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Memorial Bridge's twin 200-foot- (61-meter-) tall towers anchor what was the longest lift span in the country (297 feet, or 91 meters) when the bridge was dedicated in 1923, making the structure a prototype for later metal truss bridges. Memorial Bridge is now the oldest operational lift bridge in the eastern United States, carrying automobiles along coastal Route 1.

In 2007, the States of Maine and New Hampshire agreed that the bridge should be fully rehabilitated, but cost estimates came back $15 million over budget, and the two states are now studying their options, including destruction and replacement of the bridge.

A broad coalition of seacoast area preservation, business, environmental, and veterans' organizations supports the recent proposal by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation that both states seek competitive infrastructure stimulus funds to completely rehabilitate Memorial Bridge. Their Maine counterparts have not yet concurred.

Schooling and Civil Rights

Dorchester Academy in Midway, Georgia, was founded in 1871 as a school for freed slaves. Initially a one-room schoolhouse, its enrollment grew to hundreds of African-American students, and it eventually also housed a cooperative store and credit union.

When the academy stopped operating as a school in 1940, a community center was opened in the old boys' dormitory. This red-brick, Greek Revival structure, built in 1934 — the only remaining building on the Dorchester campus, and a National Historic Landmark — is deteriorating.

In later years, the school played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement, hosting African-American voter registrations and citizen education workshops. Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and Joseph Lowery spent time at the academy preparing for the spring 1963 Birmingham campaign, and King also wrote and practiced portions of his famed "I Have a Dream" speech there.

While the dormitory has been partially repaired and stabilized, the structural support beams and foundation are compromised. The Dorchester Improvement Association seeks to create a world-class museum and community facility at the site, but an estimated $1 million to $1.5 million is needed for full restoration.

Galveston's Cast Iron

In Galveston, Texas, once a center of finance and commerce, the late-19th-century buildings of the Strand Historic District are languishing after a swift blow from a hurricane, combined with the slower forces of economic decline.

The 12-block district of Greek Revival and Italianate buildings dates to the mid- and late 1800s, when the barrier island was transformed into a major port, and cast iron was the preferred building material for both structural and ornamental features. Many buildings in and around the Strand district have cast-iron storefronts, and many more have brick fronts with cast-iron details.

A direct hit from Hurricane Ike in September 2008 flooded the downtown commercial district for two days with ten to 13 feet (three to four meters) of salt water polluted with oil and debris — destroying interiors, ruining mechanical systems, creating structural deficiencies, and widely damaging the trademark decorative cast iron.

Even before that, downtown Galveston was experiencing an economic downturn, with buildings deteriorating due to neglect. Ike has accelerated that trend: many businesses lacked flood insurance and have not reopened after the storm. Also, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)'s relief efforts are slow to unfold, leaving the historic buildings at risk.

Hawaiian Plantation

Only one intact plantation town remains in Hawaii — on Lanai, the smallest of the main islands. James Drummond Dole purchased the island in 1922 and created a vast pineapple plantation where thousands of workers grew fruit for his Hawaiian Pineapple Company, later the Dole Food Company.

Castle & Cooke, Inc., which spun off Dole Foods in 1995 with the corporation's real estate holdings, recently revealed a plan calling for the demolition or alteration of 15 to 20 historic buildings in Lanai City, the company town created by Dole, to make way for large-scale commercial development, including an out-of-scale grocery store.

The least-visited of the main Hawaiian Islands, Lanai remains secluded, and Lanai City looks very much as it did in the 1920s, with hundreds of plantation-style homes and a small downtown, all centered around a tree-lined park. The town of about 2,500 year-round residents still lacks traffic lights and public transportation, and the 141-square-mile (365-square-kilometer) island counts less than 30 miles (48 kilometers) of paved road.

Castle & Cooke has submitted permit applications to Maui County's Department of Planning for the demolition of the police lieutenant's house, the jail, the laundromat, and other historic commercial and residential structures. Local preservationists hope to convince the company of the economic value of heritage tourism.

Hallowed Mountain

Located in the San Mateo Mountains in western New Mexico, near Grants, Mount Taylor stands over 11,000 feet (3,400 meters) tall, and is visible from up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) away. The mountain has been a pilgrimage site for as many as 30 Native American tribes, and is still used for a variety of cultural practices, with considerable significance for the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, and Pueblos of Laguna and Zuni, and special importance for the Acoma people.

Proposed uranium mining and exploration threaten the mountain's cultural resources, including pilgrimage trails, shrines, and archaeological sites, and jeopardize the water quality of the Rio San Jose, the Acoma Pueblo's primary water source. The mountain stands atop the Grants Uranium Belt, one of the richest known reserves of uranium ore in the United States. With demand for the ore currently high, the New Mexico Mining and Minerals Division continues to receive proposals for exploration, mining, and milling operations there.

Much of the area is governed by the 1872 Mining Law, which permits mining regardless of its impact on cultural or natural resources, meaning that the U.S. Forest Service and other federal land management agencies lack the authority to deny mining applications. Concerned tribes are seeking a permanent listing of Mount Taylor in the New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties, which would ensure the tribes are consulted whenever development is proposed there.

Atomic Hangar

At Wendover Air Force Base in remote western Utah, the U.S. Army Air Force conducted top-secret assembly of prototype atomic weapons during World War II. In June 1945, a B-29 Superfortress airplane piloted by Colonel Paul Tibbets left the base with a bomb codenamed "Little Boy," en route for Hiroshima, Japan, where the plane dropped the word's first atomic bomb on August 6.

That bomber, dubbed the Enola Gay in honor of Tibbets's mother, has been restored and is on display outside Washington, D.C. But the Wendover hangar where it was stored prior to deployment has deteriorated severely.

Closed by the Air Force in 1969, the airfield is now owned by Tooele County, and the historic buildings are operated in cooperation with the Historic Wendover Airfield group. An estimated $5 million to $6 million is needed to fully restore the Enola Gay hangar and turn it into a public museum.

Many other important sites associated with the Manhattan Project — the U.S. government's classified program to develop a nuclear bomb — are in jeopardy, including five of the eight sites designated signature facilities by the Department of Energy (DOE) in 2000. Five years ago, Congress directed the DOE and Department of the Interior to study the feasibility of creating a Manhattan Project National Historical Park, encompassing geographically diverse areas.

Saving Endangered Sites

The 2009 "Most Endangered" list, announced April 28, is the 22nd such list that the National Trust for Historic Preservation has issued to highlight significant heritage sites that are at risk, with the potential for rescue. One recent success from the 2007 list is the H.H. Richardson house in Brookline, Massachusetts, which has been purchased by a preservation-minded individual is being respectfully rehabilitated for use by a family.

The fight to save many previously listed sites continues, including for the Mid-City Historic District in New Orleans (listed in 2008), and Minidoka National Historic Site in Idaho (2007), for which the National Trust has filed lawsuits as part of the campaign to block demolition and nearby unsympathetic development, respectively.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation provides leadership, education, advocacy, and resources to a national network of people, organizations, and local communities committed to saving diverse historic places in the United States, with the goals of revitalizing neighborhoods and communities, sparking economic development, and promoting environmental sustainability.

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SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE In their prime, the Ames Shovel Shops in Easton, Massachusetts, produced iron-bladed shovels used in the California Gold Rush and in the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. Photo: Courtesy Easton Historical Society Extra Large Image Left by the Ames company in the 1950s, the shovel shops complex now faces proposed partial demolition and modification to make way for an affordable housing development on the eight-acre (three-hectare) site. Photo: Chris Milford Extra Large Image SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE The vertical-lift Memorial Bridge has spanned the Piscataqua River between Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Kittery, Maine, since 1923. Photo: Courtesy NTHP Extra Large Image Now the oldest operating lift bridge in the eastern United States, Memorial Bridge requires substantial repairs, and is at risk of demolition and replacement. Photo: Steve Fowle Extra Large Image The deteriorating red-brick boys' dormitory (1934) is the last remaining building at Dorchester Academy, an African-American school and Civil Rights landmark in Midway, Georgia. Photo: NTHP Extra Large Image The late-19th-century cast-iron architecture of Galveston, Texas, is suffering from the combined impacts of hurricane damage and economic decline. Photo: Denise Alexander/ Galveston Historical Foundation Extra Large Image In the Strand National Historic Landmark District, buildings with cast-iron storefronts and embellishments recall Galveston's rise to prominence in the mid-1800s. Photo: Brian M. Davis/ Galveston Historical Foundation Extra Large Image Many 1920s buildings in Lanai City, the only intact plantation town in Hawaii, are threatened with demolition and alteration to make way for large-scale commercial development. Photo: Theresa Pascual Extra Large Image In New Mexico's San Mateo Mountains, proposed uranium mining and exploration threaten the sanctity of Mount Taylor, a site with significance to many Native American tribes. Photo: Katie Kastner Extra Large Image The Enola Gay hangar at Wendover Air Force Base in northwestern Utah is one of several significant sites from the Manhattan Project. Photo: Courtesy NTHP Extra Large Image   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.