It is The Centennial Bridge. It was dedicated in 1940.

https://www.google.com.ar/search?q=cente...

At one time I thought I saw something like that too. But after many back-and-forth searches I couldn't find a reference to it again. Might have been the same dream!

Hi Khalling: The subject of divorce comes up much later, but even at this point it might have been on Hank's mind. As ohiocrossroads suggests, his conflicted feelings for Dagny and Lillian were certainly motive enough to not want to be alone too long with Dagny.

No, no, no. Me as Dagny!

Exactly. A Rock Island bridge really exists.

And I have fixed the town: Dunkertown, Iowa. It's the only town near enough "within a hundred miles" of all the cities and towns named.

Yeah.. saw that right after whined.

I keep it by my bed to read nights.

I've often asked myself: what if a few of the genders were reversed, and I found myself portraying Dagny Taggart--as a man? Would I leave the valley? Or would I see this deal the way Hank Rearden saw it at that meeting at the Wayne-Falkland?

At other times--oh, how I wish I had a multi-million-dollar purse, and I'd been the one to produce the AS movies--or bring it to TV as a "limited series." I would have wanted to portray Henry Rearden myself--and would have cast Matilda Swinton as Dagny. And Angela Lansbury as Mother Rearden. That's just for starters...!

If we were actually playing a "game" of "Atlas Shrugged Trivia" how could there be a "correct answer" for anything that was "most likely" versus something that was actually written in the novel?

That being said, I would guess the "most likely real-life" location of the Taggart Bridge to be Rock Island, Illinois, since (if I remember correctly) it was one of the cities destroyed by the inadvertent activation of Project X and is actually on the Mississippi River. It also the site of one of the first bridges to cross the Mississippi (to Davenport, Iowa via Arsenal Island).

And my guess for the most likely real-life inspiration for the "Comet" would be the Rock Island "Rocket" (of the Rock Island Line).

Temlakos, you must know this book by heart!

Great post, khalling. I get to have fun and laugh and also remember some of the wonderful parts of Atlas.

I seem to recall Dagny asking him about it later... maybe that was a dream.

I think ohiocrossroads has it right either way: "to avoid the temptation of being alone with her"

Excellent answer, Wonky. And good question, Temlakos. I had forgotten all about that.

Gerald "Jed" Starnes, Senior.

Gerald Starnes, Jr., Ivy Starnes, and Eric Starnes, his heirs.

Amalgamated Service Company, Lee Hunsacker, President.

Mr. Bascom, Mayor (Rome, Wisc.)

Mark Yonts

People's Mortgage Company and one other group--Mark Yonts sold the factory twice and scrammed.

ah, thanks for the clarification :)

Jed Starnes... Wait, can anyone that followed actually be said to have "owned" the company?

Yep, he was ordering Eddie to divert 2 engines to the "Grapefruit Special" in Arizona and shut down the Comet (which was scheduled to be carrying coal) by 2 days in the process.

I like this question. The mental hula hoops Hank goes through at this meeting are so essential to the story. I think it's one of those scenes that people seem to misrepresent in order to prove that Ayn Rand's ideas about sexuality are twisted.

The candid answer is that Hank went to meet her at a Taggart construction site and fantasized about making love to her on the spot. He then decided that she could never know that.

As the issue resolves throughout the book, it becomes clear that Rand is refuting the "dichotomy of mind and body".

Hear, hear

Change the schedule of the Comet to move produce and coal (?) Where the govt wanted it

I have a better idea:

Plot the named cities and towns along the perimeter of the effective radius of Project X. And from this plot:

1. Name the most likely real-life Iowa town that became Harmony City, and at last, Meigsville.

2. Plot the most likely real-life location of the Taggart Bridge.

When Dagny first returns to work after returning from Galt's Gulch, Cuffy Meigs is giving Eddie Willers an order to do what?

hmm. this one stumps me. I put the location of the installation in Iowa and I remember a Taggart bridge spanning the Mississippi was destroyed along with a train. good one!

In the novel, what was the name Jeff Allen used to introduce himself to Dagny?

that is incorrect tem. give us a wow one! looking forward to it. If I don't respond, PM me-sometimes I don't see all posts. make sure you click the "subscribe to comments" link at the top of the post-and I happily give this one to you. carry on!

Name one of the cities destroyed by the activation of "Project X."

I can name two of them without looking them up (48 years after reading Atlas Shrugged), but that's only because the name of one of the cities is the same as my last name and one of the others is my home town.

(If Atlas Shrugged had really happened in the 1950's, I probably wouldn't be here today.)