prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: what is the group called that Dianne Morgan and Joe Wilkinson a part of in the BBC comedy "Two Episodes of Mash"

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Live at the Electric
Live at the Electric is a British comedy series that aired on BBC Three from 31 May 2012 and 28 February 2014 and is hosted by Russell Kane who performed stand-up in between comedy sketches from a variety of performers such as Joe Wilkinson and Diane Morgan's double act Two Episodes of Mash  It also featured comedy duo Totally Tom serving as backstage crew for the show 

External links
Live at the Electric at BBC Online 
Live at the Electric at British Comedy Guide
Passage 2:
Start-rite
Start-rite is a brand of children's shoes  The shoemaker, purportedly Britain's oldest and one of the first manufacturers in Norfolk, was established in 1792 in Norwich, England, by James Smith  His grandson, James Southall, gave the firm its current name; it rose in prominence during the 20th century thanks in part to an iconic poster, reading Children's shoes have far to go, which was displayed on the London Underground for 20 years from 1947  Controversy exists around the origins of the image in this poster  It has been attributed to artists  Andy Wood, William Grimmond, Joe Wilkinson of Stanley Studios, Susan Pearce, Nancy Gardner and to the company's own advertising agent In 1955 Start-rite was granted a royal warrant by Queen Elizabeth II to supply footwear for the young Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward   The company was granted a second royal warrant in 1989 by the Prince of Wales to supply children's footwear for Prince William and Prince Harry  This royal warrant was withdrawn in 2003 on production being moved from the UK  In 2016 Prince George was pictured wearing Start-rite shoes in an official portrait taken to commemorate the 90th birthday of the Queen In 2003 the company ceased production in the UK, outsourcing its operations to India and Portugal  The cost cutting move came amid a £600,000 annual loss, which the company reversed the following year to turn a £1 5 million profit  Sales further increased by 20% to 2007 The company focuses on correctly fitting shoes to children's feet, and was the first to introduce variable width fittings for children's shoes  It once maintained concession stores in the now-defunct children's clothing retailer Adams 
Passage 3:
Nora Lewin
Nora Lewin is a fictional character on the TV show Law & Order, played by two-time Academy Award winning actress Dianne Wiest from 2000 to 2002  She appeared in 51 episodes (48 episodes of Law & Order, one episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent and two episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit)  Her character was particularly notable for the fact that she was the first woman in the program's history to hold the position of New York County District Attorney (no woman has held the position in real life)  Pursuant to New York law, an interim District Attorney is appointed by the Governor 

Role within Law & Order
Prior to her appointment as interim DA, Lewin was a law professor, which often provoked her critics to dismiss her as a detached academic with no practical experience  Lewin's term as DA is defined by a liberally directed program of legal application to many notable criminal cases, which often brings her into political and legal dilemmas  While she is an idealist, however, she is not prepared to subvert the correct application of the law due to her personal beliefs  In a 2001 episode, she is confronted with the decision to pursue the death penalty in a conviction of an 18-year-old murderer  While she personally opposes the death penalty, she realizes that her office would be seen as soft on crime, and reluctantly succumbs to political pressure  The young man is found guilty and sent to death row Lewin works closely with Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) and Abbie Carmichael (Angie Harmon)  Her political beliefs often put her into conflict with both of them, especially the latter, a staunch political conservative  After Carmichael leaves the DA's office, Lewin replaces her with Serena Southerlyn (Elisabeth Röhm), whose liberal idealism more closely resembles her own political philosophy She has a niece, indicating that she has at least one sibling 

Departure
In September 2002, after two years of her term as District Attorney, Lewin departs the office  The manner in which she departed the show is never specified on screen  However, in his tie-in book Law & Order: Crime Scenes, Dick Wolf wrote that his intention for the character was that Lewin found herself disenchanted with the position of D A , and opted not to run for election following her interim term  Fred Dalton Thompson subsequently joined the cast as Republican Arthur Branch  Wiest later stated, in the book Actors at Work, written by Rosemarie Tichler and Barry Jay Kaplan, that she was tired of the role and wished to move on to other projects 
In her first scene, Lewin is introduced to McCoy by Mayor Rudy Giuliani (playing himself in a cameo appearance), who praises Lewin's record and assures her that she will do a fine job as District Attorney 

Appearances on other TV series
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Season One
Episode 1: "One"
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Season Three
Episode 10: "Ridicule"
Season Four
Episode 1: "Chameleon"
Passage 4:
Lucy Davis
Lucy Clare Davis (born 17 February 1973) is an English actress best known for playing Dawn Tinsley in the BBC comedy The Office (2001–2003)  
She is also known for her roles as Hilda Spellman in the Netflix series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018–2020), Dianne in the horror-comedy Shaun of the Dead (2004), and Etta Candy in Wonder Woman (2017)  She is also currently playing the role of Eva in Disney Channel's action comedy series The Villains of Valley View, which premiered on 3 June 2022 

Career
Davis appeared briefly in an episode of The Detectives, a show created for and starring her father (Jasper Carrott)  She played Maria Lucas in the BBC's 1995 production of Pride and Prejudice, and also had a role in the 1996 Christmas special of One Foot in the Grave  After her breakthrough role as Dawn Tinsley in The Office, Davis appeared in the films Sex Lives of the Potato Men and Shaun of the Dead in 2004, whilst continuing to play Hayley Jordan in The Archers on BBC Radio 4  She gave up this last role when her other acting responsibilities made it impossible to continue, and the part was recast in September 2005 
Davis appeared in the third-season episode "Elephants and Hens" of UK TV programme Black Books  In 2006, Davis appeared as the "Fashion TV" host on ABC's Ugly Betty, and later that year played writer Lucy Kenwright in NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip  In 2008, she appeared in several episodes of the US series Reaper  In 2010, Davis starred in ITV's six-episode comedy drama, Married Single Other, and also appeared in a guest role in The Mentalist alongside her then-husband Owain Yeoman  Davis also appears in the John Landis-produced thriller Some Guy Who Kills People  In 2012, Davis had a guest voice part in Family Guy for the episode "Be Careful What You Fish For"  Davis appeared in series two, episode eight of the BBC series Death in Paradise (2013)  She became a Patron for the performing arts group Theatretrain in 2012 Davis plays the role of Etta Candy in the 2017 film Wonder Woman  Her performance marked the first live action cinematic portrayal of that comic book character  Davis has said of the character: "She's a woman in a man's world and so being heard and seen aren't the easiest things, but it kind of doesn't deter her  Etta is unapologetically herself and I think that that's the thing that has drawn me to her the most    it took quite a while in my life to be unapologetically myself "Davis appeared in the Netflix series The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina as Hilda Spellman, which aired from 2018 to 2020  She is starring as Eva, known as the supervillain Surge, on the Disney Channel sitcom The Villains of Valley View which premiered on 3 June 2022 

Personal life
Davis is the daughter of Hazel Jackson and comedian Robert Davis, better known as Jasper Carrott  In December 1997, Davis underwent a kidney transplant after being diagnosed with kidney failure during a medical examination  Her mother donated the kidney  Around Christmas 2005 she was hospitalised once again because of kidney failure, but later recovered  Davis also has type 1 diabetes On 9 December 2006, Davis married Welsh actor Owain Yeoman at St Paul's Cathedral, London  The wedding was attended by fellow The Office cast members and writers  Davis was entitled to marry there as her father is an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and St Paul's contains the chapel of the order  The couple separated in January 2011 and divorced in October 2011 In 2007, Davis posed nude in the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals's campaign against the Guards Division's continued use of traditional bearskin caps 

Filmography
Film
Television
Radio
Passage 5:
Diane Morgan
Diane Morgan (born 5 October 1975) is an English actress, comedian, television presenter, and writer  She is best known for playing Philomena Cunk on Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe and in other mockumentaries, as Liz in the BBC Two sitcom Motherland, and Kath in the Netflix dark comedy series After Life  She also wrote and starred in the BBC Two comedy series Mandy 

Early life
Morgan was born in Bolton, Greater Manchester on 5 October 1975, daughter of a physiotherapist and a stay-at-home mother; she has one brother  She grew up in nearby Farnworth and Kearsley, and attended George Tomlinson School in Kearsley  When she was 20, she studied at the East 15 Acting School in Loughton  She said in a 2020 interview, "There were a few actors on [my father]'s side of the family: Julie Goodyear, Frank Finlay and Jack Wild  What a dynasty  We're like the Redgraves  Julie's got a touch of the Mandys, actually  Maybe I could cast her as Mandy's mum "

Career
Morgan had a small part as Dawn in Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights before a spell working various jobs, including as a dental assistant, a telemarketer, a potato peeler at a chip shop, selling Avon, and boxing up worming tablets in a factory  She subsequently made her first attempt at stand-up comedy  She was placed second in the Hackney Empire New Act of the Year award in 2006, and as runner-up in the 2006 Funny Women Awards Morgan and Joe Wilkinson later formed a sketch comedy duo called Two Episodes of Mash  From 2008, they performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for three consecutive years, and in 2010, they appeared on Robert Webb's satirical news show Robert's Web  In 2012, the act completed its second BBC radio series (co-starring David O'Doherty), and appeared in BBC Three's Live at the Electric  In the same year, she appeared in Him & Her, which featured Wilkinson, and in 2013, she played Nicola in the TV series Pat & Cabbage  In 2014, she made an appearance in the TV series Utopia, as Tess, and in 2015, she appeared in two episodes of Drunk History 

Philomena Cunk
Morgan is perhaps best known for her portrayal of Philomena Cunk, an extremely dim-witted and ill-informed interviewer and commentator on current affairs  The character first appeared in a regular segment on Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe (2013–2015)  Cunk has since appeared in other mockumentary contexts  In December 2016, she presented BBC Two's Cunk on Christmas  In April 2018, the five-part historical mockumentary Cunk on Britain began broadcasting on BBC Two  Also in 2018, Morgan wrote Cunk on Everything: The Encyclopedia Philomena, published by Two Roads on 1 November  In December 2019, Morgan appeared as Cunk for short episodes of Cunk and Other Humans, once again on BBC Two  She returned in a one-off episode of Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe titled "Antiviral Wipe", about the COVID-19 pandemic, in May 2020  Another series, Cunk on Earth, began broadcasting in September 2022  For her performance in the latter, Morgan was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance 

Other roles
Morgan played David Brent's public relations guru in the film David Brent: Life on the Road (2016)  She has appeared in several short films, including The Boot Sale, which was shortlisted in the Virgin Media Shorts film competition 2010 In 2016, Morgan played Mandy in Sky One's comedy Rovers, appearing in all six episodes of the first series  She also appeared in the pilot for the BBC2 comedy We the Jury as Olivia  She also plays receptionist Talia in Sky's comedy drama Mount Pleasant and Liz in the BBC2 sitcom Motherland 
Morgan plays Kath in the Netflix black-comedy series After Life, written by Ricky Gervais  She starred in the Gold sitcom The Cockfields, again alongside Wilkinson, and in comedy-drama Frayed in 2019  In 2019, she wrote, directed, and starred in the BBC2 comedy short Mandy, described as "a comedy by Diane Morgan about Mandy, a woman who really, really wants a sofa, and will stop at absolutely nothing to get it"  Carol Decker appeared as herself in the short  The character returned in August 2020 for the full series Mandy, with Shaun Ryder, Maxine Peake, and Natalie Cassidy in guest roles  A Christmas special, We Wish You a Mandy Christmas, loosely based on A Christmas Carol, was broadcast in December 2021 Also in 2020, Morgan played Gemma Nerrick in the British mockumentary Death to 2020, created by Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones  She reprised the role in Death to 2021  She voiced the character 105E in the 2021 animated Cartoon Network series Elliott from Earth 
In April 2022, Morgan starred as Donna in the first episode of the seventh series of Inside No  9  In December 2022, Morgan reprised her role as Liz on Motherland for the Christmas special 

Personal life
Morgan lives in the Bloomsbury district of London with her boyfriend, BBC comedy producer Ben Caudell Interviewed by Stuart Jeffries for The Guardian' in 2016, she said, "I've always wanted to make people laugh  It's been my only ambition, ever since my dad introduced me to the genius of the great comedians: Tony Hancock, Woody Allen, people like that  While other kids were into New Kids on the Block, I was into Harold Lloyd and Stan Laurel  I'm still like that  I don't have any hobbies "

Filmography
Passage 6:
My Family (series 10)
The tenth series of the BBC family sitcom My Family originally aired between 9 July 2010, and 27 August 2010, with a Christmas special that went to air on 24 December 2010  The series was commissioned following consistent ratings from the previous series  The opening episode, "Wheelie Ben", re-introduces the six main characters, with the addition of regular appearances from Kenzo Harper, played by Tayler Marshall  However, the character of Roger Bailey only made an appearance in the series finale  All episodes from the tenth series are thirty minutes in length, with the exception of the Christmas Special  The series was once again produced by Rude Boy Productions, a company that produces comedies created by Fred Barron  Unlike previous series of the show, which were filmed on a yearly basis, both Series 10 and 11 were filmed back-to-back  For the first time in the show's history, two episodes of the series remained unaired for some time  At the time of release, the DVD of the series contained two episodes that had yet to be broadcast on television  On 17 June 2011, one of these two episodes were aired, and the remaining one aired on 22 July 2011  The series averaged 4 55 million per episode; however, they managed to get over 6 00 million viewers for the Christmas Special 

Episode Information
Notes
Passage 7:
David Earl (actor)
David Geoffrey Earl (born 20th March 1974) is a British actor and comedian, best known for his comedy character Brian Gittins  He has featured in several projects associated with Ricky Gervais, most notably as Kevin "Kev" Twine in the comedy-drama Derek, and in smaller roles in Extras, After Life and the film Cemetery Junction  Earl also works frequently with comic Joe Wilkinson  Together they co-wrote and starred in the sitcom Rovers, and the comedy series The Cockfields  They also host three podcasts called Gossipmongers, Chatabix and My New Football Club  He also co-wrote and starred in the feature film Brian and Charles where he plays an isolated inventor who builds a robot 

Early life
Earl was born in Crawley in 1974  Before undertaking any acting roles, Earl worked as a gardener and as a van driver, delivering building tools 

Comedy career
One of Earl's earliest online videos featured him playing a character called Graham, which he sent to a friend who showed it to Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant  They liked the video and Gervais asked Earl to play an obsessive fan, based on the character from the video, who talks to Andy Millman in a pub in an episode of Extras  Around this time Earl played Tony Queen in the film The Penalty King Earl went on to create a number of online videos in character as Brian Gittins and played this role in the film Cemetery Junction  In 2012 a sitcom pilot entitled Gittins was broadcast on Channel 4  In the pilot Gittins works as a taxi driver: previously the character had been a cafe owner and this discrepancy is highlighted in an episode of the podcast Flatshare Slamdown, in which Earl appears as Brian  He releases regular Brian Gittins and Friends podcasts Another of Earl's characters is Steve "Cumbo" Cumberland, who features in a number of online videos, including a Channel 4 Comedy Blaps series, co-written with Brett Goldstein In 2011, Earl was revealed to be the person behind the popular Twitter account of Dr Peter Thraft, a supposed sex therapist 

Personal life
Earl has three children and lives in Devon 

Filmography
Podcasts
The Brian Gittins Show
A live radio show hosted on Spreaker from 2012-2017, where Brian played the role of 'the worst radio presenter in the world'  Callers would Skype in from around the world, and these included David Edwards and Charles Petrescu 

Brian Gittins and Friends
Brian, David Edwards and Charles Petrescu have a chat with various comedians  It started in 2016, with guests including John Kearns, Lolly Adefope, and Scroobius Pip 

Gossipmongers
In 2019, David Earl, Joe Wilkinson and Poppy Hillstead began a podcast called Gossipmongers, a weekly podcast where listeners send in unsubstantiated rumours  At the end of each episode they choose their favourite piece of gossip from that episode  In 2020 Poppy was booted from the podcast by Joe and David 

Chatabix
In 2021, David Earl and Joe Wilkinson began a podcast called Chatabix, a daily weekday podcast recorded very early in the morning 

My New Football Club
In 2021, David Earl and Jon Beer began a podcast called My New Football Club  A weekly podcast about David becoming a new fan of Exeter City 
Passage 8:
7 Day Sunday
7 Day Sunday (7 Day Saturday in 2013) is a British comedy radio talk show hosted by Al Murray on BBC Radio 5 Live  Broadcast weekly on Sunday mornings, the show takes an irreverent look at the topical news stories of the past seven days  
Originally presented by Chris Addison: he was joined by regular guests Sarah Millican and Andy Zaltzman, and a fourth special guest each episode  It premièred in January 2010 to mixed reviews  It returned for a second series in September 2010  Al Murray served as host for the last five episodes of the second series, joined by regular guests Rebecca Front and Joe Wilkinson  The show returned for a third series in January 2012 with Murray hosting alongside Andy Zaltzman and Rebecca Front as the regular guests  A fourth series followed from September 2012 

History
7 Day Sunday was announced as a new show on 11 December 2009, to be hosted by Addison and broadcast for an hour in the 11 am to 12 noon slot  The guests for the opening episode were to be Zaltzman, Millican, and a special guest  It was to replace another comedy show The Christian O'Connell Solution, hosted by Christian O'Connell with Bob Mills  The new show was to begin on 10 January 2010, as part of the wider re-organisation of 5 Live's schedule which had already begun to be announced in October 2009, the largest since controller Adrian Van Klaveren joined the station in April 2008 The show is produced for 5 Live by Avalon Television  It was initially commissioned for a 20-week run  This first series duly ran from 10 January 2010 until 6 June 2010  After three months it resumed for a second series on 5 September 2010 until 3 April 2011  The third series began 8 January 2012 In press interviews during March 2010 while promoting his upcoming stand-up tour, Addison explained that doing a radio show was a childhood ambition, and that as a "current affairs junkie", hosting 7 Day Sunday was ideal, more relaxed than television and good fun, with the weekly deadline being a good motivation 

Format
When the show was announced, it was cast as a topical news series aiming to "pull apart the week's big news stories and see what makes them tick", with Addison describing it as "four relatively ill-informed idiots fail to take the news seriously for an hour" 

Hosts and regulars
The following people have hosted the show during its run:

As well as the host there are usually two other regulars plus a guest   For series 1 and 2 regulars were Andy Zaltzman and Sarah Millican   For series 3 Rebecca Front replaced Sarah Millican 

Broadcasts
Last updated January 2018The show aired on Sundays from 11 am to noon  It once aired at 9 pm on 31 January 2010  The series occasionally missed a week for sporting events (Formula 1 Grand Prix, London Marathon, etc ) 
Series One featured 20 episodes which were broadcast between 10 January 2010 and 6 June 2010   There were no episodes broadcast on 7 February 2010, 25 April 2010 Series Two consisted of 26 episodes, broadcast between 5 September 2010 and 3 April 2011  There were no episode broadcast on 19 September 2010, 3 October 2010, 26 December 2010, 2 January 2010 and 30 January 2010 Series Three had 15 episodes which were broadcast between 8 January 2012 and 6 May 2012  No episode was broadcast on 25 March 2012 Series Four also had 15 episodes, began on 9 September 2012, and ended on 16 December 
In 2013, the show returned for a new, slightly different series: it was moved to Saturdays, renamed 7 Day Saturday, had 11 episodes between 8 June and 24 August, kept Al Murray as host, and featured Andy Zaltzman and two guests each programme  There was also a Christmas special, 7 Days of Christmas, broadcast on 24 December 2013 
Series Five only had 5 episodes, broadcast between 11 May and 8 June 2014 
The last edition of 7 Day Sunday was broadcast on 9 August 2015  This edition was hosted by Jenny Eclair, with the final guests included Andy Zaltzman, Holly Walsh and Stephen Grant 
The show was made available on the BBC's iPlayer service and as a podcast, which features additional material 

Reception
After the first show, Jane Thynne of The Independent questioned the lack of variety, covering as it did mainly the heavy snowfall with little political content, which given Addison had made his name in a political satire, she found odd  She ultimately reserved judgement on the show, calling Addison witty but recommending he slow down the pace and stop his "nervous giggling" Chris Campling of The Times criticised the first episode as being a duplicate of the "dismal, desperate" The Christian O'Connell Solution it replaced, with a turgid format  Persevering, he described the second episode as just as dreary with no chemistry and "none of the News Quiz-esque scoring of laughter points, where clever people fall over each other in their desperation to be funnier than the last "After the third episode, Elisabeth Mahoney of The Guardian said the show was "really quite funny" but the listener needed to stay focussed on the content as the four way dialogue was quite involved as it covered a comprehensive sweep of topics  For listeners who might want to multi-task on a Sunday morning, she recommended Dave Gorman's show on Absolute Radio 
Passage 9:
John Jackson (writer)
John Jackson is an English television screenwriter 

Life and career
After leaving Cambridge University, John Jackson developed and script edited the ITV soap Night and Day  Altogether he wrote 35 episodes for the TV Series  In 2009 he wrote the episode The King Is Dead, Long Live the King…  for the BBC One series Robin Hood  From 2010 to 2012 he wrote two episodes of the serial drama Lip Service  From 2011 until 2013 he wrote three episodes for the supernatural drama Being Human  This brought him a Writers' Guild of Great Britain award for Best TV Drama Series  He also wrote two episodes for the Being Human spin off Becoming Human In 2014 Jackson wrote an episode for another BBC Three series, In the Flesh  He would become a regular writer on ITV's Grantchester, and in 2020, was lead writer on season 3 of Sky's Riviera 

Filmography
Awards and nominations
Awards
Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award:

2012: Best TV Drama Series (Being Human)
Passage 10:
Egypt (TV series)
Egypt is a BBC television docudrama serial portraying events in the history of Egyptology from the 18th through early 20th centuries  It originally aired on Sunday nights at 9 pm on BBC1 in 2005  The first two episodes explored the work of Howard Carter and his archaeological quest in Egypt in the early part of the twentieth century  The next two episodes focused on the eccentric explorer "The Great Belzoni" played here by Matthew Kelly  The final two episodes dramatise the discovery and deciphering of the Rosetta Stone by Jean-François Champollion (Elliot Cowan) 
The music was recorded by the Warsaw Radio Orchestra and is featured on the CD Timeless Histories by Chappell music, produced by Clare Isaacs 

Production
The series was a major new docudrama series produced by the BBC for the Autumn 2005 schedule 
"The whole idea behind the series was to be able to discover Ancient Egypt through the eyes of Howard Carter – famous for uncovering the tomb of Tutankhamun; The Great Belzoni – an amazing adventurer and explorer; and the scholar Jean-François Champollion, who was the first to decipher the Rosetta Stone and open up the meaning of hieroglyphics "
In order to create a sense of "seeing the treasures of Ancient Egypt for the first time", Dolling and Bradshaw felt it essential to film at the actual archaeological sites referenced in the series 

"We had fantastic help from the Government and a local production crew, they managed to fix it for us to film in areas that, as far as we know, have never been used by other television or film productions "
"Being the first UK TV company to attempt such a project in the most amazing historical sights was very exhilarating, and to be able to return them - with additional sets and some computer imagery - to how they were during the time of the Pharaohs was incredible "
Filming at such invaluable and popular sites created new challenges for the film makers 

"Keeping people out of shot was one — sometimes this was nearing impossible — but we tended to shoot early in the day so disruptions were kept to a minimum  The other was obviously making sure we didn't damage anything, which thankfully we managed!"
"It was difficult keeping such a unique project running so far from home, and it is a tribute to the cast and crew that we managed to succeed  The series really is great and looks fantastic, well worth all the hard work "
The co-production between BBC and The Learning Channel was initially budgeted at around £6 5m but problems filming on location in Egypt, including the weather and illness, meant the producers required another £2million  Post production costs involved in recreating Ancient Egypt meant that the final costs could have resulted in a £5million overspend but the BBC denied this 

"To suggest the overspend is anything in the [range of] £5m is utterly ridiculous — it is simply not true  This was a huge project shot on location in Egypt and, as with any project of such scale, we had contingency funds available to us — so the unavoidable overspend was accommodated for and fully authorised "
"I think it's useful to point out that the cost per hour of Egypt will still be lower than other comparable programmes such as Pompeii, Genghis Khan and Pyramid  In fact, due to the international co-financing, this is actually incredibly good value for money providing full period drama for the budget normally associated with a documentary "
Several multi-media productions were commissioned to tie-in with the series including interactive drama BBC Egypt Interactive, award-winning online-game Death in Sakkara: An Egyptian Adventure, and an interactive exhibition at BBC Birmingham A companion series Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank, in which architectural historian Cruickshank travels the country to explore some of the intriguing stories that have emerged from ancient Egypt, was broadcast concurrently on BBC Two 

Reception
Reviews
Sam Wollaston writing about episode one in The Guardian said that he "was expecting to hate this show," fearing it would be "narration interspersed with lame reconstruction," but he was pleased to discover it was, in fact, "a proper drama, with a very decent script and real actors " "And it's a great story, too," he states, although he did not enjoy the re-enactments of the life of Tutankhamun, which he described as "olive-skinned actors with non-speaking parts and an awful lot of eye-liner, wandering around in a semi-darkness lit by flickering candles," and claims were not necessary, "but maybe that will help to sell it to America " He concludes that he is "looking forward to part two "David Liddiment writing in The Guardian complimented the cleverly twinning of this docudrama with the more cerebral Egyptian Journeys with Dan Cruickshank on BBC Two but he points out that this was done during the final stages of the BBC's charter renewal review and insists that the corporation should keep up standards after this process is completed 

Ratings
Episode one (2005-10-30): 7 million viewers (29% audience share) 
Episode two (2005-11-06): 6 million viewers (24% audience share) 
Episode three (2005-11-13): 5 7 million viewers (23% audience share) 
Episode four (2005-11-20): 4 8 million viewers 
Episode five (2005-11-27): 4 5 million viewers (18% audience share) 

Episodes
Part one: Howard Carter
The story of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter and the popular belief in the Curse of the Pharaohs, a supposed result of Carter's disturbing Tutankhamen's resting place  The episodes include short dramatizations of the life of Tutankhamun 

Episode one: The Search for Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun vanished from history in 1324 BC following his hurried burial and the erasure of his name from all monuments  In the winter of 1898 Carter is at the temples of Deir el Bahri recording wall reliefs threatened by a freak storm when he is thrown from his horse and makes a discovery in the sand  Retired Boston lawyer Theodore M  Davis funds Carter's excavation of Queen Hatshepsut's tomb but it is found to be empty and Carter deprived of further funding is reduced to selling his paintings to tourists on the street 
In 1905 Lord Carnarvon arrives in Luxor to convalesce after a road accident and is shown an artifact bearing the cartouche of the mysterious Tutankhamun discovered by Davis on his new dig  Tutankhamun succeeded his heretical father as pharaoh at the age of 8 and was named in honour of Amun to symbolise his mission to restore the old gods and save the empire from turmoil  An inspired Carnarvon employs Carter but they are denied access to the Valley of the Kings for which only Davis has a permit  Amidst the flurry of construction that marked the beginning of Tutankhamun's reign the most important to the boy Pharaoh would have been that of his tomb  An ailing Davis announces his discovery of this, the final Pharaoh's tomb, prior to his retirement  Carter doubts the find and convinces Carnarvon to take up the concession  The methodical and meticulous excavation commences in 1914 but is quickly interrupted by World War I 
The Carnarvons return to Egypt at the end of the war and Carter recommences his excavation but with a continued lack of results leading to doubts that any undiscovered tombs are left in the valley the funding is finally cut in 1922  Tutankhamun's tomb was well concealed to ensure his undisturbed afterlife  Carter convinces Carnarvon to fund one last season during which the tomb is finally unearthed  When the tomb is opened in the presence of Carnarvon and his daughter it is revealed to be the only unplundered pharaoh's tomb in the valley 

Episode two: The Curse of Tutankhamun
In 1922 Carter goes to the Egyptian Antiquities Service in Cairo to announce his discovery but disagrees with Director Pierre Lacau over the clearance and cataloguing of the contents  The discovery revealed a dark time in the history of Egypt and the death of its boy king  Carter assembles an international team of experts to commence the work under the unwelcome scrutiny of Lacau's inspector and the western press  Carnarvon's cavalier attitude to the finds he considers his property starts to infuriate both Carter and Lacau 
As the finds are slowly catalogued and removed Carter becomes close to Carnarvon's daughter Evelyn but his strictness begins to alienate his team  Tutankhamun was married to his own sister but the union failed to produce an heir to secure the future of the kingdom  Stories of the curse begin to circulate as Carter breaks through into the burial chamber to reveal an intact tomb  As Lacau threatens to take over the excavation and several of the experts quit, Carnarvon questions Carter over his leadership and his relationship with Evelyn  When he came of age Tutankhamun took over control of the kingdom from his military advisor Ay only to die from unknown causes shortly thereafter  Carter rushes to Carnarvon's death-bed where the two make-up  Upon Tutankhamun's death Ay seized the throne and married the widowed queen  Carter, disappointed by Evelyn's engagement to another man, returns to continue his work  Tutankhamun's death came before the royal tomb could be completed so he was hastily buried in the tomb Ay had prepared for himself  Lacau takes over the running of the tomb in 1924 when Carter and his team stop work to protest continued Egyptian interference 
The following year Carter is called back by Lacau to reopen the tomb with funding from Lady Carnarvon  The team start to extract the nested coffins revealing one of them to be made of pure gold that confirms the presence of a Pharaoh  The team begin to notice evidence that the burial was done in a hurry as the body itself is finally uncovered  When Ay died without heir a new dynasty took to the throne that erased all references to the Boy King  In 1932 with his work complete Carter leaves the tomb for the last time and hands the key to Lacau 

Cast
Stuart Graham as Howard Carter
Julian Wadham as Lord Carnarvon
Caroline Langrishe as Lady Carnarvon
Alex Weaver as Evelyn Carnarvon
Valentine Pelka as Pierre Lacau
William Hope as Theodore M  Davis
Laurence Fox as Leonard

Part two: The Great Belzoni
The story of Italian engineer and circus strongman Giovanni Belzoni who became the most unlikely Egyptologist the world has ever seen, intercut with Flashbacks to the life of Ramses the Great, in whose footsteps Belzoni would continually stray 

Episode three: The Pharaoh and the Showman
A dissatisfied Belzoni leaves England with his wife, Sarah, and servant, James Curtin, to see the world  Finding themselves destitute in the streets of Cairo after work on an irrigation project falls through, they are rescued by the eccentric John Lewis Bukhardt who introduces them to British Consul Henry Salt  Belzoni is hired to recover the massive Head of Memnon, later revealed to a statue of the Pharaoh Ramesses the Great, as a gift for the British Museum  Arriving in Luxor in 1816 amidst a gold rush of black market antiquities dealers Belzoni finds himself unwelcome 
At the Ramesseum Belzoni examines the head and devises a plan for its removal  The local Caimakan, under advice from Belzoni's French rival Bernardino Drovetti, denies Belzoni's permit and initially refuses to supply labour until threats bring him around  Ramesses marriage to his true love Nefertari was fruitful and secured the family line and the country too was fertile thanks to the annual flooding of the Nile  The approaching flood season however threatens to strand the head in the heart of the flood plain bringing an abrupt halt to Belzoni's mission  When the local labourers finally arrive Belzoni immediately sets to work moving the head using the same techniques its builders had used 3,000 years previous  Belzoni sends the ailing Jim back to Cairo to request a bigger boat so that they can collect even more antiquities and with time running out is forced to take greater risks to get the head to the bank of the Nile 
With the head secured the Belzonis heads south along the Nile to Abu Simbal in uncharted Nubia to expand the collection of antiquities  Ramesses built two temples at Abu Simbal; one dedicated his beloved wife and the other to his military prowess in the first victorious campaign  Belzoni locates the entrance to the Great Temple but finds it blocked, and so forced to head back to Cairo he vows to return to excavate the site the following season 

Episode four: The Temple of the Sands
Belzoni, arriving back in Cairo, is informed by Salt that only the head is to be sent to the British Museum while the rest of the antiquities he has collected are to be kept at the consulate  Salt refuses to fund an excavation at Abu Simbal and Belzoni is sent south again with Salt's secretary William Beechey and a local dealer called Yanni  Belzoni, whilst becalmed at Minya  spots Yenni talking to his French rival Drovetti and hastily rides to Luxor determined to get there first  Arriving to late Belzoni discovers that the entire area licensed to Drovetti and he must dig elsewhere 
Belzoni, guided by the image of Ramesses, digs in an unlicensed area and discovers a perfectly preserved bust  An infuriated Drovetti has the local ruler issue an edict against Belzoni  With no other option Belzoni heads south to the Island of Philae to collect the antiquities he has stored there only to discover upon arrival that the French have ransacked them  Funds arrive from Salt to begin excavation at Abu Simbal and Belzoni heads to the site with two British Royal Navy officers  Work progresses slowly in the shifting desert until Belzoni devises a plan to build a palisade to hold back the sand  With the entrance uncovered the group cautiously enter to view the magnificent interior  Belzoni records every detail of the temple decorations, which celebrate the capture of Kadesh that made Ramesses a great warrior king  Back in Luxor Belzoni, reunited with Sarah and Jim, is threatened by Drevetti but undeterred he heads deep into the western hills where he enters the Valley of the Kings  Belzoni learns from Yanni and Beechey that Salt is selling off the antiquities he collects rather than donating them to the British Museum 
Persuaded to go on with his explorations Belzoni constructs a battering ram to break through the thick walls of the valley side and open up an undiscovered tomb  Defying booby-traps Belzoni pushes on into the lavish interior of the tomb where he enters the burial chamber of the Pharaoh Seti I  It was here upon the death of his father that Ramesses started his reign, which would bring peace and prosperity to Egypt  The discovery of Belzoni's Tomb secures the Egyptologist's reputation and makes him a celebrity in his adopted home of London where the British Museum would later honour him 

Cast
Matthew Kelly as Belzoni
Lynsey Baxter as Sarah Belzoni
Nevan Finnigan as James Curtin
Robert Portal as Henry Salt
Richard Dempsey as William Beechey
Thomas Lockyer as John Lewis Bukhardt
Joseph Long as Bernardino Drovetti

Part three: Champollion
Jean-François Champollion uses the Rosetta Stone to unlock the mysteries of the lost civilisation of Ancient Egypt which had been closed off to Europeans for centuries prior to the invasion of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798  The stone, discovered by the French in 1799, had been created as a work of propaganda by the Greek-speaking Pharaoh Ptolemy V to establish his place in Egyptian cosmology and flashbacks are included to explain this belief system 

Episode five: The Mystery of the Rosetta Stone
The young Champollion, encouraged to develop his gift for languages by his elder brother, becomes obsessed with deciphering hieroglyphs as a means to telling the age of the world and revenging France against the British who had confiscated the stone in 1801  When Alexander the Great had conquered Egypt, he had fuelled local resentment by bringing in a Greek speaking elite to rule  Their descendant King Tutankhamun had commissioned a series of stones written in Greek, common Egyptian and hieroglyphs for temples across the land to extol his virtues and underline his claim to the throne 
Champollion studies under Silvestre de Sacy in Paris but finds the professor who had himself failed decipher hieroglyphs dismissive of further attempts believing them to be symbolic rather than a true language  English scientist Thomas Young uses mathematics to decipher the inscription like a code whilst Champollion believing hieroglyphs to be representative of a spoken language attempts to relate them to the Coptic language of Egypt's ancient Christian communities  Young makes a number of breakthroughs including the spelling of Ptolemy in hieroglyphs while Champollion finds work as assistant professor at the University of Grenoble  France is thrown into political turmoil in 1815 following defeat at the Battle of Waterloo and the republican Champollion is arrested for sedition and exiled to Figeac until 1821  Eccentric Egyptologist Giovanni Belzoni discovers an obelisk inscribed with the name of Cleopatra in Greek and hieroglyphs at Philae and sends it back to Young in England 
Young makes a mistake in translating the obelisk setting back his work whilst Champollion using a copy of the obelisk creates a hieroglyphic alphabet that he uses along with Coptic to translate the name of Ramesses the Great from sketches of Abu Simbal  Champollion's discovery arouses the suspicions of the Catholic Church who fear hieroglyphs might disprove the historical accuracy of the Bible  Young wishes Champllion good luck in proving his theories but Sacy and the Church are determined to stop him 

Episode six: The Secrets of the Hieroglyphs
Champollion is determined to travel to Egypt to prove his theory but poor and jobless he is reduced to buying up whatever scraps of papyrus he can find and this obsession alienates his wife  The Dendera zodiac purchased by the French King Charles X threatens to challenge the biblical chronologies of church scholars, as it is believed by some to date to before the Great Flood of 2349 BC  Champollion is called in to confirm Sacy's dating of the antiquity to around 2000 BC; he disputes Sacy's dating but not Church authorities by dating it to some 2,000 years later than that during the Roman period 
Champollion is sent to Turin by the King to value a collection put up for sale by the French Consul to Egypt Bernardino Drovetti  Prior to his departure Champollion's wife announces that she is pregnant and she is not pleased by his new job  Champollion builds a strong reputation for himself in Italy even being invited for an audience with Pope Leo XII  Returning to Paris with a large collection of antiquities for the King he is put in charge of the Egyptian collection at the Louvre  The King finally agrees to fund Champollion's expedition to Egypt on the proviso that he does not publish any finds that contradict the teachings of the Church  Champollion, arriving in 1828, starts by studying the Great Pyramid at Giza discovering it to be a tomb built for the Pharaoh Khufu around 2560 BC  At Saqqara he finds the site largely stripped by dealers but in a forgotten tomb he discovers ancient hieroglyphs he translates to prove his theories  Eager to understand the Ancient Egyptians he pushes on to the ancient capital of Thebes where at the sprawling Temple of Karnak he reads the story of Ramesses the Great and the battle against the Hittites at Kadesh 
At Belzoni's Tomb in the Valley of the Kings the ailing Champollion reads the story of Pharaoh Seti I and learns of the burial rites of Pharaohs  He is thus able to comprehend the belief system of the Ancient Egyptians for the first time  Champollion dies back in France 18 months later but his legacy allows Egyptologist to comprehend the meaning behind monuments such as the Great Pyramid of Giza and to decipher papyri that lead to such discoveries as the Tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter 

Cast
Elliot Cowan as Jean-François Champollion
Stuart Bunce as Jacques-Joseph Champollion

Media information
DVD release
Released on Region 2 DVD by BBC Video on 2006-02-06 Also released on Region 1 DVD (2 discs, but does not include the bonus 'Pyramid') by BBC Worldwide 2006-05-23

Companion book
The 2005 companion book to the series was written by author and archaeologist Joyce Tyldesley expands on the series to tell the full story of the discoveries and the colourful characters who made them 

Selected editions
Tyldesley, Joyce (6 October 2005)  Egypt, How A Lost Civilization Was Rediscovered  BBC Books (hardcover)  ISBN 978-0-563-52257-7 
Tyldesley, Joyce (1 June 2003)  Egypt, How A Lost Civilization Was Rediscovered  BBC Books (paperback)  ISBN 978-0-563-49381-5 
Tyldesley, Joyce (18 September 2005)  Egypt, How A Lost Civilization Was Rediscovered  UC Press (hardcover)  ISBN 978-0-520-25020-8 

See also
Building the Great Pyramid
Context 2: Passage 1:
Redwood City Daily News
The Redwood City Daily News was a free daily newspaper in Redwood City, California, United States, published 6 days a week with an average daily circulation of 8,000  The newspaper was founded August 9, 2000 by Dave Price and Jim Pavelich, who also published the Palo Alto Daily News  The Redwood City Daily News was adjudicated as a newspaper of general circulation by the San Mateo County Superior Court in 2001, enabling it to publish legal notices  Both the Palo Alto and Redwood City Daily News editions were distributed in large red newspaper racks and in stores, coffee shops, restaurants, schools and major workplaces  The Redwood City Daily News, along with five other Daily News editions, was sold to Knight Ridder on Feb  15, 2005  After McClatchy's acquisition of Knight Ridder in early 2006, all six Daily News editions, including the Redwood City Daily News, were bundled with the San Jose Mercury News and sold to MediaNews Group of Denver, Colorado 
On November 12, 2004, the Redwood City Daily News became one of the first print media outlets in the United States to report late-breaking news of national interest  The trial of Scott Peterson for the murder of his wife Laci Peterson and their unborn son had taken place at the Redwood City courthouse, and less than an hour after the jury read their verdict the Daily News began circulation of an "extra" edition which announced the result The surviving Daily News papers merged on April 7, 2009 
Passage 2:
Sawin Millett
Howard Sawin Millett Jr  (born October 8, 1937) is a Maine politician  A Republican, Millett served as the Commissioner of Administrative and Financial Services in the administration of Governor Paul LePage from 2011 to 2014  In January 2011, Millett was unanimously approved as Commissioner by the Maine Senate, with key Democrats also endorsing his appointment  In December 2011, a poll of policymakers by the Bangor Daily News ranked Millett as the ninth most influential person in Maine politics 

Government career
Millett served in the administrations of four separate governors (Longley, McKernan, King and LePage) with two different political affiliations (two Independents and two Republicans)  Millett advanced in the field of education until he became commissioner of education for Maine's first independent governor, James Longley  He was appointed to the position in 1975 at the age of 37 and served until 1979  In 1979, Republican Governor John McKernan appointed Millett Commissioner of the state finance department  During his time in the McKernan administration, the government was shut down due to the inability to agree on a budget  He also served from 1995 to 2000 as Associate Commissioner of the Department of Mental Health/Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services for Independent Angus King  In 2011, Millett was unanimously confirmed as Commissioner of Administrative and Financial Services by the Maine Senate after being selected by Republican Paul LePage 
Millett announced his retirement on April 3, 2014, to be effective on May 30  He stated he wanted to spend more time with his family and in his hometown   Governor LePage praised his service and knowledge of state budgeting  Millett retired in May 2014 and was replaced by Richard Rosen 

Legislative career
Millett first served in the legislature from 1969 to 1972  In 2002, Millett won a seat in the Maine House of Representatives  Unable to run for his seat again in 2010, he challenged John Patrick for Senate District 14 and was defeated  In 2018, he won election to the Maine House of Representatives from District 71 

Personal
Millett was born in Waterford, Maine in Oxford County, Maine and his family settled on a farm in Dixmont in Penobscot County when he was in fourth grade  Millett's father was a superintendent of schools and his mother was primarily a homemaker  He was one of five boys in his family  Millett, despite being an avid baseball fan and having lived his entire life in Maine, became a supporter of the St  Louis Cardinals during the 1946 World Series in which the Cardinals beat the Boston Red Sox  He graduated from Carmel High School in Carmel, Maine in 1955 and attended the same college as his father, Bates College  After graduating, he returned to Penobscot County and began teaching at Hermon High School  He continued teaching in the district until 1971 In 1977, while serving as Commissioner of Education, Millett and his wife bought a home in Manchester, Maine to cut down on his daily commute for work in Augusta, but the couple disliked living in a subdivision so much that he and his wife bought 25 acres of land next to his parents farm in Waterford and built a house to live in   He could barely stand to address the Maine Senate during his 2011 confirmation hearing due to an infection after knee replacement surgery  Shortly after being appointed commissioner, Millett had to miss work due to a second infection in his knee; he was temporarily replaced by Ryan Low, who had served as Commissioner of Finance under Democrat John Baldacci  Low said of Millett "I would do just about anything for him   There's no one more of an expert on budgeting and legislative process; but even more than that, he's a genuinely nice person "
Passage 3:
Burlingame Daily News
The Burlingame Daily News was a free daily newspaper in Burlingame, California published six days a week with an average daily circulation of 7,000  The newspaper was founded August 9, 2000 by Dave Price (journalist) and Jim Pavelich, who also published the Palo Alto Daily News 

Distribution
Both papers were distributed in large red newspaper racks and in stores, coffee shops, restaurants, schools and major workplaces  
Burlingame Daily News, along with five other Daily News editions, was sold to Knight Ridder in 2005  
After McClatchy's acquisition of Knight Ridder in early 2006, all six Daily News editions, including the Burlingame Daily News, were bundled with the San Jose Mercury News and sold to MediaNews Group of Denver, Colorado  The surviving Daily News papers merged on April 7, 2009 

External links
Official site
Knight Ridder buys Daily News
Daily News publishers ride into sunset
Passage 4:
East Bay Daily News
The East Bay Daily News was a free daily newspaper in Berkeley, California published 5 days a week with an average daily circulation of 10,000  The newspaper was founded May 20, 2005 by journalist Dave Price and Jim Pavelich, who also published the Palo Alto Daily News  The East Bay Daily News was distributed in large red newspaper racks and in stores, coffee shops, restaurants, schools and major workplaces in Berkeley, Albany, Piedmont and Oakland  After McClatchy's acquisition of the paper's previous owner Knight Ridder in early 2006, the Palo Alto Daily News group, including the East Bay Daily News, was bundled with the San Jose Mercury News and sold to MediaNews Group of Denver, Colorado 

External links
East Bay Daily News Official Website
Passage 5:
Bangor Daily News
The Bangor Daily News is an American newspaper covering a large portion of central and eastern Maine, published six days per week in Bangor, Maine 
The Bangor Daily News was founded on June 18, 1889; it merged with the Bangor Whig and Courier in 1900  Also known as the News or the BDN, the paper is published by Bangor Publishing Company, a local family-owned company 
It has been owned by the Towle-Warren family for four generations; current publisher Richard J  Warren is the great-grandson of J  Norman Towle, who bought the paper in 1895  Since 2018, it has been the only independently owned daily newspaper in the state 

History
The Bangor Daily News's first issue was June 18, 1889; the main stockholder in the publishing company was Bangor shipping and logging businessman Thomas J  Stewart  Upon Stewart's death in 1890, his sons took control of the paper, which was originally a tabloid with "some news, but also plenty of gossip, lurid stories and scandals " In 1895, J  Norman Towle purchased the newspaper  Ownership of the paper remained in the family, and Towle's great-grandson Richard J  Warren remains the publisher today The Bangor Daily News merged with the Bangor Whig & Courier in 1900, leaving two newspapers in the city: BDN and the Bangor Daily Commercial (which ceased publication in 1949)  Towle's son-in-law Fred Jordan took control of the paper in 1929  Forty-six BDN staff members served in the U S  forces during World War II, and the paper's managing editor John M  O'Connell was sent to Europe as a war correspondent  After Fred Jordan's death in 1947, his widow Lillis Towle Jordan became publisher  Richard K  Warren became publisher in 1955 and remained in that role until 1984, a time when the newspaper's circulation dramatically increased  It has only missed one day of delivery in its entire history  On New Year's Eve 1962, a massive blizzard dumped over three feet of snow on Bangor, with 20-foot snowdrifts that made it impossible for the delivery trucks to move The newspaper's peak came in the mid-1980s, when Bangor Daily News had 150 reporters and editors and 150 other employees   At the time, published seven regional editions of the newspaper throughout Maine, and in addition to its main office on Main Street in Bangor had news bureaus at Madawaska, Presque Isle, Houlton, Pittsfield, Calais, Machias, Rockland, Augusta and Ellsworth In 1982, a reporter for the Bangor Daily News, Beurmond Banville, who ran a one-person news bureau for the paper in Madawaska, Maine, on the U S -Canada border, wrote about a pretrial hearing in a murder case in New Brunswick, Canada  After publishing an account of the restricted proceeding in BDN, Banville was convicted in a Canadian court for violating a publication ban, and was fined $160; in 1983, the Court of Appeal of New Brunswick upheld the conviction, but gave Banville an absolute discharge, meaning that he does not have any Canadian criminal record  Banville and the newspaper considered the Canadian court's ruling to be a prior restraint on freedom of the press, but decided not to further appeal considering the cost  The ruling appears in a textbook on Canadian media law Richard J  Warren succeeded his father as editor in 1984; five years later, the newspaper moved its printing plant from Bangor to a new printing plant in Hampden (which was closed in 2013 and sold in 2015) The newspaper was an early adopter of a policy prohibiting tobacco advertising  As of 1993, the Bangor Daily News was one of fewer than twenty American newspapers that declined to accept ads for tobacco products The newspaper launched its Web presence in 1997 at bangornews com, later moving to bangordailynews com in the 2000s  From 1997 to 2001, BDN acted as an Internet service provider in addition to a newspaper, working with two local, small telecommunications companies to provide dial-up Internet access to a few thousand people in Maine BDN adopted an aggressive "digital-first" publishing strategy, and became the most-read online news source in the state; in 2011, the Portland Press Herald outsold BDN in print copies by a few thousand papers on an average weekday, but BDN's website had more than 100,000 unique visitors than the Press Herald's website In 2008, the paper's editorial page director, Todd Benoit, was appointed BDN's director of new media; he later became  BDN's president and chief operating officer  In 2014, Richard J  Warren became publisher of the newspaper   The company that owns and operates the newspaper, Bangor Publishing Co , expanded through acquisitions of Bangor Metro magazine (2014), Madawaska's St  John Valley Times (2015), and Fort Kent's Fiddlehead Focus (2016)  The company also owns several weekly newspapers in Maine: the Presque Isle Star-Herald, Caribou Aroostook Republican and News, Dover-Foxcroft Piscataquis Observer, Houlton Pioneer Times, and Greater Bangor The Weekly In 2011 and 2012, BDN established the partnerships The Maine Campus (the independent student newspaper at the University of Maine) and The Free Press (the student newspaper at the University of Southern Maine) through the BDN media partners program  The program involves a content-sharing agreement as well as training and Web hosting services provided by BDN to the student newspapers In 2011, BDN hired an additional reporter to cover Greater Portland and reassigned another reporter to cover the southern mid-coast of Maine  Editor-in-chief Mike Dowd also named editorial-page editor Susan Young as "managing editor for investigative reporting and new initiatives" and appointed Tom Groening as editorial-page editor The Bangor Daily News and The Quoddy Tides sought records under the Maine Freedom of Access Act of closed-door tribal councils of the Passamaquoddy Tribe relating to a proposed $500 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on tribal land at the Pleasant Point Reservation  A Maine court decided that the newspapers were not entitled to the records because the tribal officials' negotiations with the Oklahoma-based LNG developer were undertaken in the reservation's capacity as "a profit-making business rather than municipal governance" and were therefore not subjected to the Freedom of Access Act  The Maine Supreme Judicial Court unanimously affirmed the ruling in 2006  In 2013, Bangor Daily News reporters submitted a public records request to Maine's state government for public information that included the names and addresses of the holders of concealed-weapon permits  The request, made in furtherance of newsgathering, prompted a fierce uproar, and the newspaper dropped the request In 2018, Bangor Daily News became the state's only independently owned daily newspaper in the state, after MaineToday Media, owned by Reade Brower, acquired additional newspapers in Maine  MaineToday now owns  seven of Maine's eight daily newspapers: the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram, the Times Record of Brunswick, the Journal Tribune of Biddeford, the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, the Morning Sentinel in Waterville, and the Coastal Journal in Bath  Although Brower's company does not own BDN, it does provide printing services for BDN As of 2020, about half of BDN's journalists were based in Bangor, with the other half spread across Maine In May 2022, the newsroom staff unionized with the Maine NewsGuild and won recognition from management 

Editorial stance
The Bangor Daily News's editorial stance has traditionally leaned toward conservatism and the Republican Party, in contrast to the Portland Press Herald, which was regarded as having a more liberal, pro-Democratic editorial stance  It historically endorsed Republican candidates for office, such as Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election, but has also sometimes endorsed Democratic candidates  In the 1974 Maine gubernatorial election, the Bangor Daily News endorsed independent candidate James B  Longley: "The newspaper had always endorsed Republicans, so backing an independent was stunning " The endorsement was a major boost to Longley's candidacy  The paper also backed independent candidate Herman "Buddy" Frankland and Republican Susan Collins BDN's editorial board endorsed Republican George W  Bush in the 2000 presidential election, but endorsed Democrat John Kerry over Bush in the 2004 presidential election  In 2008, BDN endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president, Republican Susan Collins for Senate, and Democrats Mike Michaud and Chellie Pingree for Maine's congressional seats  The paper's editorial board endorsed Obama for re-election in 2012 over Republican challenger Mitt Romney 
Passage 6:
Lawrence Lockman
Lawrence E  Lockman is an American lumber worker, lobbyist and political activist from Amherst, Maine, who has served as a Republican member of the Maine House of Representatives since 2012  In 2020, Lockman ran for the Maine State Senate, challenging incumbent state Senator Kimberly Rosen in the Republican primary 

Background
Lockman is a 1967 graduate of Philadelphia-Montgomery Christian Academy in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania  He studied liberal arts at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia and Pasadena City College in California  Around 1976, he began working at a sawmill in Passadumkeag, Maine 

Controversies
In 1975, Lockman stopped paying federal and state income taxes and founded a group called Maine Patriots which put forth various tax protester arguments and urged other Mainers to follow his example In the mid-to-late 1980s, Lockman switched his emphasis to activism about HIV, the AIDS epidemic, and homosexuality  In a letter to the Lewiston Daily Sun, Lockman wrote "Clearly the practice of sodomy is learned behavior, and those addicted to this form of biologically-insane sex are at high risk for all manner of serious medical problems "In 1986 and 1988, Lockman ran in District 143 of the Maine House of Representatives against the incumbent Democrat Michael Michaud  He lost both, finishing with 639 votes to Michaud's 2,438 
In 1991, Lockman became one of the directors of the Pro Life Education Association, a Maine-based anti abortion organization In a 1995 op-ed, Lockman warned of a "secret gay affirmative action plan," claiming "You can bet the rent money they will demand that employers set up goals and timetables to achieve 10 percent homosexual representation in the workforce and in government contracts "In a 1995 letter in the Sun Journal in Lewiston, a reader quoted a press statement by Lockman, then part of the Pro Life Education Association, saying, “If a woman has (the right to an abortion), why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman? At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t (in most cases) result in anyone’s death ” In 2012, Lockman was elected to the House's District 30, which included portions of Hancock and Washington counties, with 2188 votes to 2082 for Democrat Dennis Mahar  He was a strong supporter of Maine's governor Paul LePage, who was challenged for re-election in the 2014 race by Lockman's previous opponent, Michael Michaud (who in 2013 came out as gay) LePage was succeeded by Democrat Janet Mills in 2018 

Response to controversy
Lockman has released a statement saying "I have always been passionate about my beliefs, and years ago I said things that I regret  I hold no animosity toward anyone by virtue of their gender or sexual orientation, and today I am focused on ensuring freedom and economic prosperity for all Mainers "

Personal life
In 1990, Lockman was part of a group seeking to break the union at the Passadumkeag Stud Mill where he worked, a drive which was defeated by an 81 to 18 vote  He had worked there for sixteen years before leaving in 1992 to work as a territory manager in eastern Maine for the National Federation of Independent Business, a position he held until 2010  He now works as a territory manager in eastern and central Maine for National Write Your Congressman 
Lockman and his wife Debbie were married in 1974  They have four adult children and five grandchildren 
Passage 7:
Ralph W  'Bud' Leavitt Jr 
Ralph W  "Bud" Leavitt Jr  (January 13, 1917 – December 20, 1994) was a Maine newspaperman who was executive sports editor of the Bangor Daily News, and a longtime outdoor columnist recognized statewide  In addition to his writing, Leavitt hosted one of Maine's earliest television shows, which was devoted to fishing, hunting and the out-of-doors  Leavitt's stature within the state  was such that columnist Roy Blount Jr  wrote of the Maine sportswriter that he "fishes with Ted Williams and Red Smith – or, rather, they trout-fish with him " An early conservationist and son of a paper mill union leader, Leavitt urged the state of Maine to acquire lands for public use; one such preserve is today named for the sportswriter and television personality 

Early life and career beginnings
Ralph W  Leavitt Jr  was born in Old Town, Maine, on January 13, 1917, to Ralph W  Leavitt Sr , union manager at Penobscot Chemical Fiber Company, and his wife Elise  Following graduation from Old Town High School, Leavitt went to work in the plant where his father was manager of the union – and quit the next day  "He didn't like getting all covered with dirt and sweat anywhere but on the athletic field", said Leavitt's cousin Alden Leavitt 
Following his one-day career in the industrial world, Leavitt went looking for other employment  He landed his first newspaper job at age 17 when he began writing for The Bangor Daily Commercial in 1934  At the outbreak of World War II, Leavitt joined the Army Air Corps as a civilian employee
Context 3: Passage 1:
Pit River Bridge
The Pit River Bridge (officially the Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Bridge) is a double deck, deck truss, road and rail bridge over Shasta Lake in Shasta County, California  The bridge, carrying Interstate 5 on its upper deck and Union Pacific Railroad on its lower deck, was built in 1942 as part of the construction of the Shasta Dam/Shasta Lake reservoir system  The Pit River Bridge was constructed to replace the Lower Pit River Bridge, as the rising waters of the Shasta Lake reservoir would have put the older bridge underwater  The entire bridge spans 3,588 feet (1,094 m) long on the upper deck and 2,754 feet (839 m) on the lower deck  With a height of 500 feet (150 m) above the old Pit River bed, it is structurally the highest double decked bridge in the United States; however, today the bridge sits only about 40 feet (12 m) above the water when Shasta Lake is full  The bridge is Interstate 5's halfway point  
At the time it was built, the highway on the bridge was signed as U S  Route 99 and the rail line was owned by Southern Pacific  The Coast Starlight, the passenger train line operated by Amtrak that runs between Los Angeles and Seattle, also uses the bridge The bridge is officially known as the Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Bridge, to honor military veterans from California who have fought in foreign wars The Pit River Bridge was the subject of the 1954 Pulitzer Prize for Photography winner entitled "Rescue on Pit River Bridge", taken by Virginia Schau 

See also
 Transport portal
 Engineering portal
 California portal
Passage 2:
Atherton Bridge
The Atherton Bridge is a historic iron truss bridge in Lancaster, Massachusetts, spanning the South Branch of the Nashua River  It is a rare example of a hybrid pony truss that is similar to the 19th century truss design of Simeon S  Post  It was built by J  H  Cofrode & Co  of Philadelphia in 1870  It was the first iron bridge to be constructed in the town  The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 
The bridge formerly carried Bolton Road, but was closed to vehicular traffic in 1975 and bypassed by a modern highway bridge in the 1980s 
The bridge remained open to pedestrian traffic until April 2020, when a flash flood damaged the bridge's wooden deck and it was closed to all traffic  The long-term future of the bridge is uncertain The sign commemorating Atherton Bridge states:

 ATHERTON BRIDGE
There has been a bridge at this location since early settlement  It is named for 
James Atherton, one of the signers of the petition for incorporation of the town in 1652  The 1794 map lists the bridge as 90 feet long on a county way Lancaster’s first iron bridge was placed here in 1870 

Technical information
The Atherton Bridge has iron compression posts that incline inward towards the center of the span and diagonal tension rods that incline outward towards the abutments  Unusual features include double end posts with adjustable turnbuckles, channeled castings to join the lower chord bars, and patented Phoenix columns for all inclined posts  This bridge does not make use of Simeon Post's patented joints  The floor beams support a wood plank deck 
The bridge is 72 feet (22 m) long and 18 5 feet (5 6 m) feet wide, and is composed of eight panels  It rests on granite abutments 
The bridge was photographed in 1979 by Jet Lowe of the Historic American Engineering Record, and documented in 1990 as part of the Massachusetts Historic Bridge Project  At that time, it was one of only two known examples of the Post type of truss still surviving 

See also
Ponakin Bridge
National Register of Historic Places listings in Worcester County, Massachusetts
List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Massachusetts
List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts
Passage 3:
Walnut Street Bridge (Chattanooga)
Built in 1890, the 2,376-foot-long (724 m) Walnut Street Bridge connects Chattanooga, Tennessee's downtown with North Chattanooga  The bridge's main spans are pin-connected Pennsylvania through truss spans  The top chord of these truss spans are configured in five sections, making the spans similar to the Camelback truss design  The bridge is historically significant as an extremely long and old example of its type; according to the Historic American Engineering Record: "The bridge was apparently the first non-military highway bridge across the Tennessee River "

History
According to a plaque on the bridge, Edwin Thacher was the chief engineer for the bridge  The bridge's superstructure was assembled by the Smith Bridge Company of Toledo, Ohio, which was a prolific late 19th-century bridge builder  The bridge's substructure was constructed by Neeley, Smith, and Company of Chattanooga  Most of the parts for the bridge were manufactured by Manly Jail Works of Dalton, Georgia and then shipped to the site by rail  
A former Union officer from Ann Arbor, Michigan, William Andrew Slayton (1854–1935) was the stone contractor  Slayton lived in a stone house at 533 Barton Avenue, the house known for years by later inhabitants as the location of the "Little Art Shop"  It is not known if he built this house, but similarly to Washington Roebling and the Brooklyn Bridge, he could overlook the project from his window  Many of the low stone walls in North Chattanooga are made up of the remnants of stones deemed too small for use in the piers  Subdivision plats in Chattanooga suggest that Slayton developed some areas to facilitate the hauling of materials from quarries in northeastern Alabama, and Slayton Street and Slayton Avenue are found near the current public library location on Broad Street 
The "county bridge", as the Walnut Street Bridge was once known, connected the predominantly white city on the south side of the Tennessee River with the large black work force on the north side ("North Shore") in Hill City, a town that was annexed by Chattanooga in 1912 
The bridge also carried trolleys of the Chattanooga Traction Company to Signal Mountain Two black men were lynched on the bridge: Alfred Blount on February 14, 1893, was hanged from the first span for allegedly attacking a white woman; Ed Johnson on March 19, 1906, was hanged from the second span, also for allegedly attacking a white woman  Johnson's lynching initiated a court case (United States v  Shipp) before the Supreme Court that is notable for being the only criminal trial in its history 

Reconstruction
The bridge was closed to motor vehicles in 1978 and sat in disuse and disrepair for nearly a decade  Repairs and structural modifications have been made to turn the bridge into what is now a pedestrian walkway  The Walnut Street Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 23, 1990  The 2,376-foot-long (724 m) pedestrian bridge sits near the heart of a massive and recently completed urban renewal project 
From December 2009 to May 2010, the bridge's deteriorating asphalt surface was replaced with wood planking  The City Council awarded a $1 3 million contract to Tower Construction for the bridge repair work The Walnut Street Bridge fund was started by Chattanooga Venture, a community group, to receive funds to be used by the city toward restoration of the bridge  Once the campaign was finished, the remaining funds were used for additional improvements to the bridge  These funds led to the replacement of original plaques which had been damaged, vandalized, or stolen  The original plaques have been renamed to The Parks Foundation, an organization committed to enhancements, improvements and programming to extend the utilization of all our parks and public space to the greatest number of people  The foundation is offering new plaques to donors that strive for the same mission 

Community events
Wine over Water is a wine tasting event that takes place on the Walnut Street Bridge  The event started in 1994  Over 150 wines from all over the world get tasted  During the festival, local restaurants offer different tasting plates for purchase  Regional musicians and bands come to play jazz and classic bluegrass  The event is not free and tickets are sold quickly due to popularity  
Every summer, Chattanooga hosts the Riverbend Festival where country music and rock bands come and play for the city  On the last night of the festival, fireworks are shot off for the spectators  The bridge is used to display a bright waterfall of fireworks, which fall down into the river below  The fireworks are displayed at the middle of the bridge, and boaters are not allowed within several hundred feet  
The Seven Bridges Marathon takes place in Chattanooga, and the participants use the Walnut Street Bridge as part of the course  Participants, local Chattanoogans as well as tourists, enjoy the views from the bridge that extend up and down the river  
Ironman is a world-renowned triathlon with events scheduled throughout the year all over the planet  Chattanooga has hosted Ironman in 2014, 2015 and hosted the Ironman world championship in 2017  Athletes use the Walnut Street bridge during the running portion of the race 

See also
List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Tennessee
Passage 4:
Nashua River
The Nashua River, 37 5 miles (60 4 km) long, is a tributary of the Merrimack River in Massachusetts and New Hampshire in the United States  It is formed in eastern Worcester County, Massachusetts, at the confluence of the North Nashua River and South Nashua River, and flows generally north-northeast past Groton to join the Merrimack at Nashua, New Hampshire  The Nashua River watershed occupies a major portion of north-central Massachusetts and a much smaller portion of southern New Hampshire 
The North Nashua River rises west of Fitchburg and Westminster  It flows about 30 miles (48 km) generally southeast past Fitchburg, and joins the South Nashua River, shown on USGS topographic maps as the main stem of the Nashua River, about 5 miles (8 km) below its issuance from the Wachusett Reservoir 

History
The river's name derives from an Algonkian word meaning "beautiful river with a pebbly bottom "The Nashua River was heavily used for industry during the colonial period and the early years of the United States  During the late 18th century and early 19th century, the heavy concentration of paper mills and the use of dyes near Fitchburg resulted in pollution that notoriously turned the river various colors downstream from the factories 
In the mid-1960s, Marion Stoddart started a campaign to restore the Nashua River and its tributaries  She built coalitions with labor leaders and business leaders, in particular the paper companies who were the worst polluters of the river  With federal help, eight treatment plants were built or upgraded along the river  A broad conservation buffer was created along about half the river and its two main tributaries  By the early-1990s, most of the industry was still located along the river, but many parts of the river were once again safe for swimming  Her work is the subject of a 30-minute documentary movie titled Marion Stoddart: Work of 1000 Recovery has sparked recreational use of the river at places like Mine Falls Park in Nashua 
The largely volunteer Nashua River Watershed Association, based in Groton, Massachusetts, oversees the condition of the river In 2013, Public Law 116–9 designated 27 mi (43 km) of the Nashua River as a National Wild and Scenic River  The legislation was sponsored by Rep  Niki Tsongas (D, MA-3), supported by the Nashua River Watershed Association and The Wilderness Society 

Watershed
From its impoundment at the Wachusett Reservoir in Clinton, Massachusetts, the South Nashua River flows north and joins the North Nashua River in Lancaster  The North Nashua River flows southeast from Fitchburg and Leominster to Lancaster



ground_truth: the deadpan sketch group

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Why is Bangor Daily News talkin about Sawin Millett?

The following are given passages.
Context 2:  Following the War, in 1946 Leavitt took a job as general sportswriter at the Bangor Daily News, with which he associated as sportswriter, sports editor and outdoor columnist for the next 48 years  Leavitt's retirement from his Maine newspaper duties was considered noteworthy enough that Maine Senator George J  Mitchell issued a statement about it During his tenure as sports editor and outdoor columnist, Leavitt also occasionally filed stories to national publications, including Time magazine  High school graduate Leavitt's prose on sporting topics even turned up occasionally in the highbrow The New Yorker magazine  In its issue of June 25, 1979, The New Yorker quoted at length from sportswriter Leavitt's essay on fishing in Maine  "He wrote when the fog shuts out the land, it is like a pussy-footing cat laying down a paw", wrote the magazine, paraphrasing Leavitt's prose  Even Leavitt's admirers concede the columnist and sportswriter wasn't known for his adept turns of phrase  Some observers attributed his popularity in Maine to his no-nonsense, somewhat gruff style, in which he delivered the facts without embroidery 
Leavitt also frequently hunted and fished with his friend Nelson Bryant, outdoor columnist for The New York Times, who wrote about their jaunts in his newspaper  During this time, Leavitt began to make himself indispensable to the Bangor newspaper, where the owners noted that his presence on the sports pages came to embody for many readers the newspaper itself In 1948 Leavitt began writing a daily outdoor column for the newspaper in addition to his sportswriter duties  The column, in which Leavitt discussed hunting and fishing and life in Maine, ran in the Bangor Daily News until November 30, 1994, – six years after Leavitt had retired as the paper's sports editor, and only weeks before the columnist's death from cancer 

The columnist and the television host
Leavitt hosted one of the first outdoor shows on national television  In 1953 Maine's first TV station went on the air, and asked Leavitt to anchor a show on the themes he wrote about in his column  The Bud Leavitt Show debuted that year as one of the first local programs on the air in Maine  For the next 20 years Leavitt appeared every Saturday night to talk about the pressing issues of a Maine outdoorsman: how to remove a fishhook; the death of a favorite dog; snoeshowing and moose hunting and salmon fishing  There was little that Bud Leavitt wouldn't fish for  When the salmon runs on the rivers of Maine and New Brunswick tapered off, Leavitt often took to the rips off Maine's Petit Manan Light, where he cast a fly to schools of 25-pound pollock 
That Leavitt's newspaper permitted him to appear on a competing news outlet startled no one  "They had to have him", said Bangor Daily News managing editor Mike Dowd of the demand for the popular columnist  "He had to have it  So [Leavitt] became multimedia before the term was invented "Leavitt's last show on local Maine television was taped in 1973, but in 1978 the Maine Public Broadcasting Network asked the sportswriter to host a new show  Leavitt's early broadcasts on Maine's TV airwaves were marked by the times  The balding, avuncular Leavitt closed each show with the homily, "Remember, the family that plays together stays together " And the show's trademark music jingle is still the subject of Mainers posting to internet message boards, recalling Saturday night with beans and biscuits, watching Bud Leavitt  That show, called Woods and Waters, went on to become a public TV sensation  Within a year it was broadcast nationally  The Outdoor Writers of America later rated it the nation's best outdoor-oriented program  The show's success launched the local Maine sportswriter into the national consciousness: Leavitt was featured as a guest several times on the ABC show American Sportsman, and was a frequent guest on national radio programs 
Sometimes Leavitt was joined on his Maine TV show by friends like broadcaster Curt Gowdy, or baseball players Brooks Robinson or Ted Williams  "He was to outdoor journalism what Norman Rockwell was to art", wrote longtime Bangor Daily News sports columnist Larry Mahoney  The comparison was apt  Leavitt was not known for his eloquent turns-of-phrase, but for his directness and lack of artifice—what some might call his "Maine-ness" 
Thanks to his notoriety, Leavitt kept a running correspondence with people that he might never have met  His friendship with Albany, New York mayor Erastus Corning 2nd, for instance, lasted decades, and the pair's letters about angling are among the papers collected in Corning's archives Leavitt's friendship with baseball player Ted Williams spanned decades, and the two were frequent fishing buddies  Leavitt had been sent to Boston's Fenway Park in 1939 to write about the Boston Red Sox, where he met Williams, then a first-year rookie already making a name for himself as a slugger  Overhearing that the cub sportswriter was from Maine, Williams asked about the fishing up north  A lifelong friendship ensued 
"One journalist with whom Williams had a genuine friendship was the late Bud Leavitt, former sports editor and outdoor writer for the Bangor Daily News", wrote Tony Chamberlain of The Boston Globe  "Leavitt fished often with Williams in the lakes and streams of Maine and Canada  Most of their fishing up north was for salmon, and Williams fished with Leavitt near the writer's home along the Penobscot River "

Recognition in Maine and later years
Leavitt's stature as a writer on some of Maine's favorite topics, and his weekly television presence made him one of the state's celebrities – in the days when the words "Maine" and "celebrity" were oxymorons  Once, on a bird hunting drive in northern Maine with his friends Curt Gowdy and Brooks Robinson, Leavitt got lost  He stopped at a local home where he saw several men talking in the driveway  After inquiring after directions, Leavitt gestured at his car  Did the local Mainers know either of the two men in his automobile, Leavitt asked the group "No, we don't", answered one man, "but we sure know who you are  You're Bud Leavitt!"
Even Maine Senator Edmund Muskie tested the limits of political muscle when he brushed against Leavitt's following  It was arranged for Muskie to go ice-fishing with Leavitt—or as Muskie adviser Clyde MacDonald Jr  put it, "possibly the greatest political event that could be arranged at that time " MacDonald lived next to columnist Leavitt, whom the Muskie aide inveigled to accompany Muskie on a fishing trip to an Ellsworth, Maine, lake  Muskie landed the prize-winning fish, headlined in the next day's Bangor newspaper  As Muskie recalled, his fishing trip with Leavitt made a deeper impression than most of his electoral efforts  "Muskie throughout the rest of his career would say, 'You know, I fought for Dickey-Lincoln [Dam], and I prevented them from closing Loring, but the thing that people talk about is that fish '"Leavitt died on December 20, 1994, and his funeral mass was held in Bangor, not far from his home in Hampden, Maine, on December 26, 1994  His wife Barbara had predeceased him, dying five years prior in 1989  During his career, Leavitt wrote 13,104 columns for Maine newspapers, and a book called, simply, Twelve Months in Maine  Leavitt's essay most often collected in outdoor writing anthologies is "Hunting for Grouse and Woodcock" from his book Twelve Months in Maine  Following his death, the State of Maine named the Bud Leavitt Wildlife Management Area, 6,500 acres (26 km2) of upland forest 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Bangor, in honor of the sportswriter, a longtime advocate for conservation and public lands  In 2000, six years after Leavitt's death, the Maine Press Association posthumously inducted Leavitt into its Hall of Fame Leavitt is interred, alongside his wife Barbara, at Lakeview Cemetery in Hampden, Maine 

Works
Bud Leavitt and Senator William S  Cohen, Bangor: The Twentieth Century, Vol  II, Images of America, Richard R  Shaw, Arcadia Publishing, 1997 ISBN 0-7385-3703-9
Twelve Months in Maine, Bud Leavitt, Bangor Publishing Company, Bangor, Maine, 1977
Passage 8:
The Daily News (Palo Alto)
The Daily News, originally the Palo Alto Daily News, is a free newspaper owned by MediaNews Group and located in Menlo Park  Founded in 1995, it was formerly published seven days a week and at one point had a circulation of 67,000 (a figure that included five zoned editions which no longer exist)  The Daily News is distributed in red newspaper racks and in stores, coffee shops, restaurants, schools and major workplaces   As of April 7, 2009 the paper ceased to be published as The Palo Alto Daily News and was consolidated with other San Francisco Peninsula Daily News titles; it published five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday  Weekday editions were delivered to selected homes  While continuing to publish daily online, The Daily News cut its print edition back to three days a week in 2013, and one day a week in 2015 

Format and content
Originally, the Daily News had a distinctive format with pages that were 16 inches long and 10 75 inches wide, dimensions which were thought to make the Daily News easier to hold than traditional broadsheet papers, but allow more stories to be published per page than a typical tabloid 
On May 5, 2009, the paper went to a smaller page size (11-1/4 by 11-3/8 inches) to save money  "The change also brands our newspaper as different than the local competition, and makes it easier for our on-the-go readers to carry around," an announcement to readers said  They now have a larger version than their original one, with different sections, like add-ins or inserts 
The newspaper prints a combination of local stories and news from a number of wire services including The Associated Press, Bay City News, The New York Times and McClatchy-Tribune (the former Knight-Ridder Tribune)  Local columnists include John Angell Grant, Larry Magid and John Reid  Syndicated opinion columns include those by Bob Herbert, Thomas Friedman and Maureen Dowd 

History
The Palo Alto Daily News debuted on December 7, 1995, with an initial circulation of 3,000  Within nine months, the paper was in the black  The paper generates all of its revenue from advertising  The original publishers, Jim Pavelich and Dave Price, understood that the advertising would reach more potential customers if the paper were free and thus widely available 
The newspaper's press run is determined by consumer demand; by 1997, the circulation had nearly tripled to 10,000 copies a day 
On August 9, 2000, the newspaper expanded into San Mateo County by opening three dailies, the San Mateo Daily News, Redwood City Daily News and Burlingame Daily News  These became the first free daily newspapers in San Mateo County, although within two years, other free dailies started in that area, replicating the format of the Daily News 
On May 15, 2002, the Daily News launched the Los Gatos Daily News  In addition to Los Gatos, it served Saratoga, Campbell, Cupertino and western San Jose 
In the first quarter of 2003, the combined circulation of the Daily News reached 55,000 per day, and on March 23 a home-delivered Sunday edition was added 
On November 12, 2004, the Daily News beat the competition by putting out an "extra" minutes after a jury in Redwood City convicted Scott Peterson of murdering his wife Laci and their unborn son  Editors put the "Redwood City Daily News" flag at the top of the Extra because the trial was taking place in that city, but it was distributed in all of the communities served by the Daily News, including Palo Alto 
On February 15, 2005, Knight Ridder, then the nation's second-largest newspaper publisher, bought the Palo Alto Daily News and its four sister papers for $25 million  Price and Pavelich, the publishers, were asked to stay on during the transition, but they left by the end of the year 
In May 2005, the Daily News launched the East Bay Daily News, which served Berkeley, Emeryville, Piedmont, Albany and the Oakland neighborhood of Rockridge 
In January 2006, Shareef Dajani, formerly general manager of the Knight Ridder-owned Hills Newspapers, a group of weeklies in Alameda County, was named publisher  In March, Dajani fired editor Diana Diamond, a long-time Palo Altan who was also a columnist  Her dismissal triggered numerous letters-to-the-editor and the competing Palo Alto Weekly picked up her column  Dajani replaced Diamond with Lucinda Ryan, who had worked with him at the Hills Newspapers 
In March 2006, Knight Ridder agreed to be purchased by The McClatchy Company, owner of the Sacramento Bee among other papers  McClatchy later announced it would sell 12 of the 32 Knight Ridder dailies, including the San Jose Mercury News and two other regional papers, The Monterey County Herald and the Contra Costa Times  The Palo Alto Daily News, along with other papers, was included in the Mercury News' 'bundle,' to be sold as one entity  MediaNews Group, which already owned several area papers, agreed to acquire The Mercury News, Contra Costa Times, Monterey County Herald and the St  Paul Pioneer Press of Minnesota for $1 billion, with $263 million of that coming from the Hearst Corporation, owner of the San Francisco Chronicle  The two deals — the sale of Knight Ridder to McClatchy, and McClatchy's sale to MediaNews — closed in August 2006  However, a lawsuit filed by San Francisco real estate developer Clint Reilly challenged the sale on anti-trust grounds  The suit was settled with Hearst and MediaNews agreeing not to work together on national advertising or distribution 
In January 2007, Dajani was replaced by Carole Leigh Hutton, former editor and publisher of the Detroit Free Press when it was owned by Knight Ridder  When Knight Ridder sold the Free Press to Gannett on August 3, 2005, Hutton was named Knight Ridder's vice president of news, a position she held until the company folded in 2006 
In March 2007, former Oakland Tribune editor Mario Dianda replaced Lucinda Ryan as executive editor 
In May 2008, Daily News founders Dave Price and Jim Pavelich announced that they were reviving the original paper, in its original headquarters at 324 High St , under the name Palo Alto Daily Post In June 2008, the Daily News laid off five newsroom workers and eliminated its Monday edition in Palo Alto and its Tuesday edition in San Mateo, Redwood City and Burlingame  Those three cities had lost their Monday edition two years earlier In August 2008, it came to light that the Daily News had hired a company in India to manage writing, copy-editing and design of a weekly real-estate product In April 2009, the Daily News dropped its Sunday edition and editions for San Mateo, Burlingame and Redwood City 
Passage 9:
Mildred Brown Schrumpf
Mildred Brown "Brownie" Schrumpf (January 24, 1903 – March 2, 2001) was an American home economist, food educator, and author  Named the "Unofficial Ambassador of Good Eating" by the Maine Department of Agriculture, she wrote a weekly food column for the Bangor Daily News from 1951 to 1994 promoting traditional Maine recipes  She was the main proponent of the claim that the chocolate brownie was invented in Bangor  She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 1997 

Early life and education
Schrumpf was born Mildred Greely Brown on a farm in Readfield Depot, Maine, to Fred Brown and Nellie Mabel Gordon Brown  She was a member of the Kennebec County 4-H club and won a canning contest in her teens  After graduating from Winthrop High School in 1921, Schrumpfh attended the University of Maine – the first person in her family to go to college – and earned a bachelor's degree in home economics in 1925 

Career
Schrumpf began her career as a tester for home gas stoves for the Bangor Gas Company  She next worked as an assistant leader in 4-H clubs statewide and as the Penobscot County 4-H club agent through the 1930s, updating home demonstrators on "food preservation, kitchen design and farm life"  In the 1940s, Schrumpf worked for the United States Department of Agriculture Extension Service, giving demonstrations and classes and also teaching "camp cookery to forestry students"  She also taught home economics classes at the University of Maine In the 1950s and 1960s, Schrumpf became the Maine Food Products Promoter for the Maine Department of Agriculture, and also did cooking demonstrations on television 

Food columnist
Schrumpf began writing a weekly food column called "Brownie's Kitchen" for the Bangor Daily News on August 31, 1951  Each column opened with remembrances of life in 20th-century Maine and featured traditional recipes, using simple ingredients that could be found in any Maine grocery  Although she initially eschewed the use of ready-made ingredients, Schrumpf later printed recipes using convenience foods, which were included in her second cookbook collection, Memories from Brownie's Kitchen (1989)  She continued producing her column until April 4, 1994 

"Bangor Brownies"
Schrumpf received widespread publicity for her claim that the chocolate brownie was invented in Bangor, Maine  In its first edition (2007), The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink refuted her premise that "Bangor housewives" had created the brownie  The Oxford Companion noted that while Schrumpf cited the inclusion of the recipe in the Girl's Welfare Cook Book published in Bangor in 1912 as proof of the brownie's origins, a Fannie Farmer cookbook published in 1905 already contained a recipe for the chewy chocolate treat  However, in its second edition (2013), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America said it had discovered evidence to support Schrumpf's claim, in the form of several 1904 cookbooks that listed a recipe for "Bangor Brownies" 

Other activities
Schrumpf served as a judge for the Bangor State Fair and the national Pillsbury Bake-Off  She chaired the Maine Boiler Festival Chicken Barbecues and Luncheons, and headed delegations of Maine food demonstrators to the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Massachusetts She maintained a lifelong association with the University of Maine and its alumni association, serving as class secretary for 40 years  She provided many artifacts for the "Brownie's Kitchen" exhibit, a replica of an early 20th-century farmhouse kitchen, at the Page Farm & Home Museum on the university campus 

Honors and awards
The University of Maine alumni association awarded her its Black Bear Award in 1957 and Pine Tree Alumni Service Emblem in 1974  She was named Woman of the Year by the Maine Press, Radio and TV Women in 1968 and "Unofficial Ambassador of Good Eating" by the Maine Department of Agriculture in 1970  She received a Kiwanis Recognition in Service Award from the Orono-Old Town Kiwanis chapter in 1976 and an Achievement Citation Award from the Maine chapter of the American Association of University Women in 1989  She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 1997 

Personal
Known for her lively and energetic personality, she was always happy to answer cooking questions and share recipe advice  As she advanced in years, her birthday celebrations were well-attended affairs that were said to "require traffic control"; for one "birthday bash", a 20-person committee coordinated the event She married William E  Schrumpf, an agricultural economist at the University of Maine Agricultural Experimental Station, in 1932; he predeceased her in 1976  In her final years, she resided in a nursing home in Orono, where she died on March 2, 2001, at the age of 98 The Brownie and William E  Schrumpf Papers, including her extensive collection of Maine community cookbooks and recipe pamphlets, are housed in the special collections department of the Raymond H  Fogler Library at the University of Maine 

Works
Memories from Brownie's Kitchen: A collection of recipes compiled over thirty-seven years (2nd ed )  Bangor Publishing Company  1989  ISBN 0962389005 
The Flavor of Maine: Recipes in honor of the bicentennial  Bangor Daily News  1976 
"Maine's Own: Baked Bean Recipes"  Maine Department of Agriculture  1951 

Notes
Passage 10:
San Mateo Daily News
The San Mateo Daily News was a free daily newspaper in San Mateo, California published 6 days a week with an average daily circulation of 22,000  The newspaper was founded August 9, 2000 by Dave Price (journalist) and Jim Pavelich, who also published the Palo Alto Daily News  Both papers were distributed in large red newspaper racks and inside stores, coffee shops, restaurants, schools, and major workplaces  The San Mateo Daily News, along with five other Daily News editions, was sold to Knight Ridder on February 15, 2005  After McClatchy's acquisition of Knight Ridder in 2006, all six Daily News editions, including the San Mateo Daily News were bundled with the San Jose Mercury News and sold to MediaNews Group of Denver, Colorado  The surviving Daily News, papers merged on April 7, 2009 

External links
Knight Ridder buys Daily News
Daily News publishers ride into sunset
Context 3:  The Nashua River flows northward from Lancaster, meandering its way through the north-central Massachusetts towns of Harvard, Groton, Dunstable, and Pepperell, before eventually emptying into the Merrimack River at Nashua, New Hampshire  The Nashua River watershed has a total drainage area of approximately 538 square miles (1,390 km2), with 454 square miles (1,180 km2) of the watershed occurring in Massachusetts and 74 square miles (190 km2) in New Hampshire  The Nashua River flows for approximately 56 miles (90 km), with approximately 46 of those miles (74 km) flowing through Massachusetts  The Squannacook, Nissitissit, Stillwater, Quinapoxet, North Nashua, and South Nashua rivers feed it  The watershed encompasses all or part of 31 communities, 7 in southern New Hampshire and 24 in central Massachusetts  The watershed's largest water body is the Wachusett Reservoir, which provides drinking water to two-thirds of the Commonwealth's population 

Major watershed components
Wachusett Reservoir is the largest water body 
The Stillwater River feeds Wachusett Reservoir from the northwest 
The Quinapoxet River feeds Wachusett Reservoir from the west 
Wachusett Reservoir Dam impounds the South Nashua River 
The North Nashua River joins the South Nashua River at Lancaster from the northwest 
The Squannacook River joins the Nashua River from the northwest at the junction of the town boundaries of Shirley, Groton, and Ayer 
The Nissitissit River joins the Nashua River from the northwest at Pepperell 

Major tributaries
See also
List of rivers of Massachusetts
List of rivers of New Hampshire
Nashua River Rail Trail
Nashaway people
Passage 5:
Colorado River Bridge at Bastrop
The Colorado River Bridge at Bastrop is a 1,285-foot (392 m)-long bridge with three steel truss spans and concrete piers that crosses the Colorado River as part of Loop 150 through Bastrop, Texas  The three bridge spans over the river consist of identical Parker through trusses, each 192 feet (59 m) in length, supported on concrete piers  The bridge is one of the earliest surviving uses of the Parker truss in Texas 
The Colorado River Bridge was the second bridge crossing at this location  The first bridge at the crossing was built from 1889 to 1890 at a cost of $45,000  This bridge replaced the ferries across the river, which had been in use since the 1830s  The bridge was 1,268 feet (386 m) in length  It was originally a toll bridge, but was later purchased by the county and the tolls were removed 

With automobiles becoming the dominant form of transportation in the United States after World War I, a new bridge was needed to handle the increasing traffic between Houston and Austin  The original estimate of the cost of the Colorado River Bridge was $40,000 and was partially financed by bonds issued by Bastrop County  The rest was paid for with federal funds disbursed by the Texas State Highway Department  Bids on the project were solicited and the Kansas City Bridge Co  was selected as contractor  The final cost of the bridge's construction was $167,500  The bridge was completed in 1923 and opened for use in January 1924  The original bridge was sold and torn down in the early 1930s Ownership of the Colorado River Bridge probably passed from the county to the state during the Great Depression, as the local governments did not have the funds to maintain their road systems 
Growth in Bastrop in the 1990s strained the capacity of the narrow two-lane bridge  A wider concrete beam bridge was built parallel to the Colorado River Bridge  The State of Texas transferred ownership of the truss bridge to the City of Bastrop and the bridge became a pedestrian walkway  The bridge is also used for special events such as the annual "Art on the Bridge" art show and sale  The bridge was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on July 19, 1990 

See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Bastrop County, Texas
List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas
List of crossings of the Colorado River
Passage 6:
Miami Bridge
The Miami Bridge, also known as the McDaniel Memorial Bridge, is a new concrete girder bridge that was built to replace a cantilever through truss bridge over the Missouri River at Miami, Missouri between Saline County, Missouri and Carroll County, Missouri   The Miami Bridge carries Route 41   The Miami Bridge was built in 1939, and its deck was replaced in 1983 as part of a rehabilitation project  The old bridge's main cantilever span was 474 7 feet, while the two anchor spans  were each 415 feet in length, resulting in a total cantilever truss length of 1304 7 feet  There were 11 approach spans, including four Warren deck truss spans, three on the northern approach and one on the southern approach  All remaining approach spans were steel stringer (multi-beam/girder) spans  Total bridge length including approach spans is 2,071 9 feet   The bridge's deck width is 23 0 feet and it has vertical clearance of 16 5 feet 
The bridge was constructed with the assistance of the Federal Administration of Public Works also known as the Public Works Administration  Sverdrup and Parcel were consulting engineers for the structure, and Massman Construction Company was the contractor  The original plans for the bridge show plans for the original wooden toll building that was once located on the bridge  According to the plans, the toll building was painted white, featured wooden Slow and Stop signs, and included a cast iron stove for heating 
The Miami Bridge has been listed as eligible for the National Register of Historic Places  According to Clayton B Fraser who conducted Missouri's 1992 Historic Bridge Inventory, the Miami Bridge was eligible for the National Register of Historic Places as an "outstanding, large-scale example of steel truss construction, located on important great river crossing " Despite its historic significance, Missouri Department of Transportation decided against rehabilitating the bridge and instead has decided to demolish the bridge's superstructure and erect a new bridge using the piers and abutment of the old bridge  The project will begin with the bridge's closure, scheduled for October 5, 2009 

See also
List of crossings of the Missouri River
Passage 7:
Monocacy River bridge and viaduct
The Monocacy River Railroad Bridge and Viaduct is a 326-foot (99 m) open deck steel girder bridge with two main spans crossing the river and two viaduct sections crossing the floodplain, south of Walkersville, Maryland  Originally constructed by the Frederick and Pennsylvania Line Railroad Company (F&PL)  Construction began in late 1871, and continued until July 1872 when the railroad opened that year  It was rebuilt by the Pennsylvania Railroad prior first in 1900-1905 as an open deck riveted iron plate under girder bridge  In 1915, the bridge was surveyed as part of the Interstate Commerce Commission's ("ICC") effort to establish freight rates for the Parent railroad  In 1927, the Pennsylvania Railroad rebuilt the bridge again using deeper and thicker steel girders, but leaving the masonry piers intact  In 1972, the two 85 foot river spans were washed out by Hurricane Agnes  In 1982, the State of Maryland purchased the bridge as part of the railroad line  In 1995, the State rebuilt the river spans and Pier 3 which is located in the middle of the river crossing was completely reconstructed using concrete to replace the original masonry foundations   In 2015, the State performed minor maintenance on the structure and painted some spans   
As of 2016, the bridge is in active rail service, operated by the Walkersville Southern RR 

History
Construction
Bollman Iron Bridge
The original bridge was a "Bollman suspension truss"  The Monocacy river bridge and viaduct structures were a mixture of wrought iron tension members and cast iron compression members, including other decorative elements, such as Doric styled vertical members and end towers, all cast iron and detailed  In 1872, Bollman's firm, Patapsco Bridge and Iron Works completed the bridge and viaducts with a total length of 326 feet 

Pennsylvania Railroad Rebuilds
The ICC survey work papers  indicate two rebuilds were performed on the Monocacy bridge after the 1872 construction but prior to the 1915 inspection:

The Bollman iron truss bridge of unknown span lengths for the Monocacy crossing was replaced by the Pennsylvania railroad in 1900 as part of a major rebuild of the bridge which included the abutments In 1900, Pennsylvania replaced the river trusses with a steel under girder, open deck bridge of four spans  At that time, the abutment and pier masonry was augmented  Five years later in 1905, the Pennsylvania railroad replaced the remaining two spans that were erected by Bollman in 1872 
Later in 1927, Pennsylvania rebuilt the entire bridge using steel plate girders of half-inch thickness and measuring 85 inches in depth 
No later rebuild by PRR was made after 1927 and prior to 1982 when the bridge was conveyed to the State of Maryland  

United States Railway Administration (USRA) Rebuild
No known USRA rebuild scope has been identified for this bridge 

State Railroad Administration (SRA 1995 - )
Subsequent to the conveyance of the railroad from Conrail to the State of Maryland in 1982, State Railroad Administration or (SRA,1978-92), developed a Maryland State Rail Plan  
The SRA rebuilt the two 85 foot spans over the river that were damaged by Hurricane Agnes in 1972, as well as Pier 3 which was in the river in 1995   Currently, the Department of Transportation, Maryland Transit Administration (MTA), (2001-) owns and maintains the bridge  In 2015, MTA performed additional maintenance on the spans and painted two of the four spans as well 

Notes
Passage 8:
Port Mann Bridge
The Port Mann Bridge is a 10-lane cable-stayed bridge, 100 km/hr speed limit, in British Columbia, Canada that opened to traffic in 2012  It carries 10 lanes of traffic with space reserved for a light rail line The cable-stayed bridge replaced a steel arch bridge that spanned the Fraser River, connecting Coquitlam to Surrey in British Columbia in the Vancouver metro area  After its successor was opened to traffic, the old bridge was demolished by reverse construction, a process which took three years to complete 

History
The original Port Mann Bridge opened on June 12, 1964  It was named after the community of Port Mann, through which the south end of the bridge passed  The old bridge consisted of three spans with an orthotropic deck carrying five lanes (originally four lanes) of Trans-Canada Highway traffic, with approach spans of three steel plate girders and concrete deck  The total length of the arch bridge was 2,093 m (6,867 ft), including approach spans  The main span was 366 m (1,201 ft), plus the two 110 m (360 ft) spans on either side  Volume on the old bridge was 127,000 trips per day  Approximately 8 percent of the traffic on the Port Mann bridge was truck traffic   The old bridge was the longest arch bridge in Canada and third-longest in the world at the time of its inauguration 
At the time of construction, it was the most expensive piece of highway in Canada  The first "civilian" to drive across the bridge was CKNW reporter Marke Raines  He was not authorized to cross, so he drove quickly In 2001 an eastbound HOV lane was added by moving the centre divider and by cantilevering the bridge deck outwards in conjunction with a seismic upgrade 

Replacement
On January 31, 2006, the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation introduced the Gateway Program as a means to address growing congestion  The project originally envisioned twinning the Port Mann Bridge by building a second bridge adjacent to it, but the project was changed to building a 10-lane replacement bridge, planned to be the widest in the world, and demolishing the original bridge  While the old bridge was found to be in "excellent shape, it is a fracture-critical structure with a tension member that runs the full length of the bridge  If that fractures anywhere, the bridge’s structural safety can be compromised heavily   There is no built-in redundancy [in this type of bridge]



ground_truth: Commissioner by the Maine Senate

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: How long is the river The Atherton Bridge spans?

The following are given passages.
Context 3:  It only takes a little undetected fatigue crack to grow for 10 years and then a member eventually just snaps through one cold morning when the wrong size truck rolls over it” 

Opposition to twinning plan
A number of groups lobbied to improve public transit rather than build a new bridge  Burnaby city council, Vancouver city council, and directors of the GVRD (now Metro Vancouver) passed resolutions opposing the Port Mann / Highway 1 expansion  Opponents of the expansion included local environmental groups, urban planners, and Washington state's Sightline Institute Opponents argued that increasing highway capacity would increase greenhouse gas emissions and only relieve congestion for a few years before increased traffic congested the area again, and that expanding road capacity would encourage suburban sprawl  The Livable Region Coalition urged the Minister of Transportation,  Kevin Falcon, to consider rapid transit lines and improved bus routes instead of building the new bridge  The David Suzuki Foundation claimed the plan violated the goals of Metro Vancouver's Livable Region Strategic Plan 

Construction and cost
The Port Mann / Highway 1 project added another HOV lane and will provide cycling and pedestrian access  The multi-use pedestrian/bicycle path opened July 1, 2015  A bus service was reintroduced over the Port Mann Bridge for the first time in over 20 years  However, critics claimed that the new bridge only delayed the reintroduction of bus service on the bridge  The new bus rapid transit service is now operated in the HOV lanes along Highway 1 from Langley to Burnaby The estimated construction cost was $2 46 billion, including the cost of the Highway 1 upgrade, a total of 37 kilometres (23 mi)  Of this, the bridge itself comprised roughly a third ($820 million)   The total cost, including operation and maintenance, was expected to be $3 3 billion  Now that the new bridge is completed, the existing bridge, which was more than 45 years old, has been taken down The project was intended to be funded by using a public-private partnership, and Connect B C  Development Group was chosen as the preferred developer  The Connect B C  Group included the Macquarie Group, Transtoll Inc , Peter Kiewit Sons Co , and Flatiron Constructors  Although a memorandum of understanding had been signed by the province, final terms could not be agreed upon  As a consequence, the province decided to fund the entire cost of replacement On September 18, 2012, the new Port Mann Bridge opened to eastbound traffic  At 65 metres (213 ft) wide, it was the world's widest long-span bridge, according to the Guinness World Records, overtaking the world-famous Sydney Harbour Bridge, which, at 49 metres (161 ft), held the record since 1932  The Port Mann Bridge was overtaken by the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in 2013 

Dismantling of original bridge
Work to dismantle the old Port Mann Bridge began in December 2012  Crews removed sections of the bridge piece by piece in opposite order in which they were originally constructed, starting with the road deck, followed by the bridge approach's girders, and concluding with the steel arch  It was fully removed by October 21, 2015 

New bridge
The new bridge is 2 02 kilometres (1 26 mi) long, up to 65 metres (213 ft) wide, carries 10 lanes of traffic, and has a 42 metres (138 ft) clearance above the river's high water level (the same length and clearance as the old bridge)  The towers are approximately 75 metres (246 ft) tall above deck level, with the total height approximately 163 metres (535 ft) from top of footing  The main span (between the towers) is 470 metres (1,540 ft) long, the second longest cable-stayed span in the western hemisphere  The main bridge (between the end of the cables) has a length of 850 metres (2,790 ft) with two towers and 288 cables  The new bridge was built to accommodate the future installation of light rapid transit 

Issues
On February 10, 2012, during construction of the replacement bridge, an overhead gantry crane collapsed, causing a 90-tonne concrete box-girder segment to drop into the water below  While no one was injured, the accident delayed subsequent construction  WorkSafeBC inspectors evaluated the safety practices on the construction site 
On December 19, 2012, cold weather caused ice to accumulate on the supporting cables, periodically dropping to the car deck below, dubbed "ice bombs"  ICBC, the vehicle insurance entity in British Columbia, reported 60 separate claims of ice damage during the incident  In addition, one driver required an ambulance due to injuries  The RCMP closed the bridge between 1:30 p m  and 6 p m  while engineers investigated  The Government installed collars on the cables that are manually released when conditions for ice accumulation are expected  They are installed on the tops of the cables on the towers and are released, falling down the cables by gravity to remove any snow build up During December 2016, "slush bombs" affected the bridge again though the BC Government stated that these weren't as severe as the 2012 "ice bombs " During December, the bridge was closed due to the threat of falling snow off of the cables and possible icy conditions 

Tolling (2012–2017)
In order to recover construction and operating costs, the bridge was electronically tolled when originally built  The toll rates increased to $1 60 for motorcycle, $3 15 for cars, $6 30 for small trucks and $9 45 for large trucks on August 15, 2015   Through increased prices and greater traffic, Transportation Investment Corporation (TI Corp), the public Crown corporation responsible for toll operations on the Port Mann Bridge, forecast its revenue would grow by 85% between fiscal years 2014 and 2017  These fees were assessed using radio-frequency identification (RFID) decals or licence plate photos  A B C  licensed driver who owes more than $25 in tolls outstanding 90 days is penalized $20 and is unable to purchase vehicle insurance or renew drivers permits without payment of the debt  Out-of-province drivers were also contacted for payment by a US-based contractor  A licence plate processing fee of $2 30 per trip was added to the toll rate for unregistered users who did not pay their toll within seven days of their passage  Monthly passes, which allowed unlimited crossing on the bridge, were available for purchase  Users may have set up an account for online payment of tolls  Users who opted for this method received a decal with an embedded RFID to place on their vehicle's windshield or headlight and avoid paying a processing fee  Tolls were expected to be removed by the year of 2050 or after collecting $3 3 billion  As announced by B C  Premier John Horgan in August 2017, all tolls on the Port Mann Bridge were removed on September 1, 2017   Debt service was transferred to the province of British Columbia at a cost of $135 million per year 

Traffic volumes
Monthly mean weekday traffic
As of January 2019

Total monthly traffic (in millions)
As of January 2019

See also

List of crossings of the Fraser River
List of bridges in Canada
Tallest structures in Canada
Passage 9:
Columbia River Bridge (Bridgeport, Washington)
The Columbia River Bridge, also known as the Bridgeport Bridge, at Bridgeport, Washington, was built to span the Columbia River in 1950  Composed of three spans, the bridge is a steel continuous riveted deck truss carrying Washington State Route 17 on a 26-foot-wide (7 9 m) roadway and two 3-foot (0 91 m) sidewalks  The center portion of the bridge spans 300 feet (91 m), flanked by 250-foot (76 m) end spans  The 70-foot (21 m) north approach span and the 100-foot (30 m) south approach span are supported by steel plate girders  The bridge played a significant role in the construction of the Chief Joseph Dam just upstream, as no bridge crossing had previously existed in the area  Construction on the dam started in 1945 and was completed, apart from the powerplant, in 1955  The bridge was designed and built by the U S  Army Corps of Engineers as part of the Chief Joseph Dam project, and is significant for its association with the project and as a major crossing of the Columbia The bridge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 31, 1995 

See also
List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Washington (state)
Passage 10:
Maiden Lane Bridge
The Maiden Lane Bridge was a railroad bridge across the Hudson River between the city of Albany and Rensselaer County, New York  It was designed by Kellogg, Clark & Co , and was one of the largest bridges they designed  The bridge was owned and built by the Hudson River Bridge Company, which was owned jointly by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company which owned 3/4, and the Boston and Albany Railroad Company which owned 1/4  The Maiden Lane Bridge was often referred to as the "South Bridge", while the Livingston Avenue Bridge was referred to as the "North Bridge"  The Livingston Ave  Bridge was used for freight (and through-traffic passenger trains) while passenger trains used the Maiden Lane Bridge for access to Union Station, which was completed less than 10 months later  The state of New York authorized construction on May 10, 1869, construction began in May 1870, and the first train crossed on December 28, 1871  The bridge consisted of four 185 5-foot (56 5 m) long fixed spans, one 274-foot (84 m) long draw span, seven 73-foot (22 m) long spans over the Albany Basin, one 110-foot (34 m) long span over Quay Street, and one 63-foot (19 m) long span over Maiden Lane  All the spans except the one over Maiden Lane were double tracked, through, and pin connected; the span over Maiden Lane was also double tracked, but was a deck and plate girder span  A reconstruction of the bridge, except for the draw span, was done in 1899 by Pencoyd Bridge Company and finished by January 3, 1900  The bridge lasted until the 1960s, when the Albany–Rensselaer Amtrak station was built on the east side of the Hudson in the city of Rensselaer and Interstate 787 was built along the west side in Albany, thereby eliminating the need of the bridge 

See also
History of Albany, New York
Downtown Albany Historic District
List of fixed crossings of the Hudson River



ground_truth: 37.5