Gribblenation

Over this past weekend, I briefly visited Gatineau, Quebec during a trip to Ottawa. At one time, the part of Gatineau that is directly across the Ottawa River from Parliament Hill in Ottawa was known as Hull. For this week's Throwback Thursday, here is a sign photo from September 2000, when the signs still directed you to Hull.

Back in 2011 and 2012 I was frequently in the Arizona Rim Country for work in Show Low.  Given that a huge expressway expansion of Arizona State Route 260 was going on at the time I often found myself on US Route 60/Arizona State Route 77 to get to/from Show Low from the Phoenix Metro area. Salt River Canyon is an approximately 2,200 foot deep gorge bisected by a river bearing the same name in rural Gila County.  The Salt River is a 200 mile tributary of the Gila River which has a source to the east of Salt River Canyon in the White Mountains.  Salt River is probably the most well known of the rivers in the Phoenix Metro Area from all the reservoir lakes from Salt River Project along the Apache Trail/AZ 88. Prior to US 60 entering Arizona traffic from the Show Low area would have had to use AZ 73 to get out of the eastern Mogollon Rim Country.  AZ 73 was one of the original 1927 State Highway in Arizona and was far longer in length stretching from Springervill...

Recently, I had found out about a neat tunnel called the Brockville Railway Tunnel that was used for trains in Brockville, Ontario, located in the Thousand Islands region of the province. By chance, I decided to visit the tunnel on my way to Ottawa this past weekend. An engineering marvel at 1730 feet in length, the Brockville Railway Tunnel happens to be the first railroad tunnel constructed in present-day Canada. The tunnel was built between 1854 and 1860 for the Brockville and Ottawa Railway to connect the Brockville waterfront on the nearby St. Lawrence River with the Ottawa River near Arnprior, Ontario to the north. Part of the tunnel is lined with brick, whereas natural stone forms the walls of the tunnel around its center portion. It should be noted that the plans to construct the tunnel was not without some public disagreement, as a number of people felt that it would be easier and more cost effective to build the rail line along the riverfront instead of building the tunne...

This Thanksgiving for throwback Thursday I'll be looking at US 191 in the White Mountains of far eastern which is part of a 123 mile National Scenic Byway known as the Coronado Trail. The Coronado Trail is a 123 mile section of US Route 191 from Springerville south to Morenci.  The path US 191 takes via the Coronado Trail is roughly 123 miles is by far is the most curvy section of any US Route with approximately 600 curves.  About the only US Route that I ever encountered that had a section as hectic as US 191 on the Coronado Trail was US 550 on the San Juan Skyway/Million Dollar Highway.  Roads like US 129 on The Dragon may be infamous but US 191 on the Coronado Trail is the stuff of legends as far as scenic highways go. The Coronado Trail roughly follows the path the 1540-1542 Coronado expedition took in search of the Cities of Gold.  The White Mountains of eastern Arizona essentially are an extension of the larger Mogollon Rim region and has peaks as high a...

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American readers! This week's Throwback Thursday honors going home for the holidays. In this December 2000 photograph, here is a sign for NY 17B as found on NY 17 eastbound in Monticello. I must have been driving back from college at SUNY Oswego down to Long Island, where I had grown up and where my mother was living at the time. When I would drive back home for breaks in college, I would often take I-81 to NY 17 and through the Catskills, or sometimes I would go through Scranton, Pennsylvania by taking a mix of I-81, I-380 and I-80.

The December 27, 2004 opening of the Wabash Tunnel ended over 70 years of proposals and speculation over the 100-plus-year-old facility.  The tunnel, now a reversible roadway that is an alternative route for rush hour traffic, saw many failed plans during the 20th Century.  These plans included options for mass transit, converted and new bridges for vehicles, and other forms of transportation.   The Wabash Tunnel South Portal one day before its opening (Jeff Kitsko - December 2004) Brief History: Constructed between 1902-04, the Wabash Bridge and Tunnel was planned and financed by rail mogul - Jay Gould.  Gould began his "Battle of the Wabash" with the established railroads of the city in 1890.  He would finally emerge victorious, but during that struggle, Gould would see many setbacks that would eventually result in the railroad's bankruptcy in 1908.  On October 19, 1903, when the two ends of the bridge were to be joined over the Monongahela River...