title: Ürümqi

text: Although Ürümqi is situated near the northern route of the Silk Road, the present city is relatively new. The earliest known settlement in the area can be dated to the 7th century CE, but there was no permanent settlement for a long period and it was not known as Ürümqi until the Dzungar Khanate in the 17th century. The current city dates from the rebuilding started in the 18th century.


title: Ürümqi

text: During the area's prehistory, the Jushi Kingdom was established by a nomadic people who lived on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains.


title: Ürümqi

text: The oldest known settlement in the area, a village called Urabo (or Wulabo), was located about from the southern suburbs of present-day Ürümqi. Under the name "Luntai", the city was established near Urabo by the Tang government during the 22nd year of Emperor Taizong's reign (648 AD), as part of the Protectorate General to Pacify the West that controlled Xinjiang. It was a seat of local government and collected taxes from the caravans along the northern route of the Silk Road.


title: Ürümqi

text: After the Tang retreated from the Western Regions, the region came under the control of the Uyghurs of the Khaganate and Gaochang / Qocho. There is little information about the Ürümqi area during the time between the Tang and Qing dynasties, and researchers believe that there was no permanent settlements there for most of this period. The Mongols referred to the wider area as Bishbalik, meaning five cities, a reference to the five towns that surrounded the present-day Ürümqi area.


title: Ürümqi

text: The Oirat-speaking Dzungar tribes that formed the Dzungar Khanate were the last major power to control Ürümqi before the Manchus gained control of Xinjiang. During the Ming dynasty, there was a record of a place at Jiujiawan to the west of present Ürümqi, which may have been the Dzungar town that was later destroyed during the Qing conquest. The Mongolians also used the area as herding ground in this period. Steppe peoples had used the location, the pass between the Bogda Shan to the east and the Tian Shan to the west, connecting the Dzungar Basin to the north and the Turpan Depression to the south.


title: Ürümqi

text: Ürümqi remained a small town of lesser importance than the oasis and Silk Road trade center Turpan to the southeast. Fighting for the control of Dzungaria led to the Khoshuuts (now classified as Mongols) leaving Ürümqi for Qinghai and Tibet in the 1620s and 1630s. The Uyghurs were introduced into the Ürümqi area in the 18th century by the Dzungars who moved them from the west Tarim region to be "taranchis" or farmers in Ürümqi.


title: Ürümqi

text: In the 18th century, the Qing went to war against the Dzungar Khanate. Ürümqi was taken by the Qing in 1755, and the Dzungars of the region were eliminated in the Dzungar genocide. One writer, Wei Yuan, described the resulting desolation in what became northern Xinjiang as "an empty plain for a thousand "li", with no trace of man". A fort was built (either in 1755 or 1758 depending on sources), and the Qing then established garrisons of Manchu and Mongol bannermen and Han Chinese troops at Ürümqi. After 1759, the Qing government established state farms in the under-populated areas around Ürümqi, where there was fertile, well-watered land. Manchu soldiers also constructed a temple with red walls dedicated to Guandi on Pingding mountain overlooking Ürümqi, which gave Ürümqi the nickname "Red Temple".


title: Ürümqi

text: The Manchus began to construct a walled city in 1763 to the south of the first fort, and it was completed in 1767. The Qianlong Emperor named the new settlement "Dihua" (; Manchu: "Wen de dahabure fu"), meaning "to enlighten and civilize". In 1771, another city named Gongning Cheng () was built nearby to the northwest to house Manchu bannermen, and this would become the seat of government. The bannermen settlement to the west was commonly referred to as "Mancheng" (), while Dihua to the east became a Han Chinese town commonly called "Hancheng" (). The Ürümqi of the early period was therefore a twin-city, with Gongning Cheng as the administrative center while Dihua grew into Xinjiang's commercial and financial center.


title: Ürümqi

text: Han Chinese from all over China moved into Dihua, as did Chinese Hui Muslims from Gansu and Shaanxi. The origin of Hui in Ürümqi is often indicated by the names of their mosques. By 1762, more than 500 shops had already been opened by Chinese migrants to the area of modern-day Ürümqi. Those Qing literati who visited Dihua were impressed by its cultural sophistication and similarity to eastern China. The writer Ji Yun compared Dihua to Beijing, in that both had numerous wine shops which offered daily performances of Chinese music and dance.


title: Ürümqi

text: In 1870, the Battle of Ürümqi took place between the Turkic Muslim forces of Yaqub Beg against the Dungan Muslim forces of Tuo Ming (Daud Khalifa). With the help of Xu Xuegong's Han Chinese militia, Yaqub Beg's forces defeated the Dungans. Gongning Cheng was captured, its Qing administrator killed, and the city burnt to the ground and abandoned. The Qing later regained control of Ürümqi. In 1884, the Guangxu Emperor established Xinjiang as a province, with Dihua as its capital.


title: Ürümqi

text: After the collapse of the Qing dynasty, Xinjiang was ruled from Ürümqi by a succession of warlords: Yang Zengxin (1911–1928), Jin Shuren (1928–1933), Sheng Shicai (1933–1942), and Zhang Zhizhong as governor of Xinjiang in 1942–1949. Of these, Yang and Sheng were considered capable rulers.


title: Ürümqi

text: During the Kumul Rebellion, the Battle of Ürümqi (1933) and the Battle of Ürümqi (1933–34) took place between the forces of Ma Zhongying's 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army) and Jin Shuren and Sheng Shicai's provincial forces. At the second battle, Ma was assisted by the Han Chinese General Zhang Peiyuan.


title: Ürümqi

text: On 1 February 1954, following the founding of the People's Republic of China, the city's name was officially changed back to Ürümqi. The ruling Chinese Communist Party believed that the name "Dihua", which literally means "to enlighten and civilize", was belittling and ethnically chauvinist.


title: Ürümqi

text: In the late 1970s, Deng Xiaoping relaxed China's tight control over Xinjiang, and Ürümqi benefited from the development of the oil and gas industry in Xinjiang.


title: Ürümqi

text: New mosques were built in Ürümqi with financial assistance from the Chinese government. While the Chinese government implemented strict rules on religion in southern Xinjiang, the treatment of the Uyghurs and their religion in Ürümqi were more lax and permissive.


title: Ürümqi

text: In May 1989, unrest in Ürümqi resulted in 150 injuries. In February 1997, bombings in Ürümqi following the Ghulja incident resulted in 20 deaths and scores of injuries.


title: Ürümqi

text: In the largest eruption of ethnic violence in China in decades, there were riots in July 2009 between ethnic Han Chinese and Uyghurs. The "New York Times" reporter covering the riot described the violence as "clashes with riot police and Uyghurs rampaging through the city and killing Han civilians. Then, for at least three days, bands of Han vigilantes roamed Urumqi, attacking and killing Uyghurs." Before the riot broke out, young Uyghurs had marched through the city "to protest a case of judicial discrimination". According to official figures, most of the 197 killed in the riot were Han, a statement which "New York Times" reporter Edward Wong says is disputed by Uyghurs.


title: Ürümqi

text: The largest city in western China, Ürümqi has earned a place in the "Guinness Book of Records" as the most remote city from any sea in the world. It is about from the nearest coastline as Ürümqi is the closest major city to the Eurasian pole of inaccessibility, although Karamay and Altay, both in Xinjiang, are closer. The city has an administrative area of and has an average elevation of .


title: Ürümqi

text: The location in the southwestern suburbs of Ürümqi (Ürümqi County) was designated by local geography experts as the "center point of Asia" in 1992, and a monument to this effect was erected there in the 1990s. The site is a local tourist attraction.


title: Ürümqi

text: Although surrounded by deserts (the Gurbantünggüt in the north and the Taklamakan in the south), the Ürümqi area is naturally watered by a number of small rivers flowing from the snow-capped Tian Shan mountains: the main range of the Tian Shan in south of the city (Ürümqi County), and the Bogda Shan east of the city (Dabancheng District). A network consisting of thousands of miles of canals, reservoirs, and tunnels called "karez", redistribute the water throughout the extensively irrigated area along the foothills of the mountain range. It is based on an ancient irrigation system built 2,000 years ago.


title: Ürümqi

text: There are 20,000 glaciers in Xinjiang – nearly half of all the glaciers in China. Since the 1950s, Xinjiang's glaciers have retreated by between 21 percent to 27 percent due to global warming. Tianshan Glacier No. 1 (), origin of Ürümqi River, is the largest glacier near a major city in China, but has already split into two smaller glaciers.


title: Ürümqi

text: As the Ürümqi region's population and economy are growing, the water demand exceeds the natural supply. To alleviate water shortages, the Irtysh–Ürümqi Canal was constructed in the first decade of the 21st century. The canal's main trunk terminates in the so-called "Reservoir 500" (; ) in the far north-eastern suburbs of the city (on the border of Ürümqi's suburban Midong District and Fukang City). A new industrial area, called Ganquanbao Industrial Park (), or Industrial New City 500 () was being developed in 2009, west of the reservoir, relying on it for water supply. From the reservoir area water is further distributed over a network of canals throughout the lower Midong District.


title: Ürümqi

text: In Ürümqi, a continental cold semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification "BSk") prevails, with very large differences between summer and winter. It has warm summers, with a July daily average of , and very cold winters, with a January daily average of . The annual average temperature is . The city is semi-arid, with its summers slightly wetter than its winters, yet sunny weather is much more likely in the warmer months, and relative humidity is the lowest during summer. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 30 percent in December to 70 percent in August and September, the city receives 2,523 hours of bright sunshine annually. Its annual precipitation is about . Extremes since 1951 have ranged from on 27 February 1951 to on 1 August 1973.


title: Ürümqi

text: According to the National Environmental Analysis released by Tsinghua University and the Asian Development Bank in January 2013, Ürümqi is among the top ten cities in the world with the most air pollution. According to this report, seven of these cities are in China, including Taiyuan, Beijing, Lanzhou, Chongqing, Jinan, and Shijiazhuang (besides Ürümqi).


title: Ürümqi

text: Blacksmith Institute mentioned Ürümqi in "2007 World's Worst Polluted Places" caused by air pollution along with Linfen and Lanzhou, all in China. In 2008, "Toronto Star" listed Ürümqi as one of the Top Ten worst places to live in the world due to sulphurous pollution. Heavy haze is extremely common in winter, which frequently affects air traffic. Officials believed that severe winter air pollution in Ürümqi is mainly caused by energy-heavy industries and the outdated coal-firing winter heating system.


title: Ürümqi

text: According to a report by Department of Environmental Science and Engineering of Fudan University, the average PM and TSP concentrations in the winter of 2007 were 12 times higher than USA standard for PM and 3 times the National Ambient Air Quality Standard of China for TSP. The sulfur dioxide from industrial emissions mixed with the local anthropogenic aerosol with the transported soil dust from outside the city were the main sources of the high concentration of sulfate, one of the main factors causing the heavy air pollution over Ürümqi.


title: Ürümqi

text: Because of the use of a single time zone for all of China, in Ürümqi which is at a far western location in China, the sun is 2 hours and 10 minutes behind China Standard Time (CST = UTC+8). During early January the sun does not rise until 09:45 and it sets between 18:45 and 19:10 local time. In September and March the sun rises around 08:00, and sets around 19:45. However, in June the sun rises at about 06:25 and does not set until 21:45.


title: Ürümqi

text: Ürümqi has been a multi-ethnic city from the time of the Qing conquest; in the early years, the Manchus lived in Gongning Cheng, Han Chinese in Dihua and various other ethnic groups such as the Hui, Uyghurs and others in the suburban districts. Muslims settled to the south of the walled-city of Dihua, and although the walls have since been demolished, the Muslims are still concentrated there.


title: Ürümqi

text: A census in 1787 showed that there were 114,348 Hui and Han in the prefectures of Zhenxi (which included Barköl and Hami) and Ürümqi. In Ürümqi city itself, there were 39,000 people in the 1880s and by the early 20th century, 50,000 people. Ürümqi in 1908 was said to have been inhabited by Uyghurs (then called Turkis), Chinese, Manchus and a few Mongols, with the Uyghurs estimated to comprise a quarter of the population.


title: Ürümqi

text: In the People's Republic era, an active program to resettle Han population in Xinjiang was initiated. In 1960, there were 76,496 Uyghurs and 477,321 Han Chinese in Ürümqi.


title: Ürümqi

text: According to the 2000 census, Ürümqi had 2,081,834 inhabitants, with a population density of 174.53 inhabitants/km (452.3 inhabitants/sq. mi.).


title: Ürümqi

text: In the 2010 census, the population was recorded as 3,112,559. Part of the increase was due to boundary changes, for example, Miquan was merged into Midong District and became part of Ürümqi in 2007.


title: Ürümqi

text: Ürümqi is a major industrial center within Xinjiang. Ürümqi, together with Karamay and Korla, account for 64.5 percent of the total industrial output of Xinjiang. Ürümqi is also the largest consumer center in the region, recording ¥41.9 billion retail sales of consumer goods in 2008, an increase of 26 percent from 2007. The GDP per capita reached US$6,222 in 2008. According to statistics, Ürümqi ranked 7th in 2008 by the disposable income for urban residents among cities in Western China. Ürümqi has been a central developmental target for the China Western Development project that the Central Government is pursuing.


title: Ürümqi

text: The Ürümqi Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Fair () has been held annually since 1991 and has been upgraded into the first China-Eurasia Expo in 2011. Its purpose is to promote domestic and foreign markets. The 17th Fair has attracted participants from the Ministry of Commerce and the China Council for Promotion of International Trade.


title: Ürümqi

text: Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Investment Group () is the largest real estate enterprise and most powerful privately owned company in Xinjiang and is currently engaged in energy and automobiles. China CITIC Bank Mansion (), headquarters of Guanghui, located in one of the CBDs in North Xinhua Road, is the tallest building in Ürümqi and Xinjiang; with a height of , it is also the tallest in Northwestern China and Central Asia. Zhongshan Road (Sun Yat-sen Road; ) has been one of the ten most famous commercial streets in China since 2005. Zhongshan Road has always been the hub of consumer electronics in the city, with the largest computer, mobile phone and consumer electronics market in Xinjiang, including Baihuacun, Cyber Digital Plaza and Fountain Plaza.


title: Ürümqi

text: As the economic center in Xinjiang, Ürümqi has expanded its urban area since the 1990s. The CBDs in the city increased rapidly all around the major districts. Despite the old city areas being primarily in the south, the development in the north part began since the late 1980s. The completion of the new office tower for Ürümqi Municipal Government in 2003 at Nanhu Square () in Nanhu Road marked a shift of the city center to the north. Lacking a subway, the city commenced the construction of viaducts for Outer Ring Road () since 2003, which considerably facilitates transport. Youhao Road () and surrounding neighborhood, is the commercial center for business, shopping and amusement. Youhao Group (), the namesake local enterprise, owns a major market share of retails. Maison Mode Urumqi (), open since 2008, became one of the few notable department stores for luxury merchandise in the city. The Ürümqi Economic and Technological Development Zone (UETD) located in the northern Toutunhe District, has been a leading base for steel, machinery manufacturing, biochemistry and other industrial innovations.


title: Ürümqi

text: Ürümqi has many educational campuses including Xinjiang University, Xinjiang Normal University, Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinjiang Medical University and many others.


title: Ürümqi

text: Ürümqi is served by the Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport. It is a hub for China Southern Airlines. Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport is the largest airport in Xinjiang, and the only airport in China to serve flights from Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.


title: Ürümqi

text: Ürümqi is Xinjiang's main rail hub with two primary railway stations, the older Ürümqi South railway station (formerly the Urumqi railway station) and Ürümqi railway station opened in July 2016. The Lanzhou-Xinjiang High Speed Railway stops at both stations, running from Ürümqi to Lanzhou railway station, and has been in operation since the end of 2014.


title: Ürümqi

text: The city is served by several conventional rail lines. Ürümqi is the western terminus of the Lanzhou–Xinjiang (Lanxin) and Ürümqi–Dzungaria (Wuzhun) Railway, and the eastern terminus of the Northern Xinjiang (Beijiang) and the Second Ürümqi–Jinghe railway. The Beijiang and the Lanxin Lines form part of the Trans-Eurasian Continental Railway, which runs from Rotterdam through the Alataw Pass on the Kazakhstan border to Ürümqi and on to Lanzhou and Lianyungang.


title: Ürümqi

text: Many roads to the north and west typically shut down by early October, remaining closed until the end of winter.


title: Ürümqi

text: The Ürümqi BRT bus service was launched in August 2011 after an investment of 930 million yuan in an effort to improve urban traffic. There are currently 9 routes operated, BRT1, BRT2, BRT3, BRT4, BRT5, BRT 6, its branch BRT 61, BRT 7, and its branch BRT 71.


title: Ürümqi

text: The Ürümqi Metro opened on 25 October 2018, when the northern section of Line 1 was opened to the public. The southern section of Line 1 opened on 28 June 2019. Line 1 runs between Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport and Santunbei in downtown Ürümqi, with a total length of and 21 stations. It is fully underground.


title: Ürümqi

text: The planned system consists of 7 lines being in length. The first two lines, Line 1 and Line 2 will be constructed with an estimated cost of 31.24 billion yuan.


title: Ürümqi

text: The Xinjiang Networking Transmission Limited operates the Ürümqi People's Broadcasting Station and the Xinjiang People Broadcasting Station, broadcasting in the Mandarin, Uyghur, Kazakh, Mongolian, Russian and the Kyrgyz languages.


title: Ürümqi

text: The Xinjiang Television Station (XJTV), located in Ürümqi, is the major TV broadcasting station in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The local television station for Ürümqi city is Ürümqi Television Station (UTV).


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: Forest Lawn Memorial Park is a privately owned cemetery in Glendale, California. It is the original and current flagship location of Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries, a chain of six cemeteries and four additional mortuaries in Southern California.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: Forest Lawn Memorial Park was founded in 1906 as a not-for-profit cemetery by a group of businessmen from San Francisco. Dr. Hubert Eaton and C.B. Sims entered into a sales contract with the cemetery in 1912. Eaton took over its management in 1917. Although Eaton did not start Forest Lawn, he is credited as its "Founder" for his innovations of establishing the "memorial-park plan". He eliminated upright grave markers and brought in works by established artists. He was the first to open a funeral home on dedicated cemetery grounds. He was a firm believer in a joyous life after death.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: Convinced that most cemeteries were "unsightly, depressing stoneyards," he pledged to create one that would reflect his optimistic Christian beliefs, "as unlike other cemeteries as sunshine is unlike darkness." He envisioned Forest Lawn as "a great park devoid of misshapen monuments and other signs of earthly death, but filled with towering trees, sweeping lawns, splashing fountains, beautiful statuary, and memorial architecture." A number of plaques stating Eaton's intentions are signed "The Builder." Frederick Llewellyn, Eaton's nephew, became CEO of Forest Lawn in 1966. In 1987 he was succeeded by his son, John Llewellyn, who died in April of 2022.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: Most of Forest Lawn's burial sections have evocative names, including Eventide, Babyland (for infants, shaped like a heart), Graceland, Inspiration Slope, Slumberland (for children and adolescents), Sweet Memories, Whispering Pines, Vesperland, Borderland (on the edge of the cemetery), and Dawn of Tomorrow.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: Forest Lawn originally participated in racial segregation and "for decades refused entrance to blacks, Jews, and Chinese".


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: The Forest Lawn Museum in Glendale opened in 1952 and is located next to the Hall of Crucifixion-Resurrection. It rotates art exhibitions twice yearly, and has hosted solo exhibitions for Henri Matisse, Winslow Homer, Ian Hornak, Francisco Goya, Rembrandt and Marc Davis. In 2021, it held an exhibition on Judson Studios, the oldest family-run stained glass studio in the United States, which produced numerous stained glass windows for Forest Lawn in the Hall of Crucifixion-Resurrection and the Great Mausoleum.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: Forest Lawn Museum's art collection consists primarily of original bronze and marble sculptures by European and American artists. The permanent collection also includes stained glass that used to be part of William Randolph Hearst's collection. Forest Lawn purchased the stained glass works in 1954. The windows date from c. 1315 to 1575, and display impressive examples of French, German, and Austrian craftsmanship in Gothic and Renaissance styles.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: One of the most famous objects in the Forest Lawn Museum's permanent collection is an oil painting titled "Song of the Angels" by French artist William Bouguereau (1825–1905), who painted the artwork in 1881. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, as well as in Rome, and was considered a leading French academic painter in the nineteenth century. Legend has it that Bouguereau searched for a model for the painting’s figures and found them in his first wife, Nelly Monochablon, who posed for the angels, one by one, and at last, with a child in her arms. The painting shows a mother and child, calmly asleep in a pastoral setting, while a trio of angels hovers nearby. It highlights Bouguereau’s ability to render realistic flesh tones and subtle gradations of white.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: "Song of the Angels" was once a part of the Wanamaker Collection in Philadelphia. It was acquired by Forest Lawn Memorial Park in 1940 for a chapel in the Church of the Recessional. Originally, a stained-glass window was going to be the focal point of the chapel, but instead Forest Lawn decided to purchase the painting from Schnittjer’s gallery. A large gothic-style liturgical frame was built for the painting by Forest Lawn craftsmen, and it is still presented in this wooden frame at the Forest Lawn Museum.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: In 2005, the painting traveled to the Getty Center in Los Angeles for a cleaning with funding from the Conservation Partnership Program. Chief Paintings Conservator, Mark Leonard, worked on the painting for months to remove the old varnish and restore its original colors. "Song of the Angels" was exhibited at the Getty Center, alongside a preparatory oil sketch and a later, half-size replica from Bouguereau’s own hand.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: The Court of David at Forest Lawn-Glendale is centered around the seventeen-foot-tall statue, "David," by Michelangelo Buonarotti. The first Forest Lawn replica of "David" was installed at Forest Lawn on June 22, 1939. The statue was placed using a series of ropes and pullies. The statue fell due to seismic activity in 1971. The head and right foot of the 1939 replica is on display at the Forest Lawn Museum. Later Forest Lawn copies fell in 1994 and 2020.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: A new bronze replica of "David" was installed at Forest Lawn-Glendale in 2021. The architectural inspiration for the Court of David is the Piazzale Michelangelo, an open-air space in Florence, Italy, dedicated to Michelangelo. The Court of David is located right before the Mystery of Life garden on Cathedral Drive.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: The Court of Freedom is 750 feet long and 300 feet wide. It is enclosed on three sides by high walls and is open to the side that parallels the drive. The central point of the court is the mosaic rendition of John Trumbull's "Signing of the Declaration of Independence." The mosaic measures at twenty by thirty feet. It is three times the size of the original painting in the United States Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. The mosaic consists of 700,000 pieces of Venetian glass in more than 1,500 colors. It was made in Italy expressly for Forest Lawn. There are two fifty-foot white pylons on each end of the court.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: The left pylon displays a replica of "The Republic" by Daniel Chester French. The original work was at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. The Forest Lawn version is 18-feet-tall and is one of two later originals, the other having been Commissioned for the Siegel-Cooper Big Store in Manhattan's Ladies' Mile in 1896. The figure holds a globe surmounted by an American eagle and clasps the staff of liberty crowned with a laurel wreath of honor. The right pylon displays an original statue of George Washington by John Quincy Adams Ward. This statue had been commissioned by the U.S. Congress, but no appropriation was made to pay for it, so it was purchased by Forest Lawn.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: Before the beginning of World War II in 1939, Forest Lawn commissioned a reproduction of "Christus," an eleven-foot tall marble sculpture by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770–1884). The original stands in the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen, Denmark. The first small reproduction was received in 1925 and a larger reproduction was completed in 1940 and unveiled in 1946. A second small yellow copy was received in 1947. The Court of The Christus is placed above a waterfall between the Garden of Remembrance and the Garden of Memory.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: The Great Mausoleum features eleven terraces and over 100 stained glass windows. The massive building, which contains the same amount of steel and concrete as a 70-story skyscraper, embodies an eclectic mix of architectural styles, and is the park's artistic centerpiece.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: The mausoleum's original architect was T. Paterson Ross. Numerous other people worked on it, and the construction designs underwent several rounds of changes. Construction began in 1917, and it was officially inaugurated in 1920. Construction finished only in the 1970s.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: The Memorial Terrace was added in the late 1920s, and the Memorial Court of Honor was inaugurated in 1931. The gallery's largest piece is the Last Supper stained glass window by Rosa Caselli-Moretti and her sister, Cecilia Caselli-Moretti. This monumental project took over six years to complete. It was created in the sisters’ studio in Perugia, Italy, and shipped to Glendale, where it was formally dedicated on April 28, 1931.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: Commissioned expressly for the Memorial Court of Honor are the replicas of the seven Michelangelo sculptures including the Pietà. The Memorial Court of Honor is the only place in the world where exceptional marble reproductions of all of Michelangelo's most renowned statues can be viewed in one location. One of the mausoleum's last building phases incorporated French Gothic architecture with lofty ceilings and large stained-glass windows, creating an ethereal and tranquil space.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: Wee Kirk o' the Heather is the second church built at Forest Lawn. The inspiration for the church was based on the village church (kirk) at Glencairn, Dumfriesshire, Scotland. This village church was erected in 1310 and subsequently destroyed in 1805. Dumfriesshire is rich in historical tradition, and it is most known for being where Sir Walter Scott wrote some of his most famous works, and former home of the famed poet, Robert Burns. The love song "Annie Laurie" is perhaps Scotland's most popular love ballad. It immortalizes the ill-fated romance of a woman that lived near the original "wee kirk" in the Glencairn.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: The song was written by William Douglas of Fingland, a soldier in the Royal Scots Army. Annie Laurie was born at Maxwelton House in 1682, the daughter of Sir Robert Laurie, a baronet. Traditionally, it is believed that Annie's aristocratic family would not consent to her marrying an older soldier of an opposing clan.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: This evocative ballad is portrayed in eight beautiful stained glass windows along the south side of the Wee Kirk at Forest Lawn. Artifacts related to Annie including communion coins, will, and portrait are all housed in the historical room at the Wee Kirk. The Wee Kirk church was dedicated on October 6, 1929. Over five thousand people attended the ceremony, and Frank McWilliams, Scottish tenor, sang "Annie Laurie."


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: In the forecourt of the Wee Kirk is a "Wishing Chair." Built in 1931, of stones from the original kirk at Glencairn, Scotland, legend has it that lovers who sit and speak the words inscribed on the chair will be forever blessed.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: The Little Church of the Flowers was the first church to be built at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. The architect was T. Patterson Ross. Ross's inspiration was an English village church at Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire, where the poet Thomas Gray had written "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," a famous English poem. Ross wanted to recreate the 600-plus-year-old parish church at Forest Lawn. He began his commission in 1917.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: The conservatories adjacent to the pews, filled with flowers, was added later on in the construction. The dedication ceremony took place on Mother's Day, May 12, 1918. At the end of the nave is a "Tree of Life Window." The design of the window was created by a long-forgotten monk in an English Abbey. It was then translated into a stained glass medium.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: The Church of the Recessional was the third church built at Forest Lawn. The architectural inspiration was the Church of St. Margaret in Rottingdean, Sussex, England, an Anglo-Saxon-styled stone and stained glass edifice dating from 1100 A.D. that is still standing. The dedication ceremony took place on November 30, 1941. Within the chancel are three stained glass windows depicting scenes of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: The stained glass windows were produced by Charles J. Connick. Along both sides of the chancel arch, the pulpit and the baptismal font of St. Margaret's have been faithfully reproduced. Over the arch are the words of Apostle Paul, "Now abideth faith, hope, and love, these three; and the greatest of these is love." Along the south side of the church are stained glass windows that depict the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: In the forecourt of the church stands the romantic Ring of Aldyth, to which an Old Saxon legend attaches a prophecy of happiness and devotion for a couple who clasp their right hands through the ring and repeat together the inscribed vows: "Thy hand in mine, this ring doth bind, my heart to thine."


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: Built with the intention to house the enormous painting by Jan Styka, "The Crucifixion;" the design for the Hall of Crucifixion-Resurrection was inspired by the cathedral in Orvieto, Italy. The architectural style of the hall is Gothic. Covering the painting are a pair of gigantic curtains that weigh 3,500 pounds, measure four hundred forty feet long by fifty feet high, and are carried on a custom-built set of tracks.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: The hall was completed in three years, and the dedication ceremony took place on Good Friday, March 23, 1951. It even was the subject of an in-depth article in the March 23, 1955, issue of "Southwest Builder & Contractor Magazine," which characterized the hall as:


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: "The new structure is not a church or chapel, and will not be used for funeral or wedding ceremonies. It is purely an auditorium for the reverential viewing of Styka's masterpiece...In order that the true perspective of the entire length of the picture may be had by persons sitting on the one thousand seats on the auditorium floor, the wall upon which the painting has been mounted is slightly curved concave to the audience." The painting has been shown daily in an audio-visual presentation since the dedication ceremonies.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: The painting has an elaborate and interesting history. "The  Crucifixion"  was brought by the artist, Jan Styka, to the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. When the fair ended, he was unable to pay the export duty and was forced to return to Poland without it.  Styka, whose self-portrait is seen in the painting as the figure of Saul (Paul), died in 1925 without ever seeing his painting again. The  Crucifixion was wrapped around a telephone pole and stored in several warehouses over the years until it was rediscovered at the Chicago Civic Opera company in 1943. Forest Lawn purchased the painting after World War II  for the express purpose of displaying it to the public.


title: Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)

text: The most notable critical work about Forest Lawn is "The Loved One" by Evelyn Waugh, an English writer. Waugh was given a tour of Forest Lawn, and that is when he was inspired with the idea for the book. A 1948 New York Times review wrote that it is "satire at its most ferocious...a macabre frolic filled with... ingenious devices."


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 2020, the population was 159,467. The city's estimated population has grown by 1% annually since 2010 on average.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Like the rest of Northern Virginia and Central Maryland, modern Alexandria has been influenced by its proximity to the U.S. capital. It is largely populated by professionals working in the federal civil service, in the U.S. military, or for one of the many private companies which contract to provide services to the federal government. One of Alexandria's largest employers is the U.S. Department of Defense. Another is the Institute for Defense Analyses. In 2005, the United States Patent and Trademark Office moved to Alexandria, and in 2017, so did the headquarters of the National Science Foundation.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The historic center of Alexandria is known as Old Town Alexandria (or simply "Old Town"). With its concentration of boutiques, restaurants, antique shops and theaters, it is a major draw for all who live in Alexandria as well for visitors. Like Old Town, many Alexandria neighborhoods are compact and walkable. It is the 7th largest and highest-income independent city in Virginia. A large portion of adjacent Fairfax County, mostly south but also west of the city, has Alexandria mailing addresses. However, this area is under the jurisdiction of Fairfax County's government and separate from the independent city. The city is therefore sometimes referred to as the "City of Alexandria" to avoid confusion (see the "Neighborhoods" paragraph below). Additionally, neighboring Arlington County was formerly named "Alexandria County" before it was renamed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1920 to reduce confusion with the city.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: According to archaeologists' estimates, a succession of indigenous peoples began to occupy the Chesapeake and Tidewater region about 3,000 to 10,000 years ago. Various Algonquian-speaking peoples inhabited the lands in the Potomac River drainage area since at least the early 14th century.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In the summer of 1608, English settler John Smith explored the Potomac River and came into contact with the Patawomeck (loosely affiliated with the Powhatan) and Doeg tribes who lived on the Virginia side, as well as on Theodore Roosevelt Island, and the Piscataway (also known as the Conoy), who resided on the Maryland side. On this visit, Smith recorded the presence of a settlement called "Assaomeck" near the south bank of what is now Hunting Creek.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: On October 21, 1669, a patent granted to Robert Howsing for transporting 120 people to the Colony of Virginia. That tract would later become the City of Alexandria. Virginia's comprehensive Tobacco Inspection Law of 1730 mandated that all tobacco grown in the colony must be brought to locally designated public warehouses for inspection before sale. One of the sites designated for a warehouse on the upper Potomac River was at the mouth of Hunting Creek. However, the ground proved to be unsuitable, and the warehouse was built half a mile up-river, where the water was deep near the shore.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Following the 1745 settlement of the Virginia's 10-year dispute with Lord Fairfax over the western boundary of the Northern Neck Proprietary, when the Privy Council in London found in favor of Lord Fairfax's expanded claim, some of the Fairfax County gentry formed the Ohio Company of Virginia. They intended to conduct trade into the interior of America, and they required a trading center near the head of navigation on the Potomac. The best location was Hunting Creek tobacco warehouse, since the deep water could easily accommodate sailing ships. Many local tobacco planters, however, wanted a new town further up Hunting Creek, away from nonproductive fields along the river.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Around 1746, Captain Philip Alexander II (1704–1753) moved to what is south of present Duke Street in Alexandria. His estate, which consisted of , was bounded by Hunting Creek, Hooff's Run, the Potomac River, and approximately the line which would become Cameron Street. At the opening of Virginia's 1748–49 legislative session, there was a petition submitted in the House of Burgesses on November 1, 1748, that the "inhabitants of Fairfax (Co.) praying that a town may be established at Hunting Creek Warehouse on Potowmack River," as Hugh West was the owner of the warehouse. The petition was introduced by Lawrence Washington (1718–1752), the representative for Fairfax County and, more importantly, the son-in-law of William Fairfax and a founding member of the Ohio Company. To support the company's push for a town on the river, Lawrence's younger brother George Washington, an aspiring surveyor, made a sketch of the shoreline touting the advantages of the tobacco warehouse site.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Since the river site was amidst his estate, Philip opposed the idea and strongly favored a site at the head of Hunting Creek (also known as Great Hunting Creek). It has been said that in order to avoid a predicament the petitioners offered to name the new town "Alexandria", in honor of Philip's family. As a result, Philip and his cousin Captain John Alexander (1711–1763) gave land to assist in the development of Alexandria, and are thus listed as the founders. This John was the son of Robert Alexander II (1688–1735). On May 2, 1749, the House of Burgesses approved the river location and ordered "Mr. Washington do go up with a Message to the Council and acquaint them that this House have agreed to the Amendments titled An Act for erecting a Town at Hunting Creek Warehouse, in the County of Fairfax." A "Public Vendue" (auction) was advertised for July, and the county surveyor laid out street lanes and town lots. The auction was conducted on July 13–14, 1749.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Almost immediately upon establishment, the town founders called the new town "Belhaven", believed to be in honor of a Scottish patriot, John Hamilton, 2nd Lord Belhaven and Stenton, the Northern Neck tobacco trade being then dominated by Scots. The name Belhaven was used in official lotteries to raise money for a Church and Market House, but it was never approved by the legislature and fell out of favor in the mid-1750s. The town of Alexandria did not become incorporated until 1779.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 1755, General Edward Braddock organized his fatal expedition against Fort Duquesne at Carlyle House in Alexandria. In April 1755, the governors of Virginia, and the provinces of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York met to determine upon concerted action against the French in America.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In March 1785, commissioners from Virginia and Maryland met in Alexandria to discuss the commercial relations of the two states, finishing their business at Mount Vernon. The Mount Vernon Conference concluded on March 28 with an agreement for freedom of trade and freedom of navigation of the Potomac River. The Maryland legislature, in ratifying this agreement on November 22, proposed a conference among representatives from all the states to consider the adoption of definite commercial regulations. This led to the calling of the Annapolis Convention of 1786, which in turn led to the calling of the Federal Convention of 1787.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 1791, Alexandria was included in the area chosen by George Washington to become the District of Columbia.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 1814, during the War of 1812, a British fleet launched a successful Raid on Alexandria, which surrendered without a fight. As agreed in the terms of surrender the British looted stores and warehouses of mainly flour, tobacco, cotton, wine, and sugar. In 1823 William Holland Wilmer, Francis Scott Key, and others founded the Virginia Theological Seminary. From 1828 to 1836, Alexandria was home to the Franklin & Armfield Slave Market, one of the largest slave trading companies in the country. By the 1830s, they were sending more than 1,000 slaves annually from Alexandria to their Natchez, Mississippi, New Orleans, and later Texas markets to help meet the demand for slaves in Mississippi and nearby states. Later owned by Price, Birch & Co., the slave pen became a jail under Union occupation.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: A portion of the City of Alexandria—most of the area now known as Old Town as well as the areas of the city northeast of what is now King Street—and all of today's Arlington County share the distinction of having been the portion of Virginia ceded to the U.S. Government in 1791 to help form the new District of Columbia. Over time, a movement grew to separate what was called "Alexandria County" from the District of Columbia. As competition grew with the port of Georgetown and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal fostered development on the north side of the Potomac River, Alexandria's economy stagnated; at the same time, residents had lost any representation in Congress and the right to vote, and were disappointed with the negligible economic benefit (on the Alexandria side) of being part of the national capital. Alexandria still had an important port and market in the slave trade, and as talk increased of abolishing slavery in the national capital, there was concern that Alexandria's economy would suffer greatly if this step were taken. After a referendum, voters petitioned Congress and Virginia to return the portion of the District of Columbia south of the Potomac River (Alexandria County) to Virginia. On July 9, 1846, Congress retroceded Alexandria County to Virginia. The City of Alexandria was re-chartered in 1852 and became independent of Alexandria County in 1870. The remaining portion of Alexandria County changed its name to Arlington County in 1920.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The first fatalities of the North and South in the American Civil War occurred in Alexandria. Within a month of the Battle of Fort Sumter, Union troops occupied Alexandria, landing troops at the base of King Street on the Potomac River on May 24, 1861. A few blocks up King Street from their landing site, the commander of the New York Fire Zouaves, Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, sortied with a small detachment to remove a large Confederate flag displayed on the roof of the Marshall House Inn that had been visible from the White House. While descending from the roof, Ellsworth was shot dead by James W. Jackson, the hotel's proprietor. One of Ellsworth's soldiers immediately killed Jackson. Ellsworth was publicized as a Union martyr, and the incident generated great excitement in the North, with many children being named for him. Jackson's death defending his home caused a similar sensation in the South.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Alexandria remained under military occupation until the end of the war. Fort Ward, one of a ring of forts built by the Union army for the defense of Washington, D.C., is located inside the boundaries of present-day Alexandria. There were five military prisons in the city, the largest being the Washington Street Military Prison. After the creation by Washington of the state of West Virginia in 1863 and until the close of the war, Alexandria was the seat of the so-called Restored Government of Virginia, also known as the "Alexandria Government". During the Union occupation, a recurring contention between the Alexandria citizenry and the military occupiers was the Union army's periodic insistence that church services include prayers for the President of the United States. Failure to do so resulted in incidents including the arrest of ministers in their church.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 1861 and 1862, escaped African-American slaves poured into Alexandria. Safely behind Union lines, the cities of Alexandria and Washington offered comparative freedom and employment. Alexandria became a major supply depot and transport and hospital center for the Union army. Until the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, escaped slaves legally remained the property of their owners. Therefore, they were labeled contrabands to avoid returning them to their masters. Contrabands worked for the Union army in various support roles.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: After all slaves in the seceding states were liberated, even more African Americans came to Alexandria. By the fall of 1863, the population of Alexandria had exploded to 18,000an increase of 10,000 people in 16 months.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: As of ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, Alexandria County's black population was more than 8,700, or about half the total number of residents in the county. This newly enfranchised constituency provided the support necessary to elect the first black Alexandrians to the City Council and the Virginia Legislature.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: At the turn of the 20th century the most common production in the city was glass, fertilizer, beer, and leather. The glass often went into beer bottles. Much of the Virginia Glass Company effort went to supply the demands of the Robert Portner Brewing Company, until fire destroyed the St. Asaph Street plant on February 18, 1905. The Old Dominion Glass Company also had a glass works fall to fire, then built a new one. The Belle Pre Bottle Company held a monopoly on a milk bottle that they patented, yet that organization only lasted 10 years. Most businesses were smaller where the business occupied the first floor of a building and the owner and family lived above. Prohibition closed Portner Brewing in 1916.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: President Woodrow Wilson visited the Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation on May 30, 1918, to drive the first rivet into the keel of the . In 1930, Alexandria annexed the town adjacent to Potomac Yard incorporated in 1908 named Potomac. In 1938 the Mt. Vernon Drive-In cinema opened. In 1939, the segregated public library experienced a sit-in organized by Samuel Wilbert Tucker. In 1940, both the Robert Robinson Library, which is now the Alexandria Black History Museum, and the Vernon Theatre opened Jim Morrison of "The Doors", as well as Cass Elliot and John Phillips of "The Mamas & The Papas" attended the George Washington High School in the 1950s.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 1955, then-Congressman and future President Gerald R. Ford and his family moved to Alexandria from Georgetown. The Fords remained in their Alexandria home during Ford's tenure as Vice President (1973-1974), as the Vice President did not yet have an official residence. Following the resignation of Richard Nixon, Ford spent his first 10 days as President in the house before moving to the White House.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In March 1959, Lieutenant Colonel William Henry Whalen, the "highest-ranking American ever recruited as a mole by the Russian Intelligence Service", provided Colonel Sergei A. Edemski three classified Army manuals in exchange for $3,500 at a shopping center parking lot within the city. Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation later arrested Whalen on July 12, 1966, at his home in the city. In 1961 the original Woodrow Wilson Bridge opened.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 1965, the city integrated schools. In 1971, the city consolidated all high school students into T. C. Williams High School. The same year that head coach Herman Boone joined the school and lead the football team to a 13–0 season, a state championship, and a national championship runner-up; the basis for the 2000 film "Remember the Titans" where Boone was portrayed by Denzel Washington. In 1972, Clifford T. Cline purchased the 1890 Victorian house at 219 King Street and converted it into the Creole serving Two-Nineteen Restaurant. In 1973, Nora Lamborne and Beverly Beidler became the first women elected to the city council. In 1974, the Torpedo Factory Art Center opened. In 1983, the King Street–Old Town station, Braddock Road station, and Eisenhower Avenue station opened as the Washington Metro system expanded. In 1991, the Van Dorn Street station opened and Patricia Ticer became the first women elected mayor.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: John Wise, a local Alexandria businessman and hotel keeper, hosted a meeting in his home in 1789 to discuss the creation of a Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge. Members include Rev. James Muir, physician Elisha Cullen Dick, and George Washington's personal attorney Charles Lee. The Society did not last for long. However, on July 24, 1794, the founders of the Society once again met at Wise's home to establish a subscription library. During the first year, one hundred nineteen men joined the circulating library which was to be called the Library Company of Alexandria. Members agreed to pay an initiation fee and annual dues. The company was chartered as a corporation in 1798 in an act passed by the General Assembly of Virginia.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Druggist Edward Stabler was elected the first librarian and the library's first location is believed to have been housed in his apothecary shop. James Kennedy was elected the second librarian, and the library moved to his residence and place of business. Kennedy sold books from his personal collection to the Library Company. Those books and other bought from two local merchants formed the foundation of the subscription library. The first catalog of the library's collection was published in 1797. The collection grew over time, bolstered in part by the fact that some members paid their dues in books. Most members were initially men, although records exist showing some women were members as early as 1798. One noted female member in 1817 was Mary L.F. Custis, wife of George Washington Parke Custis.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The catalog published in 1801 indicated a collection of 452 books, mostly on history and travel. By 1815, there were 1,022 entries in the catalog, and the collection had added more biographies, fiction, and magazines. The library was housed in several locations over the ensuing years, including the New Market House next to the City Hall, the Lyceum Company building, and Peabody Hall, which was owned by the Alexandria School Board. Raising funds for the library was a continuing challenge. In 1853, a lecture series was created to raise money. Speakers included Professor Joseph Henry of the Smithsonian, Colonel Francis H. Smith of the Virginia Military Institute, and humorist George W. Bagby.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The Civil War took its toll on the library collection. Members were able to remove some of the collection prior to the library's occupation by Union troops. The library was used as a hospital and much of the library's collection was lost during this time. After the war, the building was sold to a private owner who planned to turn the building into a private residence and asked the library to remove what was left of the collection. Funds continued to be hard to come by and in 1879, the Library Company closed. The remainder of its collection was stored in Peabody Hall.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 1897, a group of women in Alexandria formed the Alexandria Library Association. The leaders of the group were Virginia Corse, Mrs. William B. Smoot, and Virginia Burke. They petitioned the school board to open a subscription library in Peabody Hall, using the old books stored there. Permission was given and doors to the new subscription library opened on December 1, 1897. In 1902, the library moved to the first floor of a house in the 1300 block of Prince Street while negotiations were underway for a permanent move to the Confederate Hall, located at 806 Prince Street. In May 1903, the library moved to the Confederate Hall, now known as the Robert E. Lee Camp Hall Museum, where it stayed for 34 years.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 1936, Dr. and Mrs. Robert South Barrett presented a proposal to the Library Association. They agreed to donate a building in memory of Dr. Barrett's mother, Kate Waller Barrett, if the city would commit to running it as a public library. The city agreed and the Society of Friends offered a 99-year lease on an old Quaker graveyard located on Queen Street. The old library was closed on March 1 for the books to be packed and moved to the new library, which opened to the public in August 1937. The Alexandria Library Association became the Alexandria Library Society.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 1939, the Barrett library was the scene of possibly the nation's first sit-in demonstrations, as Samuel Tucker, a young law school graduate from the neighborhood, and several other African-American residents insisted on access to the racially segregated library where they had been banned. Tucker later became a prominent attorney in Richmond.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 1947, the Library Society was reconstituted and took the earlier historic name Alexandria Library Company. A lecture series was also revived. Speakers included Thomas Jefferson biographer Dumas Malone. Some of the books belonging in the original collection of the Alexandria Library Company can now be found in the Local History/Special Collections Room at the Queen Street library that still carries Mrs. Barrett's name.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 1948, Ellen Coolidge Burke became director. Burke brought bookmobile services to Alexandria, one of the first services in Virginia. She oversaw the growth of the library system by the addition of two new branch libraries. In April 1968 the Ellen Coolidge Burke Branch at 4701 Seminary Road was opened, and in December 1969 the James M. Duncan branch at 2501 Commonwealth Avenue. Burke retired in 1969.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 2.85%, is water. Alexandria is bounded on the east by the Potomac River, on the north and northwest by Arlington County, and on the south by Fairfax County. The western portions of the city were annexed from those two entities beginning in the 1930s.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The addressing system in Alexandria is not uniform and reflects the consolidation of several originally separate communities into a single city. In Old Town Alexandria, building numbers are assigned north and south from King Street and west (only) from the Potomac River. In the areas formerly in the town of Potomac, such as Del Ray and St. Elmo, building numbers are assigned east and west from Commonwealth Avenue and north (only) from King Street. In the western parts of the city, building numbers are assigned north and south from Duke Street.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The ZIP Code prefix 223 uniquely identifies the Alexandria postal area. However, the Alexandria postal area extends into Fairfax County and includes addresses outside of the city. Delivery areas have ZIP codes 22301, 22302, 22303, 22304, 22305, 22306, 22307, 22308, 22309, 22310, 22311, 22312, 22314, and 22315, with other ZIP codes in use for post office boxes and large mailers (22313, 22331, 22332, 22333).


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Part of the George Washington Memorial Parkway is the one national protected area within the borders of Alexandria.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Neighborhoods in the City of Alexandria include Old Town, Parker-Gray, The Berg, Arlandria, Rosemont, Del Ray, Beverley Hills, Braddock Heights, Eisenhower Valley, Seminary Valley, Temple Park, West End, and Potomac Yard.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Many areas outside the city have an Alexandria mailing address yet are a part of Fairfax County including: Hollin Hills, Franconia, Groveton, Hybla Valley, Huntington, Lincolnia, Belle Haven, Mount Vernon, Fort Hunt, Engleside, Burgundy Village, Waynewood, Wilton Woods, Rose Hill, Virginia Hills, Hayfield, and Kingstowne. Some refer to these areas as Lower Alexandria, South Alexandria, or Alexandria, Fairfax County.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen climate classification system, Alexandria has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: "Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race."


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: At the 2010 census, there were 139,966 people, 68,082 households and 30,978 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 68,082 housing units at an average density of . The racial/ethnic mix of the population was :


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 2000, there were 61,889 households, of which 18.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 32.2% were married couples living together, 9.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 55.2% were non-families. 43.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.04 and the average family size was 2.87.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The age distribution was 16.8% under the age of 18, 9.2% from 18 to 24, 43.5% from 25 to 44, 21.5% from 45 to 64, and 9.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.7 males.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: According to 2019 Census Bureau data, the median household income was $103,284 and median family income was $130,395. Additionally, 8.6% of the population of the population were below the poverty line. 14.2% of those under the age of 18 and 3.1% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: 65.4% of Alexandria residents age 25 and older have attained a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 41.8% statewide.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Companies headquartered in Alexandria include the Institute for Defense Analyses, VSE, The Motley Fool, Port City Brewing Company, ThinkFun, Oblon law firm, Mandiant, BoatUS, and the Pentagon Federal Credit Union.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Federal agencies based in Alexandria include the National Credit Union Administration, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, National Science Foundation, Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Defense, and the Food and Nutrition Service.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Alexandria is home to numerous trade associations, charities, and non-profit organizations including the national headquarters of groups such as Catholic Charities, Citizens for the Republic, Global Impact, Good360, Islamic Relief USA, United Way, Volunteers of America and the Salvation Army. Other organizations located in Alexandria include the American Counseling Association, the Human Resource Certification Institute, the Society for Human Resource Management, the National Society of Professional Engineers, the National Beer Wholesalers Association, National Industries for the Blind, American Physical Therapy Association and the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC). Alexandria also has a Chamber of Commerce and other business associations including the West End Business Association, the Del Ray Business Association and the Old Town Business Association.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Major employment sectors in Alexandria include management consulting, business and finance, office and administrative support, computer and mathematical, sales, and legal. In total, firms in Alexandria employ approximately 91,000 people. Jobs in Alexandria are highly concentrated around the city's Metrorail stations, primarily in Old Town North and the Braddock Road area, Old Town, and Carlyle near the Eisenhower Avenue Station, as well as along the I-395 corridor on the west side of the city.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: 13% of people that work in Alexandria live in the city, while 87% commute in, with 37% of those commuters being from Fairfax County. An additional 61,000 people commute out of Alexandria to work. 35% commute to Washington, DC and 29% commute to Fairfax County. As of 2016, 2.9% of Alexandria residents were unemployed.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: According to the city's 2021 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top public employers in the city are:


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: A popular Christmas time attraction in Alexandria is the Scottish Christmas Walk, which was established in 1969. The event, which involves a parade through the center of Old Town Alexandria, celebrates the city's Scottish heritage, and is the centerpiece of a yearly holiday festival. It serves as a fundraiser for social services in Alexandria. Other parades in Old Town celebrate Saint Patrick's Day and the birthday of George Washington. Other annual events include the Red Cross Waterfront Festival in June, the city's birthday celebration with fireworks show in July, various ethnic heritage days at Tavern Square, and "First Night Alexandria", which presents many family-friendly entertainments on New Year's Eve.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: These parades and other official events are typically led by Alexandria's town crier, who, often dressed in elaborately, by a tradition dating to the 18th century, in a red coat, breeches, black boots and a tricorne hat, welcomes participants.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Landmarks within the city include the George Washington Masonic National Memorial (also known as the Masonic Temple) and Observation Deck, Christ Church, Gadsby's Tavern, John Carlyle House, Little Theatre of Alexandria, Lee-Fendall House, Alexandria City Hall, Market Square, the Jones Point Light, the south cornerstone of the original District of Columbia, Robert E. Lee's boyhood home, the Torpedo Factory Art Center, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. Other sites of historical interest in the city include Alexandria Black History Resource Center, Fort Ward Park and Museum, and the Alexandria Canal lock re-creation at Canal Office Center. Interesting sites with Alexandria addresses but outside of the city limits include River Farm, Collingwood Library & Museum, Green Spring Gardens Park, Huntley Meadows Park, Historic Huntley, Pope-Leighey House (designed by Frank Lloyd Wright), Woodlawn Plantation, Washington's Grist Mill and Mount Vernon Estate.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 1830, John Hollensbury's home in Alexandria was one of two homes directly bordering an alleyway that received a large amount of horse-drawn wagon traffic and loiterers. In order to prevent people from using the alleyway, Hollensbury constructed a wide, deep, , two-story home using the existing brick walls of the adjacent homes for the sides of the new home. The brick walls of the Hollensbury Spite House living room have gouges from wagon-wheel hubs; the house is still standing, and is occupied.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The Oswald Durant Center in the Upper King Street neighborhood of the Old Town is named after Dr. Oswald Durant, one of the first African American doctors in Alexandria.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Due to its proximity to Washington, Alexandria has only been the home of one professional sports team, the Alexandria Dukes, a minor league baseball team which moved to Woodbridge in 1984 to become The Prince William Pirates (now known as the Fredericksburg Nationals).


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Alexandria has a distributed park system with approximately spread across 70 major parks and 30 recreation centers, of which Chinquapin is one of the largest. Chinquapin offers facilities for swimming, tennis, racquetball, and other sports. The city also organizes several sports leagues throughout the year including volleyball, softball and basketball.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The city is home to Cameron Run Regional Park which includes a water park with a wave pool and water slides, as well as a miniature golf course and batting cages. A portion of the Mount Vernon Trail, a popular bike and jogging path, runs through Old Town near the Potomac River on its way from the Mount Vernon Estate to Roosevelt Island in Washington, DC. There is also a largely unbroken line of parks stretching along the Alexandria waterfront from end to end.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: As an independent city of Virginia (as opposed to an incorporated town within a county), Alexandria derives its governing authority from the Virginia General Assembly. In order to revise the power and structure of the city government, the city must request the General Assembly to amend the charter. This is called Dillon Rule. The present charter was granted in 1950 and it has been amended in 1968, 1971, 1976, and 1982.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Alexandria adopted a council-manager form of government by way of referendum in 1921. This type of government empowers the elected City Council to pass legislation and appoint the City Manager. The City Manager is responsible for overseeing the city's administration.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The Mayor, who is chosen on a separate ballot, presides over meetings of the Council and serves as the ceremonial head of government. The Mayor does not have the power to veto Council action. Council members traditionally choose the person receiving the most votes in the election to serve as Vice Mayor. In the absence or disability of the Mayor, the Vice Mayor performs the mayoral duties.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 2008, the City of Alexandria had 78 standing local boards, commissions, and committees to advise the City Council on major issues affecting the community. All members are appointed by the City Council.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In addition, Alexandria City Public Schools has a school board with nine members. Three are elected from each of the city's three school board districts.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Alexandria is part of Virginia's 8th congressional district, represented by Democrat and Alexandria resident Don Beyer, elected in 2014. The state's senior member of the United States Senate is Democrat Mark Warner, first elected in 2008. The state's junior member of the United States Senate is Democrat Tim Kaine, first elected in 2012.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Since its foundation, Alexandria's government has had several different forms of government. Before 1921, Alexandria had an elected eight-member Board of Aldermen and a sixteen-member Common Council whose members were elected by ward. In addition, there was an elected mayor with the power to veto legislation from the two councils. Reformers within the city during the early 20th century hoped to adopt the then-popular council-manager system. As a means to implementing this new system, the reformists proposed a plan to create a single city council elected at-large. This new system was adopted in 1921 and the first at-large councilmen were elected in June 1922.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 1930, Alexandria annexed the town of Potomac from Arlington County. Alexandria and Potomac stood in stark contrast. The streetcar suburb commuter town of Potomac had, as part of Arlington, been heavily influenced by the anti-vice crusades of staunch progressive Commonwealth's Attorney Crandal Mackey. In Potomac, slaughterhouses and saloons were banned. Residents of the former town of Potomac had a different identity from those in Alexandria, and after annexation former Potomac residents began to push for the reimplementation of the ward system. In a 1932 referendum, voters decided in favor of a new plan that would expand the city council to nine members; three elected at-large and six elected by ward. Support for the new plan was highest in the former town of Potomac.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: City councils elected under the new ward system began to take a more direct role in city administration. The city council and city manager gave conflicting orders to city employees while spending increased to accommodate appropriations coming from both the council and manager. With over one million dollars spent on unauthorized projects, a movement to go back to at-large councilmen emerged. In 1944, a referendum to eliminate the ward system ended with a vote in favor of the ward system. Shortly afterwards, a number of high-ranking city officials resigned and residents appealed to the Circuit Court for an order to force a referendum. Unbeknownst to the city government, Delegate Armistead Boothe introduced a bill in Richmond to hold another referendum. This bill passed the General Assembly and a vote was held on March 2, 1948. The options in the referendum included retaining the extant system or replacing it with a council of seven at-large members. Voters approved the new system with 61% of votes in favor. More recently, a 1983 push by the Virginia NAACP to return to the ward system failed because of a lack of support from elected officials.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 2008 the city council approved a charter where "citizens, businesses, and city government participate in a vibrant community that is always mindful of the needs and lifestyles of the generations to come". That charter defined sustainability as "meeting our community's present needs while preserving our historic character and ensuring the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". In "Ecocity Berkeley", an ecocity is defined as "an ecologically healthy city". In 2022, Alexandria enacted a 5-cent plastic bag tax consistent with the phase-out of lightweight plastic bags in the United States.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The city operates a jail for pre-trial and short-term inmates. This jail is used to house pre-trial inmates in federal espionage cases.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Virginia Tech's Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center, also known as WAAC, is located on Prince Street in Old Town, offering graduate programs in Urban Affairs and Planning, Public and International Affairs, Architecture, and Landscape Architecture. Virginia Commonwealth University operates a Northern Virginia branch of its School of Social Work and The George Washington University also has a campus near the King Street metro. This campus mainly offers professional and vocational programs, such as an executive MBA program, urban planning and security studies. It also includes the Alexandria campus of Northern Virginia Community College. The largest seminary in the Episcopal Church, Virginia Theological Seminary, is located on Seminary Road.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The city is served by the Alexandria City Public Schools system. Alexandria's public school system consists of twelve elementary schools for grades 5-year-old Kindergarten through 5th grade, with 3 of them offering PreK as well. Two schools, Patrick Henry and Jefferson-Houston are PreK through 8th grade schools while Middle Schools, George Washington and Francis C. Hammond, serve 6th through 8th graders. Minnie Howard Ninth Grade Center and Alexandria City High School serve grades 9th and 10 through 12, respectively, for the entire city. The demographics of Alexandria City Public Schools contrast with those of the city. In 2008, only 14% of the students at Francis C. Hammond Middle School were non-Hispanic whites, compared to about 60% when looking at the city as a whole. 27% were of Hispanic descent, and 48% were black. About 9% of the school was of Asian descent. In 2004, 62% of the school-going children received free lunches; by 2008, that number had decreased to 56%. At George Washington Middle School, 41% of students are non-Hispanic whites, 34% were Hispanic, and 21% was black; 2% of the students were Asian, and 52% of students received free lunch. Alexandria City High School (formerly known as T.C. Williams High School) follows this trend as well; 23% of the students were classified as non-Hispanic whites, 25% as Hispanic, and 44% as black. 7% of the school was Asian, and 47% of all students received free lunch.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In November 2020, the school board unanimously voted to rename T. C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School. The high school was renamed Alexandria City High School and Maury Elementary was renamed Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School, effective July 1, 2021.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), the federal school system for military dependents, is headquartered in Alexandria.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Alexandria has several of the Washington, D.C., area's top private schools, such as St. Stephen's and St. Agnes School, Bishop Ireton High School, and Episcopal High School. Also in the city are Alexandria Country Day School, Commonwealth Academy, the Basilica School of Saint Mary, St. Rita's Catholic School, Blessed Sacrament School and Global Health College.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The Alexandria Library serves the residents of Alexandria, and provides a variety of services which include adult, young adult, and children's materials, as well as access to genealogy records and full text articles from thousands of magazines and newspapers through online databases. E-Books can be borrowed through OverDrive e-Audio books and all branches offer free public Internet access and free Wifi.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The Alexandria Library maintains a reciprocal agreement with neighboring libraries in Arlington, District of Columbia, Fairfax, Falls Church, Fauquier, Frederick, Loudoun, Montgomery, Prince George's, and Prince William.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The Alexandria city government operates its own mass transit system, the DASH bus, connecting points of interest with local transit hubs. In 2021, DASH underwent route redesigns and became fare-free. Metrobus, Washington Metro, and the Virginia Railway Express, better known as the VRE, also serve Alexandria. The city also offers a free "trolley" diesel bus service on King Street from the King Street Metro Station to the Waterfront. Hornblower Cruises operates the Potomac Water Taxi to and from Georgetown and The Wharf development in Washington, DC and the National Harbor development in Prince George's County, Maryland.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Alexandria Union Station, the city's historic train station, has Amtrak intercity services and the Virginia Railway Express regional rail service. The station is directly adjacent to the King Street – Old Town Washington Metro station, at the convergence of the Blue and Yellow Lines. Three other Metro stations in Alexandria are Braddock Road, Van Dorn Street, and Eisenhower Avenue; a Potomac Yard station is scheduled to open in early 2023.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: The traditional boundary between Old Town and the latterly annexed sections of the city followed the railway now owned by CSX Transportation.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Concurrent Interstate highways 95 and 495 (the Capital Beltway), including the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac River, roughly parallels the city's southern boundary with Fairfax County before very briefly passing through D.C. and entering Maryland. Interstate 395 crosses north and south through the western part of the city.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Alexandria is bisected east and west by State Route 7, known as King Street. The most western section of King Street in the city was once the terminus of the Leesburg Turnpike. VA 7 terminates at State Route 400 (Washington Street), which connects the northern and southern segments of George Washington Memorial Parkway (GWMP). State Route 236 runs east-west along the southern side of the city, also terminating at VA 400 in Old Town.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Other primary state highways serving Alexandria include the short limited-access State Route 241 (which connects the beltway and VA 236/Duke Street), as well as multiple thoroughfares serving the western side of the city, which are State Route 401 (Van Dorn Street), State Route 402 (Quaker Lane), and State Route 420 (Seminary Road in the west, Janneys Lane in the east).


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: U.S. Route 1 passes north-south through the city, parallel west of Washington Street and GWMP. Through Old Town, the highway follows Patrick and Henry Streets, named after Patrick Henry. In 2019, the name of U.S. 1 was changed from Jefferson Davis Highway to Richmond Highway. Until 2014, local legislation mandated that all new north–south streets in the city be named for Confederate military leaders.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Alexandria is adjacent to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington County. Alexandria is also near to Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: In 2012, Capital Bikeshare, a bicycle-sharing public transportation system, launched in Alexandria. By early 2022, the system will operate 61 rental locations throughout the city.


title: Alexandria, Virginia

text: Alexandria was twinned with Gyumri as a means of showing goodwill in the wake of the 1988 Armenian earthquake.


title: Alec Benjamin

text: Alec Shane Benjamin (born May 28, 1994) is an American singer-songwriter from Phoenix, Arizona. His 2018 breakthrough single "Let Me Down Slowly" reached the top 40 in over 25 countries and has amassed over 1 billion streams on Spotify as of April 2022. Benjamin primarily writes and sings songs in English, but has released versions of his songs "Older", "The Way You Felt", "Water Fountain", "Devil Doesn't Bargain", and “Shadow of Mine” in Mandarin Chinese.


title: Alec Benjamin

text: Benjamin was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, but lived on Long Island, New York during kindergarten and first grade.


title: Alec Benjamin

text: Initially, Benjamin signed to Columbia Records while still enrolled at University of Southern California. However, Columbia Records ended their partnership weeks after he submitted his album. Despite this, he went on a self-funded tour in Europe to open for Marina Kaye in France and Lea in Germany. He promoted his music by performing in parking lots outside of concert venues and handing out business cards.


title: Alec Benjamin

text: Benjamin's album "Narrated for You" reached number 127 on the US "Billboard" 200 in 2019. It features the songs "Water Fountain", "Outrunning Karma", and "Let Me Down Slowly", the latter of which was later re-released as a single with Alessia Cara. While promoting the mixtape, he created the "Can I Sing for You?" videos on YouTube, in which he performs his written songs in acoustic to people in public. In 2019, he recorded two singles with Spotify Studios NYC, one of which was a cover of Eminem's "Stan". He performed at the music festival KAABOO in Del Mar, CA in 2019.


title: Alec Benjamin

text: Benjamin's debut album "These Two Windows" was released on May 29, 2020. The album reached number 75 on the US "Billboard" 200. The album features the single "Oh My God"; the song did not enter the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart but peaked at number 32 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart and at number 26 on the Adult Top 40 chart.. To promote the album, he continued his "The Story Behind the Story" videos on YouTube, a series he started with the original versions of "I Built a Friend" and "Water Fountain". The videos explain the background and the lyrics behind some of his biggest songs. His second album, "(Un)Commentary", followed on April 15, 2022.


title: Alec Benjamin

text: Benjamin has also co-written songs for artists such as Jon Bellion, and has a songwriting credit on the track "New York Soul (Part II)" from Bellion's album "The Human Condition".


title: Alec Benjamin

text: Benjamin has cited influences by Eminem, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Paul Simon, and Chris Martin of Coldplay.


title: Bad Boys II

text: Bad Boys II is a 2003 American buddy cop action comedy film directed by Michael Bay, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and starring Martin Lawrence and Will Smith. The sequel to the 1995 film "Bad Boys" and the second film in the "Bad Boys" film series, the film follows detectives Burnett and Lowrey investigating the flow of illegal drugs going into Miami.


title: Bad Boys II

text: "Bad Boys II" was released on July 18, 2003. It received extremely negative reviews from critics and grossed $273 million worldwide. A third film, "Bad Boys for Life", was released in January 2020.


title: Bad Boys II

text: Eight years after the events of the first film, Mike and Marcus are investigating the flow of ecstasy into Miami. They infiltrate a Klan meeting held in the marshland outside of Miami only to discover that they are, in fact, buyers and not distributors of the ecstasy. After a radio mishap leads to a delayed arrival of Miami Police’s Tactical Narcotics Team (TNT), Mike and Marcus end up in a shootout with the Klansmen that results in many casualties and injuries, with Marcus accidentally sustaining a gunshot wound to the buttocks from Mike.


title: Bad Boys II

text: These antics lead Marcus to re-evaluate whether he wants to remain partners with Mike, who is secretly dating Syd, Marcus’ younger sister. Unbeknownst to both Marcus and Mike, Syd is working undercover for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as a money launderer to a branch of the Russian Mafia operating in Miami’s drug trade. The Russians, in turn, are the main distributors of ecstasy for Cuban drug lord Hector Juan Carlos “Johnny” Tapia. After laundering a large sum of money for the Russians, Syd is intercepted by a Haitian Zoe Pound gang while she is transporting the money. Mike and Marcus, working on a tip from an informant, had been following the Haitians when the latter made their move, leading to an extensive gun battle and car chase through Miami that resulted in significant collateral damage and loss of life as well as the angry reprimand of Mike and Marcus by Captain Howard, who was further angered to find out the DEA was running an investigation in Miami without consulting him first.


title: Bad Boys II

text: Mike and Marcus then track down the surviving Haitians, and after another gun battle inside the leader’s house, they interrogate the leader and learn from one of the Haitian’s video camera that Tapia is using a local mortuary as a front for his operations. To gain more intel Mike and Marcus pose as pest exterminators responding to a rat infestation of Tapia’s Miami residence. They use the cover to gain access to the mansion and plant bugs throughout the premises. Meanwhile, Tapia has had a meeting with his Russian business associates Alexei and Josef. While he discusses his business with Alexei, Tapia has Josef butchered in his kitchen and places the remains in a tortilla bin as a threat to Alexei to sign over all of his Miami night clubs where he distributes ecstasy. Mike discovers some of Josef’s remains in the kitchen where he was dismembered, smuggling a pinky finger for later identification. With the Russians removed from the equation, Tapia begins a mixed business-personal relationship with Syd wherein he intends for her to launder all of the money for his operation.


title: Bad Boys II

text: Later, Mike and Marcus infiltrate Tapia’s mortuary. Inside they discover that Tapia is using cadavers and coffins to smuggle drugs and money in and out of the country. However, Marcus swallows two ecstasy pills by accident and ends up high in the process. They are almost discovered but two other officers crash into the building, allowing Mike and Marcus to escape. The evidence is sufficient for Captain Howard to authorize a raid on both Tapia’s residence and the mortuary in collaboration with the DEA and the U.S. Coast Guard. Nearly all of Tapia’s drug supply and money are confiscated in the raid, though Tapia flees to Cuba with Syd as a hostage before he can be apprehended. Using her as a bargaining chip, Tapia demands the return of his money from Miami PD. Knowing that’s impossible, Mike and Marcus arrange a covert operation to rescue Syd, forming an unofficial task force with agents from the DEA, TNT, and Captain Howard’s contacts from the CIA.


title: Bad Boys II

text: The team is inserted by the Coast Guard a few miles off the coast of Cuba, where they rendezvous with a fellow officer’s brother, Tito, who is head of the local Alpha 66 underground resistance in Cuba. There, Tito assists the teams with weapons, a tunnel network, and an accurate mapping of Tapia’s new mansion.


title: Bad Boys II

text: The team infiltrates Tapia’s mansion, rescues Syd, and leaves a large explosive device that demolishes the mansion upon the team’s exfiltration. Tapia survives, and pursues Mike, Marcus, Syd and Tito through the countryside and the village of hillside shacks where cocaine is processed, ultimately ending up outside of Guantanamo Bay. Not recognized as U.S. Citizens, the Navy personnel on the base shoot at both Mike and Marcus as well as Tapia’s vehicles, prompting them to stop just as they enter in a live minefield. With only a couple of rounds remaining in their weapons, Marcus manages to shoot Tapia in the head while the latter holds Mike at gunpoint. Tapia falls backward onto a mine which obliterates his corpse.


title: Bad Boys II

text: Later, Mike, Marcus, and Syd celebrate at a barbecue in Marcus’ backyard with his family; Marcus has decided to remain partners with Mike.


title: Bad Boys II

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, "Bad Boys II" holds an approval rating 23% based on 183 reviews, and a weighted average of 4.08/10. The site's critical consensus states, "Two and a half hours of explosions and witless banter." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 38 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, same as the first film.


title: Bad Boys II

text: Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film one out of a possible four stars, especially offended by one scene involving a teenage boy and the use of the word nigga, saying, "The needless cruelty of this scene took me out of the movie and into the minds of its makers. What were they thinking? Have they so lost touch with human nature that they think audiences will like this scene?" On an episode of "At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper", film critic Richard Roeper named "Bad Boys II" the worst film of 2003.


title: Bad Boys II

text: James Berardinelli of "ReelViews" was even more negative about the film, rating it half a star out of four and stating: ""Bad Boys II" isn't just bad - it's a catastrophic violation of every aspect of cinema that I as a film critic hold dear."


title: Bad Boys II

text: Among the more positive reviews was "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" critic Ellen A. Kim, who wrote that the film was "mindlessly fun... If you like this type of movie, that is." The film was also praised by a few critics and viewers for its deftly handled action sequences and visual effects.


title: Bad Boys II

text: "Bad Boys II" was a financial success. For its opening weekend, the film generated $46.5 million, making it the fourth-highest opening weekend for an R-rated film, behind "The Matrix Reloaded", "Hannibal" and "8 Mile". It made $138 million North America and $135 million in other territories, totaling $273 million worldwide against a budget of $130 million — almost twice the gross of the original film.


title: Bad Boys II

text: At the 2004 MTV Movie Awards, the film was nominated for "Best Action Sequence" for the inter-coastal freeway pursuit and "Best On-Screen Team", but lost to "" and "50 First Dates", respectively.


title: Bad Boys II

text: "Bad Boys II" was nominated at the 2nd Annual Visual Effects Society Awards (VES) for "Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture".


title: Bad Boys II

text: At the 2003 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film won the award for Worst Sequel. It was also nominated for Most Intrusive Musical Score but lost to "".


title: Bad Boys II

text: A video game version of the film, known as "" in North America, was released in 2004 on the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube and Windows. Originally planned for release in late 2003 (to tie in with the film's DVD release), the game was pushed back several months. The game failed to deliver any sort of sales or critical acclaim due to poor development; it was given low ratings from many game websites.


title: Bad Boys II

text: In June 2008, Bay stated that he may direct "Bad Boys III", but that the greatest obstacle to the potential sequel would be the cost, as he and Will Smith demand some of the highest salaries in the film industry. By August 2009, Columbia Pictures had hired Peter Craig to write the script for "Bad Boys III". In February 2011, Martin Lawrence reiterated that the film was in development. In June 2014, Bruckheimer announced that screenwriter David Guggenheim was working on the storyline for the sequel. Two months later, Lawrence said a script had been written and parts had been cast. By June 2015, director Joe Carnahan was in early talks to write and possibly direct the film. Two months later, Sony Pictures Entertainment announced that "Bad Boys III" would be released on February 17, 2017, and that additional sequel, "Bad Boys IV", is scheduled for release on July 3, 2019. On March 5, 2016, the film was pushed to June 2, 2017. Producers planned to begin production in early 2017. On August 11, 2016, the film was pushed back once again to January 12, 2018, to avoid box office competition with the upcoming DC Comics film "Wonder Woman", and retitled "Bad Boys for Life". Lawrence revealed on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" that filming may start in March 2017. On February 6, 2017, it was announced that the film's release date has been delayed for the third time, to November 9, 2018. On March 7, 2017, Carnahan left the movie due to scheduling conflicts. In August 2017, Sony removed the third film from their release schedule and later in the month Lawrence said the film would not be happening.


title: Bad Boys II

text: In February 2018, it was reported that a sequel film was again being planned and will be directed by Belgian directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, after development on "" stalled, with Martin Lawrence and Will Smith reprising their roles. Joe Pantoliano also reprised his role as Captain Howard. Filming began in January 2019.


title: Bad Boys II

text: In October 2017, a spinoff television series centered on Gabrielle Union's character, was announced to be in development by Brandon Margolis and Brandon Sonnier. Later that month NBC ordered the pilot episode of the series.


title: Bad Boys II

text: By March 2018, Jessica Alba was cast as the co-star with Gabrielle Union. In addition to Union, John Salley will also reprise his role as Fletcher, a computer hacker who helps Mike and Marcus in the film series. The following month, the title of the series was revealed as "LA's Finest", with Jerry Bruckheimer serving as executive producer for the series. Later that month, NBC passed on the pilot, and the show was shopped around to other networks. NBC's boss, Bob Greenblatt, said: “These are all tough calls. We did have an embarrassment of riches. And when we laid out the schedule and the calendar all season...it was a show that didn’t fit in the grand scheme of it.”


title: Bad Boys II

text: That same month, it was revealed that Sony Pictures Television, was negotiating with Charter Communications about picking up the series. By June 2018, Canada's Bell Media picked it up for 13 episodes. Charter gave its series order on June 26, intent on making it Spectrum's first original series.


title: Bad Boys II

text: Bad Boys II was released on VHS and DVD on December 9, 2003. A Blu-ray release followed on November 10, 2015. Bad Boys II was included in a two film collection that includes the first film which was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray on September 4, 2018.


title: Bombyx mori

text: The domestic silk moth ("Bombyx mori"), is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of "Bombyx mandarina", the wild silk moth. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of a silk moth. It is an economically important insect, being a primary producer of silk. A silkworm's preferred food are white mulberry leaves, though they may eat other mulberry species and even the osage orange. Domestic silk moths are entirely dependent on humans for reproduction, as a result of millennia of selective breeding. Wild silk moths (other species of "Bombyx") are not as commercially viable in the production of silk.


title: Bombyx mori

text: Sericulture, the practice of breeding silkworms for the production of raw silk, has been under way for at least 5,000 years in China, whence it spread to India, Korea, Nepal, Japan, and the West. The domestic silk moth was domesticated from the wild silk moth "Bombyx mandarina", which has a range from northern India to northern China, Korea, Japan, and the far eastern regions of Russia. The domestic silk moth derives from Chinese rather than Japanese or Korean stock.


title: Bombyx mori

text: Silk moths were unlikely to have been domestically bred before the Neolithic Age. Before then, the tools to manufacture quantities of silk thread had not been developed. The domesticated "B. mori" and the wild "B. mandarina" can still breed and sometimes produce hybrids.


title: Bombyx mori

text: Domestic silk moths are very different from most members in the genus "Bombyx"; not only have they lost the ability to fly, but their color pigments have also been lost.


title: Bombyx mori

text: Mulberry silkworms can be categorized into three different but connected groups or types. The major groups of silkworms fall under the univoltine ("uni-"=one, "voltine"=brood frequency) and bivoltine categories. The univoltine type is generally linked with the geographical area within greater Europe. The eggs of this type hibernate during winter due to the cold climate, and cross-fertilize only by spring, generating silk only once annually. The second type is called bivoltine and is normally found in China, Japan, and Korea. The breeding process of this type takes place twice annually, a feat made possible by the slightly warmer climates and the resulting two life cycles. The polyvoltine type of mulberry silkworm can only be found in the tropics. The eggs are laid by female moths and hatch within nine to 12 days, so the resulting type can have up to eight separate life cycles throughout the year.