Ocean City, Maryland, USA

Tomorrow, the journey begins all over again! May your trek across 2023 be as straight as U.S. Highway 50 across the continent. Be prepared to stop in a few small towns, to brave a passel of commercial strips, and to linger at your choice of innumerable historical sites. Route 50 is one of America's "blue highways." [2021]

Jeffersonville, Indiana, USA

The Big Four Bridge (named in reference to four railroads) has been re-purposed for pedestrians and bicycles. It spans the Ohio River, a waterway prone to flooding. But, you knew that! You saw the flood wall. To protect Jeff, its gates can be closed when water rises. [2022]

Punda, Willemstad, Curaçao

Curaçao named its new pedestrian bridge after Princess Amalia, heir to the Dutch throne. The Princess of Orange will be crossing it herself next January when she and her royal parents make a state visit to the Dutch Caribbean, including all of the ABC Islands. [2017]

Punda, Willemstad, Curaçao

 

From the Queen Juliana Bridge to the waterfront café, to the Dutch-façade row houses (albeit with Caribbean colors), you might as well be canal-side in Holland. Even the cannon throws light on Curaçao's European past. Curaçao is a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. [2017]

Spokane, Washington, USA

What physical feature defines your city? In Spokane, it is Spokane Falls. It was early recognized as a source of water power, a sawmill was established, and the city grew up as a service center for the ranches and mines in the surrounding region. The falls maintained their centrality in the urban settlement fabric: the city's downtown is adjacent. [2019]

Jeffersonville, Indiana, USA

The morning roundup seems to be going as usual. In this case, they are rounding up the e-scooters that litter the city from the day before. After an inspection, the scooters will be repositioned in situ or taken off to some other site. They are surely geo-tagged: for now just the scooters, in the future the workers. [2022]

Jeffersonville, Indiana, USA

It looks like he is droning on and on about his new toy, but his friends seem to be listening patiently. What is it that captures their attention? A drone, of course. And the riverfront in Jeff seems perfectly situated to offer them some birds eye views of the Ohio. [2022]

Jeffersonville, Indiana, USA

If steam could power trains, it could power boats as well. It could turn the paddlewheels and keep the Ohio River humming with activity, particularly as it flowed by Louisville and its cross-river neighbor, Jeffersonville. "Jeff" for short, at least recently. In the past, we used to call it "J-ville." [2022]

Bismarck, North Dakota, USA

The Missouri River in Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, 3rd ed., 1997, p. 750: "River; cen. and NW cen. U.S.; formed by confluence of Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers in Gallatin co., S Montana; . . . joins the Mississippi River ab. 10 mi. N of St. Louis; 2466 mi." [2021]

Epes, Alabama, USA

The Tombigbee River in Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, 3rd ed., 1997, p. 1190: "River; Alabama, formed by junction of E fork and W fork near Amory, Mississippi, crosses Alabama border west of Carrolton, flows S into the Alabama River to form the Mobile and Tensaw Rivers flowing into Mobile Bay at Mobile: 409 mi." See the White Cliffs of Epes? [2005]

Columbia, Pennsylvania, USA

The Susquehanna River in Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, 3rd ed., 1997, p. 1141: "River; cen. New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, rises in Otsego Lake, Otsego co., cen. New York, flows S across Pennsylvania border and across E Pennsylvania and NE corner of Maryland, to empty into N Chesapeake Bay; 444 mi." [2013]

THE BACKSTORY ~ Posted on the 12^th Anniversary of Geographically Yours, 4 August 2022: Posts in late June 2022 were spent honoring some of America’s great rivers, including two of my besties: the Susquehanna (on whose banks I was born) and the Potomac (close to whose banks I lived for a while). For the photo captions, I decided to use entries from Merriam-Webster’s Geographical Dictionary, which, for decades, was a standard reference work for geographers and librarians.

It is now in its third edition, and it may be the last. Esoteric knowledge that used to be bound in books is now universally accessible digitally. The dust jacket of the revised 3rd edition is shown here. If you look at it closely, you will see a yellow starburst with a quote: “This is a masterful revision.” That quote was lifted from a review I wrote for “The Geographical” (its nickname) back when it was first published. In the 1990s, I loved walking into almost any bookstore and finding my name on the cover of a book I didn’t even write. At the same time, it made me feel a little bad. That’s because not even the editor, the one who did all the work, had his name on the book cover (though it is inside, along with a nice preface). He and I were friends in graduate school at the University of Rhode Island and we continue to be friends to this day. He got his M.A. and became an editor with one of the most revered publishing houses in lexicography. His expertise is geography, but he tended to other duties, too. As he attended professional meetings, he listened to paper presentations took notes on new words that were being used or on old words used in new contexts: for the files at headquarters in Springfield, Mass. Low-key but exciting. Together, we even gave a paper at one of those meetings. It was on generic place names (geographers call them toponyms). I posted our maps on Geographically Yours. We spent a lot of time plotting all those towns with endings like -burg and -boro. We did it by hand. Now, with Geographic Information Systems, a computer can do it instantly. DJ.Z.

Jeffersonville, Indiana, USA

And then there were four! According to ancient Greek science, four elements constituted the building blocks of the world: earth, air, fire, water. Which one of those ducklings has the personality of earth? of air? of fire? of water? As they learn to fly and take on personalities of their own, they will be the building blocks of future worlds! [2022]

Lansing, West Virginia, USA

You know how Americans are! We just couldn't sit by and let Africa, with its Nile, claim to have the oldest river in the world. In North America, we excel in superlatives, so the title had to be ours. Meet: the New River, which we (some?) claim to be the oldest in the world. So, the New River is an old river, but the new bridge isn't anything like the old bridge. [2021]

Louisville, Kentucky, USA

The northeastern seaboard dominated America's urban geography in the early 1800s. But by mid-century, a network of river cities in the trans-Appalachian west began to challenge the existing order. By 1840, Louisville was solidly among the "top 20" urban places in the U.S., and it held that status for at least four decades. Why? Location on the Ohio River. [2022]

Lansing, West Virginia, USA

Beams, bents, and bracings must all be inspected annually on the New River Gorge Bridge. When the crossing was completed, it became the longest steel-arch bridge in the world. In only six more years, one of the engineering wonders of the 20th century will celebrate its 50th anniversary. [2021]

Lansing, West Virginia, USA

A troop of bridge monkeys shows up once a year to inspect the New River Gorge Bridge. Looks like fun, doesn't it? Even more fun out there on the girders than on the maintenance walkway that crosses the canyon from one abutment to the other. When the bridge was completed in 1977 it reduced travel time across the gorge from 40 minutes to 1. [2021]

Lansing, West Virginia, USA

Roaring over his head are cars and trucks on Highway 19. Roaring under his feet is the New River, which has cut an impressive canyon into the Appalachian Plateau. Who is he? An engineer on a once-a-year inspection of the bridge. You met two of his companions last month. [2021]

Lansing, West Virginia, USA

Odds and Evens, Ones and Twos, Singles and Doubles, Which one be You? Here are two glowing bridge inspectors just arriving for work high above the New River. The setting: the newest National Park in the U.S., where the New River Gorge is crossed by a famous steel-arch bridge. Happy BASE Day, bridge jumpers! Come back next month to see more. [2021]

Hastings, Minnesota, USA

What does your town have to make it proud? Perhaps something unique like a new bridge. Across the mighty Mississippi, no less. Yes, things that are new can be as unique as things that are old: if they are built with an eye toward aesthetics. In Hastings, the arches, geometry, colors, and landscape architecture make the newest span a sunny delight. [2021]

Prescott, Wisconsin, USA

The massive, industrial-strength, vertical-lift bridge in Prescott carries the BNSF rail line across the St. Croix River between Wisconsin and Minnesota. Information on the bridge, though, is hard to find. Why has some master's thesis not been done on this bridge? Perhaps because theses are no longer required for such degrees! 😬Bitter lament. [2021]