June 17, 1958: The Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing Collapses

The Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing, also called the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge and Second Narrows Bridge, is the second bridge constructed at the Second (east) Narrows of Burrard Inlet in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Originally named the Second Narrows Bridge, it connects Vancouver to the north shore of Burrard Inlet, which includes the District of North Vancouver, the City of North Vancouver, and West Vancouver. It was constructed adjacent to the older Second Narrows Bridge, which is now exclusively a rail bridge. The First Narrows Bridge, better known as Lions Gate Bridge, crosses Burrard Inlet about 5 miles west of the Second Narrows.

The bridge is a steel truss cantilever bridge, designed by Swan Wooster Engineering Co. Ltd. Construction began in November 1957, and the bridge was officially opened on August 25, 1960. It cost approximately $15 million to build.

The bridge is 1,292 metres (4,239 ft) long with a centre span of 335 metres (1,099 ft). It is part of the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1).

On June 17, 1958, as a crane stretched from the north side of the new bridge to join the two chords of the unfinished arch, several spans collapsed. Seventy-nine workers plunged 30 metres (100 ft) into the water. Eighteen were killed either instantly or shortly thereafter, possibly drowned by their heavy tool belts. A diver searching for bodies drowned later, bringing the total fatalities for the collapse to 19. In a subsequent Royal Commission inquiry, the bridge collapse was attributed to miscalculation by bridge engineers. A temporary arm, holding the fifth anchor span, was deemed too light to bear the weight.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironworkers_Memorial_Second_Narrows_Crossing

June 17: Eat All Your Veggies Day

A Look Back • Missouri was home to enemy POWs during World War II

CHESTERFIELD • Cpl. Helmuth Levin and Private Rudolf Straussberg left notes of explanation on their bunks. They slipped past the guards at night and fled through the vegetable fields they tended.

“Returning to Germany would just be going from a Nazi dictatorship to a Russian dictatorship,” Levin wrote in German. Straussberg added an apology to his keepers for causing “the trouble of looking for us.”

Levin and Straussberg were among the 420,000 German and Italian prisoners of war who spent part of World War II under guard in the United States. About 15,000 of them were sent to 30 camps scattered across Missouri.

Most of the POWs went to large camps, including one covering 960 acres near Weingarten in Ste. Genevieve County. Others were confined in small outposts such as Hellwig Brothers Farm, near U.S. Highway 40 on the Missouri River bottomland then known as Gumbo Flats.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/look-back/555611ac-cfd9-58d5-915d-a3bdda5c1c28.html

The article includes some photos and links to additional pics.

Civil War museum at Jefferson Barracks bustling with final touches for opening

After a sweaty decade of shoveling pigeon droppings and replacing rotted woodwork, the steadfast creators of a new Civil War museum at Jefferson Barracks County Park are in frenzied final assembly of display cases and exhibits.
“I wish we had another six months, but it’s time to open,” said Mark Trout, founding director of the Missouri Civil War Museum. Its home is a thoroughly renovated three-story building left over from the old Army base in south St. Louis County.

On Friday, County Executive Charlie Dooley joined Trout in a ceremonial ribbon-cutting on the front steps. The museum is to open June 29.

“You had an idea and a dream, and you have created a real destination,” Dooley told the gathering.

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/civil-war-museum-at-jefferson-barracks-bustling-with-final-touches/article_e4ec64f6-df5a-5616-879b-34fc6a54b89c.html

June 15:Nature Photography Day

June 15: National Lobster Day

Auditor reports that Missouri income far below the ceiling allowed by the Hancock Amendment

Amid the fight in the state Capitol over whether to cut taxes, state Auditor Tom Schweich – a Republican – has issued a report that potentially could lay to rest any notion that Missouri state government is awash in cash.

On Wednesday, Schweich issued his office’s long-awaited findings about whether the state’s income and spending has complied with the 33-year-old Hancock Amendment that restricts how much of Missourians’ personal income can be used to fund state government, and how much fees and taxes can be increased.

Schweich’s bottom line: The state of Missouri’s current general-revenue income is $3.9 billion below the level that would trigger the Hancock Amendment’s requirement that refunds be sent to Missouri taxpayers.

Put in perspective, the state of Missouri could increase its general revenue income by almost 40 percent without being forced to send money back.

https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/31403/schweich_hancock_amendment_061313?coverpage=3441

Florida prison system owes $600,000 in back pay or time off to 710 employees

TALLAHASSEE — Florida's prison system, grappling with a chronic budget deficit, must give $600,000 in money or extra time off to hundreds of workers who were not paid while they were on duty.

Ending months of protracted negotiations, the Department of Corrections agreed with the U.S. Department of Labor to provide back pay or compensatory time to 710 correctional officers at the state's largest and oldest prison, Union Correctional in Raiford.

Acting on complaints by two prison guards and the Teamsters Union, the Labor Department's Wage & Hour Division began an investigation at Union in Raiford in 2011. The findings cited the state's "failure to pay employees at least the applicable minimum wage for all hours worked," and failure to pay overtime.

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/legislature/florida-prison-system-owes-600000-in-back-pay-or-time-off-to-hundreds-of/2126224

June 14: National Bourbon Day

June 14: National Strawberry Shortcake Day