Jefferson City, MO is correct, as for what happened overhead, there is a clue in an earlier post of mine in this same thread.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Toups @ Aug 14 2007, 08:41 PM) [snapback]495891[/snapback]</div> Well, it's not the 7.8 Mile Long Cascade Train Tunnel in Washington State . . . the longest in the USA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascade_Tunnel
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tleonhar @ Aug 14 2007, 09:53 PM) [snapback]495944[/snapback]</div> Well, not quite OVER Jefferson City but 13 miles southwest of it, at 39,000 feet, Air Force One abruptly became simply civilian SAM 27000 as President Ford took the oath of office while Nixon was enroute back to California. I assume that's the once in a nation's history event you're referring to. What I can't believe is that nobody's even curious where this is that I put up earlier as an example of an especially fascinating landscape beheld from on high --- [attachmentid=10670]
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Toups @ Aug 14 2007, 08:41 PM) [snapback]495891[/snapback]</div> In terms of tunnels, a mere 5 miles is something a kid could dig out in a day with a plastic toy shovel and so doesn't even rate on the Wikipedia lists, so there must be something else to this tunnel - hardest rock, site of most Jesse James train holdups, highest elevation tunnel - something - but I think we'll need more clues to get there. MB
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Aug 15 2007, 01:12 AM) [snapback]495996[/snapback]</div> Oh, we're curious. Some of us even looked. No love so far....
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Aug 15 2007, 04:28 AM) [snapback]495997[/snapback]</div> Well this tunnel took more than a day to dig, in fact about 24 years. Wikipedia does know about this. At the time of its construction, only a tunnel in the French Alps was longer. Almost 200 lives were lost in its construction.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Toups @ Aug 15 2007, 06:43 PM) [snapback]496597[/snapback]</div> If it weren't for Google this game would be impossible! But your clues, fed to Google in just the right way, brought the Hoosac Tunnel right to the top of the search stack! I actually found the other end first, and had to turn a good deal of western Mass upside down trying to find the end in your original post. Rather than put up a new landmark, which I'll leave to the next enterprising gamester to do, I'll simply reveal that the dendrite-like water tracings I posted earlier cover most of the Sinai Peninsula, between Egypt and Israel. I suppose in time these beautiful, fragile tracings in the desert will be compelety erased by overlapping bomb craters (seeing how skillfully mankind has managed to negotiate his differences in the area so far), but for now they still exist in all their delicate breadth and splendor, water making its indelible mark in a place completely antagonistic to its prolonged presence. MB
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Aug 15 2007, 11:20 PM) [snapback]496660[/snapback]</div> Well if you put french alps tunnel based on the hint into wikipedia, it is the third link.
OK, it's been a few hours and nobody jumped . . . so I will. This one is a little different. READ FIRST! This location is not the answer I am looking for. That is why I am helping by including street names - but I'm not just going to give the location away. What I am interested in for an answer is WHAT HAPPENED AND WHEN (with a link as confirmation). This event was national newsworthy. Click for larger image, you may need it. [attachmentid=10691]
Well, it's La Plata, Maryland. After much research the only significant events I've been able to find which occured in this area are: School children, waiting at a school bus stop, were run over by a woman high on methadone. I'm guessing this isn't what you want, as it's not really central to the map... There were at least three bomb or bio-terrorism threats against the La Plata county courthouse in one year. One of them is here, another here, and I can get the others if you want. I think this is also in the "not the the droids you are looking for" category. My best guess, and final answer, is the force F4 tornado that hit La Plata on April 28, 2002. A good image is here. Since this is a somewhat subjective post, Ill wait for confirmation before assuming that I'm brilliant... B)
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mad Hatter @ Aug 16 2007, 09:50 AM) [snapback]496966[/snapback]</div> Confirmed! That is what the light green area is running from left to right through the center of the image I posted. NASA IMAGE: Newsworthy: The twister—the strongest ever recorded to hit the state and perhaps the strongest ever recorded in the eastern U.S.—flattened everything in its path along a 24-mile (39 kilometer) swath running west to east through the state. http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHa...hp3?img_id=3613 Good sluthin'
On the theme of "strange desert markings": (no clues) [attachmentid=10697] I think this one deserves a what, as well as where, it is...
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mad Hatter @ Aug 16 2007, 01:59 PM) [snapback]497111[/snapback]</div> Obviously a landing strip and for something big...the Space shuttle being the most likely thing. Edward's Air Force Base Let's start without giving any clues before it's time.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Aug 16 2007, 12:13 PM) [snapback]497130[/snapback]</div> Well, it's not Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream factory in Waterbury VT. The adjacent fields and dead N-S, W-E orientation of the road and section lines indicate this may be in the midwest somewhere. MB
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Aug 16 2007, 02:50 PM) [snapback]497168[/snapback]</div> Check your compass rose.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Aug 16 2007, 02:52 PM) [snapback]497171[/snapback]</div> Looks like a winery .Its not Paul Masson.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mojo @ Aug 16 2007, 03:43 PM) [snapback]497219[/snapback]</div> You're very warm though.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Aug 16 2007, 04:05 PM) [snapback]497239[/snapback]</div> http://maps.google.com/maps?f=l&hl=en&...p;z=17&om=1 Found it in St Helena.But I dont have a name yet. Robert Mondavi Winery,Oakville.
Looks like Mondavi, though I haven't looked it up to confirm. Been on the Wine Train, lately, Evan? Go for it, mojo, it's all you.... [edit] Yep, it's Robert Mondavi. [\edit]
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mad Hatter @ Aug 16 2007, 04:35 PM) [snapback]497258[/snapback]</div> Youve probably seen this place before [attachmentid=10703]