1.
United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
2.
Duluth, Minnesota
–
Duluth /dəˈluːθ/ is a major port city in the U. S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Saint Louis County. Duluth has a population of 86,110 and is the second-largest city on Lake Superiors shores, after Thunder Bay, Ontario, in Canada, the Duluth MSA had a population of 279,771 in 2010, the second-largest in Minnesota. Duluth forms an area with neighboring Superior, Wisconsin, called the Twin Ports. The cities share the Duluth–Superior harbor and together are the Great Lakes largest port, transporting coal, iron ore, the city is also the starting point for vehicle trips along Minnesotas North Shore. The city is named for Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, the Anishinaabe, also known as the Ojibwe or Chippewa, have inhabited the Lake Superior region for more than 500 years. They were preceded by the Dakota, Fox, Menominee, Nipigon, Noquet and Gros Ventre peoples, after the arrival of Europeans, the Anishinaabe found a niche as the middlemen between the French fur traders and other Native peoples. They soon became the dominant Indian nation in the region, forcing out the Dakota Sioux and Fox, by the mid-18th century, the Ojibwe occupied all of Lake Superiors shores. For both the Ojibwe and the Dakota, interaction with Europeans during the period revolved around the fur trade. The Ojibwe are historically known for their crafting of birch bark canoes, use of arrow points. In 1745, they adopted guns from the British for use against the Dakota nation of the Sioux, the Ojibwe Nation was the first to set the agenda with European-Canadian leaders for signing more detailed treaties before many European settlers were allowed too far west. Duluths name in Ojibwe is Onigamiinsing, a reference to the small, the Stopping Places were the places the Native Americans occupied during their westward migration as the Europeans overran their territory. Several factors brought fur traders to the Great Lakes in the early 17th century, the fashion for beaver hats in Europe generated demand for pelts. Étienne Brûlé is credited with the European discovery of Lake Superior before 1620, pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers explored the Duluth area, Fond du Lac in 1654 and again in 1660. The French soon established fur posts near Duluth and in the far north where Grand Portage became a trading center. The French explorer Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, whose name is anglicized as DuLuth. The first post was where Superior, Wisconsin, later developed, known as Fort Saint Louis, the post became the headquarters for North Wests new Fond du Lac Department. It had stockaded walls, two houses of 40 feet each, a shed of 60 feet, a warehouse. Over time, Indian peoples and European Americans settled nearby, in 1808, the American Fur Company was organized by German-born John Jacob Astor
3.
Lorain, Ohio
–
Lorain is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Black River, as of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 64,097, making it Ohios tenth largest city and the largest in Lorain County by population. Lorain is part of the Cleveland-Elyria Metropolitan Statistical Area, more known as Greater Cleveland. The city faces many issues to other Rust Belt cities, including population decline. The first permanent settlement in present-day Lorain was founded in 1807 by Azariah Beebe, james Reid, one of the original settlers of Black River township, built a large house near the bluffs overlooking the Black River in 1812 to be used as a dwelling and tavern. In the following years, a post office for Mouth of Black River, the Black River provided several advantages for the early settlement and allowed for it to be a more desirable location to build. The Black had the first navigable waters west of the Cuyahoga River and it was said that the Black River harbor was the best natural harbors among the Great Lakes. In addition to providing an area for immigrants to stop while on their way to the Firelands, the people of what would one day become Lorain incorporated the village of Charleston in 1834 and a town site was surveyed by Edward Durand containing 7 city blocks. Lots were sold in the town and in 1836 the village of Charleston was granted a charter by the Ohio Legislature, Lorain, part of the Cleveland–Elyria–Mentor metropolitan area, is located at 41°26′54″N 82°10′8″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 24.14 square miles. The Charles Berry Bridge is located in Lorain, and is the second-largest bascule bridge in the world, as of the census of 2000, there were 68,652 people,26,434 households, and 17,975 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,858.1 people per square mile, There were 28,231 housing units at an average density of 1,175. 5/sq mi. The racial makeup of the city was 69. 70% White,15. 94% African American,0. 44% Native American,0. 33% Asian,0. 03% Pacific Islander,9. 56% from other races, and 3. 99% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 21. 03% of the population,27. 4% of all households were made up of individuals and 10. 7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.57 and the family size was 3.11. In the city the population was out with 28. 3% under the age of 18,9. 0% from 18 to 24,28. 2% from 25 to 44,20. 5% from 45 to 64. The median age was 34 years, for every 100 females there were 90.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.4 males, the median income for a household in the city was $33,917, and the median income for a family was $39,454
4.
Ohio
–
Ohio /oʊˈhaɪ. oʊ/ is a Midwestern state in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Ohio is the 34th largest by area, the 7th most populous, the states capital and largest city is Columbus. The state takes its name from the Ohio River, the name originated from the Iroquois word ohi-yo’, meaning great river or large creek. Partitioned from the Northwest Territory, the state was admitted to the Union as the 17th state on March 1,1803, Ohio is historically known as the Buckeye State after its Ohio buckeye trees, and Ohioans are also known as Buckeyes. Ohio occupies 16 seats in the United States House of Representatives, Ohio is known for its status as both a swing state and a bellwether in national elections. Six Presidents of the United States have been elected who had Ohio as their home state, Ohios geographic location has proven to be an asset for economic growth and expansion. Because Ohio links the Northeast to the Midwest, much cargo, Ohio has the nations 10th largest highway network, and is within a one-day drive of 50% of North Americas population and 70% of North Americas manufacturing capacity. To the north, Lake Erie gives Ohio 312 miles of coastline, Ohios southern border is defined by the Ohio River, and much of the northern border is defined by Lake Erie. Ohios neighbors are Pennsylvania to the east, Michigan to the northwest, Ontario Canada, to the north, Indiana to the west, Kentucky on the south, Ohio is bounded by the Ohio River, but nearly all of the river itself belongs to Kentucky and West Virginia. Ohio has only that portion of the river between the rivers 1792 low-water mark and the present high-water mark, the border with Michigan has also changed, as a result of the Toledo War, to angle slightly northeast to the north shore of the mouth of the Maumee River. Much of Ohio features glaciated plains, with a flat area in the northwest being known as the Great Black Swamp. Most of Ohio is of low relief, but the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau features rugged hills, in 1965 the United States Congress passed the Appalachian Regional Development Act, at attempt to address the persistent poverty and growing economic despair of the Appalachian Region. This act defines 29 Ohio counties as part of Appalachia, the worst weather disaster in Ohio history occurred along the Great Miami River in 1913. Known as the Great Dayton Flood, the entire Miami River watershed flooded, as a result, the Miami Conservancy District was created as the first major flood plain engineering project in Ohio and the United States. Grand Lake St. Marys in the west central part of the state was constructed as a supply of water for canals in the era of 1820–1850. For many years this body of water, over 20 square miles, was the largest artificial lake in the world and it should be noted that Ohios canal-building projects were not the economic fiasco that similar efforts were in other states. Some cities, such as Dayton, owe their emergence to location on canals. Summers are typically hot and humid throughout the state, while winters generally range from cool to cold, precipitation in Ohio is moderate year-round
5.
Call sign
–
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitter station. In North America, they are used for all FCC licensed transmitters, a call sign can be formally assigned by a government agency, informally adopted by individuals or organizations, or even cryptographically encoded to disguise a stations identity. The use of signs as unique identifiers dates to the landline railroad telegraph system. Because there was only one line linking all railroad stations. In order to time, two-letter identifiers were adopted for this purpose. This pattern continued in operation, radio companies initially assigned two-letter identifiers to coastal stations and stations aboard ships at sea. These were not globally unique, so a company identifier was later added. Merchant and naval vessels are assigned call signs by their national licensing authorities, in the case of states such as Liberia or Panama, which are flags of convenience for ship registration, call signs for larger vessels consist of the national prefix plus three letters. United States merchant vessels are given call signs beginning with the letters W or K while US naval ships are assigned callsigns beginning with N, leisure craft with VHF radios may not be assigned call signs, in which case the name of the vessel is used instead. Ships in the US wishing to have a radio licence anyway are under F. C. C, class SA, Ship recreational or voluntarily equipped. Those calls follow the land mobile format of the initial letter K or W followed by 1 or 2 letters followed by 3 or 4 numbers. U. S. Coast Guard small boats have a number that is shown on both bows in which the first two digits indicate the length of the boat in feet. For example, Coast Guard 47021 refers to the 21st in the series of 47 foot motor lifeboats, the call sign might be abbreviated to the final two or three numbers during operations, for example, Coast Guard zero two one. Call signs in aviation are derived from several different policies, depending upon the type of flight operation, in most countries, unscheduled general aviation flights identify themselves using the call sign corresponding to the aircrafts registration number. In this case, the sign is spoken using the International Civil Aviation Organization phonetic alphabet. Aircraft registration numbers internationally follow the pattern of a country prefix, for example, an aircraft registered as N978CP conducting a general aviation flight would use the call sign November-niner-seven-eight-Charlie-Papa. However, in the United States a pilot of an aircraft would normally omit saying November, at times, general aviation pilots might omit additional preceding numbers and use only the last three numbers and letters. This is especially true at uncontrolled fields when reporting traffic pattern positions, for example, Skyhawk eight-Charlie-Papa, left base
6.
Lake freighter
–
Lake freighters, or lakers, are bulk carrier vessels that ply the Great Lakes of North America. These vessels are called boats, although classified as ships. Lakers carry bulk cargoes of materials such as limestone, iron ore, grain, coal or salt from the mines, the 63 commercial ports handled 173 million tons of cargo in 2006. Because of winter ice on the lakes, the season is not usually year-round. The Soo Locks and Welland Canal close from mid-January to late March, depending on their application, lakers may also be referred to by their type, such as oreboats, straight deckers, bulkers, sternenders, self unloaders, longboats, or lakeboats, among others. In the mid-20th century,300 lakers worked the Lakes, one of the best known was SS Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in 1975, the most recent and largest major vessel to be wrecked on the Lakes. By way of the Saint Lawrence Seaway, smaller lakers have access to the ocean, visiting ocean-going vessels are called salties. Many modern ocean going vessels are too large for the relatively small locks on the Saint Lawrence Seaway, because one of the Soo Locks is larger than any Seaway lock, salties that can pass through the Seaway may travel anywhere in the Great Lakes. Similarly, the largest lakers are confined to the Upper Lakes because they are too large to use the Seaway locks, beginning at the Welland Canal that bypasses the Niagara River. Because of their draft, and the lower buoyancy of fresh water, salties may accept partial loads on the Great Lakes. Lakers are generally bulk carriers, that is, they carry cargoes of rock, ore, salt or grain in large contiguous holds, not packed in containers. The earlier ships required rail cars unloading on ore docks and unloading machinery at the receiving docks, the most common cargoes on the Great Lakes are taconite, limestone, grain, salt, coal, cement, gypsum, sand, slag and potash. Much of the supplies the steel mills of the auto industry. Other destinations include coal-fired power plants, highway department salt domes and stone docks, uS-flagged freighters carried the largest portion of the trade, accounting for two-thirds of all cargo by weight. US boats carried most of the iron, limestone and cement while Canadian boats carried most of the potash and almost all of the salt, destination harbors, ship sizes and legal restrictions greatly affect the pattern of haulage. US ships hauled almost all of the ore on the lakes - from US mines to US mills on large US ships. This reflects the requirement of the Jones Act, as well as the industry using large volumes of material while being concentrated in a few large harbor locations, the largest vessels on the lake are the 1000-footers. These vessels are between 1,000 and 1,013.5 feet long,105 feet wide and they can carry as much as 78,850 long tons of bulk cargo although their loading is dependent on lake water levels especially in the channels and ports
7.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald
–
SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Superior storm on November 10,1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29. When launched on June 7,1958, she was the largest ship on North Americas Great Lakes, for 17 years Fitzgerald carried taconite iron ore from mines near Duluth, Minnesota, to iron works in Detroit, Toledo, and other Great Lakes ports. As a workhorse, she set seasonal haul records six times and her size, record-breaking performance, and DJ captain endeared Fitzgerald to boat watchers. Carrying a full cargo of ore pellets with Captain Ernest M. McSorley in command, she embarked on her voyage from Superior, Wisconsin, near Duluth. En route to a mill near Detroit, Fitzgerald joined a second freighter. By the next day, the two ships were caught in a storm on Lake Superior, with near hurricane-force winds. Shortly after 7,10 p. m. Fitzgerald suddenly sank in Canadian waters 530 feet deep, marie, Ontario—a distance Fitzgerald could have covered in just over an hour at her top speed. Although Fitzgerald had reported being in difficulty earlier, no signals were sent before she sank, Captain McSorleys last message to Anderson said. Her crew of 29 perished, and no bodies were recovered, the exact cause of the sinking remains unknown, though many books, studies, and expeditions have examined it. The disaster is one of the best-known in the history of Great Lakes shipping, Gordon Lightfoot made it the subject of his 1976 hit song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald after reading an article, The Cruelest Month, in the November 24,1975, issue of Newsweek. Fitzgerald was the first laker built to the maximum St. Lawrence Seaway size, which was 730 feet long,75 feet wide, the moulded depth was 39 ft. The hold depth was 33 ft 4 in, GLEW laid the first keel plate on August 7 the same year. Fitzgeralds three central cargo holds were loaded through 21 watertight hatches, each 11 by 48 feet of 5⁄16-inch-thick steel, originally coal-fired, her boilers were converted to burn oil during the 1971–72 winter layup. In 1969, the maneuverability was improved by the installation of a diesel-powered bow thruster. By ore freighter standards, the interior of Fitzgerald was luxurious and her J. L. Hudson Company-designed furnishings included deep pile carpeting, tiled bathrooms, drapes over the portholes, and leather swivel chairs in the guest lounge. There were two guest state rooms for passengers, air conditioning extended to the crew quarters, which featured more amenities than usual. A large galley and fully stocked pantry supplied meals for two dining rooms, the Fitzgerald pilothouse was outfitted with state-of-the-art nautical equipment and a beautiful map room. Northwestern named the ship after its president and chairman of the board, Fitzgeralds own grandfather had himself been a lake captain, and his father owned the Milwaukee Drydock Company that built and repaired ships
8.
U.S. Steel
–
The United States Steel Corporation, more commonly known as U. S. Steel, is an American integrated steel producer with major production operations in the United States, Canada, and Central Europe. The company was the worlds 15th largest steel producer in 2014, at one time, U. S. Steel was the largest steel producer and largest corporation in the world. It was capitalized at $1.4 billion, making it the worlds first billion-dollar corporation, the company headquarters was established in 1901 in the Empire Building, purchased from the estate of Orlando B. Potter for $5 million. In 1907 it bought its largest competitor, the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company and this led to Tennessee Coals being replaced in the Dow Jones Industrial Average by the General Electric Company. The federal government attempted to use federal antitrust laws to break up U. S. Steel in 1911, in its first full year of operation, U. S. Steel made 67 percent of all the steel produced in the United States. One hundred years later, its shipments accounted for only about 8 percent of domestic consumption, the Corporation, as it was known on Wall Street, always distinguished itself to investors by virtue of its size, rather than for its efficiency or creativeness during its heyday. In 1901, it controlled two-thirds of steel production, because of heavy debts taken on at the companys formation — Carnegie insisted on being paid in gold bonds for his stake — and fears of antitrust litigation, U. S. Steel moved cautiously. Competitors often innovated faster, especially Bethlehem Steel, run by U. S, Steels former first president, Charles M. Schwab. Steels share of the expanding market slipped to 50 percent by 1911, james A. Farrell was named president in 1911 and served until 1932. U. S. Steel ranked 16th among United States corporations in the value of World War II production contracts, production peaked at more than 35 million tons in 1953. Its employment was greatest in 1943 when it had more than 340,000 employees, by 2000, however, the federal government has also intervened on other occasions to try to control U. S. Steel. President Harry S. Truman attempted to take over its steel mills in 1952 to resolve a crisis with its union, the United Steelworkers of America. The Supreme Court blocked the takeover by ruling that the president did not have the authority to seize the mills (see Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer. President John F. Kennedy was more successful in 1962 when he pressured the industry into reversing price increases that Kennedy considered dangerously inflationary. In the early days of the Reagan Administration, steel firms won substantial tax breaks in order to deal with imported goods, instead of modernizing their mills, steel companies shifted capital out of steel and into more profitable areas. In March 1982, U. S. Steel took its concessions and paid $1.4 billion in cash and $4.7 billion in loans for Marathon Oil, saving approximately $500 million in taxes through the merger. The architect of tax concessions to steel firms, Senator Arlen Specter, complained that we go out on a limb in Congress, the incident is the subject of a song by folk singer Anne Feeney. U. S. Steel finally acquired National Steels assets in 2003 after National Steel went bankrupt, as part of its diversification plan U. S. Steel acquired Marathon Oil on January 7,1982, as well as Texas Oil and Gas several years later
9.
Lake Erie
–
Lake Erie is the fourth-largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the thirteenth-largest globally if measured in terms of surface area. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes, at its deepest point Lake Erie is 210 feet deep. Lake Eries northern shore is bounded by the Canadian province of Ontario, with the U. S. states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and these jurisdictions divide the surface area of the lake by water boundaries. The lake was named by the Erie people, a Native Americans people who lived along its southern shore and that Iroquoian tribe called it Erige because of its unpredictable and sometimes violently dangerous nature. It is a matter of whether the lake was named after the tribe. Situated below Lake Huron, Eries primary inlet is the Detroit River, Lake Erie has a mean elevation of 571 feet above sea level. It has an area of 9,990 square miles with a length of 241 statute miles. The warm summer of 1999 caused lake temperatures to come close to the 85 °F limit necessary to keep the plants cool, also because of its shallowness, and in spite of being the warmest lake in the summer, it is also the first to freeze in the winter. The waves build very quickly, according to other accounts, after being trapped for an hour-and-a-half, Baker was back on dry land, exhausted and battered but alive. This area is known as the thunderstorm capital of Canada with breathtaking lightning displays. Lake Erie is primarily fed by the Detroit River and drains via the Niagara River, navigation downstream is provided by the Welland Canal, part of the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Other major contributors to Lake Erie include the Grand River, the Huron River, the Maumee River, the Sandusky River, the Buffalo River, the drainage basin covers 30,140 square miles. Point Pelee National Park, the southernmost point of the Canadian mainland, is located on a peninsula extending into the lake. Several islands are found in the end of the lake, these belong to Ohio except for Pelee Island and eight neighboring islands. Major cities along Lake Erie include Buffalo, Erie, Pennsylvania, Toledo, Ohio, Islands tend to be located in the western side of the lake and total 31 in number. The island-village of Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island attracts young crowds who sometimes wear red hats and are prone to break off cartwheels in the park. Pelee Island is the largest of Eries islands, accessible by ferry from Leamington, Ontario and Sandusky, songbirds migrate to Pelee in spring, and monarch butterflies stop over during the fall. Lake Erie has a retention time of 2.6 years
10.
Conneaut, Ohio
–
Conneaut is a city in Ashtabula County, Ohio, United States, along Lake Erie at the mouth of Conneaut Creek. The population was 12,841 at the 2010 Census, Conneaut is located at the far northeastern corner of the state. Conneaut is located on an old Native American trail, later used by early westbound pioneers, the word conneaut comes from the Seneca language, and has a disputed meaning. A Mississauga village was located at or near Conneaut, c, Conneaut was originally named Salem, and the parts surrounding it were named Lakeville from 1944–1964, though these were eventually combined into what is now known as Conneaut. People still refer to parts of Conneaut as Lakeville or Amboy, Conneaut was described in 1833 as having a printing office, one meeting house, two taverns, and several stores and shops. On March 27,1953 a three-train collision near Conneaut resulted in the deaths of 21 persons, Conneaut is located at 41°57′N 80°34′W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 26.43 square miles. Conneaut is situated along Lake Erie at the mouth of Conneaut Creek, Conneaut is located in the northeastern-most corner of Ohio, bordering the state of Pennsylvania to the east and has 27 square miles within its corporate city limits. Conneaut is a mixture of urban areas and rural farmland, the city has over seven miles of shoreline along Lake Erie, with beaches, boating facilities and a healthy summer tourist trade. As of the census of 2010, there were 12,841 people,4,740 households, the population density was 487.1 inhabitants per square mile. There were 5,702 housing units at a density of 216.3 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 89. 8% White,7. 5% African American,0. 2% Native American,0. 4% Asian,0. 4% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 8% of the population. 30. 3% of all households were made up of individuals, the average household size was 2.37 and the average family size was 2.90. The median age in the city was 39.6 years. 20. 2% of residents were under the age of 18,9. 2% were between the ages of 18 and 24,28. 2% were from 25 to 44,26. 5% were from 45 to 64, and 15. 7% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 54. 4% male and 45. 6% female, as of the census of 2000, there were 12,485 people,5,038 households, and 3,410 families residing in the city. The population density was 473.4 people per square mile, there were 5,710 housing units at an average density of 216.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 96. 33% White,1. 12% African American,0. 18% Native American,0. 47% Asian,0. 05% Pacific Islander,0. 23% from other races, and 1. 61% from two or more races
Duluth, Minnesota
