Facts & Science

On November 1, 1957, traffic officially opened on the far-reaching Mackinac Bridge.

That was the culmination of 70 years of talking and dreaming about a bridge acrossthe Straits of Mackinac, of discouraging attempts for legislative and congressional approval, of efforts to raise the funds, and finally of a three-year construction program necessary for the world's longest and costliest (to date) suspension bridge.Michigan's greatest symbol is expertly maintained, fully funded, and amazingly resilient to the many forces and factors of man and nature that have failed to seriously affect its status as the lone highway link between Michigan's two main peninsulas. The miracle bridge at the Straits of Mackinac truly allows a view that epitomizes the state motto of Michigan, Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam, circumspice, or If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you.

Go inside the people, places, forests and machines that made Maine the logging and lumber giant it is today.

Known as the Pine Tree State, Maine once led the world in lumber production. It was the first great lumber-producing region, with Bangor at its center. Today, the state has nearly 18 million acres of timberland, and forest products still make up a major industry. The state's lumber industry went through several historical periods, beginning with the vast pine and spruce harvests, the organization of major corporate interests, the change from sawlogs to pulpwood, and then to sustained yields, intensive management, and mechanized harvesting.

At the beginning, much of the region was inaccessible except by water, so harvesting activities were concentrated on the coast and along the principal rivers. Gradually, as the railroads expanded and roads were constructed into the woods, operations expanded with them and the river systems became vitally important for the transportation of timber out of the woods to the markets downstate. Logging and Lumbering in Maine traces these developments in the industry and examines the history from its earliest roots in 1630 to the present, providing a pictorial record of land use and activity in Maine.

Florida's Space Coast and its explosion into the 20th century thrust these beach towns into the modern age and paved the way for America's space exploration.

Florida's Space Coast is an area that got its name from one of the most exciting times in United States history. Settlers were living in Brevard County as far back as the 1800s, and even after World War II, it was still a quiet place to live. Cities and beach towns along 74 miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline were thrust into the modern age in the early 1950s, when rockets began lighting up the skies above them. The space race had begun, the nation would set a path to put men on the moon, and Florida would become the backdrop for this thrilling chapter of American history. The area's population surged with over 200,000 new residents, and things would never be the same. It was a time when people risked their lives for space exploration, and a community came together to make it happen.

Pittsburgh's Bridges takes a comprehensive look at the design, construction, and, sometimes, demolition of the bridges that shaped Pittsburgh, ranging from the covered bridges of yesterday to those that  define the skyline today.

Pittsburgh is the City of Bridges, and what remarkable bridges they are! The area's challenging topography of deep ravines and mighty rivers - the Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio - set the stage for engineers, architects, and contractors to conquer the terrain with a variety of distinctive spans. Many were designed to be beautiful as well as functional. While other cities may have one signature bridge, Pittsburgh has such a wide variety that no single bridge can represent it.

New Hampshire Covered Bridges is a photographic study of the state's enclosed wooden spans that date from as far back as 1827. The book contains rare photographs of historic bridges that no longer exist, as well as pictures of many that still stand today. The images are accompanied by detailed information about the design and construction of covered bridges and the men who built them. Each bridge has its own life story. Some have defied floods and hurricanes and still stand; others have fallen victim to nature or arson or the demands of modern transportation.

The remarkable story of the people who built the Conowingo Dam brick by brick and bill by bill, and the impact that goes on today.

Second in size only to the massive hydroelectric works at Niagara Falls, the Conowingo Dam across the Susquehanna River was celebrated as a miraculous feat of modern engineering when it opened in 1928. The dam was built with astonishing speed and efficiency and completed on budget and ahead of schedule, and its generators came on line at the very crescendo of the Roaring Twenties, when the race toward electrification was changing American life. The hydro dams of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Bonneville and Grand Coulee Dams in the Pacific Northwest, and the great colossus of Hoover Dam were all constructed in the next two decades, but handsome, indomitable Conowingo Dam preceded them all and remains in effective operation to this very day.

Route 128 and the Birth of the Age of High Tech tells the intertwining stories of the construction of the nation's first circumferential beltway and the burgeoning high-tech industries of Massachusetts, which helped spawn the modern age of personal computers, the Internet, and biotechnology.

Readers who want a distinct and compelling look at the nation's first state prior to the building of Interstate 95 will enjoy the insight provided into Wilmington.

Interstate 95 was constructed as part of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, signed into law by Pres. Dwight Eisenhower. Francis “Frank” Victor du Pont (1894–1962), son of T. Coleman du Pont, who gave Delaware the DuPont Highway, was the US commissioner of the Bureau of Public Roads from 1953 to 1955. Frank du Pont was a key figure in promoting a national highway and for championing the need for this new interstate system to access city centers. This “Center City” requirement came into play when a lame duck Wilmington City Council on June 21, 1957, approved placing the interstate between Adams and Jackson Streets, essentially cleaving the city and ignoring various protest groups who favored a route east of the city.

Wilmington before Interstate 95 is author William Francis’s sixth book for Arcadia Publishing, all dedicated to the history of the First State. The book contains images primarily from the Delaware State Public Archives dated in the 1950s and early 1960s, highlighting west Wilmington and the neighborhoods demolished for the interstate as well as a city history and the downtown area from this bygone era. 

Readers interested in the founding, innerworkings, and incredible process of mining will thoroughly enjoy reading about the history of one of the largest excavations in the world, Bingham Canyon Mine.

The history of Bingham Canyon Mine began in 1863 with the discovery of ore. It was Daniel Jackling’s idea to mass-produce low-grade copper with steam shovels and trains. The start-up of open-cut mining took place in 1906. Its success made the site the richest on earth. The story of the Bingham Canyon Mine is about constant movement and change, innovations, and improvements. Mining techniques were always improving; steam shovels and trains were converted to electric, then to diesel locomotives, and later to large mining trucks and conveyor systems. The mine expanded, and the work created the largest excavation on earth, one of the few man-made structures that can be seen from space. 

Tim Dumas loves the history of Bingham Canyon, and his motto is “Keep Bingham’s history alive.” His first book, Bingham Canyon, takes the reader on a trip up Bingham Canyon and highlights each community that once filled this now buried canyon. Many of the images and much of the information in Bingham Canyon Mineare from the Don Strack collection found at utahrails.net.

From Macon to Hawkinsville, the history of Georgia's once thriving textile mills is documented in this visual history.

Cotton was once king throughout Georgia. Reconstruction investors and railroad tycoons saw this potential to open textile mills in the South instead of sending cotton up North. Towns across Central Georgia became a prime spot to locate textile mills because of the access to cotton from local farms, cheap labor, and nearby rivers to power the mills. Textile mills were operated in cities and towns across Central Georgia such as Macon, Columbus, Augusta, Tifton, Forsyth, Porterdale, and Hawkinsville, among others. The textile mills provided employment and sometimes a home in their villages to people across Georgia as the agrarian lifestyle gave way to industrial expansion. In these mills, photographer Lewis Hine captured iconic images of child labor. After the decline of production and closing of the mills, many have been revived into new usages that honor the legacy of the mill workers and their families who lived in the villages of the textile mills across Central Georgia.

Hudson River Bridges documents how these structures remain beautiful testaments to cooperative efforts during trying times in America's history.

The Hudson River Valley, an invaluable connection between New England and the rest of the colonies during the American Revolution, continues to be a major crossroads today. The Hudson River bridges were architectural marvels of their time. The Bear Mountain Bridge was the longest suspension bridge, while the Newburgh Beacon second span was built with a new type of weathering steel. The bridges were constructed during important times in history. The Bear Mountain Bridge was built as the automobile became an integral part in the country's development, and the Mid-Hudson Bridge was built during the Depression. Labor disputes helped develop labor laws, and world wars led to changes in activity on the bridges.

Detroit's Historic Water Works Park takes the reader on a nostalgic trip back to when it was possible to see beyond the horizon from the top of the tallest freestanding structure in the Americas. At one time, Water Works Park's colorful, stunningly beautiful, and varied floral displays were reason enough for thousands of people to travel hundreds of miles or more to Detroit. In addition to its primary function as a source of high-quality drinking water for Detroit and neighboring communities since 1879, Water Works Park was a popular place of rest, reflection, and recreation. At one time, its popularity among Detroiters and visitors to the city was exceeded only by Belle Isle, the city's big island playground in the Detroit River.

The first steam locomotives entered central Wyoming in 1886 as the rails were laid, and the railroad would soon become the driving force for agriculture, industry, and commerce.

The two main lines, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad and the Chicago & North Western Railway, both operated steam until diesel-electric locomotives began to replace them. This journey will focus on the lines between Valentine, Nebraska, and central Wyoming as well as the survey work done beyond the town of Lander, Wyoming. The areas around the towns of Douglas, Glenrock, Casper, and Riverton will all be examined. The last steam locomotive in regular service would leave the region in 1952, and with its departure would come sweeping changes to how the railroads of the region operated and of their connections to the communities they served. The majority of the photographs presented have never been published.

Along the north bank of the Missouri River, in Great Falls, Montana, there was once an industrial complex: the Great Falls Reduction Department of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. From 1892 to 1982, it was a definitive silhouette on the skyline, used as a sign that travelers were close to home. 

At its peak, one-third of the world’s copper was smelted, refined, and molded here for direct consumption in line with the Anaconda Copper Mining Company’s slogan, “From Mine to Consumer.” Today, its existence has been wiped from the landscape, leaving a Superfund site that will take several decades to restore. Though the buildings, machinery, and workers are now gone, the memory is still imprinted heavily on the community.

The archives and operations manager of The History Museum & Research Center/Cascade County Historical Society, Megan Sanford, has created a specialized pictorial tour of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company Collection. Having collected objects, photographs, testimonies, and memories over the last half century, The History Museum & Research Center stewards the story of the Great Falls Reduction Department Plant and endeavors to share the tales of its workers and the work they did for the world.

Augusta, Georgia was home to the Augusta Arsenal for more than 125 years. In this compilation of images, familiar places meld together with historic characters to paint the picture of one of Augusta’s longest-standing federal outposts.

In 1791, US president George Washington visited Augusta and later proposed that the arsenal be built along the banks of the Savannah River. The arsenal was completed in 1819 and moved up the hill to Summerville in 1827. Part of the US Army Ordnance Department, the Augusta Arsenal service members and civilian employees were charged with making and repairing small firearms for the military. World War II–era images show the breadth of operations at the arsenal during its busiest time. Community members came together to support the expanded arsenal operations during the war when more than 2,000 employees worked at the Summerville site. Now home to Augusta University’s Summerville campus, many original buildings, sites, and historic objects are preserved for future generations. The historic quadrangle, commandant’s home, and stable are just a few of the many structures preserved by Augusta University. 

Stacey Thompson is director of the Guard House Museum and the Museum Studies Certificate program in the Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Augusta University. David Tucker, a seasoned writer and editor, is retired from the Medical College of Georgia.

During their heyday in the mid-to-late 1800s, more than 150 covered bridges dotted the landscape of Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Since that time, floods, fires, and progress have claimed all but three of the historic structures. Covered bridges were heavily concentrated in the hills of northwestern Connecticut, spanning the Farmington, Housatonic, and Naugatuck Rivers. In Rhode Island, most were built by the railroads in Woonsocket, Providence, and other communities in the northern part of the state, though few pictures are known to exist. Connecticut was the birthplace of two of the nation's best known covered bridge designers: Ithiel Town and Theodore Burr. Half of the covered bridges currently standing in the United States are supported by trusses patented by either Town or Burr.

Boston's Bridges surveys the city's spans, telling the story of their construction and tracking the evolution in design, materials, and construction techniques from the 1700s to the present. Drawing on previously unpublished images from the Massachusetts Department of Public Works, the city of Boston archives, and numerous other sources, Boston's Bridges is a vivid document of the city's bridges past and present. Written by an engineer-historian, Boston's Bridges will appeal not only to those fascinated by Boston's history but also to those with an interest in construction, civil engineering, and urban architecture.

Relying heavily on resources from Worcester-based research archives and libraries, Schindler and Slatkin have curated a rich collection of historical images that vividly illustrate Robert Goddard’s visionary life and his enduring connection to Massachusetts.

Robert Goddard, PhD, is widely considered the father of the space age. Born in 1882 in Worcester, Massachusetts, he spent much of his early life in the Boston suburb of Roxbury before returning to Worcester as a teenager. A pivotal moment came during his youth when, while climbing a cherry tree near his home, he envisioned the possibility of space travel—a vision that would shape the course of his life. Driven by this dream, Goddard dedicated himself to making spaceflight a reality. In 1926, he launched the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts, a groundbreaking achievement that laid the foundation for modern rocketry and space exploration. Among his many innovations, Goddard demonstrated that rockets could produce thrust in a vacuum, pioneered the use of scientific instruments aboard rockets, developed the concept of rocket-based weaponry (such as the bazooka), and introduced early methods for rocket stabilization.

Kevin Schindler, historian at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, has authored eight books on science and history. Charles Slatkin, founder and executive director of The Wonder Mission’s Goddard Project initiative, is leading efforts to promote Goddard’s legacy and establish a National Space

Trail. Astronaut Jim Lovell flew to the moon on Apollo missions 8 and 13.