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Bridge carrying the Branford Steam Railroad
Bridge carrying the Branford Steam Railroad

The Branford Steam Railroad is a 7.2-mile (11.6 km) standard-gauge industrial railroad that serves the Tilcon Connecticut stone quarry in North Branford, Connecticut, in the United States. It was founded in 1903 by Louis A. Fisk, a businessman from Branford, Connecticut, to transport passengers to a trotting park for horses. By 1916, the company had ended passenger service in favor of freight transport. The company has hauled trap rock from the Totoket Mountain quarry in North Branford continuously since 1914. A southern extension was built to a dock on Long Island Sound at Pine Orchard, Branford, which remains in use today to transfer rock to barges. Trap rock is also transported by rail to an interchange with the Providence and Worcester Railroad. The company's last steam locomotive was retired in 1960; the name is retained to distinguish it from the nearby Branford Electric Railway, operated by a museum dedicated to streetcars. (Full article...)

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March 19: Saint Joseph's Day (Western Christianity); Mothering Sunday (Western Christianity, 2023)

Artist's impression of GRB 080319B
Artist's impression of GRB 080319B
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Margaret Harwood

Margaret Harwood (March 19, 1885 – February 6, 1979) was an American astronomer who specialized in photometry, which involved measuring variation in the light of stars and asteroids. In 1916, at 30 years old, Harwood was named director of Maria Mitchell Observatory, and worked there until her retirement in 1957. In 1917, she discovered the asteroid 886 Washingtonia four days before its formal recognition, but was advised not to report it because it would have been inappropriate for a woman to do so. In 1923, she became the first woman to gain access to the Mount Wilson Observatory, and in 1924 was the first woman allowed to use the observatory's 60-inch telescope, the largest in the world at the time. In 1960, an asteroid discovered at Palomar was named in her honor as 7040 Harwood. This photograph of Harwood is in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution.

Photograph credit: unknown; restored by Adam Cuerden

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