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Detroit, 10:53 AM
Wed Nov 25
25 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/20/09
11/20/09
World's longest bridge over water that's covered by ice for part of the year
11/20/09
And right after it opened, it started breaking, and leaking, and squashing people in their cars. Way to pick the lowest bidder! Your tax money hard at...oh, forget it.
I guess this was really a page for awe-inspiring and aesthetically remarkable structures, not aw-hell inspiring, underground structures.
11/20/09
My personal favorite, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. It's damned long - I can't remember exactly how long, but you're on it long enough to get tired of it, I think over ten miles - and in at least one spot you dive under the water for a mile or so. Because of ships, you know. They can't dive to go under the bridge.
One wonders - wouldn't it have been cheaper to make the bridge taller for a while? Then the ships could go under. No need for bilge pumps and vent fans. Just saying.
11/19/09
11/20/09
11/19/09
Since when is New York City the greatest city in the world?
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/20/09
11/20/09
#tips
11/19/09
Another totally awesome bit of infrastructure - the Millau Viaduct in France.
It's fairly long and crazy tall.
Edit: dangit. Mr Dude beat me to it, but not by name, only by image
11/15/09
Since private industry hasn't done that yet, in spite of the technology having been available for decades, I don't think there is a strong business case for them.
Yet anyway. #rants
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/15/09
11/14/09
Also, check out the Swedish X2000 train. It has a suspension which leans it in turns, making special tracks unnecessary. Good for those countries who only want to dip a toe into HSR.
[en.wikipedia.org] #rants
11/14/09
11/14/09
Makes you glad they figured that out _before_ they started running them, eh? #rants
11/15/09
11/16/09
Hearties for both of you for expanding my knowledge. #rants
11/14/09
States such as California could surely benefit from such a system. It's got a large population across a very serviceable area. Unfortunately, there's no way in hell the state could ever pay for it (I'll spare you all any diatribe aimed at our crew in Sacramento).
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/13/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/13/09
That having been said, the difference between Europe and North America is that once you get off this state-of-the-art high-speed train, you have regional and local subways and surface streetcars and buses going wherever you might want to go in the destination city.
In the USA, unless you've rented a car (or have your own car in a nearby parking lot), you are stranded in place. These systems have been in continuous development in every German city worth mentioning (taking a break, perhaps, for World War Two) since Kaiser Wilhelm's regime. We destroyed ours. Utterly. Unless you happen to be standing in a handful of cities on the East Coast, the only way you're going to get anywhere is by automobile.
We will have to re-develop our local public transportation systems before we can even think about building a high-speed rail network. Without the former, you will not be able to expand ridership for the latter to even the subset of Americans who use commuter airlines.
11/14/09
I love cars, but this kind of public transit means I can buy something completely impractical to drive for fun and forget about a "daily driver" that is practical. #rants
11/13/09
Trains are romantic, they are elegant, they are things of beauty. In the 1930s and 40s, rail travel practically became the mascot for the U.S. They put the flashiest Cadillac to shame. While not on par with the ocean liners of the 1910s and 20s, they were close enough.
Just thing. Trains could give the American population as a whole, something to be proud of! Something that hasn't really happened with cars of late, or cruise ships, or airplanes. #rants
11/13/09
We have always had aircraft to be proud of, and the latest Boeing 787 Dreamliner is no exception.
We do need to bring back other things that we, as a nation, can be proud of again, and I think that an advanced rail system and a renewed ship building program could be just the thing. While the original SS United States still exists, and is rumored to be the target of a major renovation in the near future, I would like to see more things like that.
With the latest round of cars put out by GM and Ford, I think that we are at last on the right path with cars again, though. #rants
11/13/09
We've got the upcoming 787 Dreamliner sure, but is that enough? We need something that will look good on billboards, something that will be a household name. Something only America has. There is definite potential both on the rails and at sea for America to achieve something great.
Back in the 30s, 40s, you had kids playing with Lionel models of trains like the Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 electrics, or the New York Central Hudsons. World famous designers like Loewy and Henry Dreyfus were being contracted to work for specific railways like the PRR and the New York Central. #rants
11/13/09
As you point out, much of the appeal of rail travel once upon a time was the glamor of it. And I think that before we can get people to agree on building a national HSR system, it might help if we kind of manipulated them into wanting one. If we were to renovate the current tracks, and recreate may of the old, elegant, art deco engines of yore with modern propulsion advantages, and made it a full luxury experience, we might just be able to put that glamor back in rail travel, and then we can worry about building an entirely new and more efficient system, when we have the actual support for it.
I think we should do the same for sea travel. Nowadays, sea travel consists of going on round-trip cruises. But it used to be that sea travel consisted of actual, point A-to-point b traveling for people who had the luxuries of time and money, and wanted to enjoy a luxurious, pampered experience. We need to do that again. There's nothing that says it absolutely has to be competitive in price with transatlantic flights. It just has to be infinitely more pleasant and desirable in order to justify the price.
If we can get it to the point that kids want things like that to play with again, we might stand a chance. But getting there is the hard part. #rants
11/13/09
11/14/09
Yes, it has a great new composite body and some other differentiators but so what? There is nothing really exciting about it. It definitely is no Concord for sure. Not even a Super-Caravelle.
p.s: I love planes. #rants
11/14/09
11/15/09
11/13/09
11/16/09
@FrankGrimes: The japanese already one-upped us on that. Not only is it rocket engines instead of jets, but it also turns into a gian robot! #rants