When physicist Tim Berners-Lee and a team of fellow scientists at the European Center for High Energy Physics (CERN) launched the first-ever Web site in 1989, their goal was to make it easier for scientists to access research documents and scientific data (CERN, 2008). In 1998, Virginia Sea Grant educators at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) had a similar goal: to make ocean science educational resources and current research data more accessible to classroom teachers. The Virginia Sea Grant education team took the first step toward accomplishing this goal by launching a Web site of its own, called "Bridge." The name was inspired by the idea of a ship's bridge with a teacher at the helm, navigating "an ocean of marine education data." It also represents a bridge spanning the divide between the education and the ocean research communities, which is the essence of the Bridge project's mission.

Clark, V.P., L.A. Lawrence, C. Petrone, and L. Larkin. 2009. The Bridge Web site: Growing and sustaining partnerships between ocean science and education. Oceanography 22(2):28–33, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2009.35.

CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). How the Web Began. Available online at: http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/en/About/WebStory-en.html (accessed September 23, 2008).
1. ORION (Ocean Research Interactive Observing Networks). 2004. A report of the workshop held January 4–8, 2004, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Chapter V, Education. Available online at: http://www.geo-prose.com/pdfs/orion_report.pdf (accessed April 9, 2009).
2. US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. 2006. Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994–2005. NCES Report 2007-020. Available online at: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2007020 (accessed September 23, 2008).
3. Walker, S.H., P. Coble, and F.L. Larkin. 2000. Ocean sciences education for the 21st century. Oceanography 13(2):32–29. [pdf]

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