The Aachen Bismarck Tower was designed by Georg Frentzen (1854-1923), and was built after obtaining permission from the company Boswau & Knauer in Berlin. The tower is semicircular, with a base around five meters high, which is divided into five identical segments with two staircases. A one-meter high stone parapet sits above it and is supported by multi-part frieze battlements. Above the base level, there is an axially-symmetrical lower level that is roughly eleven meters high and which contains three arched portals. Above the portals are basalt busts of Otto von Bismarck, Helmuth Karl Bernhard von Moltke, and Albrecht von Roon, which were designed by Prof. Karl Krauss. Above the lower level sits the actual tower, 9.8 meters high, square and made up of four stories, arranged in the stylized form of the letter "B". The tower is topped by an observation deck, reachable by two staircases. The topmost segment of the monument consists of a 5 Meter high ducal crown originally constructed with a mounted Globus cruciger, instead of the customary brazier normally associated with Bismarck towers. Directly below the ducal crown, Bismarck's coat of arms are attached. The Globus cruciger meanwhile can no longer be seen, as it was possibly removed for renovation before 1986.
The Bismarck Tower has always been popular as a lookout, and after the last renovation work between 1999 and 2005, it remains accessible and still serves as a popular destination for the public. It is located in a cemetery in Burtscheid.


WikiWeb_Bismarck Tower (Burg (Spreewald))_2

In 1900 there were first plans to build an observation tower near Burg. At that time, the decision was made for the Schlossberg as a location. In 1910 it was decided to build a Bismarck Tower and the initiators began to collect donations. Architect Bruno Möhring from Berlin was commissioned to create a design. The design was carried out by the Cottbus architect Hermann Hauke. The outbreak of the First World War delayed construction work, which only began in the spring of 1915 and lasted two years. The tower also became a memorial to the soldiers who died in the war. During the Third Reich, solstice celebrations were held on the site. In 1944 a military observation point was established on the tower. The Wehrmacht used the tower as a radio control centre. In 1945 the tower was prepared for demolition but this could be prevented. After 1945 "ideological components" - such as Bismarck's coat of arms and his bust - were removed. The fire bowl on the top of the tower was dismantled. In 1951 the tower was renamed the "Tower of Youth". Between 1950 and 1990 the tower was closed to the public for strategic military reasons. The tower was finally renamed "Bismarckturm" again on October 3, 1990 with a public festival and made accessible to the public again.


The idea of building such a tower in Viersen was born on the occasion of a birthday party in 1899 in honour of Kaiser William by especially influential and patriotic Viersen citizens. The necessary money was to be collected by fund-raising activities to which the mayor, Peter Stern, not only contributed, but was one of the driving forces of the action group. In the end 104 citizens donated about 36,000 Marks (ℳ).
The project was not without opponents: the Viersen pastor, Lorenz Richen, in the name of all Roman Catholic priests gave a passionate speech against the idea of honouring Bismarck of all people. Bismarck, who in his time had fiercely fought against Roman Catholic influence, for instance in the school system, was for years unpopular in the mostly Catholic Rhineland.
Due to this speech encouraging Roman Catholics to protest, Richen lost his job as school inspector.
The idea for such a project did not, however, originate in Viersen. As early as 1899 the patriotic "Deutsche Studentenschaften" (German Students Association) decided to honour Bismarck as the founder of the German Empire in 1871. After a competition for the design of towers or columns they received 317 architectural plans and finally awarded the prize to the design by the Dresden architect Wilhelm Kreis called "Götterdämmerung".
His work inspired many tower projects all over Germany.
In Viersen that plan was realized in 1900 in a just a bit slimmer version, than the original "Götterdämmerung". It ended in a huge iron brazier on top of the building in order to light a beacon visible for miles on special occasions.
The selected construction material became cuboid greywacke from the Wiehl Valley.
The laying of the foundation stone was witnessed by several thousand people although the protesters had asked the Roman Catholic majority in town not to hoist the flags along the way of the patriotic procession leading from the town to the building site. The tower, then usually called the "Bismarck Column", was finished already in 1901.
It has a total height of 18.22 metres. On the night of the inaugural celebration the beacon was lit for the first time, and up to the time of World War I every year on the occasion of Bismarck's birthday, 1 April, for about two hours. The flames reached a height of about 4–5 metres.
In the base, built from three ever smaller growing pedestals, there are 12 steps leading up to an iron door. Four columns with a diameter of 1.80 metres rise from the corners of the plinth with three quarters of their perimeter visible on the outside. Above that rises, with an out jutting cornice the architrave. As decoration for the iron door on the western side the Düsseldorf architect Josef Kleesattel designed a coloured coat of arms of the Bismarck family as well as their motto "In trinitate robur" (in trinity, there is power) and the Berlin sculptor Arnold Künne created a bronze relief of the chancellor for the eastern front of tower. Within a steep flight of stairs with 60 steps leeds up to the viewing platform.
At the end of the 1970s the building was closed, based on safety reasons. The restoration of the structural condition became unavoidable. For financial reasons it was not effected until 2001 within the framework of the "Euroga". The city of Viersen, the municipal savings bank and funding by the county together were able to raise the necessary 370.000 €. Among other things the crumbling cement mortar lining of the joints was changed to a more modern material to avoid efflorescence.


For scientific, artistic and historical reasons the tower is listed as historical monument; for preservation and utilization this must be taken into consideration. After the restoration the building was reopened to the public in 2003. Since then you can see inside an exhibition of historical postcards on the subject of "Bismarck-Towers all over the world". Since 2006 the Viersen licensed radio amateurs look after the tower. They organize the opening hours as well, which are: from the first of April until the end of September on every first and third Sunday of the month. Groups can visit by special appointment all through the year and climb up to the top.


The earliest reference to the church dates from the reign of King Richard I, when Theobold Walter passed on his rights to the churches of Poulton-le-Fylde and Bispham to St Mary's of Lancaster. Another reference in 1345, from the records of the Archdiocese of Richmond, tells of the lamentable state of disrepair of both the church of Poulton and the chapel of Bispham, implying that Bispham was a chapel annexed to the parish of Poulton.
In 1351, in the aftermath of the Black Death, the Archdeacon made a visit to ascertain whether the chapel had sufficient parishioners to make it viable as a place of worship, and also enquired of St Mary's of Lancaster by what right they held the claim to Bispham. The Archdeacon was evidently persuaded not to sell off the chapelery and its lands.
The first mention of Blackpool is found in the Register of Bispham Parish Church in 1602 in which is recorded the Christinary on 22 September of that year of a child belonging to a couple who reside on the bank of the Black Pool.
18th century records show that there existed a church of red sandstone, with a double-gable roof, supported by offal pillars, laid down in the centre of the nave. There was a separate chancel, black oak pews in the nave, with three lancet windows in the east end and a low tower at the west.
In 1773, the pillars were deemed unsafe and removed and the building heightened, but by the middle of the 19th century, the church was in danger of collapse, and in 1883 had to be demolished. A new church of limestone was built on the same site, and during the rebuilding, were discovered a Saxon piscina and a Norman sandstone arch, with chevron carvings, enclosing the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Supposedly, the emblems of Taurus, Cancer and Virgo were excavated, that prompted the current Victorian carving that forms the Zodical frieze over the inner south doorway which contains fragments of the Norman masonry. The building has a five-bay nave, a chancel with transepts and a south-west tower, in a minimally Early English belf style.


The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is the largest area of badlands in the San Juan Basin that is easily accessible to the public. The badlands expose the longest, most complete, and most richly fossiliferous sequence of beds spanning the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary in any single sedimentary basin in the world. These include four geologic formations, which, in decreasing order of age, are the Fruitland Formation, the Kirtland Formation, the Ojo Alamo Formation, and the Nacimiento Formation.
These formations are exposed in an area of east-to-west valleys that drain to the Chaco River to the south. The beds dip about 5 degrees to the northeast, so that the oldest beds (Fruitland Formation) are exposed to the southwest, where they are easily visible around the entrance area, while the youngest (Nacimiento Formation) are exposed to the northeast.
In the late Cretaceous, North American was divided by the Western Interior Seaway, whose western shoreline moved back and forth across what are now the mountain states of the United States. About 74 million years ago, the sea made its final retreat from the Bisti/De-Na-Zin area to the northeast, depositing the Fruitland Formation on top of the shoreline sandstone of the Pictured Cliffs Formation (which is exposed south of the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness.) The Fruitland Formation records flood plains and delta environments behind the receding shoreline, including swamps in which economical deposits of coal were formed. These are mostly found in the Ne-nah-ne-zad Member of the Kirtland Formation. As the shoreline continued to recede, the Fossil Forest Member was deposited, which has much less coal but is rich in fossils. At the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, the Fruitland Formation consists mostly of gray shales, with thin coal beds and with resistant beds of white sandstones deposited in river channels. The formation also contains brown to purple iron concretions. In some places, the coal caught fire and burned to produced a red, hard rock, called clinker or red dog.
The Kirtland Formation was deposited shortly after the Fruitland Formation, and consists of thick greenish shales and siltstones, with just a few thin coal beds and white sandstone beds. The lower part of this formation is called the Hunter Wash Member, and is bounded by a white sandstone bed at its base and a distinctive brown sandstone bed (the Bisti Bed) at its top. Between is drab green siltstone. The middle part of this formation is called the Farmington Sandstone which consists of brown-topped sheets of sandstone. The upper part of the formation is called the De-na-zin Member and is similar to the Hunter Wash Member, but with purple beds near its top. The sandstone of the Farmington Member reflects a time of uplift somewhere nearby, producing high ground from which coarse sediments were eroded. Dinosaurs and other fossils are found scattered throughout the Kirtland Formation. Some 200 species of plant or animal fossils have been identified in the combined Fruitland and Kirland Formations, most of which are found in the Bisti/De-na-zin Wilderness. The plant fossils include petrified logs, leaf impressions, and carbonized leaves.
The Ojo Alamo Formation records the interval immediately around the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. Its lower beds are the Naashoibito Member, which is purple mudstone and white sandstone and was deposited before the end of the Cretaceous. This has sometimes been regarded as part of the Kirtland Formation. The upper part of the formation is the Kimbeto Member, which is massive cliff-forming brown sandstone. These coarse sediments were deposited at a time when mountains were being uplifted in southwestern Colorado, accompanied by volcanic activity. The exact Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, marked by a thin clay layer in other locations, is missing in a time gap between the two members of the formation. Both members are rich in fossils: The Naashoibito Member contains abundant fossils of dinosaus, turtles, and crocodiles, while the Kimbeto Member contains much fossil wood. Some dinosaur fossils are also found in the Kimbeto, but these are thought to have been originally formed in the Naashoibito Member, weathered out, and redeposited in the younger Kimbeto Member. Such fossils are called reworked fossils.
The Ojo Alamo Formation records a time when the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness was a seasonal tropical forest in which a wide variety of species grew, but in which angiosperms (flowering plants) were dominant. Two groups of herbivorous dinosaurs dominated the area. These were the hadrosaurs (such as Parasaurolophus) and the ceratopsians (such as Pentaceratops). Other herbivores included ankylosaurs and pachycephalosaurs. Meat-eaters included Tyrannosaurus,Daspletosaurus, and Ornithomimus. Small mammals, including multituberculates, marsupials, and placental mammals, were present. After the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction, the dinosaurs were gone, replaced mostly by small mammals. Turtles, crocodiles, and lizards also survived.  The multituberculates were much less important.
The Ojo Alamo Formation grades into the Nacimiento Formation, which is candy-striped white and black beds of shale and sandstone with occasional thin beds of coal and thin red or green beds representing paleosols, preserved ancient soil surfaces. These are assigned to the Arroyo Chijuillita Member. These were deposited in a river system with a cooler and drier but very stable climate. The beds contain fossils of the earliest animals of the Paleocene, and define the Puercan and Torrejonian North American Land Mammal Stages on the geologic time scale. These fossils record a time when the mammal population rapidly changed, either from rapid evolution following the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event or from new populations of mammals migrating into the area.
The area became part of the western side of the San Juan Basin which formed during the Laramide orogeny and tilted the beds to their present 5 degree angle to the northeast. The badlands themselves formed quite recently, between 2800 and 5600 thousand years ago. Hoodoos formed where resistant rock protected underlying pinnacles of softer rock.


A small variety of wildlife can be found in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, including cottontail rabbit, coyote, badger, porcupine, and prairie dog.  Bird species include pinyon jay, raven, quail, dove, ferruginous hawk, prairie falcon, and golden eagle.  Lizard, snake, tarantula, and scorpion also live here.


Recreational activities in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness include hiking, camping, wildlife viewing, photography, and horseback riding.  Campfires are forbidden in the Wilderness.


Bistrita Monastery has a very high historical and archaeological value. It is built in Byzantine style, richly ornate, with the entrance door kept from the moment of construction being worked with a lot of art. The most remarkable is the icon of St. Ana, the mother of the Virgin Mary. According to tradition, in 1401, this icon was given as "the patronal present" to the lady Ana, the wife of Alexander the Good, by the Empress Irena (Ana), wife of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos (1391-1425), and Patriarch Matthew, of Constantinople. Subsequently, the Voivode (Prince) family gave the icon to the St. Ana the Bistrita Monastery.
In the church of the monastery are buried: Alexandru the Good (Cel Bun), his wife Ana, Alexandru - the son of Stephen the Great, Chiajna - the wife of Stephen V of Moldavia, Anastasie – the Metropolitan of Suceava.
Bistrita Monastery is the place where one of the oldest monuments of the Romanian medieval culture was created: Pomelnicul de la Bistrița. The pomelnik offers the most interesting data about the beginning of the Moldavian voivodal and church history.
The monasteries are the most important category of monuments that survived the weather of the times, many of them being mirrors of the past. Around the monasteries both the religious life of the community and the culture of the nation have developed. They, monasteries, can also illustrate a military dimension, many of them being real fortresses and playing an active role in the defensive system of the country, given the restrictions imposed by Ottoman domination, especially after the middle of the XVIth century.
The monasteries and hermitages built by the voivodes and boyars, endowed with a rich heritage and important privileges, are the storage of a rich treasure of Romanian culture and civilization. The historical message is made of mural paintings, ancient memories, cult objects, printed books, funerary monuments and stone-preserved inscriptions, as well as the glorification of the voivodes who built them, a part of these monuments representing a gesture of thanksgiving God for help in battles.


Bistrishko Branishte (Bulgarian: Бистришко бранище) is a nature reserve in the Vitosha Nature Park on Vitosha Mountain in Bulgaria.
It was established in 1934, together with Vitosha Nature Park. Since 1977 it has been a biosphere reserve under the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme of UNESCO.
The reserve comprises the eastern slopes of the peaks of Golyam Rezen (2277 m), Malak Rezen (2191 m) and Skoparnik (2226 m), the northern slopes of Golyam Kupen Peak (1930 m), the upper valleys of Vitoshka Bistritsa and Yanchevska rivers. Its surface area is 1061.6 ha, the elevation is between 1430 and 2277 m.
Over 50 % of its territory is covered by forest (predominantly spruce), 100 to 120 years old on the average. There are several stone runs in the Subalpine zone, penetrating the forest. The larger animals found in the reserve include deer, boar, wolf, bear.
Bistrishko Branishte attracts many tourists from the adjacent Aleko Centre situated off the northwestern border of the reserve. Visitors are not permitted to stray away from the few designated tracks linking the Vitosha's highest peak of Cherni Vrah, Aleko area, Bistritsa village (3 tracks running via Pogledets site and along Bistritsa and Yanchevska rivers), Zheleznitsa village.


The Bitburg Reservoir (German: Stausee Bitburg) is a flood retention basin on the River Prüm in Biersdorf am See and Wiersdorf in the Eifel mountains of Germany. It is about 12 kilometres northwest of the town of Bitburg and not far from the city of Trier in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.
The dam, a 15-metre-high earth dam, was built by the Zweckverband Stausee Bitburg for flood protection at a spot where the narrow and deeply incised valley of the Prüm opened into a valley bowl, that used to be constantly in danger of flooding. The roughly 2-kilometre-long and up to nine-metre-deep reservoir allows the regulation of low water levels, enables the generation of electricity, and offers a place of recreation, making it a popular destination and tourist centre in the South Eifel. Around the lake there is a five-kilometre-long circular path and many other good hiking trails, some of which are lit at night. The hiking network of the German-Luxembourg Nature Park starts here.
Sporting and recreational activities include rowing, paddling, surfing, pedaloes, inline skating, mountain biking, badminton, cycling and fishing (for trout). in the middle of the lake is a large fountain.


Bitexco Financial Tower is a mixed use project which includes office, retail, F&B and entertainment space. The tower has around 38,000 square metres of office space, from 7th to 65th floors, and a five-storey retail podium, Icon68, including food court and seven screen multiplex cinema with around 10,000 square metres from Ground to 4th Floors. At Floor 49, at height around 178 metres, there is an observation deck open to the public.
Vietnam's first non-rooftop helipad is on the 52nd floor of the Bitexco Financial Tower. The helipad extends 22 meters out from the main structure. It is strong enough to carry a helicopter up to 3 tons of weight.


Grand Atrium Lobby
Wall & Façade system
The glass from Belgium was purchased and shipped to China for manufacturing.  Once in China the low iron heat strengthened glass was cut into 6,000 individual panels.  Each panel is double glazed with the outside layer being 8 mm thick and internal air space of 12 mm and an internal panel of 8 mm.  Finally the glass was shipped to Ho Chi Minh City and the panels were installed as the building grew higher. Each of the 6,000 sleek glass panels enveloping the Bitexco Financial Tower is individually cut to unique specifications because each floor is unique, giving the building its eye-catching shape.
Helipad
Located on the southern side of the Bitexco Financial Tower, the helipad cantilevers from the 52nd floor and resembles a blossoming lotus bud.
Constructed from more than 250 tons of structural steel and requiring 4,000 ultra-strong bolts to hold it together, the helipad took almost a year to plan, build and coordinate before it could be hoisted to its place at height around 191 meters.  Its installation alone took about two months.
Most of the materials used to construct the helipad were purchased from Europe and South Korea and the manufacturing took place in Bu Gang, a city near Seoul. Once the fabrication of the helipad was completed, it was shipped to Vietnam.
To ensure proper assembly, the entire helipad was pre-assembled on the ground of a factory in Đồng Nai Province in Vietnam – a process that took about three weeks.
When the helipad was ready to be lifted into place, the roads surrounding the southern face of the Bitexco Financial Tower were closed for safety reasons and the helipad was transported into the centre of District 1.  The massive yet delicate operation of lifting the helipad began.  It was lifted in parts and attached to the 52nd storey of the Bitexco Financial Tower, 191 meters above Ho Chi Minh City.
Vertical Transportation
Bitexco Financial Tower operates Otis double-deck elevators with specialised Compass System which is the most modern and advanced elevator system in Vietnam. With speed up to 7 meters per second, it was the fastest lift system in South East Asia at the time of installation. There are 3 separate elevator zones servicing the tower with 14 passenger and 2 service lifts, plus further lifts to serve the retail and parking areas.
Saigon Skydeck on 49th floor
The Saigon Skydeck soft opened for visitors from overseas and domestically on 1 January 2011, officially opening in July that same year. The observation deck offers 360-degree panoramic views of Ho Chi Minh City, guest facilities and a gift shop. Saigon Skydeck opens daily and a ticket costs around $10.


The interior of the church contains two separate sets of medieval murals. Decorating the apse is a set of vivid Romanesque paintings, influenced by French art and made in the early 13th century but somewhat harshly restored in the 19th century. They depict God holding the crucified Christ within a mandorla, under which the Apostles are standing. On the side walls there are scenes from the Old and New Testament as well as the family tree of Jesus. The paintings adorning the vaults of the nave are from the 14th century and depict the Coronation of the Virgin and the former patron saint of the church, Saint Lawrence.


The oldest item in the church is the richly decorated Romanesque baptismal font, adorned with images depicting the baptism of Christ. It was made in 1180 by a Romanesque sculptor called Tove. The name of the sculptor is known since another, very similar, baptismal font in Gumlösa Church is signed Tove gierhi ("Tove made me"). The church also has a triumphal cross from the 15th century, flanked by two copies of 16th-century wooden sculptures today in the Swedish History Museum but originally from Bjäresjö Church. They portray Mary and John the Evangelist. The other furnishings of the church are not medieval. Some of the pews date from the 16th century, and one of them is marked with the date 1562. The altarpiece of the church is an early Baroque piece, while the pulpit is from 1620.
Adjacent to the church are also the Bjäresjö Runestones.


The area of the mountain range is 630 km² (240 sq mi), with an equal width and length of 30 km. The entire mountain range divides into four expanses, which stretch from the NW to the SE. Its geological features are of volcanic origins, with smooth round shapes and mildly rolling landscape, differing from most of Montenegro's other mountains of calcareous composition abounding in karst forms, with numerous crevasses and crevices.
The range is bordered by Lim and Tara rivers. It is located in 5 of Montenegro's 21 municipalities:  Kolašin (for the most part), Mojkovac, Bijelo Polje, Berane, and Andrijevica.


Bjelasica, alongside Durmitor, is the center of Montenegrin mountain tourism. It has the advantage of being easily accessible, as town of Kolašin is situated on both main road from Podgorica to Serbia and on Belgrade–Bar railway.
As a skiing and snowboarding destination, Bjelasica is home to Kolašin 1450, popular ski center with modern chairlifts and infrastructure. The town of Kolašin is some 10km from the ski center, and some excellent lodging facilities has been built there in recent years.
In recent years, Bjelasica is becoming popular as a summer destination, as it is suitable for ecotourism, hiking, mountaineering and recreational tourism in general. Lodging in authentic huts in katuns is increasingly popular option during the summer. Due to the beautiful landscape, richness in lakes and streams, and ease of access, the mountain has great potential for development of tourism.


The lower part of the church stands in granite while the upper part is made of brick, a relatively new material at the time which had only been used in Denmark since the 1140s. The inspiration for the design most likely came from the former St. George's Church (Sct. Georgs kirke) of Schlamersdorf in Wagria which Sune Ebbesen had visited several times as a military commander. Bjernede Church, Horne Church on Funen and Thorsager Church in Jutland are all built to the same floor plan as that of the Schlamersdorf Church. Four interior granite columns support the roof structure. The porch was built in about 1500 and the tower had previously been altered but was, between 1890 and 1892, changed by architect Hermann Baagøe Storck (1839–1922) to what he believed was its original design.


Storck was later heavily criticized for his restoration work. Architects Peder Vilhelm Jensen-Klint and Ivar Bentsen later made church projects which resembled Bjernede prior to Storck's intervention, when it had a Bishop's Hat-like roof. Storck's restoration came to mark a turning point in Danish restoration architecture which from then on applied a more sensitive approach to the restoration of historical buildings.


The area is the most popular ski resort for the inhabitants of Iceland's Capital City Area.
The winter sports area is situated at elevations between 460 and 700 m.
15 km of easy and intermediate slopes for skiing and snowboarding as well as 15 lifts (tow lifts and chair lifts) are available as well as possibilities for night skiing. Cross country skiing is also possible. Two huts with accommodation and restaurant provide service for the guests. All this makes it the largest ski resort in Iceland.


Black Bike Week, also called Atlantic Beach Bikefest  and Black Bikers Week, is an annual motorcycle rally in the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area, held on Memorial Day weekend.  Called a "one-of-a-kind event" and "an exhibitionist's paradise" by Jeffrey Gettleman, Black Bike Week is "all about riding, styling and profiling," in the words of Mayor Irene Armstrong of Atlantic Beach, South Carolina.
It is the largest African American motorcycle rally in the US. Attendance has been variously reported as 350,000, 375,000, and as high as 400,000. It is considered the third or fourth largest motorcycle rally in the United States. Around 10–15 percent of motorcyclists in the US are women, while at major African American motorcycle rallies, such as Black Bike Week or the National Bikers Roundup, women make up close to half of participants.
From 1940 until 2008, Myrtle Beach had also hosted a predominantly white motorcycle rally, called Harley-Davidson Week, also called the spring Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealer's Association (CHDDA) Rally. The two rallies have usually run consecutively, and because of unequal city policies such as different traffic rules and greater policing during Black Bike Week, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and individual rally participants have charged, as well as sued, the city government and local businesses with racial discrimination because of different treatment towards the black rally. In 2002 Black Bike week had 375,000 attendees, versus 200,000 for Harley-Davidson Week of the same year.
The city of Myrtle Beach has used new ordinances to push the 2009 and 2010 motorcycle events, both black and white, out of the city, where they have been welcomed by other municipalities and businesses, and bikers still came in spite of the official efforts to discourage them.  After the 2010 motorcycle events the South Carolina Supreme Court overturned the Myrtle Beach city ordinance requiring all motorcyclists to wear helmets, and four other ordinances.
"Black Bike Week" can also refer to a side event to the motorcycle rally Daytona Beach Bike Week at Daytona Beach, Florida that happens two months earlier, in March. Like the South Carolina event, the Daytona rally also has its origins in racial segregation, when blacks created their own parallel event after being excluded from the main white festival.


During the 1960s and 1970s, many black motorcyclists visited Atlantic Beach, South Carolina, some riding Harley-Davidsons, but also riding many Japanese Hondas, Kawasakis, Suzukis, and Yamahas, which, along with race, distinguished them as riders from the white event's participants who preferred the Harley-Davidsons. During the segregation era Atlantic Beach was the only beach in the South where blacks were permitted.
The Black Bike Week rally, originally called the Atlantic Beach Memorial Day BikeFest, was founded in Atlantic Beach by the Flaming Knight Riders motorcycle club in 1980. The first rally drew about 100 participants. Though one reason the Flaming Knight Riders worked with the City of Atlantic Beach to create the event was to make money for the town, it was not actually franchised by Atlantic Beach, and the city did not benefit financially; instead, bikers would, over the years, congregate more and more in Myrtle Beach rather than Atlantic Beach. In 1982, the Flaming Knight Riders were renamed the Carolina Knight Riders motorcycle club.
By the 1990s the event had grown to include the entire greater Myrtle Beach, or Grand Strand, area. In 2002, Atlantic Beach hired a public relations firm "to make the rest of the country aware of Atlantic Beach, its uniqueness as a predominantly black beach town and its potential as a vacation spot."  This was part of a larger effort  to promote the motorcycle rally by the Bike Week Task Force, a group of business owners and public officials from around the Grand Strand area.
The predominantly white rally dates to May 1940, when a group of Harley-Davidson dealers created The Piedmont Harley-Davidson Dealers Association which became The Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association when South Carolina dealers joined. The group's first event was a ride to Ocean Drive in Myrtle Beach, and included a drag race and dirt track race and other festivities. In subsequent years the rally was held in Cherry Grove, Jacksonville and Wilmington, North Carolina before returning to Myrtle Beach. The 2009 event was at New Bern, North Carolina, and the 2010 rally is planned for the same location, two weeks before Memorial Day weekend.


In 2008, the Myrtle Beach City Council announced it would no longer host motorcycle rallies, and approved a set of ordinances on September 23, 2008, that placed restrictions on motorcycle rallies. Fifteen laws were passed, restricting muffler noise, requiring helmets within city limits, limiting parking to two bikes per space, restricting loitering in parking lots, and more. In spite of this, Black Bike Week 2009's attendance was only reduced slightly. Vendors, hotels, biker groups and promoters attempted to schedule events for Black Bike Week 2010 despite the Myrtle Beach government's ban.
In anticipation of the 2010 Harley Bike Week rally, a local Harley-Davidson dealership said events would still take place for their bike week event, but on a reduced schedule of only 5 days, May 11 to 16, while the website Myrtle Beach Bike Week, LLC says a full-length rally of May 7–16 would take place. Both sources say there would be no vendors inside the city limits of Myrtle Beach during the Harley Bike Week, and they both encouraged attendees to boycott the city and patronize those communities and businesses outside the city which did support Harley Bike Week.
The Myrtle Beach Convention Center had ceased attempting to find a replacement for the Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association, which had moved to Hard Rock Park. The reason for moving The Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association event to New Bern in 2009 was that Myrtle Beach, "passed all these silly laws, they said we ruined their May, so we talked about it and decided to oblige them," said Gene Lummus, former president of the association.
Another proposed rally, a Harley Owners Group convention, would take place May 18–22, 2010, at North Myrtle Beach, about 15 miles (24 km) up the coast from Myrtle Beach.


Black Butte lies about 21 miles (34 km) to the southeast of Mount Jefferson and about 8.6 miles (13.8 km) northwest of the junction of U.S. Route 126 and U.S. Route 20, at the eastern edge of the city of Sisters. The butte is part of Jefferson County in the U.S. state of Oregon. Other volcanoes such as Three Fingered Jack and Mount Washington lie about 10 miles (16 km) to the west.
According to the U.S. National Geodetic Survey and scientists from the United States Geological Survey, Black Butte has an elevation of 6,436 feet (1,962 m); the Geographic Names Information System database lists its elevation as 6,430 feet (1,960 m), while Oregon Geographic Names lists its elevation at 6,415 feet (1,955 m). The butte has proximal and draping reliefs of 2,490 feet (760 m) and 3,150 feet (960 m), which are the "difference between summit elevation and that of highest exposure of older rocks overlain by the edifice" and the "difference between summit elevation and that of lowest distal lavas of the edifice (not including distal pyroclastic or debris flows)," respectively. According to E. M. Taylor, Black Butte has a diameter of 4 miles (6.4 km).
The U.S. National Geodetic Survey report describes Black Butte as a "very prominent" mountain; it is an imposing feature and landmark in the Deschutes Valley because of its dark color and symmetry. Part of the Cascade volcanic arc in the northwestern United States, it lies within a rain shadow about 6.2 miles (10 km) to the east of the major mountain range. In the High Cascades, the equilibrium line altitudes for valley glaciers follow a gradient of about 74 feet per mile (14 m/km), which is significantly steeper than the gradient for the Western Cascades. Moving east, precipitation decreases across the Cascade arc; the gradient is even steeper east of the major crest at Black Butte, where the gradient is more than 200 feet per mile (38 m/km). W. E. Scott argues that the volcano displays no evidence of glaciation.
Black Butte lies just south of the Metolius Springs, which lie in the southwestern corner of Jefferson County. Accessible by roads branching off U.S. Route 20, the springs are located about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of the cities of Bend and Redmond. Black Butte rises above the surrounding Metolius Valley, which has a width of about 3 miles (4.8 km) and an elevation above sea level of 3,000 feet (910 m). At the volcano's northern base lie two openings spaced about 200 yards (180 m) apart, which give rise to the Metolius Springs. Bubbling out at a temperature of 48 °F (9 °C), the springs merge to form the headwaters of the Metolius River, generating a total flow of 45,000 to 50,000 US gallons per minute (170,000 to 190,000 L/min) over the course of each year. The river runs for 35 miles (56 km) to the north and east before reaching the Deschutes River, picking up 600,000 US gallons (2,300,000 L) along the way from other springs and tributaries along the eastern Cascade Range. As glaciers advanced and retreated and snow fields formed over time, they caused erosion, which was carried by streams associated with the Metolius River to spread across the river valley's floor.
The last of these glaciers existed until about 10,000 years ago, with their end points marked hummocks of debris. The glaciers formed glacial troughs, deposited moraines, and moved sand and gravel along with volcanic ash and cinders to cover the Metolius Valley floor. Black Butte lies about 5 miles (8.0 km) east–southeast of Suttle Lake, which occupies one of the local glacial troughs.
Eruptions from Black Butte buried the ancestral Metolius River and left boulders of lava in the area, and Black Butte's formation dammed drainages for the Metolius, dividing the Metolius Valley into the northern segment where the river now runs and a southern portion that includes Black Butte Swamp, Glaze Meadow, and Indian Ford Creek. Black Butte Swamp and Glaze Meadow were likely formerly shallow lakes, though they now serve as sumps for streams and drainages from the Cascades, which are located to the southwest. Black Butte Swamp is a particularly important sump for extensive drainage from the southwest, its basin water lapping against Black Butte's southern base. Because it is elevated about 300 feet (91 m) above the Metolius Springs, the swamp acts as a hydraulic head for the spring water keeping the flow of the springs constant, and ensuring that there is a net influx of water into the swamp. Any excess water exits through Indian Ford Creek to flow east then south past the city of Sisters. In modern times, the Metolius Valley consists of glacial outwash, lava strata, and stream sediment, which together act as a sponge for snow and rain water percolating into the river basin.


In the Oregon segment of the Cascade Volcanoes that runs for 210 miles (340 km) south of Mount Hood, there are at least 1,054 Quaternary volcanoes, which form a volcanic belt 16 to 31 miles (25 to 50 km) in width. This volcanic belt extends up to 19 miles (30 km) to the north of the border with California, where Quaternary volcanic activity is interrupted by a 40-mile (64 km) gap up to the Quaternary volcanoes near Mount Shasta. The Quaternary volcanoes within the Oregon Cascades are extremely dense, concentrated within an area of about 3,700 square miles (9,500 km²). Rocks within the Metolius Springs area form part of the High Cascades province and include both volcanic and glaciofluvial deposits.
Black Butte marks the edge of the Sisters fault zone, which includes about 50 known faults that extend southeast through the cities of Sisters and Bend. In total, the Sisters fault zone runs for 37 miles (60 km) in length, with its width varying between 3.1 to 9.3 miles (5 to 15 km). Black Butte itself sits on a small fault that straddles the graben, and its lava deposits have been displaced slightly by a fault on the northwestern side of the volcano. To the north lies the Green Ridge fault scarp, which trends to north and rises about 2,000 feet (610 m) above the Metolius Valley. The fault's steep escarpment contains exposed, alternating layers of basaltic andesite, breccia, and agglomerate from shield volcanoes, which mark the oldest rocks in the area. They are of Pliocene age, overlying diatomite, pumice, and tuffaceous sandstone layers.
Most of the volcanoes in the Oregon Cascades are either scoria cones, small shield volcanoes, or lava fields, though the segment contains a number of basaltic andesite stratovolcanoes such as Mount McLoughlin. Black Butte is one such stratovolcano (also known as a composite volcano), with a mafic (rich in magnesium and iron) composition. It is an extinct volcano.
Also composed of basaltic andesite, the cone rises 3,076 feet (938 m) over the surrounding plateau. Black Butte is a striking feature just north of US Highway 20, which descends from the east flank of the Cascades. It is nearly symmetrical with a youthful profile, though it is actually older than any other visible High Cascades volcano. Black Butte is well-preserved due to a lack of glaciation east of the major Cascade arc. Black Butte has undergone mild erosion, with shallow ravines on its slopes, deep gullies on its sides, and rocks with weathering rinds. Black Butte forms a steep-sided volcanic cone, with an unexposed pyroclastic core and no summit crater. It is one of the larger mafic volcanic cones in the Oregon Cascades, with a volume of 2.4 cubic miles (10 km³). Black Butte's composition is characteristic for the High Cascades, consisting of light to dark gray basaltic andesite rock with a fine to medium grain. The flanks of the volcano display outcrops of the lava, which are blocky and mixed with zones of breccia, suggesting the flows were slow-moving and were erupted from a central vent.


The land around Black Butte and the Metolius Springs is managed by the United States Forest Service, which has constructed a parking lot, trail, and viewpoint for the area. There are a number of famous fishing resorts and a popular recreation area nearby. Black Butte Ranch, which lies in Deschutes County within Deschutes National Forest, is a resort community that encompasses 1,800 acres (7.3 km²) and offers recreational activities including horseback riding, biking, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, and paddleboarding; during the winter, the resort activities include Nordic skiing and snowshoeing.
The Black Butte hiking trail runs for about 2 miles (3.2 km) from a trailhead up the butte. Trees thin in the second mile of the hike. The trailhead is particularly busy during the summer season with vehicles and hikers, though the hiking trail itself is for hikers only. The hike is popular and not demanding, climbing about 1,600 feet (490 m) to the peak, where Three Sisters, Mount Washington, and Mount Jefferson can be seen.


WikiWeb_Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve_0

The Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve is a 6,000-acre (2,400 ha) park located north of Mount Diablo in Contra Costa County, California under the administration of the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD). The district acquired the property in 1973. The preserve contains relics of 3 mining towns, former coal and sand mines, and offers guided tours of a former sand mine. The 60 miles (97 km) of trails in the Preserve cross rolling foothill terrain covered with grassland, California oak woodland, California mixed evergreen forest, and chaparral.


WikiWeb_Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve_2

In 1859 William C. Israel discovered a coal deposit while clearing out a spring on his land at Horse Haven Valley, six miles south of Antioch. His initial attempt to mine the coal was not financially successful but soon other coal deposits were discovered nearby and mining operations grew rapidly. The area became known as the Mount Diablo Coalfield, the largest in California, producing more than 400 million short tons (357 million long tons) of coal during this time.
The area includes the remains of twelve coal mines and the sites of several long-gone coal mining towns. The Preserve contains over 200 miles (320 km) of mine workings. The largest and oldest town, Nortonville, had a peak population of about 1,000. Somersville, Stewartville, West Hartley and Judsonville were located in valleys to the east. The sites of Judsonville and West Hartley are located on private property outside the eastern boundary of the Preserve. The mines were the Empire, Central, Star, Corcoran, Pittsburg, Manhattan, Eureka, Independent, Union, Black Diamond, Mt. Hope, and Cumberland. The  coal produced was of a low grade (sub-bituminous or lignite), but for a time in the 19th century, was the only readily accessible and economic source in California. Therefore, it was a very valuable resource and powering the railroads, ships and heavy industry of California. The mineral was often called 'black diamond."
The coal was carried to the San Joaquin River by three railroads: the Empire, Pittsburg, and Black Diamond, for shipment by barge to markets in San Francisco, Sacramento, Stockton and other communities. Coal mining activity ended as better-quality imported coal became affordable and as petroleum emerged as an energy source. After the coal mines closed, the towns were abandoned and the area was used mainly for cattle grazing. In 1974 the Southport Land and Commercial Company (former Black Diamond Coal Mining Company) donated 160 acres of its land holdings to help It become Black Diamond Mines Regional Park.
The coal mines are closed due to hazards posed by the age of the mines, the gases they produce (carbon dioxide and methane), and their rock quality (the shale and coal in the mines is unstable). In 1980 four young boys from the local area were killed by the methane gas from one of the open mines. However, a number of mine openings have been turned into public-access openings which allow visitors to look into the mines and, for some, to walk a short distance underground. The deepest public-access opening is known as Prospect Tunnel. Visitors can enter 200 feet (61 m) of this excavation made by miners searching for coal.


Many Black Forest farms still have the typical Black Forest houses today. However, internally they have usually been upgraded to satisfy modern day needs (in terms of living comfort and the installation of machines). Sometimes new cattle sheds were built next to the farmhouse in order to ensure that the keeping of dairy cows met modern standards. Frequently, silos have been erected next to the farmyards for silage feed. Farmers often convert rooms that have become free into guest rooms or holiday apartments in order to provide an additional source of income.
A variety of historic farms from different parts of the Black Forest have been rebuilt, true to the original, in the Vogtsbauernhof Open Air Museum.
In the television series Schwarzwaldhaus 1902, the broadcasting company Südwestrundfunk invited a modern family to live in a way that replicated life a hundred years ago in a Black Forest house in the village of Münstertal in the southern Black Forest.


Comparable to the barrows of Gnyozdovo near Smolensk, the Black Grave has a height of over 10 metres and a circumference of 170 metres. During excavations undertaken in 1872–73, Dmitry Samokvasov uncovered two cremated bodies of Norse warriors (probably father and son), surrounded by slaves, sacrificial animals, arms, armour, and decorations. Samokvasov dated the burial to the late 10th century, when Vladimir I was the ruler of Kievan Rus. It is likely that the buried warriors were two princes (knyazes) of Chernihiv, although no local potentate is attested in the Slavonic chronicles before Vladimir's son, Mstislav of Chernihiv.
After the bodies were cremated, they were put upon a 7-metre-high mound, where a funeral feast took place. Arranged near the bodies were two helmets and knee-length chain mail (hauberks), probably extracted from the pyre, as well as a cauldron with ram bones, two sacerdotal knives, two golden Byzantine coins, an imported sabre, a miniature dark-red bronze idol of Thor, and two silver-bound aurochs horns decorated with floral motifs, fabulous animals, and figures of a man and a woman shooting at a bird. When the barrow was completed, a stele was placed at the top. All these items are now displayed at the State Historical Museum in Moscow.
At the present time the site of the burial mound along with other 34 buildings (mostly churches) are included in the Chernihiv National Architecture-Historical Sanctuary "Ancient Chernihiv". The Black Grave along with the rest of the reserve is the major tourist attraction in the Chernihiv Oblast (province) of Ukraine.


Founded in 1946 by University of South Dakota drama professor Dr. Warren M. Lee, the Black Hills Playhouse and its dormitories for actors had been constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1933. The playhouse opened on June 17, 1946, with plays presented in the Coolidge Inn on the grounds of the Game Lodge.
The current theater was built in 1955.  New dormitories for its theatrical company were built between 1979 and 1982. Leonard Anderson took over as the Managing Director in 1976. In 1987 Jan Swank became Managing Artistic Director. In 2007 a restructuring occurred and Bruce Halverson was hired as the Executive Director. In 2008 Michael Burgraff became the Executive Director, followed by Linda Anderson in 2010.
In 2011, a successful fundraising campaign raised over $500,000 to make improvements to the historic campus. The theater roof structure was strengthened and the building was brought up to 2011 building codes, including covered stairwells, new fire suppression system, a new sanded paver system and sidewalks outside of the building. In addition, a new dining hall was constructed and the snack bar structure foundation was strengthened. A covered log picnic area, Haberman Hall, was renovated as well.
In 2012, a program called Room Service was started where volunteers adopted dorm rooms and provided materials and labor for renovations. As of 2013, 48 of 50 rooms have been renovated with completion expected in 2014.
In 2013 a new costume shop was built with assistance from the South Dakota National Guard, Boxelder Job Corps and many other partners. A new fly system was installed in the theater and new stage draperies purchased and installed as a result of fundraising by the Black Hills Playhouse Alumni Association.
The Black Hills Playhouse is affiliated with the University of South Dakota College of Fine Arts.  Each summer the company produces 4-5 shows with performances occurring June through the middle of August. Auditions are held in six locations in February.  Professional designers, directors and technical staff are hired annually.


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The bulk of Black Mountain consists of the white quartz Black Mountain Sandstone.  This was deposited in the late Early Silurian age.  On the south east slopes and north west there are exposures of State Circle shale. The Black Mountain Peninsula contains mudstone in the north and greywacke from the Ordovician age Pittman Formation in the south.


Black Pearl is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans.  A subdistrict of the Uptown/Carrollton Area, its boundaries as defined by the New Orleans City Planning Commission are: South Carrollton Avenue and St. Charles Avenue to the north, Lowerline, Perrier and Broadway Streets to the east, and the Mississippi River to the west.
In 1974, when the New Orleans City Planning Commission was giving official names to each neighborhood in Orleans Parish designated the area as Black Pearl. "Pearl" refers to the street that runs through the neighborhood, and "black" honors the neighborhood's historically black population. Together, "Black Pearl" refers to a type of pearl that is exquisite and rare.
Most of the neighborhood is a section of what was the town of Carrollton in the 19th century; the designated neighborhood boundaries also include a portion downriver of Lowerline Street that was part of the town of Greenville. This latter part includes Uptown Square, a shopping complex converted to offices as well as residences for the elderly.
This area on high ground escaped the Hurricane Katrina flooding suffered by most of the city in 2005. However a tornado strike in the early morning hours of February 13, 2007, did significant damage.
In 2019, Seven Three Distilling Co released a locally-distilled rum, Black Pearl Rum, named after the neighborhood.


The New Orleans City Planning Commission defines the boundaries of Black Pearl as these streets: South Carrollton Avenue, St. Charles Avenue, Lowerline Street, Perrier Street, Broadway Street and the Mississippi River.


WikiWeb_Black River Gorges National Park_0

Black River Gorges National Park is a national park in the hilly south-western part of Mauritius. It was proclaimed on June 15, 1994 and is managed by the National Parks and Conservation Service. It covers an area of 67.54 km² including humid upland forest, drier lowland forest and marshy heathland. Facilities for visitors include two information centres, picnic areas and 60 kilometres of trails. There are four field stations in the park which are used for National Parks and Conservation Service and Mauritian Wildlife Foundation research and conservation projects.
The park protects most of the island's remaining rainforest although much of this has been degraded by introduced plants such as Chinese guava and privet and animals such as rusa deer and wild pigs. Several areas have been fenced off and invasive species have been eradicated from them to preserve native wildlife. Many endemic plants and animals still occur in the park including the Mauritian flying fox and all of the island's endemic birds: Mauritius kestrel, pink pigeon, Mauritius parakeet, Mauritius cuckooshrike, Mauritius bulbul, Mauritius olive white-eye, Mauritius grey white-eye and Mauritius fody. The park has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International.


WikiWeb_Black River and Western Railroad_0

The Black River and Western Railroad (reporting mark BRW) is a freight and heritage railroad operating in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, between Flemington, Lambertville and Ringoes. The railroad operates vintage steam and diesel powered locomotives.


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The Black River & Western Railroad (BR&W) was started by William Whitehead in Oldwick, New Jersey, in the late 1950s. A portion of the defunct
Rockaway Valley Railroad went through his back yard. He and his sons started collecting rolling stock and an engine (Lackawanna #565). They started laying tracks but then the expansion of I-78 halted their dream of building a railroad at that location. They moved their equipment to the Chester Hill Branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) with the hope of starting a railroad there.
BR&W was officially incorporated in 1961. The railroad's name is derived from the Black River, a river in Chester, and the direction that the river flows. Following a brief stint of operations on CNJ's Chester Hill Branch, equipment was moved to Flemington, New Jersey in 1963 and the search for a place to start their tourist train was continued. A leasing arrangement was created with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) that allowed a tourist train to operate from Flemington to Lambertville on the original Belvidere-Delaware Railroad (PRR Belvidere Division) Flemington Branch (originally the Flemington Railroad & Transportation Company) in 1964. BR&W paid $5,000 a year and rehabilitated the railroad (PRR operated freight service on the line during this period). Steam engine #60 pulled the first trip out of Flemington on May 16, 1965. Weekend and holiday schedules were devised.
BR&W assumed ownership and operations of the Flemington Branch from the CNJ connection in Flemington to Flemington Branch Junction in Lambertville on March 16, 1970, purchasing it from PRR successor Penn Central (PC). With the acquisition of the rail line and its freight operations, on top of the existing tourist passenger service, a true shortline railroad was born. Base operations were established in Ringoes, New Jersey, and remain so today. Freight interchange after the 1970 purchase was made with PC at Lambertville and CNJ in Flemington. PC filed for bankruptcy that June.
PC continued to operate freight under bankruptcy protection until April 1, 1976 when Conrail (CR) assumed operations (the last PC freight train to operate on the Belvidere Division was on March 31, 1976). BR&W then purchased three miles of trackage in the Lambertville area that was part of the Belvidere Division mainline on March 31, 1976 before Conrail took over. BR&W also purchased the Flemington-Three Bridges portion from the bankrupt CNJ. Although coal, iron ore and general freights were rerouted to other lines such as the North Penn Branch, CR continued operating smaller interchange freight trains to Lambertville. In March 1977, a new interchange was built at Three Bridges, New Jersey with the former Lehigh Valley Railroad (LV) mainline.
Freight service to Lambertville ended by 1995 with tourist operations ceasing by the end of 1998, when the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) prohibited operations due to poor track conditions. There was talk in 1999 of Trap Rock Industries quarry using the stub-ended section north of Lambertville for unit stone trains, resulting in a frenzy of track repairs taking place on the Ringoes-Lambertville segment to accommodate the anticipated traffic. The quarry ultimately backed out with the final work train operating in June 2002 to retrieve all remaining rolling stock.


The Black Tower was built in the early 13th century as part of the first fortifications of Brussels. When the city's second fortifications were built at the end of the 14th century, its original function became obsolete. Historians believe it had by then become private property. This would explain why it survived so many centuries unharmed.
In the 16th century, unlike other sections of the wall, the tower survived the creation of a new dock for the inland port of Brussels on the site where St. Catherine's Church is now located. Around the same time, it was transformed into a tavern named In the Tower. In 1888, when the entire street was sanitised, then-mayor Charles Buls saved the tower from demolition. Architect Victor Jamaer restored the building and reconstructed the gable and the roof, as well as the bent radius. In the 19th century, it was surrounded by a clothing store.
On 1 February 1937, it officially became a state's building and was classified as a historical monument. Nowadays it is surrounded by a hotel with modern-day supplies. A plaque reminds passers-by of its historical importance.


Black Trout Adit (Polish: Sztolnia Czarnego Pstrąga) is the longest (600 meters) underground tourist route in Poland travelled by boats. It's a part of one of 8 adits dug in the area to drain the workings. The Black Trout Adit is located in a park in the west of the town Tarnowskie Góry. Access is by two shafts Ewa and Sylwester (the traffic is alternating). The guide puts the boats in motion and tells the stories connected with the place.


The cathedral has seven choirs — Cathedral Choir of Boys and Men, Girls, Children's, Lantern Voices, YPC (Young Peoples' Choir), Renaissance Singers (Formally the Bach Choir) and Cathedral Consort (alternate Thursday Evensongs). On Sundays the Parish Communion is sung by the YPC and the Eucharist and Evensong by the Cathedral Choir.


WikiWeb_Blackdown Tableland National Park_1

The park is in Central Queensland, 576 km (358 mi) northwest of Brisbane. The mountainous terrain of the tablelands provides a unique landscape featuring gorges, waterfalls and diverse vegetation.
The Blackdown Tableland is a 900 m (3,000 ft) sandstone plateau rising abruptly from the plains below. Many creeks on the Tableland have developed gorges and waterfalls along their courses, the most notable of which drains in to the spectacular Rainbow Falls (Gudda Gumoo) over a 40 m (130 ft) drop.  Some of the creeks on the Tableland are catchment fed by rain and often dry up, and some are spring fed and always flow even just a small amount. The national park is located in the north east of the central Queensland sandstone belt.
The tablelands are positioned at the junction of the Shotover, Expedition and Dawson Ranges. Evidence of folding is shown in the rises and depressions amongst the ranges.


The Blackfoot LDS Tabernacle, also known as the Blackfoot Tabernacle or South Blackfoot Stake Tabernacle is a building located in Blackfoot, Idaho that formerly served as a tabernacle for large gatherings of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The tabernacle was designed by architects Hyrum Pope and Harold W. Burton and completed in 1921.  The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.  In 1980 the church sold the building to the city of Blackfoot. It was used as a civic auditorium until the 90's and sat until 2003. In 2003 local business owner Perry Hawker bought it and it now functions as the Hawker Funeral Home.


Blackfriars, Gloucester, England, founded about 1239, is one of the most complete surviving Dominican black friaries in England.
Now owned by English Heritage and restored in 1960, it is currently leased to Gloucester City Council and used for weddings, concerts, exhibitions, guided tours, filming, educational events and private hires. The former church, since converted into a house, is a Grade I listed building.


The first fixed crossing at Blackfriars was a 995-foot (303 m) long toll bridge designed in an Italianate style by Robert Mylne and constructed with nine semi-elliptical arches of Portland stone. Beating designs by John Gwynn and George Dance, it took nine years to build, opening to the public in 1769. It was the third bridge across the Thames in the then built-up area of London, supplementing the ancient London Bridge, which dated from several centuries earlier, and Westminster Bridge. It was originally named "William Pitt Bridge" (after the Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder) as a dedication, but its informal name relating to the precinct within the City named after the Blackfriars Monastery, a Dominican priory which once stood nearby, was generally adopted. It was later made toll free.
The City of London Corporation was responsible for promoting it and the location between the other two bridges was chosen because it was realised that the disused wharfage of the lower River Fleet from the Thames to what became Ludgate Circus would allow access into the north bank without unduly disrupting the neighbourhood; hence its name of New Bridge Street. The Fleet can be seen discharging into the Thames at its north side. By taking an access road from its southern landing to a junction with the routes created to simplify passage between those bridges to its east and west to the south it would also add to those improvements. This created the junction at St George's Circus between Westminster Bridge Road, Borough Road and the later named Blackfriars Road which crossed the largely open parish of Christchurch Surrey. The continuation to the south at the major junction at Elephant and Castle is therefore named London Road.
Although it was built of Portland stone the workmanship was very faulty. Between 1833 and 1840 extensive repairs were necessary, until at last it was decided to build a new bridge on the same site, which coincided with the creation of the Thames Embankment's junction with the new Queen Victoria Street and required a major reconfiguration. The original Blackfriars Bridge was demolished in 1860, P.A. Thom & Company won with the lowest tender and placed an order with Lloyds, Foster and Company for the necessary ironwork. Due to P.A. Thom's problems in finding solid foundations, Lloyds, Fosters & Company went into liquidation having lost £250,000 on the project. The metalwork was built by The Patent Shaft and Axletree Company, Wednesbury, following their takeover of Lloyds, Foster and Company.
The present bridge which on 6 November 1869 was opened by Queen Victoria is 923 feet (281 m) long, consisting of five wrought iron arches built to a design by Joseph Cubitt. Cubitt also designed the adjacent rail bridge (now demolished) and it was a condition that the spans and piers of the two bridges be aligned. Like its predecessor it is owned and maintained by the Bridge House Estates, a charitable trust overseen by the City of London Corporation. Like London Bridge the full length and its southern end is within the City's borders and not in the adjoining borough of Southwark. Due to the volume of traffic over the bridge, it was widened between 1907–10, from 70 feet (21 m) to its present 105 feet (32 m).
The bridge attracted some international attention in June 1982, when the body of Roberto Calvi, a former chairman of Italy's largest private bank, was found hanging from one of its arches with five bricks and around $14,000 in three different currencies in his pockets. Calvi's death was initially treated as suicide, but he was on the run from Italy accused of embezzlement and in 2002 forensic experts concluded that he had been murdered by the Mafia, to whom he was indebted. In 2005, five suspected members of the Mafia were tried in a Rome court for Calvi's murder, but all were acquitted in June 2007 for lack of evidence.


Blackfriars station serves Thameslink rail services that connect suburbs with central London. It straddles the River Thames, running across the length of Blackfriars Railway Bridge parallel to the A201 Blackfriars Bridge. For this reason, it is partly in the City of London and partly in the London Borough of Southwark. The north bank entrance is on the south side of Queen Victoria Street and the south bank entrance, opened in 2011, is adjacent to Blackfriars Road.
The station falls within fare zone 1. The station is run by Thameslink, with Transport for London handling the underground platforms. A Thameslink driver depot is in the station building. London Buses routes 4, 40, 63 and night routes N63 and N89 serve the station. The adjacent Blackfriars Millennium Pier provides river services to Putney and Canary Wharf.


Blackfriars station was significantly renovated between 2009 and 2012 in a £500 million redevelopment programme to modernise the station and increase capacity. The terminal platforms at the station were closed on 20 March 2009 in order for work to begin. The original concept for the project was designed by Pascall+Watson architects, with execution by Jacobs and Tony Gee and Partners; it was built by Balfour Beatty. The office building above the station was demolished and replaced as part of the Thameslink programme. The new station is the same height and has a combined National Rail and London Underground ticket hall and ventilation shaft together with escalators and lifts between a mezzanine level for main line railway services and the sub-surface level for London Underground services. The Underground station also received major enhancements, with a new roof of glazed north lights and partial-height glazed side panels installed along the entire length of the bridge.
On the south bank of the river a new station entrance was built at Bankside, containing a second ticket hall. The through platforms were moved to the east side and extended along Blackfriars Railway Bridge to accommodate 12-carriage trains (in place of the previous eight). The layout has been altered by building new bay platforms on the west side, avoiding the need for through trains between City Thameslink and London Bridge crossing the paths of terminating ones.
The works exploited the disused piers west of the existing railway bridge which once supported the former West Blackfriars and St. Paul's Railway Bridge. The easternmost row of disused piers was strengthened, tied into the existing bridge and clad in stone. The longer platforms allow longer trains on the Thameslink route to pass through London. Thameslink services began using the newly constructed platforms in early 2011. The station's new entrance and ticket hall on the south side of the river opened on 5 December. The tube station reopened on 20 February 2012. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, visited the works on the same day, saying "the rebirth of this central London station will improve the journeys of thousands of passengers every single day". The reconstruction work provided jobs for around 13,000 people, with a peak of 2,000 per day at the busiest times. The Thameslink redevelopment work at Blackfriars has been well received. In January 2014 the Blackfriars Railway Bridge became the world's largest solar-powered bridge having been covered with 4,400 photovoltaic panels providing up to half of the energy for the station. In 2017, the station won a Major Station of the Year award at the National Rail Awards.
The Waterloo & City line, a deep-level tube line which runs non-stop between Waterloo and Bank, runs almost directly under Blackfriars station and there have been suggestions to construct an interchange station for the line at Blackfriars. The Department for Transport considers this to have "no significant transport benefit".


Blackgang Chine is the oldest amusement park in the United Kingdom, having opened in 1843. Named after a now-destroyed chine (a coastal ravine) in the soft Cretaceous cliffs, it is about 6 miles from Ventnor at the southern tip of the Isle of Wight just below St Catherine's Down. Blackgang Chine and its sister park Robin Hill are owned by the Dabell family. Blackgang Chine is home to many lands of imagination, including Pirate Cove, Restricted Area 5, Fairy Land and Village, and Cowboy Town. Owing to the unstable land on which the park is situated, landslides occur frequently, meaning that attractions have been moved further inland to safer ground on several occasions.


Sited below the village of Blackgang at the western end of the Undercliff, Blackgang Chine was, historically, a spectacular ravine (in 1800 a "steep gaunt ravine" descending 500 feet over about 3⁄4 mile (1.2 km)).
The location is based on unstable terrain owing to the underlying Gault Clay strata, resulting in a succession of huge landslips giving the area a very rugged appearance akin to the better known Jurassic Coast. Currently the cliffs are eroding at a rate of about 3.5 metres per year, although this process is not gradual nor consistent. Continuing landslides and coastal erosion swept away the paths in the early 1900s, and have since obliterated the chine itself and repeatedly forced the park owners to move the clifftop facilities inland.


In 2010, a new section to the park opened; "Blackgang's Disappearing Village". This was produced in conjunction with the BBC programme Coast, and featured presenter Dick Strawbridge in its video exhibits. It told the story of the island's coast and illustrated the cliff falls and erosion that Blackgang suffered over the years. Approximately half of this exhibition was later removed and converted to the new Hall of Mirrors in 2016. The remaining portion includes the park's original 19-metre-long skeleton of a fin whale, and a simulator designed to mimic the experience of the landslips which occurred at Blackgang.
In 2011, a 'Fairy Land' section was developed adjacent to the Fairy Castle. The following year, the pirate ship play area was redesigned as 'Pirate Cove', with two new pirate ships, and surrounded by other smaller themed buildings, a pirate shooting gallery, and 'The Sailors Return' (now 'The Vortex'), in which visitors walk through a spinning tunnel of lights designed to disorientate.
'Restricted Area 5' opened in 2014; a modernisation of the park's previous 'Dinosaurland'. It features new animatronic dinosaurs which move and roar when visitors approach. Some of the original fibreglass dinosaurs have been retained in the new walkthrough.
In 2015, Cowboy Town was remodelled, with new buildings and scenery. A family of animatronic Triceratops was also added to Restricted Area 5. This replaced the 'Mouth of Hell', a giant devilish 'mouth' that visitors could climb into.
In 2016, The Triassic Club attraction was removed, and the area was redeveloped as a new, larger space for 'The Mouth of Hell', which is now encircled by a new walkway themed with fallen angel statues and demonic sounds.
For the opening of the 2017 'Underwater Kingdom' attraction, the Fantasyland area of the park was completely redeveloped, resulting in the removal of 'The Weather Wizard', 'The Angry Dragon' and 'The Licorice Factory' attractions. The animated 'Smugglers Cave' walkthrough was also removed and a new similar structure was built in its place to form the entrance to the 'Underwater Kingdom'.
As of 2018 and after 56 years, the Water Gardens are no longer part of the park. Demolition of the area began in 2016, with the last of the three remaining ponds nearest the cliff edge being filled in during the winter of 2017.
For the park’s 2022 season, two new rides were opened; a drop ride called ‘Evolution’ and a rotating boat ride named ‘Shipwrecked’.


The entire lighthouse complex including the tower and keeper's houses is protected as a category B+ listed building.


Blackness Castle is a 15th-century fortress, near the village of Blackness, Scotland, on the south shore of the Firth of Forth.
It was built, probably on the site of an earlier fort, by Sir George Crichton in the 1440s. At this time, Blackness was the main port serving the Royal Burgh of Linlithgow, one of the main residences of the Scottish monarch. The castle, together with the Crichton lands, passed to James II of Scotland in 1453, and the castle has been crown property ever since. It served as a state prison, holding such prisoners as Cardinal Beaton and the 6th Earl of Angus.
Strengthened by Sir James Hamilton of Finnart in the mid-16th century, the castle became one of the most advanced artillery fortifications of its time in Scotland. A century later, these defences were not enough to prevent Blackness falling to Oliver Cromwell's army in 1650. Some years after the siege, the castle was repaired, and again served as a prison and a minor garrison. In 1693, the spur protecting the gate was heightened, and the Stern Tower shortened as a base for three heavy guns. Barracks and officers' quarters were added in the 1870s, when the castle was used as an ammunition depot, until 1912. The castle was briefly reused by the army during World War I. It is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, in the care of Historic Environment Scotland.
Because of its site, jutting into the Forth, and its long, narrow shape, the castle has been characterised as "the ship that never sailed". The north and south towers are often named "stem" and "stern", with the central tower called the "main mast".


The barony of Blackness was held in the mid-15th century by Sir George Crichton, Lord High Admiral of Scotland, Sheriff of Linlithgow, and later Earl of Caithness. The Crichtons were one of the most politically powerful Scottish families at the time, and were close to James II; George Crichton was governor of Stirling Castle when the King murdered the 8th Earl of Douglas there in 1452, and Crichton's cousin, William, was Chancellor of Scotland from 1439 to 1453. The castle was probably built in the mid-1440s, during a time of feuding between the Crichtons and the "Black" Douglases, which had resulted in the destruction of Crichton's tower at Barnton in Edinburgh in 1444.
Blackness Castle is first mentioned in 1449, and was already serving as a state prison as well as Crichton's residence. The original building comprised a curtain wall and the north tower, with the central tower isolated in the central courtyard. A hall range may have stood to the south, while the whole was defended by a rock-cut ditch and accessed by a gate in the east wall.
George Crichton handed over the Crichton lands, including Blackness Castle, to James II in 1453. His dispossessed heir, James Crichton, captured the castle and held it briefly against the King, who besieged and recaptured it the same year. Blackness became a royal fortress, as well as continuing to serve as a prison, and was put into the care of a keeper, who was often the Sheriff of Linlithgow.
James IV came to Blackness on 11 July 1506 after visiting the Isle of May sailing with the Lion and another ship. He was welcomed by four shawm players. In November 1512 the Great Michael and the Margaret were at Blackness. James IV came aboard the Michael on St Andrew's day to hold an audience with the French ambassador, Charles de Tocque, sieur de la Mothe. The Auld Alliance of Scotland and France was confirmed.
In the 17th century, the office of Keeper of Blackness became hereditary in the Livingstone family.


Between 1534 and 1540, a programme of fortification was carried out under the direction of the King's Master of Works, Sir James Hamilton of Finnart. Finnart, the illegitimate son of the Earl of Arran, was an expert in artillery fortification. Having spent time in Europe studying the subject, he designed his own castle at Craignethan in Lanarkshire as a showcase for his ideas. At Blackness, he introduced technological innovations including a complex entrance with a caponier, one of only three surviving in Scotland (the others being at Craignethan and Stirling Castle). The caponier, a passage within the external wall of the entrance, allowed defenders to fire into the entrance area, at the backs of any attackers who had breached the gate. The curtain wall was thickened on the inside to the south and east, from 1.5 m (5 ft) to over 5 m (16 ft) in places, and gun ports were opened up. The south wall was also heightened to enclose the new south tower.
Work continued after Finnart's execution for treason in 1540, under the superintendence of the parson of Dysart, and the "dungeon" and kitchen towers were roofed with turf called "brume and dovet". Major building works came to a halt in 1542 on the death of James V. Following the battle of Pinkie, on 15 September 1547 Richard Broke and the Galley Subtle rowed up the river to Blackness. After an exchange of fire he captured the Mary Willoughby, the Anthony of Newcastle and the Bosse, and burnt other ships.
During the crisis of the Scottish Reformation the castle was surrendered by negotiation to James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault as leader of the Lords of the Congregation. Two English captains, Dethick and Wood, then took possession on Easter Day, 15 April 1560. Minor repairs were carried out to the castle during these years.
During the Marian civil war which followed the forced abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1567, the garrison of Blackness remained loyal to her. However, the Keeper, Alexander Stewart, later changed sides to join the Regent Moray's party. In 1572, Lord Claud Hamilton recaptured the castle for Mary, harrying shipping in the Forth until the following year, despite being blockaded. On 27 January 1573, James Kirkcaldy, the brother of William Kirkcaldy of Grange who held Edinburgh Castle for Queen Mary, arrived at Blackness from France with arms and money for the Queen's side. His ship was captured the next day and Regent Morton laid siege. James Kirkcaldy and the castle surrendered within a week.
In 1580 Malcolm Douglas of the Mains delivered the castle to Lord Robert Stewart. Stewart complained that Douglas had removed the great iron "yett of the dungeon" the gate of the tower, and its lock and the prison-house lock, and timber platforms from the parapets, making it impossible to defend the castle. James Cochrane was the keeper for Sir James Sandilands, their prisoners included the Earl of Huntly in 1592, and John Wemyss of Logie in 1594.
The castle's defences were not tested again until 1650, when Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army besieged Blackness during his invasion of Scotland. However, by this time artillery technology had improved beyond anything that Finnart's defences could withstand, and the garrison soon surrendered under bombardment from land and sea. The damaged castle was abandoned.


The first official reference to Blackpool in Cork City as an urban centre was in relation to the building of a Guard House in 1734 mentioned in the Cork Corporation minute book. Its early development can be traced to its being on the main thoroughfare from Cork City to the north, with roads leading to the important destinations of Mallow, Limerick and Dublin. Dublin Street and Hill in Blackpool were named after this route.
Weaving became identified with Blackpool from its early beginnings and it was later recalled that the cabins of Blackpool were a hive of wool combing and weaving. The success of weaving in Blackpool can in part be attributable to British Army and Naval contracts that accrued to the area. The Revolutionary War period (1793–1815) was a buoyant time for weaving in Blackpool as a result.  But after the war ended and the Act of Union of 1801 eventually allowed cheaper industrial clothing to invade the Irish market it marked the end of the cabin weaving industry of Blackpool. Many of the weavers from Blackpool emigrated to Britain.
Thereafter Blackpool had a concentration of industries such as tanning, bacon curing, brewing and distilling.
Many of the Blackpool's residents formerly depended on the industrial employment offered by companies such as Gouldings, Harringtons, Dennys, Sunbeam, Irish Distillers and Murphy's Brewery. There are many clubs associated with Blackpool which grew over the years including the Harriers, St Finbarr's Pipe Band, Glen Boxing Club, and Glen Rovers hurling club.
Blackpool's Roman Catholic parish church, the Church of the Annunciation, was designed by noted stone carver Seamus Murphy RHA who worked in the locality. The building of this church, completed in 1945 to replace the earlier St Nicholas Church, was funded by the Dwyer family who owned the nearby Sunbeam textile complex, and their staff with weekly collections.
Notable people from the area include Taoiseach and hurler Jack Lynch, hurler Christy Ring (often regarded as the greatest hurler of all time) and association footballer Charlie Hurley.


The sculpture was designed by the artists Liam Curtin and John Gooding, and was constructed in concrete, steel, zinc and copper sheet. The harnessing of wave energy, and the sculpting of the concrete and metals, is said to produce a unique interpretation of Blackpool's natural and man-made environments.
The instrument is played by the sea at high tide through eight pipes attached to the sea wall. These are connected under the promenade to 18 organ pipes within the sculpture. The swell of seawater at high tide pushes air up the sea-wall pipes and causes the organ pipes to sound. The best time to hear the High Tide Organ is two to three hours before or after high tide. On very calm days the organ is silent for part of its cycle. The pitches of the pipes are based on the harmonic series in B flat.
The High Tide Organ is one of a small group of musical instruments that operate without further human intervention, among which the aeolian harp and the wind chime are the most notable.


In the late 16th century, the citizens of Cork appealed to Queen Elizabeth I to construct a fort at Blackrock to "repel pirates and other invaders". In 1582 a fortification was built on the site, and later around 1600, a round tower was constructed to safeguard against pirates "carrying away" vessels entering the harbour. The earliest elements of this structure remaining today are a circular tower on the water's edge, 10.5m in diameter, with walls 2.2m thick.
Blackrock Castle was in the ownership of the City of Cork following a charter of James I to the city in 1608. The castle is later referred to in the Council Book of Cork in 1613 and 1614. In 1722 the old four-storey tower was destroyed by fire and new one built by the citizens, costing £296.
Throughout this period, the castle was used by Cork Corporation for banquets and "convivial gatherings" - some associated with the custom of "throwing the dart". This custom, dating to at least the 18th century, was held every three years in August, and involved a dart (an arrow about four feet long) being thrown by the Mayor from a boat, to indicate the Corporation's jurisdiction over the harbour.
Following a banquet, the castle was destroyed by fire in 1827. The rebuilding began at the direction of Mayor Thomas Dunscombe in 1828 and was completed in March 1829. The architects added three additional storeys to the original tower and rebuilt the out-buildings. The new building cost the City of Cork £1,000. The architects were George Richard Pain and James Pain, who were responsible for other public buildings around Cork at the time. The neo-gothic complex of buildings around a courtyard is essentially what remains today.
The castle entered private hands and for a time in the 20th century was used as a private residence, offices, rowing club headquarters, and restaurant. The building was reacquired by Cork Corporation in 2001, and work commenced on renovating and re-purposing the complex as an observatory and museum.


Blackstone Edge contains evidence of prehistoric activity with the presence of three cup marks on an outcrop of rock 150m north west of the (later) Aiggin stone identified by Archaeological Services WYAS.
Crossing the escarpment is Blackstone Edge Long Causeway, also known as Blackstone Edge Roman Road, a partially paved road on the Greater Manchester side, becoming a holloway through peat as it runs into Yorkshire. The Blackstone Edge Long Causeway was originally thought to be of Roman origin until investigations by James Maxim, who proposed the theory that it was actually a 1735 turnpike or packhorse route. This theory was widely accepted until 2012 when investigations by Archaeological Services WYAS led them to conclude that "The archaeological surface evidence...suggests that the route of the road is unlikely to have originated as part of a turnpike scheme as probable medieval and post-medieval features, including a packhorse road, appear to overlie the substantial road cuttings in a number of places. If the road does not originate in the 18th century, then the scale of construction of the road cuttings suggest a level of engineering skill, planning and use of resources only otherwise normally associated with Roman roads." This report confirms the original Roman date. The route is designated as a scheduled monument in both Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire.
The Aiggin Stone, a gritstone pillar, possibly a way-marker, stands alongside the road, which may also have seen later use as a packhorse route, and marks the county boundary. The stone has a cross and the letters I and T cut into it. Its name is said to derive from the French aiguille for a needle or aigle for an eagle.
Much of the surrounding area was within the ancient parish of Hundersfield, although some parts lay within Butterworth township. In the English Civil War the Parliamentarians sent 800 men to fortify Blackstone Edge; John Rosworm came from Manchester to direct the construction of defences. It was successfully held against an attack by Royalist cavalry. In 1660 the churchwardens of St Chad's paid 24 shillings for eight loads of "great stones from Blackstoneedge" for Rochdale church steps.
Celia Fiennes travelled over Blackstone Edge and described her journey in about 1700. A meeting of supporters of Chartism from the surrounding industrial towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire was held in 1846, attracting up to 30,000 people.


WikiWeb_Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge_0

The Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1933 as a waterfowl sanctuary for birds migrating along the critical migration highway called the Atlantic Flyway. The refuge is located on Maryland's Eastern Shore, just 12 mi (19 km) south of Cambridge, Maryland in Dorchester County, and consists of over 28,000 acres (110 km²) of freshwater impoundments, brackish tidal wetlands, open fields, and mixed evergreen and deciduous forests. Blackwater NWR is one of over 540 units in the National Wildlife Refuge System, which is managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
Blackwater Refuge is fed by the Blackwater River and the Little Blackwater River. The name "blackwater" comes from the tea-colored waters of the local rivers, which are darkened by the tannin that is picked up as the water drains through peat soil in the marshes.


A favorite destination for canoeists and kayakers, Blackwater River offers opportunities for a variety of outdoor recreation. The river is one of the purest sand-bottom rivers in the nation, making this park a popular place for swimming, fishing, camping, and paddling. Shaded campsites are just a short walk from the river, and visitors can enjoy a picnic at a pavilion overlooking the river. Nature enthusiasts will enjoy strolling along trails through undisturbed natural communities. The park was certified a Registered State Natural Feature in 1980, for possessing exceptional value in illustrating the natural history of Florida. In 1982, an Atlantic white cedar there was recognized as a Florida Champion tree, one of the largest and oldest of its species.


Blagdon Hall (grid reference NZ21557705) is a privately owned English country house near Cramlington in Northumberland. It is a Grade I listed building. The house and estate have been in the ownership of the White Ridley family since 1698. The present Viscount Ridley is the science writer and hereditary peer Matt Ridley.
The house was built in two phases between about 1720 and 1752 by Matthew White and his son Sir Matthew White, 1st Baronet, whose sister Elizabeth married Matthew Ridley (1711–1778), four times Mayor of Newcastle upon Tyne. His son Matthew White Ridley inherited the estate and succeeded his uncle as second baronet. Blagdon Hall was substantially enlarged in the nineteenth century to designs by the architects John Dobson and Ignatius Bonomi. Some of these additions were removed following a fire in 1944.
The gardens were extensively remodelled in the 1930s by Sir Edwin Lutyens, whose daughter Ursula was married to The 3rd Viscount Ridley.
The stable block designed by James Wyatt in Palladian style in 1791 is Grade II* listed and a 19th-century folly in the grounds is Grade II listed.  The gardens also contain the only surviving bronze of John Graham Lough's gigantic statue of Milo of Croton.
On the estate is Shotton Surface Mine, a large open cast coal mine and Northumberlandia (the "Lady of the North"), a huge land sculpture in the shape of a reclining female figure made from mining waste. The Royal Agricultural Society of England awarded the Bledisloe Gold Medal in 2015 to Ridley as they "wanted to highlight the extensive environmental improvement work that has been undertaken across the land".


Blagdon Lake first opened as a trout fishery in 1904. The lake is well known for trout fishing from its banks and the fleet of 18 rowing boats for hire. The suction tanks which originally supplied water to the steam boilers for the pumping engines are now used as rearing pools for the fish before they are transferred into the lake. On average 50,000 trout are reared at Blagdon each year by Bristol Water to stock this and surrounding lakes such as Chew Valley Lake and the Barrow Tanks.


Blagdon Lake is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) of 212.7 hectares (526 acres), created in 1971, largely because of the variety of species and habitats. The area around the pumping station was laid out as an ornamental woodland which includes Scots pine, Cedar, Larch, Spruce, Oak, Beech, Chestnut, Willow, Lime, Holly and Maple. A variety of orchids including green-winged orchid (Anacamptis morio) and southern marsh-orchids can be seen on the borders of the lake.
A variety of water birds can be seen around the lake including: great crested grebe (Podiceps cristatus) and little grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis), cormorant (Phalacrocoracidae), mute swan (Cygnus olor), Canada goose (Branta canadensis), duck (Anatidae), shoveller (Anas clypeata) and gadwall (Anas strepera). The common buzzard (Buteo buteo) can be seen on the surrounding hills and both Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus) and kestrel breed. Occasional visitors include: osprey ("Pandion haeliatis"), goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), Eurasian hobby (Falco subbuteo), nuthatch and great spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos major). The ruddy darter dragonfly (Sympetrum sanguineum) can also be seen. In the wood at the western end of the lake there are populations of badgers, roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and foxes.


Originally a Canadian Pacific Railway stop called Tenth Siding or The Springs (for the cold sulphur spring to the east), the settlement was renamed Blairmore in November 1898 and it got a post office the following year. A ten-year dispute over land ownership between the CPR station agent and the section foreman stunted early development. The community was incorporated as the Village of Blairmore on September 3, 1901. Blairmore's principal industry was lumber and, after 1907, coal. Other industries soon followed. Blairmore incorporated as a town on September 29, 1911. With the declining fortunes of the nearby community of Frank, Blairmore soon became the region's economic centre. The Greenhill mine, located just north of Blairmore, became the mainstay of the community until its closure in 1957.
One of the town's early residemts was Emilio Picariello (1875 – 1923). "Emperor Pic" settled in Blairmore in 1918 and operated several businesses, but also illegally imported alcohol from nearby British Columbia during prohibition. Picariello and Florence Lassandro were hanged in 1923 after the shooting death of Alberta Provincial Police constable Steve Lawson in 1922.
Like many Canadian industrial towns in the 1930s, Blairmore had some sympathies with Communism. Canada's first Communist town council and school board were elected in Blairmore in 1933, which reformed the tax system, and refused to observe Remembrance Day as an Imperialist holiday and honoured the Russian Revolution instead. A street was named after the leader of the Communist Party of Canada, Tim Buck, a decision that was reversed by the next town council.
On November 3, 1978, the Government of Alberta passed the Crowsnest Pass Municipal Unification Act, which led to the formal amalgamation of the Town of Blairmore with the Village of Bellevue, the Town of Coleman, the Village of Frank, and Improvement District (ID) No. 5 on January 1, 1979.


Blaise Hamlet is a group of nine small cottages around a green in Henbury, now a district in the north of Bristol, England. All the cottages, and the sundial on the green are Grade I listed buildings. Along with Blaise Castle the Hamlet is listed, Grade II*, on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England. Nikolaus Pevsner described Blaise Hamlet as "the ne plus ultra of picturesque layout and design".
Blaise Hamlet was built around 1811 for retired employees of Quaker banker and philanthropist John Scandrett Harford, who owned Blaise Castle House.
The hamlet was designed by John Nash, master of the Picturesque style. He had worked for Harford on other buildings. The hamlet is the first fully realized exemplar of the garden suburb and laid out the road map for virtually all garden suburbs that followed. The cottages are all unique and include brick chimneys and dormer windows with some having thatched roofs. They are examples of the picturesque, an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin. An oval path links the cottages and encircles the village green with its sundial. The cottage gardens are planted in a Victorian cottage garden style.
Since 1943 the cottages have been owned by the National Trust. They are still occupied and not open to the public, but the ensemble may be viewed from the green. Rose Cottage is let by the National Trust as a holiday cottage.


Blankenese Low Lighthouse is a lighthouse on the river Elbe, located in the Hamburg district of Blankenese. The previous one entered into service in 1984 and was demolished in November 2020, but replaced by a similar some 200 m river upwards. Blankenese Low Lighthouse and Blankenese High Lighthouse form a range of lights for ships sailing upriver on the Elbe. With a range of 8.4 Kilometres, they have the longest range on the lower Elbe river.


It is made of steel and stands 33 meters tall. The column is striped in red and white with a white steel lantern house at the top with some portholes. It is positioned approximately 30 meter offshore in the river Elbe and some 100 m to the Pier. On the base of the tower is a 7.5 m high level staircase deck. Inside it has a helix staircase going to the top. At the higher podium floor is a door entrance of the structure.
The lighthouse is remotely controlled by the Seemanshöft Pilot Centre and belongs to the Hamburg Port Authority.
Due to the offshore location of the lighthouse, a caisson was used to build the concrete foundation to a depth of 10 meters below the water surface. The lantern house was assembled with the help of a floating crane.


Blarney Castle is now a partial ruin with some accessible rooms and battlements. At the top of the castle lies the Stone of Eloquence, better known as the Blarney Stone. Tourists visiting the castle may hang upside-down over a sheer drop to kiss the stone, which is said to give the gift of eloquence. There are many versions of the origin of the stone, including a claim that it was the Lia Fáil — a numinous stone upon which Irish kings were crowned.
Surrounding the castle are extensive gardens. There are paths touring the grounds with signs pointing out the various attractions such as several natural rock formations with fanciful names such as Druid's Circle, Witch's Cave and the Wishing Steps. The grounds include a poison garden with numerous poisonous plants, including wolfsbane, mandrake, ricin and opium, as well as cannabis. Blarney House is also open to the public.