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

For tonight’s dinner we’re following what might well be the world’s largest recipe – as it’s written in large type all over the surface of Google Earth.

To start with, on the coast of Nova Scotia a vineyard uses the fields to do more than grow the grapes – they also advertise wines and their website.¹

So we’ve got some wine. Next, if you happen to be driving down this motorway on the Danish island of Zealand, and feel a little peckish, you can stop off and buy some peas from the top of the hill.

You’ll know when you’re at the right place by the giant advertising for “Ærter” (that’s Danish for peas), but it sometimes it says “Æbler” instead (apples).

Lastly, a roof in Columbus urges us to “Eat Trout“. Clearly not a trout farm, from what I can gather the building is (or at least was), some sort of night club – so perhaps it’s just a public service announcement?²

So there we have it, a complete meal in Google Earth: fish, peas on the side and a glass of wine! But can anyone find me some dessert?

Thanks to Greg_Yetman, sladys and Dave Collins

(This post was updated 8th September to correct the location of the peas. Thanks to those in the comments!)

Lots of the DigitalGlobe satellite photos around the world have small lens flares like this one in Reykjavik which appear to be simply the sun reflecting off a shiny surface – no big deal there.

But reader Andrew Grannis brought our attention to this example of one such flare in Cincinnati, which is much larger than any other examples we’ve seen. If this is the result of a reflective object on the ground then it would have to be the size of a field. Any suggestions?

Thanks: Andrew Grannis

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!

This is Paramount’s Kings Island theme park in Mason, Ohio, and it looks absolutely awesome. The place is a flippin’ enormous 364 acres, with more rides than you could shake a stick at… in fact there’s more than enough room for a 1/3 sized Eiffel Tower replica, and about a bajillion-trillion parking spaces. This place is so big that it even has its own built in waterpark, Boomerang Bay.

As for the rides themselves, Kings Island is not only home to the world’s longest wooden rollercoaster, Beast (it’s actually 2,143 metres long) but also to Son of Beast, the world’s tallest, fastest, and only looping wooden rollercoaster. Son of the Beast is 66.4 metres tall, and has a top speed of 78 mph.

The images here are absolutely fantastic, particularly of Son of Beast, and also be sure to check out how far into the woods the Beast goes…

More info on the history of Paramount’s Kings Island is available at its Wikipedia entry, here’s a map of the park in pdf format on the official site, and for you stats-heads out there, the Wikipedia pages on Beast and Son of Beast should keep you more than satisfied.

Many thanks to Kenneth Head, Josh Lee, Clint, Jesse Allmyer and John Quigley II.