Florida Friday; Fort Matanzas National Monument

Back in 2013 I visited by Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in St. Augustine and later Fort Matanzas National Monument.

Fort Matanzas was a Spanish Fortification built from 1740 to 1742 on the Mantanzas River in what is now St. Johns County. The instigation for the construction of Fort Matanzas was a British Siege of St. Augustine along the Matanzas River. Fort Matanzas was constructed from Shellstone and was only used once in combat to ward off a British invasion attempt in 1742 as it was nearing completion. Fort Matanzas was abandoned as Florida shifted hands between the Spanish, British, and Americans. Fort Matanzas was restored by the U.S. Department of War before being transferred to the National Park Service in 1933.

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Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l

Ghost Town Tuesday; Mannfield, FL and the stairway to Hell

Back in 2015 I went searching the Lecanto Sand Hills for the original Citrus County Seat known as Mannfield. Unlike Centrailia in Hernando County and Fivay in Pasco County I did find something worth seeing. Mannfield is located in the Lecanto Sand Hill section of Withlacoochee State Forest somewhat east of the intersection of Citrus County Route 491 and Mansfield Road. Mannfield was named after Austin Mann and founded in Hernando County in 1884 before Citrus County Split away. In 1887 Citrus County was split from northern Hernando County while Pasco County was spun off to the south. Mannfield was selected as the new Citrus County seat due to it being near the county geographic center. Reportedly Mannfield had as many as 250 people when it was the County Seat. The town included various businesses one might include at the time, even a sawmill which was common for the area. In 1891 Citrus County voted to move it's seat to Inverness which set the stage for the decline of M

The Lincoln Highway Bridge Rails

The Lincoln Highway Bridge Rails are presently located at the eastbound truck parking area near Mile Marker 6 of Interstate 80 in Washoe County, Nevada. These bridge rails were part of the Mogul Road culvert which was completed in 1914 as part of the Northern Branch of the Lincoln Highway. The railings were intended to be a common feature of the Lincoln Highway but ultimately were only installed at one other location in Tama, Iowa. During 1926 US Route 40 would be carried for a time through the Lincoln Highway Bridge Rails. The bridge rails were abandoned during a realignment of US Route 40 during the 1930s but were ultimately salved during the construction of Interstate 80 in 1970. Part 1; the history of the Lincoln Highway Bridge Rails During 1912 Indiana Businessman Carl G. Fisher conceptualized the Lincoln Highway as a major transcontinental Auto Trail. The Lincoln Highway was formally dedicated on October 31, 1913, and was aligned west of Fallon via split branches over the S

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