engineering

Peace Arch

Peace Arch is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Peace Arch rather than just read about it. In short: The Peace Arch (French: Arche de la Paix) is a monument situated near the westernmost point of the Canada–United States border in the contiguous United States, between the communities of Blaine, Washington and Surrey, British Columbia. Construction of the 20.5-metre (67 ft) tall arch was headed by American lawyer Sam Hill and dedicated in September 1921.

Key takeaways

Peace Arch belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Peace Arch to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Peace Arch from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Peace Arch (French: Arche de la Paix) is a monument situated near the westernmost point of the Canada–United States border in the contiguous United States, between the communities of Blaine, Washington and Surrey, British Columbia. Construction of the 20.5-metre (67 ft) tall arch was headed by American lawyer Sam Hill and dedicated in September 1921. The Peace Arch commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in 1814, and symbolizes a long history of peace between the two nations. The monument is built on the exact U.S.–Canada boundary, where Interstate 5 on the U.S. side of the border becomes Highway 99 on the Canadian side, in the grass median between the northbound and southbound lanes. The monument and the surrounding land is part of Peace Arch Park. Within the park is Peace Arch Border Crossing, a major border crossing between Interstate 5 and British Columbia Highway 99.

Description

The Peace Arch has the flags of United States and Canada mounted on its crown, and two inscriptions on both sides of its frieze. The inscription on the U.S. side of the Peace Arch reads "Children of a common mother" (referring to the two nations' common origin from the British Empire), and the words on the Canadian side read "Brethren dwelling together in unity" (Psalm 133). Within the arch, each side has an iron gate mounted on either side of the border with an inscription above each gate: the one on the east side read "May these gates never be closed", while on the west side read "1814 Open One Hundred Years 1914". The surrounding park, Peace Arch Park, consists of Peace Arch Provincial Park on the Canadian side and Peace Arch State Park on the American side of the border. About 500,000 people visit the Peace Arch each year. The monument and surrounding park is considered an international park. As such, visitors do not require either a passport or visa to pass through their applicable border crossing so long as they stay within the boundaries of the park and leave the park into the country from which they entered. Because of the Peace Arch monument, the border crossing between Surrey and Blaine is popularly known as the "Peace Arch Border Crossing". In Canada, the crossing is officially named Douglas after Sir James Douglas, the first governor of the Colony of British Columbia. It is one of the busiest border crossings between Canada and the United States, and the busiest such crossing west of Detroit.

History Border inspection services at what is now known as the Peace Arch Border Crossing long predated the 1921 construction of the Peace Arch. In 1914 Samuel Hill, lawyer for the Great Northern Railway, organized an international fundraising campaign to build the Arch. American architect Harvey Wiley Corbett donated his talents to design the Arch. International volunteers began constructing in 1920. It was dedicated on September 6, 1921, and was considered one of the first earthquake-resistant structures built in North America. The Peace Arch Park has been the site of various international events and protests. In 1952, African-American singer and activist Paul Robeson, banned from international travel during the Red Scares, performed several concerts at the site. He sang from a flatbed truck on the American side to an audience in Canada. The Peace Arch was vandalized with paint and other damage by Canadian protestors demonstrating against the Cambodian campaign during the Vietnam War on May 9, 1970. The protest continued into Blaine, where other buildings and structures were also damaged. On February 9, 2010, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay visited the north side of the Peace Arch, while Premier Gordon Campbell and Governor Christine Gregoire addressed a crowd of several hundred people.

Gallery

See also International Peace Garden Canada–United States relations

References

External links

Peace Arch Park Peace Arch Provincial Park, BC Peace Arch State Park, WA

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Peace Arch

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Peace Arch claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Peace Arch before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Peace Arch ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Peace Arch

In research: Peace Arch appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Peace Arch in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Peace Arch is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1921 establishments in British Columbia, 1921 establishments in Washington (state), 1921 sculptures, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Peace Arch outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Peace Arch in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Peace Arch means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Peace Arch out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Peace Arch in simple terms?

Why does Peace Arch matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Peace Arch?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Peace Arch.