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1933 Long Beach Earthquake
The 1933 Long Beach earthquake took place on March 10 at south of downtown Los Angeles. The epicenter was offshore, southeast of Long Beach, California, on the Newport–Inglewood Fault. The earthquake had a magnitude estimated at 6.4 , and a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (''Severe''). Damage to buildings was widespread throughout Southern California. It resulted in 115 to 120 fatalities and an estimated $40 million worth of property damage, equivalent to $ million in . The majority of the fatalities resulted from people running out of buildings exposing themselves to the falling debris. Damage Major damage occurred in the densely populated city of Long Beach on the south-facing coast of Los Angeles County. However, the damage was also found in the industrial area south of downtown Los Angeles. An estimated 75,000 mi3 area was impacted, being felt as far as San Joaquin Valley, Owens Valley, and Northern Baja California. The magnitude of the earthquake is considered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fault (geology)
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic forces, with the largest forming the boundaries between the plates, such as the megathrust faults of subduction zones or transform faults. Energy release associated with rapid movement on active faults is the cause of most earthquakes. Faults may also displace slowly, by aseismic creep. A ''fault plane'' is the plane that represents the fracture surface of a fault. A '' fault trace'' or ''fault line'' is a place where the fault can be seen or mapped on the surface. A fault trace is also the line commonly plotted on geologic maps to represent a fault. A ''fault zone'' is a cluster of parallel faults. However, the term is also used for the zone of crushed rock along a single fault. Prolonged motion along closely spaced faults can blur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Downtown Los Angeles
Downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) contains the central business district of Los Angeles. In addition, it contains a diverse residential area of some 85,000 people, and covers . A 2013 study found that the district is home to over 500,000 jobs. It is also part of Central Los Angeles. Downtown Los Angeles is divided into neighborhoods and districts, some overlapping. Most districts are named for the activities concentrated there now or historically, e.g. the Arts, Civic Center, Fashion, Banking, Theater, Toy, and Jewelry districts. It is the hub for the city's urban rail transit system plus the Pacific Surfliner and Metrolink commuter rail system for Southern California. Banks, department stores, and movie palaces at one time drew residents and visitors of all socioeconomic classes downtown, but the area declined economically especially after the 1950s. It remained an important center—in the Civic Center, of government business; on Bunker Hill, of banking, and along Broadway, of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Federal Highway Administration
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program and the Federal Lands Highway Program. Its role had previously been performed by the Office of Road Inquiry, Office of Public Roads and the Bureau of Public Roads. History Background The organization has several predecessor organizations and complicated history. The Office of Road Inquiry (ORI) was founded in 1893. In 1905, that organization's name was changed to the Office of Public Roads (OPR) which became a division of the United States Department of Agriculture. The name was changed again to the Bureau of Public Roads in 1915 and to the Public Roads Administration (PRA) in 1939. It was then shifted to the Federal Works Agency which was abolished in 1949 when its name reverted to Bureau of Public Roads under the Department of Comm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Field Act
The Field Act was one of the first pieces of legislation that mandated earthquake-resistant construction (specifically for schools in California) in the United States. The Field Act had its genesis in the 6.4 magnitude 1933 Long Beach earthquake which occurred on March 10 of that year and destroyed or rendered unsafe 230 school buildings in Southern California. Many school buildings had completely collapsed due to unreinforced masonry construction and/or shoddy workmanship. The earthquake occurred at 5:55pm on a Friday, several hours after school had let out. Had the earthquake occurred while school was in session earlier that afternoon, thousands of casualties, mainly children, would have likely occurred. Public awareness of this narrowly averted tragedy led to passage of the Act within 30 days of the quake by the California State Legislature. The Act was named after California Assemblyman Charles Field, the key sponsor of the legislation. The act was based on the research done ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was a government corporation administered by the United States Federal Government between 1932 and 1957 that provided financial support to state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, mortgage associations, and other businesses. Its purpose was to boost the country's confidence and help banks resume daily functions after the start of the Great Depression. The RFC became more prominent under the New Deal and continued to operate through World War II. It was disbanded in 1957, when the US Federal Government concluded that it no longer needed to stimulate lending. The RFC was an independent agency of the US Federal Government, and fully owned and operated by the government. The idea was suggested by Eugene Meyer of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, recommended by President Herbert Hoover, and established by Congress in 1932. It was modeled after the US War Finance Corporation of World War I. In total, it gave US$2 bil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinatown, Los Angeles
Chinatown is a neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles, California, that became a commercial center for Chinese and other Asian businesses in Central Los Angeles in 1938. The area includes restaurants, shops, and art galleries, but also has a residential neighborhood with a low-income, aging population of about 20,000 residents. The original Los Angeles Chinatown developed in the late 19th century, but it was demolished to make room for Union Station, the city's major ground-transportation center. A separate commercial center, known as "New Chinatown," opened for business in 1938. Geography and climate According to CRA/LA, borders of (the current) Chinatown neighborhood are: "Chinatown," Mapping L.A., ''Los Angeles Times''''The Thomas Guide, Los Angeles County'' 2006, page 634 [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Los Angeles Union Station
Los Angeles Union Station is the main railway station in Los Angeles, California, and the largest railroad passenger terminal in the Western United States. It opened in May 1939 as the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal, replacing La Grande Station and Central Station. Approved in a controversial ballot measure in 1926 and built in the 1930s, it served to consolidate rail services from the Union Pacific, Santa Fe, and Southern Pacific Railroads into one terminal station. Conceived on a grand scale, Union Station became known as the "Last of the Great Railway Stations" built in the United States. The structure combines Art Deco, Mission Revival, and Streamline Moderne style. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Today, the station is a major transportation hub for Southern California, serving almost 110,000 passengers a day. It is by far the busiest train station in the Western United States; it is Amtrak's fifth-busiest station, and is the twelf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atchison, Topeka, And Santa Fe Railroad
The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. The railroad reached the Kansas–Colorado border in 1873 and Pueblo, Colorado, in 1876. To create a demand for its services, the railroad set up real estate offices and sold farmland from the land grants that it was awarded by Congress. Despite being chartered to serve the city, the railroad chose to bypass Santa Fe, due to the engineering challenges of the mountainous terrain. Eventually a branch line from Lamy, New Mexico, brought the Santa Fe railroad to its namesake city. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport; at various times, it operated an airline, the short-lived Santa Fe Skyway, and the fleet of Santa Fe Railroad Tugboats. Its bus line extended passenger transportation to areas not acc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
La Grande Station
La Grande Station was the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway's (Santa Fe) main passenger terminal in Los Angeles, California from 1893 until the opening of Union Station in 1939. The station was located at 2nd Street and Santa Fe Avenue on the west bank of the Los Angeles River, just south of the First Street viaduct built in 1929. History Santa Fe opened La Grande Station on July 29, 1893. The station was unique for Southern California with its Moorish-inspired architecture. Los Angeles Railway Yellow Cars called at the street adjacent to the station by 1920, and was at different times served by the N, 7, and 9 lines. Heavy damage from the 1933 Long Beach earthquake meant the last operating years of the station were spent in a state of disrepair as portions of the building, including the dome, had to be removed for the safety of passengers. When Union Station opened in 1939, Santa Fe moved all of its passenger services there. Despite the closure, it was used a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unreinforced Masonry Building
An unreinforced masonry building (or UMB, URM building) is a type of building where load bearing walls, non-load bearing walls or other structures, such as chimneys, are made of brick, cinderblock, tiles, adobe or other masonry material that is not braced by reinforcing material, such as rebar in a concrete or cinderblock. The term is used in earthquake engineering as a classification of certain structures for earthquake safety purposes, and is subject to minor variation from place to place. URM structures are vulnerable to collapse in an earthquake. One problem is that most mortar used to hold bricks together is not strong enough. Additionally, masonry elements may "peel" from the building, and fall onto occupants or passersby outside. In California, the 1933 Long Beach earthquake resulted in a near-immediate statewide ban on construction of new unreinforced masonry school buildings. A State law enacted in 1986 required seismic retrofitting of existing structures. Retrofits ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foundation (engineering)
In engineering, a foundation is the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, transferring loads from the structure to the ground. Foundations are generally considered either shallow or deep. Foundation engineering is the application of soil mechanics and rock mechanics ( geotechnical engineering) in the design of foundation elements of structures. Purpose Foundations provide the structure's stability from the ground: * To distribute the weight of the structure over a large area in order to avoid overloading the underlying soil (possibly causing unequal settlement). * To anchor the structure against natural forces including earthquakes, floods, droughts, frost heaves, tornadoes and wind. * To provide a level surface for construction. * To anchor the structure deeply into the ground, increasing its stability and preventing overloading. * To prevent lateral movements of the supported structure (in some cases). Requirements of a good foundation The design and t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alluvium
Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is typically geologically young and is not consolidated into solid rock. Sediments deposited underwater, in seas, estuaries, lakes, or ponds, are not described as alluvium. Floodplain alluvium can be highly fertile, and supported some of the earliest human civilizations. Definitions The present consensus is that "alluvium" refers to loose sediments of all types deposited by running water in floodplains or in alluvial fans or related landforms. However, the meaning of the term has varied considerably since it was first defined in the French dictionary of Antoine Furetière, posthumously published in 1690. Drawing upon concepts from Roman law, Furetière defined '' alluvion' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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