ASDAL Tour 2011

This year we will travel to the Silicon Valley, so named because of its emphasis on technology.  It began as an entrepreneurial venture of Stanford University.   Coming out of the depression, Stanford had a lot of unused land that the donor, Leland Stanford, specified could not be sold.  In the 1930’s the head of the engineering department suggested that it be used to create an industrial park that could hire his graduates rather than see them pulled away to the East coast.    Instead of selling the land it was leased for 99 years.  Thus began the technological culture that would nurture startups like Hewlett Packard, Apple and Google.

Our tour will include three stops.

Google

A rare opportunity for an inside tour of the Google Campus and a presentation about Google Scholar.

The Computer History Museum

The Computer History Museum is the world's leading institution exploring the history of computing and its ongoing impact on society. It is home to the largest international collection of computing artifacts in the world, encompassing computer hardware, software, documentation, ephemera, photographs and moving images.

The Golden Gate Bridge

T he Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, it connects the city of San Francisco on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula to Marin County. The Golden Gate Bridge was the longest suspension bridge span in the world when it was completed in 1937, and has become one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco, California, and of the United States. Despite its span length being surpassed by eight other bridges since its completion, it still has the second longest suspension bridge main span in the United States, after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City. It has been declared one of the modern Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

(Quoted from Wikipedia)