The Mississippi Basin Model reproduces the drainage basin of the Mississippi River at a horizontal scale of 1:2000 and a vertical scale of 1:100. This makes it the largest small-scale working model in the world¹!

The concrete model was built by the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1940s, and initial earthwork was carried out by German POWs. It was eventually completed in 1966.

By the 1980s the model was superseded by computer modelling techniques, but it was widely agreed that the model had been a success: helping to solve numerous flood-control problems and thus saving lives.

Thanks to Ned Mitchell.

Zanesville in Ohio claims that their Y-bridge is “the only Y-shaped bridge in the world!”

Now in its fifth incarnation, the bridge spans the Licking river to the West and the Muskingum river to the East. Allegedly this makes the Y-bridge the only place in the US where you can cross a bridge but stay on the same side of the river.

Hang on, Ohio actually have another Y-bridge! Not too far from Zanesville, the Akron Y-bridge is where two roads come together to share a bridge. Officially titled the “All-American Bridge”, its other unofficial title is sadly the “Suicide Bridge”.

Uh, hang on again. The “Galena Y-bridge” in Galena, Missouri has been closed to vehicles since 1986 (when a new bridge was created to the North), but nevertheless it’s still a Y-shaped bridge. In this case the Y-shape was created to allow traffic heading East across the bridge to go either North or South, as heading straight on would involve driving straight into the side of a mountain…

More info on the Y-bridges in Galena, Akron and Zanesville.

Thanks: onTypes

In case you missed it, there was recently a spot of bother over the New Orleans images in Google Earth. Back in August 2005, just after Hurricane Katrina wrecked the city, Google updated Maps and Earth with images of the devastation.

Then, in September of 2006, the images were updated with higher-resolution shots of the city - images which were pre-Katrina. Nobody really noticed until the March 2007 image update, and suddenly everyone was up in arms over Google’s disrespect for those who suffered. In response Google provided new, high resolution, post-Katrina images of New Orleans.

Outside the newly updated area you can still see some of the devastation Katrina wrought here, like this derailed train, or these flattened houses just over the border in Mississippi.

Inside the updated area however, the images are very high quality, and the first thing that caught our eye was this fantastic shot of an F-15 fighter coming in to land at the New Orleans Naval Air Station.

We also wondered what was going on on the Bonne Carre Spillway Bridge?

Thanks: 2468Scotty and C.P. McDill.

The last Nuclear Power Megapost proved successful so here is another! I’ve been collating all the nuclear power themed entries since then and here are the most interesting of them.

Shoreham Nuclear Power Station

This is a plant that was never completed due to community opposition. In the aftermath of the Three Mile Island accident residents were increasingly worried about proximity to nuclear power stations. Shoreham was never finished because residents argued that if anything did go wrong, the population of Long Island couldn’t be evacuated with only one direction to go (west) and only one major road to take (the Long Island Expressway).

Thanks Chris & Thomas Paul

Sequoyah Nuclear Plant

I know you’ve already done a “Nuclear Power Megapost,” but I just ran across this, and think it’s cool that you can almost see directly down the cooling towers. BTW, it’s TVA’s Sequoyah Nuclear Plant.

Thanks Jay K

Chinon Nuclear Power Plant

This is the nuclear power plant of Chinon, a french town best known for its Cabernet Franc wine, with four very pretty cooling towers churning out steam.

Thanks Julien

Weldon Springs

The Nuclear Waste Adventure Trail and Museum at Weldon Spring, Missouri is where the government opened the Weldon Spring site to the public in 2002. The huge waste tomb spans 45 acres and is seven stories tall.

Thanks Bill

Bohunice Nuclear Power Plant

This is Bohunice nuclear power plant in Slovakia. A proper old-skool soviet era reactor. In February 22, 1977, the reactor suffered a major accident during refueling. Because of its age and old design the plant is currently undergoing a decommissioning process.

Thanks FeroG

Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant

This is the Iranian nuclear power plant under construction near the city of Bushehr. These two plants are one of the reasons that Iran and the west don’t get along. In 1995, Russia signed a contract to supply a light water reactor for the plant. Although the agreement calls for the spent fuel rods to be sent back to Russia for reprocessing, the US has expressed concern that Iran would reprocess the rods itself, in order to obtain plutonium for atomic bombs.

Thanks Paul, Bunsen, Pejvak DehDari & Bubba

Enrico Fermi Nuclear Power Plant

This reactor is named after the first physicist to create a nuclear reactor and is located between Detroit, Michigan and Toledo, Ohio. On October 5, 1966 a 94MWe prototype fast breeder reactor called Fermi-1 suffered a partial nuclear meltdown here. Thankfully no radiation was released off-site, and no one was injured.

Thanks David & Joe

I’m sure there are still plenty more interesting nuclear power sites so keep them coming!

Hurricane Katrina has torn through the United States causing untold damage and horrendous loss of life. Katrina has destroyed the eastern part of the I-10 bridge over Lake Pontchartrain (shown here before it was damaged), flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, and damaged the roof of largest domed structure in the world, the Louisiana Superdome.

The worst affected states, by this, the third most intense system to strike the United States in recorded history, are Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. It is believed that Katrina is, (in monetary terms) the most costly hurricane to affect the USA, and sadly may yet also become the most costly in terms of human lives.

For more information about these events, I recommend the Wikipedia page on Hurricane Katrina, which is updated continually as information becomes available.