A solitary beachgoer stands amid the giant Atlantic as a formation of military helicopters passes overhead.
A few days ago, we had the pleasure of watching the Space Shuttle Discovery fly over the Atlantic Ocean and disappear as it departed Brevard for the last time. The view was spectacular.
This caused me to wonder about - I wonder about odd things - the history of the Atlantic, because it has played such a pivotal part in the history of our country. I did a little research.
This is what I learned:
The Atlantic did not always exist. Europe, Africa, North and South America were once one large continent. Around 150 million years ago, a rift began splitting the land mass in two. Water from the Pacific rushed in as the rift widened and the result was a new ocean giant. Even today, the continents move apart at the rate a fingernail grows - about six feet in an average person's lifetime.
The Atlantic owes its name to the Atlas Mountains on the coast of Africa. Consequently, as early as 450 B.C., the vast body of water became commonly known as the Sea of Atlantis. The place where the mountains meet the sea is where the mythological Greek god Atlas had been condemned to hold up the western edge of the earth for all eternity. Atlas is the one you see in sculptures carrying the world on his shoulders.
Leif Ericson in A.D. 1000, not Columbus, was the first person to cross the Atlantic. Ericson landed in Labrador and may have traveled as far south as Massachusetts. Strangely enough, there is a statue of him in downtown Boston. Though no one marks the event, every Oct. 9 is National Leif Ericson Day.
By the way, Columbus believed to his dying day that he had voyaged to the outskirts of Southeast Asia and India. This is why the Caribbean is known as the West Indies and Native Americans were once called Indians.
Fortunately, the crews of Discovery knew whither they were bound as they headed out over the Atlantic. For those of us left behind, we should ask what our next horizon should be.