title: Saffron content: for its "earthy" notes—is marketed in small quantities. Consumers may regard certain cultivars as "premium" quality. The "Aquila" saffron, or "zafferano dell'Aquila", is defined by high safranal and crocin content, distinctive thread shape, unusually pungent aroma, and intense colour; it is grown exclusively on eight hectares in the Navelli Valley of Italy's Abruzzo region, near L'Aquila. It was first introduced to Italy by a Dominican friar from Inquisition-era Spain. But the biggest saffron cultivation in Italy is in San Gavino Monreale, Sardinia, where it is grown on 40 hectares, representing 60% of Italian production; it too has unusually high crocin,


title: Saffron content: picrocrocin, and safranal content. Another is the "Mongra" or "Lacha" saffron of Kashmir ("Crocus sativus" 'Cashmirianus'), which is among the most difficult for consumers to obtain. Repeated droughts, blights, and crop failures in Kashmir combine with an Indian export ban, contribute to its prohibitive overseas prices. Kashmiri saffron is recognisable by its dark maroon-purple hue; it is among the world's darkest, which hints at strong flavour, aroma, and colouring effect. Almost all saffron grows in a belt from Spain in the west to Kashmir in the east. The other continents, except Antarctica, produce smaller amounts. In 2014, were produced worldwide.


title: Saffron content: Iran is responsible for around 90–93% of global production, and much of their produce is exported. A few of Iran's drier eastern and southeastern provinces, including Fars, Kerman, and those in the Khorasan region, glean the bulk of modern global production. In 2005, the second-ranked Greece produced , while Morocco (the Berber region of Taliouine), and Kashmir, tied for third rank, each producing . In the 21st century, Afghan cultivation increased. Azerbaijan, Morocco, and Italy are, in decreasing order, lesser producers. Prohibitively high labour costs and abundant Iranian imports mean that only select locales continue the tedious harvest in Austria,


title: Saffron content: Germany, and Switzerland—among them the Swiss village of Mund, whose annual output is a few kilograms. Microscale production of saffron can be found in Australia (mainly the state of Tasmania), Canada, Central Africa, China, Egypt, parts of England France, Israel, Italy (Basilicata), Mexico, New Zealand, Sweden (Gotland), Turkey (mainly around the town of Safranbolu), the United States (California and Pennsylvania). Greece is a saffron producer with a history of 3 centuries of cultivation of a saffron called "Krokos Kozanis", having started exports to the United States in 2017. Saffron prices at wholesale and retail rates range from US$500 to US$5,000


title: Saffron content: per pound, or US$1,100–11,000/kg. In Western countries, the average retail price in 1974 was $1,000 per pound, or US$2,200 per kilogram. In February 2013, a retail bottle containing 0.06 ounces could be purchased for $16.26 or the equivalent of $4,336 per pound or as little as about $2,000/pound in larger quantities. A pound contains between 70,000 and 200,000 threads. Vivid crimson colouring, slight moistness, elasticity, and lack of broken-off thread debris are all traits of fresh saffron. Saffron's aroma is often described by connoisseurs as reminiscent of metallic honey with grassy or hay-like notes, while its taste has also been


title: Saffron content: noted as hay-like and sweet. Saffron also contributes a luminous yellow-orange colouring to foods. Saffron is widely used in Persian, Indian, European, and Arab cuisines. Confectioneries and liquors also often include saffron. Saffron is used in dishes ranging from the jewelled rice and "khoresh" of Iran, the Milanese "risotto" of Italy, the "paella" of Spain, the "bouillabaisse" of France, to the "biryani" with various meat accompaniments in South Asia. One of the most esteemed use for saffron is in the preparation of the "Golden Ham", a precious dry-cured ham made with saffron from San Gimignano. Common saffron substitutes include safflower


title: Saffron content: ("Carthamus tinctorius", which is often sold as "Portuguese saffron" or "açafrão"), annatto, and turmeric ("Curcuma longa"). Saffron has a long history of use in traditional medicine. Saffron has also been used as a fabric dye, particularly in China and India, and in perfumery. It is used for religious purposes in India. Dried saffron is composed of 65% carbohydrates, 6% fat, 11% protein (table) and 12% water. In comparison to other spices or dried foods, the nutrient content of dried saffron shows richness in content of B vitamins and dietary minerals (table). In a serving of one tablespoon (2 grams), manganese


title: Saffron content: is present as 28% of the Daily Value, while other micronutrients have negligible content (table). One limited meta-analysis concluded that saffron supplementation improved symptoms in people with major depressive disorders. Another review of preliminary human research indicated that it may have effects on mild to moderate depression. The documented history of saffron cultivation spans more than three millennia. The wild precursor of domesticated saffron crocus is probably "Crocus cartwrightianus". If "C. sativus" is a mutant form of "C. cartwrightianus", then it may have emerged by human cultivators selectively breeding specimens for unusually long stigmas in late Bronze Age Crete. It


title: Saffron content: slowly propagated throughout much of Eurasia and was later brought to parts of North Africa, North America, and Oceania. Saffron was detailed in a 7th-century BC Assyrian botanical reference compiled under Ashurbanipal. Documentation of saffron's use over the span of 3,500 years has been uncovered. Saffron-based pigments have indeed been found in 50,000-year-old depictions of prehistoric places in northwest Iran. The Sumerians later used wild-growing saffron in their remedies and magical potions. Saffron was an article of long-distance trade before the Minoan palace culture's 2nd millennium BC peak. Ancient Persians cultivated Persian saffron ("Crocus sativus" 'Hausknechtii') in Derbent, Isfahan, and


title: Saffron content: Khorasan by the 10th century BC. At such sites, saffron threads were woven into textiles, ritually offered to divinities, and used in dyes, perfumes, medicines, and body washes. Saffron threads would thus be scattered across beds and mixed into hot teas as a curative for bouts of melancholy. Non-Persians also feared the Persians' usage of saffron as a drugging agent and aphrodisiac. During his Asian campaigns, Alexander the Great used Persian saffron in his infusions, rice, and baths as a curative for battle wounds. Alexander's troops imitated the practice from the Persians and brought saffron-bathing to Greece. Conflicting theories explain


title: Saffron content: saffron's arrival in South Asia. Kashmiri and Chinese accounts date its arrival anywhere between 2500–900 years ago. Historians studying ancient Persian records date the arrival to sometime prior to 500 BC, attributing it to a Persian transplantation of saffron corms to stock new gardens and parks. Phoenicians then marketed Kashmiri saffron as a dye and a treatment for melancholy. Its use in foods and dyes subsequently spread throughout South Asia. Buddhist monks wear saffron-coloured robes; however, the robes are not dyed with costly saffron but turmeric, a less expensive dye, or jackfruit. Monks' robes are dyed the same colour to


title: Saffron content: show equality with each other, and turmeric or ochre were the cheapest, most readily available dyes. Gamboge is now used to dye the robes. Some historians believe that saffron came to China with Mongol invaders from Persia. Yet saffron is mentioned in ancient Chinese medical texts, including the forty-volume pharmacopoeia titled "Shennong Bencaojing" (: "Shennong's Great Herbal", also known as "Pen Ts'ao" or "Pun Tsao"), a tome dating from 300–200 BC. Traditionally credited to the fabled "Yan" ("Fire") Emperor () Shennong, it discusses 252 phytochemical-based medical treatments for various disorders. Nevertheless, around the 3rd century AD, the Chinese were referring


title: Saffron content: to saffron as having a Kashmiri provenance. According to Chinese herbalist Wan Zhen, "[t]he habitat of saffron is in Kashmir, where people grow it principally to offer it to the Buddha." Wan also reflected on how it was used in his time: "The flower withers after a few days, and then the saffron is obtained. It is valued for its uniform yellow colour. It can be used to aromatise wine." The Minoans portrayed saffron in their palace frescoes by 1600–1500 BC; they hint at its possible use as a therapeutic drug. Ancient Greek legends told of sea voyages to Cilicia,


title: Saffron content: where adventurers sought what they believed were the world's most valuable threads. Another legend tells of Crocus and Smilax, whereby Crocus is bewitched and transformed into the first saffron crocus. Ancient perfumers in Egypt, physicians in Gaza, townspeople in Rhodes, and the Greek "hetaerae" courtesans used saffron in their scented waters, perfumes and potpourris, mascaras and ointments, divine offerings, and medical treatments. In late Ptolemaic Egypt, Cleopatra used saffron in her baths so that lovemaking would be more pleasurable. Egyptian healers used saffron as a treatment for all varieties of gastrointestinal ailments. Saffron was also used as a fabric dye


title: Saffron content: in such Levantine cities as Sidon and Tyre in Lebanon. Aulus Cornelius Celsus prescribes saffron in medicines for wounds, cough, colic, and scabies, and in the mithridatium. Saffron was a notable ingredient in certain Roman recipes such as jusselle and conditum. Such was the Romans' love of saffron that Roman colonists took it with them when they settled in southern Gaul, where it was extensively cultivated until Rome's fall. With this fall, European saffron cultivation plummeted. Competing theories state that saffron only returned to France with 8th-century AD Moors or with the Avignon papacy in the 14th century AD. Similarly,


title: Saffron content: the spread of Islamic civilisation may have helped reintroduce the crop to Spain and Italy. The 14th-century Black Death caused demand for saffron-based medicaments to peak, and Europe imported large quantities of threads via Venetian and Genoan ships from southern and Mediterranean lands such as Rhodes. The theft of one such shipment by noblemen sparked the fourteen-week-long "Saffron War". The conflict and resulting fear of rampant saffron piracy spurred corm cultivation in Basel; it thereby grew prosperous. The crop then spread to Nuremberg, where endemic and insalubrious adulteration brought on the "Safranschou" code—whereby culprits were variously fined, imprisoned, and executed.


title: Saffron content: Meanwhile, cultivation continued in southern France, Italy, and Spain. The Essex town of Saffron Walden, named for its new specialty crop, emerged as a prime saffron growing and trading centre in the 16th and 17th centuries but cultivation there was abandoned; saffron was re-introduced around 2013 as well as other parts of the UK (Cheshire). Europeans introduced saffron to the Americas when immigrant members of the Schwenkfelder Church left Europe with a trunk containing its corms. Church members had grown it widely in Europe. By 1730, the Pennsylvania Dutch cultivated saffron throughout eastern Pennsylvania. Spanish colonies in the Caribbean bought


title: Saffron content: large amounts of this new American saffron, and high demand ensured that saffron's list price on the Philadelphia commodities exchange was equal to gold. Trade with the Caribbean later collapsed in the aftermath of the War of 1812, when many saffron-bearing merchant vessels were destroyed. Yet the Pennsylvania Dutch continued to grow lesser amounts of saffron for local trade and use in their cakes, noodles, and chicken or trout dishes. American saffron cultivation survives into modern times, mainly in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Books Journal articles Saffron Saffron (pronounced or ) is a spice derived from the flower of "Crocus sativus",


title: "Gateway Arch" content: Gateway Arch The Gateway Arch is a monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary arch, it is the world's tallest arch, the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere, and Missouri's tallest accessible building. Built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States, and officially dedicated to "the American people," it is the centerpiece of the Gateway Arch National Park and has become an internationally recognized symbol of St. Louis, as well as a popular tourist destination. The Arch was designed by Finnish-American architect


title: "Gateway Arch" content: Eero Saarinen in 1947; construction began on February 12, 1963, and was completed on October 28, 1965, for $13 million (equivalent to $ in 2018). The monument opened to the public on June 10, 1967. It is located at the site of St. Louis's founding on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Around late 1933, civic leader Luther Ely Smith, returning to St. Louis from the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park in Vincennes, Indiana, saw the St. Louis riverfront area and envisioned that building a memorial there would both revive the riverfront and stimulate the economy He communicated


title: "Gateway Arch" content: his idea to mayor Bernard Dickmann, who on December 15, 1933, raised it in a meeting with city leaders. They sanctioned the proposal, and the nonprofit Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association (JNEMA—pronounced "Jenny May") was formed. Smith was appointed chairman and Dickmann vice chairman. The association's goal was to create: Many locals did not approve of depleting public funds for the cause. Smith's daughter SaLees related that when "people would tell him we needed more practical things", he would respond that "spiritual things" were equally important. The association expected that $30 million would be needed to undertake the construction of


title: "Gateway Arch" content: such a monument. It called upon the federal government to foot three-quarters of the bill ($22.5 million). The suggestion to renew the riverfront was not original, as previous projects were attempted but lacked popularity. The Jefferson memorial idea emerged amid the economic disarray of the Great Depression and promised new jobs. The project was expected to create 5,000 jobs for three to four years. Committee members began to raise public awareness by organizing fundraisers and writing pamphlets. They also engaged Congress by planning budgets and preparing bills, in addition to researching ownership of the land they had chosen, "approximately one-half


title: "Gateway Arch" content: mile in length ... from Third Street east to the present elevated railroad." In January 1934, Senator Bennett Champ Clark and Representative John Cochran introduced to Congress an appropriation bill seeking $30 million for the memorial, but the bill failed to garner support due to the large amount of money solicited. In March of the same year, joint resolutions proposed the establishment of a federal commission to develop the memorial. Although the proposal aimed for only authorization, the bill incurred opposition because people suspected that JNEMA would later seek appropriation. On March 28 the Senate bill was reported out, and


title: "Gateway Arch" content: on April 5 it was turned over to the House Library Committee, which later reported favorably on the bills. On June 8, both the Senate and House bills were passed. On June 15, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill into law, instituting the United States Territorial Expansion Memorial Commission. The commission comprised 15 members, chosen by Roosevelt, the House, the Senate, and JNEMA. It first convened on December 19 in St. Louis, where members examined the project and its planned location. Meanwhile, in December, the JNEMA discussed organizing an architectural competition to determine the design of the monument. Local


title: "Gateway Arch" content: architect Louis LeBeaume had drawn up competition guidelines by January 1935. On April 13, 1935, the commission certified JNEMA's project proposals, including memorial perimeters, the "historical significance" of the memorial, the competition, and the $30 million budget. Between February and April, the Missouri State Legislature passed an act allowing the use of bonds to facilitate the project. On April 15, then Governor Guy B. Park signed it into law. Dickmann and Smith applied for funding from two New Deal agencies—the Public Works Administration (headed by Harold Ickes) and the Works Progress Administration (headed by Harry Hopkins). On August 7, both


title: "Gateway Arch" content: Ickes and Hopkins assented to the funding requests, each promising $10 million, and said that the National Park Service (NPS) would manage the memorial. A local bond issue election granting $7.5 million for the memorial's development was held on September 10 and passed. On December 21, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 7253 to approve the memorial, allocating the 82-acre area as the first National Historic Site. The order also appropriated $3.3 million through the WPA and $3.45 million through the PWA ($6,750,000 in total). The motivation of the project was two-fold—commemorating westward expansion and creating jobs. Some taxpayers began to


title: "Gateway Arch" content: file suits to block the construction of the monument, which they called a "boondoggle". Using the 1935 grant of $6.75 million and $2.25 million in city bonds, the NPS acquired the buildings within the historic site—through condemnation rather than purchase—and demolished them. By September 1938, condemnation was complete. The condemnation was subject to many legal disputes which culminated on January 27, 1939, when the United States Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that condemnation was valid. A total of $6.2 million was distributed to land owners on June 14. Demolition commenced on October 9, 1939, when Dickmann extracted three bricks from


title: "Gateway Arch" content: a vacant warehouse. Led by Paul Peters, adversaries of the memorial delivered to Congress a leaflet titled "Public Necessity or Just Plain Pork". The JNEMA's lawyer, Bon Geaslin, believed that the flyers did not taint the project, but motivated members of Congress to find out more about the same. Although Representative John Cochran wanted to ask Congress to approve more funds, Geaslin believed the association should "keep a low profile, maintaining its current position during this session of Congress". He advised the association to "get a good strong editorial in one of the papers to the effect that a small


title: "Gateway Arch" content: group of tenants ... is soliciting funds [to fight] the proposed improvement, and stating that these efforts do not represent the consensus of opinion in St. Louis ... , and pointing out that such obstructions should be condemned". Congress's reduction in spending made it impossible for the allocated funds to be obtained. NPS responded that the city would reduce its contribution if the federal government did. It also asserted that the funds were sanctioned by an executive order, but superintendent John Nagle pointed out that what "one Executive Order does, another can undo". In March 1936, Representative Cochran commented during


title: "Gateway Arch" content: a House meeting that he "would not vote for any measure providing for building the memorial or allotting funds to it". Geaslin found Cochran's statements to be a greater hindrance to the project than Paul Peters' opposition, for Congress might have Cochran's opinions as representative of public opinion. Peters and other opponents asked Roosevelt to rescind Executive Order 7253 and to redirect the money to the American Red Cross. Smith impugned their motives, accusing them of being "opposed to anything that is ever advanced in behalf of the city." In February 1936, an editorial written by Paul W. Ward in


title: "Gateway Arch" content: "The Nation" denounced the project. Smith was infuriated, fearing the impact of attacks from a prestigious magazine, and wanted "to jump on it strong with hammer and tongs". William Allen White, a renowned newspaper editor, advised Smith not to fret. Because the Mississippi River played an essential role in establishing St. Louis's identity as the gateway to the west, a memorial commemorating it should be near the river. Railroad tracks that had been constructed in the 1930s on the levee obstructed views of the riverfront from the memorial site. When Ickes declared that the railway must be removed before he


title: "Gateway Arch" content: would allocate funds for the memorial, President of the St. Louis Board of Public Service Baxter Brown suggested that "a new tunnel ... conceal the relocated tracks and re-grading of the site to elevate it over the tunnel. These modifications would eliminate the elevated and surface tracks and open up the views to the river." Although rejected by NPS architect Charles Peterson, Brown's proposal formed the basis for the ultimate settlement. In November 1944, Smith discussed with Newton Drury, the National Park Service Director, the design of the memorial, asserting that the memorial should be "transcending in spiritual and aesthetic


title: "Gateway Arch" content: values", best represented by "one central feature: a single shaft, a building, an arch, or something else that would symbolize American culture and civilization." The idea of an architectural competition to determine the design of the memorial was favored at the JNEMA's inaugural meeting. They planned to award cash for the best design. In January 1945, the JNEMA officially announced a two-stage design competition that would cost $225,000 to organize. Smith and the JNEMA struggled to raise the funds, garnering only a third of the required total by June 1945. Then mayor Aloys Kaufmann feared that the lack of public


title: "Gateway Arch" content: support would lead officials to abandon hope in the project. The passage of a year brought little success, and Smith frantically underwrote the remaining $40,000 in May 1946. By June, Smith found others to assume portions of his underwriting, with $17,000 remaining under his sponsorship. In February 1947, the underwriters were compensated, and the fund stood over $231,199. Local architect Louis LaBeaume prepared a set of specifications for the design, and architect George Howe was chosen to coordinate the competition. On May 30, 1947, the contest officially opened. The seven-member jury that would judge the designs comprised Charles Nagel Jr.,


title: "Gateway Arch" content: Richard Neutra, Roland Wank, William Wurster, LaBeaume, Fiske Kimball, and S. Herbert Hare. The competition comprised two stages—the first to narrow down the designers to five and the second to single out one architect and his design. The design intended to include: Saarinen's team included himself as designer, J. Henderson Barr as associate designer, and Dan Kiley as landscape architect, as well as Lily Swann Saarinen as sculptor and Alexander Girard as painter. In the first stage of the competition, Carl Milles advised Saarinen to change the bases of each leg to triangles instead of squares. Saarinen said that he


title: "Gateway Arch" content: "worked at first with mathematical shapes, but finally adjusted it according to the eye." At submission, Saarinen's plans laid out the arch at tall and wide from center to center of the triangle bases. On September 1, 1947, submissions for the first stage were received by the jury. The submissions were labeled by numbers only, and the names of the designers were kept anonymous. Upon four days of deliberation, the jury narrowed down the 172 submissions, which included Saarinen's father Eliel, to five finalists, and announced the corresponding numbers to the media on September 27. Saarinen's design (#144) was among


title: "Gateway Arch" content: the finalists, and comments written on it included "relevant, beautiful, perhaps inspired would be the right word" (Roland Wank) and "an abstract form peculiarly happy in its symbolism" (Charles Nagel). Hare questioned the feasibility of the design but appreciated the thoughtfulness behind it. Local St. Louis architect Harris Armstrong was also one of the finalists. The secretary who sent out the telegrams informing finalists of their advancement mistakenly sent one to Eliel rather than Eero. The family celebrated with champagne, and two hours later, a competition representative called to correct the mistake. Eliel "'broke out a second bottle of champagne'


title: "Gateway Arch" content: to toast his son." They proceeded to the second stage, and each was given a $10,069 prize. Saarinen changed the height of the arch from 580 feet to and wrote that the arch symbolized "the gateway to the West, the national expansion, and whatnot." He wanted the landscape surrounding the arch to "be so densely covered with trees that it will be a forest-like park, a green retreat from the tension of the downtown city," according to "The New York Times" architectural critic Aline Bernstein Louchheim The deadline for the second stage arrived on February 10, 1948, and on February


title: "Gateway Arch" content: 18, the jury chose Saarinen's design unanimously, praising its "profoundly evocative and truly monumental expression." The following day, during a formal dinner at Statler Hotel that the finalists and the media attended, Wurster pronounced Saarinen the winner of the competition and awarded the checks—$40,000 to his team and $50,000 to Saarinen. The competition was the first major architectural design that Saarinen developed unaided by his father. On May 25, the United States Territorial Expansion Memorial Commission endorsed the design. Later, in June, the NPS approved the proposal. Representative H. R. Gross, however, opposed the allocation of federal funds for the


title: "Gateway Arch" content: arch's development. The design drew varied responses. In a February 29, 1969, "The New York Times" article, Louchheim praised the arch's design as "a modern monument, fitting, beautiful and impressive." Some local residents likened it to a "stupendous hairpin and a stainless steel hitching post." The most aggressive criticism emerged from Gilmore D. Clarke, whose February 26, 1948, letter compared Saarinen's arch to an arch imagined by fascist Benito Mussolini, rendering the arch a fascist symbol. This allegation of plagiarism ignited fierce debates among architects about its validity. Douglas Haskell from New York wrote that "The use of a common


title: "Gateway Arch" content: form is not plagiarism ... [T]his particular accusation amounts to the filthiest smear that has been attempted by a man highly placed in the architectural profession in our generation." Wurster and the jury refuted the charges, arguing that "the arch form was not inherently fascist but was indeed part of the entire history of architecture." Saarinen considered the opposition absurd, asserting, "It's just preposterous to think that a basic form, based on a completely natural figure, should have any ideological connection." By January 1951, Saarinen created 21 "drawings, including profiles of the Arch, scale drawings of the museums and restaurants,


title: "Gateway Arch" content: various parking proposals, the effect of the levee-tunnel railroad plan on the Arch footings, the Arch foundations, the Third Street Expressway, and the internal and external structure of the Arch." Fred Severud made calculations for the arch's structure. Several proposals were offered for moving the railroad tracks, including: On July 7, 1949, in Mayor Joseph Darst's office, city officials chose the Levee-Tunnel plan, rousing JNEMA members who held that the decision had been pressed through when Smith was away on vacation. Darst notified Secretary of the Interior Julius Krug of the city's selection. Krug planned to meet with Smith and


title: "Gateway Arch" content: JNEM but canceled the meeting and resigned on November 11. His successor, Oscar L. Chapman, rescheduled the meeting for December 5 in Washington with delegates from the city government, JNEM, railroad officials, and Federal government. A day after the conference, they ratified a memorandum of understanding about the plan: "The five tracks on the levee would be replaced by three tracks, one owned by the Missouri Pacific Railroad (MPR) and two by the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis (TRRA) proceeding through a tunnel not longer than 3,000 feet. The tunnel would be approximately fifty feet west of the current


title: "Gateway Arch" content: elevated line." It would also have an overhead clearance of , lower than the regular requirement of . Chapman approved the document on December 22, 1949, and JNEM garnered the approval of the Missouri Public Service Commission on August 7, 1952. Efforts to appropriate congressional funds began in January 1950 but were delayed until 1953 by the Korean War's depletion of federal funds. In August 1953, Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton declared that the Department of the Interior and the railroads should finalize the agreement on the new route. In October, NPS and the TRRA decided that the


title: "Gateway Arch" content: TRRA would employ a surveyor endorsed by Spotts "to survey, design, estimate, and report on" the expenses of shifting the tracks. They chose Alfred Benesch and Associates, which released its final report on May 3, 1957. The firm estimated that the two proposals would cost more than expected: more than $11 million and $14 million, respectively. NPS director Conrad Wirth enjoined Saarinen to make small modifications to the design. In October, Saarinen redrafted the plans, suggesting: On November 29, involved interests signed another memorandum of understanding approving Saarinen's rework; implementing it would cost about $5.053 million. On March 10, 1959,


title: "Gateway Arch" content: mayor Raymond Tucker proposed that they drop "the tunnel idea in favor of open cuts roofed with concrete slabs," which would cost $2.684 million, $1.5 million less than the cost of the approved plan. On May 12, 1958, Tucker, TRRA president Armstrong Chinn, and Missouri Pacific Railroad president Russell Dearmont entered a written agreement: "The TRRA would place $500,000 in escrow for the project, and the city [would] sell $980,000 of the 1935 bonds to match the Federal contribution." Director Wirth and Secretary Seaton approved the plan on June 2. In July 1953, Representative Leonor Sullivan introduced H.R. 6549, a


title: "Gateway Arch" content: bill authorizing the allocation of no more than $5 million to build the arch. After much negotiation, both houses of Congress approved the bill in May 1954, and on May 18, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill into law as Public Law 361. Congress could not afford to appropriate the funds in 1955, so association president William Crowdus resorted to asking the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations for $10 million. The foundations denied the request because their function as private foundations did not include funding national memorials. In 1956, Congress appropriated $2.64 million to be used to move the


title: "Gateway Arch" content: railroad tracks. The remainder of the authorized appropriation was requested via six congressional bills, introduced on July 1, 1958, that revised Public Law 361 to encompass the cost of the entire memorial, increasing federal funds by $12.25 million. A month later the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of the Budget endorsed the bill, and both houses of Congress unanimously passed the bill. Eisenhower signed it into law on September 7. The NPS held off on appropriating the additional funds, as it planned to use the already-appropriated funds to initiate the railroad work. Saarinen and city functionaries collaborated to


title: "Gateway Arch" content: zone buildings near the arch. In April 1959, real estate developer Lewis Kitchen decided to construct two 40-level edifices across from the arch. In July, after the plan was condemned for its potential obstruction of the arch, Kitchen discussed the issue with officials. A decision was delayed for several months because Saarinen had yet to designate the arch's height, projected between . By October, Mayor Tucker and Director Wirth resolved to restrict the height of buildings opposite the arch to (about 27 levels), and the city stated that plans for buildings opposite the arch would require its endorsement. Kitchen then


title: "Gateway Arch" content: decreased the height of his buildings, while Saarinen increased that of the arch. Moving the railroad tracks was the first stage of the project. On May 6, 1959, after an official conference, the Public Service Commission called for ventilation to accompany the tunnel's construction, which entailed "placing 3,000 feet of dual tracks into a tunnel 105 feet west of the elevated railroad, along with filling, grading, and trestle work." Eight bids for the work were reviewed on June 8 in the Old Courthouse, and the MacDonald Construction Co. of St. Louis won with a bid of $2,426,115, less than NPS's


title: "Gateway Arch" content: estimate of the cost. At 10:30 a.m. on June 23, 1959, the groundbreaking ceremony occurred; Tucker spaded the first portion of earth. Wirth and Dickmann delivered speeches. The NPS acquired the $500,000 in escrow and transferred it to MacDonald to begin building the new tracks. In August, demolition of the Old Rock House was complete, with workers beginning to excavate the tunnel. In November, they began shaping the tunnel's walls with concrete. Twenty-nine percent of the construction was completed by March and 95% by November. On November 17, trains began to use the new tracks. June 1962 was the projected


title: "Gateway Arch" content: date of fruition. On May 16, 1959, the Senate appropriations subcommittee received from St. Louis legislators a request for $2.4911 million, of which it granted only $133,000. Wirth recommended that they reseek the funds in January 1960. On March 10, 1959, Regional Director Howard Baker received $888,000 as the city's first subsidy for the project. On December 1, 1961, $23,003,150 in total had been authorized, with $19,657,483 already appropriated—$3,345,667 remained not yet appropriated. The bidding date, originally December 20, 1961, was postponed to January 22, 1962, to clarify the details of the arch construction. About 50 companies that had requested


title: "Gateway Arch" content: the construction requirements received bidding invitations. Extending from $11,923,163 to $12,765,078, all four bids exceeded the engineer estimate of $8,067,000. Wirth had a committee led by George Hartzog determine the validity of the bids in light of the government's conditions. Following a meeting with the bidders, the committee affirmed the bids' reasonableness, and Wirth awarded the lowest bidder, MacDonald Construction Co. of St. Louis, the contract for the construction of the arch and the visitor center. On March 14, 1962, he signed the contract and received from Tucker $2,500,000, the city's subsidy for the phase. MacDonald reduced its bid $500,000


title: "Gateway Arch" content: to $11,442,418. The Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Company served as the subcontractor for the shell of the arch. In 1959 and 1960, ground was broken, and in 1961, the foundation of the structure was laid. Construction of the arch itself began on February 12, 1963, as the first steel triangle on the south leg was eased into place. These steel triangles, which narrowed as they spiraled to the top, were raised into place by a group of cranes and derricks. The arch was assembled of 142 prefabricated stainless steel sections. Once in place, each section had its double-walled skin filled with


title: "Gateway Arch" content: concrete, prestressed with 252 tension bars. In order to keep the partially completed legs steady, a scissors truss was placed between them at , later removed as the derricks were taken down. The whole endeavor was expected to be completed by fall 1964, in observance of St. Louis's bicentennial. Contractor MacDonald Construction Co. arranged a tower for spectators and provided recorded accounts of the undertaking. In 1963, a million people went to observe the progress, and by 1964, local radio stations began to broadcast when large slabs of steel were to be raised into place. St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer Art


title: "Gateway Arch" content: Witman documented the construction for the newspaper's Sunday supplement "Pictures", his longest and most noted assignment. He visited the construction site frequently from 1963 to 1967 recording of every stage of progress. With assistant Renyold Ferguson, he crawled along the catwalks with the construction workers up to 190m above the ground. He was the only news photographer on permanent assignment at the construction, with complete access. He primarily worked with slide film, but also used the only Panox camera in St. Louis to create panoramic photographs covering 140 degrees. Witman's pictures of the construction are now housed in the State


title: "Gateway Arch" content: Historical Society of Missouri . The project manager of MacDonald Construction Co., Stan Wolf, said that a 62-story building was easier to build than the arch: "In a building, everything is straight up, one thing on top of another. In this arch, everything is curved." Although an actuarial firm predicted thirteen workers would die while building the arch, no workers were killed during the monument's construction. However, construction of the arch was still often delayed by safety checks, funding uncertainties, and legal disputes. Civil rights activists regarded the construction of the arch as a token of racial discrimination. On July


title: "Gateway Arch" content: 14, 1964, during the workers' lunchtime, civil rights protesters Percy Green and Richard Daly, both members of Congress of Racial Equality, climbed up 125-feet on the north leg of the arch to "expose the fact that federal funds were being used to build a national monument that was racially discriminating against black contractors and skilled black workers." As the pair disregarded demands to get off, protesters on the ground demanded that at least 10% of the skilled jobs belong to African Americans. Four hours later Green and Daly dismounted from the arch, to charges of "trespassing, peace disturbance, and resisting


title: "Gateway Arch" content: arrest." This incident "inter alia" spurred the United States Department of Justice to file the first pattern or practice case against AFL–CIO under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, on February 4, 1966, but the department later called off the charges. The 1966 lawsuit was an attempt by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance (OFCC) to desegregate building-trade unions nationwide. Many technical building unions had little or no African-American representation into the mid-1960s. During Lyndon Johnson's presidency, the federal government recognized the need for more integration in all levels of society and started enforcing equal employment opportunity


title: "Gateway Arch" content: through federally funded job contracts. In 1964, the Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel Company of Warren, Pennsylvania sued MacDonald for $665,317 for tax concerns. In 1965, NPS requested that Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel remove the prominent letters "P-D-M" (its initials) from a creeper derrick used for construction, contending that it was promotional and violated federal law with regards to advertising on national monuments. Although Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel initially refused to pursue what it considered a precarious venture, the company relented after discovering that leaving the initials would cost $225,000 and after that, $42,000 per month, and the NPS dropped its lawsuit. On October


title: "Gateway Arch" content: 26, 1965, the International Association of Ironworkers delayed work to ascertain that the arch was safe. After NPS director Kenneth Chapman gave his word that conditions were "perfectly safe," construction resumed on October 27. After the discovery of 16 defects, the tram was also delayed from running. The Bi-State Development Agency assessed that it suffered losses of $2,000 for each day the trains were stagnant. On January 7, 1966, members of AFL–CIO deserted their work on the visitor center, refusing to work with plumbers affiliated with Congress of Industrial Unions (CIU), which represented black plumbers. A representative of AFL–CIO said,


title: "Gateway Arch" content: "This policy has nothing to do with race. Our experience is that these CIU members have in the past worked for substandard wages." CIU applied to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for an injunction that required the AFL–CIO laborers to return to work. On February 7, Judge John Keating Regan ruled that AFL–CIO workers had participated in a secondary boycott. By February 11, AFL–CIO resumed work on the arch, and an AFL–CIO contractor declared that ten African Americans were apprenticed for arch labor. The standstill in work lasted a month. Considering how large Federal projects often "go haywire", Secretary


title: "Gateway Arch" content: of War Newton D. Baker said, "This memorial will be like a cathedral; built slowly but surely." President Lyndon B. Johnson and Mayor Alfonso J. Cervantes decided on a date for the topping out ceremony, but the arch had not been completed by then. The ceremony date was reset to October 17, 1965, and workers strained to meet the deadline, taking double shifts, but by October 17, the arch was still not complete. The chairman of the ceremony anticipated the ceremony to be held on October 30, a Saturday, to allow 1,500 schoolchildren, whose signatures were to be placed in


title: "Gateway Arch" content: a time capsule, to attend. Ultimately, PDM set the ceremony date to October 28. The time capsule, containing the signatures of 762,000 students and others, was welded into the keystone before the final piece was set in place. On October 28, the arch was topped out as then Vice President Hubert Humphrey observed from a helicopter. A Catholic priest and a rabbi prayed over the keystone, a , triangular section. It was slated to be inserted at 10:00 a.m. local time but was done 30 minutes early because thermal expansion had constricted the gap at the top by . To


title: "Gateway Arch" content: mitigate this, workers used fire hoses to spray water on the surface of the south leg to cool it down and make it contract. The keystone was inserted in 13 minutes, only remained. For the next section, a hydraulic jack had to pry apart the legs . The last section was left only . By noon, the keystone was secured. Some filmmakers, in hope that the two legs would not meet, had chronicled every phase of construction. The Gateway Arch was expected to open to the public by 1964, but in 1967 the public relations agency stopped forecasting the opening


title: "Gateway Arch" content: date. The arch's visitor center opened on June 10, 1967, and the tram began operating on July 24. The arch was dedicated by Humphrey on May 25, 1968. He declared that the arch was "a soaring curve in the sky that links the rich heritage of yesterday with the richer future of tomorrow" and brings a "new purpose" and a "new sense of urgency to wipe out every slum." "Whatever is shoddy, whatever is ugly, whatever is waste, whatever is false, will be measured and condemned" in comparison to the Gateway Arch. About 250,000 people were expected to attend, but


title: "Gateway Arch" content: rain canceled the outdoor activities. The ceremony had to be transferred into the visitor center. After the dedication, Humphrey crouched beneath an exit as he waited for the rain to subside so he could walk to his vehicle. The project did not provide 5,000 jobs as expected—as of June 1964, workers numbered fewer than 100. The project did, however, incite other riverfront restoration efforts, totaling $150 million. Building projects included a 50,000-seat sports stadium, a 30-story hotel, several office towers, four parking garages, and an apartment complex. The idea of a Disneyland amusement park that included "synthetic riverboat attractions" was


title: "Gateway Arch" content: considered but later abandoned. The developers hoped to use the arch as a commercial catalyst, attracting visitors who would use their services. One estimate found that since the 1960s, the arch has incited almost $503,000,000 worth of construction. In June 1976, the memorial was finalized by federal allocations—"the statue of Thomas Jefferson was unveiled, the Museum of Westward Expansion was previewed, a theater under the Arch was dedicated in honor of Mayor Raymond Tucker and the catenary-like curving staircases from the Arch down to the levee were built." Both the width and height of the arch are . The arch


title: "Gateway Arch" content: is the tallest memorial in the United States and the tallest stainless steel monument in the world. The cross-sections of the arch's legs are equilateral triangles, narrowing from per side at the bases to per side at the top. Each wall consists of a stainless steel skin covering a sandwich of two carbon-steel walls with reinforced concrete in the middle from ground level to , with carbon steel to the peak. The arch is hollow to accommodate a unique tram system that takes visitors to an observation deck at the top. The structural load is supported by a stressed-skin design.


title: "Gateway Arch" content: Each leg is embedded in of concrete thick and deep. of the foundation is in bedrock. The arch is resistant to earthquakes and is designed to sway up to in either direction, while withstanding winds up to . The structure weighs , of which concrete composes ; structural steel interior, ; and the stainless steel panels that cover the exterior of the arch, . This amount of stainless steel is the most used in any one project in history. The base of each leg at ground level had to have an engineering tolerance of or the two legs would not


title: "Gateway Arch" content: meet at the top. The geometric form of the structure was set by mathematical equations provided to Saarinen by Hannskarl Bandel. Bruce Detmers and other architects expressed the geometric form in blueprints with this equation: formula_1, with the constants formula_2 formula_3 where "f" = is the maximum height of centroid, "Q" = is the maximum cross sectional area of arch at base, "Q" = is the minimum cross sectional area of arch at top, and "L" = is the half width of centroid at the base. The triangular cross sectional area varies linearly with the vertical height of its centroid.


title: "Gateway Arch" content: This hyperbolic cosine function describes the shape of a catenary. A chain that supports only its own weight forms a catenary; the chain is purely in tension. Likewise, an inverted catenary arch that supports only its own weight is purely in compression, with no shear. The catenary arch is the stablest of all arches since "the thrust passes down through the legs and is absorbed in the foundations, whereas in other arches, the pressure tends to force the legs apart." The Gateway Arch itself is not a common catenary, but a more general curve of the form "y"="A"cosh ("Bx"). This


title: "Gateway Arch" content: makes it an "inverted weighted catenary." Saarinen chose a weighted catenary over a normal catenary curve because it looked less pointed and less steep. In 1959, he caused some confusion about the actual shape of the arch when he wrote, "This arch is not a true parabola, as is often stated. Instead it is a catenary curve—the curve of a hanging chain—a curve in which the forces of thrust are continuously kept within the center of the legs of the arch." William V. Thayer, a professor of mathematics at St. Louis Community College, later wrote to the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch"


title: "Gateway Arch" content: calling attention to the fact that the structure was a weighted catenary. The first proposal to illuminate the arch at night was announced on May 18, 1966, but the plan never came to fruition. In July 1998, funding for an arch lighting system was approved by St. Louis's Gateway Foundation, which agreed to take responsibility for the cost of the equipment, its installation, and its upkeep. In January 1999, MSNBC arranged a temporary lighting system for the arch so the monument could be used as the background for a visit by Pope John Paul II. Since November 2001, the arch


title: "Gateway Arch" content: has been bathed in white light between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. via a system of floodlights. Designed by Randy Burkett, it comprises 44 lighting fixtures situated in four pits just below ground level. On October 5, 2004, the U.S. Senate, at the pressing of Senators Jim Talent and Kit Bond, approved a bill permitting the illumination in pink of the arch in honor of breast cancer awareness month. Both Estee Lauder and May Department Store Co. had championed the cause. One employee said that the arch would be a "beacon ... for the importance of prevention and finding a


title: "Gateway Arch" content: cure." While the National Park Service took issue with the plan due to the precedent it would set for prospective uses of the arch, it yielded due to a realization that it and Congress were "on the same team" and because the illumination was legally obligatory; on October 25, the plan was carried out. The previous time the arch was illuminated for promotional purposes was on September 12, 1995, under the management of local companies Fleishman-Hillard and Technical Productions when a rainbow spectrum was shone on the arch to publicize the debut of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus'


title: "Gateway Arch" content: "Wizard of Oz on Ice" at the Scottrade Center (then named the "Kiel Center"). In April 1965, three million tourists were expected to visit the arch after completion; 619,763 tourists visited the top of the arch in its first year open. On January 15, 1969, a visitor from Nashville, Tennessee, became the one-millionth person to reach the observation area; the ten-millionth person ascended to the top on August 24, 1979. In 1974, the arch was ranked fourth on a list of "most-visited man-made attraction[s]". The Gateway Arch is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the world with over


title: "Gateway Arch" content: four million visitors annually, of which around one million travel to the top. The arch was listed as a National Historic Landmark on June 2, 1987, and is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. On December 8, 2009, sponsored by nonprofit CityArchRiver2015, the international design competition "Framing a Modern Masterpiece: The City + The Arch + The River 2015" commenced. It aimed to "design a plan to improve the riverfront park landscape, ease access for pedestrians across Memorial Drive and expand onto the East St. Louis riverfront," as well as to attract visitors. The contest consisted of


title: "Gateway Arch" content: three stages—portfolio assessment (narrowed down to 8–10 teams), team interviews (narrowed down to 4–5 teams), and review of design proposals. The competition received 49 applicants, which were narrowed down to five in the first two stages. On August 17, 2010, the designs of the five finalists were revealed to the public and exhibited at the theater below the arch. On August 26, the finalists made their cases to an eight-member jury, and on September 21, the winner was revealed—Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. The initiative's plans include updating Kiener Plaza and the Old Courthouse, connecting the city to the Arch grounds


title: "Gateway Arch" content: with a park over Interstate 70, a re-imagined museum and improved accessibility. The budget for the project is $380 million and is set to be completed in 2018. Ground broke on the 'Park over the Highway' project, the first component of the CityArchRiver project, on August 2, 2013. This project features a landscaped structure over Interstate 70 and rerouted surface traffic that had previously formed a moat separating the Gateway Arch from the Old Courthouse.This project was completed in December 2014. The underground visitor center for the arch was designed as part of the National Park Service's Mission 66 program.


title: "Gateway Arch" content: The center is located directly below the arch, between its legs. Although construction on the visitor center began at the same time as construction for the arch itself, it did not conclude until 1976 because of insufficient funding; however, the center opened with several exhibits on June 10, 1967. Access to the visitor center is provided through ramps adjacent to each leg of the arch. The center houses offices, mechanical rooms, and waiting areas for the arch trams, as well as its main attractions: the Museum of Westward Expansion and two theaters displaying films about the arch. The older theater


title: "Gateway Arch" content: opened in May 1972; the newer theater, called the Odyssey Theatre, was constructed in the 1990s and features a four-story-tall screen. Its construction required the expansion of the underground complex, and workers had to excavate solid rock while keeping the disruption to a minimum so the museum could remain open. The museum houses several hundred exhibits about the United States' westward expansion in the 19th century and opened on August 10, 1977. As part of the CityArchRiver project, the visitor center and museum underwent a $176 million expansion and renovation that was completed in the July 2018. Once completed, the


title: "Gateway Arch" content: renovation will include a 46,000-square-foot underground addition featuring interactive story galleries, video walls, a fountain and a cafe. Near the top of the Arch, passengers exit the tram compartment and climb a slight grade to enter the observation area. This arched deck, which is over long and wide, can hold up to about 160 people, four trams' worth Sixteen windows per side, each measuring , offer views up to to the east across the Mississippi River and southern Illinois with its prominent Mississippian culture mounds at Cahokia Mounds and to the west over the city of St. Louis and St.


title: "Gateway Arch" content: Louis County beyond. There are three modes of transportation up the arch: two sets of 1,076-step emergency stairs (one per leg), a 12-passenger elevator to the height, and a tram in each leg. Each tram is a chain of eight cylindrical, five-seat compartments with a small window on the doors. As each tram has a capacity of 40 passengers and there are two trams, 80 passengers can be transported at one time, with trams departing from the ground every 10 minutes. The cars swing like Ferris-wheel cars as they ascend and descend the arch. This fashion of movement gave rise


title: "Gateway Arch" content: to the idea of the tram as "half-Ferris wheel and half-elevator." The trip to the top takes four minutes, and the trip down takes three minutes. Because of a lack of funds in March 1962, the NPS did not accept bids for the arch's internal train system and considered discarding the idea. In May 1962, the Bi-State Development Agency proposed that it issue revenue bonds to obtain the required funds. The Department of the Interior and Bi-State entered into an agreement where Bi-State would construct and operate the tram. Bi-State would have to raise $1,977,750 for the construction of the


title: "Gateway Arch" content: tram system. It retired the bonds by setting a $1 riding fee to the top. Bi-State put in $3.3 million revenue bonds and has operated the tram system since. The tram in the north leg entered operation in June 1967, but visitors were forced to endure three-hour-long waits until April 21, 1976, when a reservation system was put in place. The south tram was completed by March 1968. Commemorative pins were awarded to the first 100,000 passengers. As of 2007, the trams have traveled , conveying more than 25 million passengers. On July 8, 1970, a six-year-old boy, his mother,


title: "Gateway Arch" content: and two of her friends were trapped in a tram in the arch's south leg after the monument closed. According to the boy's mother, the group went up the arch around 9:30 p.m. CDT, but when the tram reached the de-boarding area, its doors did not open. The tram then reportedly traveled up to a storage area above the ground, and the power was switched off. One person was able to pry open the tram door and the four managed to reach a security guard for help after being trapped for about 45 minutes. On July 21, 2007, a broken


title: "Gateway Arch" content: cable forced the south tram to be shut down, leaving only the north tram in service until repairs were completed in March 2008. Around 200 tourists were stuck inside the arch for about three hours because the severed cable contacted a high-voltage rail, causing a fuse to blow. The north tram was temporarily affected by the power outage as well, but some passengers were able to exit the arch through the emergency stairs and elevator. It was about two hours until all the tram riders safely descended, while those in the observation area at the time of the outage had


title: "Gateway Arch" content: to wait an additional hour before being able to travel back down. An arch official said the visitors, most of whom stayed calm during the ordeal, were not in any danger; they were later given refunds. The incident occurred while visitors in the arch were watching a fireworks display, and no one was seriously injured in the event. However, two people received medical treatment; one person needed oxygen and the other was diabetic. Almost immediately after the tram returned to service, however, it was closed again for new repairs after an electrical switch broke. The incident, which occurred on March


title: "Gateway Arch" content: 14, 2008, was billed as a "bad coincidence." On the morning of February 9, 2011, a National Park Service worker was injured while performing repairs on the south tram. The 55-year-old was working on the tram's electrical system when he was trapped between it and the arch wall for around 30 seconds, until being saved by other workers. Emergency officials treated the injured NPS employee at the arch's top before taking him to Saint Louis University Hospital in a serious condition. On March 24, 2011, around one hundred visitors were stranded in the observation area for 45 minutes after the


title: "Gateway Arch" content: doors of the south tram refused to close. The tourists were safely brought down the arch in the north tram, which had been closed that week so officials could upgrade it with a new electronic transportation system. The National Park Service later attributed the malfunction to a computer glitch associated with the new system, which had already been implemented with the south tram. No one was hurt in the occurrence. Around 2:15 p.m. local time on June 16, 2011, the arch's north tram stalled due to a power outage. The tram became stuck about from the observation deck, and passengers


title: "Gateway Arch" content: eventually were told to climb the stairs to the observation area. It took National Park Service workers about one hour to manually pull the tram to the top, and the 40 trapped passengers were able to return down on the south tram, which had previously not been operating that day because there was not an abundance of visitors. An additional 120 people were at the observation deck at the time of the outage and also exited via the south tram. During the outage, visitors were stuck in the tram with neither lighting nor air conditioning. No one was seriously injured


title: "Gateway Arch" content: in the incident, but one visitor lost consciousness after suffering a panic attack, and a park ranger was taken away with minor injuries. The cause of the outage was not immediately known. On June 16, 1965, the Federal Aviation Administration cautioned that aviators who flew through the arch would be fined and their licenses revoked. At least ten pilots have disobeyed this order, beginning on June 22, 1966. In 1973, Nikki Caplan was granted an FAA exception to fly a hot air balloon between the arch's legs as part of the Great Forest Park Balloon Race. During the flight, on


title: "Gateway Arch" content: which the St. Louis park director was a passenger, the balloon hit the arch and plummeted 70 feet before recovering. In 1976, a U.S. Army exhibition skydiving team was permitted to fly through the arch as part of Fourth of July festivities, and since then, numerous skydiving exhibition teams have legally jumped onto the Arch grounds, after having flown their parachutes through the legs of the Arch. The arch has been a target of various stunt performers, and while such feats are generally forbidden, several people have parachuted to or from the arch regardless. In June 1980, the National Park


title: "Gateway Arch" content: Service declined a request by television producers to have a performer jump from the arch; a similar appeal by stuntman Dan Koko was also turned away in February 1986. Koko, who was a stunt double for "Superman", wanted to perform the leap during Fourth of July celebrations. In 2013 Alexander Polli, a European BASE jumper, planned to fly a wingsuit under the arch but had his demo postponed by the FAA. 1980 accident On November 22, 1980, at about 8:45 a.m. CST, 33-year-old Kenneth Swyers of Overland, Missouri, parachuted onto the top of the arch. His plan was to release


title: "Gateway Arch" content: his main parachute and then jump off the arch using his reserve parachute to perform a base jump. Unfortunately, after landing the wind blew him to the side, and he slid down the north leg to his death. The accident was witnessed by several people, including Swyers' wife, also a parachutist. She said her husband "was not a hot dog, daredevil skydiver" and that he had prepared for the jump two weeks in advance. Swyers, who had made over 1,600 jumps before the incident, was reported by one witness to have "landed very well" on the top of the arch,


title: "Gateway Arch" content: but "had no footing." Swyers was reportedly blown to the top of the arch by the wind and was unable to save himself when his reserve parachute failed to deploy. The Federal Aviation Administration said the jump was unauthorized, and investigated the pilot involved in the incident. On December 27, 1980, St. Louis television station KTVI reported receiving calls from supposed witnesses of another stunt landing. The alleged parachutist, who claimed to be a retired professional stuntman, was said to be wearing a Santa Claus costume when he jumped off an airplane around 8:00 a.m. CST, parachuted onto the arch,


title: "Gateway Arch" content: grasped the monument's beacon, and used the same parachute to glide down unharmed. KTVI said it was told the feat was done as an act of homage to Swyers, and "apparently was a combination of a dare, a drunk, and a tribute." On the day after the alleged incident, authorities declared the jump a hoax. A spokesperson for the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department said no calls were received about the jump until after it was broadcast on the news, and the Federal Aviation Administration said the two calls it had received were very similar. One caller also left an


title: "Gateway Arch" content: out-of-service phone number, while the other never followed up with investigators. Arch officials said they did not witness any such jump, and photos provided by the alleged parachutist were unclear. 1992 stunt On September 14, 1992, 25-year-old John C. Vincent climbed to the top of the Gateway Arch using suction cups and proceeded to parachute back to the ground. He was later charged with two misdemeanors: climbing a national monument and parachuting in a national park. Federal prosecutor Stephen Higgins called the act a "great stunt" but said it was "something the Park Service doesn't take lightly." Vincent, a construction


title: "Gateway Arch" content: worker and diver from Harvey, Louisiana, said he did it "just for the excitement, just for the thrill," and had previously parachuted off the World Trade Center in May 1991. He said that scaling the arch "wasn't that hard" and had considered a jump off the monument for a few months. In an interview, Vincent said he visited the arch's observation area a month before the stunt, to see if he could use a maintenance hatch for accessing the monument's peak. Due to the heavy security, he instead decided to climb up the arch's exterior using suction cups, which he


title: "Gateway Arch" content: had used before to scale shorter buildings. Dressed in black, Vincent began crawling up the arch around 3:30 a.m. CST on September 14 and arrived undetected at the top around 5:45 a.m., taking an additional 75 minutes to rest and take photos before finally jumping. During this time, he was seen by two traffic reporters inside the One Metropolitan Square skyscraper. Vincent was also spotted mid-air by Deryl Stone, a Chief Ranger for the National Park Service. Stone reported seeing Vincent grab his parachute after landing and run to a nearby car, which quickly drove away. However, authorities were able


title: "Gateway Arch" content: to detain two men on the ground who had been videotaping the jump. Stone said 37-year-old Ronald Carroll and 27-year-old Robert Weinzetl, both St. Louis residents, were found with a wireless communication headset and a video camera, as well as a still camera with a telephoto lens. The two were also charged with two misdemeanors: disorderly conduct and commercial photography in a national park. Vincent later turned himself in and initially pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. However, he eventually accepted a guilty plea deal in which he testified against Carroll and Weinzetl, revealing that the two consented


title: "Gateway Arch" content: to recording the jump during a meeting of all three on the day before his stunt occurred. Federal magistrate judge David D. Noce ruled on January 28, 1993, that Carroll had been involved in a conspiracy and was guilty of both misdemeanor charges; the charges against Weinzetl had been dropped by federal attorneys. In his decision, Noce stated, "There are places in our country where the sufficiently skilled can savor the exhilaration and personal satisfaction of accomplishing courageous and intrepid acts, of reaching dreamed-of heights and for coursing dangerous adventures," but added that other places are designed for "the exhilaration


title: "Gateway Arch" content: of mere observation and for the appreciation of the imaginings and the works of others. The St. Louis Arch and the grounds of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial are in the latter category." Two years after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, a little over $1 million was granted to institute a counterterrorism program. Park officials were trained to note the activity of tourists, and inconspicuous electronic detection devices were installed. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, security efforts were more prominent, security checkpoints moved to the entrance of the visitor center. At the checkpoints, visitors are screened by magnetometers


title: "Gateway Arch" content: and x-ray equipment, devices which have been in place since 1997. The Arch also became one of several U.S. monuments placed under restricted airspace during 2002 Fourth of July celebrations. In 2003, , , movable Jersey barriers were installed to impede terrorist attacks on the arch. Later that year, it was announced that these walls were to be replaced by concrete posts encased in metal to be more harmonious with the steel color of the arch. The movable bollards can be manipulated from the park's dispatch center, which has also been upgraded. In 2006, arch officials hired a "physical security


title: "Gateway Arch" content: specialist," replacing a law enforcement officer. The responsibilities of the specialist include risk assessment, testing the park's security system, increasing security awareness of other employees, and working with other government agencies to improve the arch's security procedures. Built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States, the arch typifies "the pioneer spirit of the men and women who won the West, and those of a latter day to strive on other frontiers." The arch has become the iconic image of St. Louis, appearing in many parts of city culture. In 1968, three years after the monument's opening,


title: "Gateway Arch" content: the St. Louis phone directory contained 65 corporations with "Gateway" in their title and 17 with "Arch". Arches also appeared over gas stations and drive-in restaurants. In the 1970s, a local sports team adopted the name "Fighting Arches"; St. Louis Community College would later (when consolidating all athletic programs under a single banner) name its sports teams "Archers". Robert S. Chandler, an NPS superintendent, said, "Most [visitors] are awed by the size and scale of the Arch, but they don't understand what it's all about ... Too many people see it as just a symbol of the city of St.


title: "Gateway Arch" content: Louis." The arch has also appeared as a symbol of the State of Missouri. On November 22, 2002, at the Missouri State Capitol, Lori Hauser Holden, wife of then Governor Bob Holden uncovered the winning design for a Missouri coin design competition as part of the Fifty States Commemorative Coin Program. Designed by watercolorist Paul Jackson, the coin portrays "three members of the Lewis and Clark expedition paddling a boat on the Missouri River upon returning to St. Louis" with the arch as the backdrop. Holden said that the arch was "a symbol for the entire state ... Four million


title: "Gateway Arch" content: visitors each year see the Arch. [The coin] will help make it even more loved worldwide." Louchheim wrote that although the arch "has a simplicity which should guarantee timeliness", it is entirely modern as well because of the innovative design and its scientific considerations. In "The Dallas Morning News", architectural critic David Dillon opined that the arch exists not as a functional edifice but as a symbol of "boundless American optimism". He articulates the arch's multiple "moods"—"reflective in sunlight, soft and pewterish in mist; crisp as a line drawing one moment, chimerical the next"—as a way the arch has "paid


title: "Gateway Arch" content: for itself many times over in wonder". Some have questioned whether St. Louis really was—as Saarinen said—the "Gateway to the West". Kansas City-born "deadline poet" Calvin Trillin wrote, I know you're thinking that there are considerable differences between T.S. Eliot and me. Yes, it is true that he was from St. Louis, which started calling itself the Gateway to the West after Eero Saarinen's Gateway Arch was erected, and I'm from Kansas City, where people think of St. Louis not as the Gateway to the West but as the Exit from the East. In 1966, the arch was given a


title: "Gateway Arch" content: Special Award for Excellence from the American Institute of Steel Construction for being "an outstanding achievement in technology and aesthetics." On February 9, 1967, the arch received the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award of 1967 from the American Society of Civil Engineers. The arch was once among "Travel + Leisure"s unofficial rankings for the most-visited attraction in the world, after Lenin's Tomb, Disney World, Disneyland, and the Eiffel Tower. On February 22, 1990, the arch received the American Institute of Architects' (AIA) Twenty-Five Year Award for its "enduring significance that has withstood the test of time." It was declared "a


title: "Gateway Arch" content: symbolic bridge between East and West, past and future, engineering and art" that "embodies the boundless optimism of a growing nation." In 2007, the arch was ranked fourteenth on the AIA's "America's Favorite Architecture" list. The first act of vandalism was committed in June 1968: the vandals etched their names on various parts of the arch. In all, $10,000 was spent that year to repair damage from vandalism. The arch was first targeted by graffiti artists on March 5, 1969. In 2010, signs of corrosion were reported at the upper regions of the stainless steel surface. Carbon steel in the


title: "Gateway Arch" content: north leg has been rusting, possibly a result of water accumulation, a side effect of leaky welds in an environment that often causes rain to enter the skin of the structure. Maintenance workers use mops and a temporary setup of water containers to ease the problem. According to NPS documents, the corrosion and rust pose no safety concerns. A more comprehensive study of the corrosion had been suggested as early as 2006 by architectural specialists studying the Arch, and reiterated in a 2010 Historic Structure Report. In September 2010, the NPS granted Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. a contract for


title: "Gateway Arch" content: a structural study that would "gather data about the condition of the Arch to enable experts to develop and implement the right long-term solutions." Stain samples were taken from the west face of the Arch on October 21, 2014, to determine the best way to clean it. The cleaning will cost about $340,000. Gateway Arch The Gateway Arch is a monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary arch, it is the world's tallest arch, the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere, and Missouri's tallest accessible building.


title: "Edith Cavell" content: would have received. The Imperial German Government thought that it had acted fairly towards Cavell. In a letter, German undersecretary for Foreign Affairs Dr Alfred Zimmermann (not to be confused with Arthur Zimmermann, German Secretary for Foreign Affairs) made a statement to the press on behalf of the German government: From the perspective of the German government, had it released Cavell there might have been a surge in the number of women participating in acts against Germany because they knew they would not be severely punished. It took the view that it was up to the responsible men to follow


title: "Soyuz programme" content: political need to be used for such. Finally, the Progress series of unmanned cargo ships for the Salyut and Mir space laboratories used the automatic navigation and docking mechanism (but not the re-entry capsule) of Soyuz. While not a direct derivative, the Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft follows the basic template originally pioneered by Soyuz. Soyuz programme The Soyuz programme ( , ; , meaning "Union") is a human spaceflight programme that was initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, originally part of a Moon landing project intended to put a Soviet cosmonaut on the Moon. It was the third


title: "Moscow, Idaho" content: Spokane International, north. Amtrak passenger train service is available in Spokane, and there is a bus station in downtown Moscow. There are seventeen neighborhood parks located throughout the town offering a wide variety of venues for outdoor activities. These parks fall under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Parks and Recreation Department. The Moscow Pathways Commission (formerly Paradise Path Task Force) is a citizen committee seeking to develop a system of linearly connected parks throughout the area. Carol Ryrie Brink Nature Park was a community collaboration between the Palouse Clearwater Environmental Institute and local volunteers to remeander Paradise Creek and add


title: "Casting (metalworking)" content: "side riser". Finally, if the riser is located on the gating system so that it fills after the molding cavity, it is known as a "live riser" or "hot riser", but if the riser fills with materials that have already flowed through the molding cavity it is known as a "dead riser" or "cold riser". Riser aids are items used to assist risers in creating directional solidification or reducing the number of risers required. One of these items are "chills" which accelerate cooling in a certain part of the mold. There are two types: external and internal chills. External chills


title: "Universal Esperanto Association" content: were the "rajtigitaj delegitoj" of the congresses in 1911 and 1912 (not to be confused with the UEA "delegitoj"); an "Internacia Unuiĝo de Esperantistaj Societoj" (International Union of Esperanto associations, 1913/1914) was a second attempt. This string in the evolution ceased in 1914 with the breakout of World War I, which forced the movement as a whole to pause many of its activities. The original UEA was purely based on individual membership. The members in a given locality, e.g. a town, were supposed to have UEA member conventions and elect a "delegito" (plural "delegitoj"), a delegate. The delegate had the


title: "Digital media" content: Internet and personal computing, digital media has caused disruptive innovation in publishing, journalism, public relations, entertainment, education, commerce and politics. Digital media has also posed new challenges to copyright and intellectual property laws, fostering an open content movement in which content creators voluntarily give up some or all of their legal rights to their work. The ubiquity of digital media and its effects on society suggest that we are at the start of a new era in industrial history, called the Information Age, perhaps leading to a paperless society in which all media are produced and consumed on computers. However,


title: "New Haven, Connecticut" content: became highly publicized and brought national attention to New Haven politics due to the involvement of then-Supreme Court nominee (and Yale Law School graduate) Sonia Sotomayor in a lower court decision. Garry Trudeau, creator of the political "Doonesbury" comic strip, attended Yale University. There he met fellow student and later Green Party candidate for Congress Charles Pillsbury, a long-time New Haven resident for whom Trudeau's comic strip is named. During his college years, Pillsbury was known by the nickname "The Doones". A theory of international law, which argues for a sociological normative approach in regards to jurisprudence, is named the


title: "Ngo Dinh Diem" content: government, the assassination bolstered North Vietnamese attempts to characterize the South Vietnamese as "supporters of colonialism". Diệm's assassination led to the collapse of his regime and the end of the first Republic of Vietnam. Nevertheless, Diệm's contribution over his nine years of power from 1954 to 1963 can be appreciated at many levels due to his part in resolving the northern refugees issue, establishing and consolidating the power of his regime, subduing the sects, and pacifying the country, Diệm stabilised an independent South Vietnam that had suffered in the first Indochina war and built a relatively stable government in Saigon


title: Cuscuta content: Cuscuta Cuscuta () (dodder) is a genus of about 100–170 species of yellow, orange, or red (rarely green) parasitic plants. Formerly treated as the only genus in the family Cuscutaceae, it now is accepted as belonging in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae, on the basis of the work of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. The genus is found throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the world, with the greatest species diversity in subtropical and tropical regions; the genus becomes rare in cool temperate climates, with only four species native to northern Europe. Folk names include: strangle tare, scaldweed, beggarweed, lady's


title: Cuscuta content: laces, fireweed, wizard's net, devil's guts, devil's hair, devil's ringlet, goldthread, hailweed, hairweed, hellbine, love vine, pull-down, strangleweed, angel hair, and witch's hair. Dodder can be identified by its thin stems appearing leafless, with the leaves reduced to minute scales. In these respects it closely resembles the similarly parasitic, but unrelated genus "Cassytha". From mid-summer to early autumn, the vines can produce small fruit that take the same color as the vine, and are approximately the size of a common pea. It has very low levels of chlorophyll; some species such as "Cuscuta reflexa" can photosynthesize slightly, while others such


title: Cuscuta content: as "C. europaea" are entirely dependent on the host plants for nutrition. Dodder flowers range in color from white to pink to yellow to cream. Some flower in the early summer, others later, depending on the species. The seeds are minute and produced in large quantities. They have a hard coating, and typically can survive in the soil for 5–10 years, sometimes longer. Dodder seeds sprout at or near the surface of the soil. Although dodder germination can occur without a host, it has to reach a green plant quickly and is adapted to grow towards the nearby plants by


title: Cuscuta content: following chemosensory clues. If a plant is not reached within 5 to 10 days of germination, the dodder seedling will die. Before a host plant is reached, the dodder, as other plants, relies on food reserves in the embryo; the cotyledons, though present, are vestigial. After a dodder attaches itself to a plant, it wraps itself around it. If the host contains food beneficial to dodder, the dodder produces haustoria that insert themselves into the vascular system of the host. The original root of the dodder in the soil then dies. The dodder can grow and attach itself to multiple


title: Cuscuta content: plants. In tropical areas it can grow more or less continuously, and may reach high into the canopy of shrubs and trees; in cold temperate regions it is an annual plant and is restricted to relatively low vegetation that can be reached by new seedlings each spring. Dodder is parasitic on a very wide variety of plants, including a number of agricultural and horticultural crop species, such as alfalfa, lespedeza, flax, clover, potatoes, chrysanthemum, dahlia, helenium, trumpet vine, ivy and petunias, and more. It is an ectoparasite. Dodder ranges in severity based on its species and the species of the


title: Cuscuta content: host, the time of attack, and whether any viruses are also present in the host plant. By debilitating the host plant, dodder decreases the ability of plants to resist viral diseases, and dodder can also spread plant diseases from one host to another if it is attached to more than one plant. This is of economic concern in agricultural systems, where an annual drop of 10% yield can be devastating. There has been an emphasis on dodder vine control in order to manage plant diseases in the field. A report published in "Science" in 2006 demonstrated that dodder use airborne


title: Cuscuta content: volatile organic compound cues to locate their host plants. Seedlings of "Cuscuta pentagona" exhibit positive growth responses to volatiles released by tomato and other species of host plants. When given a choice between volatiles released by the preferred host tomato and the non-host wheat, the parasite grew toward the former. Further experiments demonstrated attraction to a number of individual compounds released by host plants and repellance by one compound released by wheat. These results do not rule out the possibility that other cues, such as light, may also play a role in host location. Less is known about host defenses


title: Cuscuta content: against dodder and other parasitic plants than is known about plant defenses against herbivores and pathogens. In one study, tomato plants were found to employ complex mechanisms to defend against dodder. Two pathways, using jasmonic acid and salicylic acid, were activated in response to attack by Cuscuta pentagona. Dodder attack was also found to induce production of volatiles, including 2-carene, α-pinene, limonene, and β-phellandrene. It is not known if or how these volatiles defend the host, but they could potentially interfere with the dodder's ability to locate and select hosts. Also, the presence of trichomes on the tomato stem effectively


title: Cuscuta content: blocks the dodder from attaching to the stem. Many countries have laws prohibiting import of dodder seed, requiring crop seeds to be free of dodder seed contamination. Before planting, all clothes should be inspected for dodder seed when moving from an infested area to a non-infested crop. When dealing with an infested area, swift action is necessary. Recommendations include planting a non-host crop for several years after the infestation, pulling up host crops immediately, particularly before the dodder produces seed, and use of preemergent herbicides such as Dacthal in the spring. Examples of non-host crops include grasses and many other


title: Cuscuta content: monocotyledons. If dodder is found before it chokes a host plant, it may be simply removed from the soil. If choking has begun, the host plant must be pruned significantly below the dodder infestation, as dodder is versatile and able to grow back from its haustoria. "C. chinensis" seeds (simplified Chinese: 菟丝子，"tusizi") have long been used for osteoporosis in China and some other Asian countries. "C. chinensis" is a commonly used traditional Chinese medicine which is believed to strengthen the liver and kidneys. Cudney, D.W., S.B. Orloff, and J.S. Reints. 1992. An integrated weed management procedure for the control of


title: Cuscuta content: dodder (Cuscuta indecora) in alfalfa (Medicago sativa). Weed Technology, 6, 603-606. Cuscuta Cuscuta () (dodder) is a genus of about 100–170 species of yellow, orange, or red (rarely green) parasitic plants. Formerly treated as the only genus in the family Cuscutaceae, it now is accepted as belonging in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae, on the basis of the work of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. The genus is found throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the world, with the greatest species diversity in subtropical and tropical regions; the genus becomes rare in cool temperate climates, with only four species native


title: "Wank (mountain)" content: the forest being destroyed by the 15th century. Forestry in the area was taken over by the Bavarian government in 1803 but the former forest cover did not regenerate due in part to the continued use of forest lands as pasture, storms and browsing by game animals. As a result, the current Wank forest is predominantly spruce (about 75%) and pine (15%). Forestry programmes are currently underway to improve the arboreal diversity of the mountain. The Wank is linked to Garmisch-Partenkirchen by a cable car system called the Wankbahn, which usually operates between May and September during daylight hours. Construction


title: "Bureau of Land Management" content: of the General Mining Law of 1872 and the Desert Land Act of 1877 have since been repealed or superseded. In the early 20th century, Congress took additional steps toward recognizing the value of the assets on public lands and directed the Executive Branch to manage activities on the remaining public lands. The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 allowed leasing, exploration, and production of selected commodities, such as coal, oil, gas, and sodium to take place on public lands. The Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 established the United States Grazing Service to manage the public rangelands by establishment of advisory


title: Breadfruit content: Breadfruit Breadfruit ("Artocarpus altilis") is a species of flowering tree in the mulberry and jackfruit family (Moraceae) originating in the South Pacific and eventually spreading to the rest of Oceania. British and French navigators introduced a few Polynesian seedless varieties to Caribbean islands during the late 18th century, and today it is grown in some 90 countries throughout South and Southeast Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean, Central America and Africa. Its name is derived from the texture of the moderately ripe fruit when cooked, similar to freshly baked bread and having a potato-like flavor. According to DNA fingerprinting studies,


title: Breadfruit content: breadfruit has its origins in the region of Oceania from New Guinea through the Indo-Malayan Archipelago to western Micronesia. The trees have been widely planted in tropical regions, including lowland Central America, northern South America, and the Caribbean. In addition to the fruit serving as a staple food in many cultures, the light, sturdy timber of breadfruit has been used for outriggers, ships, and houses in the tropics. Because breadfruit dispersal across Oceania was dependent on human seafaring, botanical research has correlated with the human colonization of Oceania, resulting in a theory that humans brought breadfruit seeds from Melanesia to


title: Breadfruit content: settle in Polynesia and Micronesia over thousands of years. Sir Joseph Banks and others saw the value of breadfruit as a highly productive food in 1769, when stationed in Tahiti as part of the expedition commanded by Captain James Cook. The late-18th-century quest for cheap, high-energy food sources for slaves in British colonies prompted colonial administrators and plantation owners to call for the plant to be brought to the Caribbean. As president of the Royal Society, Banks provided a cash bounty and gold medal for success in this endeavor, and successfully lobbied his friends in government and the Admiralty for


title: Breadfruit content: a British Naval expedition. In 1787, William Bligh was appointed captain of , and ordered to proceed to the South Pacific to collect the plants. In 1791, Bligh commanded a second expedition with and , which collected seedless breadfruit plants in Tahiti and transported these to St. Helena, in the Atlantic, and St. Vincent and Jamaica in the West Indies. Although Bligh won the Royal Society medal for his efforts, the introduction was not entirely successful, as most slaves refused to eat the new food. Breadfruit trees grow to a height of . The large and thick leaves are deeply


title: Breadfruit content: cut into pinnate lobes. All parts of the tree yield latex, which is useful for boat caulking. The trees are monoecious, with male and female flowers growing on the same tree. The male flowers emerge first, followed shortly afterward by the female flowers. The latter grow into capitula, which are capable of pollination just three days later. Pollination occurs mainly by fruit bats, but cultivated varieties produce fruit without pollination. The compound, false fruit develops from the swollen perianth, and originates from 1,500-2,000 flowers visible on the skin of the fruit as hexagon-like disks. Breadfruit is one of the highest-yielding


title: Breadfruit content: food plants, with a single tree producing up to 200 or more grapefruit-sized fruits per season, requiring limited care. In the South Pacific, the trees yield 50 to 150 fruits per year, usually round, oval or oblong weighing 0.25–6 kg. Productivity varies between wet and dry areas. Studies in Barbados indicate a reasonable potential of . The ovoid fruit has a rough surface, and each fruit is divided into many achenes, each achene surrounded by a fleshy perianth and growing on a fleshy receptacle. Most selectively bred cultivars have seedless fruit, whereas seeded varieties are grown mainly for their edible


title: Breadfruit content: seeds. Breadfruit is usually propagated using root cuttings. Breadfruit is closely related to the breadnut, from which it might have been naturally selected. It is noticeably similar in appearance to its relative of the same genus, the jackfruit ("Artocarpus heterophyllus"). Breadfruit has hundreds of varieties and thousands of common names varying according to its geographic distribution, and is cultivated in some 90 countries. Breadfruit is an equatorial lowland species. It grows best below elevations of , but is found at elevations of . Preferred soils are neutral to alkaline (pH of 6.1–7.4) and either sand, sandy loam, loam or sandy


title: Breadfruit content: clay loam. Breadfruit is able to grow in coral sands and saline soils. The breadfruit is ultra-tropical, requiring a temperature range of and an annual rainfall of . Breadfruit is 71% water, 27% carbohydrates, 1% protein and negligible in fat (see table). In a 100 gram amount, raw breadfruit is a rich source (35% of the Daily Value, DV) of vitamin C, and a moderate source (10% DV each) of thiamin and potassium, with no other nutrients in significant content. Breadfruit is a staple food in many tropical regions. Most breadfruit varieties produce fruits throughout the year. Both ripe and


title: Breadfruit content: unripe fruits have culinary uses, but unripe breadfruit is cooked before consumption. Before being eaten, the fruits are roasted, baked, fried or boiled. When cooked, the taste of moderately ripe breadfruit is described as potato-like, or similar to freshly baked bread. Because breadfruit trees usually produce large crops at certain times of the year, preservation of the harvested fruit is an issue. One traditional preservation technique is to bury peeled and washed fruits in a leaf-lined pit where they ferment over several weeks and produce a sour, sticky paste. So stored, the product may last a year or more, and


title: Breadfruit content: some pits are reported to have produced edible contents more than 20 years later. Fermented breadfruit mash goes by many names such as "mahr", "ma", "masi", "furo", and "bwiru", among others. Breadfruit can be eaten once cooked, or can be further processed into a variety of other foods. A common product is a mixture of cooked or fermented breadfruit mash mixed with coconut milk and baked in banana leaves. Whole fruits can be cooked in an open fire, then cored and filled with other foods, such as coconut milk, sugar and butter, cooked meats, or other fruits. The filled fruit


title: Breadfruit content: can be cooked further so the flavor of the filling permeates the flesh of the breadfruit. Breadfruit is found in Indonesia and Malaysia, where it is called "sukun". In Indonesia, fried breadfruit is sold by street food vendors, and is known as gorengan. In the South Indian state of Kerala and coastal Karnataka, especially near Mangalore, where it is widely grown and cooked, it is known as "kada chakka". In Sri Lanka, it is cooked as a curry using coconut milk and spices (which becomes a side dish) or boiled. Boiled breadfruit is a famous main meal. It is often


title: Breadfruit content: consumed with scraped coconut or "coconut sambol", made of scraped coconut, red chilli powder and salt mixed with a dash of lime juice. A traditional sweet snack made of finely sliced, sun-dried breadfruit chips deep-fried in coconut oil and dipped in heated treacle or sugar syrup is known as "rata del petti". In India, fritters of breadfruit, called "jeev kadge phodi" in Konkani or "kadachakka varuthath" in Malayalam are a local delicacy in coastal Karnataka and Kerala. In Seychelles, it was traditionally eaten as a substitute for rice, as an accompaniment to the mains. It would either be consumed boiled


title: Breadfruit content: ("friyapen bwi") or grilled ("friyapen griye"), where it would be put whole in the wood fire used for cooking the main meal and then taken out when ready. It is also eaten as a dessert, called "ladob friyapen", where it is boiled in coconut milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. In the Hawaiian staple food called "poi", the traditional ingredient of mashed taro root can be replaced by, or augmented with, mashed breadfruit. The resulting "breadfruit poi" is called "poi ulu". In Belize, the Mayan people call it "masapan". In Puerto Rico, breadfruit is called "panapen" or


title: Breadfruit content: "pana", for short. In some inland regions it is also called "mapén". "Pana" is often served boiled with a mixture of sauteed "bacalao" (salted cod fish), olive oil and onions. It is also served as "tostones" or "mofongo". A popular dessert is also made with sweet ripe breadfruit: "flan de pana" (breadfruit custard). In the Dominican Republic, it is known by the name "buen pan" or "good bread". In Barbados, breadfruit is boiled with salted meat and mashed with butter to make breadfruit coucou. It is usually eaten with saucy meat dishes. In Jamaica, breadfruit is boiled in soups or


title: Breadfruit content: roasted on stove top, in the oven or on wood coal. It is usually eaten with the national dish ackee and salt fish. The ripe fruit is used in salads or fried as a side dish. Breadfruit was widely used in a variety of ways among Pacific Islanders. Its lightweight wood (specific gravity of 0.27) is resistant to termites and shipworms, so it is used as timber for structures and outrigger canoes. Its wood pulp can also be used to make paper, called breadfruit "tapa". Native Hawaiians used its sticky latex to trap birds, whose feathers were made into cloaks.


title: Breadfruit content: The wood of the breadfruit tree was one of the most valuable timbers in the construction of traditional houses in Samoan architecture. Breadfruit contains phytochemicals having potential as an insect repellent. The parts of the fruits that are discarded can be used to feed livestock. The leaves of breadfruit trees can also be browsed by cattle. On Puluwat in the Caroline Islands, in the context of sacred "yitang" lore, breadfruit ("poi") is a figure of speech for knowledge. This lore is organized into five categories: war, magic, meetings, navigation, and "breadfruit". According to an etiological Hawaiian myth, the breadfruit originated


title: Breadfruit content: from the sacrifice of the war god Kū. After deciding to live secretly among mortals as a farmer, Kū married and had children. He and his family lived happily until a famine seized their island. When he could no longer bear to watch his children suffer, Kū told his wife that he could deliver them from starvation, but to do so he would have to leave them. Reluctantly she agreed, and at her word, Kū descended into the ground right where he had stood until only the top of his head was visible. His family waited around the spot he


title: Breadfruit content: had last been, day and night, watering it with their tears until suddenly, a small green shoot appeared where Kū had stood. Quickly, the shoot grew into a tall and leafy tree that was laden with heavy breadfruits that Kū's family and neighbors gratefully ate, joyfully saved from starvation. Though they are widely distributed throughout the Pacific, many breadfruit hybrids and cultivars are seedless or otherwise biologically incapable of naturally dispersing long distances. Therefore, it is clear that humans aided distribution of the plant in the Pacific, specifically prehistoric groups who colonized the Pacific Islands. To investigate the patterns of