3 1 4 big bridges (social studies)

H O UG H T O N MIF F L IN by Elizabeth West ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: McEntee Design and Art PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS: Cover © Owaki-Kulla/CORBIS © PhotoDisc Photo by Rutahsa Adventures, www.rutahsa.com © Roland Gerth/zefa/Corbis Thomas L French Jr., Columbus, Georgia 4–5 © PhotoDisc © CORBIS 6–7 © PhotoDisc © Wolfgang Kaehler/CORBIS © Owaki-Kulla/CORBIS 8–9 © PhotoDisc Richard T Nowitz/National Geographic/Getty Images 10 Peter J Eckel/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images 10–11 © PhotoDisc Copyright © by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company All rights reserved No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner unless such copying is expressly permitted by federal copyright law Requests for permission to make copies of any part of the work should be addressed to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt School Publishers, Attn: Permissions, 6277 Sea Harbor Drive, Orlando, Florida 32887-6777 Printed in China ISBN-13: 978-0-547-02126-3 ISBN-10: 0-547-02126-7 0940 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 If you have received these materials as examination copies free of charge, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt School Publishers retains title to the materials and they may not be resold Resale of examination copies is strictly prohibited Possession of this publication in print format does not entitle users to convert this publication, or any portion of it, into electronic format Bridges Are Not All Alike When a new bridge is built, excitement fills the air Why? Every bridge changes lives Bridges let people go new places Bridges save travel time Bridges can be small or big They can be wood, stone, iron, or steel Long ago, people made bridges out of rope Some stone bridges built long ago are still used today Why Build a Bridge? People need bridges They use them to cross rivers and valleys Long ago, bridges were very simple People would stretch a log across a stream Then they could cross, balancing carefully as they went Next, people built stone or wood bridges These bridges lasted longer, and they were safer, too Then people started building railroads Railroads could carry goods They could also take people from place to place Trains needed to cross bridges But trains are very heavy, and the bridges weren’t strong enough to hold them So people began to build new bridges out of iron Iron bridges were big and strong enough to hold the trains Horace King helped build more than 100 bridges in and around Georgia Workers have to work high above the ground Building Big Bridges Building a big bridge is a huge job A crew of workers builds it But first someone must plan the bridge No two bridges are alike because each bridge needs to fit a different kind of place One place might have a very high tide, and another might have bad storms Next, a crew starts making the bridge parts They join sheets of steel, smooth edges, and paint parts Finally, it’s time to put the bridge together Bridges in Four States 50,000 Number of Bridges 49,000 40,000 30,000 31,000 20,000 17,000 10,000 14,300 Georgia New York Ohio Texas Some states have a lot of bridges The United States has almost 600,000 bridges Famous Bridges The Golden Gate Bridge, California For years, this was the longest bridge of its kind Its deck, or road, is high above the water This lets even large ships sail into San Francisco Bay On foggy days, the tops of the tall bridge towers disappear The bridge is orange Its paint keeps the steel safe from the salty air The Mackinac Bridge, Michigan Michigan has two parts divided by water Once, people had to take a ferry from one part to the other Now they can drive across this bridge It’s a long one—five miles long, in fact! People call this bridge the Mighty Mac The bridge seems to cling to the sides of the valley New River Gorge Bridge, West Virginia This bridge is beautiful It crosses a gorge, which is a deep, narrow valley Many people visit this part of West Virginia and take photos of the bridge People call this bridge GWB for short It flies a huge American flag George Washington Bridge, New Jersey and New York This busy bridge connects New Jersey to New York More than 100 million people cross it each year Now you have seen some famous bridges How are they alike? How are they different? 10 Responding Word Builder The word “foggy“ describes a kind of weather Make a word web that describes other kinds of weather Copy this word web and add more words TARGET VOCABULARY foggy kinds of weather Write About It Text to Self Write a paragraph about a foggy day Describe what it is like outside Then tell what kind of mood this weather puts you in 11 TARGET VOCABULARY balancing cling crew stretch excitement disappears foggy tide Infer/Predict Use clues to figure out more about the selection TARGET STRATEGY Change the first letter of this word to an f, and you’d throw something instead of holding it 12 Level: M DRA: 28 Social Studies Strategy: Infer/Predict Word Count: 508 3.1.4 Build Vocabulary HOUGHTON MIFFLIN Online Leveled Books ISBN-13: 978-0-547-02126-3 ISBN-10: 0-547-02126-7 1032009 ... Trains needed to cross bridges But trains are very heavy, and the bridges weren’t strong enough to hold them So people began to build new bridges out of iron Iron bridges were big and strong enough... small or big They can be wood, stone, iron, or steel Long ago, people made bridges out of rope Some stone bridges built long ago are still used today Why Build a Bridge? People need bridges They... electronic format Bridges Are Not All Alike When a new bridge is built, excitement fills the air Why? Every bridge changes lives Bridges let people go new places Bridges save travel time Bridges can