12 articles found
Centralia, Pennsylvania's Endless Underground Fire
Somewhere beneath the scrubby, cracked asphalt of what used to be Route 61 in Centralia, Pennsylvania, an underground coal seam has been on fire since 1962. Smoke still seeps through fissures in the ground. The earth radiates warmth underfoot. In win...
Canal Street: The Grand Thoroughfare of New Orleans in the 1900s
Canal Street at the turn of the 20th century was one of the most impressive commercial boulevards in the United States. At 171 feet wide — one of the widest streets in the country, a width that required two sets of streetcar rails and still left room...
How People Got Around Los Angeles in the 1940s — And How It Explains Everything About the City Today
Everyone knows Los Angeles as a car city. Five-lane freeways, parking minimums, the 405 at rush hour, the assumption that no one walks anywhere. But this wasn't always the case — and the story of how Los Angeles transformed from one of the world's be...
Laramie, Wyoming in the 1940s: Why People Came and Should I Visit Now?
Laramie is 7,165 feet (about 2,200 meters) above sea level in southeastern Wyoming, with the Laramie Mountains to the east, and the Medicine Bow Mountain Range to the west. Why People Came to Laramie in the 1940s The Union Pacific Railroad ...
Denver Union Station: From Wild West Railroad Hub to the Heart of a Modern City
Denver Union Station opened in 1881 and immediately established itself as one of the most important railroad junctions in the American West. At its peak, 80 trains a day passed through its platforms. Today, after a $500 million regeneration, it's the...
Denver's 16th Street Mall: The History Behind Colorado's Most Famous Boulevard
Walk the length of Denver's 16th Street Mall today and you'll pass chain restaurants, hotel lobbies, coffee shops, street performers, and the constant swoosh of free mall ride buses. It's pleasant and busy — Denver's version of a downtown promenade. ...
Where Americans Loved to Travel in the 1960s
The 1960s were the golden age of American travel. The Interstate Highway System was brand new. Jet passenger service had just become mainstream. America was prosperous, optimistic, and eager to explore. Here's where people actually went — and why it ...
A Brief History of Cuba: From Columbus to Castro to Today
You can visit Cuba without knowing its history — but you'd be missing the point. Every crumbling mansion, every vintage car, every slogan painted on a wall tells a story that stretches back five centuries. Cuba's history is dramatic, painful, triumph...
Why Is Puerto Rico Part of the USA? The Full Story
When you arrive at Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, you do not clear customs or immigration. The currency is the US dollar. Signs are in English and Spanish. Police drive Ford Explorers with lights and sirens identical to those...
What Was LoDo? The Remarkable History of Denver's Lower Downtown District
LoDo or, Lower Downtown Denver is the roughly 25-block area bounded by the Platte River to the west, Larimer Street to the north, 20th Street to the east, and Speer Boulevard to the south. It is today Denver's most densely packed dining and nightlife...
The Oldest Cemetery in the United States
Ask which cemetery in America is the oldest and you'll start an argument. The honest answer is that it depends entirely on what you mean by "oldest" — and the most defensible title belongs to a small, unassuming plot of ground in Duxbury, Massachuset...
The Stanley Hotel: The Night That Gave Stephen King The Shining
On the night of October 8, 1974, a young, not-yet-famous writer named Stephen King checked into a grand old hotel in the Colorado Rockies with his wife Tabitha. It was the very end of the season. The hotel was closing for winter the next day, the sta...