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Hey, what's that (and other miscellanea)?


sparky05

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On 7/26/2019 at 5:58 PM, joeDowntown said:

Pretty sure it’s an old railway marker. Where is it located?

Joe

It's about 20 or 30 feet away from the edge of Cascade Road.  I always wondered if it was rail way or right of way.  There's not a railroad track within miles these days so I had no idea how old it might be.

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Cascade Road was a State Trunk line - US 16 until the early 60's when I-96 was opened.  Cascade Road was built a s state trunk line  in the early 20's  - horse drawn wagons loaded by a early "steam" shovel powered by a steam boiler in the big cut going up the hill from the Thornapple River in Cascade. The marker therefore is pre-early 60's

Here's a good history of Michigan roads  http://www.michiganhighways.org/history.html

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3 hours ago, Raildude's dad said:

Cascade Road was a State Trunk line - US 16 until the early 60's when I-96 was opened.  Cascade Road was built a s state trunk line  in the early 20's  - horse drawn wagons loaded by a early "steam" shovel powered by a steam boiler in the big cut going up the hill from the Thornapple River in Cascade. The marker therefore is pre-early 60's

Here's a good history of Michigan roads  http://www.michiganhighways.org/history.html

Very nice.

I remember US 16 from when I was  kid in the fifties and very early sixties, mostly from Sunday rides with my parents, and one long seemingly endless drive to Detroit.  Except going through larger cities, it was all two lanes (that is - one lane each way.)

Looking around on that site, I found this timeline of US 16:

Historic US 16

 

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Do you remember the suicide lanes, the center passing lanes  at several locations.  When I was 7, my dad and a friend of his took their kids to a Saturday Tigers game in a pink Oldsmobile. I did not want to ride in a pink car LOL. The next year and in following years we took the train to Detroit and back to Tiger Stadium for a Saturday game. A lot more fun and it wasn't pink .

The Road Commission has some neat photo's from the 20's building the first state roads.  I'd love to get them on line.

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On 8/2/2019 at 6:34 PM, Raildude's dad said:

Do you remember the suicide lanes, the center passing lanes  at several locations.  When I was 7, my dad and a friend of his took their kids to a Saturday Tigers game in a pink Oldsmobile. I did not want to ride in a pink car LOL. The next year and in following years we took the train to Detroit and back to Tiger Stadium for a Saturday game. A lot more fun and it wasn't pink .

The Road Commission has some neat photo's from the 20's building the first state roads.  I'd love to get them on line.

I don’t remember specifically the suicide lanes along U.S. 16 although I don’t doubt that they were there in parts.  I do remember one along Wilson from around Johnson Park to Lake Michigan Drive because it continued to exist for years after I started to drive.  I don’t remember when they finally decided it was a very bad idea.

For those of you who don’t know what Raildude’s Dad is talking about, the state decided that on busy two lane highways where they couldn’t expand to four lanes (because of cost I guess,) they’d make them three lanes with the center lane being a passing lane and drivers could use the lane for passing from either direction which means you could end up with cars from opposite directions coming at each other head on at passing speeds.  It was sort of like playing chicken to see who would back-off if they could.  There would be many more people alive today enjoying their retirement if it hadn’t been for three lane highways with center passing lanes. 
 

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1 hour ago, joeDowntown said:

They’re “adding” an additional entrance to the San Chez building (uncovering an entrance that someone closed off). New seafood / fish restaurant with pub coming soon. Looks pretty casual. 

Joe

AFF24A81-347C-432F-B894-E4CDC0C4CDD8.jpeg

Will be nice to have a seafood option downtown that isn’t high end and expensive  (Leo’s, Charley’s Crab). 

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2 hours ago, tSlater said:

No plates, no silverware, and seafood boils being advertised? Sounds like a good ol' Louisiana crawfish boil is in my future.

We have one of these boiler places by us where you eat with your hands.  It is messy!   I'm not a huge seafood guy, but it's soooo good I crave it now.  

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GR with your 200,000+ city and 1.3 million+ metro: below behold the City of Balneário Camboriú Brazil - the posterchild example of an impressive downtown skyline NOT being dictated by population density (City: 124,000+ / Metro: 390,000+) . . . . its population smallness is not diminishing its attainment of GRANDness; just saying . . . .

 

Balneário Camboriú_Brazil.JPG

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1 hour ago, metrogrkid said:

GR with your 200,000+ city and 1.3 million+ metro: below behold the City of Balneário Camboriú Brazil - the posterchild example of an impressive downtown skyline NOT being dictated by population density (City: 124,000+ / Metro: 390,000+) . . . . its population smallness is not diminishing its attainment of GRANDness; just saying . . . .

 

Balneário Camboriú_Brazil.JPG

Maybe I'm weird, but I like my height in a centralized location and now spread out like that. 

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