A few nice surface grinding stainless steel photos I discovered:
Korean War Memorial
Image by StarrGazr
From 1950 to 1953, the United States joined with the United Nations forces in Korea to take a stand against what was deemed a threat to democratic nations worldwide. At war’s end, a million and a half American veterans returned to a peacetime planet of households, residences, and jobs – and to a nation extended reluctant to view the Korean War as some thing to memorialize. But to the males and women who served, the Korean War could never ever be a forgotten war.
The passing of more than 4 decades has brought a new viewpoint to the war and its aftermath. The time has come, in the eyes of the Nation, to set aside a location of remembrance for the people who served in this challenging-fought war half a globe away. The Korean War Veterans Memorial honors these Americans who answered the contact, these who worked and fought beneath the most trying circumstances, and those who gave their lives for the result in of freedom.
A War Half a Planet Away
Only five years had passed since the end of Planet War II when the United States after once again located itself embroiled in a key international conflict. In the early morning hours of June 25, 1950, the communist government of North Korea launched an attack into South Korea. Determined to help the world’s imperiled democracies, the United States immediately sent troops from Japan to join these already stationed in Korea they fought with other nations under the U.N. flag. What was envisioned as a quick, decisive campaign became a prolonged, bitter, frustrating fight that threatened to explode beyond Korean borders. For 3 years the fighting raged. In 1953 an uneasy peace returned by implies of a negotiated settlement that established a new boundary near the original a single at the 38th parallel.
One particular-and-a-half million American males and women, a correct cross-section of the Nation’s populace, struggled side by side in the course of the conflict. They served as soldiers, chaplains, nurses, clerks, and in a host of other combat and assistance roles. Several risked their lives in extraordinary acts of heroism. Of these, 131 received the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Nation’s most esteemed tribute for combat bravery.
A Place for Reflection
Viewed from above, the memorial is a circle interesected by a triangle. Visitors approaching the memorial come initial to the triangular Field of Service. Here, a group of 19 stainless-steel statues, developed by Planet War II veteran Frank Gaylord, depicts a squad on patrol and evokes the knowledge of American ground troops in Korea. Strips of granite and scrubby juniper bushes suggest the rugged Korean terrain, even though windblown ponchos recall the harsh climate. This symbolic patrol brings together members of the U.S. Air Force, Army, Marines, and Navy the males portrayed are from a selection of ethnic backgrounds.
A granite curb on the north side of the statues lists the 22 countries of the United Nations that sent troops or gave health-related support in defense of South Korea. On the south side is a black granite wall. Its polished surface mirrors the statues, intermingling the reflected photos with the faces etched into the granite. The etched mural is primarily based on actual photographs of unidentified American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines. The faces represent all these who provided support for the ground troops. Together these pictures reflect the determination of U.S. forces and the numerous methods in which Americans answered their country’s get in touch with to duty.
The adjacent Pool of Remembrance, encircled by a grove of trees, offers a quiet setting. Numbers of those killed, wounded, missing in action, and held prisoner-of-war are etched in stone nearby. Opposite this counting of the war’s toll yet another granite wall bears a message inlaid in silver:
Freedom Is Not Free of charge.
Establishment and Dedication
On October 28, 1986, Congress authorized the American Battle Monuments Commission to establish a memorial in Washington, D.C., to honor members of the U.S. armed forces who served in the Korean War. The Korean War Veterans Memorial Advisory Board was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to advise a web site and style, and to raise construction funds. Ground was broken in November 1993. Frank Gaylord was selected as the principal sculptor of the statues and Louis Nelson was chosen to develop the mural of etched faces on the wall. On July 27, 1995, the 42nd anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War, the memorial was committed by President William J. Clinton and Kim Young Sam, President of the Republic of Korea.
Visiting the Memorial
The memorial is staffed from eight a.m. to midnight each and every day of the year except December 25 by park rangers who are obtainable to answer concerns and give talks. A bookstore in the nearby Lincoln Memorial sells informational things relating to each the memorial and the Korean War.
The Korean War Veterans Memorial is component of the National Park System, one particular of far more than 370 parks representing our nation’s organic and cultural heritage. Address inqueries to: Superintendent, National Capital Parks-Central, 900 Ohio Drive, SW, Washington, DC 20024-2000.
X-two in flight soon after drop from B-50 mothership
Image by NASA on The Commons
Description (1957) The Bell Aircraft Company X-2 (46-674) drops away from its Boeing B-50 mothership in this photo. Lt. Col. Frank "Pete" Everest piloted 674 on its first unpowered flight on five August 1954. He created the very first rocket-powered flight on 18 November 1955. Everest produced the initial supersonic X-2 flight in 674 on 25 April 1956, reaching a speed of Mach 1.40. In July, he reached Mach two.87, just brief of the Mach three objective. The other X-2, 675, was written off prior to making any powered flights. An explosion in the course of a captive flight resulted in the death of Bell test pilot Jean "Skip" Ziegler. The X-two was jettisoned more than Lake Ontario, and the launch aircraft was broken beyond repair. The very first X-2, 674, continued flying, producing a total of 17 launches. On 7 September 1956, Capt. Iven Kincheloe became the first man to exceed 100,000 feet when he reached an altitude of 126,200 feet in 674. The X-two, initially an Air Force program, was scheduled to be transferred to the civilian National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) for scientific investigation. The Air Force delayed turning the aircraft over to the NACA in the hope of attaining Mach three in the airplane. The service requested and received a two-month extension to qualify one more Air Force test pilot, Capt. Miburn "Mel" Apt, in the X-two and try to exceed Mach 3. Soon after a number of ground briefings in the simulator, Apt (with no earlier rocket plane experience) made his flight on 27 September 1956. Apt raced away from the B-50 beneath complete power, rapidly outdistancing the F-one hundred chase planes. At high altitude, he nosed over, accelerating swiftly. The X-2 reached Mach 3.2 (2,094 mph) at 65,000 feet. Apt became the 1st man to fly far more than three occasions the speed of sound. Nevertheless above Mach 3, he began an abrupt turn back to Edwards. This maneuver proved fatal as the X-2 started a series of diverging rolls and tumbled out of control. Apt attempted to regain control of the aircraft. Unable to do so, Apt separated the escape capsule. Too late, he attempted to bail out and was killed when the capsule impacted on the Edwards bombing range. The rest of the X-2 crashed five miles away. The X-two was a swept-wing, rocket-powered aircraft made to fly quicker than Mach three (3 instances the speed of sound). It was constructed for the U.S. Air Force by the Bell Aircraft Company, Buffalo, New York. The X-2 was flown to investigate the problems of aerodynamic heating as well as stability and handle effectiveness at high altitudes and high speeds (in excess of Mach three). Bell aircraft built two X-two aircraft. These were constructed of K-monel (a copper and nickel alloy) for the fuselage and stainless steel for the swept wings and manage surfaces. The aircraft had ejectable nose capsules instead of ejection seats since the improvement of ejection seats had not reached maturity at the time the X-two was conceived. The X-two ejection canopy was effectively tested making use of a German V-2 rocket. The X-2 employed a skid-kind landing gear to make area for much more fuel. The airplane was air launched from a modified Boeing B-50 Superfortress Bomber. X-two Number 1 produced its very first unpowered glide flight on Aug. 5, 1954, and made a total of 17 (four glide and 13 powered) flights just before it was lost September 27, 1956. The pilot on Flight 17, Capt. Milburn Apt, had flown the aircraft to a record speed of Mach three.2 (two,094 mph), as a result becoming the very first person to exceed Mach three. Throughout that final flight, inertial coupling occurred and the pilot was killed. The aircraft suffered tiny harm in the crash, resulting in proposals (never implemented) from the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, Hampton, Virginia, to rebuild it for use in a hypersonic (Mach five ) test system. In 1953, X-two Quantity two was lost in an in-flight explosion whilst at the Bell Aircraft Business during captive flight trials and was jettisoned into Lake Ontario. The Air Force had previously flown the aircraft on three glide flights at Edwards Air Force Base, California, in 1952. Though the NACA’s Higher-Speed Flight Station, Edwards, California, (predecessor of NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center) never really flew the X-2 aircraft, the NACA did assistance the system mostly via Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory wind-tunnel tests and Wallops Island, Virginia, rocket-model tests. The NACA High-Speed Flight Station also supplied stability and control recording instrumentation and simulator help for the Air Force flights. In the latter regard, the NACA worked with the Air Force in utilizing a specific computer to extrapolate and predict aircraft behavior from flight information.
Puzzle 12: What is it? (Guessed)
Image by “Caveman Chuck” Coker
What is this object?
This should have been way also easy. Cptdrinian guessed it virtually as soon as I had posted it.
When I took this photo I was standing on the west side of the south leg of the Gateway Arch. searching up along the leg. If you appear closely, you can see the windows of the observation deck.
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
11 N 4th Street
St. Louis, MO 63102
(314) 655-1700 — Visitor Data
(877) 982-1410 — Tram Tickets
The National Park Service has a internet page which describes Unusual Events and Occurrences at Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Check it out. It is portion of the on the internet book Administrative History: Jefferson National Expansion Memorial National Historic Website 1935-1980 (June 1984).
My favourite story from the book:
On Saturday, November 22, 1980, at approximately 8:55 a.m., Kenneth Swyers of Overland, Missouri, "was noticed parachuting above the Gateway Arch. It appeared that Swyers landed on leading of the Arch and that he was thrown off balance when the wind caught his parachute. Swyers’ parachute deflated and [he] fell down the North Leg of the Arch. Around [half-way] down Swyers attempted to deploy his auxiliary parachute, even so it failed to open and Swyers landed on his head on the concrete terrazzo. Swyers was pronounced dead at the St. Louis City Hospital at 0950 hours."
The 33-year-old Swyers requested permission to make a parachute jump in the vicinity of the Arch on August 21, 1980, which was denied by Charles Ross, specific assistant to the superintendent. Swyers watched a tv program the night ahead of his death which showed daredevil acts of parachute jumping. Swyers was himself a parachute enthusiast who had produced a lot more than 1,600 jumps, and on the morning of his death, he left a note for his wife to come to the Arch to photograph his jump. Couple of park staff or guests were on the grounds ahead of 9:00 a.m. in late November when Swyers created his jump. Park Technician Lisa Hanfgarn, hurrying to get to perform on time, believed she saw an object fall down the North Leg of the Arch as she entered the doors to the complex. She reported this to Seasonal Park Technician Liz Schmidt (of the law enforcement division), who was monitoring the north entrance doors. Schmidt went outdoors to learn the body of Swyers lying in the midst of his parachutes, and quickly radioed to law enforcement rangers requesting assistance, an ambulance and the city police. Two St. Louis city policemen, who witnessed the jump from Wharf Street, arrived on the scene and documented the fatal injury to Swyers. An ambulance was on the scene by 8:59 a.m. Mr. Swyers’ wife was on the grounds at the time of the accident and saw her husband fall to his death. She came forward at the accident scene, viewing her husband’s body and ultimately covering his face with his parachute. A massive crowd gathered, composed of guests, police and medical personnel. Park Technician Schmidt later testified that the weather was blustery, cold and windy, and that it was not a excellent day for a jump, near the Arch or elsewhere. The FAA was right away notified, and an investigation at some point turned up the pilot who ferried Swyers over the Arch to make his fatal jump. As a outcome, Richard Skurat of Overland, Missouri had his pilot’s license suspended for 90 days by the FAA in December 1980.
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The Gateway Arch, also identified as the Gateway to the West, is an integral component of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and the iconic image of St. Louis, Missouri. It was made by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel in 1947. It stands 630 feet (192 m) tall, and is 630 feet (192 m) wide at its base, making it the tallest monument in the United States. Building of the arch began on February 12, 1963 and was completed on October 28, 1965. The monument opened to the public on July 24, 1967.
Physical Description
The cross-sections of its legs are equilateral triangles, narrowing from 54 feet (16 m) per side at the base to 17 feet (5.two m) at the prime. Every wall consists of a stainless steel skin covering a sandwich of two carbon steel walls with reinforced concrete in the middle from ground level to 300 feet (91 m), with carbon steel and rebar from 300 feet (91 m) to the peak. The interior of the Arch is hollow and includes a exclusive transport program top to an observation deck at the leading. The interior of the Arch also includes two emergency stairwells of 1076 methods every single, in the occasion of a need to have to evacuate the Arch or if a difficulty develops with the tram program.
The base of every single leg at ground level had an engineering tolerance of a single sixty-fourth of an inch or the two legs would not meet at the best.
Throughout building, each legs had been constructed up simultaneously. When the time came to connect each legs collectively at the apex, thermal expansion of the sunward facing south leg prevented it from aligning precisely with the north leg. This alignment dilemma was solved when the St. Louis Fire Division sprayed the south leg with water from firehoses until it had cooled to the point exactly where it aligned with the north leg.
It is the tallest habitable structure in Missouri, 7 feet greater than the 623 foot spire of 1 Kansas City Place in Kansas City, and 37 feet greater than the roof of Metropolitan Square in St. Louis, Missouri.
Tram
Eero Saarinen died from a brain tumor four years just before the Arch was completed prior to his death he had decided to incorporate a energy lift method to obviate the need to climb the 1000-plus stairs. But the shape of the arch would have created a standard elevator impossible. Right after approaching several elevator companies who failed to come up with a viable method, Saarinen hired parking-lot elevator designer Richard Bowser to do the job. Skeptical city leaders gave Bowser only two weeks to submit a design and style, but he succeeded. By 1968, a exclusive tram program that combined an elevator cable lift technique with gimbaled automobiles functionally similar to ferris wheel gondolas had been installed.
The tram is operated by the quasi-governmental Bi-State Development Agency under an agreement with the NPS.
From the visitor center 1 might move to either base (a single on the north end and the other on the south end) of the Arch and enter the tramway significantly as a single would enter an ordinary elevator, by way of narrow double doors. The north queue area includes displays which interpret the design and style and building of the Gateway Arch the south queue region involves displays about the St. Louis riverfront throughout the mid-19th century.
Passing by means of the doors, passengers in groups of 5 enter an egg-shaped compartment containing 5 seats and a flat floor. Simply because of the vehicle shape, the compartments have sloped ceilings low enough to force taller riders to lean forward while seated (for this cause it’s advised that the tallest of the 5 passengers in the automobile sit in the center seat facing the door). Eight compartments are linked to form a train, which means that both trains have a capacity of 40, and that 80 folks can be transported at one particular time. These compartments individually retain an appropriate level by periodically rotating each five degrees, which permits them to preserve the right orientation while the whole train follows curved tracks up 1 leg of the arch. The trip to the prime of the Arch requires 4 minutes, and the trip down takes 3 minutes. The automobile doors have narrow windows, permitting passengers to see the interior stairways and structure of the Arch for the duration of the trip.
Observation Region
Close to the prime of the arch, the rider exits the compartment and climbs a slight grade to enter the arched observation region. Thirty-two tiny windows (16 per side) measuring 7 by 27 inches (180 mm × 690 mm) let views across the Mississippi River and southern Illinois with its prominent Mississippian culture mounds to the east at Cahokia Mounds, and the City of Saint Louis and St. Louis County to the west beyond the city. On a clear day, one particular can see up to thirty miles (48 km).
Notable Events
A time capsule containing the signatures of 762,000 St. Louis area students was welded into the keystone before that final piece was set in location.
Eleven light aircraft have been effectively flown beneath the arch, the 1st on June 22, 1966 when the arch had been completed for significantly less than a year.
In 1984, David Adcock of Houston, Texas, started to scale the arch by means of suction cups on his hands and feet, but he was talked out of continuing right after getting climbed only 20 feet (six.1 m). The next day he effectively scaled the nearby 21-story Equitable Building in downtown St. Louis.
It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987.
On September 14, 1992 it was rumored that John C. Vincent of New Orleans effectively scaled the outside of the Arch with suction cups for the duration of the night, and performed a BASE jump from the prime with a parachute at 7 a.m. No proof surfaced to support his claim, and it was speculated by Park Rangers that Vincent was lowered from a helicopter onto the top of the Arch, from which he parachuted. He was jailed three months for the stunt.
On July 21, 2007, roughly 200 individuals had been trapped in the trams or at the prime of the Arch soon after an electrical dilemma occurred with the tram technique. All were returned to the ground either by getting taken down stairs to a service elevator, or by waiting for energy to be restored. A second electrical dilemma caused one tram to be taken out of service the following day.
Supply: Wikipedia — If you are a glutton for punishment, study Mathematics of the Arch
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