Throwback Thursday; La Brea Tar Pits, Wilshire Boulevard

Back in 2012 I was out in the Los Angeles Area driving former sections of US Route 66 when I stopped at the La Brea Tar Pits alongside Wilshire Boulevard in western Los Angeles.

The La Brea Tar Pits are a natural pool of oil and asphalt located in Hancock Park. The La Brea Tar Pits are not a natural formation but rather were dug out from asphalt mining. The La Brea Tar Pits are mostly known for animal fossils which date back at least 38,000 years. The La Brea Tar Pits are largely seepage from the Salt Lake Oil Field which creeps through the 6th Street Fault. The La Brea Tar Pits were displayed in the late 1990s disaster movie Volcano but has no known attachment to any form of volcanism.

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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 National Road - Pennsylvania - Great Crossings Bridge and Somerfield

West of Addison, US 40 crosses the Youghiogheny River at what once was the town of Somerfield. When crossing the current modern two lane bridge, you many not realize that it is actually the third to cross the Yough at this site. The first - a stone arch bridge - was known as the Great Crossings Bridge. Built in 1818, this three arch bridge was part of the original National Road. The name Great Crossings comes from the men who forded the Youghiogheny here - George Washington and George Braddock. (1) If you cross the bridge at the right time, this historic bridge and what was once the town of Somerfield will appear out from underneath this massive man-made lake. Historical Postcard showing the 'Big Crossings' bridge and Somerfield. Image submitted by Vince Ferrari. The Great Crossings Bridge was located in the town of Somerfield. Somerfield, originally named Smythfield until 1827, would develop as a result of the National Road. (1) Somerfield would go through va

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