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Mississippi Bridge
Mildred D. Taylor Manufacturer: Skylark ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items: ASIN: 0553159925 Release Date: 1992-06-01 |
Book Description
Jeremy Simms watches from the porch of the general store as the weekly bus from Jackson comes through his town. His neighbor Stacey Logan and Stacey's brothers and sister are there to see their grandmother off on a trip. Jeremy's friend Josias Williams is taking the bus to his new job. But Josias and the Logans are black, and in Mississippi in the 1930s, black people can't ride the bus if that means there won't be enough room for white people to ride. When several white passengers arrive at the last minute, the driver sends Josias and Stacey's grandmother off the bus. Then comes a terrifying moment that unites all the townspeople in a nightmare that will change their lives forever.Customer Reviews:
mississippi bridge.......2006-10-07
Mississippi Wonders.......2006-05-04
Mississippi Bridge.......2006-04-22
Mississippi Bridge.......2006-02-07
Mississippi Bridge.......2006-02-07
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Climbing the Mississippi River Bridge by Bridge: Minnesota (Climbing the Mississippi River Bridge by Bridge)
Mary Charlotte Aubry Costello Manufacturer: Adventure Publications ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0964451824 |
Customer Reviews:
An utterly fascinating work.......2000-02-16
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Rails across the Mississippi: A HISTORY OF THE ST. LOUIS BRIDGE
Robert W. Jackson Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0252074092 |
Book Description
An absorbing tale of grand dreams, shady politics, daring engineering experiments, greed, ambition, and westward expansion, Rails across the Mississippi is the first book-length history since 1881 to document the planning, financing, and construction of the first bridge across the Mississippi River at St. Louis, a national engineering landmark completed in 1874 that is now known as the Eads Bridge. Robert W. Jackson takes a fresh look at this monumental project, dispersing the myths and filling in the gaps left by earlier scholarship.When James B. Eads outlined his plan for a bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, critics said that the genius did not exist in the country capable of erecting such a structure. Instead of the tried-and-true iron truss bridge, Eads--who was not a trained engineer and had no experience designing or building bridges--proposed a radical design that shattered engineering precedent: an arch bridge longer than any in existence using steel, a material thought unsuitable for long-span bridges by virtually every engineer in America and Europe.
Rails across the Mississippi explores how Eads took on the task of building the bridge as he envisioned it and how he met the obstacles presented by his tenacious fidelity to that vision. Jackson describes the incredible process of sinking the river piers using pneumatic caissons, which were essentially inverted boxes that burrowed down through the riverbed. Workers, sometimes fatally afflicted with "caisson disease," or decompression sickness, descended through the vertical, torchlit access shafts into the caisson air chambers to clear away the accumulated sand and silt, using innovative pumps designed by Eads. The superstructure, consisting of an upper deck for pedestrian, wagon, and streetcar traffic and a lower railroad deck, was erected by use of an ingenious new method of cantilever construction.
Parallel to the construction of the bridge, Andrew Carnegie and other ambitious capitalists engaged in a shell game of bond sales, multiple mortgages, and deferred interest that provided just enough capital to keep the project moving forward. Jackson brilliantly depicts the slick local politicking, international negotiations, and egregious conflicts of interest that were the hallmark of the Gilded Age of unregulated business.
A marvel of innovative engineering, the bridge was a fiasco as a business venture. Its success as an investment depended on its heavy use by railroads, which required not only a commitment from railroads terminating in St. Louis and East St. Louis but also the construction of a mile-long tunnel under downtown St. Louis, passenger and freight terminal facilities, and tracks connecting the bridge to these facilities. Completed three years late and more than $6 million over budget, the St. Louis Bridge never recovered its costs. Nonetheless, Eads's bridge still stands at the gateway to the West, a testament to the determination and resourcefulness of its chief engineer.
Customer Reviews:
St. Louis vs Chicago in the Railroad Era.......2003-01-27
But Chicago interests, unencumbered by threats of Civil War, won the competition. Backed by Boston financiers, they completed the Hannibal and St. Joseph (CB&Q) across the state before completion of any of the state railroads. Along the way, 43 were killed on the inaugural run of the Missouri Pacific when a bridge over the Gasconade River collapsed. Those killed included some of the most progressive boosters in the state. The state railroads went bankrupt. The state assumed their debts. Missourians paid twice for their railroads. Costs that were scandalous in construction of the Transcontinental Railroad through mountainous terrain, were paid quietly by Missourians for railroads built through their rolling hills.
In the second chapter, Missouri interests hoped that Kansas City or St. Joseph would be selected as the Eastern terminus of the Transcontinental Railroad. Possibly a Southwestern route would be built from Kansas City that would avoid the difficulties of keeping a railroad passable through the mountains in Winter. Again Chicago interests won. Omaha was selected (and railroad building across Iowa took off with vigor).
Jackson's volume describes the third chapter. Chicago had built a drawbridge across the Mississippi at Davenport, IA, in 1855, but it was destroyed by a steamboat collision and fire in 1856. A young Abraham Lincoln represented the railroad in a lawsuit filed against the bridge company (and supported by St. Louis interests). He won the argument that bridges must permit free passage of both railroads and steamboats. Now forces were building to build more Iowa bridges. St. Louis needed a bridge to compete, but the Mississippi in St. Louis is a much more formidable obstacle and bridge building was still a primitive art. Enter James Eads, not really an engineer, but a charismatic, accomplished, doer of projects. He had backing from Pennsylvania Railroad interests (the leading US railroad, whose tracks ended on the East side of the river at St. Louis). Active in the bridge project were president, J. Edgar Thompson, vp Thomas Scott, and Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie is best known as the builder of what became US Steel in Pittsburgh, but he began his career at the Pennsylvania Railroad, where his business skills were noted. He was protege to Thomas Scott. In the Eads' Bridge story, he was present as representative of Keystone Bridge, a private company founded by Pennsylvania Railroad interests to specialize in the construction of iron bridges especially for railroads. Keystone constructed the bridge to James Eads' design.
Author Jackson notes the Pennsylvania Railroad's interest in the Texas Pacific and the Northern Pacific as well as the Atlantic and Pacific (Frisco) and North Missouri (Wabash) in Missouri and suggests this indicates a desire to build a transcontinental railroad system. Its more likely the Pennsylvania thought it important to take care of its feeder lines. Railroads make their money on ton miles. Freight that runs the length of the system is most profitable. Therefore, its important for an East-West system like the Pennsylvania to maintain relationships with lines to the West so they can swap traffic. They do this with personal relationships, and by lending management expertise (as board members) and prestige to assist with financing-preferably without investing the railroad's own capital.
In an age of Enron and Adelphia, its interesting to see the ethics involved in some of the transactions. Robber barons like Jay Gould are known to have bled railroads dry while operating them in bankruptcy. Usually this was accomplished by executives personally owning businesses that sold key supplies to their own railroad-coal, railroad ties, bridges, etc. Profitable construction companies was the device used in the Credit Mobile scandal related to the Transcontinental Railroad. The book suggests that executives of the Pennsylvania Railroad also engaged in these self-dealing practices, practices that would be considered unethical today.
The book tells the full details of the construction of the bridge including the use of caissons to sink the pier foundations to bedrock and the discovery of the bends as the affliction of workers who worked in high air pressure and decompressed quickly. The bridge is mostly iron but used some of the first steel, and fabrication of this steel was troublesome. Numerous difficulties were encountered. The book includes copious illustrations. Its well written and tells the story well.
The book ends in chapter four of our railroad history. Jay Gould becomes the owner of most Missouri railroads and leasee of the Eads' Bridge. He assembled the structure (after years of delay) that finally created a terminal railroad association to construct the first Union Station and the necessary trackage to connect the bridge and the railroads of St. Louis. Other sources indicate Jay Gould's railroad empire in Missouri was assembled to force admission to the Iowa Pool, a revenue sharing arrangement for the lines that connected with the Transcontinental Railroad. He failed in that aspect, but succeeded in being a robber baron, though his empire collapsed soon after his death.
In the end, Eads' Bridge probably came too late to have much impact on the St. Louis-Chicago competition. It did alleviate a serious bottleneck that otherwise might have been a limitation, but the bridge was expensive, and the tolls charged by Jay Gould were high. According to Jackson, the bridge still had $5MM in bonded indebtedness recently-even now long after it is obsolete, but it still is a much deserved landmark to the Spirit of St. Louis.
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Saint Louis and Illinois bridge across the Mississippi River. Letter from the Secretary of War, transmitting reports on the construction of the Saint Louis ... bridge across the Mississippi River.
Michigan Historical Reprint Series Manufacturer: Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 1418198048 Release Date: 2005-12-20 |
Book Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program.
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An account of the iron railway bridge across the Mississippi River at Quiney, Illinois.
Michigan Historical Reprint Series Manufacturer: Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 1425503292 Release Date: 2005-12-20 |
Book Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program.
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From Canoe to Steel Bridge on the Upper Mississippi.
Manufacturer: The University of Minnesota Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover ASIN: B000HHJFCA |
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Griffith Mississippi chancery practice
Billy G Bridges Manufacturer: Harrison Co ProductGroup: Book Binding: Unknown Binding ASIN: B0006E7YWC |
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Laws of Illinois and Missouri, and act of Congress authorizing the construction of a bridge over the Mississippi River opposite the city of St. Louis, ... of both the Illinois and Missouri corporat
Michigan Historical Reprint Series Manufacturer: Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan Library ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 1425502229 Release Date: 2005-12-20 |
Book Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program.
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MAP: 7 Section Map, Including Defenses of Vicksburg, Siege of Jackson, Mississippi, & Big Black River Railroad Bridge
United States War Department Manufacturer: Government Printing Office ProductGroup: Book Binding: Unbound ASIN: B000NPR80C |
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Mississippi Specifications to the 1990 Standard Specifications for Road & Bridge Construction - Traffic Signals and lighting 1991
Unknown Manufacturer: Mississippi State Highway Department ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000MVJDGE |
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The Witch's Grave: A Fever Devilin Mystery (Fever Devlin)
Phillip DePoy Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0312315376 |
Book Description
Fever Devilin was raised amongst the hill-country folk of the deep Georgia Appalachians and their seemingly simple folk ways are in his blood and his soul. Having left it behind when he was sixteen to go to college, ultimately becoming one of the most noted folklorists and academics of the region, Devilin has now fled city life and academia to return to the deceptively quiet life amongst his people. But nothing is ever as it seems from the outside. So when a local girl goes miss-ing, the mortician turns up dead, and Devilin's cousin is suspected of killing them both, Fever finds himself in the midst of a very difficult situation. And it's up to him to unravel the mystery and how it all relates to the old folk story of the witch's grave.Customer Reviews:
Can't put it down.......2005-11-30
Welcome to Fever's world........2005-11-12
ENJOYABLE READ - WELL WRITTEN.......2005-06-19
learning about folk lore and a mystery too!.......2005-04-28
highly entertaining.......2004-08-04
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The Witch's Grave - A Fever Devilin Mystery
Phillip Depoy Manufacturer: Worldwise ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: B000OWL760 |
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Chains of Darkness, Chains of Light: Book Four of The Sundered (Sundered, Bk 4)
Michelle M. Sagara Manufacturer: Del Rey ProductGroup: Book Binding: Mass Market Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0345379497 Release Date: 1994-04-02 |
Customer Reviews:
Weak ending and no emotional payoff!.......2007-05-20
4.5 stars for a worthy ending, 5 stars for the entire saga........2007-05-19
A marvelous fantasy.......2000-04-04
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Wisdom in the Body: The Craniosacral Approach to Essential Health
Michael Kern Manufacturer: North Atlantic Books ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
Accessories:
ASIN: 1556435592 Release Date: 2005-08-31 |
Book Description
Accumulations of life stresses—physical injuries, emotional and psychological stresses, birth traumas, and toxicity—can become imprinted in the tissues, acting like a videotape that is replayed whenever stimulated. Biodynamic craniosacral therapy aims to resolve the trapped forces that underlie and drive these trauma-based patterns of disease and suffering in body and mind. Wisdom in the Body teaches practitioners to develop the finely tuned skills of hands-on palpation and perception to sense the body’s subtle rhythms and patterns of inertia or congestion, with the goal of ending trauma and facilitating the expression of the breath of life. A comprehensive introduction to this practice, the book draws on the insights of pioneers like Drs. W. G. Sutherland and Franklyn Sills to explain the key principles about the body’s natural intention to heal and how this capability can be encouraged. A valuable resource for students, practitioners, and the lay reader, the book also includes a foreword by Dr. Franklyn Sills.Customer Reviews:
Amazing book.......2007-09-28
Wisdom in the body, Michael Kern.......2007-01-06
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Libro Completo de terapia craneosacral / Wisdom in the Body: La Sabiduria del cuerpo y la salud esencial, en teroria y practica / The Craniosacral Approach ... Essential health (Cuerpo-Mente / Body-Mind)
Michael Kern Manufacturer: Gaia ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 8484450511 |
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