Independence Hall
Independence Hall is the building where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted. It is now the centerpiece of the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, the building was completed in 1753 as the colonial legislature for the Province of Pennsylvania. It became the meeting place of the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1783 and was the site of the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787. The building is part of Independence National Historical Park and is listed as a World Heritage Site, by the spring of 1729 the citizens of Philadelphia were petitioning to be allowed to build a state house. Two thousand pounds were committed to the endeavor, by October 1730 they had begun purchasing lots on Chestnut Street. By 1732, even though Hamilton had acquired the deed for Lot no.2 from surveyor David Powell, dr. John Kearsley and Hamilton disagreed on a number of issues concerning the state house. Kearsley, who is credited with the designs of both Christ Church and St.
Peters Church, had plans for the structure of the building, the two men disagreed on the buildings site, Kearsley suggested High Street, now Market Street, and Hamilton favored Chestnut Street. Lawrence said nothing on the matter, matters reached a point where arbitration was needed. On August 8,1733, Hamilton brought the matter before the House of Representatives and he explained that Kearsley did not approve of Hamilton’s plans for the location and architecture of the state house and went on to insist the House had not agreed to these decisions. In response to this, Hamilton, on August 11, showed his plans for the house to the House. Ground was broken for construction soon after, Independence Hall is a red brick building designed in the Georgian style. It consists of a building with belltower and steeple, attached to two smaller wings via arcaded hyphens. The highest point to the tip of the spire is 168 ft. The State House was built between 1732 and 1751, designed by Edmund Woolley and Andrew Hamilton, and built by Woolley and its construction was commissioned by the Pennsylvania colonial legislature which paid for construction as funds were available, so it was finished piecemeal.
It was initially inhabited by the government of Pennsylvania as its State House. In 1753 Thomas Stretch erected a giant clock at the buildings west end that resembled a tall clock, the 40-foot-tall limestone base was capped with a 14-foot wooden case surrounding the clocks face, which was carved by Samuel Harding. The giant clock was removed about 1830, the clock’s dials were mounted at the east and west ends of the main building connected by rods to the clock movement in the middle of the building. The acquisition of the clock and bell by the Pennsylvania Colonial Assembly is closely related to the acquisition of the Liberty Bell
La Fortaleza
La Fortaleza is the current official residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico. It was built between 1533 and 1540 to defend the harbor of San Juan, the structure is known as Palacio de Santa Catalina. It is the oldest executive mansion in continuous use in the New World and it was listed by UNESCO in 1983 as part of the World Heritage Site La Fortaleza and San Juan National Historic Site. The construction was authorized by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor as a defense against attacks from Island Caribs, the structure consisted of four walls enclosing an interior patio with a circular tower known as the Homage Tower. From the top of the tower, the governor, following tradition, would take oaths of fidelity at critical moments to the King. Later, a tower named the Austral Tower was constructed. At present, the complex consists of a few attached buildings with formal living quarters in the second floor and it overlooks the high city walls that front the bay, and within the north perimeter of the house are sheltered gardens and a swimming pool.
Since the 16th century, La Fortaleza has acted as the residence of the Governor of Puerto Rico, on November 27,1822, its traditional status as the executive mansion was made official. The fortress underwent a reconstruction in 1846 to change its military appearance into a palatial facade. King Juan Carlos of Spain and Queen Juliana of the Netherlands are among several heads of state who have stayed in La Fortaleza, in June 2011, U. S. King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain visited La Fortaleza in 2016. La Fortaleza has been captured twice by invaders,1598, George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland,1625, General Boudewijn Hendrick of the Netherlands invaded the city and established himself at La Fortaleza. During the Dutch retreat, the fortress and the city were set ablaze, on October 30,1950, there was an attempt by a few nationalists to enter La Fortaleza in what is known as the San Juan Nationalist revolt, intending to attack then-governor Luis Muñoz Marín. The 5-minute shootout resulted in four Nationalists dead, Domingo Hiraldo Resto, Carlos Hiraldo Resto, Manuel Torres Medina, three of the guards of the building, among them Lorenzo Ramos, were seriously injured.
On October 9,1960, La Fortaleza was designated a United States National Historic Landmark, in 1983, La Fortaleza, along with the San Juan National Historic Site, was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. On May 26,2004, a man armed with a knife entered the mansions mailroom located just outside the palace gates, the 2½ hour stand-off ended after Governor Sila María Calderón entered the building and listened as the hostage-taker read a letter. In 2011, Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi wrote the dramatic novel United States of Banana, report of 7th Session, Florence 1983. Paris, UNESCOs Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, pR-54, La Fortaleza, Calle Fortaleza, San Juan, San Juan Municipio, PR
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico, officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and briefly called Porto Rico, is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea. It is an archipelago that includes the island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller ones such as Mona, Culebra. The capital and most populous city is San Juan and its official languages are Spanish and English, though Spanish predominates. The islands population is approximately 3.4 million, Puerto Ricos rich history, tropical climate, diverse natural scenery, renowned traditional cuisine, and attractive tax incentives make it a popular destination for travelers from around the world. Four centuries of Spanish colonial government transformed the ethnic and physical landscapes primarily with waves of African captives, and Canarian. In the Spanish imperial imagination, Puerto Rico played a secondary, in 1898, following the Spanish–American War, the United States appropriated Puerto Rico together with most former Spanish colonies under the terms of the Treaty of Paris.
Puerto Ricans are natural-born citizens of the United States, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the United States Congress, which governs the territory with full jurisdiction under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950. As a U. S. territory, American citizens residing on the island are disenfranchised at the level and may not vote for president. However, Congress approved a constitution, allowing U. S. citizens on the territory to elect a governor. A fifth referendum will be held in June 2017, with only Statehood, in early 2017, the Puerto Rican government-debt crisis posed serious problems for the government. The outstanding bond debt that had climbed to $70 billion or $12,000 per capita at a time with 12. 4% unemployment, the debt had been increasing during a decade long recession. Puerto Ricans often call the island Borinquen – a derivation of Borikén, its indigenous Taíno name, the terms boricua and borincano derive from Borikén and Borinquen respectively, and are commonly used to identify someone of Puerto Rican heritage.
The island is known in Spanish as la isla del encanto. Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist, eventually traders and other maritime visitors came to refer to the entire island as Puerto Rico, while San Juan became the name used for the main trading/shipping port and the capital city. The islands name was changed to Porto Rico by the United States after the Treaty of Paris of 1898, the anglicized name was used by the US government and private enterprises. The name was changed back to Puerto Rico by a joint resolution in Congress introduced by Félix Córdova Dávila in 1931, the ancient history of the archipelago known today as Puerto Rico is not well known. The scarce archaeological findings and early Spanish scholarly accounts from the colonial era constitute the basis of knowledge about them. The first comprehensive book on the history of Puerto Rico was written by Fray Íñigo Abbad y Lasierra in 1786, the first settlers were the Ortoiroid people, an Archaic Period culture of Amerindian hunters and fishermen who migrated from the South American mainland
Isla de Mona
Mona is the third-largest island of the Puerto Rican archipelago, after the main island of Puerto Rico and Vieques. It is the largest of three located in the Mona Passage, a strait between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, the others being Monito Island and Desecheo Island. It measures about 11 km by 7 km, and lies 66 km west of Puerto Rico, of which it is administratively a part. The original name given to the island by the Taíno Indians is Amona and it is one of two islands that make up the Isla de Mona e Islote Monito Barrio of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. The island is managed as the Mona Island Nature Reserve, Mona Island is believed to have been originally settled by Arawak Indians who arrived from Quisqueya. An archeological excavation during the 1980s discovered many Pre-Columbian objects on the island that helped support historians theories of the islands first inhabitants, stone tools found in a rock shelter have been dated to around 3000 BC. Much the island was settled by the Taínos and remained so until the arrival of the Spanish in the 15th century.
Within hours of setting foot in Puerto Rico and his ships headed west to Hispaniola, as he left Puerto Rico, he reputedly became the first European to sight the island on September 24,1494, which was claimed for Spain. The name Mona derives from the Taíno name Ámona, bestowed by the natives in honor of the ruling Cacique or chief of the island. However, one amateur archaeologist who has studied the Mona Island/Columbus sighting for over 14 years puts this in dispute with the following logic, Columbus is in a bay on the northwest corner. He is to sail from there straight across to the north coast of Hispaniola, why would he sail south to where he has already been and sail north again to Hispaniola. Mona Island was probably picked by armchair historians because it is the island in the passage between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola that is drawn on most maps. It is more logical that when Columbus left the northwest coast of Puerto Rico and it was never considered by armchair authors because it is small, and of no interest, it is not drawn on most maps.
In 1502, Fray Nicolás de Ovando was sent to Isla de la Mona to keep an eye, from a safe distance, with a group of 2,000 Spanish settlers, Ovando was left in charge of creating a permanent settlement on the island. Juan Ponce de León, who accompanied Columbus on his first two voyages, became the first ruling governor of Puerto Rico, in 1515, after some wrangling, Ferdinand II was able to reclaim the island from Diego Colón, Viceroy of the Indies. By then, Isla de la Mona was an important point of trade between Spain and the rest of Latin America, as well as a rest stop for the crews of boats carrying slaves. Realizing that mining would require intense labor, the majority of inhabitants chose to work as fishermen, by accepting this option, they were exempted from paying imposed taxes, and were able to avoid the hard labor many other natives endured in mines. In time, natives from neighboring islands were brought to Mona Island to assist with labor
Morrillito
Morrillito is a small uninhabited island off the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The island is protected by the Reserva Natural Caja de Muertos natural reserve because of its native turtle traffic. Together with Caja de Muertos, Ratones, Isla del Frio, and Isla de Jueyes, Morrillito is one of seven islands ascribed to the municipality of Ponce. The island, sometimes termed a cay, is located 8.4 km south of the Puerto Rican mainland and is part of Barrio Playa ward of the Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is located 180 meters off the southwest point of Caja de Muertos island and has an area of just 0.04 km², the island is connected to Caja de Muertos by a bank of shallow waters about 5.49 meters deep. It is located at latitude 17.88417 and longitude -66.53361 and its length is 0.5 kilometers northeast and southwest. The climate is dry and the island supports dry forest, together with Caja de Muertos and Berberia Key, Morrillito makes up the Caja de Muertos Natural Reserve. The island has remained a protected area ever since, the protection is mainly due to its heavy Hawksbill sea turtle traffic which is an endangered species.
See an aerial photo of flat-surfaced Morrillito HERE, source, ¡Una obra magistral Puerto Rico 365. Both versions published 2 January 2013, Natural Reserve, official page Morrillito at Panoramio
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan is the capital and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States, San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521, who called it Ciudad de Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricos capital is the second oldest European-established capital city in the Americas, after Santo Domingo, San Juan is Puerto Ricos most important seaport, and is the islands manufacturing, financial and tourism center. San Juan is a city of the San Juan-Caguas-Fajardo Combined Statistical Area. In 1508, Juan Ponce de León founded the settlement which he called Caparra. In 1521, the settlement was given its formal name. On the other hand, the name for the island became the name for the city only after the occupation of the island by the United States. San Juan, as a settlement of the Spanish Empire, was used by merchant, because of its prominence in the Caribbean, a network of fortifications was built to protect the transports of gold and silver from the New World to Europe.
Because of the cargoes, San Juan became a target of the foreign powers of the time. The city was witness to attacks from the English led by Sir Francis Drake in 1595 and by George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland, artillery from San Juans fort, El Morro, repelled Drake, Clifford managed to land troops and lay siege to the city. After a few months of English occupation, Clifford was forced to abandon the siege when his troops began to suffer from exhaustion, in 1625 the city was sacked by Dutch forces led by Captain Balduino Enrico, but El Morro withstood the assault and was not taken. The Dutch were counterattacked by Captain Juan de Amezquita and 50 members of the militia on land. The land battle left 60 Dutch soldiers dead and Enrico with a wound to his neck which he received from the hands of Amezquita. The Dutch ships at sea were boarded by Puerto Ricans who defeated those aboard, after a long battle, the Spanish soldiers and volunteers of the citys militia were able to defend the city from the attack and save the island from an invasion.
On October 21, Enrico set La Fortaleza and the city ablaze, captains Amezquita and Andre Botello decided to put a stop to the destruction and led 200 men in an attack against the enemys front and rear guard. They drove Enrico and his men from their trenches and into the ocean in their haste to reach their ships, the British attack in 1797, during the French Revolutionary Wars, led by Sir Ralph Abercromby. His army laid siege to the city but was forced to withdraw in defeat as the Puerto Rican defenses proved more resilient than those of Trinidad. The USS Yale captured a Spanish freighter, the Rita in San Juan Bay, on May 9, Yale fought a brief battle with an auxiliary cruiser of Spain, name unknown, resulting in a Spanish victory
Northeastern United States
The Northeast is one of the four regions defined by the Census Bureau for the collection and analysis of statistics. The Census Bureau-defined region has an area of 181,324 sq mi with 162,257 square miles of that being land mass. Though lacking a unified identity, the Northeastern region is the nations most economically developed, densely populated. Of the nations four census regions, the Northeast is the second most urban, with 85 percent of its residing in urban areas. The region is subdivided into New England and the Mid-Atlantic States and this definition has been essentially unchanged since 1880 and is widely used as a standard for data tabulation. C. Similarly, the Geological Society of America defines the Northeast as these same states but with the addition of Maryland, the narrowest definitions include only the states of New England. Other more restrictive definitions include New England and New York as part of the Northeast United States, States beyond the Census Bureau definition that other entities include in the Northeast United States are, Delaware and Washington, D. C.
Delaware, Washington, D. C. and West Virginia Delaware, Washington, most did not settle in North America until the 17th century. Among the many tribes that inhabited this area were those made up the Iroquois nations. In the United States of the 21st century,18 federally recognized tribes reside in the Northeast, the two cultural and geographic regions that form parts of the Northeastern region have distinct histories. The first Europeans to settle New England were Pilgrims from England, the Pilgrims arrived by the Mayflower ship and founded Plymouth Colony so they could practice religion freely. Ten years later, a group of Puritans settled north of Plymouth Colony in Boston to form Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1636, colonists established Connecticut Colony and Providence Plantations, Providence was founded by Roger Williams, who was banished by Massachusetts for his beliefs in freedom of religion, and it was the first colony to guarantee all citizens freedom of worship. Anne Hutchinson, who was banished by Massachusetts, formed the town of Portsmouth.
Providence and two towns consolidated to form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. Although the first settlers of New England were motivated by religion, in recent history. In a 2009 Gallup survey, less than half of residents in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts reported religion as an important part of their daily life. In a 2010 Gallup survey, less than 30% of residents in Vermont, New Hampshire, New England played a prominent role in early American education
Cahokia
The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site /kəˈhoʊkiə/ is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. This historic park lies in southern Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville, the park covers 2,200 acres, or about 3.5 square miles, and contains about 80 mounds, but the ancient city was much larger. In its heyday, Cahokia covered about 6 square miles and included about 120 human-made earthen mounds in a range of sizes, shapes. Today, Cahokia Mounds is considered the largest and most complex archaeological site north of the great cities in Mexico. Cahokia Mounds is a National Historic Landmark and a site for state protection. It is one of only 23 UNESCO World Heritage Sites within the United States, although there is some evidence of occupation during the Late Archaic period in and around the site, Cahokia as it is now defined was settled around 600 CE during the Late Woodland period. Mound building at this location began with the Emergent Mississippian cultural period, the citys original name is unknown.
The Mounds were named after the Cahokia tribe, a historic Illiniwek people living in the area when the first French explorers arrived in the 17th century. As this was centuries after Cahokia was abandoned by its original inhabitants, most likely multiple indigenous ethnic groups settled in the Cahokia area. Though widely debated, some archaeologists connect Dhegihan Siouan-speaking tribes to Cahokia and they include the Osage, Omaha and Quapaw. These peoples are believed to have migrated from the east of the Ohio Valley. Many Native American tribes migrated over the centuries in response to local conditions and those living in territories at the time of the European encounter were often not the descendants of peoples who had lived there centuries before and built the mounds. Historian Daniel Richter notes that the apex of the city occurred during the Medieval Warming Period, the decline of the city coincides with the little ice age, although by the three-fold agriculture remained well-established throughout temperate North America.
Cahokia became the most important center for the peoples known today as Mississippians and their settlements ranged across what is now the Midwest and Southeastern United States. Cahokia was located in a position near the confluence of the Mississippi, Missouri. It maintained trade links with communities as far away as the Great Lakes to the north and the Gulf Coast to the south, trading in such items as copper, Mill Creek chert. Mill Creek chert, most notably, was used in the production of hoes, Cahokias control of the manufacture and distribution of these hand tools was an important economic activity that allowed the city to thrive. Bartering, not money was used in trade, at the high point of its development, Cahokia was the largest urban center north of the great Mesoamerican cities in Mexico and Central America
Protected areas of the United States
The protected areas of the United States are managed by an array of different federal, state and local level authorities and receive widely varying levels of protection. Some areas are managed as wilderness, while others are operated with acceptable commercial exploitation, as of 2015, the 25,800 protected areas covered 1,294,476 km2, or 14 percent of the land area of the United States. This is one-tenth of the land area of the world. The U. S. had a total of 787 National Marine Protected Areas, covering an additional 1,271,408 km2, some areas are managed in concert between levels of government. The Father Marquette National Memorial is an example of a park operated by a state park system. As of 2007, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, federal level protected areas are managed by a variety of agencies, most of which are a part of the National Park Service, a bureau of the United States Department of the Interior. They are often considered the jewels of the protected areas.
Other areas are managed by the United States Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Army Corps of Engineers is claimed to provide 30 percent of the recreational opportunities on federal lands, mainly through lakes and waterways that they manage. The highest levels of protection, as described by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, are Level I, the United States maintains 12 percent of the Level I and II lands in the world. These lands had an area of 210,000 sq mi. A confusing system for naming protected areas results in some types being used by more than one agency, for instance, both the National Park Service and the U. S. Forest Service operate areas designated National Preserves and National Recreation Areas. The National Park Service, the U. S. Forest Service, National Wilderness Areas are designated within other protected areas, managed by various agencies and sometimes wilderness areas span areas managed by multiple agencies. States and local zoning bodies may or may not choose to protect these, the state of Colorado, for example, is very clear that it does not set any limits on owners of NRHP properties.
State parks vary widely from urban parks to large parks that are on a par with national parks. Some state parks, like Adirondack Park, are similar to the National parks of England and Wales, about half the area of the park, some 3,000,000 acres, is state-owned and preserved as forever wild by the Forest Preserve of New York. Wood-Tikchik State Park in Alaska claims to be the largest state park by the amount of protected land, it is larger than many U. S. National Parks. Many states operate game and recreation areas. S, State and tribal wilderness areas Various counties, metropolitan authorities, regional parks, soil conservation districts and other units manage a variety of local level parks. Some of these are more than picnic areas or playgrounds, however
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