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201_17 | The annual Glastonbury Art Walk, a joint project of the Town Center Initiative and Glastonbury Art Guild, showcases the works of local artists in businesses all over the town center.
In 1993, to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the founding of the town, an exchange of bands was made between Glastonbury, England, and Glastonbury, Connecticut, resulting in Glastonbury's hosting the Glastonbury Brass Band for several enjoyable performances.
The town has four private pool and tennis clubs; Minnechaug, Orchard Hill, Woodledge, and Pinebrook. Glastonbury also has a private country club with a golf course, Glastonbury Hills Country Club. The other golf course in town is a nine-hole course named Minnechaug Golf Course, located at the base of Minnechaug Mountain and owned by the town.
Public aquatic facilities include the Grange pool, Eastbury Pond, an indoor pool at Glastonbury High School, and a pool at Addison Park. |
201_18 | Cotton Hollow Nature Preserve is located in South Glastonbury and is open to residents for fishing and hiking. It is spread out across 80 acres and used to be home to several mills during the 18th and 19th centuries, which no longer stand, except for the ruins of the cotton mill which was built in 1814. The name of the stream of water that runs through the preserve is known as Roaring Brook.
Glastonbury is also home to several parks open to residents including Addison Park, Blackledge Falls, Buckingham Park, Butler Field, Center Green, Earle Park, Cotton Hollow Preserve, Eastbury Pond, Ferry Landing, Grange Pool, Great Pond Reserve, Hubbard Green, Riverfront Park, Salmon Brook Park, Shoddy Mill Preserve, and J.B. Williams Park, along with several others.
Glastonbury is home to several plazas that include shops and restaurants. Some include Eric Town Square, The Griswold Shopping Center, and Somerset Square. |
201_19 | Residents are also known to enjoy the orchards of South Glastonbury, most of which are located along the Matson Hill road and Woodland Street area of town. Here, guests can buy and pick their own freshly and locally grown produce and fruits, such as blueberries and pumpkins. In the winter months, some locations sell Christmas trees.
References
External links
Town of Glastonbury official website
Glastonbury Chamber of Commerce
1693 establishments in Connecticut
Towns in Hartford County, Connecticut
Connecticut populated places on the Connecticut River
Towns in Connecticut
Greater Hartford |
202_0 | Vallorbe () is a municipality in the district of Jura-Nord Vaudois in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.
History
Vallorbe is first mentioned in 1139 as de valle urbanensi. In 1148 it was mentioned as de valle urbe.
Geography
Vallorbe has an area, , of . Of this area, or 22.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 66.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 9.4% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.2% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.6% is unproductive land.
Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 3.5% and transportation infrastructure made up 4.3%. Out of the forested land, 64.6% of the total land area is heavily forested and 2.2% is covered with orchards or small clusters of trees. Of the agricultural land, 1.4% is used for growing crops and 16.6% is pastures and 3.9% is used for alpine pastures. Of the water in the municipality, 0.4% is in lakes and 0.8% is in rivers and streams. |
202_1 | The municipality was part of the Orbe District until it was dissolved on 31 August 2006, and Vallorbe became part of the new district of Jura-Nord Vaudois.
The municipality is located on the Swiss-French border. It is surrounded on three sides with mountains and reaches from in elevation. On the east side, the valley opens up due to the Jougnenaz and Orbe rivers. It includes the hamlets of Le Day, Le Creux and Bellevue.
Coat of arms
The blazon of the municipal coat of arms is Or, on a Bend wavy Azure a Trout proper bendwise.
Demographics
Vallorbe has a population () of . , 23.1% of the population are resident foreign nationals. Over the last 10 years (1999–2009 ) the population has changed at a rate of 7.2%. It has changed at a rate of 10% due to migration and at a rate of -1.8% due to births and deaths. |
202_2 | Most of the population () speaks French (2,776 or 85.5%), with Italian being second most common (114 or 3.5%) and Albanian being third (78 or 2.4%). There are 74 people who speak German and 3 people who speak Romansh.
The age distribution, , in Vallorbe is; 327 children or 9.9% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 422 teenagers or 12.7% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 418 people or 12.6% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 391 people or 11.8% are between 30 and 39, 481 people or 14.5% are between 40 and 49, and 460 people or 13.9% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 353 people or 10.7% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 262 people or 7.9% are between 70 and 79, there are 170 people or 5.1% who are between 80 and 89, and there are 27 people or 0.8% who are 90 and older. |
202_3 | , there were 1,248 people who were single and never married in the municipality. There were 1,585 married individuals, 245 widows or widowers and 169 individuals who are divorced.
, there were 1,385 private households in the municipality, and an average of 2.2 persons per household. There were 515 households that consist of only one person and 82 households with five or more people. Out of a total of 1,400 households that answered this question, 36.8% were households made up of just one person and there were 9 adults who lived with their parents. Of the rest of the households, there are 414 married couples without children, 372 married couples with children There were 61 single parents with a child or children. There were 14 households that were made up of unrelated people and 15 households that were made up of some sort of institution or another collective housing. |
202_4 | there were 256 single family homes (or 40.2% of the total) out of a total of 637 inhabited buildings. There were 233 multi-family buildings (36.6%), along with 102 multi-purpose buildings that were mostly used for housing (16.0%) and 46 other use buildings (commercial or industrial) that also had some housing (7.2%). , a total of 1,363 apartments (84.6% of the total) were permanently occupied, while 126 apartments (7.8%) were seasonally occupied and 123 apartments (7.6%) were empty. , the construction rate of new housing units was 2.4 new units per 1000 residents. The vacancy rate for the municipality, , was 0.29%.
The historical population is given in the following chart:
Heritage sites of national significance
Vallorbe international railway station is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The entire urban village of Vallorbe is part of the Inventory of Swiss Heritage Sites. |
202_5 | Politics
In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the SP which received 27.59% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (25.93%), the FDP (13.57%) and the Green Party (9.59%). In the federal election, a total of 745 votes were cast, and the voter turnout was 38.1%.
Economy
, Vallorbe had an unemployment rate of 7.7%. , there were 45 people employed in the primary economic sector and about 21 businesses involved in this sector. 713 people were employed in the secondary sector and there were 34 businesses in this sector. 702 people were employed in the tertiary sector, with 112 businesses in this sector. There were 1,432 residents of the municipality who were employed in some capacity, of which females made up 44.1% of the workforce. |
202_6 | the total number of full-time equivalent jobs was 1,282. The number of jobs in the primary sector was 31, of which 24 were in agriculture, 6 were in forestry or lumber production and 1 was in fishing or fisheries. The number of jobs in the secondary sector was 682 of which 579 or (84.9%) were in manufacturing and 59 (8.7%) were in construction. The number of jobs in the tertiary sector was 569. In the tertiary sector; 184 or 32.3% were in wholesale or retail sales or the repair of motor vehicles, 68 or 12.0% were in the movement and storage of goods, 50 or 8.8% were in a hotel or restaurant, 1 was in the information industry, 6 or 1.1% were the insurance or financial industry, 14 or 2.5% were technical professionals or scientists, 55 or 9.7% were in education and 53 or 9.3% were in health care. |
202_7 | , there were 1,285 workers who commuted into the municipality and 662 workers who commuted away. The municipality is a net importer of workers, with about 1.9 workers entering the municipality for every one leaving. About 37.7% of the workforce coming into Vallorbe are coming from outside Switzerland, while 0.0% of the locals commute out of Switzerland for work. Of the working population, 11.7% used public transportation to get to work, and 57.1% used a private car. |
202_8 | Transportation
Vallorbe CFF is the first and last Swiss railway station served by the TGV Lyria railway line from Lausanne to Paris. Vallorbe is also served by Swiss Federal Railways' hourly running suburban train S2 on the Simplon Railway to Lausanne and further to Palézieux. CFF also runs hourly services on the Vallorbe–Le Brassus railway line into the Vallée de Joux to Le Brassus in the south-west end of the valley. From there a bus connection connects Le Brassus with Nyon at the Lake of Geneva. They are all part of the integrated mobilis (canton of Vaud) fare network.
Religion |
202_9 | From the , 1,130 or 34.8% were Roman Catholic, while 1,260 or 38.8% belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church. Of the rest of the population, there were 34 members of an Orthodox church (or about 1.05% of the population), and there were 246 individuals (or about 7.58% of the population) who belonged to another Christian church. There was 1 individual who was Jewish, and 239 (or about 7.36% of the population) who were Islamic. There were 9 individuals who were Buddhist, 1 person who was Hindu and 9 individuals who belonged to another church. 262 (or about 8.07% of the population) belonged to no church, are agnostic or atheist, and 177 individuals (or about 5.45% of the population) did not answer the question. |
202_10 | Education
In Vallorbe about 995 or (30.6%) of the population have completed non-mandatory upper secondary education, and 182 or (5.6%) have completed additional higher education (either university or a Fachhochschule). Of the 182 who completed tertiary schooling, 56.6% were Swiss men, 22.5% were Swiss women, 14.3% were non-Swiss men and 6.6% were non-Swiss women. |
202_11 | In the 2009/2010 school year there were a total of 421 students in the Vallorbe school district. In the Vaud cantonal school system, two years of non-obligatory pre-school are provided by the political districts. During the school year, the political district provided pre-school care for a total of 578 children of which 359 children (62.1%) received subsidized pre-school care. The canton's primary school program requires students to attend for four years. There were 215 students in the municipal primary school program. The obligatory lower secondary school program lasts for six years and there were 196 students in those schools. There were also 10 students who were home schooled or attended another non-traditional school.
, there were 100 students in Vallorbe who came from another municipality, while 101 residents attended schools outside the municipality.
References
Municipalities of the canton of Vaud
Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Vaud |
203_0 | Gangster is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language romantic thriller film directed by Anurag Basu. It stars Emraan Hashmi, Kangana Ranaut and Shiney Ahuja. The music is composed by Pritam. The film was rumored to be based on the life of mobster Abu Salem and former actress Monica Bedi, but director Basu has denied any similarities to any real characters or incidents. It was the debut of actress Kangana Ranaut, and released theatrically on 28 April 2006. Ranaut's performance received widespread critical acclaim, winning her several accolades including the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut at the 52nd Filmfare Awards.
Plot
Simran (Kangana Ranaut) drowns her misery in booze. Her one friend in Seoul is Aakash (Emraan Hashmi), a singer in an Indian restaurant. |
203_1 | Originally a bar dancer in Mumbai, India, Simran is the girlfriend of a notorious gangster, Daya (Shiney Ahuja). Five years ago, Daya's boss Khan (Gulshan Grover) ordered him to give Simran up. When Khan threatened Simran, Daya turned on him and Khan cut Daya loose from his gang.
She and Daya were forced to flee to Seoul. They took a small boy named Bittu with them. After an encounter with the Mumbai police, Bittu was killed, causing a strain in the couple's relationship and pushing Simran toward alcoholism. Leaving Simran alone in Seoul, Daya went to work in Mauritius and then Dubai. |
203_2 | Aakash tells Simran that he cares for her despite her past, and their relationship gradually develops from friendship to love. Daya, who is still in Dubai, suddenly comes to Seoul. When he learns of Simran's affair with Aakash, he attacks and severely beats him in a fit of rage and jealousy. Daya then professes his love for her and promises to reform and fulfill her dreams of a normal life; he also tells her that if she truly loves Aakash he will not hold her back. Before Simran can respond, the police arrive in pursuit of Daya and Simran. The two flee.
Daya gives up murdering innocents and begins working odd jobs, admitting to Simran that he has found peace in doing honest work. He says that he would like to return to his village in India with her, so that they might live there peacefully. To do so he would have to perform one last crime: fake passports for him and Simran. |
203_3 | Simran, who is longing for Aakash, soon discovers that she is pregnant with his child. When she tells Aakash, he meets her and tells her he would like to marry her, but they will never find peace as long as Daya is at large. He says that for the sake of their unborn child, Daya must be turned in to the police and only Simran can do this. Simran, who is still emotionally attached to Daya, refuses.
Meanwhile, Daya, who has gone to forge passports for himself and Simran, is intercepted by Khan, who reminds Daya of what had occurred between them years before and says that he intends to make an example of Daya for abandoning the gang. Khan and his men severely beat and wound Daya, who is eventually able to fight back and kills Khan. He then calls Simran, warning her that the police are after them and asking her to meet him outside a Seoul train station that night. |
203_4 | Simran arrives at the appointed time to find Daya badly injured from his fight with Khan. He manages to crawl to Simran and takes out a box of sindoor for her. But just as he reaches and embraces her, they are surrounded by police cars. Daya realises that Simran informed the police; heartbroken and screaming, he is hauled away. Simran remains at the station until morning and then goes to meet Aakash, whom she finds is not at home. She is soon informed that he is at the Indian embassy. |
203_5 | When she reaches the embassy, she enters a room full of reporters and sees a large screen showing a video of her telling Aakash about her relationship with Daya. She is thunderstruck when she sees that the one addressing the media is none other than Aakash, who is actually an undercover Indian detective hired to capture Daya. Realizing that Aakash befriended and wooed her solely to discover Daya's whereabouts, she explodes in fury in front of the media; Aakash holds her back and slaps her across the face. He tells her that he never cared for her and that his involvement with her was only a part of his duty to end organised crime and bring justice to his country. Enraged, Simran tries to attack him, but she is stopped by security. While she is being hauled away, she yells that to spread justice Aakash and his colleagues have done her an injustice and that Daya, who has never betrayed anyone, is not the gangster but Aakash and his men are. She reminds Aakash that he has betrayed the |
203_6 | woman who is carrying his child and that he will regret his actions. |
203_7 | Daya, who has been arrested and taken to jail, sends Simran a letter saying that he does not blame her for what she did and that she is the one who has been betrayed; he admits that he has done many cruel and bad things but that, thanks to her, he now knows what it is like to live an honest life. He encloses her fake passport and, stating his love for her, writes that he would feel better knowing that she is living safely in India. After reading Daya's letter, Simran is left pained and guilty.
Months later, Daya admits and pleads guilty to his crimes. He is tried and sentenced to death. Simran goes to meet him in prison and asks him to forgive her; they share an emotional goodbye. She later goes to Aakash's residence and, forcefully entering his house with a gun, shoots and fatally injures him. Before he lapses into unconsciousness, Aakash shoots her in the shoulder and they are found and taken to a hospital. |
203_8 | Aakash dies in the hospital while Simran is transferred to the I.C.U. At dawn she escapes to the roof, where she commits suicide by jumping off the roof. At the same time, Daya is hanged. Simran is shown falling through the air. Before she reaches the ground we see her standing in a meadow and gazing at Daya, who is holding Bittu. Smiling, they hold out their arms to her; she happily runs toward them, and they embrace in heaven.
Cast
Emraan Hashmi as Akash Kapadia
Kangana Ranaut as Simran Malvade
Shiney Ahuja as Daya Shankar
Gulshan Grover as Khan Bhai (special appearance)
Hitanshu Lodhia as Bittu
Vicky Ahuja as Daya's friend
Zubeen Garg (special appearance in song "Ya Ali")
Pritam as himself (special appearance in song "Bheegi Bheegi")
Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Akhtar was initially offered the role of Daya, but he turned it down saying, "Cricket is not only my profession but my obsession as well".
Critical reception |
203_9 | Gangster received positive reviews from critics, with particular praise directed towards the music, screenplay and performances of the cast. Raja Sen of Rediff.com said that "Ranaut is a remarkable find, the actress coming across with great conviction. Hers is the pivotal character and an extremely difficult role to essay, but she manages it well. Ranaut's nuances [of an alcoholic character] are disconcertingly realistic. Hashmi also received positive reviews for his portrayal of an undercover detective. Raja Sen added, "His character is an understated one, and he manages to keep it that way. There is no unnecessary bluster or melodrama, and he does a pretty believable job. There is something lazy about his acting, by which I mean he makes the job look easy".
Awards
52nd Filmfare Awards
Won
Best Female Debut – Kangana Ranaut
Nominated |
203_10 | Best Villain – Emraan Hashmi
Best Male Playback Singer – Zubeen Garg for "Ya Ali"
Best Story – Mahesh Bhatt
Best Screenplay – Anurag Basu
Best Dialogue – Girish Dhamija
Best Editing – Akiv Ali
Best Cinematography – Bobby Singh
Best Sound Design – Akiv Ali
Best Action – Parvez Kiran
8th IIFA Awards
Star Debut of the Year – Female – Kangana Ranaut
Zee Cine Awards
Best Female Debut – Kangana Ranaut
Star Screen Awards
Best Female Debut – Kangana Ranaut
Global Indian Film Awards
Best Female Debut – Kangana Ranaut
Stardust Awards
Superstar of Tomorrow (Female) – Kangana Ranaut
Superstar of Tomorrow (Male) – Shiney Ahuja
New Musical Sensation Award (Male) - Zubeen Garg
Soundtrack |
203_11 | The soundtrack is composed by Pritam. The complete album consisted of five original tracks and four remixes. Saregama brought the music rights of the Film. The song "Bheegi Bheegi" is a modern re-creation of the song "Prithibi Ta Naki" by Moheener Ghoraguli. Singer Kailash Kher was originally supposed to sing "Ya Ali", but he had to go off for an international tour. "Ya Ali" is a rip-off of the Kuwaiti pop song "Ya Ghali" by the Kuwaiti band Guitara. Palestinian Bollywood blogger, Ahmad Rashad Arafa, who has familial ties to Kuwait, called "Ya Ali" a "Sufi-esque dud that doesn't hold a candle to the original Kuwaiti song." |
203_12 | Reception
The soundtrack was popular upon release with songs like "Ya Ali", "Tu Hi Meri Shab Hai" & "Bheegi Bheegi" topping the charts and hence were declared chartbusters within a week. Gangster became the fifth best-selling album of 2006 in India selling 16,00,000 units.
Aakash Gandhi from Planet Bollywood rated the album 7.5/10 and wrote, "All in all, I would say that Gangster is a sure winner. It has mass appeal; it has a flavorful array of tunes to sample, and it features some fresh singers."
Track list
References
Gangster Movie's Music
External links
2006 films
2006 crime drama films
Indian gangster films
2000s Hindi-language films
Indian films
Films shot in South Korea
Indian romantic thriller films
Films featuring songs by Pritam
Films set in South Korea
Hindi films remade in other languages
Indian crime drama films
2000s romantic thriller films
Films directed by Anurag Basu |
204_0 | The Severn Tunnel () is a railway tunnel in the United Kingdom, linking South Gloucestershire in the west of England to Monmouthshire in south Wales under the estuary of the River Severn. It was constructed by the Great Western Railway (GWR) between 1873 and 1886 for the purpose of dramatically shortening the journey times of their trains, passenger and freight alike, between South Wales and Western England. Its completion has often been regarded as having represented the crowning achievement of the noted Victorian civil engineer and GWR's chief engineer Sir John Hawkshaw. |
204_1 | Prior to the Severn Tunnel, lengthy detours were necessary for all traffic between South Wales and Western England, which either used ship or a lengthy diversion upriver via . Recognising the value of such a tunnel, the GWR sought its development, tasking Hawkshaw with its design and later contracting the civil engineer Thomas A. Walker to undertake its construction, which commenced in March 1873. Work proceeded smoothly until October 1879, at which point significant flooding of the tunnel occurred from what is now known as “The Great Spring”. Through strenuous and innovative efforts, the flooding was contained and work was able to continue, albeit with a great emphasis on drainage. Structurally completed during 1885, the first passenger train was run through the Severn Tunnel on 1 December 1886, nearly 14 years after the commencement of work. |
204_2 | Following its opening, the Severn Tunnel quickly formed a key element of the main trunk railway line between southern England and South Wales. Amongst other services, the GWR operated a car shuttle train service through the tunnel for many decades. However, the Severn Tunnel has also presented especially difficult conditions, both operationally and in terms of infrastructure and structural maintenance. On average, around 50 million litres of water per day infiltrates the tunnel, necessitating the permanent operation of several large pumping engines. Originally, during much of the steam era, a large number of pilot and banking locomotives were required to assist heavy trains traverse the challenging gradients of the tunnel, which deployed from nearby marshalling yards. Time has proven that these factors have been within the realm of manageability. |
204_3 | The Severn Tunnel is four miles and 624 yards (7,008 m) long, although only miles (3.62 km) of the tunnel are under the river. The Severn Tunnel was the longest underwater tunnel in the world until 1987 and, for more than 100 years, it was the longest mainline railway tunnel within the UK. It was finally exceeded in this capacity during 2007 with the opening of the two major tunnels of High Speed 1, forming a part of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. In 2016, Overhead line equipment (OHLE) was installed in the Severn Tunnel to allow the passage of electric traction through its length; this work was undertaken as one element of the wider 21st-century modernisation of the Great Western main line.
General |
204_4 | The Severn Tunnel forms a critical part of the trunk railway line between southern England and South Wales, and carries an intensive passenger train service as well as significant levels of freight traffic. As of 2012, an average of 200 trains per day use the tunnel. The whole length of the tunnel is controlled as a single signal section, which has the consequence of limiting the headway of successive trains. The steep gradients (1 in 90 and 1 in 100) make the working of heavy freight trains difficult. |
204_5 | There is a continuous drainage culvert between the tracks to lead ground water away to the lowest point of the tunnel, under Sudbrook Pumping Station, where it is pumped to the surface. The hazard of ignited petroleum running into the culvert in the event of derailment of a tank wagon means special arrangements have to be made to prevent occupation of the tunnel by passenger trains while hazardous liquid loads are being worked through. Evacuation arrangements are in place to enable the escape of passengers and staff in the event of serious accident in the tunnel. |
204_6 | There is restricted personnel access to the tunnel at Sudbrook Pumping Station, where an iron ladder descends in the shaft of the water pumping main; the ventilation air is pumped in at this point also. The GWR original ventilation arrangement was to extract air at Sudbrook, but the exhaust gases from steam train operation led to premature corrosion of the fan mechanism. When the Cornish pumping engines were replaced in the 1960s, the draughting was reversed so that atmospheric air is pumped into the tunnel exhausting at the tunnel mouths.
On average, it has been determined that around per day of fresh (spring) water are typically being pumped from the tunnel; this is normally released directly into the adjacent River Severn. Attempts have also been made to try to determine the sources of the water which feeds the "Great Spring". |
204_7 | The especially difficult conditions for infrastructure maintenance in the tunnel, as well as the physical condition of the tunnel structure, require a higher than normal degree of maintenance attention. Access and personal safety difficulties mean that significant work tasks can only be performed during temporary line closure, during which trains are normally diverted via . It is claimed that the tunnel would be full of water within 26 minutes if the pumps were switched off and backup measures failed, while Network Rail has also observed that the corrosive atmosphere of the tunnel, produced from a combination of moisture and diesel fumes from passing trains, results in so much corrosion that the steel rails need to be replaced every six years.
History
Construction |
204_8 | Prior to the building of the tunnel, the railway journey between the Bristol area and South Wales involved a ferry journey between and or a long detour via . Officials within the Great Western Railway (GWR) Company soon realised that the rail journey time between the two locations could be significantly shortened by construction of a tunnel directly underneath the River Severn. As such, during the early 1870s, GWR's chief engineer, Sir John Hawkshaw, developed his design for this tunnel. On 27 June 1872, the company obtained an Act of Parliament which authorised the construction of the envisioned railway tunnel as a replacement for the ferry between Portskewett, Monmouthshire and Lew Passage, Gloucestershire. |
204_9 | On 18 March 1873, construction activity commenced using labourers employed directly by the GWR; this initial work was focused on the sinking of a shaft, possessing a diameter of at Sudbrook and a smaller drainage heading near the Pennant Measures. The rate of early work on the tunnel was slow and gradual, but without major incident. By August 1877, only the shaft and a heading had been completed; accordingly, that same year, new contracts were issued for the digging of additional shafts at both sides of the Severn as well as new headings along the tunnel's intended route. |
204_10 | As the civil engineer Thomas A. Walker, who was appointed as the contractor for the tunnel's construction, notes in his book, the GWR had expected the critical part of the work to be the tunnelling under the deep-water channel of the Shoots. However, the most substantial difficulties of the venture were encountered during October 1879, when, with only 130 yards (119 m) separating the main tunnel heading being driven from the Monmouthshire side and the shorter Gloucestershire heading, the workings were inundated. The incoming water was fresh, not from the Severn but from the Welsh side, and the source became known as "The Great Spring". |
204_11 | Walker was entrusted by Hawkshaw to proceed with efforts to rescue and then complete the tunnel following the 1879 flooding. To achieve this required holding the Great Spring in check, which in turn was accomplished via the installation of greatly-increased pumping facilities, while a diver also had to be sent down a shaft and along the tunnel heading to close a watertight door in the workings, sealing off the waters. During November 1880, this troublesome task was finally achieved by the lead diver, Alexander Lambert, who was equipped with Henry Fleuss' newly developed self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA); however, work in the area of the Great Spring was unable to continue until January 1881, at which point the Great Spring was temporarily sealed off. |
204_12 | On 26 September 1881, the two headings met, marking a key milestone in the tunnel's construction, efforts transferred to addressing the tunnel's final structure along with the long deep cuttings at either end. During October 1883, work was again disrupted by further flooding originating from the Great Spring, which was further compounded by the appearance of a spring tide only a week later; again, Lambert and other divers managed to save the day and seal the works. It was recognised that water ingress problems were to continue, thus a heading was driven at a gradient of 1 in 500 from the original Sudbrook shaft, continuing until it reached the fissure through which the Great Spring flowed. By diverting the water into the new heading, the walled-in section of the tunnel could be more easily drained and finished. |
204_13 | There were additional mishaps which afflicted the construction site; at one point, there was an unintentional breakthrough of the bed of a pool, known as the "Salmon Pool", on the English side of the tunnel. It had been originally assumed that the continuous brickwork lining of the tunnel would withstand the groundwater pressure, thus the drainage sluice valve on the side heading was closed and all but one of the pumps were taken from the site. However, on 20 December 1885, the pressure rose so high (up to 395 kN per sq m) that a number of bricks were discovered to have been pushed out of the lining. To address this, the sluice valve was opened gradually, allowing the pressure to subside but necessitating the long-term operation of additional pumping engines. In the intervening period, the Severn Railway Bridge, a competing means for railway traffic to traverse the Severn, spanning between Sharpness and Lydney, was also being built, eventually being opened to traffic during 1879. |
204_14 | On 22 October 1884, work commenced on the laying of the double tracks throughout the tunnel. On 18 April 1885, the final brick was placed in the tunnel's lining. It possessed a horseshoe-shaped cross-section, complete with a concave floor, having a height of 6.1 meters above the rails along with a maximum width of . An enclosed drainage channel, in the form of an upturned semi-circular tunnel, is built onto the tunnel invert, below the rails and having a height of . According to Railway Industry publication Rail Engineer, it is believed that around 76.4 million bricks were used in the tunnel's construction. The brickwork is between and thick. Around the deepest part of the tunnel, the roof is only a maximum of beneath the river bed. |
204_15 | During mid-1885, the Severn Tunnel was completed from a structural standing. To mark this accomplishment, on 5 September 1885, a special passenger train carrying numerous company officials and VIPs, including Sir Daniel Gooch, the then-chairman of the GWR Company, travelled through the tunnel. The first goods train passed through it on 9 January 1886. However, regular services would have to wait until the permanent pumping systems were complete. On 17 November 1886, the tunnel works were inspected by Colonel F. H. Rich, the Government Inspector, a necessary step in advance of its opening to any passenger traffic. Colonel Rich approved the works; thus, the tunnel was opened to regular goods trains during September 1886; the first passenger train followed on 1 December 1886, by which point nearly 14 years had passed since work on the tunnel had started. |
204_16 | Operations
At the newly built station, the GWR built a major marshalling yard, which: distributed east and north, sending coal from the South Wales Valleys towards London and the Midlands; created mainline and localised mixed-traffic freight from goods shipped in from the Midlands, the Southwest and along the Thames Valley, both westwards into Wales and vice versa. |
204_17 | Due to the access gradients, throughout the steam era, assistance was required for the passage of all heavy trains through the Severn Tunnel, which entailed (eastwards, from ): of 1-in-90 down to the middle of the tunnel; a further at 1-in-100 up to ; a short level then more at 1-in-100 to . This meant that the associated locomotive shed at Severn Tunnel Junction (86E), had a large number of pilot and banking locomotives to assist heavy trains through the tunnel. Under typical operations, pilot locomotives usually worked eastwards and were detached at Pilning, and would then work westwards piloting a second train back to the marshalling yard. During the latter days of steam under British Rail, these locomotives were mainly a group of latter-built GWR 5101 Class 2-6-2T locomotives, the bulk of which now form the core preserved stock of that class today. |
204_18 | A number of fixed Cornish engines, powered by Lancashire boilers, were used to permanently pump out the Great Spring and other sources of water from the tunnel. These were still in regular use until the 1960s, at which point they were replaced by electrically powered pumps. These pumps and their control systems have since been replaced during the 1990s by privately owned railway infrastructure company Railtrack. During the 1930s, the availability of the reliable fresh water supply from the Great Spring was a significant contributing factor in favour of the selection of an adjacent site to be established as the Royal Navy Propellant Factory, Caerwent. Water was also supplied for paper manufacture to a mill at Sudbrook; this facility has since been closed. |
204_19 | On 7 December 1991, the Severn Tunnel rail accident occurred, involving an InterCity 125 that was struck from behind by a Class 155. The subsequent accident investigation, while unable to reach a firm conclusion on the cause, indicated that the axle counters used for detecting train movements in the tunnel may have been accidentally reset.
The Second Severn Crossing, which was built during the 1990s, crosses over the tunnel via a "ground level bridge" on the English side, near the Salmon Pool. This bridge is supported in such a way that no load is imposed on the tunnel. During that bridge's construction, the opportunity was taken to renew the concrete cap above the tunnel in the Salmon Pool.
In 2002, two Class 121s were overhauled by LNWR, Crewe for use as a Network Rail emergency train that was stabled near Severn Tunnel Junction station. They were removed in 2008 having never been used.
Car transport |
204_20 | During 1924, the Great Western Railway started a car shuttle train service using the tunnel, which would transport cars on rail trucks through the tunnel between Pilning and Severn Tunnel Junction. The service functioned as a rail-based alternative to the Aust Ferry, which was operated under an erratic timetable determined by the tides, or lengthy road journeys via Gloucester. The rail shuttle service was continued after the end of World War II, but was ultimately made redundant by the opening of the Severn Bridge in 1966, leading to its discontinuation shortly thereafter.
Electrification |
204_21 | As part of the 21st-century modernisation of the Great Western Main Line, the tunnel was prepared for electrification. While the structure provided good clearances and was therefore relatively easy to electrify, there was also a detracting factor in the form of the continuous seepage of water through the tunnel roof in some areas, which provided a key engineering challenge. The options of using either conventional tunnel electrification equipment or a covered solid beam technology were considered; supported by studies, it was decided to use the solid beam approach. Accordingly, along the length of the tunnel's roof, an aluminium conductor rail was installed to hold an un-tensioned copper contact cable; this rail is held in place using roughly 7000 high-grade stainless steel fixtures, which should be resistant to the hostile tunnel environment. Reportedly, the rigid rail is more robust, requires less maintenance, and is more compact than traditional overhead wires, and has been used in |
204_22 | several other tunnels along the GWML. |
204_23 | In order to install the overhead electrification equipment, a six-week closure of the Severn Tunnel was necessary, which commenced on 12 September 2016. During that time, alternative means of travel were either a longer train journey via Gloucester, or a bus service between Severn Tunnel Junction and Bristol Parkway stations. Also during that time, and possibly later, there were direct flights between Cardiff and London City Airport. Following the completion of this work, which involved the installation of of copper contact wires using 1,700 vertical drop tubes and 857 anchoring points at a rough cost of £10 million to perform, the tunnel was reopened to regular traffic on 22 October 2016. However, less than two years later, another three-week closure of the tunnel was enacted after it was discovered that some of the recently installed overhead electrification equipment had already started to rust. To combat corrosion, aluminium wire was used, the first of its type in the United |
204_24 | Kingdom. Electric trains began operating through the tunnel in June 2020. |
204_25 | Location
See also
Severn tunnel (1810)
Severn Tunnel rail accident
Crossings of the River Severn
References
Citations
Bibliography
The Severn Tunnel: Its Construction and Difficulties (1872–1887) by Thomas A. Walker (1st edition 1888) reprinted edition 2004, Nonsuch Publishing Ltd, Stroud, England . Reissued in 2013 (from fresh photographs of the 1890 second edition) by Cambridge University Press, . (Walker was the contractor entrusted by the chief GWR engineer Sir John Hawkshaw with rescuing and completing the tunnel after the 1879 flooding)
Railway Tales of the Unexpected by K Westcott-Jones , 1992, Atlantic Transport Publishers.
Further reading
External links
History of the tunnel from the Great Western Archive
Building the Severn Tunnel, how divers tried to seal the Great Spring |
204_26 | River Severn
Transport in South Gloucestershire District
Buildings and structures in South Gloucestershire District
Railway tunnels in England
Railway tunnels in Wales
Tunnels in Wales
South Wales Main Line
Transport in Monmouthshire
Tunnels completed in 1886
Tunnels in Gloucestershire
Tunnels in Monmouthshire
1886 establishments in the United Kingdom |
205_0 | William Jessop (23 January 1745 – 18 November 1814) was an English civil engineer, best known for his work on canals, harbours and early railways in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Early life
Jessop was born in Devonport, Devon, the son of Josias Jessop, a foreman shipwright in the Naval Dockyard. Josias Jessop was responsible for the repair and maintenance of Rudyerd's Tower, a wooden lighthouse on the Eddystone Rock. He carried out this task for twenty years until 1755, when the lighthouse burnt down. John Smeaton, a leading civil engineer, drew up plans for a new stone lighthouse and Josias became responsible for the overseeing the building work. The two men became close friends, and when Josias died in 1761, two years after the completion of the lighthouse, William Jessop was taken on as a pupil by Smeaton (who also acted as Jessop's guardian), working on various canal schemes in Yorkshire. |
205_1 | Jessop worked as Smeaton's assistant for a number of years before beginning to work as an engineer in his own right. He assisted Smeaton with the Calder and Hebble and the Aire and Calder navigations in Yorkshire.
Grand Canal of Ireland |
205_2 | The first major work that Jessop is known to have carried out was the Grand Canal of Ireland. This had begun as a Government project in 1753, and it had taken seventeen years to build fourteen miles (21 km) of canal from the Dublin end. In 1772 a private company was formed to complete the canal, and consulted John Smeaton. Smeaton sent Jessop to take control of the project as principal engineer. Jessop re-surveyed the proposed line of the canal and carried the canal over the River Liffey, via the Leinster Aqueduct. He also drove the canal across the great Bog of Allen, a feat comparable with George Stephenson's crossing of the Chat Moss bog with the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The canal was carried over the bog on a high embankment. Jessop also identified sources of water and built reservoirs, so that the canal was in no danger of running dry. Having seen to all of the important details Jessop returned to England, leaving a deputy in charge to complete the canal. This was |
205_3 | finally done in 1805. It seems that Jessop was closely involved with the canal in Ireland until about 1787, after which time, other work flowed in. |
205_4 | Relationship with other engineers
Jessop was a very modest man, who did not seek self-aggrandizement. Unlike other engineers, he was not jealous of rising young engineers, but rather encouraged them. He would also recommend another engineer if he was too busy to be able to undertake a commission himself. He recommended John Rennie for the post of engineer to the Lancaster Canal Company, an appointment that helped to establish Rennie's reputation. When Jessop was consulting engineer to the Ellesmere Canal Company, in 1793, the company appointed the relatively unknown Thomas Telford as resident engineer. Telford had no previous experience as a designer of canals, but with Jessop's advice and guidance, Telford made a success of the project. He supported Telford, even when the Company thought that the latter's designs for aqueducts were too ambitious.
Cromford Canal |
205_5 | In 1789 Jessop was appointed chief engineer to the Cromford Canal Company. The proposed canal was intended to carry limestone, coal and iron ore from the Derwent and upper Erewash valleys and join the nearby Erewash Canal. The important features of this canal are the Derwent Viaduct, which was a single span viaduct carrying the canal over the River Derwent, and the Butterley Tunnel (formerly the Ripley Tunnel). In 1793, the Derwent Viaduct partially collapsed, and Jessop shouldered the blame, saying that he had not made the front walls strong enough. He had the viaduct repaired and strengthened at his own expense. The Butterley Tunnel was 2,966 yards (2712m) long, wide and high and required thirty-three shafts to be sunk from the surface to build it. Jessop built the Butterley Reservoir above the tunnel, extending for .
Butterley Company |
205_6 | In 1790 Jessop founded, jointly with partners Benjamin Outram, Francis Beresford and John Wright, the Butterley Iron Works in Derbyshire to manufacture (amongst other things) cast-iron edge rails – a design Jessop had used successfully on a horse-drawn railway scheme for coal wagons between Nanpantan and Loughborough, Leicestershire (1789). Outram was concerned with the production of ironwork and equipment for Jessop's engineering projects.
Grand Junction Canal |
205_7 | The Oxford Canal had been built by James Brindley and carried coal to large parts of southern England. However it did not provide a sufficiently direct route between the Midlands and London. As a result, a new canal was proposed to run from the Oxford Canal at Braunston, near Rugby, and to end at the Thames at Brentford, a length of ninety miles. Jessop was appointed Chief Engineer to the Canal Company in 1793. The canal was especially difficult to plan because, whereas other canals tended to follow river valleys and only crossed a watershed when unavoidable, the new canal had to cross the rivers Ouse, Nene and others. An aqueduct was built at Wolverton to carry the canal across the Ouse valley. Whilst the three-arch stone aqueduct was being built, a set of nine temporary locks were used to carry the canal down one side of the valley and up the other. The aqueduct failed in 1808, and was replaced by an iron one in 1811, the iron trough design sharing a similar structure to |
205_8 | Longdon-on-Tern Aqueduct and the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct built by Thomas Telford. It is known as the Cosgrove aqueduct and was designed and built by Bevan. |
205_9 | Two tunnels also had to be built, at Braunston and Blisworth. The Blisworth Tunnel caused great problems, and was unfinished when the rest of the canal was ready. In fact Jessop considered abandoning it and using locks to carry the canal over the ridge. Jessop's temporary solution was a railway line laid over the ridge to carry traffic until the tunnel was completed. The Grand Junction Canal was enormously important in encouraging trade between London and the Midlands.
West India Docks
The West India Docks, built on the Isle of Dogs, was the first large wet docks built in the Port of London. Between 1800 and 1802 a wet dock area of was created with a depth of , and accommodating 600 ships. Jessop was the Chief Engineer for the docks, with Ralph Walker as his assistant. |
205_10 | Surrey Iron Railway
In 1799 separate proposals were put forward for a canal from London to Portsmouth and for a tramway carrying horse-drawn carriages over the same route. The first part of the proposed Surrey Iron Railway was to be from Wandsworth to Croydon, and Jessop was asked for his opinion on the two opposing schemes. He declared that the tramway was a better scheme, as a canal would require too much water and would unduly reduce the supply in the River Wandle. It was agreed to build a tramway from Wandsworth to Croydon, as well a building a basin at Wandsworth. Jessop was appointed Chief Engineer of the project in 1801. In 1802 the Wandsworth Basin and the line were completed. There seems to be doubt as to the gauge of the line with some estimates stating and others stating 4 ft 8½ in. |
205_11 | In 1803, the next phase was authorized for a line from Croydon via Merstham to Godstone in Surrey. Jessop was again appointed Chief Engineer, with his son Josias as his assistant. The line reached Mestham but was never continued to Godstone. The total distance of the tramway from Wandsworth was . The tramway was eventually overtaken by the advent of steam locomotives.
Later life
From 1784 to 1805 Jessop lived in Newark in Nottinghamshire, where he twice served as town mayor.
In his later life, Jessop became increasingly inflicted by a form of paralysis, and 1805 marked the end of his active career. He died at his home, Butterley Hall, on 18 November 1814. The Jessop Memorial was erected a year after his death, this can be seen east of Ripley in Codnor park. The Doric column can no longer be scaled due to being unsafe. His son Josias became a successful engineer in his own right. |
205_12 | Legacy
Jessop was in the unusual position of bridging the gap between the canal engineers and the railway engineers who came later. His name did not gain the lasting fame that it deserved because of his modesty. Indeed some of his works have been wrongly attributed to engineers who acted as his assistants. Unlike some engineers, such as George Stephenson, Jessop did not stoop to undignified wrangles with fellow professionals. He was highly regarded by almost all those who had worked with him or for him. |
205_13 | List of Jessop's engineering projects
the Aire and Calder Navigation
the Calder and Hebble Navigation (1758–1770)
the Caledonian Canal
the Ripon Canal (1767)
the Chester Canal (May 1778) as a contractor with James Pinkerton
the Barnsley Canal (1792–1802)
the Grand Canal of Ireland between the River Shannon and Dublin (1773–1805)
the Grand Junction Canal (1793–1805), later part of the Grand Union Canal
the Cromford Canal, Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire
the Nottingham Canal (1792–1796)
the River Trent Navigation
the Grantham Canal (1793–1797), the first English canal entirely dependent on reservoirs for its water supply
Engineer of the Ellesmere Canal (1793–1805), detailed design undertaken by Thomas Telford)
the Rochdale Canal (1794–1798)
the Sleaford Navigation (1794)
the West India Docks and Isle of Dogs canal, London (1800–1802); John Rennie was a consultant on the Docks project |
205_14 | the Surrey Iron Railway, linking Wandsworth and Croydon (1801–1802), arguably the world's first public railway—albeit horse-drawn
the 'Floating Harbour' in Bristol (1804–1809)
the Kilmarnock and Troon Railway (1807–1812; the first railway in Scotland authorised by Act of Parliament)
harbours at Shoreham-by-Sea and Littlehampton, West Sussex |
205_15 | See also
Canals of the United Kingdom
History of the British canal system
References
External links
Codnor & District Local History & Heritage website – Jessop Monument webpage
1745 births
1814 deaths
English inventors
English civil engineers
English canal engineers
People from Devonport, Plymouth
People of the Industrial Revolution
Harbour engineers |
206_0 | Swaminatha Swamy Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to god Murugan. It is located in Swamimalai, 5 km from Kumbakonam, on the banks of a tributary of river Kaveri in Thanjavur District, 250 km from Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. The temple is fourth abode of Murugan among six (Arupadaiveedugal). The shrine of the presiding deity, Swaminathaswamy is located atop a hillock and the shrine of his mother Meenakshi (Parvathi) and father Shiva (Sundareswarar) is located downhill. The temple has three gopuram (gateway towers), three precincts and sixty steps and each one is named after the sixty Tamil years. The temple has six daily rituals at various times from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and three yearly festivals on its calendar. The annual Vaikasi Visagam festival is attended by thousands of devotees from far and near. |
206_1 | As per Hindu legend, Muruga, the son of Shiva, extolled the meaning of the Pranava Mantra (AUM) to his father at this place and hence attained the name Swaminathaswamy. The temple is believed to be in existence from the Sangam period from 2nd century BC and was believed to have been modified and rebuilt by Parantaka Chola I. The temple was greatly damaged during the Anglo-French war between Hyder Ali and British in 1740. The temple, in modern times, is maintained and administered by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu.
Legend |
206_2 | As per Hindu legend, Brahma, the Hindu god of creation, disrespected Muruga (the son of Shiva) at the time of visiting Mount Kailash, the abode of Shiva. The child Muruga got angry with Brahma and asked him how he was creating living beings. Brahma said that he was creating living beings with the help of the Vedas (Hindu scriptures). On hearing the reply, Muruga asked Brahma to recite the texts from Vedas. Brahma started to recite the text with the holy word called Pranav Mantra, "Om". At that time Muruga stopped Brahma and asked him to explain the meaning of the Pranava Mantra. Brahma did not expect such a question from the child and could not reply. Muruga knocked Brahma on his forehead with his clenched fists and punished him with imprisonment. Muruga took up the role of the creator. The Devas (celestial deities) were surprised by the absence of Brahma and they requested Vishnu to negotiate with Muruga to release Brahma. Vishnu could not help and as the last resort, Shiva went to |
206_3 | the rescue of Brahma. |
206_4 | Shiva came to Muruga and asked him to release Brahma from imprisonment. Muruga refused to release him stating Brahma was unaware of the meaning of the Om - (Pranav Mantra-Tamil: ௐ AUM). Shiva asked Muruga to explain the meaning and Muruga extolled to Shiva the meaning of Om. Shiva behaved like a student to a teacher, listening with rapt attention from his son, giving Muruga the name "Swaminatha Swami". The meaning of this name is "The Teacher of Shiva". Following the legend, the shrine of the son Muruga is atop the hillock, while the father Shiva's shrine is located at the basement. |
206_5 | As per the Kanda Puranam, once all sages and gods assembled in Kailash to witness the wedding of Shiva with Parvathi. It resulted in the tilting of earth towards one direction. Shiva asked sage Agasthya to move towards South to balance the tilt. Agastya employed a demon by name Ettumba to carry two hills in his shoulders to be placed in the South. The demon carried the hills down south and rested in a place. When he tried to lift one of the hills, it didn't budge and he found a young man standing at the top of the hill not allowing it to be moved. The demon tried to attack the young man, but was smitten. Sage Agastya identified the young man as Karthikeya and asked him to pardon the demon. Karthikeya readily did so and let the hill remain there at Pazhani. It is a practice followed in the modern times where people carry milk in both their shoulders as a devotion to please Karthikeya. The demon carried the other hill to Swamimalai.
Architecture |
206_6 | The temple is located in Swamimalai, a panchayat town located away from Kumbakonam on the Kumbakonam - Tiruvayyaru highway. In Swamimalai, Muruga is known as "Balamurugan" and "Swaminatha Swami". The temple is built on an artificial hill. In Tamil language, such an artificial hill is called "Kattu Malai".Earlier it was called as "Thiruveragam". The temple has three gopuram (gateway towers) and three precincts. Out of the three precincts, one is located in the basement, the second at midway to the top of the hillock and the third on the hillock, around the sanctum of the Swaminathaswamy shrine. There are sixty steps and each one is named after the sixty Tamil years. The first thirty steps lead to the second precinct of the temple. The image of Swaminathaswamy is tall. There are golden armours, golden crowns and a diamond lance for Swaminathaswamy. There is a shrine of Vinayagar outside the first precinct. The central shrine houses the granite image of Swaminathaswamy. The first |
206_7 | precinct has the images of Dakshinamurthy, Durga, Chandikeswarar and the festival image of Swaminathaswamy. The images of Sundaresawar as lingam (Shiva) and Meenakshi (Parvathi) are located down hill and the first precinct around their shrines have the images of Dakshinamurthy, Durga, Chandikeswarar and Navagrahas. The second precinct and the largest one of the temple houses a marriage hall and the chariot of the temple. The temple is one of the most visited temples in the district. The original animal mount of Murugan is believed to have been an elephant, compared to the peacock which is considered to be the most common mount. The white elephant, is considered a powerful, terror striking animal. The iconography is maintained only in two places, namely, this temple and Tiruttani Murugan Temple. Unlike other Murugan temples, where peacock is sported axial to the image of the presiding deity, an elephant is seen in front of Murugan in the temple. The temple is maintained and |
206_8 | administered by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department of the Government of Tamil Nadu. |
206_9 | Religious importance
Swamimalai is one of the Arupadaiveedu, believed to be the six main abodes of Muruga, that mark the different phases of his life. According to Hindu belief, Swamimalai is where Muruga preached what as called as "Pranava mantra" to his own father, Shiva, at a young age, after arresting Brahma for not answering his question about Pranava Mantram. The teaching capabilities of Murugan is found as one of his identifying features. The cult of Murugan is of pride to the Tamil people who identify six with Murugan connating six directions and six chakras in human anatomy. |
206_10 | According to Hindu legend, Mahalingaswamy at Thiruvidaimarudur is the centre of all Shiva temples in the region and the Saptha Vigraha moorthis (seven prime consorts in all Shiva temples) are located at seven cardinal points around the temple, located in various parts of the state. The seven deities are Nataraja in Chidambaram Nataraja Temple at Chidambaram, Chandikeswarar temple at Tirucheingalur, Vinayagar in Vellai Vinayagar Temple at Thiruvalanchuzhi, Muruga in Swamimalai Murugan Temple at Swamimalai, Bhairava in Sattainathar Temple at Sirkali, Navagraha in Sooriyanar Temple at Suryanar Kovil and Dakshinamoorthy in Apatsahayesvarar Temple, Alangudi at Alangudi, Papanasam taluk. |
206_11 | Arunagirinathar was a 15th-century Tamil poet born in Tiruvannamalai. He spent his early years as a rioter and seducer of women. After ruining his health, he tried to commit suicide by throwing himself from the northern tower of Annamalaiyar Temple, but was saved by the grace of Murugan. He became a staunch devotee and composed Tamil hymns glorifying Murugan, the most notable being Thirupugazh. Arunagirinathar visited various Murugan temples and on his way back to Tiruvannamalai, visited Swamimalai and sung praises about Swaminathaswamy.
Worship and religious practises |
206_12 | The temple priests perform the puja (rituals) during festivals and on a daily basis. Like other Shiva temples of Tamil Nadu, the priests belong to the Shaiva community, a Brahmin sub-caste. The temple rituals are performed six times a day; Ushathkalam at 5:30 a.m., Kalasanthi at 8:00 a.m., Uchikalam at 10:00 a.m., Sayarakshai at 5:00 p.m., Irandamkalam at 7:00 p.m. and Ardha Jamam at 8:00 p.m. Each ritual comprises four steps: abhisheka (sacred bath), alangaram (decoration), naivethanam (food offering) and deepa aradanai (waving of lamps) for Swaminathaswamy. The worship is held amidst music with nagaswaram (pipe instrument) and tavil (percussion instrument), religious instructions in the Vedas (sacred texts) read by priests and prostration by worshippers in front of the temple mast. There are monthly rituals like amavasai (new moon day), kiruthigai, pournami (full moon day) and sathurthi. The major festival of the temple, Vaikasi Visagam, is celebrated during the Tamil month of |
206_13 | Vaikasi (May -June). As per Hindu legend, the celestial deity Indra worshipped Subramanyaswamy on the day of visagam star and gained strength to defeat the demon Arikesa. Like other Murugan temples, the worship practises include tonsuring in the temple, ablution of the deity with sandal, panchamirtham (a mixture of five ingredients) and milk are performed by devotees. Carrying milk pots (called palkudam) and Kavadi are other common forms of worship. A few years ago, a popular event called Subramanya Sahasranama, meaning doing archana with 1008 forms of Muruga was celebrated every month. Like in Palani Murugan temple, Vibhuti Abhishekam, the ablution of the central deity with ash is performed. The central deity with adorned with diamond Vel every Thursday. The kumbabhisekam of the temple was performed on 9 September 2015. |
206_14 | Notes
References
External links
Hindu temples in Thanjavur district
Murugan temples in Tamil Nadu
Kaumaram |
207_0 | The McNamara Line, an operational strategy employed by the United States in 1966–1968 during the Vietnam War, aimed to prevent infiltration of South Vietnam by NVA forces from North Vietnam and Laos. Physically, the McNamara Line ran across South Vietnam from the South China Sea to the Laotian border along the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The eastern part included fortified field segments, with Khe Sanh as linchpin, along with stretches where roads and trails were guarded by high-tech acoustic and heat-detecting sensors on the ground and interdicted from the air.
Assorted types of mines, including so-called gravel mines, and troops at choke points backed sophisticated electronic surveillance. Named the barrier system by Robert McNamara (United States Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968), it was one of the key elements, along with gradual aerial bombing, of his war strategy in Vietnam. |
207_1 | Barrier concept
Various schemes had been proposed in the years before 1965 for a defensive line on the northern border of South Vietnam and in southeast Laos. These schemes had generally been rejected because of their requirements for large amounts of military personnel to be deployed in static positions and because any barrier in Laos would encourage the Vietnamese to deploy their forces deeper into Laotian territory. |
207_2 | In December 1965, Robert McNamara met twice with Carl Kaysen, a former Kennedy-era National Security Council staff member. Kaysen proposed an electronic barrier to limit infiltration from North Vietnam. McNamara embraced the idea and asked Kaysen to create a proposal. Starting in January, John McNaughton and a group of scientists in Cambridge, Massachusetts, including Kaysen and Roger Fisher created the proposal which was submitted to McNamara in March 1966, who then passed it to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) for comments. The JCS response was that the proposal would still require an infeasible number of troops to be stationed along the barrier and would present difficult construction/logistical problems. |
207_3 | Also in late 1965 or early 1966, Jerry Wiesner and George Kistiakowsky persuaded McNamara to support a summer study program in Cambridge for the group of 47 prominent scientists and academics that made up the JASON advisory division of the Institute for Defense Analysis. The subject of the study was to find alternatives to the majorly unsuccessful gradual aerial bombing campaign in North Vietnam advocated by McNamara. As Kaysen and the others involved in the Cambridge group were all members of JASON scientific advisory group, the anti-infiltration barrier ideas were included in the JASON agenda.
JASON study group
The JASON study group meetings took place June 16–25, 1966 at Dana Hall in Wellesley, Massachusetts. The buildings were guarded day and night and attendees were given top secret security clearances. After the summer meetings, a report was produced over the course of July and August. |
207_4 | The JASON report of August 1966 called the bombing campaign against North Vietnam a failure, saying that it had "no measurable direct effect on Hanoi's ability to mount and support military operations in the South". Instead, advisors proposed as an alternative two defensive barriers. The first barrier would run from the coast some distance inland along the demilitarized zone and would seek to block the NVA infiltration through conventional means. The second barrier would run from the remote western areas of the border into Laos and would be a barrier of air interdiction, mine fields and electronic detection requiring minimal troops. While the JCS report had estimated the construction of a barrier would take up to four years, the JASON report suggested the barrier could be in place with available resources within a year. That was important to McNamara since he hoped that by cutting the logistics lines between the North and the South he would have been able to press Hanoi into |
207_5 | negotiations. |
207_6 | Decision-making |
207_7 | In September 1966, McNamara presented the JASON group report to the Joint Chiefs. It split on the proposal with the service chiefs being against it, and general Earle Wheeler, a chairman of JCS, being in support. The JCS then handed the report off to the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific (CINCPAC) Admiral Sharp, who wrote back that the barrier idea was impractical from a manpower and construction point of view. General William Westmoreland, who was commanding officer in Vietnam, was apprehensive of the idea and reportedly was even afraid that the barrier would go into history as Westmoreland's Folly. |
207_8 | Despite all disagreements, on September 15, 1966, without waiting for the final judgment of the JCS, Secretary McNamara ordered that the proposal be implemented. Lieutenant General Alfred Starbird, director of the Defense Communications Agency, was appointed head of Task Force 728, which was to implement the project. Two days later, the JCS reported back favorably on the already-decided plan. Starbird had to complete the barrier by September 1967. In November 1966, McNamara officially recommended the barrier system to President Johnson for implementation. The construction budget was estimated as $1.5 billion, and $740 million was allocated for the annual operating costs. The Practice Nine was adopted as the barrier project internal communication code name. |
207_9 | Chronology
On January 13, 1967, President Johnson authorized the construction, and it was assigned the highest national priority.
Cover name changes
In June 1967, an existence of Practice Nine was leaked to the press. The project was then renamed as Illinois City and in September it was called Project Dye Marker. Further, it was also referred to as SPOS (Strong-point-obstacle-system), with two different components, Dump Truck (anti-vehicle) and Mud River (anti-personnel), which were collectively referred to as Muscle Shoals. On September 13, 1967, the project's Dye Marker name was switched to Muscle Shoals, and in June 1968 it was changed again, this time to Igloo White. |
207_10 | Project Dye Marker was partially constructed by the American forces in 1967-1968 along the eastern portion of the demilitarized zone. An effective anti-infiltration barrier, running across South Vietnam deep into Laos, was a grand vision of the US Secretary of Defence Robert McNamara, who feared that escalation of bombing can bring greater Chinese involvement, and a vital component of his operational strategy. It was an enormous multimillion project, which was nicknamed in the media as the Great Wall of Vietnam, McNamara's Wall, McNamara Barrier, Electric Fence, and Alarm Belt.
1967
USMC Engineers in early 1967 were ordered to bulldoze a strip to at least 500 meters wide from Gio Linh westward to Con Thien. This became known by the Marines as The Trace. Construction began in the summer 1967. |
207_11 | The Dye Marker defensive line project stretched along the demilitarized zone starting from the South China Sea, and had a total length of 76 kilometers (47 miles). Some parts of the defensive line were manned and equipped with the bunkers, outposts, reinforcing and fire support bases, surrounded by concertina wire. Other segments were under constant radar, motion and acoustic surveillance, and secured by trip wires, mine fields, and barbed-wire entanglements. The airborne receiving equipment carried by EC-121R's relayed the signals and triggered artillery and bombers responses. |
207_12 | The plans that were leaked to the media called for an inexpensive barbed wire fence with watch towers, and they were presented to the public as a trivial measure, while the electronic part was highly classified. In reality, the strong-point part of the anti-infiltration system in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam was reinforced with electronic sensors and gravel mines to stop the flow of North Vietnamese troops and supplies through the demilitarized zone during the decisive years of the Vietnam War. Construction was announced on September 7, 1967, and was carried by the 3rd Marine Division. First, the 11th Engineers started to work on bulldozing the so-called Trace, a path 600 meter wide and 11 kilometers long that was stripped of trees, brush and villages if needed. The backbone of the strong-point system were fortified bases Alpha 2 at Gio Linh on the east, Alpha 4 at Con Thien on the west, and Alpha 3 in between. 7,578 American marines had been deployed in support of Dye Marker strong |
207_13 | point/obstacle system by 1 November 1967. In addition, 4,080 American troops have been involved in the air-supported anti-infiltration part of Dye Marker. |
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