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Oldest Railroads In North America
This is a list of the earliest railroads in North America, including various railroad-like precursors to the general modern form of a company or government agency operating locomotive-drawn trains on metal tracks. Railroad-like entities (1700s–1810s) * 1720: A railroad was reportedly used in the construction of the French fortress in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, Canada. * 1764: Between 1762 and 1764, at the close of the French and Indian War, a gravity railroad ( mechanized tramway) (Montresor's Tramway) was built by British military engineers up the steep riverside terrain near the Niagara River waterfall's escarpment at the Niagara Portage, which the local Senecas called ''Crawl on All Fours'', in Lewiston, New York. and Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe), Pennsylvania when rails are laid on top of the existing mule-haul road graded to be nearly uniform in grade from its establishment in 1819–20. Designed by founder Josiah White to drop evenly over its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Summit Hill Switchback Station
A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for a mountain peak that is located at some distance from the nearest point of higher elevation. For example, a big, massive rock next to the main summit of a mountain is not considered a summit. Summits near a higher peak, with some prominence or isolation, but not reaching a certain cutoff value for the quantities, are often considered ''subsummits'' (or ''subpeaks'') of the higher peak, and are considered part of the same mountain. A pyramidal peak is an exaggerated form produced by ice erosion of a mountain top. For summits that are permanently covered in significant layers of ice, the height may be measured by the highest point of rock (rock height) or the highest point of permanent solid ice (snow height). The highest summit in the world ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Devil's Hole
The Battle of Devil's Hole, known to the Anglo-Americans as the Devil's Hole Massacre, was fought near Niagara Gorge in present-day New York (state), New York state on September 14, 1763, between a detachment of the British 80th Regiment of Light Armed Foot and about 300 Seneca tribe, Seneca warriors during Pontiac's Rebellion (1763–1766). The Seneca warriors killed 81 British soldiers and wounded 8 before the British managed to retreat. Background As early as 1757, Seneca in the Niagara Falls area had complained to the France, French about losing control of the long portage along an area of the Niagara River, which French traders were trying to improve for wagons."History" Historic Lewiston, New York website, accessed 2 Nov 2010 They resented the Europeans trying to take over their traditional territory and displace them from their work. After the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Granite Railway - General View Of Incline To Quarry From Northwest
Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies underground. It is common in the continental crust of Earth, where it is found in igneous intrusions. These range in size from dikes only a few centimeters across to batholiths exposed over hundreds of square kilometers. Granite is typical of a larger family of ''granitic rocks'', or ''granitoids'', that are composed mostly of coarse-grained quartz and feldspars in varying proportions. These rocks are classified by the relative percentages of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase (the QAPF classification), with true granite representing granitic rocks rich in quartz and alkali feldspar. Most granitic rocks also contain mica or amphibole minerals, though a few (known as leucogranites) contain almost no dark minerals. Granite is nearly always ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Leiper
Thomas Leiper (15 December 1745 – 6 July 1825) was a Scottish American businessman, banker and politician who owned a successful tobacco exportation business as well as several mills and stone quarries. He served as a lieutenant in the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, Philadelphia City Troop during the American Revolutionary War. He built one of the first railways in America and the first in Pennsylvania. The Leiper Railroad was a three-quarter-mile long track on his property in Nether Providence Township, Pennsylvania, used to ship quarry stone to market with animal-powered carts. Leiper rented a house in Philadelphia to Thomas Jefferson when he served as Secretary of State. They became close friends and a correspondence of over 100 letters between the two was exchanged. He was a founder of the Bank of North America and served as a director for the Bank of Pennsylvania and the Second Bank of the United States. His grand house, named Thomas Leiper Estate, Strathaven Hal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nether Providence Township, Pennsylvania
Nether Providence Township is a township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Many residents refer to the township by the name of its largest community, Wallingford, because the Wallingford postal code is used for most of the township. The population of the township was 13,706 at the 2010 census. Geography Nether Providence Township is located in central Delaware County at (39.894612, -75.373705). It is bordered to the north by the borough of Media, the county seat. Other neighboring municipalities are Upper Providence Township to the north; Springfield Township, the borough of Swarthmore, and Ridley Township to the east; the city of Chester to the south; and the boroughs of Brookhaven and Rose Valley to the west. According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of , of which , or 0.17%, is water. Crum Creek forms the eastern boundary of the township, and Ridley Creek forms the western and southern border. Nether Providence's comm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Vernon Proprietors
Mount Vernon Proprietors was a real estate development syndicate operating in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded at the end of the 18th century, it developed land on the south slope of Beacon Hill into a desirable residential neighborhood. History In 1795 a syndicate formed by Harrison Gray Otis sought to speculate on land development around the newly formed government buildings on Boston's Beacon Hill. The Mount Vernon Proprietors, as the group was named, included founders Otis, Jonathan Mason, Joseph Woodward and Charles Ward Apthorp. Membership in the Proprietors changed frequently but partners included Charles Bulfinch, Hepzibah Swan, Henry Jackson, Dr. Benjamin Joy, William Scollay.Allan Chamberlain. ''Beacon Hill: Its Ancient Pastures and Early Mansions''. 1925. As probably the first organized real estate syndicate in early Federal period America, the Proprietors' contribution to real estate development formulated the model by which much of America was built. The Proprie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Back Bay, Boston
Back Bay is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, built on reclaimed land in the Charles River basin. Construction began in 1859, as the demand for luxury housing exceeded the availability in the city at the time, and the area was fully built by around 1900. It is most famous for its rows of Victorian brownstone homes—considered one of the best preserved examples of 19th-century urban design in the United States—as well as numerous architecturally significant individual buildings, and cultural institutions such as the Boston Public Library, and Boston Architectural College. Initially conceived as a residential-only area, commercial buildings were permitted from around 1890, and Back Bay now features many office buildings, including the John Hancock Tower, Boston's tallest skyscraper. It is also considered a fashionable shopping destination (especially Newbury and Boylston Streets, and the adjacent Prudential Center and Copley Place malls) and hom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles River
The Charles River (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ), sometimes called the River Charles or simply the Charles, is an river in eastern Massachusetts. It flows northeast from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Hopkinton to Boston along a highly meandering route, that doubles back on itself several times and travels through 23 cities and towns before reaching the Atlantic Ocean. The indigenous Massachusett named it , meaning "meandering" or "meandering still water". Hydrography The Charles River is fed by approximately eighty streams and several major aquifers as it flows , starting at Teresa Road just north of Echo Lake (Hopkinton), Echo Lake () in Hopkinton, passing through 23 cities and towns in eastern Massachusetts before emptying into Boston Harbor. Thirty-three lakes and ponds and 35 municipalities are entirely or partially part of the Charles River drainage basin. Despite the river's length and relatively large drainage area (), its source is only from its mouth, and the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mountain
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher than a hill, typically rising at least above the surrounding land. A few mountains are inselberg, isolated summits, but most occur in mountain ranges. mountain formation, Mountains are formed through tectonic plate, tectonic forces, erosion, or volcanism, which act on time scales of up to tens of millions of years. Once mountain building ceases, mountains are slowly leveled through the action of weathering, through Slump (geology), slumping and other forms of mass wasting, as well as through erosion by rivers and glaciers. High elevations on mountains produce Alpine climate, colder climates than at sea level at similar latitude. These colder climates strongly affect the Montane ecosystems, ecosystems of mountains: different elevations hav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foundation (engineering)
In engineering, a foundation is the element of a structural engineering, structure which connects it to the ground or more rarely, water (as with Floating building, floating structures), transferring force, loads from the structure to the ground. Foundations are generally considered either Shallow foundation, shallow or Deep foundation, deep. Foundation engineering is the application of soil mechanics and rock mechanics (geotechnical engineering) in the design of foundation elements of structures. Purpose Foundations provide the structure's stability from the ground: * To distribute the weight of the structure over a large area in order to avoid overloading the underlying soil (possibly causing unequal settlement). * To anchor the structure against natural forces including earthquakes, floods, droughts, frost heaves, tornadoes and wind. * To provide a level surface for construction. * To anchor the structure deeply into the ground, increasing its stability and preventing over ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cable Railway
A cable railway is a railway that uses a Wire rope, cable, rope or chain to haul trains. It is a specific type of cable transportation. The most common use for a cable railway is to move vehicles on a Grade (slope), steeply graded line that is too steep for conventional locomotives to operate on – this form of cable railway is often called an incline or inclined plane, or, in New Zealand, a jigline, or jig line. One common form of incline is the funicular – an isolated passenger railway where the cars are permanently attached to the cable.Walter Hefti: ''Schienenseilbahnen in aller Welt. Schiefe Seilebenen, Standseilbahnen, Kabelbahnen.'' Birkhäuser, Basel 1975, (in German) In other forms, the cars attach and detach to the cable at the ends of the cable railway. Some cable railways are not steeply graded - these are often used in quarries to move large numbers of wagons between the quarry to the processing plant. History The oldest extant cable railway is probably the Re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Bulfinch
Charles Bulfinch (August 8, 1763 – April 15, 1844) was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first American-born professional architect to practice.Baltzell, Edward Digby. ''Puritan Boston & Quaker Philadelphia''. Transaction Publishers (1996), p. 322-24. . Life Bulfinch split his career between his native Boston, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., where he served as Commissioner of Public Building and built the intermediate United States Capitol rotunda and dome. His works are notable for their simplicity, balance, and good taste, and as the origin of a distinctive Federal style of classical domes, columns, and ornament that dominated early 19th-century American architecture. Early life Bulfinch was born in Boston to Thomas Bulfinch, a prominent physician, and his wife, Susan Apthorp, daughter of Charles Apthorp. At the age of 12, he watched the Battle of Bunker Hill from this home on the Boston side of the Charles River. Charles himself was m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
