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Tie a Yellow Ribbon (4.5 mile version)

At Puget Sound Ropes in Anacortes, Washington, the first few meters of a new synthetic rope are flaked into a shipping container (left). The rope, blended from two ultra-high strength fibers, was developed for WHOI’s Long Coring Program. The 2” diameter ‘plastic’ rope has a breaking strength of more than 180 tons in order to support the heavy load of the sediment sampling system in deep sea operations. When braiding was completed, the container was full to the top and the finished rope stretched 4.5 miles long. (Photo by James Broda, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)