1.
Seattle
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Seattle is a seaport city on the west coast of the United States and the seat of King County, Washington. With an estimated 684,451 residents as of 2015, Seattle is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. In July 2013, it was the major city in the United States. The city is situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound and Lake Washington, about 100 miles south of the Canada–United States border, a major gateway for trade with Asia, Seattle is the fourth-largest port in North America in terms of container handling as of 2015. The Seattle area was inhabited by Native Americans for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group of travelers, subsequently known as the Denny Party, arrived from Illinois via Portland, the settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay and named Seattle in 1852, after Chief Siahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. Logging was Seattles first major industry, but by the late-19th century, growth after World War II was partially due to the local Boeing company, which established Seattle as a center for aircraft manufacturing. The Seattle area developed as a technology center beginning in the 1980s, in 1994, Internet retailer Amazon was founded in Seattle. The stream of new software, biotechnology, and Internet companies led to an economic revival, Seattle has a noteworthy musical history. From 1918 to 1951, nearly two dozen jazz nightclubs existed along Jackson Street, from the current Chinatown/International District, to the Central District, the jazz scene developed the early careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Ernestine Anderson, and others. Seattle is also the birthplace of rock musician Jimi Hendrix and the alternative rock subgenre grunge, archaeological excavations suggest that Native Americans have inhabited the Seattle area for at least 4,000 years. By the time the first European settlers arrived, the people occupied at least seventeen villages in the areas around Elliott Bay, the first European to visit the Seattle area was George Vancouver, in May 1792 during his 1791–95 expedition to chart the Pacific Northwest. In 1851, a party led by Luther Collins made a location on land at the mouth of the Duwamish River. Thirteen days later, members of the Collins Party on the way to their claim passed three scouts of the Denny Party, members of the Denny Party claimed land on Alki Point on September 28,1851. The rest of the Denny Party set sail from Portland, Oregon, after a difficult winter, most of the Denny Party relocated across Elliott Bay and claimed land a second time at the site of present-day Pioneer Square, naming this new settlement Duwamps. For the next few years, New York Alki and Duwamps competed for dominance, david Swinson Doc Maynard, one of the founders of Duwamps, was the primary advocate to name the settlement after Chief Sealth of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. The name Seattle appears on official Washington Territory papers dated May 23,1853, in 1855, nominal land settlements were established. On January 14,1865, the Legislature of Territorial Washington incorporated the Town of Seattle with a board of managing the city
2.
Washington (state)
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It was admitted to the Union as the 42nd state in 1889. Washington is sometimes referred to as Washington State or the State of Washington to distinguish it from Washington, Washington is the 18th largest state with an area of 71,362 square miles, and the 13th most populous state with over 7 million people. Washington is the second most populous state on the West Coast and in the Western United States, Mount Rainier, an active stratovolcano, is the states highest elevation at almost 14,411 feet and is the most topographically prominent mountain in the contiguous United States. Washington is a leading lumber producer and its rugged surface is rich in stands of Douglas fir, hemlock, ponderosa pine, white pine, spruce, larch, and cedar. Manufacturing industries in Washington include aircraft and missiles, shipbuilding and other equipment, lumber, food processing, metals and metal products, chemicals. Washington has over 1,000 dams, including the Grand Coulee Dam, built for a variety of purposes including irrigation, power, flood control, the Washington Territory was named after George Washington, the first President of the United States. The area was part of a region called the Columbia District after the Columbia River. The area was renamed Washington in order to avoid confusion with the District of Columbia, Washington is the only U. S. state named after a president. To distinguish it from the U. S. capital, which is named for George Washington, Washington is sometimes referred to as Washington State, or, in more formal contexts. Washingtonians and other residents of the Pacific Northwest refer to the state simply as Washington, calling the nations capital Washington, D. C. or, often, Washington is the northwestern-most state of the contiguous United States. Washington is bordered by Oregon to the south, with the Columbia River forming the western part, to the west of Washington lies the Pacific Ocean. The high mountains of the Cascade Range run north-south, bisecting the state, from the Cascade Mountains westward, Western Washington has a mostly marine west coast climate, with mild temperatures and wet winters, autumns and springs, and relatively dry summers. The Cascade Range contains several volcanoes, which reach altitudes significantly higher than the rest of the mountains, from the north to the south, these major volcanoes are Mount Baker, Glacier Peak, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Adams. Mount Rainier, the tallest mountain in the state, is 50 miles south of the city of Seattle and it is also covered with more glacial ice than any other peak in the contiguous 48 states. Western Washington also is home of the Olympic Mountains, far west on the Olympic Peninsula and these deep forests, such as the Hoh Rainforest, are among the only temperate rainforests in the continental United States. Eastern Washington – the part of the state east of the Cascades – has a dry climate. It includes large areas of steppe and a few truly arid deserts lying in the rain shadow of the Cascades. Farther east, the climate becomes less arid, with annual rainfall increasing as one goes east to 21.2 inches in Pullman, the Okanogan Highlands and the rugged Kettle River Range and Selkirk Mountains cover much of the northeastern quadrant of the state
3.
Space Needle
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The Space Needle is an observation tower in Seattle, Washington, a landmark of the Pacific Northwest, and an icon of Seattle. It was built in the Seattle Center for the 1962 Worlds Fair, which drew over 2.3 million visitors, once the tallest structure west of the Mississippi River, it is 605 ft high,138 ft wide, and weighs 9,550 tons. It is built to withstand winds of up to 200 miles per hour and earthquakes of up to 9.1 magnitude and it also has 25 lightning rods. It has a deck at 520 ft and the rotating SkyCity restaurant at 500 ft. The downtown Seattle skyline, as well as the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, Elliott Bay, photographs of the Seattle skyline often show the Space Needle prominently, above skyscrapers and Mount Rainier. Visitors can reach the top of the Space Needle by elevators that travel at 10 miles per hour, on windy days, the elevators slow to 5 miles per hour. On April 19,1999, the citys Landmarks Preservation Board designated it a historic landmark, the architecture of the Space Needle is the result of a compromise between the designs of two men, Edward E. Carlson and John Graham, Jr. The two leading ideas for the World Fair involved businessman Edward E. Carlsons sketch of a giant balloon tethered to the ground, victor Steinbrueck introduced the hourglass profile of the tower. The Space Needle was built to withstand wind speeds of 200 mph, the Mw 6.8 Nisqually earthquake jolted the Needle enough in 2001 for water to slosh out of the toilets in the restrooms. The Space Needle will not sustain structural damage during earthquakes of magnitudes below 9. Also made to withstand Category 5 hurricane-force winds, the Space Needle sways only 1 inch per 10 mph of wind speed. For decades, the disk of the Space Needle was home to two restaurants 500 ft above the ground, the Space Needle Restaurant, which was originally named Eye of the Needle. These were closed in 2000 to make way for SkyCity, a restaurant that features Pacific Northwest cuisine. It rotates 360 degrees in exactly forty-seven minutes, in 1993, the elevators were replaced with new computerized versions. The new elevators descend at a rate of 10 miles per hour, on December 31,1999, a powerful beam of light was unveiled for the first time. Called the Legacy Light or Skybeam, it is powered by lamps that total 85 million candela shining skyward from the top of the Space Needle to honor national holidays and special occasions in Seattle. The concept of this beam was derived from the official 1962 Worlds Fair poster and it is somewhat controversial because of the light pollution it creates. Originally planned to be turned on 75 nights per year, it has generally been used fewer than a dozen times per year
4.
Skyscraper
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A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building having multiple floors. When the term was used in the 1880s it described a building of 10 to 20 floors. Mostly designed for office, commercial and residential uses, a skyscraper can also be called a high-rise, for buildings above a height of 300 m, the term supertall can be used, while skyscrapers reaching beyond 600 m are classified as megatall. One common feature of skyscrapers is having a steel framework that supports curtain walls and these curtain walls either bear on the framework below or are suspended from the framework above, rather than resting on load-bearing walls of conventional construction. Some early skyscrapers have a frame that enables the construction of load-bearing walls taller than of those made of reinforced concrete. Modern skyscrapers walls are not load-bearing, and most skyscrapers are characterized by surface areas of windows made possible by steel frames. However, skyscrapers can have curtain walls that mimic conventional walls with a surface area of windows. Modern skyscrapers often have a structure, and are designed to act like a hollow cylinder to resist wind, seismic. To appear more slender, allow less wind exposure, and transmit more daylight to the ground, many skyscrapers have a design with setbacks, a relatively big building may be considered a skyscraper if it protrudes well above its built environment and changes the overall skyline. The maximum height of structures has progressed historically with building methods and technologies, the Burj Khalifa is currently the tallest building in the world. High-rise buildings are considered shorter than skyscrapers, the first steel-frame skyscraper was the Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois in 1885. Even the scholars making the argument find it to be purely academic and this definition was based on the steel skeleton—as opposed to constructions of load-bearing masonry, which passed their practical limit in 1891 with Chicagos Monadnock Building. What is the characteristic of the tall office building. The force and power of altitude must be in it, the glory and it must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exaltation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line. Some structural engineers define a highrise as any vertical construction for which wind is a significant load factor than earthquake or weight. Note that this criterion fits not only high-rises but some other tall structures, the word skyscraper often carries a connotation of pride and achievement. A loose convention of some in the United States and Europe draws the limit of a skyscraper at 150 m or 490 ft. The tallest building in ancient times was the 146 m Great Pyramid of Giza in ancient Egypt and it was not surpassed in height for thousands of years, the 14th century AD Lincoln Cathedral being conjectured by many to have exceeded it
5.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
6.
Kansas City Power and Light Building
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The Kansas City Power and Light Building is a landmark skyscraper located in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri. The building was constructed by Kansas City Power and Light in 1931, since then, the Art Deco structure has been a prominent part of the Kansas City skyline. The structure was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River upon its completion after succeeding the Smith Tower until completion of the Space Needle in 1962. The building was designed by the Kansas City architecture firm of Hoit, Price and Barnes, which also designed Municipal Auditorium and 909 Walnut. The west side of the building has no windows because it was meant to be a next to any building built next to it. The Power and Light Building, at 34 stories, was Missouris tallest habitable structure from 1931 until the completion of One U. S, bank Plaza in St. Louis in 1976. The building remains the tallest residential building in the State of Missouri, Kansas City Power & Light Co. left the building in 1991. In 2010 Kansas City selected the area adjacent to the Power and Light Building as a location for a hotel and convention center. However, the city received two proposals from property developers for a convention hotel at the site. The city considered the two proposals it received in 2011 as lackluster and were considering reopening the bidding process for a different downtown location, the building lost its last tenant, BNIM, a Kansas City-based architecture and planning firm, on September 2,2014. The 36-story Power & Light building began a conversion into an apartment tower in October 2014, the building lobby was converted into a premier event space holding up to 500 guests. The Kansas City Power and Light Building is crowned by an ornate Art Deco lantern, originally, each recessed setback of the building also held multicolor flickering flood lights that dazzled nighttime viewers with the impression of blazing flames. Today, LED floodlights rotate through an abundance of colors and dazzle onlookers, bank Plaza General Building Information Google Earth Info Power and Light District Kansas City Power and Light Website
7.
Tacoma, Washington
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Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city in and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washingtons Puget Sound,32 miles southwest of Seattle,31 miles northeast of the capital, Olympia. The population was 198,397, according to the 2010 census, Tacoma is the second-largest city in the Puget Sound area and the third largest in the state. Tacoma also serves as the center of activity for the South Sound region. Tacoma adopted its name after the nearby Mount Rainier, originally called Takhoma or Tahoma and it is locally known as the City of Destiny because the area was chosen to be the western terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad in the late 19th century. The decision of the railroad was influenced by Tacomas neighboring deep-water harbor, by connecting the bay with the railroad, Tacomas motto became When rails meet sails. Today, Commencement Bay serves the Port of Tacoma, a center of trade on the Pacific Coast. Like most central cities, Tacoma suffered a decline in the mid-20th century as a result of suburbanization. Neighborhoods such as the 6th Avenue District have become revitalized, tacoma-Pierce County has been named one of the most livable areas in the United States. In 2006, Tacoma was listed as one of the most walkable cities in the country and that same year, the womens magazine Self named Tacoma the Most Sexually Healthy City in the United States. In contrast, Tacoma was also ranked as the most stressed-out city in the country in a 2004 survey, Tacoma gained notoriety in 1940 for the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which earned the nickname Galloping Gertie. The city of Tacoma and surrounding areas were inhabited for thousands of years by American Indians, predominantly the Puyallup people, mcCarver, who named his project Tacoma City, derived from the indigenous name for the mountain. Tacoma was incorporated on November 12,1875, following the merger of Old Tacoma, the transcontinental link was effected in 1887, but the railroad built its depot on New Tacoma, two miles south of the Carr-McCarver development. The two communities together and joined. The population grew from 1,098 in 1880 to 36,006 in 1890, rudyard Kipling visited Tacoma in 1889 and said it was literally staggering under a boom of the boomiest. George Francis Train was a resident for a few years in the late 19th century, in 1890, he staged a global circumnavigation starting and ending in Tacoma to promote the city. A plaque in downtown Tacoma marks the start and finish line, in November 1885, white citizens led by then-mayor Jacob Weisbach expelled several hundred Chinese residents peacefully living in the city. The next day two Chinese settlements were burned to the ground, the discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1898 led Tacomas prominence in the region to be eclipsed by the booming development of Seattle
8.
Empress Dowager Cixi
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Selected as an imperial concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor in her adolescence, she gave birth to a son, Zaichun, in 1856. After the Xianfeng Emperors death in 1861, the boy became the Tongzhi Emperor. Cixi ousted a group of regents appointed by the emperor and assumed regency. Although she refused to adopt Western models of government, she supported technological and military reforms, although she agreed with the principles of the Hundred Days Reforms of 1898, Cixi rejected their sudden implementation, without bureaucratic support, as detrimental to dynastic power. She placed the Guangxu Emperor under virtual house arrest for supporting radical reformers and she may have feared that any perceived weakness in the Imperial Court would have been pounced upon by the Japanese. After the Boxer Uprising led to the invasion of Allied armies, Cixi initially supported the Boxer groups for supporting the dynasty, the ensuing Allied defeat of the Chinese forces was a stunning humiliation. The death of both Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908 left the court in the hands of Manchu conservatives, a child on the throne, historians both in China and abroad have long portrayed her as a despot responsible for the fall of the Qing dynasty. Others have suggested that her opponents among the reformers and revolutionaries succeeded in blaming her for problems beyond her control, Cixi was born in the winter of 1835. Cixi was the daughter of Huizheng, an official from the Manchu Yehenara clan. The file records the location of Cixis childhood home, Firewood Alley of West Sipailou, in 1851, Cixi participated in the selection for consorts to the Xianfeng Emperor alongside 60 other candidates. Cixi was one of the few chosen to stay. Placed in the rank of consorts, she was styled Noble Lady Lan. Among the other candidates were Noble Lady Li of the Tatala clan, Concubine Yun of the Wugiya clan. In 1854, Cixi was elevated to the rank of consorts. On 27 April 1856, she gave birth to Zaichun, the Xianfeng Emperors only surviving son, soon afterward, she was elevated to the fourth rank of consorts as Consort Yi. In 1857, when her son reached his first birthday, Cixi was elevated to the rank of consorts as Noble Consort Yi. This rank placed her only to the Empress among the women within the Xianfeng Emperors household. Unlike many of the other Manchu women in the household, Cixi was known for her ability to read
9.
Walt Disney
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Walter Elias Walt Disney was an American entrepreneur, animator, voice actor and film producer. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons, as a film producer, Disney holds the record for most Academy Awards earned by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors, several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Born in Chicago in 1901, Disney developed an early interest in drawing and he took art classes as a boy and got a job as a commercial illustrator at the age of 18. He moved to California in the early 1920s and set up the Disney Brothers Studio with his brother Roy, with Ub Iwerks, Walt developed the character Mickey Mouse in 1928, his first highly popular success, he also provided the voice for his creation in the early years. As the studio grew, Disney became more adventurous, introducing synchronized sound, full-color three-strip Technicolor, feature-length cartoons, the results, seen in features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Pinocchio, Dumbo and Bambi, furthered the development of animated film. New animated and live-action films followed after World War II, including the critically successful Cinderella and Mary Poppins, in the 1950s, Disney expanded into the amusement park industry, and in 1955 he opened Disneyland. In 1965, he began development of theme park, Disney World, the heart of which was to be a new type of city. Disney was a smoker throughout his life, and died of lung cancer in December 1966 before either the park or the EPCOT project were completed. Disney was a shy, self-deprecating and insecure man in private and he had high standards and high expectations of those with whom he worked. Although there have been accusations that he was racist or anti-semitic and his reputation changed in the years after his death, from a purveyor of homely patriotic values to a representative of American imperialism. Nevertheless, Disney is considered an icon, particularly in the United States. Walt Disney was born on December 5,1901, at 1249 Tripp Avenue and he was the fourth son of Elias Disney—born in the Province of Canada, to Irish parents—and Flora, an American of German and English descent. Aside from Disney, Elias and Calls sons were Herbert, Raymond and Roy, in 1906, when Disney was four, the family moved to a farm in Marceline, Missouri, where his uncle Robert had just purchased land. In Marceline, Disney developed his interest in drawing when he was paid to draw the horse of a neighborhood doctor. Elias was a subscriber to the Appeal to Reason newspaper, Disney also began to develop an ability to work with watercolors and crayons. He lived near the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway line and he and his younger sister Ruth started school at the same time at the Park School in Marceline in late 1909. In 1911, the Disneys moved to Kansas City, Missouri, before long, he was spending more time at the Pfeiffers house than at home
10.
Condominium
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A condominium, usually shortened to condo, is a type of real estate divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas jointly owned. Unlike apartments, which are leased by their tenants, condominium units are owned outright, the common areas, amenities and utilities are managed collectively by the owners through their association, such as a homeowner association. Scholars have traced the earliest known use of the form of tenure to a document from first century Babylon. The word condominium originated in Latin, the term condominium is used throughout the United States and in most Canadian provinces, where such a property is also colloquially known as a condo. Italy uses condominio, which is simply the modern Italian form of condominium, both condo and condominium are used colloquially in the Canadian Province of Quebec, where the official term is copropriété divise or co-property devise. In France, however, the term is simply copropriété, co-property, spanish-speaking nations and regions often use the term propiedad horizontal, literally meaning horizontal property but abstractly meaning that all owners of the property have equal interest. The word condominio is also used, Condominium is a Latin word formed by adding the prefix con- to the word dominium. Its meaning is therefore shared property, condominia originally referred to territories over which two or more sovereign powers shared joint dominion. This technique was used to settle border disputes when multiple claimants could not agree on how to partition the disputed territory. For example, from 1818 to 1846, Oregon was a condominium over which both the United States and Great Britain shared joint sovereignty, mainly in the context of the United States The difference between an apartment complex and condominium is purely legal. There is no way to differentiate a condominium from an apartment simply by looking at or visiting the building, what defines a condominium is the form of ownership. A building developed as a condominium could actually be built at another location as an apartment building, as a practical matter, builders tend to build condominiums to higher quality standards than apartment complexes because of the differences between the rental and sale markets. Technically, a condominium is a collection of home units. Individual home ownership within a condominium is construed as ownership of only the air space confining the boundaries of the home, the boundaries of that space are specified by a legal document known as a Declaration, filed on record with the local governing authority. Typically, these boundaries will include the surrounding a condo. Anything outside this boundary is held in an ownership interest by a corporation established at the time of the condominiums creation. The corporation holds this property in trust on behalf of the homeowners as a group—it may not have ownership itself, Condominiums have conditions, covenants, and restrictions, and often additional rules that govern how the individual unit owners are to share the space. It is also possible for a condominium to consist of single-family dwellings and these structures are preferred by some planned neighborhoods and gated communities
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