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1910-1919

Kansas City Park and Boulevard System
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Buildings Era: 1910-1919 DateCreated: 1915 Kansas City State: MI Zip: 64106 Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Kansas-City-Park-and-Boulevard-System/ Creator: Kessler, George

"Who in Europe, or in America for that matter, knows that Kansas City is one of the loveliest cities on earth? [...] the residential section is a masterpiece of city planning [...]; Few cities have been built with so much regard for beauty."  

YearAdded:
1974
Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/Charvex Image Caption: The park system encouraged planned land use, raised real estate values, and provided incentives for quality residential developments. Era_date_from: 1915
Lake Washington Ship Canal & Hiram M. Chittenden Locks
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Water Transportation Era: 1910-1919 DateCreated: 1917 Hiram M. Chittenden Locks and Carl S. English Jr. Botanical Garden Zanesville State: WA Zip: 98107 Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/project/lake-washington-ship-canal---hiram-m-chittenden-locks/ Creator: Chittenden, Hiram

After more than 50 years of contention and debate, dredging began in 1911 on an eight-mile channel connecting Puget Sound, Seattle's gateway to the Pacific, to two inland freshwater lakes, Lake Washington and Lake Union. With the completion of the Lake Washington ship channel and Chittenden locks, coal and logs from the interior had a dedicated water route to the ocean, and the city's 4 1/2 miles of coastal harbor burgeoned into 100 miles of commercial, industrial and recreational piers and wharves.  

YearAdded:
1997
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/gb_packards (CC BY-ND 2.0) Image Caption: Lake Washington ship channel and Chittenden locks allowed for the transport of coal and logs and revitalized the coastal harbor. Era_date_from: 1917
Hydraulics Laboratory at the University of Iowa
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Water Era: 1910-1919 DateCreated: 1919 Iowa City State: IA Zip: 52240 Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Hydraulics-Laboratory-at-the-University-of-Iowa/ Creator: University of Iowa

The Hydraulics Laboratory at The University of Iowa, renovated in 2001 and in 2003 renamed the C. Maxwell Stanley Hydraulics Laboratory, is the oldest university-based hydraulics laboratory in the U.S. that continuously has focused on research, education, and service in hydraulic engineering. Since its initial construction in 1919, the facility and staff have produced a massive amount of research that has shaped water-related constructs around the world. Its efforts have been guided by noted directors such as Floyd Nagler (1920-1933), Hunter Rouse (1944-1965), and John F.

YearAdded:
Image Credit: Courtesy University of Iowa Libraries Image Caption: Man sits across river from Hydraulic Laboratory, the University of Iowa, circa 1933 Era_date_from: 1919
Tunkhannock Viaduct
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Bridges Era: 1910-1919 DateCreated: 1915 Tunkhannock Creek Nicholson State: PA Zip: 18446 Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Tunkhannock-Viaduct/ Creator: Cohen, Abraham Burton, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad

This majestic viaduct was built during the golden age of railroading. It was at the western end of a major readjustment in grade and alignment of the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, and had double tracks to carry the trains across the valley of Tunkhannock Creek. The Hallstead cutoff (between Scranton, Pennsylvania and Hallstead, New Jersey) reduced passenger travel time by 20 minutes, and freight travel time by over an hour.

YearAdded:
1975
Image Credit: Original Photo: Flickr/Jim Danvers (CC BY 2.0) Image Caption: Tunkhannock Viaduct Era_date_from: 1915
Theodore Roosevelt Dam
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Water Supply & Control Era: 1910-1919 DateCreated: 1911 Theodore Roosevelt Dam Tonto National Forest State: AZ Zip: 85545 Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Theodore-Roosevelt-Dam---Salt-River-Project/ Creator:

The first electric power generated by the Theodore Roosevelt Dam for commercial use was transmitted over a high-voltage line to Phoenix, where it was employed to operate the city's new streetcar system. 

YearAdded:
1970
Image Credit: Courtesy Bureau of Reclamation (CC BY-SA 2.0) Image Caption: Theodore Roosevelt Dam Era_date_from: 1911
Quebec Bridge
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Bridges Era: 1910-1919 DateCreated: 1917 Quebec Bridge Quebec City State: Quebec Zip: G1K 4J9 Country: Canada Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Quebec-Bridge/ Creator: McLure, Norman , Cooper, Theodore

The bridge is immense, not only in length and weight but in width. At 67 feet wide, it can accommodate two sets of railway tracks, two sets of streetcar tracks and two roadways.

It took three tries and cost 89 lives, but the city of Quebec was determined to compete with provincial rival Montreal for commercial rail traffic in the late 19th century. The solution was a rail bridge across the St. Lawrence River requiring a single cantilever span 1,800 feet long - the longest ever attempted. 

YearAdded:
1987
Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/Sebastien Savard (CC BY-SA 2.5) Image Caption: Quebec Bridge Era_date_from: 1917
Panama Canal
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Water Transportation Era: 1910-1919 DateCreated: 1914 Isthmus of State: Zip: Country: Panama Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Panama-Canal/ Creator: Wallace, John , Stevens, John F.

The United States became interested in a water route through the Panamanian isthmus in the mid-1850s, but it was the French who first attempted to build the Panama Canal. Led by Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal in Egypt, the French began the project in 1876. Conditions were brutal: rampant yellow fever and malaria; massive landslides and flooding; sweltering heat; and construction equipment that was too light for the job.  

YearAdded:
1984
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Naval Surface Warriors (CC BY-SA 2.0) Image Caption: Panama Canal Era_date_from: 1914
Society: ASME Main Category: Mechanical Sub Category: Research and Development Era: 1910-1919 DateCreated: 1918 Pasadena State: CA Zip: Country: USA Website: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/history/landmarks/topics-m-z/research-and-development/-66-mount-wilson-observatory,-100-inch-hooker-tele Creator: Pease, Francis G. , Hale, George Ellery
The increased light-grasp of this telescope made possible many notable advances in structural cosmology between 1924 and 1930, which have revised our ideas about the universe. One of these advances was that spiral nebulae are galactic units like our own; another was the idea of an expanding universe. George Ellery Hale began planning this project in 1906; Francis G. Pease was the chief designer and mechanical engineer. The telescope's mirror support and the use of mercury flotation to reduce the friction are among its outstanding mechanical engineering features.
YearAdded:
1981
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Bruce Irving (CC BY 2.0) Image Caption: Mount Wilson Observatory, 100-inch Hooker Telescope Era_date_from: 1918
Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage Treatment Plant
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Water Supply & Control Era: 1910-1919 DateCreated: 1919 Lake Freeway Milwaukee State: WI Zip: 53207 Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Milwaukee-Metropolitan-Sewage-Treatment-Plant/ Creator:

This was America's first large-scale activated sludge plant. The successful operation of Milwaukee's sewage treatment plant led the way for many other American municipalities to adopt its methods of efficient environmental recycling.

Prior to 1925, sewage and industrial waste from the City of Milwaukee and its suburbs (then population 500,000) was discharged to the Milwaukee, Menomonee, and Kinnickinnic rivers, which converge in Milwaukee and flow together through a single outlet into Lake Michigan.

YearAdded:
1974
Image Credit: Public Domain (National Park Service) Image Caption: Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage Treatment Plant Era_date_from: 1919
Society: ASME Main Category: Mechanical Sub Category: Water Transportation Era: 1910-1919 DateCreated: 1914 Louisville State: KY Zip: Country: USA Website: http://www.asme.org/about-asme/history/landmarks/topics-m-z/water-transportation/-247-belle-of-louisville, http://files.asme.org/asmeorg/Communities/History/Landmarks/22719.pdf Creator: James Rees & Sons
The Belle of Louisville, built in 1914, is the oldest operating “western rivers” steamboat. It has the shallow-draft flat-bottom hull braced by hog-chain trusses, multiple fire-tube boilers, paddlewheel propulsion, and superstructure configuration that were characteristic of hundreds of steamboats that plied America’s rivers during the 19th and 20th centuries
YearAdded:
2010
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Bailey Visual Life (CC BY 2.0) Image Caption: Belle of Louisville, still in operation Era_date_from: 1914
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Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage Treatment Plant

This was America's first large-scale activated sludge plant. The successful operation of Milwaukee's sewage treatment plant led the way for many other American municipalities to adopt its methods of efficient environmental recycling.

Prior to 1925, sewage and industrial waste from the…

Read More
The increased light-grasp of this telescope made possible many notable advances in structural cosmology between 1924 and 1930, which have revised our ideas about the universe. One of these advances was that spiral nebulae are galactic units like our own; another was the idea of an expanding… Read More
Panama Canal

The United States became interested in a water route through the Panamanian isthmus in the mid-1850s, but it was the French who first attempted to build the Panama Canal. Led by Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal in Egypt, the French began the project in 1876. Conditions were brutal…

Read More
Quebec Bridge

The bridge is immense, not only in length and weight but in width. At 67 feet wide, it can accommodate two sets of railway tracks, two sets of streetcar tracks and two roadways.

It took three tries and cost 89 lives, but the city of Quebec was determined to compete with provincial rival…

Read More
Theodore Roosevelt Dam

The first electric power generated by the Theodore Roosevelt Dam for commercial use was transmitted over a high-voltage line to Phoenix, where it was employed to operate the city's new streetcar system. 

The Salt River Project, including the Theodore Roosevelt Dam, was the first major…

Read More
Tunkhannock Viaduct

This majestic viaduct was built during the golden age of railroading. It was at the western end of a major readjustment in grade and alignment of the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, and had double tracks to carry the trains across the valley of Tunkhannock Creek. The Hallstead cutoff (between Scranton…

Read More
Hydraulics Laboratory at the University of Iowa

The Hydraulics Laboratory at The University of Iowa, renovated in 2001 and in 2003 renamed the C. Maxwell Stanley Hydraulics Laboratory, is the oldest university-based hydraulics laboratory in the U.S. that continuously has focused on research, education, and service in hydraulic engineering.…

Read More
Lake Washington Ship Canal & Hiram M. Chittenden Locks

After more than 50 years of contention and debate, dredging began in 1911 on an eight-mile channel connecting Puget Sound, Seattle's gateway to the Pacific, to two inland freshwater lakes, Lake Washington and Lake Union. With the completion of the Lake Washington ship channel and Chittenden…

Read More
Kansas City Park and Boulevard System

"Who in Europe, or in America for that matter, knows that Kansas City is one of the loveliest cities on earth? [...] the residential section is a masterpiece of city planning [...]; Few cities have been built with so much regard for beauty."  
- Andre Maurois, French author and lecturer…

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Discovery of Superconductivity

On 8 April 1911, Professor Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and his collaborators, Cornelis Dorsman, Gerrit Jan Flim, and Gilles Holst, discovered superconductivity.   They observed that the resistance of mercury approached  "practically zero" as its temperature was lowered to 3 kelvins.  Today,…

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Grand Central Terminal

Spearheaded by Chief Engineer William J. Wilgus and constructed under challenging conditions with no interruption of existing train service, Grand Central Terminal was a triumph of innovative engineering in the design of urban transportation centers. Its novel, two-level station, made possible…

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The confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers was the site of distinct advances in transportation of the early 19th Century. The Erie Canal in 1825 and the Mohawk and Hudson Railroad in 1831 were both of national significance.  

The Erie Canal started at a boat basin in Albany. It…

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airport of Getafe

Getafe Airfield was the site of the world’s first successful rotorcraft flight, on January 17, 1923. Lieutenant Alejandro Gómez Spencer piloted a C.4 Autogiro designed and built by Juan de la Cierva, who tested a series of autogiros between 1920 and 1924 at the Getafe site. Cierva’s autogiros…

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Sikorsky VS-300

Igor I. Sikorsky, engineering manager of the Vought – Sikorsky Division of the former United Aircraft Corporation, used the Stratford, Conn., sites to design, build, and test his innovative helicopter designs. Sikorsky’s VS-300 model…

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The Boeing Red Barn taken in 1937

This former shipyard was the first home of the The Boeing Company, founded in 1916.  Affectionately called the Red Barn, this structure was built in 1909, and became the historic birthplace of Boeing aircraft production. Starting with the Boeing Model C, all early Boeing production…

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Entrance to NASA's Langley Research Center in Virginia, United States.

The Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, now the core of the Langley Research Center, was a unique facility that served as the nexus of aerodynamic research in the U.S. from its beginning in 1917 to its transformation into NASA’s Langley Research Center in 1958. It achieved…

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Naval Air Station North Island

Known as the birthplace of Naval Aviation, North Island was the site of the first successful seaplane flight and the first amphibious flight in the U.S., both made by Glenn Curtiss.  The first Naval pilot, Lt. T.G. Ellyson, was trained here at the Curtiss Aviation Camp.  A flight…

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Rumely OilPull Tractor

The Rumely Companies, which operated in La Porte, Indiana, from 1853 to 1931, produced a variety of equipment including threshers and steam engines, which helped to change the nature of American and world agriculture. The revolutionary OilPull Tractor, which was introduced in 1910,…

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Fall 1986 | Volume 2, Issue 2
The big Allis-Chalmers triple-expansion engine is dead, but not to Walter Wilson and Daniel Hoffman. These men are, respectively, division foreman and manager of pumping and maintenance for New Jersey’s Hackensack Water Company; but back in the 1940s they were just starting there as two young…

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