San Francisco Bay Daily Photo

Memorial Day, Continued

2012-05-29T13:58:00.003+02:00

U.S. Military Cemetery, San Bruno, California

The Four AdmiralsFleet Admiral Chester Nimitz is joined at the U.S. Military Cemetery, San Bruno, California with three Admirals who served under him in the Pacific: Charles Lockwood, Raymond Spruance and Richmond Kelly Turner. Buried with the four Admirals are their wives. It was their wish that they be buried among the ranks who served with them. They directed that they not be buried at Arlington and that they receive the same tombstone as the ranks.
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Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. Commanded U.S. forces in the Pacific Theater.

Admiral Charles Lockwood. Commanded U.S. Navy submarine fleet in the Pacific under Admiral Nimitz. After a rocky start at the beginning of the war, the U.S. Navy submarine fleet rallied under Lockwood and crippled Japanese shipping.

Admiral Raymond Spruance. Cool and steady, Spruance distinguished himself at the Battle of Midway.

Admiral Richmond Kelly Turner. Born in Oregon, but grew up in Stockton, California. Hot headed, he was known as "Terrible Turner", but nonetheless was an able commander and strategist. Turner drew up the plans for the amphibious assault on Japan, but the plans were not executed because the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the war.

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The flags of the fifty states.

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Brothers Archie and Warren Haviland, died 3 months apart, European Theater, WWII

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See more Ruby Tuesday entries HERE.

Portes de lundi

2012-05-28T15:08:00.002+02:00

Monday Doorways

With the celebration yesterday (Sunday, 27 May) of the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge, «Louis» has once again stretched the definition of "doorway" to include the Golden Gate, and brings you these photos of the fireworks show on the bridge last night. (Note: even using the tripod, there is still some camera shake, in no small measure because it was breezy last night when «Louis» was taking the photos.)

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UPDATE: Linky isn't working correctly.
Please post your Doorway in the Comments.
Thank you!

Memorial Day

2012-05-28T03:01:00.001+02:00

Sunday Bridges: The Golden Gate at 75

2012-05-27T00:01:00.002+02:00

Sunday BridgesThe Golden Gate at 75!

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The Golden Gate Bridge opened 75 years ago on 27 May, 1937. Just as la tour Eiffel has become emblematic of Paris, the Golden Gate quickly became emblematic of San Francisco and the Bay Area.

On the 50th Anniversary of the Bridge, some 300,000 people walked across. The weight of this mass of people caused the center of the bridge to dip some 7 feet - 2.13 meters, and the suspension cables pulled the bridge towers in. There was no danger of the bridge collapsing as it was designed to flex like this. Nonetheless, for the 75th Anniversary festivities, the walk will not be repeated.

More than 300,000 people walked across the Golden Gate Bridge on her 50th Anniversary.
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Le psaume de dimanche

2012-05-26T21:01:00.000+02:00

Sunday PsalmPsalm 64

Sung by Greek Orthodox monks. 6:30
• • •
For the director of music. A psalm of David.

1 Hear me, my God, as I voice my complaint;
protect my life from the threat of the enemy.

2 Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked,
from the plots of evildoers.

3 They sharpen their tongues like swords
and aim cruel words like deadly arrows.

4 They shoot from ambush at the innocent;
they shoot suddenly, without fear.

5 They encourage each other in evil plans,
they talk about hiding their snares;
they say, “Who will see it?”

6 They plot injustice and say,
“We have devised a perfect plan!”
Surely the human mind and heart are cunning.

7 But God will shoot them with his arrows;
they will suddenly be struck down.

8 He will turn their own tongues against them
and bring them to ruin;
all who see them will shake their heads in scorn.

9 All people will fear;
they will proclaim the works of God
and ponder what he has done.

10 The righteous will rejoice in the Lord
and take refuge in him;
all the upright in heart will glory in him!

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Sunday Psalm is hosted by Daily Athens and Katney's Kaboodle

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Memorial Day Reflections on a Battleship

2012-05-26T06:01:00.001+02:00

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U.S.S. Iowa, BB61, at Richmond Harbor.

USS Iowa (BB-61) was the lead ship of her class of battleship and the fourth in the United States Navy to be named in honor of the 29th state. Construction was started on 27 June, 1940. She was launched on 27 August, 1942 and commissioned on 22 February 1943 with Captain John L. McCrea in command. Upon commissioning, she was sent to the Atlantic Fleet, but was later moved to the Pacific Fleet. She was the only battleship in her class to serve both in the Atlantic and the Pacific in World War II.

Iowa carried President Roosevelt, Secretary of State Cordell Hull, and World War II military brass to Casablanca, French Morocco, on the first leg of the journey to the Tehran Conference in 1943.

Iowa class battleships' main batteries consist of nine 16" (406.4mm)/50 caliber Mark 7 guns, which could fire 2,700 lb (1,200 kg) armor-piercing shells some 20 nautical miles (23 mi; 37 km). Their secondary batteries consisted of 20 - 5 in (130 mm)/38 cal guns in twin turrets, which could fire at targets up to 12 nautical miles (14 mi; 22 km) away. With the advent of air power and the need to gain and maintain air superiority came a need to protect the growing fleet of Allied aircraft carriers; to this end, the Iowa-class battleships were fitted with an array of Oerlikon 20 mm and Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns to defend Allied carriers from enemy airstrikes.

The Iowa-class ships displace 45,000 tons, are 887' in overall length and have a maximum beam of 108' 2", which allows four forward turrets of the 5" gun batteries to fire forward at the same time as the two forward 16" gun batteries fire forward. The steam turbines of the power plants produce 212,000 horsepower, making the class capable of a 33 knot (41.25 m.p.h./66.4 k.p.h.) maximum speed.

The ships of the Iowa-class consist of:

Iowa (BB-61), built at the New York Navy Yard. Keel laid in June 1940; launched in August 1942; commissioned in February 1943.

New Jersey (BB-62), built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Keel laid in September 1940; launched in December 1942; commissioned in May 1943. New Jersey served as the flagship of Admiral William Halsey.

Missouri (BB-63), built at the New York Navy Yard. Keel laid in January 1941; launched in January 1944; commissioned in June 1944. It was on the decks of Missouri that Japan surrendered to the U.S., closing World War II. Missouri is now a museum at Pearl Harbor.

Wisconsin (BB-64), built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Keel laid in January 1941; launched in December 1943; commissioned in April 1944.

Illinois (BB-65). Under construction at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Keel laid in January 1945. Cancelled in August 1945 when 22% complete. Scrapped on the shipway in 1958.

Kentucky (BB-66). Under construction at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia. Keel originally laid in March 1942; construction suspended in June 1942, resumed in December 1944 and suspended again in February 1947. Hull launched in January 1950 to clear the building dock. Sold for scrapping in 1958.

During the festivities marking the 75th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge this weekend, Iowa will sail for Los Angeles where she will become part of The Pacific Battleship Center, a happy ending for this fine ship which languished for years in the Ghost Fleet of ships in Suisun Bay to be scrapped.

«Louis» salutes everyone who has served in our militaries and in the Coast Guard not only this Memorial Day Weekend, but every day.

Iowa's two forward 16" gun batteries.

Iowa firing all nine 16" guns in a broadside after her modernization in the 1980s. Note the shock waves in the water. Firing the 16" guns pushed the ship sideways in the water, something the Fire Control Directors had to take into account when aiming the guns.

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See all the other contributors to James' Weekend Reflections

Le vendredi «Sky Watch»

2012-05-25T15:30:00.000+02:00

Sky Watch Friday
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The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is in the background as we scan the sky from a vantage point in Richmond Harbor near the stern of the WWII Victory ship, Red Oak Victory, which was built in the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond in World War II. Red Oak Victory is being restored and will become a museum.

See the Sky Watch Friday entries from around the globe!

The Sea Princess calls on San Francisco

2012-05-24T16:24:00.000+02:00

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The Sea Princess stopped in San Francisco, coming from Lahaina, Hawaii on her way to Juneau, Alaska.

Mercredi sans mots

2012-05-23T18:35:00.000+02:00

Wordless Wednesday
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See all the other participants in Wordless WednesdayHERE and at Tina's Wordless Wednesday.

Mardi Rouge

2012-05-22T06:01:00.082+02:00

Ruby Tuesday
(a.k.a. Red Car Day at Chez la Vache!)
1953 Packard Caribbean

In last Tuesday's Mardi Rouge post, «Louis» related how the 1953 Packard Balboa-X had been derived from the '53 Caribbean. The Caribbean, in turn had evolved from the 1952 Packard Pan American, designed by Richard Arbib (shown last week). The Pan American was one of a series of Packard show cars, the first of which was Ed Macauley's Speedster Special.

The Speedster Special was the first in a series of Packard show cars.

Just before the arrival of the dynamic James Nance as president of Packard, the company had determined it needed to modernize its staid image. The show cars, beginning with the Speedster Special, were part of that effort. It was an effort Nance completely endorsed. Putting the Caribbean into production fit fully into those efforts. In addition, General Motors launched a trio of limited production "halo" cars in 1953: the Cadillac Eldorado, Buick Skylark, and Oldsmobile Fiesta. The Caribbean was Nance's response to GM. None of these "halo" cars - neither GM's nor Packard's - were ever intended for volume production, but were intended to draw customers into dealer show rooms where, it was hoped, customers would buy one of the companies other models.

Packard stylist Richard Teague, who had arrived at Packard just ahead of Nance, designed the Caribbean. He used the scooped hood of the Speedster Special, also used by Arbib on the Pan American. Many of the styling cues of the Pan American were used by Teague on the '53 Caribbean. Thus the two cars were evolutionary in design. The 1954 Packard Caribbean was less derivative of others' styling and more wholly the work of Teague. The fabulous '55 and '56 Caribbeans were entirely the work of Teague and his team.

Nance commissioned 750 Caribbeans for the 1953 production run. Regular 1953 Packard convertibles were taken to Mitchell-Bentley in Ionia, Michigan, where they were finished as Caribbeans. The Caribbean models are highly prized as collectors cars. Six figure selling prices today for 1953 Caribbeans are not uncommon.

See more Ruby Tuesday entries HERE.

Portes de Lundi

2012-05-21T06:01:00.021+02:00

Monday Doorways
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The First Baptist Church in Sonoma, California was built in 1853. It is near the town square which includes the Sonoma County Courthouse. Nearby is the historic Sebastiani Theater and the Sonoma Mission, the northernmost of the chain of mission churches extending from Sonoma south to the border with Mexico.
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Série du Pont de Dimanche

2012-05-20T00:01:00.010+02:00

Sunday BridgesA Review of the Bridges of the San Francisco Bay Area
The Dumbarton Bridges
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The Dumbarton Bridge

The Dumbarton Rail Bridge
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Le psaume de dimanche

2012-05-19T21:01:00.020+02:00

Sunday PsalmPsalm 63

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A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.

1 You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.

2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.

3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.

4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.

5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

6 On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.

7 Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.

8 I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.

9 Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.

10 They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.

11 But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God will glory in him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.
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Sunday Psalm is hosted by Daily Athens and Katney's Kaboodle

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Weekend Reflections

2012-05-19T06:01:00.002+02:00

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See all the other contributors to James' Weekend Reflections

Le vendredi «Sky Watch»

2012-05-18T06:01:00.001+02:00

Sky Watch Friday
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An early morning peek at Angel Island (once the "West Coast Ellis Island") and the towns of Sausalito and Tiburon in Marin County, viewed from le balcon Chez la Vache.

See the Sky Watch Friday entries from around the globe!

Sunol Water Temple

2012-05-17T06:01:00.001+02:00

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The Sunol Water Temple is adjacent to the I-680 freeway in Sunol, California. Designed by famed San Francisco architect Willis Polk, the 59 foot high classical pavilion is made up of twelve concrete Corinthian columns and a concrete ring girder that supports the conical wood and tile roof. Inside the temple, water originally from the nearby Pleasanton well fields and Arroyo de la Laguna flowed into a white tiled cistern before plunging into a deeper water channel carrying water from the filter galleries to the Niles Aqueduct in Niles Canyon and across San Francisco Bay near the Dumbarton Bridge. The roof covering the cistern has paintings depicting Indian maidens carrying water vessels. The temple is open to the public Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

In the mid-19th century a private company, the Spring Valley Water Company (SVWC), owned much of the Alameda Creek Watershed and had held a monopoly on water service to San Francisco. In 1906, William Bowers Bourn II, a major stockholder in the SVWC, and owner of the giant Empire gold mine, hired Willis Polk to design a "water temple" atop the spot where three subterranean water sources converge (a pipe from the Arroyo de la Laguna, Alameda Creek, through the Sunol infiltration galleries, and a 30-inch pipeline from the artesian well field of Pleasanton.

Polk's design, modeled after the ancient Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy, was constructed in 1910 (Tivoli is where much of the waters that fed Rome converged in the foothills of the Apennines). Prior to the construction to the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct, half of San Francisco's water supply (6 million gallons a day)passed through the Sunol temple. The SVWC, including the temple, was purchased by San Francisco in 1930 for $40 million.

For decades the Water Temple received many visitors and was a popular location for picnickers. By the 1980s the water temple had badly deteriorated, and was severely damaged in 1989's Loma Prieta earthquake. The site was closed to the public because of safety concerns. A community effort led to the temple's restoration from 1997 to 2001, at a cost of $1.2 million, including seismic and accessibility upgrades. Following its restoration the temple opened again to the public. Today any water that flows through the temple is not part of the potable water supply.

Fields adjacent to the temple belong to the city of San Francisco which has authorized the digging of a gravel quarry on the site. Local residents concerned about the temple's future brought a lawsuit to attempt block the quarry project, but eventually ran out of funds and dropped the suit.

In June 2006, a new facility named the Sunol Water Temple Agricultural Park was opened on a site adjacent to the temple. The park provides space for small businesses and nonprofit groups to grow produce.[18] The park serves a platform for service and educational programs related to sustainable agriculture and environmental conservation.

Architect Polk also designed the fabulous Filoli Estate for Bourne and is responsible for several of the mansions on San Francisco's Nob Hill. He also designed the Palace of Fine Arts for the 1915 Exposition,and the Pacific Union Club among other buildings and homes in San Francisco and around the Bay Area.

Bourn was born in San Francisco, California, the second child of mining entrepreneur William Bowers Bourn I and Sarah Esther Chase. His classical education at Cambridge University was interrupted by his taking over the family businesses upon his father's accidental death by firearm discharge in July 1874, whereupon he was given charge of the Empire Mine, other mining interests, and significant real estate holdings. He significantly improved operations at the mine and used the resulting cashflow to initiate or expand other ventures.

In the 1890s Bourne spearheaded the merger of electricity and gas companies in San Francisco, which would later become the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and in 1890 began significant investments in the Spring Valley Water Company, which would be bought by the city government of San Francisco in February 1929 and, with the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir expansion which Bourn had opposed, become its water supplier.

Bourn and his wife, Agnes Moody, built their country estate Filoli beginning in 1915, which became one of the best-known examples of an American country estate. The name of the estate is an acronym formed by combining the first two letters from the key words of William Bourn's credo: "Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life." Filoli is set in 16 acres of formal gardens surrounded by 654 acres belonging to the estate, located in Woodside, California, about 25 miles (40 km) south of San Francisco, at the southern end of Crystal Springs Lake, on the eastern slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Crystal Springs Lake was also owned by Bourne and part of the San Francisco water supply.

William Bowers Bourn II died at Filoli in 1936 at the age of 79. He was buried with his wife and daughter on the property. Filoli was sold to William Roth and his wife Lurline Matson Roth, heir of the Matson Navigation Company. The Roth family built Filoli's botanic collections of camellias, rhododendrons and azaleas, notably in the woodland garden, and added the serene swimming pool and the screened-in teahouse. In 1975, Mrs. Roth donated the estate in its entirety to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, with an endowment that meets a third of the operating expenses.

Mercredi sans mots

2012-05-16T12:58:00.000+02:00

Wordless Wednesday

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See all the other participants in Wordless WednesdayHERE and at Tina's Wordless Wednesday.

Mardi Rouge

2012-05-15T15:40:00.002+02:00

Ruby Tuesday
(a.k.a. Red Car Day at Chez la Vache!)
1953 Packard Balboa-X Show Car

In the years between World War I and World War II, Packard was recognized as the car of presidents and kings. Packard chassis were a favorite of custom coachbuilders and prominent families worldwide. Packard was the preeminent luxury automaker in the United States, rivaling the best European manufacturers. Packards were sold in 61 countries by 1929. “Packard luxury, once enjoyed, is seldom relinquished,” stated a Packard ad from the 1920s.

During this heady period, Edward Macauley was the director of styling for the Packard. Macauley, often viewed as having his job only because his father, Alvan Macauley, was the legendary general manager, president and ultimately chairman of Packard from 1910 to 1948, nonetheless was a “gifted automotive designer, and, like his father, a skilled manager.” Ed Macauley remained Packard’s director of styling until 1955.

The Depression convinced Packard that it could not survive producing a few thousand very expensive cars a year. The company felt it had to have a volume line to survive. To that end, the midpriced 8-cylinder Packard One Twenty was introduced in 1935 at a price starting at $980. The One Twenty was sold as a Packard rather than badged as a less-expensive companion car, as with Cadillac and the LaSalle. Promotional materials created for the introduction of the One Twenty stressed the quality of engineering, materials and construction over price, proclaiming the new car was “Every Inch a Packard.”

The Packard Six, introduced in 1937, took Packard into the low-price field at an initial cost of $795. Beginning in 1937, the two new models were advertised and sold together as the Packard Six and Eight, or One Ten and One Twenty.

Historians have argued whether Packard’s lower-priced cars – they have been called “Episcopalian cars for Methodists” – were directly responsible for the company’s demise in the years following World War II. Packard likely would not have survived the Great Depression without the introduction of lower-priced cars that brought new buyers into the Packard fold. That said, the lower priced cars diluted Packard's luxury image.

Between 1938 and 1940, the Junior Packards outsold the Senior cars by a ratio of 7-1. The ramifications, however, were felt to the end of Packard’s days. The man Packard brought in to produce the Junior Packards, George Christopher, handed Packard's luxury car business to Cadillac on a silver platter.

World War II transformed the world, and Packard was not spared, in spite of coming out of wartime with healthy cash reserves. The company did not resume production of either the traditional Senior cars or the One Ten and One Twenty following WWII. Packard’s future would ride solely on the more modern Packard Clipper, introduced immediately before the war.

1941 Packard Clipper

The Clipper resulted from the ongoing sales woes of the 1930s. Sales contributed by the One Ten and One Twenty likely saved Packard as an automaker, but not enough for the company to prosper. Packard undertook a crash program beginning in the summer of 1939 to develop a streamlined automobile. That automobile became the Packard Clipper, introduced in April 1941.

Packard’s initiative might have paid off, but by the time U.S. automakers resumed postwar production in 1946-47, Packard’s Clipper, which led the industry in design in 1941, already looked dated compared to the first of the all-new postwar designs. Furthermore, the introduction of a restyled Clipper as the Packard Twenty-Second Series in 1948 was greeted by widespread rejection. The styling of the 1948-50 Packards led to the sobriquet “bathtub Packards,” and worse.

1948 Packard: "upside down bathtub" "pregnant elephant"

The restyled 1951 Packard attributed to John Reinhart, who became chief stylist in 1947, was an attractive car that overcame the criticism of the previous model series, but much of Packard’s prewar reputation was already lost.

1951 Packard Patrician

As «Louis» has related in previous posts about Packard and Studebaker, Nash president George Mason conceived of a plan to form the fourth full-line automaker by merging Nash, Hudson, Studebaker and Packard. Mason, playing on the Packard board's increasing anger at George Christopher, angled to install James Nance at Packard. Christopher, first was a hero for the success of the 110-120 series cars, but became a goat because of his refusal after WWII to produce a V8 engine and for his insistence on producing the "bathtub" Packards of 1948-1950 instead of Rinehart's sleek design that became the 1951 models. A palace coup resulted and Christopher was forced out.

Nance, the dynamo who was running Whirlpool appliances, began studying Packard. He commissioned an independent study of Packard in early 1951. The study indicated that an important connection had been lost between the Packard name and ‘prestige. The bad news didn’t stop there. Another study commissioned by Packard in 1951 from the Maxon research organization showed 51 percent of new-car buyers bought styling, while only 17 percent bought Packard’s reputation. In addition, Maxon reported that only 55 percent of Packard buyers were previous Packard owners.

Not even Packard’s long-established reputation for engineering was any longer an asset. A subsequent 1952 Maxon study reported, “Buyers ‘overwhelmingly’ favored V8s over straight 8s.” And, “By early 1951 automatic transmissions, power brakes, V8s and hardtops were the necessary tools of the trade. Yet Packard offered only its proprietary Ultramatic Drive automatic transmission and its vacuum-assisted Easamatic power brake. Its V8 was still several years away.” With the new Rinehart-designed Packards of 1951, a hardtop was offered - but General Motors had introduced hardtops 2-3 years earlier, not to mention modern, overhead valve V8s.

A Booz Allen Hamilton consulting firm concluded a mid-1952 internal Packard study with the observation that, “Gliding along on the company’s outdated sense of prestige was not enough. Packard’s name is good, but not up with Cadillac’s.” According to Booz Allen, “[Packard] had to portray itself as vital and aggressive. It had to devise a hard-hitting public relations campaign to ‘get across to the industry and to the public that Packard has come to life.’”

Urgent measures were needed. One of those who heeded the message was Ed Macauley. Although by 1951 no longer a confidant of Packard’s upper management, Macauley is credited with taking action that led to the development of a series of dramatic Packard concept cars, working closely with contemporary Packard chief engineer Bill Graves. These Packard concepts served their purpose by capturing the public’s attention while Packard management worked out a plan to restore the company to its previous glory.

The first of these show cars was the Special Speedster, built on a heavily modified 1951 Packard. This became Macauley's personal car. Next up was the Panamerican, designed by Richard Arbib. Arbib, who earlier worked with Harley Earl at GM, spent most of his career as an independent design consultant.

The order for the Pan American show car had already been given to coachbuilder Henney when James Nance left appliance-maker Hotpoint to become chairman of Packard in 1952. Henney built the Pan American in just six weeks, modifying a 1951 Packard 250 convertible for the 1952 International Motor Sports Show in New York.

The Packard Pan American

The Pan American was deeply sectioned, dramatically lowering the height of the car. Most production chrome trim was removed, and a “continental style” spare tire was mounted on the rear bumper. The Pan American was the hit of the show and significantly influenced the development of the Packard Caribbean convertible. Nance approved production of the Caribbean at the Ionia Manufacturing Company, later Mitchell-Bentley, in Ionia, Mich., beginning in 1953. Henney constructed an additional five Pan Americans for Packard.

Richard Teague, who succeeded John Reinhart as chief stylist at Packard, designed the 1953 Packard Balboa, which was briefly known as the Balboa-X, the X for “experimental.” The Balboa was based on the production Packard Caribbean, with a hardtop-style “canopy” roof featuring unique reverse-slanted rear glass that later appeared in production on the 1957-58 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser and the Continental Mark III and as the "breezeway" window on the 1963-1965 Mercurys. (When Nance left Packard, he became the General Manager of the Lincoln-Mercury division at Ford and took this idea with him.) The Balboa was finished in Packard Ivory with a special maroon top and a Caribbean interior finished in maroon-and-white leather with embroidered Packard-crest medallions on the seat backs. Other Packard show cars followed: the Panther, the Request and the fabulous Predictor of 1956.

Some of this text was adapted from Automobile Quarterly.

Rear view of a model of the Balboa.

See more Ruby Tuesday entries HERE.

Portes de Lundi

2012-05-14T12:55:00.000+02:00

Monday Doorways
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hee hee... Photographs of photographs of doorways. The doorways are in Spain and Italy and are part of an exhibition at Stanford University Hospital, Palo Alto, California.

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Série du Pont de Dimanche

2012-05-13T00:01:00.000+02:00

Sunday BridgesA Review of the Bridges of the San Francisco Bay Area
The San Mateo Bridge
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The San Mateo Bridge at dusk.
The San Mateo – Hayward Bridge (commonly called the San Mateo Bridge) is a bridge crossing California's San Francisco Bay, linking the San Francisco Peninsula with the East Bay. The bridge's west end is in Foster City, the most recent urban addition to the eastern edge of San Mateo. The east end of the bridge is in Hayward. It is the longest bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area and the 25th longest in the world by length. The bridge is owned by the state of California, and is maintained by Caltrans, the state highway agency.

The bridge is part of State Route 92, whose western terminus is at the town of Half Moon Bay on the Pacific coast. It links Interstate 880 in the East Bay with U.S. Route 101 on the Peninsula. It is roughly parallel to and lies between the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge and the Dumbarton Bridge.

The original bridge, known as the San Francisco Bay Toll-Bridge, opened in 1929 and was then the longest bridge in the world. The original bridge was mostly a two-lane causeway with a 300-foot (91 m) vertical lift span over the main shipping channel. The bridge originally had pole lights along the entire stretch, which were later abandoned except over the vertical lift span. It was replaced with a modern span in 1967. The total length of the bridge is 7.0 miles (11.3 km). The 1.9 miles (3.1 km) highrise section, the western end of the bridge, is composed of multiple steel girder spans. The eastern trestle portion accounts for the remaining 5.1 mi (8.2 km) of the overall length. The shipping channel beneath the highrise is 750 feet (229 m) wide with a vertical clearance of 135 feet (41 m). The bridge recently underwent an extensive seismic retrofitting to protect against earthquake damage. The bridge carries about 93,000 cars and other vehicles on a typical day.

The highrise section was initially built with six lanes and the eastern causeway with four lanes (two in each direction). The causeway section was a perennial traffic bottleneck until it was expanded to six lanes in 2004, along with much needed improvements in its connections with Interstate 880 in Hayward.

The San Mateo Bridge seen from Foster City on the western end of the bridge looking east to Hayward and the East Bay.
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Le psaume de dimanche

2012-05-12T21:00:00.001+02:00

Sunday PsalmPsalm 62

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For the director of music. For Jeduthun. A psalm of David.

1 Truly my soul finds rest in God;
my salvation comes from him.

2 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

3 How long will you assault me?
Would all of you throw me down—
this leaning wall, this tottering fence?

4 Surely they intend to topple me
from my lofty place;
they take delight in lies.
With their mouths they bless,
but in their hearts they curse.

5 Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
my hope comes from him.

6 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

7 My salvation and my honor depend on God;
he is my mighty rock, my refuge.

8 Trust in him at all times, you people;
pour out your hearts to him,
for God is our refuge.

9 Surely the lowborn are but a breath,
the highborn are but a lie.
If weighed on a balance, they are nothing;
together they are only a breath.

10 Do not trust in extortion
or put vain hope in stolen goods;
though your riches increase,
do not set your heart on them.

11 One thing God has spoken,
two things I have heard:
“Power belongs to you, God,

12 and with you, Lord, is unfailing love”;
and, “You reward everyone
according to what they have done.”
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Sunday Psalm is hosted by Daily Athens and Katney's Kaboodle

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Weekend Reflections

2012-05-12T09:01:00.000+02:00

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The ever-changing reflections in the water off of Albany Point near le balcon Chez la Vache once again provide the subject for this Weekend's Reflections.
See all the other contributors to James' Weekend Reflections

Le vendredi «Sky Watch»

2012-05-11T06:28:00.000+02:00

Sky Watch Friday
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See the Sky Watch Friday entries from around the globe!

Who Let the Cows Out?!

2012-05-10T09:13:00.000+02:00

...and don't miss Bibi in Belgrade's Got Milk?.

Mercredi sans mots

2012-05-09T13:32:00.000+02:00

Wordless Wednesday

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See all the other participants in Wordless WednesdayHERE and at Tina's Wordless Wednesday.