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Claiborne Pell (Newport) Bridge
The Claiborne Pell Bridge, commonly known as the Newport Bridge, is a suspension bridge operated by the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority that spans the East Passage of the Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island (northeastern United States). The bridge, part of RI 138, connects the city of Newport on Aquidneck Island and the Town of Jamestown on Conanicut Island, and is named for longtime Rhode Island U.S. senator Claiborne Pell who lived in Newport. The Pell Bridge is in turn connected to the mainland by the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge. Dimensions The main span of the Newport Bridge is , ranking it number 87 among the longest suspension bridges in the world, and making it the longest suspension bridge in New England. The overall length of the bridge is 3,428 meters (11,247 ft). Its main towers reach 122 meters (400 ft) above the water surface, and the roadway height reaches as high as 66 meters (215 ft). It is four lanes wide, two in each direction. On a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narragansett Bay
Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Small parts of the bay extend into Massachusetts. There are more than 30 islands in the bay; the three largest ones are Aquidneck Island, Conanicut Island, and Prudence Island. Bodies of water that are part of Narragansett Bay include the Sakonnet River, Mount Hope Bay, and the southern, tidal part of the Taunton River. The bay opens on Rhode Island Sound and the Atlantic Ocean; Block Island lies less than southwest of its opening. Etymology "Narragansett" is derived from the southern New England Algonquian word meaning "(people) of the small point of land". Geography The watershed of Narragansett Bay has seven river sub-drainage basins, including the Taunton, Pawtuxet, and Blackstone Rivers, and they provide freshwater input at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the smaller adjacent Chappaquiddick Island, which is usually connected to the Vineyard. The two islands have sometimes been separated by storms and hurricanes, which last occurred from 2007 to 2015. It is the 58th largest island in the U.S., with a land area of about , and the third-largest on the East Coast, after Long Island and Mount Desert Island. Martha's Vineyard constitutes the bulk of Dukes County, which also includes the Elizabeth Islands and the island of Nomans Land (Massachusetts), Nomans Land. The Vineyard was home to one of the earliest known deaf communities in the United States; consequently, a sign language, the Martha's Vineyard Sign Language, emerged on the island among both deaf and hearing islanders. The 2010 census report ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Chafee
John Lester Hubbard Chafee ( ; October 22, 1922 – October 24, 1999) was an American politician and officer in the United States Marine Corps. A member of the Republican Party (United States), he served as the 66th Governor of Rhode Island, as the Secretary of the Navy, and as a United States Senator. Early life and family Chafee was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to a politically active family. He was the son of Janet Melissa (née Hunter) and John Sharpe Chafee. His great-grandfather, Henry Lippitt, was governor of Rhode Island (1875–1877) and among his great-uncles were a Rhode Island governor, Charles Warren Lippitt, and United States Senator Henry Frederick Lippitt. His uncle, Zechariah Chafee, was a Harvard law professor, and a notable civil libertarian. His cousin was Frederick Lippitt, former House Minority Leader for the Rhode Island House of Representatives. He had two daughters and four sons, one of whom is former Rhode Island Governor and former United States S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheldon Whitehouse
Sheldon Whitehouse (born October 20, 1955) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Rhode Island since 2007. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States Attorney from 1993 to 1998 and the 71st attorney general of Rhode Island from 1999 to 2003. Early life and education Whitehouse was born on October 20, 1955, in New York City, the son of Mary Celine (née Rand) and career diplomat Charles Sheldon Whitehouse, and grandson of diplomat Edwin Sheldon Whitehouse (1883–1965). Among his great-great-grandfathers were Episcopalian bishop Henry John Whitehouse and railroad magnate Charles Crocker, who was among the founders of the Central Pacific Railroad. Whitehouse graduated from St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and from Yale College in 1978. He received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1982. Early career Whitehouse worked as a clerk for Justice Richard Neely of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Open Road Tolling
Open road tolling (ORT), also called all-electronic tolling, cashless tolling, or free-flow tolling, is the collection of tolls on toll roads without the use of toll booths. An electronic toll collection system is usually used instead. The major advantage to ORT is that users are able to drive through the toll plaza at highway speeds without having to slow down to pay the toll. In some installations, ORT may also reduce congestion at the plazas by allowing more vehicles per hour/per lane. The disadvantage to ORT is that it relies on the honor system to the extent that without the presence of toll booths there is typically no physical means of preventing drivers who have no intention of paying the toll from accessing the road. Toll operators refer to such toll evasion as "leakage." To deter such behavior, toll operators can employ tools such as high-definition cameras to identify violators, and leakage can be offset in part or whole by fees and fines collected against offender ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Senator
The United States Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives being the Lower house, lower chamber. Together they compose the national Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the Senate are established by Article One of the United States Constitution. The Senate is composed of #Membership, senators, each of whom represents a single U.S. state, state in its entirety. Each of the 50 states is equally represented by two senators who serve Classes of United States senators, staggered terms of six years, for a total of 100 senators. The Vice President of the United States, vice president of the United States serves as presiding officer and president of the Senate by Ex officio member, virtue of that office, despite not being a senator, and has a vote only if the Senate is equally divided. In the vice president's absence, the Presiden ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parsons Brinckerhoff
WSP USA, formerly WSP, Parsons Brinckerhoff and Parsons Brinckerhoff, is a multinational engineering and design firm with approximately 14,000 employees. WSP stands for Williams Sale Partnership. The firm operates in the fields of strategic consulting, planning, engineering, construction management, energy, infrastructure and community planning. In 2013, the company was named the tenth largest U.S.-based engineering/design firm by ''Engineering News Record''. In 2020, it was ranked #7 of the Top 500 Design Firms and #2 of the Top 100 Pure Designers by the same magazine. On October 31, 2014, Parsons Brinckerhoff became a wholly owned independent subsidiary of WSP Global, a Canadian-based professional services firm. Parsons Brinckerhoff was renamed to WSP, Parsons Brinckerhoff, then to WSP USA in 2017. Together with WSP Global, WSP USA is one of the largest professional services firms in the world, with approximately 31,500 employees in 500 offices serving 39 countries. History F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Dollar
The United States dollar ( symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it into 100 cents, and authorized the minting of coins denominated in dollars and cents. U.S. banknotes are issued in the form of Federal Reserve Notes, popularly called greenbacks due to their predominantly green color. The monetary policy of the United States is conducted by the Federal Reserve System, which acts as the nation's central bank. The U.S. dollar was originally defined under a bimetallic standard of (0.7735 troy ounces) fine silver or, from 1837, fine gold, or $20.67 per troy ounce. The Gold Standard Act of 1900 linked the dollar solely to gold. From 1934, it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhode Island Department Of Transportation
The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) is a Rhode Island state government agency charged with design, construction, maintenance and inspection of a wide range of transportation infrastructure. These include 3,300 lane miles of state roads and highways, 1,162 bridges, 777 traffic signals, and five rail stations. Additionally, RIDOT has constructed a network of off-road bike paths and signed more than of on-road bike routes across the state. Its headquarters are located in Providence. Rhode Island ports are handled by the R.I. Economic Development Corporation, airports in Rhode Island are overseen by the subsidiary R.I. Airport Corporation, and passenger train service is operated by Amtrak (a federal semi-public corporation) and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (a state agency of Massachusetts). Through the 1989 Pilgrim Partnership Agreement RIDOT financed construction of the Boston-bound MBTA commuter rail service into Providence and beyond (see Pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhode Island Public Transit Authority
The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) provides public transportation, primarily buses, in the state of Rhode Island. The main hub of the RIPTA system is Kennedy Plaza, a large bus terminal in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. In 2020 the authority served an average of 36,776 people a day, in 36 out of 39 Rhode Island communities. History RIPTA was created in 1964 by the Rhode Island General Assembly to supervise what had been previously a system of privately run bus and trolley systems. RIPTA began operating buses on July 1, 1966, inheriting services provided previously by the United Transit Company. Ridership had decreased in Rhode Island after the construction of the Interstate Highway System, and although it has never returned to 1940s levels, RIPTA's ridership has increased slightly over the years as services have been expanded and improved upon. Routes RIPTA operates services in several categories. All services are operated from two garages: in Providence at 26 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sakonnet River Bridge
The Sakonnet River Bridge is a four-lane bridge spanning the Sakonnet River in eastern Rhode Island. The bridge carries RI 24 and RI 138 between the communities of Portsmouth and Tiverton, Rhode Island. The current bridge is a box girder bridge that opened in 2012 at a cost of $120 million (USD). The previous bridge was a truss bridge that was built in 1956 and demolished in 2012 due to structural deficiencies. The truss bridge had previously served as a replacement for the Stone Bridge, about to the south. It became part of RI 24 during the 1960s after the completion of the Portsmouth and Tiverton Expressways. At one point, it was briefly considered for inclusion as part of the never-built Interstate 895. Tolls In 2003, state officials declared there would be no tolls on the bridge. In 2012, governor Lincoln Chafee reversed this decision. In August 2013 after the opening of the new bridge, the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority began collecting a 10-cent toll ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
