Casey

A noble gangster 貴族歹徒

There was a time when the owners of shops and businesses in Chicago had to pay large sums of money to gangsters in return for 'protection.' If the money was not paid promptly, the gangsters would quickly put a man out of business by destroying his shop. Obtaining 'protection money' is not a modern crime. As long ago as the fourteenth century, an Englishman, Sir John Hawkwood , made the remarkable discovery that people would rather pay large sums of money than have their life work destroyed by gangsters.

Six hundred years ago, Sir Johan Hawkwood arrived in Italy with a band of soldiers and settled near Florence. He soon made a name for himself and came to be known to the Italians as Giovanni Acuto. Whenever the Italian city-states were at war with each other, Hawkwood used to hire his soldiers to princes who were willing to pay the high price he demanded. In times of peace, when business was bad, Hawkwood and his men would march into a city-state and, after burning down a few farms, would offer to go away if protection money was paid to them. Hawkwood made large sums of money in this way. In spite of this, the Italians regarded him as a sort of hero. When he died at the age of eighty, the Florentines gave him a state funeral and had a pictured painted which was dedicated to the memory of 'the most valiant soldier and most notable leader, Signor Giovanni Haukodue.'

曾經有一個時期,芝加哥的店主和商行的老闆們不得不拿出大筆的錢給歹徒以換取"保護"。如果交款不及時,歹徒們就會很快搗毀他的商店,讓他破產.榨取"保護金"並不是一種現代的罪惡行徑.早在14世紀,英國人約翰.霍克伍德就有過非凡的發現:"人們情願拿出大筆的錢,也不願畢生的心血毀於歹徒之手.

600年前,約翰.霍克伍德爵士帶著一隊士兵來到意大利,在佛羅倫薩附近駐紮下來,很快就出了名.意大利人叫他喬凡尼.阿庫托.每次意大利各城邦之間發生戰爭,霍克伍德把他的士兵僱傭給願給他出高價的君主。和平時期,當生意蕭條時,霍克伍德便帶領士兵進入某個城邦,縱火燒毀一兩個農場,然後提出,如向他們繳納保護金,他們便主動撤離。霍克伍德用這種方法掙了大筆錢.儘管如此,意大利人還是把他視作某種英雄。他80歲那年死去時,佛羅倫薩人為他舉行了國葬,並為他畫像以紀念這位"驍勇無比的戰士、傑出的領袖喬凡尼.阿庫托先生."

The longest suspension bridge in the world 世界上最長的吊橋

Verrazano, an Italian about whom little is known, sailed into New York Harbour in 1524 and named it Angouleme. He described it as 'a very agreeable situation located within two small hills in the midst of which flowed a great river.' Though Verrazano is by no means considered to be a great explorer, his name will probably remain immortal, for on November 21st, 1964, the longest suspension bridge in the world was named after him.

The Verrazano Bridge, which was designed by Othmar Ammann, joins Brooklyn to Staten Island. It has a span of 4,260 feet. The bridge is so long that the shape of the earth had to be taken into account by its designer. Two great towers support four huge cables. The towers are built on immense underwater platforms made of steel and concrete. The platforms extend to a depth of over 100 feet under the sea. These alone took sixteen months to build. Above the surface of the water, the towers rise to a height of nearly 700 feet. They support the cables from which the bridge has been suspended. Each of the four cables contains 26,108 lengths of wire. It has been estimated that if the bridge were packed with cars, it would still only be carrying a third of its total capacity. However, size and strength are not the only important things about this bridge. Despite its immensity, it is both simple and elegant, fulfilling its designer's dream to create 'an enormous object drawn as faintly as possible'.

1524年，一位鮮為人知的意大利人維拉薩諾駕船駛進紐約港，並將該港名為安古拉姆。他對該港作了這樣 的描述：‚地理位置十分適宜，位於兩座小山的中間，一條大河從中間流過‛。雖然維拉薩諾絕對算不上一個偉大的探險家，但他的名字將流芳百世，因為1964年11月21日建成的一座世界上最長的吊橋是以他的名字命名。

維拉薩諾大橋由奧斯馬.阿曼設計，連結著布魯克林與斯塔頓島，橋長4,260英尺。由於橋身太長，設計者不得不考慮了地表的形狀。兩座巨塔支撐著4根粗大的鋼纜。塔身建在巨大的水下鋼盤混凝土平台上。平台深入海底100英尺。僅這兩座塔就花了16個月才建成。塔身高出水面將近700英尺。高塔支撐著鋼纜，而鋼纜又懸吊著大橋，4根鋼纜中的每根由26，108股鋼繩組成。據估計，若橋上擺滿了汽車，也只不過是橋的總承載力的1/3。然而，這座橋重要特點不僅是它的規模與強度。儘管此橋很大，但它的結構簡單，造型優美，實現了設計者企圖創造一個‚盡量用細線條勾畫出一個龐然大物‛的夢想。