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Nichols, California

Contra Costa County, California geography stubsUnincorporated communities in CaliforniaUnincorporated communities in Contra Costa County, CaliforniaUse mdy dates from July 2023
AT&SF 3378 with an eastward train at Nichols, between Port Chicago and Pittsburg on the Stockton Sub. (28401336662)
AT&SF 3378 with an eastward train at Nichols, between Port Chicago and Pittsburg on the Stockton Sub. (28401336662)

Nichols is an unincorporated community in Contra Costa County, California, United States. It is on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad 5.5 miles (9 km) west of Pittsburg, at an elevation of 62 feet (19 m). The place is named for William H. Nichols, president of the General Chemical Company of New York, which built in 1909 a plant here to produce fertilizer and a number of other chemicals for industrial use. In 1921, General Chemical became a division of Nichols's Allied Chemical, later Allied Corporation.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Nichols, California (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Nichols, California
Nichols Road,

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
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Wikipedia: Nichols, CaliforniaContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 38.041388888889 ° E -121.98805555556 °
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Address

Nichols Road 684
94565
California, United States
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AT&SF 3378 with an eastward train at Nichols, between Port Chicago and Pittsburg on the Stockton Sub. (28401336662)
AT&SF 3378 with an eastward train at Nichols, between Port Chicago and Pittsburg on the Stockton Sub. (28401336662)
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Nearby Places

GoMentum Station

GoMentum Station is a testing ground for connected and autonomous vehicles at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station (CNWS) in Concord, California, United States. The property was acquired and repurposed by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, acquired in August 2018 by AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah.In October 2014, the Contra Costa Transportation Authority announced that the GoMentum Station proving grounds would be used to test self-driving cars; according to them, "The public will not have access to the test site, and the self-driving cars will be restricted to the test bed site. With 2,100 acres (850 ha) of testing area and 19.6 miles (31.5 km) of paved roadway, the CNWS is currently the largest secure test bed site in the United States". Mercedes-Benz is reported to have licenses to test new driving technology, including smart infrastructure such as traffic signals that communicate with cars. Among the site's other notable features: "a 7-mile (11 km)-long roadway is great for testing high-speed driving, and a pair of 1,400-foot (430 m)-long tunnels" for sensor testing.Among the roughly 30 partners listed on the company's site are automakers Toyota and Honda, ridesharing companies Uber and Lyft and China-based autonomous driving company Baidu. In summer 2015, reports suggested the Apple electric car project was interested in using the site, as members of Apple's Special Project group were reported to have met GoMentum representatives but there were no subsequent reports of Apple personnel and vehicles actually using the site.In August 2019, GoMentum announced the October launch of its V2X (vehicles-to-everything) testing facility.

Port Chicago disaster
Port Chicago disaster

The Port Chicago disaster was a deadly munitions explosion of the ship SS E. A. Bryan on July 17, 1944, at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in Port Chicago, California, United States. Munitions while being loaded onto a cargo vessel bound for the Pacific Theater of Operations, detonated killing 320 sailors and civilians and injuring 390 others. Two-thirds of the dead and injured were enlisted African American sailors. A month later, the unsafe conditions prompted hundreds of servicemen to refuse to load munitions, an act known as the Port Chicago Mutiny. Fifty men‍—‌called the "Port Chicago 50"‍—‌were convicted of mutiny and sentenced to 15 years of prison and hard labor, as well as a dishonorable discharge. Forty-seven of the 50 were released in January 1946; the remaining three served additional months in prison. During and after the mutiny court-martial, questions were raised about the fairness and legality of the proceedings. Owing to public pressure, the United States Navy reconvened the courts-martial board in 1945—that board re-affirmed convictions. Widespread publicity surrounding the case turned it into a cause célèbre among Americans opposing discrimination targeting African Americans; it and other race-related Navy protests of 1944–45 led the Navy to change its practices and initiate the desegregation of its forces beginning in February 1946. In 1994, the Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial was dedicated to the lives lost in the disaster.