How to Build an Impossible Bridge

With the building of the Transcontinental Railroad in late 1860's, the lack of a bridge across the Mississippi had become a major problem for the railroads.

Engineers pointed out that materials commonly used in bridge building could not support the wide span necessary to bridge the wide Mississippi river. Flooding would add stress to the breaking point. An all steel bridge could take the many stresses, but such a bridge was too expensive to build!

Andrew Carnegie pioneered a way to produce steel more cheaply for the bridge and formed the Keystone Bridge Co. to raise money to build the bridge.

The bridge was built at St. Louis, MO and is named for its designer and builder, James B. Eads. When completed in 1874, the Eads Bridge was the longest arch bridge in the world, with an overall length of 6,442 feet. The ribbed steel arch spans were considered daring, as was the use of steel as a primary structural material. This was the first such use of true steel in a major bridge.The cost of building the bridge was nearly $10 million ($210 million with inflation). Railway transport of goods then began to outstrip goods moved on waterways.

Rocky II

The majestic Rockies are the second mountain range to rise in the same location. The Flatirons above Boulder, CO are a remnant of an earlier mountain range the Ancestral Rocky Mountains that rose 300 million years ago and wore away into sand and gravel before the current Rocky Mountains rose a mere 40 million years ago.

Housing Around

Bet you don't know that housing styles have an amazing story to tell.

California split houses were first built to house movie studio artisans who worked in the ground level room sewing costumes etc.and lived upstairs.

Shotgun houses are based on a way of building that originated in Africa to channel breezes through the house.

The bungalow is derived from a way of building with covered porches to cool air before it enters the house that came from India. The word is an Indian import also.

Next time you see these houses, remember their exotic origins.

Top This

The Great Pyramid would remain the tallest building on Earth for over 3,800 years. No man-made object topped its height until Eiffel built his tower for the 1889 Paris World's Fair. The vast building was completed in only 20 years using the square, copper chisels, and human ingenuity.

A Light Bulb Idea

In the early days of the light bulb, no one knew what caused the filament to glow or change color at different temperatures. The attempt by would be manufacturers of light bulbs to better understand the manufacturing process would lead to a scientific revolution that gave rise to quantum physics.

The Red Plate Special

Where did the uranium used in the Trinity, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki atom bombs come from? It is a story that involves red dinner plates, secret deals between governments, and cutting edge science. In September 1942, officials, participating in the United States` Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb, visited the New York office of a Belgian firm that sold uranium ore, mined in Congo, for  use in paints and ceramic glazes. Fiestaware from the 30's and early 40's used uranium in their red-orange glazed dishes.The U.S. formed a secret purchase agreement with the firm and the Belgium government to buy uranium. By 1944,  the United States had purchased about 30,000 tons of uranium ore for close to 100 million dollars. 1,200 tonnes of uranium ore was stockpiled in a warehouse on Staten Island, New York. The rest was shipped to the U.S. via ship from a stockpile at the Sinkolobwe Mine in the Belgian Congo. At least one ship was sunk by the Germans. Once in the U.S. the uranium ore was shipped by rail for ore processing at secret facilities using cutting edge science, in remote locations like Oak Ridge, TN and Hanford, WA. 

The Art of Invention

Samuel Finley Breese Morse, the inventor of Morse Code, was a successful painter. One of his best know paintings is of Marquis de Lafayette. It hangs in the Crystal Bridges Art Museum, in .Arkansas.

On The Silk Road

The name Samarkand evokes images of the exotic Silk Road of antiquity. Samarkand is located in modern day Uzbekistan, in central Asia, North of Afghanistan. It was an administrative center in the Persian Empire. Alexander the Great conquered Samarkand in 329 BCE. The trade route brought silk and spices to the Roman Empire; and it endured long enough to make Venice the richest trade city of Renaissance Europe. The trade in silk caused an enormous outflow of gold and silver from the Roman Empire, creating an a negative balance of trade. In 2001, UNESCO added the city to its World Heritage List.

A Mine of Possibilities

Poland was a target of Nazi aggression for a far more sinister reason than you might think. Poland is famous for ancient silver mines and for being the first country conquered by the Nazis. It is the home of the silver deposits that were struck into a large silver coin that was the coin standard for 400 years. It was called the thaler. The thaler inspired the word dollar. Less well know is that tailings from these ancient mines were rich in pitch blend. Pitch blend contains uranium. The Nazis conquered Poland to get materials for the Nazi atomic bomb program.

Slip Sliding Away

Originally the Pyramids were sheathed in highly polished white Tura limestone casing stones. The limestone from Tura was the finest and whitest of all the Egyptian quarries. The Tura limestone was quarried from deep underground in a stone deposit South of Cairo. The miners tunneled deep underground to cut the stones out, leaving some limestone behind as pillars to support the caverns left behind. The stone casings fit together accurate to within 1/100th of an inch. All total, they were around five feet long, five feet high, and six feet deep and weighed around 15 metric tons each. Imagine the Pyramids as shining white structures rather like sunbeams.
So what happened to the beautiful casing stones? In AD 1303, a massive earthquake caused many of the outer casing stones to slide to the base of the pyramids. The stones were then carted away at the orders of Bahari Sultan An-Nasir Nasir-ad-Din al-Hasan in 1356 to build mosques and fortresses in nearby Cairo.

Brushing Up

People have been brushing their teeth since the late Stone Age with a twig chewed on one end to create a rudimentary brush, They often chose aromatic twigs like marshmallow and licorice to freshen their breath while brushing. Chew sticks are found in Bronze Age Babylonian and Egyptian tombs. The first toothbrush went on the market in England in 1780. William Addis used wild boar bristles set in cattle bones for his toothbrushes. The now familiar nylon toothbrush with a plastic handle first went on the market in 1938.

Templar Travel Agents

The Templars offered the first group package travel plans. Security on the road with a group of other pilgrims en-route to Jerusalem. Food and accommodations throughout the trip. A berth awaiting you on Templar owned ships in Italy. Further security and accommodations in the Holy Land. Templar chapter houses also could act like bank machines dispensing funds as needed from monies on deposit in Europe.

On Crusade

Did you know that Richard the Lionheart captured Cyprus while on crusade and sold it to the Templars? During his stay on Cyprus, Richard married Berengaria of Navarre ( a kingdom that occupied lands on either side of the western Pyrenees, south of his mother's lands in Aquitaine). Richard also retook the port cities of the Near East during the Crusade. He was unable to conquer Jerusalem, but did negotiate safe passage for pilgrims who visited Christian sites in the city of Jerusalem.

Unconquered

What building in Paris never was NEVER entered by the occupying Nazis or the Allied liberators? The International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris was so respected by the engineers of both groups that it was never interfered with. The master metric measures are stored at this location.

Top Secret Melon

A moldy cantaloupe was the source of one of the Top Secrets of WWII. As WWII threatened, a British team sought to perfect penicillin and its production. As D-Day loomed fear of the Germans getting their research and lack of resources for further development caused them to turn their Top Secret project over to the Americans. The search was on for a mold that produced the most penicillin. USA military planes even brought back molds from exotic locales. An American agricultural inspector brought a moldy cantaloupe to the labs one day. The mold was the best penicillin producer yet. Penicillin was found to grow well in corn syrup, which was readily available in the corn growing USA. Penicillin needed oxygen to grow. At first penicillin was grown in tipped milk bottles, finally in giant vats with oxygen bubbled into the mixture. Large amounts of penicillin were ready for D-Day and saved many soldiers from infection. In WWI, more soldiers had died of infection than did from being shot.

Post Civil War Disaster

In April, 1865, Union POWs were gathered at Vicksburg, Mississippi. They were loaded on steamboats for the trip to Cairo, Illinois, At 9 p.m., on April 24, the riverboat Sultana packed with freed Union POWs left Vicksburg headed up river. One boiler had a weakened spot that bulged. A quick patch was applied so the boat would not miss the lucrative job of carrying the POWs.

On Apil 26, the Sultana docked at Memphis to pick up coal. At midnight she headed upriver. At 2 a.m., April 27, the repaired boiler exploded. Two of the three other boilers exploded. Fire spread through mid-ship. The two smokestacks fell onto the boat, crushing the Hurricane or top deck and killing many men on the overcrowded deck. Those who survived panicked and rather than fighting the fire began to jump into the river. The flames started sweeping toward the stern, causing more panic and jumping. Of the 2,500 passengers, 1,900 died.

Pound for Pound

Did you know the pound measurement of weight is connected to the Roman conquest of Britain and a grain crop? The weight of the Roman pound, or libra, was equivalent 5,076 grains of barley. From the beginning of agriculture weights of goods were balanced with counted grains. Soon balance weights were substituted for laboriously counted out grains. England began using the Roman system during the Roman occupation. British colonists carried the system to the USA. 

Seedy Trade

Did you know that cotton has a connection to Afghanistan and Alexander the Great? Alexander's troops first encountered the cotton plant in Afghanistan. The Greeks called cotton "vegetable wool." They carried cotton seeds back to Greece in their saddlebags.

Spoiled

Spoiled canned goods shipped to British troops during the Crimean War caused major problems. The Crimean War taught the British Army some hard facts about canning The new super size cans of rations were spoiled when they were opened because the center of the can did not reach 250 degrees during canning. You see no one in those days knew how to calculate the temperature needed per size of can. England ignored technical education and experimentation at a cost.were

Dutch Treat

One unusual Dutch demand in the treaty handing New York to the British became an American cornerstone. In the treaty ending the Anglo-Dutch War, New York went to the English, while the Dutch retained the Spice Islands. The Dutch insured continued religious freedom in New York in their treaty. This was an unheard of requirement at the time. This was the first guarantee of the religious freedom that would become a cornerstone of democracy in the USA.