Periodical cicadas, identified as Brood X, are back, providing us with a once-every-17-years opportunity to witness a remarkable natural phenomenon, as these insects emerge and breed, while producing sounds as loud as a jet engine. Correspondent Chip Reid talks with entomologists about the cicadas’ cycle, and how their protein can satiate the appetites of predators (and cookie lovers).
Tag Archives: Eastern U.S.
City Walks: Georgetown, Washington DC (4K Video)
Georgetown is a charming area with Federal-style architecture, cobblestone streets and fashion and design shops. The dining scene is defined by upmarket restaurants and waterfront seafood spots, while nightlife spans boisterous college bars, traditional taverns and intimate live music lounges. Georgetown Waterfront Park has a riverside promenade and gardens, and there’s a bike path along the C&O Canal.
New National Parks: New River Gorge, West Virginia
Visitors have been drawn to West Virginia by its mountains, winding roads, and wild rivers, but until last week, America’s 35th state had no national park. New River Gorge was awarded the honor of becoming the nation’s newest park – and the only national park in West Virginia.
A rugged, whitewater river flowing northward through deep canyons, the New River is among the oldest rivers on the continent. The park encompasses over 70,000 acres of land along the New River, is rich in cultural and natural history, and offers an abundance of scenic and recreational opportunities.
Aerial Views: Pittsburgh – Pennsylvania (4K video)
Pittsburgh is a city in western Pennsylvania at the junction of 3 rivers. Its Gilded Age sites, including the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the Carnegie Museum of Art and the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, speak to its history as an early-20th-century industrial capital. In the North Shore neighborhood are the modern Andy Warhol Museum, Heinz Field football stadium and PNC Park baseball stadium.
Spring Views: Washington Square Park, New York
Washington Square Park is a 9.75-acre public park in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. One of the best known of New York City’s public parks, it is an icon as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity.
It is named for George Washington (1732-1799), the commander of the Continental Army, who was inaugurated in New York City as the first President of the United States on April 30, 1789.
The land was once a marsh fed by Minetta Brook located near an Indian village known as Sapokanikan. In 1797 the City’s Common Council acquired the land for use as a “Potter’s Field” and for public executions, giving rise to the legend of the “Hangman’s Elm” in the park’s northwest corner.
Used first as the Washington Military Parade Ground in 1826, the site became a public park in 1827. Following this designation, prominent families, wanting to escape the disease and congestion of downtown Manhattan, moved into the area and built the distinguished Greek Revival mansions that still line the square’s north side. In 1838 the park hosted the first public demonstration of the telegraph by Samuel F.B. Morse.
Soon after the creation of the City’s Department of Public Parks in 1870, the square was redesigned and improved by M.A. Kellogg, Engineer-in-Chief, and I.A. Pilat, Chief Landscape Gardener. Their plan followed the principles of Fredrick Law Olmsted – providing a more rustic and informal space with curvilinear paths along its periphery, retaining many of the diagonal paths within the park’s core, and defining plots of grass with shade trees. The most dramatic change was the addition of a carriage drive through the park’s interior connecting Fifth Avenue to Lower Manhattan.
The marble Washington Arch, designed by noted architect Stanford White, was built between 1890-1892 and replaced a wooden arch erected in 1889 to honor the centennial of the first president’s inauguration. Statues of Washington were later installed on Arch’s north side – Washington as Commander-in-Chief, Accompanied by Fame and Valor (1916) by Hermon MacNeil, and Washington as President, Accompanied by Wisdom and Justice (1918) by Alexander Stirling Calder.
Aerial Views: ‘Hartford – Connecticut’ (4K Video)
Hartford is the capital of Connecticut. It’s home to the Mark Twain House & Museum. The 1874 mansion contains thousands of artifacts, including the desk at which Twain wrote his best-known works. The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center includes the author’s Victorian house and many period furnishings, plus a garden. The broad collection of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art includes Renaissance and impressionist works.
Spring Views: Cherry Blossoms In Full Bloom – Washington DC (Video)
The famous cherry blossom trees of Washington, D.C., have reached full bloom, drawing crowds.
Walking Tours: ‘Flatiron Distric – New York City’
Named after the iconic wedge-shaped Flatiron Building, this commercial neighborhood is also home to tall apartment buildings and office high-rises. Locals and tourists frequent the hip bars, stalls at Italian food emporium Eataly and eclectic food trucks along Fifth Avenue. A focal point is Madison Square Park, known for its seasonal art installations and the long line at the original Shake Shack.
Aerial Views: ‘Richmond & Norfolk, Virginia’ (4K)
Richmond, the capital of Virginia, is among America’s oldest major cities. Patrick Henry, a U.S. Founding Father, famously declared “Give me liberty or give me death” at its St. John’s Church in 1775, leading to the Revolutionary War. The White House of the Confederacy, home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis during the Civil War, is now a museum in Court End, a neighborhood known for Federal-style mansions.
Norfolk is a waterfront city in southeastern Virginia. It’s home to Naval Station Norfolk, a massive naval base on Chesapeake Bay. Nauticus is a maritime museum that features the Battleship Wisconsin, a huge WWII warship. The Chrysler Museum of Art showcases a vast collection of glass art, plus European and American paintings and sculpture. The riverside Virginia Zoo is home to bears, birds, lions and farm animals.
Views: ‘Washington D.C.’
Washington, DC, the U.S. capital, is a compact city on the Potomac River, bordering the states of Maryland and Virginia. It’s defined by imposing neoclassical monuments and buildings – including the iconic ones that house the federal government’s 3 branches: the Capitol, White House and Supreme Court. It’s also home to iconic museums and performing-arts venues such as the Kennedy Center.
