Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
June 18, 1817 A granite bridge crossing the River Thames in London was formally opened by the Prince of Wales and future King George IV (1762-1830), who had assumed the role of Prince Regent and taken over the royal responsibilities of his incapacitated father King George III (1738-1820) six years earlier. This bridge was built... Continue Reading →
June 17, 1892 Two years after construction on it began, the Brienz Rothorn Railway in central Switzerland first went into service. This line connects the municipality of Brienz with the summit of the mountain known as the Brienzer Rothorn (part of the western region of the Alps). The Brienz Rothorn Railway (“Brienz Rothorn Bahn” [BRB]... Continue Reading →
June 16, 1941 About six months before the United States officially entered World War II on the side of the Allies, the schooner Bowdoin was commissioned into the U.S. Navy. USS Bowdoin (IX-50) became one of this military branch’s few sail-powered vessels at the time. Bowdoin was placed under the command of USNR (U.S. Navy... Continue Reading →
June 15, 1898 In what was then the British colony of New South Wales (NSW), a truss bridge built across the Hunter River in the town of Morpeth made its public debut. (NSW was a British colony until it became one of the states of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901.) Morpeth Bridge was designed... Continue Reading →
June 12, 2005 Passenger rail service returned after a hiatus of 41 years to the Vale of Glamorgan, a county borough in southeastern Wales. This service began on a regular basis two days after the Vale of Glamorgan Line was formally dedicated. The festivities that day included a train breaking through an inaugural banner at... Continue Reading →
June 11, 1764 Operations began for a lighthouse built about 500 feet (150 meters) from the tip of Sandy Hook, a barrier spit located within what was then the British royal colony of New Jersey and at the southern entrance of Lower New York Bay. This lighthouse had been constructed to help guide mariners traveling... Continue Reading →
June 10, 1822 A historic “first” in maritime transportation took place when the iron steamship Aaron Manby crossed the English Channel from England to France. While there had been crossings of wooden steamships between those countries by this time, the voyage of the Aaron Manby marked the first such voyage of a steamship built of... Continue Reading →
June 9, 1928 A five-span truss bridge crossing a section of the Mississippi River between Missouri and Illinois was inaugurated with considerable fanfare. This vehicular bridge was named after James Beauchamp “Champ” Clark (1850-1921), a U.S. congressman who represented Missouri’s 9th district from 1893 until his death. In addition, Clark served as the 36th speaker... Continue Reading →
June 8, 1945 With World War II still underway in the Pacific Theater, the ship Francis J. O’Gara was launched at the shipyard of J.A. Jones Construction Company in Panama City, Florida. This vessel was one of more than 2,700 Liberty ships built in the United States during the war. These standardized cargo vessels were... Continue Reading →
June 5, 2017 The day before it first opened for passengers on a regular basis, a newly built Amtrak train station in the city of Pontiac, Illinois, was inaugurated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and plenty of praise. Approximately 75 people attended this event. The funding for this station was a federal grant provided to the... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 