Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Store Bælt Bridge

(Encyclopedia)Store Bælt Bridge stôˈrə bĕlt [key], link comprising two bridges and a tunnel, S Denmark, across the Store Bælt strait (see Store Bælt and Lille Bælt) between Sjælland and Fyn islands. The en...

Avon, former county, England

(Encyclopedia)Avon, former county, SW England, bordering the Severn estuary and the Bristol Channel. Created in 1974 from S Gloucestershire, Bristol, and N Somerset. it was dissolved in 1996 into four unitary autho...

Singapore Strait

(Encyclopedia)Singapore Strait, channel, 30 mi (48 km) long and 10 mi (16.1 km) wide, between Singapore island and the Riau Archipelago, Indonesia. It links the Strait of Malacca with the South China Sea and is a m...

Usk

(Encyclopedia)Usk, river, c.60 mi (100 km) long, rising in the Black Mts., S Wales and flowing generally SE to Bristol Channel near Newport. The upper Usk is noted for its beauty and its excellent fishing. It is th...

privateering

(Encyclopedia)privateering, former usage of war permitting privately owned and operated war vessels (privateers) under commission of a belligerent government to capture enemy shipping. Private ownership distinguish...

Ryde

(Encyclopedia)Ryde rīd [key], locality (1991 pop. 24,650), on the Isle of Wight, S England, on Spithead channel. It is one of the island's leading tourist resorts, connected to the mainland by ferry. ...

Spithead

(Encyclopedia)Spithead, eastern part of the channel between Hampshire, England, and the Isle of Wight. In 1797 a celebrated wartime mutiny occurred in the fleet stationed at Spithead: the crews sent the officers as...

Baytown

(Encyclopedia)Baytown, city (2020 pop. 83,701), Harris co., S Tex., at the head of Galveston Bay, on the Houston ship channel; inc. 1948 after the consolidation of Go...

river

(Encyclopedia)river, stream of water larger than a brook or creek. Land surfaces are never perfectly flat, and as a result the runoff after precipitation tends to flow downward by the shortest and steepest course i...

Lundy Isle

(Encyclopedia)Lundy Isle, 3 mi (4.8 km) long, off Devon, SW England, at the mouth of the Bristol Channel. Granite was quarried there for centuries. Inhabited in prehistoric times, Lundy Isle was a stronghold of pir...