Colonial Williamsburg, VA

 

  

 

 

Visiting Colonial Williamsburg was really a step back in time, as we toured around you felt almost like you were standing in the middle of a lot of history. Surviving colonial structures have been restored to estimates of 18th-century appearance, with traces of later buildings and improvements removed. Many of the missing Colonial structures were reconstructed on their original sites beginning in the 1930s.

Middle Plantation was renamed "Williamsburg" by Royal Governor Francis Nicholson , proponent of the change, in honor of King William III of England. The new site was described by Nicholson as a place where "clear and crystal springs burst from the champagne soil" and was seen as a vision of future utopia. He had the city surveyed and a plan laid out by Theodorick Bland taking into consideration the fine brick College Building and Bruton Parish Church. The main street was named Duke of Gloucester after the eldest son of Queen Anne.

For most of the 18th century, Williamsburg was the center of government, education and culture in the Colony of Virginia. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, James Monroe, James Madison, George Wythe, Peyton Randolph, and others molded democracy in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States here. During the American Revolutionary War, in 1780, the capital of Virginia was moved to Richmond, about 55 miles (90 km) west, to be more distant from British attack, where it remains today

 

 

The Governor's Palace in Williamsburg, Virginia was the official residence of the Royal Governors of the Colony of Virginia. It was also a home for two of Virginia's post-colonial governors, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson, until the capital was moved to Richmond in 1780, and with it the Governor's residence. The main house burned down in 1781, though the outbuildings survived for some time after.
The Governor's Palace was reconstructed in the 1930s on its original site. It is one of the two largest buildings at Colonial Williamsburg, the other being the Capitol.



With the seat of government removed, the colonial section of Williamsburg was neglected as the modern town was built around it. By the early 20th century, many older structures were in poor condition, and were no longer in use. The site on high ground and away from waterways was not reached by the early railroads, whose construction began in the 1830s, and only was reached by the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway through the area in 1881.
Williamsburg relied on three institutions for jobs for its people: The College of William & Mary, the Courthouse, and the Eastern Lunatic Asylum (now Eastern State Hospital), it was said that the "500 Crazies" of the asylum supported the "500 Lazies" of the College and town. Colonial-era buildings were neglected in the wake of the Civil War, which had a much larger presence in the minds of the townsfolk

 

At the outset of the American Civil War (1861–1865), enlistments in the Confederate Army depleted the student body of the College of William and Mary and on May 10, 1861, the faculty voted to close the College for the duration of the conflict. The College Building was used as a Confederate barracks and later as a hospital, first by Confederate, and later Union forces.
The Williamsburg area saw combat in the spring of 1862 during the Peninsula Campaign, an effort to take Richmond from the east from a base at Fort Monroe. Throughout late 1861 and early 1862, the small contingent of Confederate defenders was known as the Army of the Peninsula, and led by popular General John B. Magruder. He successfully used ruse tactics to bluff the invaders as to the size and strength of his forces, and intimidated them into a slow movement up the Peninsula, gaining valuable time defenses to be constructed for the Confederate capital at Richmond.



 



Washington, DC

Today we took the metro into Washington, DC and visited the Federal Triangle. The Federal Triangle is a triangular area in Washington, DC and is occupied by 10 large city and federal office buildings, all of which are part of the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site.  Seven of the buildings in Federal Triangle were built by the U.S. federal government in the early and mid-1930s as part of a coordinated construction plan that has been called "one of the greatest building projects ever undertaken" and all seven buildings are now designated as architecturally historic.

The Washington Monument is an obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington. George Washington's military and political leadership were indispensable to the founding of the United States. As commander of the Continental Army, he rallied Americans from thirteen divergent states and outlasted Britain's superior military force. As the first president, Washington's superb leadership set the standard for each president that has succeeded him. The Washington Monument towers above the city that bears his name, serving as an awe-inspiring reminder of George Washington's greatness. The monument, made of marble, granite, and bluestone gneiss, is both the world's tallest stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk, standing 555 feet 5 inches tall. Taller monumental columns exist, but they are neither all stone nor true obelisks. Construction of the monument began in 1848, was halted from 1854 to 1877, and was finally completed in 1884. The monument stands due east of the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial.

 The Lincoln Memorial is an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. The exterior of the Memorial echoes a classic Greek temple and features marble from Colorado. The structure is surrounded by 36 fluted columns, one for each of the 36 states in the Union at the time of Lincoln's death, and two columns at the entrance. The interior of the Memorial is divided into three chambers by two rows of columns.  The north and south side chambers contain carved inscriptions of Lincoln's second inaugural address and his Gettysburg Address.

 

Lying between the north and south chambers is the central hall containing the solitary figure of Lincoln sitting in contemplation. The carved statue took 4 years to complete and had to be shipped in 28 separate pieces. The Memorial has become a symbolically sacred venue especially for the Civil Rights movement. On August 28, 1963, the memorial grounds were the site of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which proved to be a high point of the American Civil Rights Movement. It is estimated that approximately 250,000 people came to the event, where they heard Martin Luther King, Jr., deliver his historic speech, "I Have a Dream". Twenty years later, on August 28, 1983, crowds gathered again to mark the 20th Anniversary Mobilization for Jobs, Peace and Freedom, to reflect on progress in gaining civil rights for African Americans and to commit to correcting continuing injustices. The "I Have a Dream" speech is such a part of the Lincoln Memorial story, that the spot on which King stood, on the landing eighteen steps below Lincoln's statue, was engraved in 2003 in recognition of the 40th anniversary of the event. Approximately 6 million people visit the memorial annually.

 The First Division Monument commemorates those who died while serving the 1st Infantry Division of the U.S. Army. The monument was conceived

by the Society of the First Division, the veteran's organization of the U.S. Army's First Division, to honor the valiant efforts of the soldiers who fought in World War I. Later additions to the monument commemorate the lives of First Division soldiers who fought in subsequent wars. The 1st Infantry Division of the United States Army is the oldest continuously serving division in the regular United States Army. It has seen continuous service since its organization in 1917. It was officially nicknamed the "The Big Red One" after its shoulder patch.


The Department of the Treasury (DoT) is an
 executive department and the treasury of the



United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue. The Department is administered by the Secretary of the Treasury, who is a member of the Cabinet.  The first Secretary of the Treasury was Alexander Hamilton, who was sworn into office on September 11, 1789. Hamilton almost single-handedly worked out the nation's early financial system, and for several years was a major presence in Washington's administration as well. His portrait is on the obverse of the U.S. ten-dollar bill while the Treasury Department building is shown on the reverse. The Treasury prints and mints all paper currency and coins in circulation through the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the United States Mint. The Department also collects all federal taxes through the Internal Revenue Service, and manages U.S. government debt instruments.

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C. It has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. Construction started in 1792. Today, the White House Complex includes the Executive Residence, West Wing, East Wing, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building the former State Department, which now houses offices for the President's staff and the Vice President and Blair House, a guest residence.

The White House includes: six stories and 55,000 ft² of floor space, 132 rooms and 35 bathrooms, 412 doors, 147 windows, twenty-eight fireplaces, eight staircases, three elevators, five full-time chefs, a tennis court, a (single-lane) bowling alley (officially called the Harry S. Truman Bowling Alley), a movie theater (officially called the White House Family Theater), a jogging track, a swimming pool, and a putting green. In 2013 President Barack Obama installed a set of solar panels on the roof of the White House, making it the first time in history solar power would be used for a president's living quarters. The president usually travels to and from the White House grounds via official motorcade or helicopter. The White House Complex is protected by the United States Secret Service and the United States Park Police. NASAMS (Norwegian Advanced Surface to Air Missile System) were used to guard air space over Washington, D.C. during the 2005 presidential inauguration. The same NASAMS units have since been used to protect the president and all air space around the White House, which is strictly prohibited to aircraft.

The United States Capitol, atop Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. is the seat of the United States Congress, the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government, completed in the year 1800.

Underground tunnels and a private subway connect the main Capitol building with each of the Congressional office buildings in the surrounding complex.  Before the August 2012 recess, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to spend $61 million to repair the exterior of the dome, which has at least 1,300 cracks that have led to rusting inside. The House wanted to spend less on government operations, but late in 2013 it was announced that renovation will take place over two years starting in spring 2014.

 

 

  

 

The Smithsonian "Castle" (1847), the Institution's first building and still its headquarters.


The Smithsonian Institution established in 1846 "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge," is a group of museums and research centers administered by the United States government. Termed "the nation's attic" for its eclectic holdings of 137 million items, the Institution's Washington, D.C. nucleus of nineteen museums, nine research centers, and zoo many of them historical or architectural landmarks is the largest such complex in the world. The Institution's thirty million annual visitors are admitted without charge; funding comes from the Institution's own endowment, private and corporate contributions, membership dues, government support, and retail, concession and licensing revenues. More than two-thirds of the Smithsonian's workforce of some 6,300 persons are employees of the federal government. The President’s 2011 budget proposed just under $800 million in support for the Smithsonian, slightly increased from previous years. Among the Smithsonian's most famous items are the Hope Diamond and the ruby slippers.


We toured the National Air and Space Museum, the most popular museum of the Smithsonian's.







These two pictures are of the Apollo 11 space capsule.

This is a model of the USS Enterprise

and the person constructing this model

took 1,000 hours a year for 12 years.

New York City, NY

Central Park is the most visited city park in the United States.
The view looking south from Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan includes the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings.
 
 New York- referred to as New York City or the City of New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York metropolitan area, the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. A global power city, New York exerts a significant impact upon commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and entertainment. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has been described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. On one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, each of which is a county of New York State. The five boroughs—the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island—were consolidated into a single city in 1898. With a census-estimated 2013 population of 8,405,837 distributed over a land area of just 305 square miles (790 km²), New York is the most densely populated major city in the United States. As many as 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. By 2013 census estimates, the New York City metropolitan region remains by a significant margin the most populous in the United States, as defined by both the Metropolitan Statistical Area (19.9 million residents) and the Combined Statistical Area (23.5 million residents.




Times Square

Times Square, iconified as "The Crossroads of the World", is the brightly illuminated hub of the Broadway Theater District, one of the world's busiest pedestrian intersections, and a major center of the world's entertainment industry.

New York City's financial district, anchored by Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, has been called the world's leading financial center and is home to the New York Stock Exchange, the world's largest stock exchange by total market capitalization of its listed companies. Manhattan's real estate market is among the most expensive in the world.
While on our bus tour we were advised that the old Woolworth's building has just been sold and the building is being renovated into parking spaces and for spaces are being rented out for $1 million dollars for a one year term. 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trinity Church, at 75 Broadway in lower Manhattan, is a historic, active, well-endowed parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Trinity Church is near the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway, in New York City, New York.

 

The Memorial Wall, dedicated to the 343 members of the NYC Fire Department, as well as volunteer firefighter Glenn J. Winuk, a partner at Holland & Knight who died on that tragic day, is located at FDNY Engine 10 Ladder 10, directly across from the World Trade Center site.

  

 

The National September 11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance and honor to the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993. The Memorial’s twin reflecting pools are each nearly an acre in size and feature the largest manmade waterfalls in the North America. The pools sit within the footprints where the Twin Towers once stood. Architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker created the Memorial design selected from a global design competition that included more than 5,200 entries from 63 nations.  The names of every person who died in the 2001 and 1993 attacks are inscribed into bronze panels edging the Memorial pools, a powerful reminder of the largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on American soil and the greatest single loss of rescue personnel in American history.

Soaring above the city at 1,776 feet, One World Trade Center is America's tallest building and an indelible New York landmark. It most commonly refers to the primary building of the new World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The 3-million-square-foot building includes office space, an observation deck and world-class restaurants.

The building was initially developed by Silverstein Properties and taken over by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in April 2006.

The 104-story supertall structure, which shares a name with the northern Twin Tower in the original World Trade Center that was destroyed in the September 11 attacks, stands on the northwest corner of the 16-acre World Trade Center site, on the site of the original 6 World Trade Center.

Ellis Island, in Upper New York Bay, was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States as the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954.  By the time it closed on November 12, 1954, twelve million immigrants had been processed by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration. It is estimated that 10.5 million immigrants departed for points across the United States from the Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, located just across a narrow strait. The peak year for immigration at Ellis Island was 1907, with 1,004,756 immigrants processed. Today, over 100 million Americans, about one-third of the population can trace their ancestry to the immigrants who first arrived in America at Ellis Island before dispersing to points all over the country.



New York City Lower Manhattan, from the Harbour.














New York City Upper Manhattan from the Harbour.

 

The Statue of Liberty is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in the middle of New York Harbor, in Manhattan, New York City. "The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World" was a gift of friendship from the people of France to the United States and is recognized as a universal symbol of freedom and democracy.  The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886.  It was designated as a National Monument in 1924.  The statue is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law) upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue is an icon of freedom and of the United States: a welcoming signal to immigrants arriving from abroad. In 1984, the Statue of Liberty was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The UNESCO "Statement of Significance" describes the statue as a "masterpiece of the human spirit" that "endures as a highly potent symbol—inspiring contemplation, debate and protest—of ideals such as liberty, peace, human rights, abolition of slavery, democracy and opportunity.

 

 

 

 

Cape Cod National Seashore, MA

Cape Cod is a cape jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts.  Due to the land position jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean, the Cape and islands are subject to massive coastal erosion. Geologists say that, due to erosion, the Cape will be completely submerged by the sea in thousands of years. This erosion causes the washout of beaches and the destruction of the barrier islands; for example, the ocean broke through the barrier island at Chatham during Hurricane Bob in 1991, allowing waves and storm surges to hit the coast with no obstruction. Consequently, the sediment and sand from the beaches is being washed away and deposited elsewhere. While this destroys land in some places, it creates land elsewhere, most noticeably in marshes where sediment is deposited by waters running through them. Consequently, the sediment and sand from the beaches is being washed away and deposited elsewhere. While this destroys land in some places, it creates land elsewhere, most noticeably in marshes where sediment is deposited by waters running through them. 
To the south of Cape Cod lie Nantucket Sound; Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, both large islands; and the mostly privately owned Elizabeth Islands. The Cape Cod National Seashore is 40 miles of pristine sandy beaches, marshes, ponds, lighthouses, remarkable natural beauty and cultural landscapes.





We started our day travelling through Chatham, which is located on the elbow of Cape Cod, surrounded on three sides by water, its land mass extends out to sea as the most easterly point in Massachusetts and has stunning views of the ocean. We visited the Chatham Pier Fish Market and were able to see boats coming in and unloading  their catch of "sand shark" fish. If you look closely you can identify the shark type fish by their tails and teeth.
We were told that these fish are used for fish & chips.

And swimming beside the boats that were unloading their fish were the seals waiting to get any leftovers.



On the very tip of Cape Cod, is Provincetown which is a unique blend of old-fashioned fishing village and a vibrant arts community. It's narrow streets are lined with charming old homes and architectural buildings. The entire town of Provincetown, at the extreme tip of the Cape, is a spit consisting largely of deposited marine sediment that was eroded and transported from farther south along the shore.

 

Provincetown, MA
 

The Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown, Massachusetts, was built between 1907 and completed in 1910 and was built to commemorate the first landfall of the Pilgrims in 1620 and the signing in Provincetown Harbor of the Mayflower Compact. On November 9, 1620, a ship named the Mayflower, 65 days out from Plymouth, England, made her landfall in the New World.
The Monument is the tallest granite structure in the US, and the tower has 116 steps and 60 ramps to be able to see all  of Cape Cod, the bay and the endless ocean. Almost three-quarters of Provincetown is preserved in its wilderness state as part of the Cape Cod National Seashore Park.



Pilgrim Monument, Provincetown, MA

 



The town of Eastham is best know as the gateway to the Cape Cod National Seashore. It is home to two gorgeous National Seashore beaches on the Atlantic Ocean: Nauset Light Beach and Coast Guard Beach.  The historic Nauset Lighthouse in Eastham, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, was owned by the Coast Guard and was rescued from the edge of a sixty-foot high eroding cliff in November 1996. The tower was moved approximately 300 feet to a new location across the road and has now been restored.  It is a cast iron plate shell lined with brick and stands 48 feet high and the Nauset Light still flashes it signature red and white beams across the beach and beyond.

 

Coast Guard Station and Coast Guard Beach  

 

The Great Beach, so named by Henry David Thoreau, starts here. Wow, this place is absolutely spectacular. It has high crushing waves from the wide open Atlantic Ocean and miles and miles of pristine sandy beaches. It offers solitude and scenic beauty, and as a bonus you can watch seals playing in the waves. Amazing. The sandy beach strand allows you to study coastal beach processes, including longshore transport of sand and coastal erosion. Harbor seals can often be sighted at the end of the sand bar and at low tide they can sometimes be seen "hauling out" onto the sand to sun themselves.

 The outer beach, or "backside," of Cape Cod has been the notorious graveyard for more than 3,000 ships since the wreck of the Sparrowhawk in 1626. The high cost in lives and property demanded by the sands of Cape Cod, led to the establishment of the Massachusetts Humane Society in 1786, the first organization in the nation devoted to the rescue and assistance of shipwrecked mariners. The Humane Society established shelter huts along the coast; later, it built lifeboat stations where surfboats, line-throwing guns, and other lifesaving gear were stored for the use of volunteer crews in times of emergency. The continued frequent loss of life along the nation's shores led Congress, in 1871-1872, to reorganize the Life Saving Service, a place it on a full-time professional basis. The construction and manning of nine stations on the "backside" of Cape Cod was provided for in the Federal budget of 1871.  One of the original nine stations was constructed at Nauset. It was located about 350 yards southeast of the present building. Shoreline erosion compelled the construction of a new station. The old station remained in service until 1937, when it was replaced by the present structure. The present building was in service as a Coast Guard Station until 1958.

 

 

On our travels up and down the Cape Code National Seashore we saw these signs posted at every beach. We were told that the sharks are coming in to the coast to feed on the seals that are playing in the waves and sunning on the sand bars.