Sierra Club Opposes Job Creation and Saving Lives!

All in the name of "protecting" the environment.  Well, that is if you if you read between the lines of a recent news report from the Dailypress.com the Sierra Club opposes the expansion of a section of US-460 between Suffolk and Petersburg. 

By expanding the roadway, jobs will be created in the form of construction, jobs will be created in the form of Hampton Roads having a more robust and inviting transportation network making its harbors and ports more commercially friendly, by expanding US 460 more people would be able to get out of Hampton Roads if and when an evacuation is required.  Expanding US-460 would speed up traffic coming and going to the region as an alternate from I-64.

So, you can pollute the environment as you sit in traffic on the weekends on I-64 now and in the future, or you can help the environment by quickly getting to your destination.  Who knows, an expanded US -460 might even save your life.

A little Military History of the "View"

Image via Wikipedia

After the siege of Yorktown began on April 5, 1862, Commodore Louis M. Goldsborough, commanding the Union fleet in Hampton Roads, felt that his first duty was to destroy the Merrimack or, at the very least, prevent her from running out into Chesapeake Bay and up to Washington.

Weeks dragged by with the Union fleet immobilized in Hampton Roads, watching the Merrimack. The naval deadlock in Hampton Roads was so serious that President Lincoln made a special trip to Fort Monroe, arriving May 6, 1862.

In conference with Commodore Goldsborough and Major General John E. Wool, commanding Fort Monroe, it was decided that the only way to eliminate the Merrimack from the situation was to capture the City of Norfolk which was the Merrimack’s base.

On May 8, the Union fleet, assisted by the rifled guns on Fort Wool, bombarded the Confederate batteries on Sewall’s Point to prepare for a landing. However, this projected landing was thwarted when the Merrimack steamed out from behind Sewall’s Point and placed herself before the batteries.

It was clear that a landing must be made at a place where the Merrimack could not interfere. Ocean View on the Chesapeake Bay shore was selected for the landing. Troops were landed at Ocean View on May 9, 1862, and advanced over-land to Norfolk where they were met by the mayor who formally surrendered the city to Major General John E. Wool on May 10, 1862.

The Navy Yard in nearby Portsmouth was found in flames, fired by the Confederates just before they evacuated Norfolk.

On May 11, the Merrimack was blown up by her crew off Craney Island to prevent capture. The Monitor did not long survive her Confederate antagonist. She sank in a storm off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on December 31, 1862. The Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack was the first battle of ironclad warships.