NUTTY NARROWS BRIDGE

The Nutty Narrows Bridge is a squirrel bridge that crosses Olympia Way between 18th Avenue and Maple Street in Longview, Washington. The Nutty Narrows was named by a local councilwoman after the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. It was built in 1963 at a cost of $1,000. Before the bridge was built, squirrels had to avoid speeding traffic by running across the street to eat a nutty feast at an office building and back again to a park with large trees. Designed to look like a mini-suspension, the 60-foot long span is made of aluminum piping covered with a retired firehouse. It is world’s narrowest bridge and also the world’s narrowest animal crossing.

A close-up of the bridge deck with sign

By Avi - Squirrel Bridge - Closeup, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7836304

TIANXINGZHOU YANGTZE RIVER BRIDGE

The Tianxingzhou Yangtze River Bridge is a combined road and rail bridge across the Yangtze River in the city of Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei Province of China. At 15,279 feet in length, the Tianxingzhou Yangtze River Bridge is the longest combined road and rail cable-stayed span in the world. The bridge carries two high-speed rail lines over 4 sets of railroad tracks and also has 6 vehicular traffic lanes. The bridge was opened on December 26, 2009.

THE TIANXINGZHOU YANGTZE RIVER BRIDGE

By Glabb - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20844123

HINSDALE, NEW HAMPSHIRE POST OFFICE 03451

Hinsdale is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. The population in 2017 was estimated to be 3,878. The Hinsdale post office was established in 1816, and is the oldest continually-operating post office in the United States.

Hinsdale, NH Post Office - Established 1816

WUHAN, CHINA METRO – LINE 1

The Wuhan Metro is a rapid transit system serving the city of Wuhan, operated by the Wuhan Metro Co., Ltd. Line 1 began operation on July 28, 2004 with the completion of a ten-station long elevated line between Huangpu Road and Zongguan. At 23.44 miles in length, Line 1 is the longest continuous metro viaduct* in the world. *A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans for crossing a valley, dry or wetland, or forming an overpass or flyover.

10 STATES LOST POPULATION BETWEEN 2018 AND 2019

10 STATES LOST POPULATION BETWEEN 2018 AND 2019
STATE	NUMERIC	PERCENT
New York	-76,790	-0.4
Illinois	-51,250	-0.4
West Virginia	-12,144	-0.7
Louisiana	-10,896	-0.2
Connecticut	-6,233	-0.2
Mississippi	-4,871	-0.2
Hawaii	-4,721	-0.3
New Jersey	-3,835	0.0
Alaska	-3,594	-0.5
Vermont	-369	-0.1

GRAND ISLAND, NEW YORK

Grand Island in a town located in Erie County, New York. It has a total land area of 33.3 square miles, which makes it approximately the same size as Manhattan Island (33.58 square miles). Grand Island is the largest island in the Niagara River and third largest in New York state. The estimated population as of 2017 is 21,351. Grand Island is the most populated freshwater island in the United States.

September 2001 satellite image of Grand Island. Niagara Falls is visible at the top left corner.
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50166394

NET MIGRATION BETWEEN SELECTED STATES AND ABROAD: 2010, 2015 AND 2019

Florida, California, Texas, New York and Massachusetts typically gain the most migrants from abroad and comprise about half of net international migration for the nation most years. Between the last census in 2010 and July 1, 2019, international migration added 1,107,000 people to Florida; 1,022,000 to California; 819,000 to Texas; 698,000 to New York; and 362.000 to Massachusetts.

FOREIGN-BORN IMMIGRATION TO THE U.S. BY COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE ONE YEAR AGO: 2006 TO 2018

Foreign-born immigration this decade peaked at 1.46 million in 2016 and declined by 250,000 to 1.21 million in 2018. China replaced Mexico to become the largest sending country of foreign-born immigrants to the United States as of 2018. At the beginning of the decade, Mexico was the largest, but immigration from Mexico has dropped significantly since the recession at the end of last decade. Since 2010, immigration from China and India has either approached or surpassed Mexican immigration levels while immigration from Canada has remained relatively unchanged.

NET MIGRATION BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND ABROAD – 2010 TO 2019

Net international migration added 595,000 to the U.S. population between 2018 and 2019, the lowest level this decade. This is a notable drop from this decade’s high of 1,047,000 between 2015 and 2016.

GRAND COULEE DAM VERSUS HOOVER DAM

	Grand Coulee Dam	Hoover Dam
Type of Dam	Gravity Dam	Gravity-Arch Dam
Operating Agency	Bureau of Reclamation	Bureau of Reclamation
Total Generating Capacity	6,809 megawatts	2,080 megawatts
Location	Washington State	Nevada/Arizona
Dates of Construction	1933-1941 1967-1974 Third Powerplant	1931-1936
Height of Dam	550 feet	726 feet
Length of Dam	5,223 feet	1,244 feet
Concrete	11,975,521 cubic yards*	3,250,000 cubic yards
Purposes and Benefits	Purposes and benefits of both dams include flood control and river regulation, water storage and delivery (including irrigation), power generation, recreation and fish and wildlife.

*With 12 million cubic yards of concrete you could build a sidewalk four feet wide and four inches thick and wrap it twice around the equator (50,000 miles), or you could build a highway from Seattle, Washington to Miami, Florida.

AVERAGE ANNUAL GASOLINE TAXES PAID PER VEHICLE BY STATE – 2019

According to the Federal Highway Administration, the average fuel economy for all light vehicles on the road today is 22.3 miles per gallon (mpg) and the average annual miles driven is 11,484 miles. The Federal tax on gasoline is 18.4 cents per gallon, and each state has a gasoline tax, ranging from 8.95 cents in Alaska to 58.7 cents in Pennsylvania. Since taxes are charged on a per-gallon basis, someone with a more efficient vehicle will pay less in taxes over the course of a year. Based on average mpg and miles driven, a person owning a gasoline vehicle pays between $141 and $398 in fuel taxes each year, depending upon the state in which the fuel is purchased.

GASOLINE STATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1972-2019

In 1972 there were nearly 290,000 public gasoline stations serving 106 million vehicles nationwide. The number of public gasoline stations declined throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s. By 1990 there were 174,000 public gasoline stations serving 179 million vehicles nationwide. In 2019 there are only 142,000 stations serving more than 276 million vehicles. According to a Lundberg Survey, gasoline gallons dispensed per station is at a record high.

LAKE COUNTY AIRPORT - COLORADO

Lake County Airport, also known as Leadville Airport, is a county-owned airport located two nautical miles southwest of the central business district of Leadville. At an elevation of 9,934 feet above mean sea level, it is the highest airport in North America.

IBN BATTUTA MALL – DUBAI

The Ibn Battuta Mall, located on the Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai is the world’s largest themed shopping mall. The mall has more than 270 shops, 50 restaurants, a 21-screen cinema and over 4,500 parking spaces. The mall consists of six courts, each of whose designs are inspired by some of the countries visited by the Moroccan Berber explorer, Ibn Battuta: Andalusia Court, China Court, Egypt Court, India Court and Tunisia Court. Please note: Your humble blogger does not care for shopping malls.

BOU CRAA PHOSPHATE MINE, WESTERN SAHARA

Bou Craa is a town in Western Sahara, southeast of the main city of El Aaiún. It is inhabited almost exclusively by employees of the Moroccan-controlled Bou Craa phosphate industry. The phosphates are transported to the coast by an automated conveyor belt. At 60 miles in length, it is the longest conveyor belt in the world.

MILLENNIUM PARK BUS DEPOT

The Millennium Park Bus Depot located in Delhi, India is the largest bus depot in the world. Constructed primarily by the city’s Public Works Department, the depot was inaugurated on September 17, 2010. The depot occupies an area of 60 acres and has the capacity to park up to 1,000 buses at a time under shed. The depot contains numerous features and facilities, including; ·         8 washing pits ·         5 parking centers ·         4 underground water tanks for washing buses ·         7 dormitories capable of holding 500 people ·         2 CNG stations (DT buses run on CNG) utilized by 10 filling pumps The Millennium Park Bus Depot was initially planned as a temporary structure for the Commonwealth Games. However, once the Games concluded, both the Delhi government and DTC refused to proceed with demolition measures for the depot. Although the Delhi Transportation Corporation (DTC) told the Delhi High Court that it would vacate the millennium depot site by October 31, 2014, your humble blogger cannot find definitive information as to whether or not the bus depot is still in operation. I checked the DTC website and found that “Millennium Park Depot Complex” is on the list of DTC properties. YouTube video was posted in 2017, which is well after the date that the property was to be vacated.

ATHENA PARTHENOS (REPLICA)

The Parthenon in Centennial Park, in Nashville, Tennessee, is a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens. Alan LeQuire, a Nashville native, was awarded the commission to produce the Parthenon’s cult statue. His work was modeled on descriptions given of the original. The modern version took eight years to complete, and was unveiled to the public on May 20, 1990. The Nashville Athena Parthenos is made of a composite of gypsum cement and ground fiberglass. In 2002, Parthenon volunteers gilded Nashville’s Athena resulting in making the modern statue appear more like the original. The 23.75-karat gold leaf on Nashville’s Athena Parthenos weighs a total of 8.5 pounds and is one-third the thickness of tissue paper. The Athena Parthenos statue stands in the east room of the main hall and is the focus of the Parthenon just as it was in ancient Greece. She is cuirassed and helmeted, carries a shield on her left arm and a small (6-foot high) statue of Nike (Victory) in her right palm. An equally colossal serpent rears its head between her and her shield. Nashville’s Athena Parthenos stands 41 feet 10 inches tall, making her the largest piece of indoor sculpture in the Western World.

U.S. AND WORLD POPULATION