June 2019 In the Port Credit section of Mississauga, Ontario, a former village on the shores of Lake Ontario, the harbour is protected by two crushed stone break-walls and a third that is actually a former lake freighter: the S.S. Ridgetown. The Ridgetown, originally named the S.S. William E. Corey, was launched on 24 March 1905 as the flagship …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/old-lake-freighter-finds-second-life-as-a-breakwater/
May 2019 (Updated April 2022, April 2023, August 2024, & July 2025) Note: This is Chapter 2 in my Borscht Belt series. Links to the other Borscht Belt articles are at the bottom of this article. If you don’t find a write-up on a specific hotel or bungalow colony in this chapter, either they are …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/a-second-helping-of-borscht-the-crumbling-remains-of-americas-jewish-vacationland/
May 2019 When an entire town is abandoned, it’s usually due to things like the exhaustion of the natural resources that sustained it, a natural disaster, or man-made disaster like a mine fire or toxic contamination. There are literally thousands of “Ghost Towns” across the country. For Concrete City, it was due to the construction …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/concrete-city-the-abandoned-company-town-that-was-killed-by-its-design/
May 2019 The Kinzua Bridge was a railroad trestle near Mount Jewett, Pennsylvania, that collapsed during a tornado in 2003. The 301 foot high, 2052 foot long trestle spanning over the Kinzua Valley, was built in 1900 for the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railway; a steel bridge that replaced the original wrought iron …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/the-destructive-force-of-nature-the-shattered-remains-of-the-kinzua-bridge/
May 2019 Elvis Presley may be the King of Rock & Roll, but there would be no Rock & Roll if it wasn’t for Alan Freed. Alan Freed was the Rock & Roll Disc Jockey and media personality who coined the term in 1951 to describe the uptempo rhythm and blues sound playing on radios …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/rock-rolls-broken-heart-the-rise-and-tragic-end-of-alan-freed/
May 2019 In the Village of Celoron, outside Jamestown, New York, the birthplace of iconic comedienne Lucile Ball, there is a small park along the shore of Lake Chautauqua dedicated to her memory. In 2009, a bronze statue of Ball was installed near the entrance to Lucile Ball Memorial Park, one that would elevate the …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/the-strange-saga-of-scary-lucy/
May 2019 The Bradford Campus of the University of Pittsburgh in Bradford, Pennsylvania, has an aviation background that many may not realize. The campus was once the site of the Bradford Airport, established on the family farm of William Emery in 1927. Emery’s son Harri was an avid pilot in the early days of aviation …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/university-of-pittsburg-bradford-campus-has-an-aviation-past/
April 2019 In Assumption Park in Windsor, Ontario, along the shores of the Detroit River, is a monument to the 147 Canadians who died fighting with American Armed Forces in the Vietnam War, along with 7 listed as POW/MIA. A similar monument was erected in Melocheville, Quebec, in October 1989 by the Association Québécoise des …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/monument-pays-tribute-to-canadian-vietnam-veterans/
April 2019 Sandwiched between the abandoned Wilbur Wright Field, current home of the U.S. Air Force Museum, and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, east of Dayton, Ohio, lies a former aerodrome named Huffman Field. Named after the former property owner, Dayton banker Torrence Huffman, the aerodrome played an important role in early aviation. It was at …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/huffman-field-played-an-important-role-in-early-aviation/
April 2019 Outside the Village of Nobel, just north of Parry Sound, Ontario, past some rusting fencing, in the middle of two fields separated by Nobel Road, lies the ruins of the Orenda Engines Test Facility. Orenda Engines was a subsidiary of A.V. Roe Canada, the aerospace giant who designed and built Canada’s infamous jet-fighter, …
Permanent link to this article: https://militarybruce.com/abandoned-property-once-played-a-role-in-the-development-of-the-avro-arrow/
