chunk_id
stringlengths 3
8
| chunk
stringlengths 1
1k
|
|---|---|
9699_7 | Koelle's solution to reducing the development time was to use a cluster of fuel tanks from Redstone and Jupiter missiles, sit them on top of a single thrust plate, and then attach the required engines to the bottom of the plate. Calculations demonstrated that a total thrust of about 1 million pounds would be needed, greatly limiting their engine selection. Looking for suitable designs, Koelle learned of the E-1 from Rocketdyne's George Sutton. Rocketdyne was developing this engine for the Titan missile, and it was the largest engine nearing introduction within the time frame that ARPA gave Wernher von Braun to develop what was then known as the "Juno V". The E-1 had originally been developed as a backup engine for the Titan missile, designed specifically to be as simple to develop as possible, in case the Aerojet General LR-87 did not pan out. |
9699_8 | The launch of Sputnik that October led to rapid changes in the US rocketry establishment. In order to demonstrate peaceful intent, the US decided to spin out its various non-military rocketry programs to a new agency, which would evolve as NASA. As the Army had lost interest in large rockets, they agreed to turn over von Braun's ABMA team to NASA, becoming the Marshall Space Flight Center. The handover would take place in 1960.
Shortly after these plans were made, in July 1958 ARPA visited ABMA and told von Braun that they still had $10 million in their budget to spend before the handover, and asked if there was any way to effectively use the money. Von Braun called in Koelle and showed them a model of the Juno V, but the ARPA visitors noted that the E-1 engine wouldn't be ready by 1960. Brainstorming, they decided that the best approach was to make a minor upgrade to Rocketdyne's existing S-3D engines to boost them from to , and use eight of these engines instead of four E-1s. |
9699_9 | When Koelle returned to Rocketdyne looking for an upgraded version of the S-3D, they instead presented the X-1 and suggested it be used in place of a further upgrade to the S-3. Although experimental, the X-1 was already in the right thrust range and ready for full development. A contract for development was tendered on 15 August 1958, and by early 1959 the name had changed from Juno to Saturn, referring to the succession as the planet after Jupiter, the Jupiter missile being the previous ABMA design.
Description
Like all of Rocketdyne's early engines, the H-1 used a waterfall injector fed by turbopumps, and regeneratively cooled the engine using the engine's fuel. The combustion chamber was made of 292 stainless steel tubes brazed in a furnace. |
9699_10 | Unlike the J-2 engine used on the S-IVB stage, the H-1 was a single-start engine. It could be fired multiple times—and engines were usually subject to two or more static test firings before a mission to flight-qualify them—but it could not be restarted in flight, because some components required for the startup sequence were non-reusable. In particular, the turbopumps were initially driven by a Solid Propellant Gas Generator (SPGG), which was essentially a small solid rocket, and had to be replaced after each firing. |
9699_11 | To start the engine a 500V AC voltage was applied to the SPGG, which ignited the solid propellant. This produced hot gas which was allowed to build up until reaching a pressure of 600–700 psi, after which a bursting diaphragm released it into the turbine which drove the fuel turbopumps. This began the process of pumping fuel and oxidizer into the engine, and the hot gases from the SPGG provided the initial energy required to ignite the fuel/oxidizer mix. Once the fuel and oxidizer were being pumped and burning, the process was self-sustaining until engine shutdown.
Specifications
Contractor: NAA/Rocketdyne
Vehicle application: Saturn I / S-I 1st stage – 8 engines
Vehicle application: Saturn IB / S-IB 1st stage – 8 engines
References
Bibliography
Skylab Saturn IB Flight Manual, 30 September 1972
*
Rocketdyne engines
North American Aviation
Rocket engines using the gas-generator cycle
Rocket engines using kerosene propellant
Rocket engines of the United States |
9700_0 | Germany–Hungary relations are the relations between Germany and Hungary, two member states of the European Union and the NATO. Both countries have a long shared history. Germany has an embassy in Budapest. Hungary has an embassy in Berlin, two general consulates (in Düsseldorf and Munich) and nine honorary consulates (in Bremerhaven, Erfurt, Hamburg, Nürnberg, Schwerin, Dresden, Essen, Frankfurt and Stuttgart). The Agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Hungary on 'Friendly Cooperation and Partnership in Europe' concluded on 6 February 1992 is one of the principal cornerstones of today's bilateral relations. |
9700_1 | Hungary set down an important marker for future bilateral relations in September 1989 when it opened up its border with Austria to refugees from East Germany, thus making a special contribution towards German reunification (1990) and the political transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. On the evening of 10 September 1989, Magyar Televízió broadcast that the Government of Hungary had decided to open that border at midnight. Three weeks prior, the Pan-European Picnic on the Austrian-Hungarian border near Sopron had taken place; about 660 citizens of East Germany had taken the opportunity to cross the Iron Curtain. On 25 August 1989, Hungary's prime minister Miklós Németh and his foreign minister Gyula Horn had secretly visited the German chancellor Helmut Kohl and foreign minister Genscher. |
9700_2 | History
Arnulf I of Bavaria maintained an alliance with the Hungarians until his death in 899. During their campaigns following their conquest of the Carpathian Basin the Hungarians stopped neither at the river Morava nor at the western border of Pannonia, but penetrated deeply into the territory of Bavaria as far as the river Enns. During the battle of Pressburg on 4 July 907, a Bavarian army was defeated by the Hungarians. The Battle of Lechfeld (10 August 955) was a decisive victory by Otto I the Great, King of the Germans, over the Hungarian leaders. The defeat effectively ended Magyar raids on the West. |
9700_3 | Fearing a war of extermination, Géza of Hungary (972-997) assured Otto II that the Hungarians had ceased their raids and asked him to send missionaries. Otto complied, and in 975 Géza and a few of his kinsmen were baptized into the Roman Catholic Church. Géza used German knights and his position as chief of the Hungarians' largest clan to restore strong central authority over the other clans. Hungary's ties with the West were strengthened in 996 when Géza's son, Stephen I of Hungary married Princess Giselle of Bavaria, sister of Emperor Henry II. On the eve of World War I a Munich archaeologist discovered her grave in the church of the Niedernburg convent — which has since become a place of pilgrimage for the Hungarian faithful. |
9700_4 | Transylvania was conquered and colonized with — besides Székely people — German Saxons in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In 1241-42 the Mongols reduced Hungary's towns and villages to ashes and slaughtered half the population. Béla IV of Hungary repopulated the country with a wave of immigrants, transforming royal castles into towns and populating them with Germans, Italians, and Jews. Hungarian kings were keen to settle Germans in the country's uninhabited territories.
Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor was from 1387 to 1437 also a King of Hungary. Although Hungary's economy continued to flourish, Sigismund's expenses outstripped his income. Social turmoil erupted late in Sigismund's reign as a result of the heavier taxes. Hungary's first peasant revolt was quickly checked, but it prompted Transylvania's Hungarian and German nobles to form the Union of Three Nations, which was an effort to defend their privileges against any power except that of the king. |
9700_5 | In the 18th century, under Charles VI and Maria Theresa, Hungary experienced economic decline. Centuries of Ottoman occupation, rebellion, and war had reduced Hungary's population drastically, and large parts of the country's southern half were almost deserted. A labor shortage developed and the Habsburgs called among others German peasants to Hungary.
In the 19th century Prussia's defeat of Austria-Hungary was a major prelude to the unification of the German Empire in 1871.
During World War I both countries were closely allied as Central Powers, while during World War II Austria was a province of Germany.
Hungary's 1989 decision to open its borders with Austria to help East German refugees flee to West Germany was a key factor in preparing for the German reunification.
Economic relations
Germany is Hungary's most important foreign trade partner, both as a customer and as a supplier. Germany is one of the countries with which Hungary has a trade balance surplus. |
9700_6 | German aid to Hungary between 1990 and 1995 totaled DM 5 billion, loans and aid reflected privileged treatment of Hungary in the region.
Germany is also the leading foreign investor in Hungary: at the end of 2005, German companies accounted for some 28 per cent of all foreign direct investments in Hungary. In 2005 alone, Germany invested or reinvested some EUR 1.2 billion in Hungary. There are more than 7,000 companies in Hungary set up partially or wholly with German capital. One of the most important business links is the German-Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Budapest representing the interests of more than 900 member companies from both countries. The overwhelming majority (75 per cent) of German investors have been very happy with their involvement in Hungary and would invest there again today, shown by an economic survey conducted by the Chamber. |
9700_7 | Audi has built the largest engine manufacturing plant of Europe (third largest in the world) in Győr becoming Hungary's largest exporter with total investments reaching over €3,300 million until 2007. Audi's workforce assembles the Audi TT, the Audi TT Roadster and the A3 Cabriolet in Hungary. The plant delivers engines to carmakers Volkswagen, Skoda, Seat and also to Lamborghini.
Daimler-Benz invests €800 million ($1.2 billion) and creates up to 2,500 jobs at a new assembly plant in Kecskemét, Hungary with capacity for producing 100,000 Mercedes-Benz compact cars a year.
Opel produced 80,000 Astra and 4,000 Vectra cars from March 1992 until 1998 in Szentgotthárd, Hungary. Today, the plant produces about half million engines and cylinder heads a year.
Automotive research
Leading automotive manufacturers, including Audi, Bosch, Knorr-Bremse, and ThyssenKrupp have established R&D centers in Hungary: |
9700_8 | Audi – Győr: engine development
Bosch – Miskolc: electronic hand-tools designing
Bosch – Budapest: electronic developments
Continental Teves – Veszprém: development of electronics instruments for cars
DHS Dräxlmaier – Érd: vehicle compartment designing
EDAG – Győr: vehicle subunit development
Knorr-Bremse – Budapest: electronic brake-system development
Continental Temic – Budapest: car electronics development
ThyssenKrupp – Budapest: electronic steering development
WET – Pilisszentiván: electronic subunit development
Cultural relations
Germany and Hungary are closely cooperating in culture and education. The goal is the promotion of the German language, academic and school exchanges and cultural events. |
9700_9 | The German language plays an important role in the education and economic sectors of Hungary. The Goethe Institute (GI) in Budapest — that has celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2008 — offers a comprehensive range of courses and close cooperation with schools in Hungary. There are also numerous programs designed to promote the German language among Hungary's ethnic German minority. In Budapest, the Thomas Mann Grammar School founded in 1992 is an international school also attended by Hungarians. The German Abitur and the Hungarian university entrance examination may be completed at the Ungarndeutsches Bildungszentrum (Education Centre for Ethnic Germans in Hungary) in Baja.
Hungarian literature is popular in Germany with the works of Péter Esterházy, Péter Nádas, Sándor Márai, Antal Szerb and Imre Kertész achieving the greatest success.
The Collegium Hungaricum in Berlin was founded in 1924. After 1945 it ceased operations, and was reopened in 1973, from 2000 under the old name. |
9700_10 | Education
There is a German international school in Budapest, Thomas Mann Gymnasium.
Academic level education
Every year, thousands of Hungarians travel to Germany on study and research exchanges. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Robert Bosch Foundation are awarding scholarships for these.
The Andrássy Gyula German Language University of Budapest plays a key role in German foreign cultural and education policy in Hungary.
Resident diplomatic mission
Germany has an embassy in Budapest.
Hungary has an embassy in Berlin and consulates-general in Düsseldorf and Munich.
See also
Germans of Hungary
Hungarians in Germany
Andrássy Gyula German Language University of Budapest
References |
9700_11 | Further reading
Armour, Ian D. A History of Eastern Europe 1740-1918: Empires, Nations and Modernisation (A&C Black, 2012).
Austensen, Roy A. "Austria and the "Struggle for Supremacy in Germany," 1848–1864." Journal of Modern History 52.2 (1980): 196-225. Online
Breuilly, John. Austria, Prussia and the Making of Germany: 1806-1871 (Routledge, 2014).
Herwig, Holger H. The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary 1914-1918 (A&C Black, 2014).
Katzenstein, Peter J. Disjoined partners Austria and Germany since 1815 (University of California Press, 1976)
Langer, William L. European Alliances and Alignments: 1871-1890 (1956).
Romsics, Ignác. Hungary’s Place in German South-East European Policy, 1919–1944, in: Great Power Policies Towards Central Europe, 1914-1945, edited by Aliaksandr Piahanau. Bristol: e-International Relations, 2019: pp. 7-42.
Sked, Alan. "Austria-Hungary and the First World War." Histoire@ Politique 1 (2014): 16–49. Online |
9700_12 | Sondhaus, Lawrence. "Planning For The Endgame: The Central Powers, September 1916–April 1917." in 1917: Beyond the Western Front (Brill, 2008) pp. 1-24.
Sondhaus, Lawrence. "Schwarzenberg, Austria, and the German Question, 1848-1851" International History Review 13#1 (1991), pp. 1-20 online
Wawro, Geoffrey. The Austro-Prussian war: Austria's war with Prussia and Italy in 1866 (Cambridge UP, 1997). |
9700_13 | Hungary
Bilateral relations of Hungary |
9701_0 | Opessa Straight Tail (), also known as Wopatha or Wapatha, was a Pekowi Shawnee Chief. He was the son of Straight Tail Meaurroway Opessa. He is best known for signing, on 23 April 1701, the "Articles of friendship and agreement between William Penn and the Susquehannah, Shawonah, and North Patomack Indians," that designated lands and conditions of coexistence between those tribes and the English settlers. |
9701_1 | Birth and early life
His exact place of birth is unknown, but was most likely either Indiana or Illinois. He was living with his father in Illinois in 1674 when his village was visited by Louis Jolliet and René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, accompanied by Martin Chartier. In 1674 Chartier married Opessa's sister Sewatha Straight Tail (1660–1759). Chartier led a mutiny against La Salle in 1680 and became an outlaw, fleeing first to upstate New York, but later returning to live with Opessa's family at Starved Rock (later known as Fort St. Louis). Chartier returned to his home in Montreal, but in 1685 rejoined Opessa's family on the Cumberland River in Tennessee. The band spent a summer at the future site of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then crossed the Alleghenies and traveled along the Susquehanna River. Opessa's niece Mary Seaworth (Sewatha) Chartier (1687–1732) was born in Frederick County, Virginia in 1687. |
9701_2 | In 1689, the band moved to French Lick on the Cumberland River in northeastern Tennessee, near the present-day site of Nashville, Tennessee, where Opessa's nephew Peter Chartier was born in 1690. In the spring of 1692, the Shawnee and a group of Susquehannock (Conestoga) Indians migrated to Cecil County, Maryland on the Potomac River. The Shawnee were relocating after a series of violent conflicts with Illinois and Miami Indians. |
9701_3 | Role as Shawnee leader
Opessa by this time had become a Shawnee leader, as his father was preparing to retire as chief. In 1694 he petitioned the Maryland Provincial Government for permission for a group of about 700 Shawnees from Carolina to settle in Maryland, after they had fled a conflict with the Catawbas there. But the provincial authorities were suspicious of Opessa's brother-in-law Martin Chartier and he was arrested, spending several months in jail in St. Mary's and Anne Arundel Counties as "a spy or party with designs of mischief," before a court determined that he was not working for the Government of New France. The Shawnees remained at Bohemia Manor as guests of Casperus Augustine Herman, son of Augustine Herman. |
9701_4 | Nonetheless, the Shawnees felt unwelcome in Maryland and in 1694 they moved north into Pennsylvania and eventually settled at a place known as Chartier's Old Town (on the site of what is now Tarentum, Pennsylvania). In 1697 Opessa succeeded Straight Tail as Pekowi Chief in Pequea Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
In 1698 Opessa's band applied to the Conestoga people, and through them, to William Penn for permission to settle permanently on Pequea Creek in Lancaster County. A Shawnee community existed there for the next thirty years, until about 1728 when most Shawnee people began migrating west into the Ohio River Valley. |
9701_5 | Shawnee chief
On 23 April, 1701 Opessa and chiefs of the Susquehannock, Piscataway and Onondaga tribes signed a treaty with William Penn ceding lands along the Potomac River to the English in return for protection and trade privileges. By this treaty "it was settled that no Indians be suffered to settle on the Susquehanna or Patomack save those already noted [Shawnee, Mingoes and Gawanese]." Opessa and the other chiefs agreed by their "hands and seals," with each other, with William Penn and his successors, and with other inhabitants of the province, "to be as one head and one heart, and to live in true friendship and amity, as one people." More than 50 years afterward, the Shawnee, then in Ohio, still preserved a copy of this treaty. |
9701_6 | At a June 1707 Conference at Pequea, Opessa told Governor John Evans that his people were "happy to live in a country at peace, and not as in those parts where we formerly lived, for then, upon our return from hunting, we found our town surprised, and our women and children taken prisoners by our enemies."
On 1 July 1707 Opessa was visited at his home by Governor Evans, who was there to enlist the aid of Opessa's brother-in-law Martin Chartier in the capture and arrest of Nicole Godin, a French trader accused of conspiracy against the Province of Pennsylvania. Opessa had submitted a complaint about the quantity of rum sold by Godin to the Indians. According to Egle, "Opessah had taken a journey to New Castle to remonstrate with the traders who had intercepted their hunters, gave them rum, made them drink, robbed them of their skins, and when they got to [their] wigwam, they were naked and hungry." |
9701_7 | On 8 June 1710 Opessa attended a conference at Conestoga, Pennsylvania with Colonel John French and Henry Worley, together with Terrutawanaren and Teonnottein (Tuscarora chiefs), and Civility (a Conestoga chief) to propose a treaty guaranteeing the safety of the Shawnees, Tuscaroras, and Conestogas from "fear of death or slavery," as the kidnapping of Native Americans for sale into slavery was common throughout the colonies at this time. The petition was not well received, however, as the Pennsylvania commissioners blamed the Indians for violence against European settlers. |
9701_8 | Role in the death of Francis Le Tort
On 18 June, 1711 Opessa attended a hearing at Conestoga to discuss the murder by several Shawnee warriors from Opessa's band, of Francis Le Tort (son of Jacques Le Tort and often erroneously referred to as "Francis de la Tore"). Le Tort was an indentured servant accused of stealing slaves and was found and killed by Shawnee warriors, but Opessa maintained his innocence, stating that he had attempted to prevent the warriors from pursuing Le Tort. Charles Augustus Hanna states: |
9701_9 | Deputy Governor Charles Gookin visited Conestoga with four members of his Council to investigate this murder; and while there, the Senecas gave him the following account of the affair: "That Opessa [chief of the Shawnees], being thereto solicited by John Hansson Steelman, had sent out some of his people, either to bring back or kill Francis Le Tort and his company. Opessa, he affirms, was entirely innocent, for that John Hans came to his cabin, when he and his young people, who were then going a hunting, were in council; told him that some of his slaves and dogs (meaning Le Tort and company) were fled; therefore desired him forthwith to send some of his people to bring them back or kill them, and take goods for their trouble. At which motion, Opessa, being surprised, told him that he ought by no means to discourse after that manner before young people who were going to the woods and might by accident meet these people; and therefore ordered him to desist, utterly denying his request." |
9701_10 | Opessa offered this statement in apology for the young man's death:
Were it possible for us, by presents or any other way, to atone for the Lives of those men our young people unadvisedly slew, we would be partly willing to make satisfaction, and such a Condescension would forever be Gratefully remembered and more nearly engage us, and for the future render us more Careful...[I] assure that if hereafter any such thing should happen, [I myself] would be Executioner, and Burn them that should dare to Do it.
Gookin offered a clear absolution to Opessa for his role in Le Tort's death, saying: |
9701_11 | The laws of England [are] such that whosoever Kill'd a man must run the same fate; Yet considering the previous circumstances to that murder, the length of time since the action...and [that] all the persons save one (who is absconded) since [are] Dead, I am willing to forbear further prosecution on Enquiry into it, but with all caution you that if any such thing hereafter falls out, you may be assured I know well how to Do Justice as I have now shewed you mercy. |
9701_12 | Abdication and life with the Lenape
After the killing of Francis Le Tort, Opessa abandoned both his chieftainship and his tribe. Hanna reports that he fled for fear of being held responsible by the Iroquois or the English for Le Tort's murder, even after Gookin's pardon. Hanna also reports that he may have been influenced by a Lenape woman whom he loved but who refused to leave her people. Opessa took refuge among the Lenapes of Sassoonan's clan in the village of Shamokin on the Susquehanna River. While there, he married Polly, Sassoonan's daughter. Later he moved to what was called Opessa's Town, on the Potomac, now Oldtown, Maryland. In 1714 he was succeeded as Pekowi Chief by his brother Cakundawanna (b. 1662). |
9701_13 | In 1715 Opessa attended a conference in Philadelphia with Sassoonan, using the occasion to reassert the alliance between the Shawnees and the Lenape and advocating for control of rum sales to Native American communities, which were starting to undermine social cohesion due to alcohol-inspired violence and the tendency of men to make poor trade deals when intoxicated.
Although he took on the role of Pekowi chief, Cakundawanna was not recognized by many members of the tribe, as Secretary James Logan reported after meeting him at Conestoga in July, 1720:
"When their king, Opessah...took the government upon him, and the people differed with him, he left them. They had then no chief. Thereupon, some of them applied to him [Cakundawanna] to take that charge upon him; but he had only the name, without any authority, and could do nothing. He counseled them, but they would not obey; therefore, he cannot answer for them." |
9701_14 | Logan adds, "there was an interregnum in effect which lasted several years."
On 18 October 1722 Cakundawanna authorized a raid on Opessa's Town to recapture ten escaped slaves who had fled from Virginia. Governor William Keith had received complaints from Virginia Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood that the slaves had taken refuge among the Shawnees, and Cakundawanna pledged to return them, stating "I will go my own self and take assistance where they are not exceeding 10 in number as directed...We will lose no time to perform the taking of them...We must take them by Guile."
Return as chief and relocation to Ohio
Faced with the prospect of war between the Iroquois and their allies, including the Shawnees, and the Catawbas and their allies, Opessa was urged to return as chief, which he did in 1723, replacing his brother Cakundawanna. Many of his Pekowi Shawnee band followed him to Opessa's Town in Maryland, which became a haven for runaway slaves. |
9701_15 | Opessa's community began to break up and migrate westward some time in the mid 1720s, and it is unclear exactly when he left Pennsylvania. Shawnee and Lenape communities were starting to move west into the Ohio River Valley, pushed out of Pennsylvania by the rapidly growing European population and by conflicts over land rights and alcohol, and lured by the efforts of New France to gain Native American influence with trade goods and offers of protection. The new communities of Kittanning (established 1724), Logstown (established 1727) and Lower Shawneetown (established 1734) attracted a multiethnic population made up of smaller social groups: village fragments, extended families, or individuals, often survivors of epidemics and refugees from conflicts with other Native Americans or with Europeans. Opessa and his family relocated to Logstown some time between 1727 and 1750. He probably died soon afterwards. |
9701_16 | Family and children
He was uncle by marriage (and father-in-law) of Peter Chartier, son of his sister Sewatha Straight Tail (1660–1759), who married his daughter Blanceneige-Wapakonee Opessa (1695-1737).
Opessa was married first to Margaret Pekowi (b. 1670) in 1684, second to Polly, daughter of Sassoonan (b. 1695) in 1711. Father with Margaret of daughter Blanceneige-Wapakonee Opessa (1695-1737), sons Tecoomteh (b. 1698), Wawwaythi (b. 1700), Loyparkoweh (b. 1705) and Lawaquaqua-Pride Opessa (b. 1710).
See also
Peter Chartier
Meshemethequater
Logstown
Kakowatcheky
References
1664 births
1750 deaths
Shawnee people
History of Pennsylvania
Native American leaders
Native American temperance activists
Native American people from Pennsylvania |
9702_0 | Ceará (, pronounced locally as or ) is one of the 27 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is the eighth-largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the main tourist destinations in Brazil. The state capital is the city of Fortaleza, the country's fourth most populous city. The state has 4,3% of the Brazilian population and produces only 2,1% of the Brazilian GDP.
Literally, the name Ceará means "sings the jandaia". According to José de Alencar, one of the most important writers of Brazil and an authority in Tupi Guaraní, Ceará means turquoise or green waters.
The state is best known for its extensive coastline, with of sand. There are also mountains and valleys producing tropical fruits. To the south, on the border of Paraíba, Pernambuco and Piauí, is the National Forest of Araripe.
Geography |
9702_1 | Ceará has an area of . It is bounded on the north by the Atlantic Ocean, on the east by the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba, on the south by Pernambuco state, and on the west by Piauí. |
9702_2 | Ceará lies partly upon the northeast slope of the Brazilian Highlands, and partly upon the sandy coastal plain. Its surface is a succession of great terraces, facing north and northeast, formed by the denudation of the ancient sandstone plateau which once covered this part of the continent; the terraces are seamed by watercourses, and their valleys are broken by hills and ranges of highlands. The latter are the remains of the ancient plateau, capped with horizontal strata of sandstone, with a uniform altitude of . The flat top of such a range is called a chapada or taboleira, and its width in places is from . The boundary line with Piauí follows one of these ranges, the Serra de Ibiapaba, which unites with another range on the southern boundary of the state, known as the Serra do Araripe. Another range, or escarpment, crosses the state from east to west, but is broken into two principal divisions, each having several local names. These ranges are not continuous, the breaking down of |
9702_3 | the ancient plateau having been irregular and uneven. |
9702_4 | The rivers of the state are small and, with one or two exceptions, become completely dry in the dry season. The largest is the Jaguaribe, which flows entirely across the state in a northeast direction.
Ceará has a varied environment, with mangroves, caatinga, jungle, scrubland and tropical forest. The higher ranges intercept considerable moisture from the prevailing trade winds, and their flanks and valleys are covered with a tropical forest which is typical of the region, gathering species from tropical forests, caatinga and cerrado. The less elevated areas of the plateaus are either thinly wooded or open campo. Most of the region at the lower altitudes is characterized by scrubby forests called caatingas, which is an endemic Brazilian vegetation. The sandy, coastal plain, with a width of , is nearly bare of vegetation, although the coast has many enclaves of restingas (coastal forests) and mangroves. |
9702_5 | The soil is, in general, thin and porous and does not retain moisture; consequently, the long dry season turns the country into a barren desert, relieved only by vegetation along the riverways and mountain ranges, and by the hardy, widely distributed Carnauba Palm (Copernicia cerifera), which in places forms groves of considerable extent. Some areas in the higher ranges of Serra da Ibiapaba, Serra do Araripe and others are more appropriate for agriculture, as their soil and vegetation are less affected by the dry seasons.
The beaches of the state is a major tourist attraction. Ceará has several famous beaches such as Canoa Quebrada, Jericoacoara, Morro Branco, Taíba and Flexeiras. The beaches are divided into two groups (in relation to the capital Fortaleza): Sunset Coast (Costa do Sol poente) and Sunrise Coast (Costa do Sol nascente). |
9702_6 | Ceará lies in one of the few regions of the country that experiences earthquakes. In 1980 an earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale struck near Quixeramobim in the center of the state, rattling the city of Fortaleza but causing no injuries.
Climate
The climate of Ceará is hot almost all year. The temperature in the state varies from . The coast is hot and humid, tempered by the cool trade winds; in the more elevated, semi-arid regions it is very hot and dry (often above , but seldom above ), although the nights are cool. In the higher ranges (Serra da Ibiapaba, Chapada do Araripe and several smaller highlands) the temperatures are cooler and vary from about . The record minimum temperature registered in Ceará was , recorded in Jardim, a small city in Chapada do Araripe. |
9702_7 | The year is divided into a rainy and dry season, the rains beginning in January to March and lasting until June. The dry season, July to December, is sometimes broken by slight showers in September and October, but these are of slight importance. Sometimes the rains fail altogether, and then a drought (seca) ensues, causing famine and pestilence throughout the entire region. The most destructive droughts recorded in the 18th and 19th centuries were those of 1711, 1723, 1777–1778, 1790, 1825, 1844–1845, and 1877–1880, the last-mentioned (known by local people as a Grande Seca, "the Great Drought") destroying nearly all the livestock in the state, and causing the death through starvation and pestilence of nearly half a million people, or over half the population. Because of the constant risk of droughts, many dams (called açudes) have been built throughout Ceará, the largest of them the Açude Castanhão. Because of the dams, the Jaguaribe River no longer dries up completely.
History |
9702_8 | The territory of Ceará was originally inhabited by different Indian peoples, such as the Tabajara, Potyguara, Anacés, Kariri, Inhamum, Jucá, Kanindé, Tremembé, Paicaú and others, who had commercial relations with various European people, including the French, before the Portuguese decided to include the area in Brazil.
The first Portuguese plan for settling in Ceará dated from 1534, but the first attempts to settle the territory failed, and the earliest Portuguese settlement was made near the mouth of the Ceará River in 1603, by Pero Coelho de Sousa. He established the fort of São Tiago, but one year later he and his family abandoned Ceará because of a period of drought, a natural phenomenon that periodically afflicts the province, which the Portuguese settlers were ill-equipped to endure. |
9702_9 | Portugal wanted to form a military base in Ceará to support the Portuguese operations in the war against the French. The first attempt with Pero Coelho de Sousa, in 1603, was not successful, and the French continued operating from Maranhão and Ibiapaba, where they had established a base in 1590. The Indians and French formed political and military alliances. In 1607, two Jesuits, Francisco Pinto and Pereira Figueira, arrived in Ceará with a mission to spy in the area of Ibiapaba. In October, that year Franciso Pinto was killed by the Indians and Pereira Filgueira returned with more information about the area and the French and Indian alliance. |
9702_10 | In 1612, the French were successfully expelled from Ceará and Maranhão by a military expedition under the command of Portuguese Martim Soares Moreno. In the same year he constructed the fortress of São Sebastião on the same site as São Tiago, and one year later he left Ceará for Portugal. It was only in 1618 that Martim Soares Moreno returned to Ceará, and it is from this time that the Portuguese presence dates. This was restricted at first to the area of the Ceará River: Martim Soares Moreno made an alliance with the Indians of the Potiguara tribe. In 1631, he left Ceará to help the Portuguese against the Dutch in Pernambuco and the fort of São Sebastião lost its importance. |
9702_11 | At this time, what is today Brazil was hotly disputed by the Dutch and the Portuguese. The area was invaded twice by the Dutch, in 1637 and in 1649. In 1637, the Dutch and the Indians took the Fort of São Sebastião and dominated Ceará. The Dutch expanded their presence in Ceará and made alliances with different Indian tribes. In 1639, Georg Marcgrave made an expedition in Ceará, but in 1644 the Indians attacked the Dutch Governor of Ceará, Gideon Morris, the Dutch soldiers were killed, and São Sebastião was destroyed. |
9702_12 | There were no Europeans in the region between 1644 and 1649, but in 1649, before negotiations with the different Indian tribes, Matias Beck arrived in Ceará to explore silver mines of Maranguape. Good-quality silver was not found however. In this period the Dutch built another fort, by the banks of river Pajeú, and named it Fort Schoonenborch after one of their commanders. In 1654, the Dutch were expelled from Brazil; the Portuguese took Schoonenborch, changed its name to Fortaleza de Nossa Senhora de Assunção (The Fortress of Our Lady of the Assumption), and the different Indian tribes that had made alliance with the Dutch had to flee from Portuguese persecution.
In 1661, the Netherlands formally ceded their Brazilian territories to the Portuguese crown, ending conflict in the region. Ceará became a dependency of Pernambuco in 1680; this relationship lasted until 1799, when the Captaincy of Ceará was made independent. |
9702_13 | The fight for Brazilian independence in 1822 was fierce in Ceará, with the area being a rebel stronghold that incurred vicious retribution from loyalists. The captaincy became a province in 1822 under Dom Pedro I. A revolution followed in 1824, the president of the province was deposed fifteen days after his arrival, and a republic was proclaimed. Internal dissensions immediately broke out, the new president was assassinated, and after a brief reign of terror the province resumed its allegiance to the empire.
Ceará became the first province of Brazil to abolish slavery, on March 25, 1884, more than four years before the 1888 national law of abolition, passed by Princess Isabel.
The reign of Dom Pedro II (see Empire of Brazil) saw great advances in infrastructure in Ceará, with the commerce increasing by a large amount, and with gas lighting becoming almost ubiquitous.
The state of Ceará became a bishopric of the Roman Catholic Church in 1853, the bishop residing at Fortaleza. |
9702_14 | Two railway lines running inland from the coast (the Baturité line from Fortaleza to Senador Pompeu, , and the Sobral line from the port of Camocim to Ipu, 134 miles), were built by the national government after the drought of 1877–1878 to give work to the starving refugees, and were later operated under leases. Dams were also built for irrigation purposes.
The population numbered 805,687 in 1890, and 849,127 in 1900. In 1900, approximately five-sixths of the population lived on estates, owned no property, paid no taxes, and derived few benefits from the social and political institutions about them. Education was then confined almost exclusively to the upper classes, from which came some of the most prominent men in Brazilian politics and literature. |
9702_15 | In the early 20th century the sandy zone along the coast was nearly barren, but the more elevated region behind the coast with broken surfaces and sandy soil produced fruit and most tropical products when conditions were favourable. The natural vegetable production was important, and included manigoba or Ceará rubber, carnahuba wax and fibre, cashew wine and ipecacuanha. The principal agricultural products were cotton, coffee, sugar, manioc and tropical fruits. The production of cotton increased largely with the development of cotton manufacture in Brazil.
The higher plateau was devoted almost exclusively to cattle raising, once the principal industry of the state, although recurring droughts created an obstacle to its profitable development. The state exported considerable amounts of cattle, hides and skins. |
9702_16 | Since 1960, the Orós Dam, comparable in size to the Aswan Dam has supplied Ceará with much of its water, and in 1995 construction began on the enormous Castanhão Dam, completed in 2003, which is able to hold 6.5 km³ of water.
Politics and government
Ceará is governed by the Governor of Ceará, currently Camilo Santana since 2015, and the Legislative Assembly of Ceará.
Demographics
According to the IBGE of 2008, there were 8,472,000 people residing in the state. The population density was 55.2 inhabitants/km2.
Urbanization: 76.4% (2006); Population growth: 1.7% (1991–2000); Houses: 2,181,000 (2006).
The last PNAD (National Research for Sample of Domiciles) census revealed the following numbers: 5,370,000 Brown (Multiracial) people (63.39%), 2,800,000 White people (33.05%), 257,000 Black people (3.03%), 28,000 Asian people (0.33%), 12,000 Amerindian people (0.14%).
Largest cities
Religion |
9702_17 | Religion is very important in the culture of Ceará, being an extremely important factor in the construction of the identity of the people. Catholicism is the hegemony religion in Ceará and is the Christian confession that left most marks in Ceara's culture. It was the only one recognized by the government until 1883, when the Presbyterian Church of Fortaleza was founded in the state capital. Roman Catholicism in Ceará presents several influences of indigenous beliefs. A large portion of traditional Christian manifestations in Ceará are strongly influenced by religious syncretism. |
9702_18 | Throughout the 20th century, several churches were installed in the State and at the end of that century there was a considerable increase in people from other religions. However, Ceará is still the third Brazilian state with the highest proportion of Roman Catholics, 78.8% of the population, according to data from 2010 census. Evangelicals are 14.6%, Spiritists, 0.6%, members of other religions, 2.0%, and those without religion, 4.0%.
Statistics
Vehicles: 1,084,991 (March/2007);
Mobile phones: 3.5 million (April/2007); Telephones: 908 thousand (April/2007); Cities: 184 (2007). |
9702_19 | Economy
The service sector is the largest component of GDP at 56.7%, followed by the industrial sector at 37.9%. Agriculture represents 5.4% of GDP (2004). Ceará exports: leather footwear 20.3%, crustaceans 17.6%, woven of cotton 16.9%, cashew 14.7%, leather 13.1%, fruits, juices and honey 5.4% (2002). It is one of only three Brazilian states which together produce the world's entire supply of carnauba wax.
Share of the Brazilian economy: 2,04% (2010).
According to the data from IPECE and IBGE, the GDP growth of the State of Ceará in 2014 was of 4.36%, while Brazil's overall GDP grew only 0.1% in the same year. |
9702_20 | Traditionally an agriculture-based state, Ceará began an industrialisation program under the military regime (1964–1985), and the industrial sector continues to expand annually. In 1999, industry accounted for 39.3% of the state's GDP. Tourism also plays a large role in Ceará's economy, with the state's many waterfalls, beaches and rainforests. On average, Fortaleza alone receives half a million tourists annually.
In agriculture, the state stands out in the production of cashew nuts, coconut, papaya, melon and beans. |
9702_21 | The production of cashew in Brazil is carried out almost exclusively in the Northeast. The area occupied by cashew trees in Brazil in 2017 was estimated at 505,500 ha; of this total, 99.5% is located in the Northeast. The main producers in this region are Ceará (61.6% of the national area), Rio Grande do Norte and Piauí. However, Brazil, which in 2011 was the fifth largest world producer of cashew nuts, in 2016, fell to 14th position, with 1.5% of the total volume of nuts produced in the world. Vietnam, Nigeria, India and Côte d'Ivoire were the world's largest cashew nut producers in 2016, with 70.6% of global production. In recent years, there has been increased competition with some African countries, where government programs have driven the expansion of culture and processing capacity. It is estimated that at 295 thousand tons per year the installed capacity for processing cashew nuts in the Northeast, however, the Region only managed to produce around a quarter of that quantity. |
9702_22 | Among the main world producers, Brazil has the lowest productivity. Several factors are pointed out as the cause of the low productivity and the fall in the Brazilian production of cashew nuts. One reason is that most orchards are in a phase of natural decline in production. In addition, the giant cashew trees, which are the majority in the Region, are exploited in an almost extractive manner, with low use of technology. |
9702_23 | In 2017, the Northeast Region was the largest producer of coconut in the country, with 74.0% of national production. Bahia produced 351 million fruits, Sergipe, 234 million, and Ceará 187 million. However, the sector has been suffering strong competition and losing market to Indonesia, the Philippines and India, the world's largest producers, who even export coconut water to Brazil. In addition to climatic problems, the low productivity of coconut palms in the Northeast Region is the result of factors related to the variety of coconut harvested and the technological level used in coastal regions. In these areas, the semi-extractive cultivation system still prevails, with low fertility and without the adoption of cultural management practices. The three states that have the largest production, Bahia, Sergipe and Ceará, present a yield three times lower than that of Pernambuco, which is in 5th place in the national production. This is because most of the coconut trees in these three |
9702_24 | states are located in coastal areas and cultivated in semi-extractivist systems. |
9702_25 | In 2018, the South Region was the main producer of beans with 26.4% of the total, followed by the Midwest (25.4%), Southeast Region (25.1%), Northeast (20.6%) and North (2.5%). The largest producers in the Northeast were Ceará and Bahia.
In cassava production, Brazil produced a total of 17.6 million tons in 2018. Maranhão was the 7th largest producer in the country, with 681 thousand tons. Ceará was 9th, with 622 thousand tons. In total, the northeast produced 3,5 million tons.
Rio Grande do Norte is the largest producer of melon in the country. In 2017 it produced 354 thousand tons. The Northeast region accounted for 95.8% of the country's production in 2007. In addition to Rio Grande do Norte, which in 2005 produced 45.4% of the country's total, the other 3 largest in the country were Ceará, Bahia and Pernambuco. |
9702_26 | In the production of papaya, in 2018 Bahia was the 2nd largest producer state in Brazil, almost equaling with Espírito Santo. Ceará was in 3rd place and Rio Grande do Norte in 4th place.
In the production of banana, in 2018 Ceará was the 8th largest national producer, with 408 thousand tons.
The state stands out nationally in raising goats and sheep. In 2016, Ceará had the fourth largest herd of goats in the country, with 1.13 million heads. The state occupied the same position in the herd of sheep, with 2.31 million animals.
Ceará's cattle herd is small compared to other states in Brazil. In 2019, it had 2.4 million heads. Milk production was 705 million liters this year.
In 2017, the Northeast was the largest shrimp producer in the country. National production was 41 thousand tons. Rio Grande do Norte (37.7%) and Ceará (28.9%) were the largest producers. Aracati, in Ceara, was the municipality with the highest participation. |
9702_27 | About industry, Ceará had in 2017 an industrial GDP of R$ 22.2 billion, equivalent to 1.9% of the national industry. It employs 296,734 workers in the industry. The main industrial sectors are: Construction (26.2%), Industrial Public Utility Services, such as Electricity and Water (22.5%), Food (11.0%), Leather and footwear (10.5%) and Clothing (5.5%). These 5 sectors concentrate 75.7% of the state's industry.
The main sectors of the Ceará industry are clothing, food, metallurgy, textiles, chemicals and footwear. Most of the industries are installed in the Metropolitan Region of Fortaleza, where the Industrial District of Maracanaú is located. In São Gonçalo do Amarante, a steel mill is installed, Companhia Siderúrgica do Pecém, which in 2018 produced 2.9 million tons of crude steel, of the 35.4 million produced in the country. |
9702_28 | Some of the large companies in Ceará with national reach are: Aço Cearense (steel), Companhia de Alimentos do Nordeste (food), Grendene (footwear), Café Santa Clara (coffee), Grande Moinho Cearense (mill), Edson Queiroz Group (business conglomerate, works with gas, mineral water, household appliances, communications, education, among others), Naval Industry of Ceará, J. Macêdo, M. Dias Branco (food company that manufactures, markets and distributes cookies, pasta, cakes, snacks, wheat flour, margarine and vegetable fats) and Ypióca.
The state is generally poor. According to 2013 data, 396,370 people live in slums in Fortaleza. Fortaleza has the 2nd largest population in a slum among cities in the Northeast. 31.6% of residents have income per capita up to half the minimum wage. The state's productivity is small.
Education
There are more than 53 higher education institutions in the state of Ceará
Higher education institutions |
9702_29 | Universidade da Integração Internacional da Lusofonia Afro-Brasileira (UNILAB) (University of International Integration of the Afro-Brazilian Lusophony)
Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC) (Federal University of Ceará);
Universidade Estadual do Ceará (UECE) (State University of Ceará);
Universidade Federal do Cariri (UFCA);
(FA7);
(IFCE);
(UNIFOR) (University of Fortaleza);
(Uva) (University of Acaraú Valley);
(URCA) (Regional University of Cariri);
Instituto Teológico Jeová Rafá
Tourism and recreation
Fortaleza's international airport (Pinto Martins airport) is served by international flights from North and Central America as well as Europe.
The beach of Cumbuco, located in the municipality of Caucaia (neighbour to Fortaleza), is considered one of the best places in the world for the practicing of kitesurfing. |
9702_30 | Jericoacoara National Park is a windswept region, with local fisherman mixing it with travellers keen to get off the beaten track – and provides a local relaxed atmosphere, incredible forro dancing and music and Capoeira with famous kite and windsurfing adventures, sand buggy tours to the stunning Lagoa Azul nearby, and interesting opportunities available including following the shamans path into the experiences of Ayahuasca – often viewed as one of the most effective tools of enlightenment.
Main tourist attractions
Guaramiranga Mountains
Canoa Quebrada Beach (in Aracati)
Morro Branco
Praia Do Futuro
Jericoacoara Beach (profiled on E! Network's Wild On! series in 2000)
Infrastructure
International airport
The Pinto Martins International Airport is situated in Fortaleza. The passenger terminal is air conditioned and has four levels. The basement level has parking for 1,000 cars as well as automatic teller machines and a stop for regular city buses. |
9702_31 | The ground level has 31 check-in counters, airline offices, car rental agencies, special tourist information, a juvenile court bureau to facilitate travel of minors, a National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) office, information counter, passenger arrival area and access to two taxi stops.
The second level contains shops, a food court and domestic and international boarding lounges. The top floor has a beer garden and panoramic deck overlooking the maneuvering apron with a view of the Fortaleza skyline. The apron is 152,857 square meters and can accommodate 14 aircraft at once in pre-established positions ("boxes"). |
9702_32 | The scheduled airlines operating out of Fortaleza are Cabo Verde Airlines, TAP, Delta Air Lines, Gol, TAM, Webjet, OceanAir and TAF. The airport also frequently receives domestic and international charter flights. The passenger terminal, opened in 1998, was designed to have a useful life of 50 years. The former terminal, called the General Aviation Terminal, is now used for general aviation and the fire brigade. The control tower is located alongside.
Construction of a cargo terminal is the next big step planned by Infraero. The new terminal will have roughly eight thousand square meters, boosting the cargo storage and handling capacity fourfold. Plans then call for the new terminal to be integrated with highway and railroad links.
Highways
Highways in Ceará include:
BR-020
BR-116
BR-122
BR-222
BR-226
BR-230
BR-304
BR-402
BR-403
BR-404
CE-004
CE-040
CE-060 |
9702_33 | Ports
The Port of Fortaleza is located in the inlet of the Mucuripe and is a man-made port, including an oil platform. The quay stretches 1,054 meters. There are 6,000 square meters of warehouses and more than 100,000 square meters of dock for containers. There are still two wheat mills, interconnected to the railway system by an extensive maneuvering dock.
The Port of Pecem is the other big port facility in the state, located in the municipality of São Gonçalo do Amarante, about 60 kilometers from Fortaleza.
Sports |
9702_34 | Fortaleza provides visitors and residents with various sport activities. The most popular sport there, as well as in the remainder of Brazil, is football. The Championship of Ceará has its main games in Fortaleza. There are several football clubs, such as Ceará SC, Fortaleza EC and Ferroviário AC. Strong winds make the Praia do Futuro an excellent place for nautical sports, and Fortaleza hosts world competitions of surfing, windsurfing and kitesurfing. Fortaleza has produced high-level athletes in combat sports, as evidenced by several Fortalezans' success in mixed martial arts.
Fortaleza was one of the host cities of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. |
9702_35 | Flag
The state flag of Ceará, is one of the national symbols. The background is identical to the Brazil flag, with the real difference in its coat of arms; has a polonium shield, which represents the strength and endurance of the state and the protective function. However, it is not only that, but also reveals the geography, fauna and flora, the example is the coast, the backlands, birds, the carnaúbas. It also has anthropological and cultural elements, such as the Mucuripe Lighthouse, the Golden Fortress, which shows not only the militarized past but also the people; the rafts, a kind of boat used by fishermen. Represents the four elements
See also
Jericoacoara
Canoa Quebrada
Cumbuco
Evolutionist Liberal Party of Ceará
Sertão
Northeast Region of Brazil
João Inácio Júnior
References
External links
States of Brazil
Former Portuguese colonies
1799 establishments in the Portuguese Empire |
9703_0 | The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel (DSTT), also referred to as the Metro Bus Tunnel, is a pair of public transit tunnels in Seattle, Washington, United States. The double-track tunnel and its four stations serve Link light rail trains on Line 1 as it travels through Downtown Seattle. It runs west under Pine Street from 9th Avenue to 3rd Avenue, and south under 3rd Avenue to South Jackson Street. Line 1 trains continue north from the tunnel to the University of Washington station and south through the Rainier Valley to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport as part of Sound Transit's light rail network. |
9703_1 | The DSTT was used only by buses from its opening in 1990 until 2005, and shared by buses and light rail from 2009 until 2019. Bus routes from King County Metro and Sound Transit Express left the tunnel north via Interstate 5, south via the SODO Busway, or east via Interstate 90. It is owned by King County Metro and shared with Sound Transit through a joint-operating agreement signed in 2002. The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel was one of two tunnels in the United States shared by buses and trains, the other being the Mount Washington Transit Tunnel in Pittsburgh, and was the only one in the United States with shared stations. |
9703_2 | Though proposals for a rapid transit tunnel under 3rd Avenue were introduced in the 1910s and 1920s, planning for the modern bus and rail Metro Bus Tunnel only began in 1974. The King County Metro Council approved the bus tunnel proposal in November 1983, but construction did not begin until March 1987. The tunnel between Convention Place and Westlake stations was built using the cut-and-cover method, closing Pine Street for 19 months and disrupting access to the retail core. The segment from Westlake to the International District was bored with two tunnel-boring machines, heading north from Union Station and finishing within a month of each other. Tests of normal buses and the Breda dual-mode buses built specifically for tunnel routes began in March 1989; tunnel construction was declared complete in June 1990, at a cost of $469 million. Light rail tracks were installed in anticipation of future rapid transit service through the tunnel, which was later found to be poorly insulated and |
9703_3 | unusable for Link light rail. Soft openings and public previews of the five tunnel stations were held from August 1989 to September 1990, with regular bus service beginning on September 15, carrying 28,000 daily passengers in its first year of operation. For the next several years, until June 2004, service in the tunnel was provided exclusively by dual-mode buses, which ran as trolleybuses in the tunnellike the city's extensive trolleybus systemand as diesel buses on surface streets and freeways. |
9703_4 | The tunnel was closed on September 24, 2005, for modification to accommodate both buses and Sound Transit's Central Link (now Line 1) light rail trains with shared lanes and platforms. The roadway was lowered by and other improvements were made to prepare for light rail service. New hybrid electric buses were moved into the tunnel to replace the Breda fleet, as the overhead wire was replaced for light rail trains. The tunnel reopened on September 24, 2007, and light rail service began on July 18, 2009. A stub tunnel, branching from the main tunnel, was constructed under Pine Street to allow light rail trains to stop and reverse direction; it was later used as the first segment of a light rail extension to Capitol Hill and the University of Washington that opened in 2016. Convention Place station was closed permanently on July 21, 2018, to make way for an expansion of the Washington State Convention Center that would also restrict bus access to the tunnel. On March 23, 2019, bus |
9703_5 | service in the tunnel ceased and its remaining seven routes were moved to surface streets. |
9703_6 | Route and stations
The , tunnel is used by Line 1 between Westlake and International District/Chinatown stations. Entrances at several tunnel stations are built into nearby buildings with variable-message signs over the stairs and elevators leading to the mezzanines. A total of 11 wheelchair-accessible elevators connect the tunnel stations to the surface. The deepest of the tunnel stations are below street level and consist of two side platforms, two tracks, and a former bus passing lane in the middle. Since 2019, the stations have also had signs with numbered exits to aid in rider wayfinding. As part of the city's public art program that began in 1973, the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel and its stations were furnished with $1.5 million (equivalent to $ million in dollars) in artwork by 25 artists commissioned by King County Metro. |
9703_7 | The northern portal, formerly accessible to buses at street level from Olive Way, and from Interstate 5 via an express lane ramp, was the former Convention Place station at the intersection of 9th Avenue and Pine Street near the Washington State Convention Center. Until its closure in 2018, Convention Place was the only bus-exclusive station in the tunnel, and consisted of four sheltered platforms in a sunken, open-air layover space below street level. Buses entered the tunnel from 9th Avenue and passed under the historic Camlin Hotel, before joining the University Link Tunnel used by light rail trains headed north for three blocks under Pine Street to Capitol Hill station. |
9703_8 | The DSTT enters Westlake station under Pine Street between 3rd and 6th avenues, located between the Westlake Center shopping mall and Westlake Park. The station features a two-block-long mezzanine with exits to Pine Street and several retailers, including the Westlake Center, the former The Bon Marché flagship store, and the Nordstrom Building, as well as the former King County Metro customer service center. The area around the station is known as the Westlake Hub, with connections to the South Lake Union Streetcar and the Seattle Center Monorail as well as the King County Metro and Sound Transit buses. Leaving Westlake Station, the bored set of twin tunnels turn south under Century Square to follow 3rd Avenue and its transit mall through the central business district, parallel to the shoreline of Elliott Bay. |
9703_9 | Three blocks south of Pine Street, buses and trains enter University Street station, located between Union and Seneca streets adjacent to Benaroya Hall and 1201 Third Avenue in the financial district. The station has a split mezzanine, with entrances to 2nd Avenue and University Street accessible from the north half, and an entrance to Seneca Street from the south half. From University Street, the tunnel continues under 3rd Avenue for five blocks, entering the Pioneer Square neighborhood and historic district. At this point, 3rd Avenue passes several of Seattle's skyscrapers, including the historic Seattle Tower, Safeco Plaza, the Fourth and Madison Building and the Wells Fargo Center. Within University Street station, the tunnel passes over the century-old Great Northern Tunnel with a clearance of . |
9703_10 | Pioneer Square station is located between Cherry Street and Yesler Way, with four entrances to nearby streets and Prefontaine Place serving two mezzanines. The station serves the administrative centers of the Seattle and King County governments, located within walking distance of Seattle City Hall, the Seattle Municipal Tower, the King County Courthouse and the King County Administration Building, as well as other major buildings, including Smith Tower, Columbia Center and the Alaska Building. From Pioneer Square, the tunnel travels down a 5.5% grade to cross under the Great Northern Tunnel at a 45-degree angle near the intersection of 4th Avenue South and South Washington Street, briefly descending below sea level, before turning cardinal south into the International District neighborhood. |
9703_11 | International District/Chinatown station, the southernmost tunnel station, is partially open-air and located immediately below a public plaza at Union Station. The station has connections to Amtrak and Sounder commuter rail at King Street Station a block to the west, accessible through the Weller Street Bridge, as well as the First Hill Streetcar on Jackson Street, stopping east of 5th Avenue South. Other attractions near the station include Lumen Field to the west and Uwajimaya a block to the southeast. South of the station, the light rail tracks and bus lanes were formerly separated by railway signals at an underground bus layover and staging area next to the tunnel comfort room for bus drivers. The southern portal of the tunnel is located under the intersection of Airport Way and 5th Avenue South at the western terminus of the former Interstate 90 express lanes for high-occupancy vehicles. Until bus operations ceased, southbound routes continued from the tunnel in separated lanes |
9703_12 | on the SODO Busway, while eastbound buses used a set of ramps that traveled onto the Interstate 90 express lanes. The eastbound ramps will be retrofitted for the East Link light rail service that begins in 2023 on Line 2. |
9703_13 | Service
The Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel is part of the "Third Avenue Transit Spine", the busiest transit corridor in Seattle, serving a combined average of 54,000 weekday riders with bus stops on the surface. The tunnel has a theoretical capacity of 40 trains per hour per direction with a minimum of 90-second headways, carrying 22,000 passengers per hour per direction, but is only able to carry 12,000 per hour per direction in 4-car light rail vehicles with current systems in place. Prior to the start of Link light rail service, the DSTT could serve up to 145 buses during the afternoon rush hour. , the DSTT carried 52,600 daily riders, of which 10,000 are on light rail. |
9703_14 | The tunnel carries a segment of Line 1, which runs from the University of Washington station through Downtown Seattle and the Rainier Valley to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. Trains serve all downtown tunnel stations 20 hours a day every day; during regular weekday service, trains run roughly every six to 10 minutes during rush hour and midday operation, respectively, with longer headways of 15 minutes in the early morning and 20 minutes at night. During weekends, Line 1 trains arrive every 10 minutes during midday hours and every 15 minutes during mornings and evenings. Light rail service from Westlake to International District/Chinatown takes approximately seven minutes. |
9703_15 | Prior to the cessation of bus service in March 2019, the DSTT was served by seven bus routes that stopped at all four tunnel stations as well as stops near the former Convention Place station. At each station, bus routes were divided into three bays labeled with their general direction. Bay A was served by three routes heading north toward Northgate and the University District and east to Kirkland via State Route 520; Bay C was served by three routes heading south through the SODO Busway toward the Rainier Valley and Renton; and Bay D was served by a single route, Sound Transit Express route 550, heading east to Mercer Island and Bellevue via Interstate 90. |
9703_16 | During closures of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel, tunnel buses were rerouted onto 2nd and 4th Avenues between Yesler Way and Pine Street, and Stewart Street and Olive Way between 2nd and Boren Avenues. Metro also runs a special route, the Route 97 Link Shuttle, between all Link light rail stations during service disruptions.
Operations |
9703_17 | The DSTT is open for 20 hours on weekdays and Saturdays, from 5:00 am to 1:00 am the following day, and for 18 hours on Sundays, from 6:00 am to midnight. At the time of its opening in 1990, the Metro Bus Tunnel only operated from 5:00 am to 7:00 pm on weekdays and 10:00 am to 6:00 pm on Saturdays, with no Sunday service; the operating hours were temporarily extended into weekday nights from 1998 to 2000 at the request of the Seattle Seahawks and Seattle Mariners, but were cut after the passage of Initiative 695 and subsequent loss of motor vehicle excise tax revenue. Preparations for Link light rail service restored late-night and full weekend hours for the tunnel, introduced in June 2009 after Sound Transit Express route 550 moved all of its trips into the tunnel. |
9703_18 | Coordination between trains in the tunnel is managed by the Link Light Rail Operations Control Center (OCC), located at the King County Metro Communication and Control Center in SoDo. The OCC controls vehicle movements (and formerly operations between buses and trains) by using on-board radio-frequency identification tags installed on tunnel buses and light rail vehicles, their locations tracked by passing over induction loops embedded in the tunnel roadway. Signals at each station indicate when a driver can proceed through the tunnel. Within the DSTT, speed limits are set at in stations and staging areas and between stations. During joint operations, Light rail trains and buses were required to wait in the tunnels between stations until the platform was cleared of vehicles ahead; buses were mandated to keep a minimum of six seconds of separation between each other. |
9703_19 | During joint bus–rail operations, two types of vehicles were used in the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel: Sound Transit's Kinkisharyo-Mitsui light rail vehicles and King County Metro's New Flyer diesel-electric hybrid buses. The New Flyer buses, dubbed "tunnel buses" by King County Metro, were ordered in 2004 to replace a fleet of Breda dual-mode electric trolleybuses whose overhead wire was to be removed in the tunnel's renovation for light rail; 59 of the dual-mode Breda coaches were converted into fully electric trolleybuses between 2004 and 2007 and moved to surface routes, where they continued to operate for more than a decade before being fully replaced in 2016. The New Flyer low-floor, articulated buses feature a "hush mode" that allowed buses to operate solely on stored electric power within the tunnel, minimizing emissions and noise.
History
Previous subway proposals |
9703_20 | Several proposals for a cut-and-cover subway tunnel under 3rd Avenue in Downtown Seattle were presented to the City of Seattle by predecessors of the Seattle Planning Commission throughout the 20th century. The first major proposal was part of urban planner Virgil Bogue's "Plan for Seattle" in 1911, as Route 1 of a proposed rapid transit network. Route 1 ran southeast on 3rd Avenue from a circular ring around a proposed civic center in the Denny Regrade neighborhood to King Street Station, paralleled to the west by a subway on 1st Avenue known as Route 17; stations on the line were to have additional entrances from department stores and other major businesses on 3rd Avenue. The plan was supported by City Engineer Reginald H. Thomson and the Municipal League among others, but opposed by businesses fearing it would shift the commercial district further north, and by the three daily newspapers published in Seattle. A special municipal election for the comprehensive plan was held on March |
9703_21 | 5, 1912, in which Seattle voters rejected it by a 10,000-vote margin. |
9703_22 | Although Bogue's proposal was ultimately rejected, some elements of the plan were independently studied by others, including a rapid transit subway in Downtown Seattle. In 1920, City Engineer Arthur H. Dimmock published a report recommending a rapid transit system for the city of Seattle, centered around a cut-and-cover subway tunnel under 3rd Avenue from Virginia Street to Yesler Way. The line was to connect to surface and elevated lines at Dexter Avenue, Olive Way and South Jackson Street, serving the neighborhoods of Fremont, Eastlake, Capitol Hill, and North Delridge in West Seattle. The proposal, which was expected not to be acted upon for at least 15 years, gained little support, and was called a project of "purely academic interest" by Mayor Hugh M. Caldwell, who doubted that any rapid transit proposal would be seriously considered during his term. The Seattle City Planning Commission proposed its own rapid transit system in 1926, centered on an elevated line over Western |
9703_23 | Avenue with a possible parallel subway under 3rd Avenue from Yesler Way to Pike Street. The Seattle Traffic Research Commission published a report in 1928 recommending a subway under 2nd Avenue from King Street Station to Pike Street as part of a longer rapid transit line serving the University District and Fremont. In the late 1950s, the Seattle Transit Commission proposed building a rapid transit system on the existing right-of-way used by Interstate 5 between Tacoma, Seattle and Everett, with a two-station subway under 5th Avenue in Downtown Seattle. |
9703_24 | The most significant rapid transit proposal came as part of the Forward Thrust initiatives of the late 1960s, which was centered around a downtown subway under 3rd Avenue. The subway would be fed by lines from Ballard, Lake City, the University District, Capitol Hill, Bellevue, and Renton, combining for a planned minimum headway of minutes at rush hour, minutes during midday, and five minutes at all other times. The stations on 3rd Avenue were to be situated at South Jackson Street and 5th Avenue South, James and Cherry streets, Seneca and Spring streets, and Pike and Pine streets, all planned to open by 1985 and operated by the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle. Seattle voters were asked to provide $385 million (equivalent to $ in dollars), to supplement a $765 million grant (equivalent to $ in dollars) from the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA), during a municipal election on February 13, 1968, narrowly passing the bond by 50.8%, but falling short of the |
9703_25 | required 60 percent supermajority. A second attempt on May 19, 1970, with an adjusted $440 million local contribution (equivalent to $ in dollars) and $881 million federal grant (equivalent to $ in dollars), failed to pass with only 46% approval amid a local recession caused by layoffs at Boeing; the earmarked funds intended for the Forward Thrust rapid transit project were instead allocated to Atlanta, to build its rapid transit system. |
9703_26 | Bus tunnel proposal and approval |
9703_27 | The concept of a downtown bus tunnel was first proposed in 1974 during discussions between Governor Dan Evans and Seattle Mayor Wes Uhlman about regional transportation projects in response to the proposed extension of Interstate 90 into Seattle via a third floating bridge crossing Lake Washington. Metro Transit later commissioned a study into the bus tunnel, released the following July, which determined that it would not be able to adequately meet the rush hour demand of downtown bus ridership by 1980. The study suggested that a double-decked tunnel with automated guideway transit to complement bus service, running from Union Station to the Seattle Center, would be able to meet projected demand at an estimated cost of $450 million. Ultimately, the plan was rejected because of the high cost of ventilation for diesel buses that would use the tunnel. The bus tunnel proposal resurfaced in 1979, outlining a tunnel from South Jackson Street to Pine Street that would carry 200 buses an hour |
Subsets and Splits
No saved queries yet
Save your SQL queries to embed, download, and access them later. Queries will appear here once saved.