Mar 9 2013

Shipping on the Cuyahoga River

Brent

cuyahoga river

“The Cuyahoga River was a retreat from the last glaciers ever seen in the United States. It is called an “infant glacial river”, because it is young compared to all of the other rivers formed by glaciers. The river was formed about 13,000 years ago, but the Cuyahoga Valley has been there even longer. The Cuyahoga River also had a great influence on the Native Americans. The Native Americans named it “Cuyahoga” meaning “crooked river”. The Cuyahoga River also had a great influence on the Native Americans. They came as early as 200 B.C. to the Northeastern part of what is now the Ohio Valley. The Indians used the river mainly for food and transportation. They built canoes and fished along the river. The river had an abundant supply of fish as well as plants. Also, large game settled near the river. These resources made it very easy for the Native Americans to live. As the War of 1812 ended, Western settlers displaced the Indians off the Cuyahoga Valley. The Cuyahoga River was becoming a place which was rich and plentiful. Moses Cleveland founded the township of Euclid at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River in 1796. Benjamin Franklin and George Washington thought that the Northern part of what is now the Ohio would be of great importance. They knew that the Cuyahoga was the prime spot for the continental divide passing directly through and for the mouth coming out at the Lake Erie”.

For more info:

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/fenlewis/History.html

Today’s Quote: Concentration is my motto – first honesty, then industry, then concentration. – Andrew Carnegie


Mar 4 2013

Hebrew Cultural Garden in Cleveland

Brent

 

Cleveland Jewish garden

Today’s photo is of the Fountain of Wisdom located in the Hebrew Cultural Garden in Cleveland.

From the Cleveland Cultural Gardens website:

“The Hebrew Garden was designed by T. Ashburton Tripp and was the first garden in what was to become the Cultural Gardens. Dedicated in 1926, it is a monument to the Zionist movement, as well as the vision of Leo Weidenthal, who was instrumental in the founding of the Cultural Gardens chain, or Poets’ Corners as he originally named it. The Garden is laid out with the sandstone walk forming a Star or Shield of David, six pointed star, around the Wisdom fountain which echoes the star with six sides and points. To the right or north is a rock garden or poets’ corner. To the left a lyre or harp shaped Musicians area. Beyond the rock garden, to the right or north are a series of boulders with plaques and beyond is the B’nai Brith memorial.Jewish Federation of Cleveland sponsors the Hebrew Cultural Garden through its Hebrew Cultural Garden committee”.

For more info: http://www.culturalgardens.org/gardenDetail.aspx?gardenID=17

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see”.- Henry David Thoreau


Mar 2 2013

Cuyahoga County Courthouse

Brent

Cuyahoga County

The Cuyahoga County Courthouse stretches along Lakeside Boulevard at the north end of the Cleveland Mall in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The building was listed on the National Register along with the mall district in 1975.

From Wikipedia”

“The building was constructed from 1906–1912 by the architectural firm of Lehman & Schmitt. The building is Beaux Arts style and is constructed of Milford pink granite from Massachusetts. The rusticated masonry of the ground floor includes deeply recessed and arched windows and doors. A protruding keystone tops each one. The front entrance is flanked by bronze statues of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton sculpted by Karl Bitter. Directly above the front entry doors are three large arched windows between fluted columns of the Ionic order allowing daylight into the courtroom within. The frieze of the cornice includes the inscription “Cuyahoga County Courthouse”. Above the cornice are several stone statues of historical law givers. Two of these figures, of Edward I and John Hampden, were sculpted by Daniel Chester French. The rear elevation facing Lake Erie is composed similarly, but with the inscription “Liberty is Obedience to Law”. A pediment with a plain tympanum surmounts the central element of the facade on both the north and south elevations”.

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be… if we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.” – Thomas Jefferson