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Trivia ~ Man Made
~ Architecture ~
The Main Library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books that would occupy the building.
Why don't doors in homes open outward as they do in all public buildings?
The reason for the outward orientation of doors in public places is simple: in case of danger, as in a fire, people have to be able to open the door and pour through the doorway quickly and in great numbers. If the doors opened inward, people might pile up at the exit as everyone pushed to get through at once instead of stepping back to allow space for the door to be opened.
Doors open inward in homes – at least the front door does – because they sometimes have to be removed from the hinges in order to allow furniture to be moved in. If the hinges were on the outside, burglars could also remove them. Since there are fewer people in a home, there's no danger of a pileup at the door in case of fire.
I hope that opened a window onto an interesting phenomenon for you.
Why do stores under construction or undergoing renovation have their windows whited out?
What's behind the whiteouts -- it's soap, by the way -- which keeps shoppers from watching the renovation of a retail space? Do merchants think you might be so enticed by the first shipment of merchandise that you would walk through the glass to buy it?
No, but contractors worry about the workers inside walking through the glass. On the job before the glass goes in, workers become accustomed to walking through, and swinging heavy objects near, what was an empty space. After that window installation -- clean plate glass is clear as day -- a little inattention could lead to a shattering experience.
Also, valuable tools might be stolen if people saw them lying around. (And the public might see laborers on the project lying around when they should be swinging heavy objects and shouting and swearing like construction workers.)
The first church bells in the United States were installed in the tower of Boston's Old North Church in 1745. The bells were paid for by a public subscription, cast in Gloucester, England in 1744 and shipped across the Atlantic.
The belfry of Old North Church is better known as the place where two lanterns were hung on the night of April 18, 1775 signaling the beginning of the Revolutionary War. As the lanterns were being hung, Paul Revere was preparing to make his celebrated ride to alert the colonists of the approaching British troops.
Historic Old North church is home to many other important relics, including the highest box pews in America, designed to keep worshippers warm on cold days. The church took 22 years to complete, and was constructed of wood from Maine and bricks from Medford, Massachusetts.
Though perhaps not as common today, most older firehouses have circular stairways. This isn't due to a lack of space, it's because fire trucks used to be pulled by horses.
Turns out that the horses, which were stabled on the ground floor, figured out how to walk up the straight staircases. So, to stop this, firehouses began to install circular staircases.
If the bridge isn't golden, isn't made of gold, isn't even painted a gold color and, it's a bridge not a gate. So why do they call it the Golden Gate Bridge? Well, it has nothing to do with the metal or the gold rush.
Captain John C. Fremont coined the name in 1846. The entrance of the bay reminded him of the Golden Horn of the Bosporus--the narrow passage at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea (which was called "Chrysoplae" or golden mouth). Golden Gate essentially means, "this is a great port that will lead to prosperity."
Largest known African prehistoric monument
About 1,000 years ago there was a civilization in the deep rainforest of Nigeria. That kingdom created a 100-mile long moated wall (160 km) that was 70 feet high in places (21 meters), the largest known
ancient earthworks in Africa.
The wall and ditch, known as Sungbo's Eredo (Sungbo's ditch), may have surrounded the central core of a tribe called the Ijebu, part of the Yoruba clan of tribes. According to local lore, Bilikisu Sungbo was a fabulously wealthy queen who wanted to create a monument to her rule. The Eredo was built, enclosing an area 30 times bigger than Manhattan Island.
Sungbo's Eredo is not the only huge ancient structure in West Africa. the jungle is dotted with earthen walls, marking more than 500 settlement boundaries. Archaeologists are studying the ruins to learn more about the people who built them.
Why do so many major train stations have high, often vaulted ceilings?
You'll encounter a lot of hot air if you research this question. And well you should, because the custom of building the stations this way arose in the nineteenth century, when trains produced a good deal of steam and smoke. Hot air rises, and the high ceilings allowed this potentially noxious stuff to drift safely away from the passengers.
When many of those stations were built - Grand Central, in New York, to name a famous one - they also had a symbolic as well as practical value. The automobile symbolizes our age, in which individuals are empowered with mobility previously unknown in world history. 150 years ago trains symbolized the age of power produced by machines driven by steam. The cathedral-like ceilings in those stations express the faith that such power would elevate life in general.
With the hindsight available to us, of course, we know that they were a bit off-track on that one.
Of all the private residences in the United States, the one that receives the most guests every year is the White House, home of the President. First occupied by President John Adams in 1800, the White House is the only private residence of a head of state that is open to the public for free tours. It contains 132 rooms and 32 bathrooms on 6 levels. Until the Civil War, it was the biggest private home in the country. About 6,000 visitors tour the White House every day.
The second most visited home in the country is Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, once the home of Elvis Presley. It was first opened for tours on June 7, 1982, in part to cover the costs of maintaining it.
Every year more than 600,000 people visit. At the peak of the travel season in July, more than 4,000 people tour Graceland each day. Graceland's popularity has been the primary reason for a vast
expansion of the tourist industry in Memphis.
Although concrete was known as early as 2,000 years ago, its first use in major construction projects was in ancient Rome. A good example is Hadrian's Villa near Tivoli, Italy, which was built around 120 AD. There, the Roman Emperor Hadrian experimented with various forms and styles of architecture, making use of concrete in conjunction with bricks, tufa, and other materials.
The Villa at Tivoli is especially noteworthy because of the interesting use of curves, domes, underground passages, ponds, and other elements. New materials made new forms possible, and Hadrian's Villa shows some of this experimentation in its many interesting vistas.
Many Roman buildings made of concrete have lasted through history because of their unique chemistry. The Romans mixed their lime with pozzolan, a kind of ash produced by a certain volcano. The peculiar chemistry of the resulting concrete was one of the reasons for its durability.
There are more than 10 million bricks in the Empire State Building!
There are 34 bathrooms in the White House. Guess that's cause they're so full of it no one can wait.
The largest stained-glass window in the world is at the Kennedy International Airport in New York City. It can be seen on the American Airlines terminal building and measures 300 feet long by 23 feet high.
Did you ever slide down a banister when you were a kid (I trust you haven't done it lately)? If you think you did, think again.
A banister is only one of the vertical posts that hold the rail that we hold onto, not the rail itself. The word is a corruption of "baluster," which in turn was derived from the Italian word "balaustra." And that is Italian for a wild pomegranate blossom.
I'm sure it's obvious where we're going, but I'll fill in the blank for those of you who are slow. Banisters carved in the Italian Renaissance resembled that plant part.
So what WAS it you slid down as a kid, almost giving your mother a heart attack? Posts and rail together is technically a balustrade. And I hope you didn't rip your pants.
At the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas, an all-male high security level facility committed to carrying out the judgments of the Federal Courts, the walls are 40 feet high and 40 feet below ground.
These days U. S. construction workers plant an American flag on the top of a building as soon as it reaches its final height. This "topping out" ceremony is actually based on an old custom in which a tree was usually placed at the top of a recently completed structure. The tree was an offering to the gods to keep away evil spirits.
Do you think similar benefits are attain from a cherry placed atop a hot fudge sundae?
The shortage of affordable housing in New York City has often forced people to accept living quarters far short of ideal. But the house at 75 Bedford Street in Greenwich Village, really takes the cake: it's 9 feet wide.
The dimensions may have created some problems, but at least it hasn't induced narrow-mindedness. Residents have included poet Edna St. Vincent Millay and actor John Barrymore.
The very peak of the Washington Monument is not stone, but a 100-ounce solid aluminum pyramid, constructed as part of the monument's lightning protection system. In the 1880s, aluminum was a rare metal, selling for $1.10 per ounce and used primarily for jewelry. The pyramid at the top of the monument was the largest piece of aluminum of its day and was such a novelty that it was displayed at Tiffany's jewelry store before it was placed at the top.
The Eiffel tower "grows" six inches every year, due to metal expansion in warm weather.
Between 1563 and 1584, King Phillip II of Spain built the great Escorial palace near Madrid. It contained 84 miles of corridors, off of which opened 1,200 doors.
It was not a bad place to live, especially if you liked to roller skate. The only problem was that none of these corridors or doors led to a bathroom.
The Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia, has nearly 68,000 miles of telephone lines.
As bits of trivia are presented on my e-mail list I will add them here. See them first by sending an e-mail to twotreestrivia-subscribe@topica.com
If you have other good Trivia to add please E-mail me
