Local questions

Ari Halberstam was a yeshiva student killed, aged 16, when Lebanese-born terrorist Rashid Baz shot at the van he was traveling in on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, on the morning of March 1st, 1994. Halberstam was one of 15 Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish students in the van that had just joined the bridge from the FDR Drive on-ramp, when Baz opened fire on the vehicle from his car, and continued shooting as it travelled in the direction of Brooklyn. Halberstam was shot in the head and taken to St Vincent’s Hospital where he died five days later. Ari’s mother, Devorah Halberstam, was instrumental in establishing Brooklyn’s Jewish Children’s Museum, which opened in 2004 and is officially dedicated in his memory. In 1995, New York City Council, formally named the Brooklyn Bridge on-ramp from southbound FDR Drive and Pearl Street in Manhattan the Ari Halberstam Memorial Ramp.

Just before 6 pm on June 28th, 1981, two diagonal steel cable stays on the Brooklyn Bridge snapped due to corrosion. One crashed down into the wooden-slatted pedestrian walkway, while the other whipped back and struck Akira Aimi as he was crossing the bridge on foot. 32-year-old Aimi, a Japanese professional photographer living in New York, was critically injured, suffering a fractured skull and broken arm. He was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital where he died 8 days later. The diagonal stays are not a critical load-bearing component of the bridge, but serve as bracing intended to minimize swaying due to the wind. However, the cable failure drew accusations of inadequate bridge maintenance which allowed the corrosion, caused by elements such as salty air and acid from pigeon droppings, to progress unchecked.

Part of the former quarry town of Stout lies beneath the south end of Horsetooth Reservoir near Fort Collins, Colorado. Stout grew around quarrying in the area, once a major source of sandstone for buildings and sidewalk paving in major cities such as Denver, Chicago and Omaha. By the early 1880s the Union Pacific railroad had reached Stout and the town was busy with many carloads of stone leaving by rail daily. Demand for stone had waned by the turn of the 20th century, and the town was largely abandoned by the 1920s. Remaining structures were cleared in the 1940s to prepare for flooding to create the Horsetooth Reservoir in 1949. The remnants of some structures, such as the old boarding hotel can still be seen to the south of the reservoir.

Martial artist and actor Bruce Lee is buried in Lot 276 of the Lake View Cemetery in Seattle, Washington. He died in Hong Kong of a cerebral edema on July 20th, 1973, aged 32, and his funeral was held in Seattle on July 25th, 1973. The red-colored headstone features Lee’s photograph and the engraved epitaph describes him as ‘FOUNDER OF JEET KUNE DO’. His son Brandon Lee, who died in a film set accident in 1993 is buried in the next grave. A stone bench near their graves is engraved with the words: THE KEY TO IMMORTALITY IS FIRST LIVING A LIFE WORTH REMEMBERING

American singer Bing Crosby moved to Hillsborough, California, with his second wife, Kathryn, and their three children in 1964, after selling their home in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. Their first home in the area was at 101 Robin Road in Hillsborough’s Carolands neighborhood, but they moved by the end of 1965 to a larger property on Jackling Drive at Armsby Drive in Hillsborough Oaksbridge. The 1925 whitewashed brick home, built in the style of a French chateau, was referred to locally as the Crosby Estate and remained Bing Crosby’s main home until his death in 1977. The home was the setting for several Minute Maid orange juice commercials featuring the Crosby family in the 1960s and 70s.

A person who is a long-time resident or native of Spokane is called a Spokanite. It is the commonly used demonym for someone from Spokane.

Dogs are not permitted on any of the sandy areas of Waukegan Municipal Beach. The only areas where dogs and other pets are allowed is in the beach parking lots and grassy areas. The restriction does not apply to service dogs or dogs being used for law enforcement purposes.

West Oakland’s Cypress Street Viaduct, also called the Cypress Freeway or Cypress Structure, was a 3-mile (or 2 kilometer) elevated section of the Nimitz Freeway (Interstate 880) between 7th Street and 34th street, which collapsed during the Loma Prieta earthquake on October 17th, 1989. The magnitude 6.9 earthquake caused the upper tier of the two-deck highway between 18th Street and 34th Street to fall on to the road deck below, with some parts collapsing entirely to the ground. The collapse crushed cars and their occupants, killing 42 people, two thirds of the total San Francisco Bay-area death toll from the earthquake. It was not rebuilt, and the entire structure as far as 7th Street was demolished and the Nimitz Freeway rerouted. Cypress Street was renamed Mandela Parkway in honor of Nelson Mandela, and a landscaped median strip was created where the viaduct once stood. The Cypress Freeway Memorial Park honoring the victims is located at 14th Street and Mandela Parkway.

You cannot drive up to the Gatlinburg SkyBridge on Crockett Mountain. The only way to access the SkyBridge is by taking the three-person SkyLift chair from the base of the mountain in downtown Gatlinburg, where pay parking is available. SkyLift tickets can be purchased online or at the ticket window, and include unlimited access to the bridge, observation deck and snack bar at the top of the mountain. Opened in May 2019 following the rebuilding of SkyLift Park’s facilities after the devastating Gatlinburg wildfires of 2016, the SkyBridge is the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in North America, with a span of 680 feet (or 207 meters).

In the early hours of April 7th, 1982, a collision in the third bore of the Caldecott Tunnel involving a tanker truck carrying gasoline caused a devastating fire. The road tunnel, carrying westbound traffic from Orinda to Oakland, acted as a chimney during the fire with the natural draft moving smoke towards oncoming vehicles. Seven people died in the accident, two due to collision injuries, and five killed by smoke and fire. It is thought that the death toll would have been much higher had the accident occurred during the heavier traffic of daytime commuting hours. The fire-damaged bore was closed for several months to enable over $3 million of repairs to be made. New regulations introduced following the fire restrict the transport of explosive and flammable substances by tank trucks or trailers through the Caldecott Tunnel to between the hours of 3 am and 5 am.

The Holland Tunnel emerges in Lower Manhattan parallel to Canal Street in the Tribeca neighborhood. The road loops around Saint John’s Park, with right-lane exits in the following order: Exit 1: West Street (or West Side Highway 9A) via Laight Street Exit 2: Uptown via Hudson Street Exit 3: Brooklyn via Manhattan Bridge or Williamsburg Bridge Exit 4: Downtown via Varick Street Exit 5: Canal Street (East) The Holland Tunnel carries Interstate 78 under the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York and is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The capital city of Nova Scotia is Halifax, which is part of the Halifax Regional Municipality. The Nova Scotia House of Assembly, Nova Scotia’s legislative assembly, is based at Province House in downtown Halifax, where it has met since 1819, making the building Canada’s oldest house of government. Named after the 2nd Earl of Halifax, the city was established in 1749, when Nova Scotia’s capital was moved from Royal Annapolis.

The dual-span Bay Bridge across Chesapeake Bay is 4.3 miles (or 7 kilometers) long from shore to shore, including causeways, with the eastbound bridge being the longest by a small margin. The bridge connects Maryland’s Eastern Shore and Western Shore. Officially named the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge, it opened as a single-span bridge 1952, and the second span, which now carries westbound traffic, opened in 1973.

The Piece Hall in Halifax, West Yorkshire, opened in 1779 as a cloth hall, where pieces of woollen fabric woven on handlooms would be traded by the area’s clothiers. The 19th-century industrial revolution brought automation and scale to the area’s weaving industry, and the fall in the number of small-scale producers precipitated a decline in the Piece Hall’s fortunes to such an extent that it was acquired by Halifax Corporation in 1868. It was operated as a wholesale market until 1971 before being renovated as a tourist attraction with shops, a museum and gallery. In 2014, it underwent a £17 million restoration project, reopening in 2017 as a leisure, arts and entertainment venue with independent shops, restaurants, bars, and cafes, a gallery, and live music facilities. The magnificent Grade I-listed building is recognised as an important example of Georgian architecture and the only surviving intact cloth hall in Britain.

Greeley Square Park is a small, triangular, tree-lined, paved park in midtown Manhattan at 6th Avenue and West 34th Street, near the 33rd Street subway and PATH station. There are many things to see and do within a short walking distance: See Alexander Doyle’s bronze statue of Horace Greeley, founder and editor of the New York Tribune newspaper. Bring your coffee or grab something to eat from one of the nearby street vendors and take a seat in the triangular park. Go shopping in the Manhattan Mall See the now disused copper-clad Gimbels Bridge skybridge across West 32nd Street that once connected its Saks-34th Street department store on either side of the street Go shopping at Macy’s Herald Square See the Million Dollar Corner at Broadway and West 34th Street, a small corner plot purchased in an attempt to block Macy’s from becoming the largest store in the world. See the historic Hotel McAlpin building at Broadway and West 34th Street, now private apartments, it was the largest hotel in the world when it opened in 1912. Visit Tannen’s Magic hidden away on the sixth floor at 45 West 34th Street, billed as America’s oldest magic shop, and a must-see for anyone interested in magic and illusions. Visit the famous Empire State Building a block away on West 34th Street. Visit the Church of St Francis of Assisi on West 31st Street where FDNY Chaplain Father Mychal Judge was a Catholic priest until his death in the World Trade Center attack on 9/11.

The Newport Mall shopping center in Jersey City is located near Newport PATH station, which is served by: 33 Street / Journal Square PATH train from Manhattan’s 33rd Street (at 6th Avenue), 27th Street, 14th Street, 9th Street, and Christopher Street stations World Trade Center / Hoboken PATH train on weekdays from World Trade Center PATH station at Vesey Street and Church Street in Lower Manhattan The Hudson-Bergen Light Rail also stops at the Newport Centre.

Southampton Airport Parkway Station is located adjacent to Southampton Airport and is a short walk from the terminal building via a mostly covered walkway. The station is on the South Western Main Line between Winchester and Southampton Central stations.

The NPR member radio station in Southampton, NY, is WLIW-FM which broadcasts to eastern Long Island and southern Connecticut on FM and HD Radio at 88.3 MHz, and also streams online. Formerly called WPPB-FM, the station was acquired in 2020 by the the WNET Group, parent company of New York’s THIRTEEN and WLIW21 public television broadcasters and operator of New Jersey’s PBS state network, NJTV. In June 2020 the station’s call letters were changed to WLIW-FM, and in July 2020 opened a new street-facing studio on Hill Street in Southampton Village, next to the Regal UA Southampton Theaters. WLIW-FM’s transmitter is located on Stony Brook University’s Southampton campus in Shinnecock Hills. The area also receives broadcasts from Connecticut-based WSHU/WSUF and Connecticut Public Radio.

University of Utah freshman running back Ty Jordan died, aged 19, of an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound on the evening of December 25th, 2020. Police responding to reports of a shooting at 1100 South Avenue B in Denton, Texas, found Jordan suffering from a gunshot injury. He was transported to hospital where he died shortly afterwards. Jordan, a native of Mesquite, Texas, had recently been named the Pac-12 Offensive Freshman of the Year, and was the first Utes freshman to achieve three consecutive 100-yard rushing games since 1995.

The memorial plaque for the workers killed in the West Gate Bridge collapse is mounted on one of the bridge’s supporting pedestals at the accident site, where Hyde Street runs under the bridge in Spotwood, Melbourne. During construction on 15 October 1970, a 112-metre steel box-girder span gave way and fell into the mud and water of the Yarra River. 35 workers, either working on the bridge at the time, or on the ground below, died as a result of the accident, and their names are listed on the plaque, unveiled in 1978. On 15 October 2004, the 34th anniversary of the collapse, the West Gate Memorial Park was opened at the accident site with the aim of increasing awareness of industrial accidents and improving workplace safety, and also recognises the six lives lost nearby in the Spotswood Yarra Sewer Tunnel collapse of 1895. The West Gate garden on Monash University’s Clayton campus also incorporates twisted steel fragments of the collapsed bridge section as a reminder to future engineers of the potential consequences of errors.