. The James River contains numerous parks and other recreational attractions, canoeing, fishing, kayaking, hiking, and swimming are some of the activities that people enjoy along the river during the summer
5.
Virginia
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Virginia is a state located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, as well as in the historic Southeast. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are shaped by the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay, the capital of the Commonwealth is Richmond, Virginia Beach is the most populous city, and Fairfax County is the most populous political subdivision. The Commonwealths estimated population as of 2014 is over 8.3 million, the areas history begins with several indigenous groups, including the Powhatan. In 1607 the London Company established the Colony of Virginia as the first permanent New World English colony, slave labor and the land acquired from displaced Native American tribes each played a significant role in the colonys early politics and plantation economy. Although the Commonwealth was under one-party rule for nearly a century following Reconstruction, the Virginia General Assembly is the oldest continuous law-making body in the New World. The state government was ranked most effective by the Pew Center on the States in both 2005 and 2008 and it is unique in how it treats cities and counties equally, manages local roads, and prohibits its governors from serving consecutive terms. Virginias economy changed from agricultural to industrial during the 1960s and 1970s. Virginia has an area of 42,774.2 square miles, including 3,180.13 square miles of water. Virginias boundary with Maryland and Washington, D. C. extends to the mark of the south shore of the Potomac River. The southern border is defined as the 36° 30′ parallel north, the border with Tennessee was not settled until 1893, when their dispute was brought to the U. S. Supreme Court. The Chesapeake Bay separates the portion of the Commonwealth from the two-county peninsula of Virginias Eastern Shore. The bay was formed from the river valleys of the Susquehanna River. Many of Virginias rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay, including the Potomac, Rappahannock, York, and James, the Tidewater is a coastal plain between the Atlantic coast and the fall line. It includes the Eastern Shore and major estuaries of Chesapeake Bay, the Piedmont is a series of sedimentary and igneous rock-based foothills east of the mountains which were formed in the Mesozoic era. The region, known for its clay soil, includes the Southwest Mountains around Charlottesville. The Blue Ridge Mountains are a province of the Appalachian Mountains with the highest points in the state. The Ridge and Valley region is west of the mountains and includes the Great Appalachian Valley, the region is carbonate rock based and includes Massanutten Mountain. The Cumberland Plateau and the Cumberland Mountains are in the southwest corner of Virginia, in this region, rivers flow northwest, with a dendritic drainage system, into the Ohio River basin
6.
Beaumont, Texas
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Beaumont is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Texas in the United States, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. Beaumont was founded as a town in 1835 by Northerners, the early European-American settlement had an economy based on the development of lumber, farming, and port industries. Rice became an important commodity crop in Texas, and is now cultivated in 23 counties, a big change occurred in 1901 with the Spindletop gusher, which demonstrated the potential of the huge oil field. With Spindletop, several companies developed in Beaumont, and some continue. The area rapidly developed as one of the major petro-chemical refining areas in the country, along with Port Arthur and Orange, Beaumont forms the Golden Triangle, a major industrial area on the Texas Gulf Coast. Beaumont is home of Lamar University, a national Carnegie Doctoral Research university with 14,966 students, including undergraduates and post graduates. Over the years, several corporations have been based in this city, gSUs Edison Plaza headquarters is still the tallest building in Beaumont. In 1824 Noah and Nancy Tevis settled on the west bank of the Neches River, soon after that, a small community grew up around the farm, which was named Tevis Bluff or Neches River Settlement. They began planning a town to be out on this land. Their partnership, J. P. Pulsifer and Company, controlled the first 50 acres upon which the town was founded and this town was named Beaumont, after Jefferson Beaumont, the brother-in-law of Henry Millard. They added more property for a total of 200 acres, Beaumont became a town on 16 December 1838. Beaumonts first mayor was Alexander Calder, from the towns founding in 1835, business activities included real estate, transportation, and retail sales. Later, other businesses were formed, especially in construction and operation, new building construction, lumber sales. The Port of Beaumont became a regional shipping center. Beaumont was a center for cattle raisers and farmers in its early years. With an active riverport by the 1880s, it became an important lumber and it exported rice as a commodity crop. The Beaumont Rice Mill, founded in 1892 by Joseph Eloi Broussard, was the first commercially successful rice mill in Texas, in addition, Broussard founded a company to operate an irrigation system to support rice culture. This helped stimulate the expansion of cultivation from 1500 acres in 1892 to 400,000 acres in 23 counties by his death in 1956
7.
Suisun Bay
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Suisun Bay is a shallow tidal estuary in northern California. It lies at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, forming the entrance to the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, Suisun Marsh, the tidal marsh land to the north, is the largest marsh in California. Grizzly Bay forms an extension of Suisun Bay. The bay is directly north of Contra Costa County, the bay was named in 1811, after the Suisunes, a Native American tribe of the area. The word originates with the Patwin, on the west, Suisun Bay is drained by the Carquinez Strait, which connects to San Pablo Bay, a northern extension of San Francisco Bay. In addition to the bridges at the Carquinez Strait, it is spanned in its center by the Benicia-Martinez Bridge. It is the anchorage of the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet, a collection of U. S. Navy and merchant reserve ships, the Glomar Explorer was anchored here after recovering a sunken Soviet submarine in the mid-1970s. Many ships were removed and sold for scrap in the 1990s, in 2010, plans were announced to remove the mothball fleet in stages, with final removal by 2017. The Central Pacific Railroad built a ferry that operated between Benicia and Port Costa, California from 1879 to 1930. The ferry boats Solano and Contra Costa were removed from service when the nearby Martinez railroad bridge was completed in 1930, from 1913 until 1954 the Sacramento Northern Railway, an electrified interurban line, crossed Suisun Bay with the Ramon, a distillate-powered train ferry. Kinder Morgan pleaded guilty to operating a corroded pipeline and paid three dollars in penalties and restitution. Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet Kinder Morgan Information Regarding Pipeline Release Suisun Bays ghost fleet may finally R. I. P
8.
Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet
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The Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet is located on the northwest side of Suisun Bay. The fleet is within a regulated navigation area that is about 4 1/2 miles long and it begins just north of the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge and runs northeast, parallel to the shoreline. Water depths range from about 14 meters at Mean Lower Low Water at the foot of the anchorage, the U. S. Maritime Administration maintains the National Defense Reserve Fleet, a fleet of vessels that serve as a reserve of ships for national defense and national emergency purposes. The reserve fleet program was begun in 1946 at the end of World War II, at its peak in 1950, the program had more than 2,000 ships in lay-up. One of the reserve fleet storage sites is in Suisun Bay, only a small portion of vessels currently remain with the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet. In January 2016, the Department of Transportation and MARAD have officially announced the closure in February 2017. All remaining ships will be sold at auction or scrapped, the State of California and several environmental groups have raised concerns about the environmental impacts of the fleet. Potential concerns include heavy metals and anti-fouling agents in the paint that is peeling off of the vessels, as well as PCBs, congress responded to these concerns by funding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to design and implement a study of contaminants in the vicinity of the fleet. NOAAs Damage Assessment, Response and Restoration Program began work on this project in January 2008, NOAA deployed bivalve samples in June 2008 and collected sediment and bivalve tissue samples from the area in July 2008. A second field sampling event for additional tissue samples occurred in September and these samples were analyzed and a data report was delivered in early 2009. S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration at the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet site, under the agreement, MARAD will clean, maintain, and dispose of these ships in a manner that eliminates sources of Bay pollution. The Maritime Administration has already begun removing obsolete ships from Suisun Bay for recycling— several ships have left since November 2009, a total of 10 ships remain. Under the terms of the settlement, Hazardous paint debris collected on vessel decks will be removed within 120 days, all the obsolete ships currently located at the site will be cleaned of flaking paint within 2 years. Twenty-eight ships in the worst condition will be removed for disposal by September 30,2012, before their removal, these ships will be sent to a local drydock for cleaning. All the obsolete ships currently located at the site will be removed for disposal by September 30,2017, prior to removal, the ships will be maintained according to locally approved best management practices, as monitored by the Regional Board. No new ships with excess flaking paint will be admitted to the fleet site
9.
Stony Point, New York
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Stony Point is a triangle-shaped town in Rockland County, New York, United States. It is part of the New York City Metropolitan Area, the town is located north of the town of Haverstraw, east and south of Orange County, New York, and west of the Hudson River and Westchester County. The population was 15,059 at the 2010 census, the name of the town is derived from a prominent projection into the Hudson River. The town is in the northeast part of the county, U. S. Route 9W, U. S. Route 202, and the Palisades Interstate Parkway are major north-south routes through the town. Stony Point is included in the North Rockland Central School District and it is the most rural out of the 5 towns in Rockland County. The Americans were unable to hold the fort for more than a few days and this may or may not have contributed to Anthony Wayne earning his nickname of Mad Anthony Wayne. The economy of the town increased upon the rediscovery of limestone deposits in the 19th century, the town of Stony Point was founded in 1865 from the northern part of the town of Haverstraw. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has an area of 31.6 square miles, of which 27.6 square miles is land and 4.0 square miles. The western town line is the border of Orange County, New York, as of the census of 2000, there were 14,245 people,4,832 households, and 3,802 families residing in the town. The population density was 511.7 people per square mile, there were 4,951 housing units at an average density of 177.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of the town was 94. 33% White,1. 27% Black or African American,0. 19% Native American,1. 29% Asian,0. 02% Pacific Islander,1. 66% from other races, and 1. 24% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6. 84% of the population,17. 3% of all households were made up of individuals and 8. 1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.92 and the family size was 3.33. In the town, the population was out with 26. 1% under the age of 18,6. 6% from 18 to 24,30. 6% from 25 to 44,24. 9% from 45 to 64. The median age was 38 years, for every 100 females there were 97.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.0 males, the median income for a household in the town was $71,940, and according to CNN Money the median income for a family was $97,633. Males had an income of $55,727 versus $36,424 for females. The per capita income for the town was $28,244, in comparison, the average salary in 2010 for a full-time Stony Point police officer was $126,895
10.
Wilmington, North Carolina
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Wilmington is a port city and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States. The population is 112,067, according to the 2010 Census it is the eighth most populous city in the state, Wilmington was settled by European Americans along the Cape Fear River. Its historic downtown has a one-mile-long Riverwalk, originally developed as a tourist attraction and it is minutes away from nearby beaches. The National Trust for Historic Preservation named Wilmington, North Carolina, in 2003 the city was designated by the US Congress as a Coast Guard City. It is the port for the USCGC Diligence, a United States Coast Guard medium endurance cutter. The World War II battleship USS North Carolina is held as a war memorial, located across from the port area. Other attractions include the Cape Fear Museum, the Wilmington Hammerheads United Soccer Leagues soccer team, Wilmington is the home of EUE Screen Gems Studios, the largest domestic television and movie production facility outside of California. Dream Stage 10, the facilitys newest sound stage, is the third-largest in the US and it houses the largest special-effects water tank in North America. After the studios opening in 1984, Wilmington became a center of American film. Numerous movies in a range of genres and several series, including Iron Man 3, Foxs Sleepy Hollow, One Tree Hill, Dawsons Creek. In recent years, however, the end of tax credits to the industry has severely impacted filmmaking in the entire area. The area had long inhabited by various cultures of indigenous peoples, at the time of European encounter. The ethnic European and African history of Wilmington spans more than two and a half centuries, giovanni da Verrazano is reportedly the first European to observe the area, including the citys present site, in the early 16th century. The first permanent European settlement in the area came in the 1720s when English colonists began settling the area, in September 1732, a community was founded on land owned by John Watson on the Cape Fear River, at the confluence of its northwest and northeast branches. The settlement, founded by the first royal governor, George Burrington, was called New Carthage, governor Gabriel Johnston soon after established his government there for the North Carolina colony. In 1739 or 1740, the town was incorporated with a new name, Wilmington, in honor of Spencer Compton, many of the settlers were indentured servants, mainly from the British Isles and northern Europe. As the indentured servants gained their freedom, the colonists imported a number of African slaves as laborers into the port city. By 1767, slaves accounted for more than 62% of the population of the Lower Cape Fear region, many worked in the port as laborers, and some in ship-related trades
11.
Mobile, Alabama
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Mobile is the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. Alabamas only saltwater port, Mobile is located at the head of the Mobile Bay, Mobile is the principal municipality of the Mobile metropolitan area. This region of 412,992 residents is composed solely of Mobile County, Mobile is the largest city in the Mobile-Daphne−Fairhope CSA, with a total population of 604,726, the second largest in the state. As of 2011, the population within a 60-mile radius of Mobile is 1,262,907, Mobile began as the first capital of colonial French Louisiana in 1702. During its first 100 years, Mobile was a colony of France, then Britain, Mobile first became a part of the United States of America in 1813, with the annexation of West Florida under President James Madison. In 1861 Alabama joined the Confederate States of America, which surrendered in 1865, Mobile is known for having the oldest organized Carnival celebrations in the United States. The festival began to be celebrated in the first decade of the 18th century by its first French Catholic colonial settlers. Mobile was host to the first formally organized Carnival mystic society, known elsewhere as a krewe, to celebrate with a parade in the United States, in 2005 the first integrated mystic society had a parade for Mardi Gras. The city gained its name from the Mobile tribe that the French colonists encountered living in the area of Mobile Bay. The Mobile tribe, along with the Tohomé, obtained permission from the colonists, about seven years after the founding of the Mobile settlement, to settle near the fort. It was founded by French Canadian brothers Pierre Le Moyne dIberville and Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, Bienville was appointed as royal governor of French Louisiana in 1701. Mobiles Roman Catholic parish was established on July 20,1703, by Jean-Baptiste de la Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier, the parish was the first French Catholic parish established on the Gulf Coast of the United States. In 1704 the ship Pélican delivered 23 French women to the colony, though most of the Pélican girls recovered, numerous colonists and neighboring Native Americans contracted the disease in turn and died. This early period was also the occasion of the importation of the first African slaves, the population of the colony fluctuated over the next few years, growing to 279 persons by 1708, yet descending to 178 persons two years later due to disease. A new earth-and-palisade Fort Louis was constructed at the new site during this time, by 1712, when Antoine Crozat was appointed to take over administration of the colony, its population had reached 400 persons. The capital of La Louisiane was moved in 1720 to Biloxi, leaving Mobile to serve as a regional military and trading center. In 1723 the construction of a new fort with a stone foundation began and it was renamed Fort Condé in honor of Louis Henri, Duc de Bourbon. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the Seven Years War, by this treaty, France ceded its territories east of the Mississippi River to Britain
12.
Astoria, Oregon
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Astoria is the seat of Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. Situated near the mouth of the Columbia River, the city was named after the American investor John Jacob Astor and his American Fur Company founded Fort Astoria at the site in 1811,206 years ago. Astoria was incorporated by the Oregon Legislative Assembly on October 20,1876 and it holds the distinction of being the first permanent United States settlement on the Pacific coast and for having the first U. S. post office west of the Rocky Mountains. Located on the shore of the Columbia River, the city is served by the deepwater Port of Astoria. The population was 9,477 at the 2010 census, the Lewis and Clark Expedition spent the winter of 1805–06 at Fort Clatsop, a small log structure south and west of modern-day Astoria. The expedition had hoped a ship would come by to take them back east, today the fort has been recreated and is now a historical park. In 1811, British explorer David Thompson, the first person known to have navigated the length of the Columbia River. He arrived just two months after the Pacific Fur Companys ship, the Tonquin, the fort constructed by the Tonquin party established Astoria as a U. S. rather than a British, settlement. It became a vital post for American exploration of the continent and was used as an American claim in the Oregon boundary dispute with European nations. The Pacific Fur Company, a subsidiary of John Jacob Astors American Fur Company, was created to begin fur trading in the Oregon Country, during the War of 1812, in 1813, the companys officers sold its assets to their Canadian rivals, the North West Company. The fur trade would remain under British control until U. S. pioneers following the Oregon Trail began filtering into the town in the mid-1840s, the Treaty of 1818 established joint U. S. – British occupancy of the Oregon Country, in 1846, the Oregon Treaty divided the mainland at the 49th parallel north, and the southern portion of Vancouver Island south of this line was awarded to the British. Washington Irving, a prominent American writer with a European reputation, was approached by John Jacob Astor to mythologize the three-year reign of his Pacific Fur Company, Astoria, written while Irving was Astors guest, cemented the importance of the region in the American psyche. The first U. S. post office west of the Rocky Mountains was established in Astoria in 1847, Astoria attracted a host of immigrants beginning in the late 19th century, Nordic settlers, primarily Finns, and Chinese soon became larger parts of the population. By the late 1800s, 22% of Astorias population was Chinese, in 1883, and again in 1922, downtown Astoria was devastated by fire, partly because it was mostly wood and entirely raised off the marshy ground on pilings. Even after the first fire, the format was used. Frantic citizens resorted to dynamite, blowing up entire buildings to stop the fire from going further, Astorias economy centered on fishing, fish processing, and lumber. The lumber industry declined, Astoria Plywood Mill, the citys largest employer, closed in 1989
13.
Olympia, Washington
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Olympia is the capital of the U. S. state of Washington and the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28,1859, the population was documented as 46,478 in the 2010 census. The city borders Lacey to the east and Tumwater to the south, Olympia is a major cultural center of the Puget Sound region. Olympia is located 60 miles southwest of Seattle, the largest city in the state of Washington, the site of Olympia has been home to Lushootseed-speaking peoples for thousands of years, including Squaxin, Nisqually, Puyallup, Chehalis, Suquamish, and Duwamish. The first recorded visit by Europeans was in 1792 when Peter Puget, in 1846, Edmund Sylvester and Levi Smith jointly claimed the land that now comprises downtown Olympia. In 1851, the U. S. Congress established the Customs District of Puget Sound for Washington Territory and its population steadily expanded from Oregon Trail immigrants. In 1850, the settled on the name Olympia, at the suggestion of local resident Colonel Isaac N. Ebey. The area began to be served by a fleet of steamboats known as the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet. In 1896, Olympia became the home of the Olympia Brewing Company, the 1949 Olympia earthquake damaged many historic buildings beyond repair, and they were demolished. Parts of the city suffered damage from earthquakes in 1965 and 2001. In 1967, the legislature approved the creation of The Evergreen State College in Olympia. Since 1984, Olympia has also been home to the South Puget Sound Community College, Olympia has become a hub for artists and musicians, and has been named one of the best college towns in the nation for its vibrant downtown and access to outdoor activities. Olympia is located at 47°2′33″N 122°53′35″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 19.68 square miles, of which 17.82 sq mi is land and 1.86 sq mi is water. The city of Olympia is located at the end of Puget Sound on Budd Inlet. The Deschutes River estuary was dammed in 1951 to create Capitol Lake, much of the lower area of downtown Olympia sits on reclaimed land. The cities of Lacey and Tumwater border Olympia, the region surrounding Olympia has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, whereas the local microclimate due to its dry summers and cool July and August overnight lows. It is part of USDA Hardiness zone 8a, with isolated pockets around Puget Sound falling under zone 8b, most of western Washingtons weather is brought in by weather systems that form near the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. It contains cold moist air, which brings western Washington cold rain, cloudiness, November through January are Olympias rainiest months
14.
Ship breaking
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It may also be known as ship dismantling, ship cracking, or ship recycling. Modern ships have a lifespan of 25 to 30 years before corrosion, metal fatigue, ship breaking allows the materials from the ship, especially steel, to be recycled and made into new products. This lowers the demand for mined iron ore and reduces energy use in the steelmaking process, equipment on board the vessel can also be reused. While ship breaking is sustainable, there are concerns about the use of poorer countries without stringent environmental legislation and it is also considered one of the worlds most dangerous industries and very labour-intensive. In 2012, roughly 1,250 ocean ships were broken down, in 2013, the world total of demolished ships amounted to 29,052,000 tonnes, 92% of which were demolished in Asia. The largest sources of ships are states of China, Greece and Germany respectively, the ship breaking yards of India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan employ 100,000 workers as well as providing a large amount of indirect jobs. In India, the steel covers 10% of the countrys needs. As an alternative to breaking, ships may be sunk to create artificial reefs after being cleared of hazardous materials. Storage is a viable option, whether on land or afloat, though all ships will be eventually scrapped, sunk. Wooden-hulled ships were set on fire or conveniently sunk. In Tudor times, ships were dismantled and the timber re-used. This procedure was no longer applicable with the advent of metal-hulled boats, the navy vessel HMS Temeraire had her masts, stores and guns removed and her crew paid off. She was sold by Dutch auction on 16 August 1838 to John Beatson, Beatson was then faced with the task of transporting the ship 55 miles from Sheerness to Rotherhithe, the largest ship to have attempted this voyage. To accomplish this he hired two steam tugs from the Thames Steam Towing Company and employed a Rotherhithe pilot named William Scott and twenty five men to sail her up the Thames, at a cost of £58. The shipbreakers undertook a thorough dismantling, removing all the copper sheathing, rudder pintles and gudgeons, copper bolts, nails, the timber was mostly sold to house builders and shipyard owners, though some was retained for working into specialist commemorative furniture. The ships final voyage was immortalised by William Turners painting The Fighting ‘Temeraire’, in 1880, Denny Brothers of Dumbarton used scrap maritime steel in their shipbuilding. Many other nations began to purchase British ships for scrap by the late 19th century, including Germany, Italy, the Italian industry started in 1892, and the Japanese after an 1896 law had been passed to subsidise native shipbuilding. After being damaged or involved in a disaster, liner operators did not want the name of the ship to tarnish the brand of their passenger services
15.
Korean War
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The Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, China came to the aid of North Korea, and the Soviet Union gave some assistance. Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the days of World War II. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as a result of an agreement with the United States, U. S. forces subsequently moved into the south. By 1948, as a product of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Korea was split into two regions, with separate governments, both governments claimed to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither side accepted the border as permanent. The conflict escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces—supported by the Soviet Union, on that day, the United Nations Security Council recognized this North Korean act as invasion and called for an immediate ceasefire. On 27 June, the Security Council adopted S/RES/83, Complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea and decided the formation, twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force, with the United States providing 88% of the UNs military personnel. After the first two months of war, South Korean forces were on the point of defeat, forced back to the Pusan Perimeter, in September 1950, an amphibious UN counter-offensive was launched at Inchon, and cut off many North Korean troops. Those who escaped envelopment and capture were rapidly forced back north all the way to the border with China at the Yalu River, at this point, in October 1950, Chinese forces crossed the Yalu and entered the war. Chinese intervention triggered a retreat of UN forces which continued until mid-1951, after these reversals of fortune, which saw Seoul change hands four times, the last two years of fighting became a war of attrition, with the front line close to the 38th parallel. The war in the air, however, was never a stalemate, North Korea was subject to a massive bombing campaign. Jet fighters confronted each other in combat for the first time in history. The fighting ended on 27 July 1953, when an armistice was signed, the agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners. However, no treaty has been signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at war. Periodic clashes, many of which are deadly, continue to the present, in the U. S. the war was initially described by President Harry S. Truman as a police action as it was an undeclared military action, conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. In South Korea, the war is referred to as 625 or the 6–2–5 Upheaval. In North Korea, the war is referred to as the Fatherland Liberation War or alternatively the Chosǒn War. In China, the war is called the War to Resist U. S
16.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
17.
United States Department of Agriculture
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Approximately 80% of USDAs $140 billion budget goes to the Food and Nutrition Service program. The largest component of the FNS budget is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, after the resignation of Thomas Vilsack on January 13,2017 and the departure of President Barack Obama from office on January 20,2017, the acting Secretary of Agriculture is Michael Young. Activities in this include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides healthy food to over 40 million low-income. The USDA also is concerned with assisting farmers and food producers with the sale of crops and it plays a role in overseas aid programs by providing surplus foods to developing countries. This aid can go through USAID, foreign governments, international bodies such as World Food Program, the Agricultural Act of 1949, section 416 and Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954, also known as Food for Peace, provides the legal basis of such actions. The USDA is a partner of the World Cocoa Foundation, early in its history, the economy of the United States was largely agrarian. Officials in the government had long sought new and improved varieties of seeds, plants. In 1837 Henry Leavitt Ellsworth, a Yale-educated attorney interested in improving agriculture, became Commissioner of Patents and he began collecting and distributing new varieties of seeds and plants through members of the Congress and agricultural societies. In 1839, Congress established the Agricultural Division within the Patent Office and allotted $1,000 for the collection of agricultural statistics, Ellsworth was called the Father of the Department of Agriculture. In 1849, the Patent Office was transferred to the newly created Department of the Interior, in the ensuing years, agitation for a separate bureau of agriculture within the department or a separate department devoted to agriculture kept recurring. Lincoln called it the peoples department, in the 1880s, varied advocacy groups were lobbying for Cabinet representation. Business interests sought a Department of Commerce and Industry, and farmers tried to raise the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet rank, finally, on February 9,1889, President Grover Cleveland signed a bill into law elevating the Department of Agriculture to Cabinet level. In 1887, the Hatch Act provided for the funding of agricultural experiment stations in each state. The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 then funded cooperative extension services in each state to teach agriculture, home economics, with these and similar provisions, the USDA reached out to every county of every state. During the Great Depression, farming remained a way of life for millions of Americans. The Department of Agricultures Bureau of Home Economics, established in 1923, published shopping advice and recipes to stretch family budgets and make food go farther. USDA helped ensure that continued to be produced and distributed to those who needed it, assisted with loans for small landowners. The Department of Agriculture was authorized a budget for Fiscal Year 2015 of $139.7 billion, the Washington Post reports that he said There are days when I have literally nothing to do, he recalled thinking as he weighed his decision to quit
18.
Suez Canal
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The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez. It was constructed by the Suez Canal Company between 1859 and 1869, after 10 years of construction, it was officially opened on November 17,1869. It extends from the terminus of Port Said to the southern terminus of Port Tewfik at the city of Suez. Its length is 193.30 km, including its northern and southern access channels, in 2012,17,225 vessels traversed the canal. The original canal was a waterway with passing locations in the Ballah Bypass. It contains no locks system, with seawater flowing freely through it, in general, the canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer. South of the lakes, the current changes with the tide at Suez, the canal is owned and maintained by the Suez Canal Authority of Egypt. Under the Convention of Constantinople, it may be used in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag. In August 2014, construction was launched to expand and widen the Ballah Bypass for 35 km to speed the canals transit time, the expansion was planned to double the capacity of the Suez Canal from 49 to 97 ships a day. At a cost of $8.4 billion, this project was funded with interest-bearing investment certificates issued exclusively to Egyptian entities, the New Suez Canal, as the expansion was dubbed, was opened with great fanfare in a ceremony on 6 August 2015. On 24 February 2016, the Suez Canal Authority officially opened the new side channel and this side channel, located at the northern side of the east extension of the Suez Canal, serves the East Terminal for berthing and unberthing vessels from the terminal anytime of day and night. Ancient west–east canals were built to travel from the Nile River to the Red Sea. One smaller canal is believed to have been constructed under the auspices of Senusret II or Ramesses II. Another canal, probably incorporating a portion of the first, was constructed under the reign of Necho II, the legendary Sesostris may have started work on an ancient canal joining the Nile with the Red Sea. In his Meteorology, Aristotle wrote, One of their kings tried to make a canal to it, so he first, and Darius afterwards, stopped making the canal, lest the sea should mix with the river water and spoil it. Strabo wrote that Sesostris started to build a canal, and Pliny the Elder wrote,165. Later the Persian king Darius had the idea, and yet again Ptolemy II. This proved to be the canal made by the Persian king Darius I
19.
Berlin Crisis of 1961
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The Berlin Crisis of 1961 was the last major politico-military European incident of the Cold War about the occupational status of the German capital city, Berlin, and of post–World War II Germany. The 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union—the last to be attended by the Communist Party of China—was held in Moscow during the crisis. After the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II, some of those living in the acquired areas of the Eastern Bloc aspired to independence. Between 1945 and 1950, over 15 million people emigrated from Soviet-occupied Eastern European countries to the West. Taking advantage of this route, the number of Eastern Europeans applying for asylum in West Germany was 197,000 in 1950,165,000 in 1951,182,000 in 1952 and 331,000 in 1953. By the early 1950s, the Soviet approach to controlling national movement, restricting emigration, was emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc, up until 1953, the lines between East Germany and the western occupied zones could be easily crossed in most places. Consequently, the Inner German border between the two German states was closed, and a fence erected. When large numbers of East Germans then defected under the guise of visits, accordingly, Berlin became the main route by which East Germans left for the West. The Berlin sector border was essentially a loophole through which Eastern Bloc citizens could still escape, the 4.5 million East Germans that had left by 1961 totaled approximately 20% of the entire East German population. The loss was disproportionately heavy among professionals—engineers, technicians, physicians, teachers, lawyers, in November 1958, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev issued the Western powers an ultimatum to withdraw from Berlin within six months and make it a free, demilitarised city. In response, the United States, United Kingdom, and France clearly expressed their determination to remain in. With tensions mounting, the United States, United Kingdom and France formed a group with orders to plan for an eventual response to any aggression on West Berlin. The planning group was named LIVE OAK, and staff from the three countries prepared land and air plans to access to and from West Berlin. The Soviet Union withdrew its deadline in May 1959, and the ministers of the four countries spent three months meeting. Eisenhower and Khrushchev had a few together at the US presidential retreat Camp David. There was nothing more inadvisable in this situation, said Eisenhower, than to talk about ultimatums, Khrushchev responded that he did not understand how a peace treaty could be regarded by the American people as a threat to peace. Eisenhower admitted that the situation in Berlin was abnormal and that human affairs got very badly tangled at times, Khrushchev came away with the impression that a deal was possible over Berlin, and they agreed to continue the dialogue at a summit in Paris in May 1960. However, the Paris Summit that was to resolve the Berlin question was cancelled in the fallout from Gary Powerss failed U-2 spy flight on 1 May 1960
20.
Vietnam War
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It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The war is considered a Cold War-era proxy war. As the war continued, the actions of the Viet Cong decreased as the role. U. S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery, in the course of the war, the U. S. conducted a large-scale strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam and they viewed the conflict as a colonial war and a continuation of the First Indochina War against forces from France and later on the United States. The U. S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and this was part the domino theory of a wider containment policy, with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism. Beginning in 1950, American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina, U. S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962. Regular U. S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965, despite the Paris Peace Accord, which was signed by all parties in January 1973, the fighting continued. In the U. S. and the Western world, a large anti-Vietnam War movement developed as part of a larger counterculture, the war changed the dynamics between the Eastern and Western Blocs, and altered North–South relations. Direct U. S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973, the capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese Army in April 1975 marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 966,000 to 3.8 million. Some 240, 000–300,000 Cambodians,20, 000–62,000 Laotians, and 58,220 U. S. service members died in the conflict. Various names have applied to the conflict. Vietnam War is the most commonly used name in English and it has also been called the Second Indochina War and the Vietnam Conflict. As there have been several conflicts in Indochina, this conflict is known by the names of its primary protagonists to distinguish it from others. In Vietnamese, the war is known as Kháng chiến chống Mỹ. It is also called Chiến tranh Việt Nam, France began its conquest of Indochina in the late 1850s, and completed pacification by 1893. The 1884 Treaty of Huế formed the basis for French colonial rule in Vietnam for the seven decades
21.
USS Iowa (BB-61)
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USS Iowa is the lead ship of her class of battleship and the fourth in the United States Navy to be named after the state of Iowa. She also served as the Third Fleet flagship, flying Adm. William F. Halseys flag at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. During the Korean War, Iowa was involved in raids on the North Korean coast, after which she was decommissioned into the United States Navy reserve fleets, better known as the mothball fleet. She was reactivated in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan, in April 1989, an explosion of undetermined origin wrecked her No.2 gun turret, killing 47 sailors. The Iowa was decommissioned for the last time in the year 1990 and she was reinstated from 1999 to 2006 to comply with federal laws that required retention and maintenance of two Iowa-class battleships. USS Iowa was the ship of her class of fast battleship designs planned in 1938 by the Preliminary Design Branch at the Bureau of Construction. She was the first ship of her class of battleship to be commissioned, USS Iowas main battery consisted of nine 16 in /50 caliber Mark 7 guns, which could fire 2,700 lb armor-piercing shells 20 nmi. Her secondary battery consisted of twenty 5 in /38 cal guns in twin mounts, on 24 February 1943, Iowa put to sea for a shakedown in the Chesapeake Bay and along the Atlantic coast. After refueling and gathering her escorts, Iowa carried President Roosevelt, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Chief of Staff Admiral William D. Leahy, on being warned, Iowa turned hard to avoid being hit by the torpedo and the torpedo detonated in the ships wake. Iowa was unhurt and trained her guns on William D. Porter. Iowa completed her presidential escort mission on 16 December by returning the President to the United States, Roosevelt addressed the crew of Iowa prior to leaving by stating. From all I have seen and all I have heard, the Iowa is a happy ship and he also touched on the progress made at the conference before concluding his address with. Good luck, and remember that I am with you in spirit, each, from 29 January to 3 February, she supported carrier air strikes made by Rear Admiral Frederick C. Shermans Task Group 38.3 against Kwajalein and Eniwetok atolls and her next assignment was to support air strikes against the major Japanese naval and logistics base at Truk, Caroline Islands. On 21 February, she was underway with the Fast Carrier Task Force while it conducted the first strikes against Saipan, Tinian, Rota, and Guam in the Mariana Islands. On 18 March 1944, Iowa, flying the flag of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee, although struck by two Japanese 4.7 in projectiles, Iowa suffered negligible damage. She then rejoined TF58 on 30 March, and supported air strikes against the Palau Islands, from 22–28 April, Iowa supported air raids on Hollandia, Aitape, and Wake Islands to support Army forces on Aitape and at Tanahmerah and Humboldt Bays in New Guinea. She then joined the Task Forces second strike on Truk, on 29 and 30 April, and bombarded Japanese facilities on Ponape in the Carolines on 1 May
22.
Artificial reef
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Many reefs are built using objects that were built for other purposes, for example by sinking oil rigs, scuttling ships, or by deploying rubble or construction debris. Other artificial reefs are built from PVC or concrete. Shipwrecks may become artificial reefs when preserved on the sea floor, the construction of artificial reefs is thousands of years old. Since at least the 1830s, US fishermen used interlaced logs to build artificial reefs, more recently, castaway junk, such as old refrigerators, shopping carts, ditched cars, out-of-service vending machines replaced the logs in ad hoc reefs. Officially sanctioned projects have incorporated decommissioned subway cars, vintage battle tanks, armored personnel carriers, artificial reefs tend to develop in more or less predictable stages. Next come creatures seeking protection from the oceans lethal openness—hole and crevice dwellers such as grouper, snapper, squirrelfish, eels, opportunistic predators such as jack and barracuda also appear, waiting for their prey to venture out. Over months and years the structure becomes encrusted with algae, tunicates, hard and soft corals. Mineral accretion involves applying a low voltage current to a structure to cause limestone to crystallize on the surface, to which coral planulae can attach. The electric current also speeds post-attachment growth, EMA works like charging a battery with a positive pole, the cathode, and a negative pole, the anode. Applying electric current attracts various dissolved minerals to either the cathode or the anode, chemical reactions take place at both poles. On the anode, bubbles of oxygen and chlorine gas form and these bubbles float to the surface and dissolve into the air. On the cathode, bubbles of gas and a limestone precipitate appear. The voltage is low enough that it can be generated by floating solar panels or from wave motion, artificial surfing reefs have been created in several locations around the world. Supporters cite subsidiary benefits such as protection, habitat enhancement. The worlds first attempt was made in El Segundo, near Los Angeles, the next attempt was at Mosman Beach, Perth, Western Australia. This reef was constructed of granite rocks placed in a pyramidal shape to form an appropriate breaking wave form that would suit surfers. An artificial reef constructed of over 400 massive, geotextile bags filled with sand was constructed in 2000 at Narrowneck on the Gold Coast of Queensland and this artificial reef had two objectives, stabilizing beach nourishment and improving surfing conditions. Europes first artificial reef was approved in 2008, construction began August 30,2008, in Boscombe, Bournemouth, UK, and opened in November 2009
23.
North Carolina
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North Carolina is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west, Virginia to the north, North Carolina is the 28th most extensive and the 9th most populous of the U. S. states. The state is divided into 100 counties, the most populous municipality is Charlotte, which is the second largest banking center in the United States after New York City. The state has a range of elevations, from sea level on the coast to 6,684 feet at Mount Mitchell. The climate of the plains is strongly influenced by the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the falls in the humid subtropical climate zone. More than 300 miles from the coast, the western, mountainous part of the state has a highland climate. North Carolina is bordered by South Carolina on the south, Georgia on the southwest, Tennessee on the west, Virginia on the north, the United States Census Bureau places North Carolina in the South Atlantic division of the southern region. So many ships have been lost off Cape Hatteras that the area is known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, the most famous of these is the Queen Annes Revenge, which went aground in Beaufort Inlet in 1718. The coastal plain transitions to the Piedmont region along the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, the Piedmont region of central North Carolina is the states most populous region, containing the six largest cities in the state by population. It consists of rolling countryside frequently broken by hills or low mountain ridges. The Piedmont ranges from about 300 feet in elevation in the east to about 1,500 feet in the west, the western section of the state is part of the Appalachian Mountain range. Among the subranges of the Appalachians located in the state are the Great Smoky Mountains, Blue Ridge Mountains, the Black Mountains are the highest in the eastern United States, and culminate in Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet, the highest point east of the Mississippi River. North Carolina has 17 major river basins, the five basins west of the Blue Ridge Mountains flow to the Gulf of Mexico, while the remainder flow to the Atlantic Ocean. Of the 17 basins,11 originate within the state of North Carolina, but only four are contained entirely within the states border – the Cape Fear, the Neuse, the White Oak, and the Tar-Pamlico basin. Elevation above sea level is most responsible for temperature change across the state, the climate is also influenced by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf Stream, especially in the coastal plain. These influences tend to cause warmer winter temperatures along the coast, the coastal plain averages around 1 inch of snow or ice annually, and in many years, there may be no snow or ice at all. North Carolina experiences severe weather in summer and winter, with summer bringing threat of hurricanes, tropical storms, heavy rain
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Alabama
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Alabama is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Alabama is the 30th-most extensive and the 24th-most populous of the U. S. states. At nearly 1,500 miles, Alabama has one of the nations longest navigable inland waterways, Alabama is nicknamed the Yellowhammer State, after the state bird. Alabama is also known as the Heart of Dixie and the Cotton State, the state tree is the longleaf pine, and the state flower is the camellia. The largest city by population is Birmingham, which has long been the most industrialized city, the oldest city is Mobile, founded by French colonists in 1702 as the capital of French Louisiana. From the American Civil War until World War II, Alabama, like many states in the southern U. S. suffered economic hardship, like other southern states, Alabama legislators disenfranchised African Americans and many poor whites at the turn of the century. Following World War II, Alabama grew as the economy changed from one primarily based on agriculture to one with diversified interests. The state economy in the 21st century is based on management, automotive, finance, manufacturing, aerospace, mineral extraction, healthcare, education, retail, in the Alabama language, the word for a person of Alabama lineage is Albaamo. The word Alabama is believed to have come from the Alabama language, the words spelling varies significantly among historical sources. As early as 1702, the French called the tribe the Alibamon, other spellings of the name have included Alibamu, Alabamo, Albama, Alebamon, Alibama, Alibamou, Alabamu, Allibamou. Sources disagree on the words meaning, some scholars suggest the word comes from the Choctaw alba and amo. The meaning may have been clearers of the thicket or herb gatherers, the state has numerous place names of Native American origin. However, there are no correspondingly similar words in the Alabama language, an 1842 article in the Jacksonville Republican proposed it meant Here We Rest. This notion was popularized in the 1850s through the writings of Alexander Beaufort Meek, experts in the Muskogean languages have not found any evidence to support such a translation. Indigenous peoples of varying cultures lived in the area for thousands of years before the advent of European colonization, trade with the northeastern tribes by the Ohio River began during the Burial Mound Period and continued until European contact. The agrarian Mississippian culture covered most of the state from 1000 to 1600 AD, with one of its major centers built at what is now the Moundville Archaeological Site in Moundville, Alabama. This is the second-largest complex of the classic Middle Mississippian era, after Cahokia in present-day Illinois, Analysis of artifacts from archaeological excavations at Moundville were the basis of scholars formulating the characteristics of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. Contrary to popular belief, the SECC appears to have no links to Mesoamerican culture
25.
Mississippi
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Mississippi /ˌmɪsᵻˈsɪpi/ is a state in the southern region of the United States, with part of its southern border formed by the Gulf of Mexico. Its western border is formed by the Mississippi River, the state has a population of approximately 3 million. It is the 32nd most extensive and the 32nd most populous of the 50 United States, located in the center of the state, Jackson is the state capital and largest city, with a population of approximately 175,000 people. The state is heavily forested outside of the Mississippi Delta area, before the American Civil War, most development in the state was along riverfronts, where slaves worked on cotton plantations. After the war, the bottomlands to the interior were cleared, by the end of the 19th century, African Americans made up two-thirds of the Deltas property owners, but timber and railroad companies acquired much of the land after a financial crisis. Clearing altered the Deltas ecology, increasing the severity of flooding along the Mississippi, much land is now held by agribusinesses. The states catfish aquaculture farms produce the majority of farm-raised catfish consumed in the United States, since the 1930s and the Great Migration, Mississippi has been majority white, albeit with the highest percentage of black residents of any U. S. state. From the early 19th century to the 1930s, its residents were mostly black, whites retained political power through Jim Crow laws. In 2010, 37% of Mississippians were African Americans, the highest percentage of African Americans in any U. S. state, since gaining enforcement of their voting franchise in the late 1960s, most African Americans support Democratic candidates in local, state and national elections. Conservative whites have shifted to the Republican Party, African Americans are a majority in many counties of the Mississippi-Yazoo Delta, an area of historic settlement during the plantation era. Since 2011 Mississippi has been ranked as the most religious state in the country, the states name is derived from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary. Settlers named it after the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi, in addition to its namesake, major rivers in Mississippi include the Big Black River, the Pearl River, the Yazoo River, the Pascagoula River, and the Tombigbee River. Major lakes include Ross Barnett Reservoir, Arkabutla Lake, Sardis Lake, Mississippi is entirely composed of lowlands, the highest point being Woodall Mountain, in the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains,807 feet above sea level. The lowest point is sea level at the Gulf coast, the states mean elevation is 300 feet above sea level. Most of Mississippi is part of the East Gulf Coastal Plain, the coastal plain is generally composed of low hills, such as the Pine Hills in the south and the North Central Hills. The Pontotoc Ridge and the Fall Line Hills in the northeast have somewhat higher elevations, yellow-brown loess soil is found in the western parts of the state. The northeast is a region of black earth that extends into the Alabama Black Belt. The coastline includes large bays at Bay St. Louis, Biloxi, the northwest remainder of the state consists of the Mississippi Delta, a section of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain
26.
Georgia (U.S. state)
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Georgia is a state in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1733, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies, named after King George II of Great Britain, Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2,1788. It declared its secession from the Union on January 19,1861 and it was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15,1870. Georgia is the 24th largest and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States, from 2007 to 2008,14 of Georgias counties ranked among the nations 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South, Atlanta is the states capital, its most populous city and has been named a global city. Georgia is bordered to the south by Florida, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina, to the west by Alabama, the states northern part is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains system. Georgias highest point is Brasstown Bald at 4,784 feet above sea level, Georgia is the largest state entirely east of the Mississippi River in land area. Before settlement by Europeans, Georgia was inhabited by the mound building cultures, the British colony of Georgia was founded by James Oglethorpe on February 12,1733. The colony was administered by the Trustees for the Establishment of the Colony of Georgia in America under a charter issued by King George II. The Trustees implemented a plan for the colonys settlement, known as the Oglethorpe Plan. In 1742 the colony was invaded by the Spanish during the War of Jenkins Ear, in 1752, after the government failed to renew subsidies that had helped support the colony, the Trustees turned over control to the crown. Georgia became a colony, with a governor appointed by the king. The Province of Georgia was one of the Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution by signing the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the State of Georgias first constitution was ratified in February 1777. Georgia was the 10th state to ratify the Articles of Confederation on July 24,1778, in 1829, gold was discovered in the North Georgia mountains, which led to the Georgia Gold Rush and an established federal mint in Dahlonega, which continued its operation until 1861. The subsequent influx of white settlers put pressure on the government to land from the Cherokee Nation. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act into law, sending many eastern Native American nations to reservations in present-day Oklahoma, including all of Georgias tribes. Despite the Supreme Courts ruling in Worcester v. Georgia that ruled U. S. states were not permitted to redraw the Indian boundaries, President Jackson and the state of Georgia ignored the ruling. In 1838, his successor, Martin Van Buren, dispatched troops to gather the Cherokee
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South Carolina
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South Carolina /ˌsaʊθ kærəˈlaɪnə/ is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. The state is bordered to the north by North Carolina, to the south and west by Georgia across the Savannah River, South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U. S. Constitution, doing so on May 23,1788. South Carolina became the first state to vote to secede from the Union on December 20,1860, after the American Civil War, it was readmitted into the United States on June 25,1868. South Carolina is the 40th most extensive and the 23rd most populous U. S. state and its GDP as of 2013 was $183.6 billion, with an annual growth rate of 3. 13%. The capital and largest city is Columbia with a 2013 population of 133,358, South Carolina is named in honor of King Charles I of England, under whose reign the English colony was first formed, with Carolus being Latin for Charles. There is evidence of activity in the area about 12000 years ago. Along the Savannah River were the Apalachee, Yuchi, and the Yamasee, further west were the Cherokee, and along the Catawba River, the Catawba. These tribes were village-dwellers, relying on agriculture as their food source. The Cherokee lived in wattle and daub houses made with wood and clay, about a dozen separate small tribes summered on the coast harvesting oysters and fish, and cultivating corn, peas and beans. Travelling inland as much as 50 miles mostly by canoe, they wintered on the plain, hunting deer and gathering nuts. The names of these survive in place names like Edisto Island, Kiawah Island. The Spanish were the first Europeans in the area, in 1521, founding San Miguel de Gualdape, established with 500 settlers, it was abandoned within a year by 150 survivors. In 1562 French settlers established a settlement at what is now the Charlesfort-Santa Elena archaeological site on Parris Island, three years later the Spanish built a fort on the same site, but withdrew following hostilities with the English navy. In 1629, King Charles I of England established the Province of Carolina an area covering what is now South and North Carolina, Georgia, in the 1670s, English planters from the Barbados established themselves near what is now Charleston. Settlers built rice plantations in the South Carolina Lowcountry, east of the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, settlers came from all over Europe. Plantation labor was done by African slaves who formed the majority of the population by 1720, another cash crop was the Indigo plant, a plant source of blue dye, developed by Eliza Lucas. Meanwhile, in Upstate South Carolina, west of the Fall Line, was settled by farmers and traders. Colonists overthrew the rule, seeing more direct representation
28.
New Jersey
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New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania, New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state but the 11th-most populous and the most densely populated of the 50 United States. New Jersey lies entirely within the statistical areas of New York City. New Jersey was inhabited by Native Americans for more than 2,800 years, in the early 17th century, the Dutch and the Swedes made the first European settlements. New Jersey was the site of decisive battles during the American Revolutionary War in the 18th century. In the 19th century, factories in cities such as Camden, Paterson, Newark, Trenton, around 180 million years ago, during the Jurassic Period, New Jersey bordered North Africa. The pressure of the collision between North America and Africa gave rise to the Appalachian Mountains, around 18,000 years ago, the Ice Age resulted in glaciers that reached New Jersey. As the glaciers retreated, they left behind Lake Passaic, as well as rivers, swamps. New Jersey was originally settled by Native Americans, with the Lenni-Lenape being dominant at the time of contact, scheyichbi is the Lenape name for the land that is now New Jersey. The Lenape society was divided into clans that were based upon common female ancestors. These clans were organized into three distinct phratries identified by their animal sign, Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf and they first encountered the Dutch in the early 17th century, and their primary relationship with the Europeans was through fur trade. The Dutch became the first Europeans to lay claim to lands in New Jersey, the Dutch colony of New Netherland consisted of parts of modern Middle Atlantic states. Although the European principle of ownership was not recognized by the Lenape. The first to do so was Michiel Pauw who established a patronship called Pavonia in 1630 along the North River which eventually became the Bergen, peter Minuits purchase of lands along the Delaware River established the colony of New Sweden. During the English Civil War, the Channel Island of Jersey remained loyal to the British Crown and it was from the Royal Square in St. Helier that Charles II of England was proclaimed King in 1649, following the execution of his father, Charles I. The North American lands were divided by Charles II, who gave his brother, the Duke of York, the region between New England and Maryland as a proprietary colony. James then granted the land between the Hudson River and the Delaware River to two friends who had remained loyal through the English Civil War, Sir George Carteret and Lord Berkeley of Stratton, the area was named the Province of New Jersey. Since the states inception, New Jersey has been characterized by ethnic, New England Congregationalists settled alongside Scots Presbyterians and Dutch Reformed migrants
29.
Lead
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Lead is a chemical element with atomic number 82 and symbol Pb. When freshly cut, it is bluish-white, it tarnishes to a dull gray upon exposure to air and it is a soft, malleable, and heavy metal with a density exceeding that of most common materials. Lead has the second-highest atomic number of the stable elements. Lead is a relatively unreactive post-transition metal and its weak metallic character is illustrated by its amphoteric nature and tendency to form covalent bonds. Compounds of lead are found in the +2 oxidation state. Exceptions are mostly limited to organolead compounds, like the lighter members of the group, lead exhibits a tendency to bond to itself, it can form chains, rings, and polyhedral structures. Lead is easily extracted from its ores and was known to people in Western Asia. A principal ore of lead, galena, often bears silver, Lead production declined after the fall of Rome and did not reach comparable levels again until the Industrial Revolution. Nowadays, global production of lead is about ten million tonnes annually, Lead has several properties that make it useful, high density, low melting point, ductility, and relative inertness to oxidation. In the late 19th century, lead was recognized as poisonous, Lead is a neurotoxin that accumulates in soft tissues and bones, damaging the nervous system and causing brain disorders and, in mammals, blood disorders. A lead atom has 82 electrons, arranged in a configuration of 4f145d106s26p2. The combined first and second ionization energies—the total energy required to remove the two 6p electrons—is close to that of tin, leads upper neighbor in group 14. This is unusual since ionization energies generally fall going down a group as an elements outer electrons become more distant from the nucleus, the similarity is caused by the lanthanide contraction—the decrease in element radii from lanthanum to lutetium, and the relatively small radii of the elements after hafnium. The contraction is due to shielding of the nucleus by the lanthanide 4f electrons. The combined first four ionization energies of lead exceed those of tin, for this reason lead, unlike tin, mostly forms compounds in which it has an oxidation state of +2, rather than +4. Relativistic effects, which become particularly prominent at the bottom of the periodic table, as a result, the 6s electrons of lead become reluctant to participate in bonding, a phenomenon called the inert pair effect. A related outcome is that the distance between nearest atoms in crystalline lead is unusually long, the lighter group 14 elements form stable or metastable allotropes having the tetrahedrally coordinated and covalently bonded diamond cubic structure. The energy levels of their outer s- and p-orbitals are close enough to allow mixing into four hybrid sp3 orbitals
30.
Copper
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Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of copper has a reddish-orange color. Copper is one of the few metals that occur in nature in directly usable metallic form as opposed to needing extraction from an ore and this led to very early human use, from c.8000 BC. Copper used in buildings, usually for roofing, oxidizes to form a green verdigris, Copper is sometimes used in decorative art, both in its elemental metal form and in compounds as pigments. Copper compounds are used as agents, fungicides, and wood preservatives. Copper is essential to all living organisms as a trace dietary mineral because it is a key constituent of the enzyme complex cytochrome c oxidase. In molluscs and crustaceans, copper is a constituent of the blood pigment hemocyanin, replaced by the hemoglobin in fish. In humans, copper is found mainly in the liver, muscle, the adult body contains between 1.4 and 2.1 mg of copper per kilogram of body weight. The filled d-shells in these elements contribute little to interatomic interactions, unlike metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in copper are lacking a covalent character and are relatively weak. This observation explains the low hardness and high ductility of single crystals of copper, at the macroscopic scale, introduction of extended defects to the crystal lattice, such as grain boundaries, hinders flow of the material under applied stress, thereby increasing its hardness. For this reason, copper is supplied in a fine-grained polycrystalline form. The softness of copper partly explains its high conductivity and high thermal conductivity. The maximum permissible current density of copper in open air is approximately 3. 1×106 A/m2 of cross-sectional area, Copper is one of a few metallic elements with a natural color other than gray or silver. Pure copper is orange-red and acquires a reddish tarnish when exposed to air, as with other metals, if copper is put in contact with another metal, galvanic corrosion will occur. A green layer of verdigris can often be seen on old structures, such as the roofing of many older buildings. Copper tarnishes when exposed to sulfur compounds, with which it reacts to form various copper sulfides. There are 29 isotopes of copper, 63Cu and 65Cu are stable, with 63Cu comprising approximately 69% of naturally occurring copper, both have a spin of 3⁄2
31.
Zinc
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Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table, in some respects zinc is chemically similar to magnesium, both elements exhibit only one normal oxidation state, and the Zn2+ and Mg2+ ions are of similar size. Zinc is the 24th most abundant element in Earths crust and has five stable isotopes, the most common zinc ore is sphalerite, a zinc sulfide mineral. The largest workable lodes are in Australia, Asia, and the United States, Zinc is refined by froth flotation of the ore, roasting, and final extraction using electricity. Zinc metal was not produced on a large scale until the 12th century in India and was unknown to Europe until the end of the 16th century, the mines of Rajasthan have given definite evidence of zinc production going back to the 6th century BC. To date, the oldest evidence of pure zinc comes from Zawar, in Rajasthan, alchemists burned zinc in air to form what they called philosophers wool or white snow. The element was named by the alchemist Paracelsus after the German word Zinke. German chemist Andreas Sigismund Marggraf is credited with discovering pure metallic zinc in 1746, work by Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta uncovered the electrochemical properties of zinc by 1800. Corrosion-resistant zinc plating of iron is the application for zinc. Other applications are in batteries, small non-structural castings. A variety of compounds are commonly used, such as zinc carbonate and zinc gluconate, zinc chloride, zinc pyrithione, zinc sulfide. Zinc is an essential mineral perceived by the public today as being of exceptional biologic and public health importance, Zinc deficiency affects about two billion people in the developing world and is associated with many diseases. In children, deficiency causes growth retardation, delayed sexual maturation, infection susceptibility, enzymes with a zinc atom in the reactive center are widespread in biochemistry, such as alcohol dehydrogenase in humans. Consumption of excess zinc can cause ataxia, lethargy and copper deficiency, Zinc is a bluish-white, lustrous, diamagnetic metal, though most common commercial grades of the metal have a dull finish.6 pm. The metal is hard and brittle at most temperatures but becomes malleable between 100 and 150 °C, above 210 °C, the metal becomes brittle again and can be pulverized by beating. Zinc is a conductor of electricity. For a metal, zinc has relatively low melting and boiling points, the melting point is the lowest of all the transition metals aside from mercury and cadmium. Many alloys contain zinc, including brass, Other metals long known to form binary alloys with zinc are aluminium, antimony, bismuth, gold, iron, lead, mercury, silver, tin, magnesium, cobalt, nickel, tellurium, and sodium
32.
Barium
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Barium is a chemical element with symbol Ba and atomic number 56. It is the element in Group 2, a soft silvery metallic alkaline earth metal. Because of its chemical reactivity, barium is never found in nature as a free element. Its hydroxide, known in history as baryta, does not occur as a mineral. The most common naturally occurring minerals of barium are barite and witherite, the barium name originates from the alchemical derivative baryta, from Greek βαρύς, meaning heavy. Baric is the form of barium. Barium was identified as a new element in 1774, but not reduced to a metal until 1808 with the advent of electrolysis, historically, it was used as a getter for vacuum tubes. It is a component of YBCO and electroceramics, and is added to steel, Barium compounds are added to fireworks to impart a green color. Barium sulfate is used as an additive to oil well drilling fluid, as well as in a purer form. The soluble barium ion and soluble compounds are poisonous, and have used as rodenticides. Barium is a soft, silvery-white metal, with a slight golden shade when ultrapure, the silvery-white color of barium metal rapidly vanishes upon oxidation in air yielding a dark gray oxide layer. Barium has a specific weight and good electrical conductivity. Ultrapure barium is very difficult to prepare, and therefore properties of barium have not been accurately measured yet. At room temperature and pressure, barium has a cubic structure, with a barium–barium distance of 503 picometers. It is a soft metal with a Mohs hardness of 1.25. Its melting temperature of 1,000 K is intermediate between those of the strontium and heavier radium, however, its boiling point of 2,170 K exceeds that of strontium. The density is again intermediate between those of strontium and radium, Barium is chemically similar to magnesium, calcium, and strontium, but even more reactive. It always exhibits the oxidation state of +2, except in a few rare, reactions with chalcogens are highly exothermic, the reaction with oxygen or air occurs at room temperature, and therefore barium is stored under oil or in an inert atmosphere
33.
Victory ship
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The Victory ship was a class of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace losses caused by German submarines. A total of 531 Victory ships were built, one of the first acts of the United States War Shipping Administration upon its formation in February 1942 was to commission the design of what came to be known as the Victory class. The design was an enhancement of the Liberty ship, which had successfully produced in extraordinary numbers. Victory ships were larger than Liberty ships,14 feet longer at 455 feet,6 feet wider at 62 ft. Displacement was up just under 1,000 tons, to 15,200, with a raised forecastle and a more sophisticated hull shape to help achieve the higher speed, they had a quite different appearance from Liberty ships. To make them vulnerable to U-boat attacks, Victory ships made 15 to 17 knots,4 to 6 knots faster than the Libertys. The extra speed was achieved through more modern, efficient engines, most used steam turbines, which had been in short supply earlier in the war and reserved for warships. All were oil-fired, but for a handful of Canadian vessels completed with both coal bunkers and oil tanks, another improvement was electrically powered auxiliary equipment, rather than steam-driven machinery. To prevent the hull fractures that a few Liberty ships developed and these were manned by United States Navy Armed Guard personnel. The VC2-S-AP5 Haskell-class attack transports were armed with the 5-inch stern gun, one quad 40 mm Bofors cannon, four dual 40 mm Bofors cannon, the Haskells were operated and crewed exclusively by U. S. Navy personnel. The Victory ship was noted for good proportion of cubic between holds for a ship of its day. A Victory ships cargo hold one, two and five hatches are a single rigged with a capacity of 70,400,76,700, and 69,500 bale cubic feet respectively. Victory ships hold three and four hatches are double rigged with a capacity of 136,100 and 100,300 bale cubic feet respectively. Victory ship have built in mast, booms and derrick cranes, the first vessel was SS United Victory launched at Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation on 12 January 1944 and completed on 28 February 1944, making her maiden voyage a month later. American vessels frequently had a name incorporating the word Victory, the British and Canadians used Fort and Park respectively. Although initial deliveries were slow—only 15 had been delivered by May 1944—by the end of the war 531 had been constructed, because the Atlantic battle had been won by the time that the first of the Victory ships appeared none were sunk by U-boats. Three were sunk by Japanese kamikaze attack in April of 1945, many Victory ships were converted to troopship to bring US soldiers home at the end of World War II as part of Operation Magic Carpet. A total of 97 Victory ships were converted to carry up to 1,600 soldiers
34.
BAE Systems
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BAE Systems plc is a British multinational defence, security, and aerospace company. Its headquarters are in London in the United Kingdom and it has operations worldwide and it is among the worlds largest defence companies, it was ranked as the third-largest based on applicable 2015 revenues. Its largest operations are in the United Kingdom and United States, other major markets include Australia, India and Saudi Arabia. The company was formed on 30 November 1999 by the £7. V, since its formation it has made a number of acquisitions, most notably of United Defense and Armor Holdings of the United States, and sold its shares in Airbus, Astrium, AMS and Atlas Elektronik. BAE Systems is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE100 Index, BAE Systems was formed on 30 November 1999 by the £7.7 billion merger of British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems. As a result, BAE Systems is the successor to many of the most famous British aircraft, defence electronics, British Aerospace was a civil and military aircraft manufacturer, as well as a provider of military land systems. The company had emerged from the consolidation of UK aircraft manufacturers since World War II. British Aerospace was formed on 29 April 1977 by the nationalisation and merger of The British Aircraft Corporation, both BAC and Hawker Siddeley were themselves the result of various mergers and acquisitions. Marconi Electronic Systems was the subsidiary of British engineering firm The General Electric Company, dealing largely in military systems integration, as well as naval. Marconis heritage dates back to Guglielmo Marconis Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company, GEC purchased English Electric in 1968 and thereafter used the Marconi brand for its defence businesses. GECs own defence heritage dates back to World War I, when its contribution to the war effort included radios, World War II consolidated this position, as the company was involved in important technological advances, notably the cavity magnetron for radar. Between 1945 and 1999, GEC-Marconi/Marconi Electronic Systems became one of the worlds most important defence contractors, in June 1998, MES acquired Tracor, a major American defence contractor, for £830 million. In June 1997 British Aerospace Defence managing director John Weston commented Europe, is supporting three times the number of contractors on less than half the budget of the U. S. European governments wished to see the merger of their defence manufacturers into a single entity, as early as 1995 British Aerospace and the German aerospace and defence company DaimlerChrysler Aerospace were said to be keen to create a transnational aerospace and defence company. The two companies envisaged including Aérospatiale, the other major European aerospace company, but only after its privatisation, as well as Airbus, British Aerospace and DASA were partners in the Panavia Tornado and Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft projects. A merger was agreed between British Aerospace chairman Richard Evans and DASA CEO Jürgen Schrempp in December 1998, meanwhile, GEC was also under pressure to participate in defence industry consolidation. GEC favours forging a national champion defence group with BAe to compete with the giant US organisations, when GEC put MES up for sale on 22 December 1998, British Aerospace abandoned the DASA merger in favour of purchasing its British rival. The merger of British Aerospace and MES was announced on 19 January 1999, Evans stated that in 2004 that his fear was that an American defence contractor would acquire MES and challenge both British Aerospace and DASA
35.
Brownsville, Texas
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Brownsville is the county seat of Cameron County, Texas. It is the sixteenth most populous city in the state of Texas, with a population at the 2010 census of 175,023 and an estimated population in 2014 of 183,046. It is located at the southernmost tip of Texas, on the bank of the Rio Grande, directly north and across the border from Matamoros, Tamaulipas. The 2014 U. S. Census Bureau estimate placed the Brownsville-Harlingen metropolitan area population at 420,392, in addition, the international Matamoros–Brownsville Metropolitan Area was estimated to have a population of 1,136,995. Brownsville has one of the highest poverty rates in the nation, the Brownsville urban area is one of the fastest growing in the United States. The citys population increased after it experienced a boom in the steel industry during the first decade of the 1900s. In recent times, the Port of Brownsville has become an economic hub for South Texas, where shipments arrive from other parts of the United States, from Mexico. In April 1846, construction of a fort on the Mexican border by was begun by American forces due to increased instability in the region on the eve of the Mexican–American War of 1846–1848. Before the completion of the construction, the Mexican Army began the Siege of Fort Texas, during the first active campaign in the Mexican–American War, the first battle of the war occurred on May 8, when General Zachary Taylor received word of the siege of the fort. Taylors forces rushed to help, but Mexican troops intercepted them, resulting in the Battle of Palo Alto, approximately 5 miles north of present-day Brownsville. The next morning the Mexican forces had retreated, and Taylors troops caught up with them, resulting in the Battle of Resaca de la Palma, which took place within the present city limits. When Taylor finally arrived at the besieged Fort Texas, it was found that two soldiers had died, one of them the commander, Major Jacob Brown. In his honor, General Taylor renamed the fort Fort Brown, an old cannon at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College marks the spot where Major Brown received his fatal wound. The city of Brownsville was originally established late in 1848 by Charles Stillman, the state originally incorporated the city on January 24,1850. This was repealed on April 1,1852, due to a dispute between Stillman and the former owners. The state reincorporated the city on February 7,1853, which remains in effect, the issue of ownership was not decided until 1879, when the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Stillman. On July 13,1859, the First Cortina War started, juan Nepomuceno Cortina became one of the most important historical figures of the area, and continued to exert a decisive influence in the local events until his arrest in 1875. The First Cortina War ended on December 27,1859, in May 1861, the brief Second Cortina War took place
36.
United States Coast Guard
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The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the countrys seven uniformed services. This has happened twice, in 1917, during World War I, created by Congress on 4 August 1790 at the request of Alexander Hamilton as the Revenue Marine, it is the oldest continuous seagoing service of the United States. As Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton headed the Revenue Marine, by the 1860s, the service was known as the U. S. Revenue Cutter Service and the term Revenue Marine gradually fell into disuse, the modern Coast Guard was formed by a merger of the Revenue Cutter Service and the U. S. Life-Saving Service on 28 January 1915, under the U. S. Department of the Treasury. As one of the five armed services, the Coast Guard has been involved in every U. S. war from 1790 to the Iraq War. As of 2014 the Coast Guard had over 36,000 men and women on duty,7,350 reservists,29,620 auxiliarists. In terms of size, the U. S. Coast Guard by itself is the worlds 12th largest naval force. Because of its authority, the Coast Guard can conduct military operations under the U. S. Department of Defense or directly for the President in accordance with Title 14 USC 1–3. The Coast Guards enduring roles are maritime safety, security, to carry out those roles, it has 11 statutory missions as defined in 6 U. S. C. §468, which include enforcing U. S. law in the worlds largest exclusive economic zone of 3.4 million square miles, the Coast Guards motto is the Latin phrase, Semper Paratus. In a 2005 article in Time magazine following Hurricane Katrina, the author wrote, the Coast Guards most valuable contribution to may be as a model of flexibility, and most of all, spirit. Wil Milam, a swimmer from Alaska told the magazine, In the Navy. Practicing for war, training for war, in the Coast Guard, it was, take care of our people and the mission will take care of itself. The Coast Guard carries out three basic roles, which are subdivided into eleven statutory missions. Both agencies maintain rescue coordination centers to coordinate this effort, and have responsibility for military and civilian search and rescue. The two services jointly provide instructor staff for the National Search and Rescue School that trains SAR mission planners and coordinators, previously located on Governors Island, New York, the school is now located at Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown at Yorktown, Virginia. The NRC also takes Maritime Suspicious Activity and Security Breach Reports, details on the NRC organization and specific responsibilities can be found in the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan. The Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement database system is managed and used by the Coast Guard for tracking pollution, the five uniformed services that make up the U. S
37.
Mare Island Naval Shipyard
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The Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, the Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates the peninsula shipyard from the main portion of the city of Vallejo. MINSY made a name for itself as the premier US West Coast submarine port as well as serving as the force in San Francisco Bay Area shipbuilding efforts during World War II. The base closed in 1996 and has gone through several redevelopment phases and it was registered as a California Historical Landmark in 1960, and parts of it were declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1975. They managed to survey the Mare Island Strait before steaming to Hawaii to obtain crewmen from Hawaiian monarch King Kamehameha III. They returned to San Francisco in the spring of 1850 with the survey of northern California beginning on April 4,1850. On August 1,1850, while still in Oregon, McArthur purchased a 1⁄16 interest in Mare Island for $468.50 then returned to San Francisco later that month to prepare charts, on January 15,1852, Secretary of the Navy Will A. Graham ordered a Naval Commission to select a site for a yard on the Pacific Coast. Commodore D. Sloat along with Commodore C, sanger were appointed to the commission. On July 13,1852, Sloat recommended the island across the Napa River from the settlement of Vallejo, the Navy purchased the original 956 acres of MINSY on January 4,1853. MINSY served as a major Pacific Ocean repair station during the late 19th century, handling American as well as Japanese, in 1861, the longest lived of the clipper ships, Syren, was brought to Mare Island Navy Yard for $15,000 of repairs. Syren had struck Mile Rock two times while trying to out of the Golden Gate. Marines first arrived for duty in 1862 under the command of Maj. Addison Garland, Mare Island Naval Shipyard also took a commanding role in civil defense and emergency response on the West Coast, dispatching warships to the Pacific Northwest to subdue Native American violence. MINSY sent ships such as Wyoming south to Central America and the Panama Canal to protect US political and commercial interests, some of the support, logistics and munition requirements for the Spanish–American War were filled by Mare Island. MINSY sent men, materiel and ships to San Francisco in response to the following the 1906 earthquake. Arctic rescue missions were mounted as necessary, ordnance manufacturing and storage were two further key missions at MINSY for nearly all of its active service, including ordnance used prior to the American Civil War. In 1911, the Marine Corps established two West Coast recruit training depots first at Mare Island, the second at Puget Sound, Mare Island eventually became the West Coasts only recruit training facility when the Puget Sound operation consolidated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1912. Instructors trained recruits there until August 10,1923, when they relocated to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, in March 1917 MINSY was the site of a major explosion of barges loaded with munitions
38.
SS Petersburg (T-AOT-9101)
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SS Petersburg is one of Military Sealift Commands two US Government-owned tankers and is part of the 35 ships in the Prepositioning Program. It is part of Maritime Prepositioning Ship Squadron Three and its normal crew complement is 38 civilians and no military personnel. SS Petersburg is part of the RRF, but is activated for duty with the Prepositioning Program. She is currently berthed at the docks in Portland Oregon, previously she had been serving ten years at the island of Guam. In June 2006, the participated in exercise Valiant Shield. While not open to the public for tours, she is on the pier as USS Hornet. Originally built in 1963, the Petersburg is one in a fleet of five tankers fitted with an offshore petroleum discharge system and she can carry up to 225,000 barrels of JP8 fuel. POL then is transported inland or stored in the beach support area. Three of the tankers contain a crane and stowage cradles for five OPDS utility boats. OUB-equipped tankers carry adequate SLWT outfitting to equip one SLWT as a towtug and one SLWT as a lay repair boat carry one complete tanker terminal and these tankers also have a maximum 59 LT capacity crane to load/offload the five OUBs carried on board. FM 10-67-1 Concepts and Equipment of Petroleum Operations
39.
SS Algol (T-AKR-287)
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SS Algol is an Algol-class vehicle cargo ship that is currently maintained by the United States Maritime Administration as part of the Military Sealift Commands Ready Reserve Force. She was built as a high speed container ship by Rotterdamsche D. D. Mij N. V. in Rotterdam, Netherlands,331, for Sea-Land Service, Inc. and named SS Sea-Land Exchange, USCG ON546383, IMO7303205. Due to her high operating cost, Sea-Land Exchange was sold to the United States Navy in October 1981 as USNS Algol, conversion began on 13 October 1982 at National Steel and Shipbuilding in San Diego, California. Her cargo hold was redesigned into a series of decks connected by ramps so vehicles can be driven into and out of the cargo hold for fast loading and unloading. She was also fitted with two sets of two cranes, one set located at midship capable of lifting 35 tons, and another set located aft capable of lifting 50 tons and she was delivered to the Military Sealift Command in 1984 as USNS Algol. When not active, Algol is kept in reduced operating status due to her high operating cost, if needed, she can be activated and ready to sail in 96 hours. In 1984, Algol was the first Fast Sealift Ship to take part in a European exercise when she took part in the NATO exercise, Algol took part in the Persian Gulf War in 1990. Along with the other seven Algol-class cargo ships, she transported 14 percent of all delivered between the United States and Saudi Arabia during and after the war. In October 1998, Algol was activated to carry relief supplies and equipment to Puerto Rico. In early 2003, Algol was activated to take part in Operation Iraqi Freedom, on 1 October 2007, Algol was transferred to the United States Maritime Administration. On 1 October 2008, Algol was transferred to the Ready Reserve Force, if activated, SS Algol will report to the Military Sealift Command. Cudahay, Brian J. Box Boats, How Container Ships Changed the World
40.
SS Altair (T-AKR-291)
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SS Altair is an Algol class vehicle cargo ship that is currently maintained by the United States Maritime Administration as part of the Military Sealift Commands Ready Reserve Force. She was built as a high speed container ship by Rheinstahl Nordseewerke in Emden, West Germany,431, for Sea-Land Service, Inc. and named SS Sea-Land Finance, USCG ON550722, IMO7315571. Due to her high operating cost, she was sold to the United States Navy on 5 January 1982 as USNS Altair, conversion began on 28 July 1984 at Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her cargo hold was redesigned into a series of decks connected by ramps so vehicles can be driven into and out of the cargo hold for fast loading and unloading. She was also fitted with two sets of two cranes, one set located at midship capable of lifting 35 tons, and another set located aft capable of lifting 50 tons and she was delivered to the Military Sealift Command on 13 November 1985 as USNS Altair. When not active, Altair is kept in reduced operating status due to her high operating cost, if needed, she can be activated and ready to sail in 96 hours. Altair took part in the Persian Gulf War in 1990, along with the other seven Algol class cargo ships, she transported 14 percent of all cargo delivered between the United States and Saudi Arabia during and after the war. On 1 October 2007, Altair was transferred to the United States Maritime Administration, on 1 October 2008, she was transferred to the Ready Reserve Force, losing her USNS designation. If activated, Altair will report to the Military Sealift Command, cudahay, Brian J. Box Boats, How Container Ships Changed the World
41.
SS Antares (T-AKR-294)
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SS Antares is an Algol class vehicle cargo ship that is currently maintained by the United States Maritime Administration as part of the Military Sealift Commands Ready Reserve Force. She was built as a high speed container ship by A. G. Weser in Bremen, West Germany, baptized in Bremerhaven by Helga Wedekind, the ship was named SS Sea-Land Galloway, USCG ON542200, IMO7226897. Due to her high operating cost, she was sold to the United States Navy on 16 April 1982 as USNS Antares. In keeping with the pattern of the naming the Algol-class ships after bright stars, the Antares was named after Antares, conversion began on 6 October 1982 at Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her cargo hold was redesigned into a series of decks connected by ramps so vehicles can be driven into and out of the cargo hold for fast loading and unloading. She was also fitted with two sets of two cranes, one set located at midship capable of lifting 35 tons, and another set located aft capable of lifting 50 tons and she was delivered to the Military Sealift Command on 12 July 1984 as USNS Antares. When not active, Antares is kept in reduced operating status due to her high operating cost, if needed, she can be activated and ready to sail in 96 hours. Antares took part in the Persian Gulf War in 1990, along with the other seven Algol class cargo ships, she transported 14 percent of all cargo delivered between the United States and Saudi Arabia during and after the war. In 1994, she was activated to carry supplies to Guantanamo Bay and she was activated in February 1999, and carried U. S. Army cargo to Rijeka, Croatia in support of the NATO peacekeeping mission Operation Joint Guard. In 2004 she was used in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom for the transportation of equipment between Kuwait and the United States. She carried the equipment for the entire 2D Armored Cavalry Regiment home at the completion of their mission, on 1 October 2007, Antares was transferred to the United States Maritime Administration. On 1 October 2008, she was transferred to the Ready Reserve Force, if activated, Antares will report to the Military Sealift Command. Cudahay, Brian J. Box Boats, How Container Ships Changed the World
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SS Bellatrix (T-AKR-288)
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SS Bellatrix is an Algol-class vehicle cargo ship that is currently maintained by the United States Maritime Administration as part of the Military Sealift Commands Ready Reserve Force. She was built as a container ship by Rheinstahl Nordseewerke, Emden, West Germany. 430, for Sea-Land Service, Inc. and named SS Sea-Land Trade, USCG ON545201, due to her high operating cost, Sea-Land Trade was sold to the United States Navy in October 1981 as USNS Bellatrix. In keeping with the pattern of the naming the Algol-class ships after bright stars, the Bellatrix was named after Bellatrix, conversion began on 22 October 1982 at National Steel and Shipbuilding in San Diego, California. Her cargo hold was redesigned into a series of decks connected by ramps so vehicles can be driven into and out of the cargo hold for fast loading and unloading. She was also fitted with two sets of two cranes, one set located at midship capable of lifting 35 tons, and another set located aft capable of lifting 50 tons and she was delivered to the Military Sealift Command in 1984 as USNS Bellatrix. When not active, Bellatrix is kept in reduced operating status due to her high operating cost, if needed, she can be activated and ready to sail in 96 hours. Bellatrix took part in the Persian Gulf War in 1990, along with the other seven Algol class cargo ships, she transported 14 percent of all cargo delivered between the United States and Saudi Arabia during and after the war. In early 2003, Bellatrix was activated to take part in Operation Iraqi Freedom, on 1 October 2007, Bellatrix was transferred to the United States Maritime Administration. On 1 October 2008, she was transferred to the Ready Reserve Force, if activated, SS Bellatrix will report to the Military Sealift Command. She is currently located in Marrero, Louisiana, cudahay, Brian J. Box Boats, How Container Ships Changed the World
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MV Cape Ducato (T-AKR-5051)
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MV Cape Ducato was delivered in September 1972, as MV Barranduna at Eriksbergs Mekaniska Verkstads AB, Sweden. She was acquired by the US Maritime Administration on November 18,1985 and she was assigned to MARAD Ready Reserve Force, and is one of the Military Sealift Commands 31 Roll-on/Roll-off ships and one of the 63 ships of the Sealift Program Office. Cape Ducato is laid up as part of the National Defense Reserve Fleet in a layberth at Joint Base Charleston in North Charleston, South Carolina in ROS-5 status. MV MV Cape Ducato This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, the entry can be found here. National Defense Reserve Fleet Inventory Property Management and Archives Record System
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SS Cape Intrepid (T-AKR-11)
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SS Cape Intrepid was originally laid down in 1975 as SS Arizona a Type C7 ship intended for both commercial or military use. The ship was launched in 1975 and turned over to the Maritime Administration for commercial use and acquired by the Lykes Brothers, on June 8th 1976 she was removed from commercial duty and reacquired by the United States Navy and renamed USNS Jupiter to serve alongside USNS Mercury. On 8 June 1976 she was transferred to Military Sealift Command, since then the ship has been active in transport roles including a long term attachment to the 833rd transport regiment. She is currently in reserve status and can be activated if called upon in 5 days as part of the reserve fleet. The ship is moored in Tacoma, Washington. NavSource Online, Service Ship Photo Archive This article includes information collected from the Naval Vessel Register, the entry can be found here
