engineering

Stone Avenue Underpass

Stone Avenue Underpass 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 Stone Avenue Underpass rather than just read about it. In short: The Stone Avenue Underpass, known to native Tucsonans as "Lake Elmira", is a historic underpass on Stone Avenue in Tucson, Arizona. The underpass was completed in January 1936.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

The Stone Avenue Underpass, known to native Tucsonans as "Lake Elmira", is a historic underpass on Stone Avenue in Tucson, Arizona. The underpass was completed in January 1936. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. It is located between 6th street and E. Toole Avenue/W. Franklin Street, and carries two lanes in each direction of Stone Ave under the Union Pacific railroad tracks that run through downtown Tucson. Due to the poor drainage, it fills fast during heavy downpours of rain. For this reason, the underpass was nicknamed Lake Elmira. It was named after the 13 year old Elmira Doakes, by Arizona Daily Star reporter Howard Owetly in the summer of 1937.

In the 1980s, two young history buffs had a zinc plaque made and placed it on one of pillars without permission from the City Of Tucson or The Arizona Historical Society. It reads in English and Spanish:“Lake Elmira. According to a 1937 newspaper account, thirteen year old Elmira Doakes (daughter of Joseph Doakes of Tucson) was the first person to successfully swim across the body of water which formed in the Stone Avenue Underpass (during summer rains). Her route from the Toole Avenue Landing to the Northern Shore has not to our knowledge been followed since. There is apparently no truth to the rumor that the Federal aid was denied in 1940 for building docking facilities and a chlorinating system in this once popular recreational area. (Although the Doakes current whereabouts is not known, it is believed that she moved to California after the Underpass received more efficient drains in the mid-sixties.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Stone Avenue Underpass

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Stone Avenue Underpass 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 Stone Avenue Underpass 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 Stone Avenue Underpass 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 Stone Avenue Underpass

In research: Stone Avenue Underpass 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 Stone Avenue Underpass 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: Stone Avenue Underpass is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Buildings and structures completed in 1936, Buildings and structures in Tucson, Arizona, Concrete bridges in Arizona, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Stone Avenue Underpass 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.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Stone Avenue Underpass” →

Affiliate

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

How to study Stone Avenue Underpass in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Stone Avenue Underpass 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 Stone Avenue Underpass out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Stone Avenue Underpass in simple terms?

The Stone Avenue Underpass, known to native Tucsonans as "Lake Elmira", is a historic underpass on Stone Avenue in Tucson, Arizona. The underpass was completed in January 1936.

Why does Stone Avenue Underpass 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 Stone Avenue Underpass?

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 Stone Avenue Underpass.