Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
More than a year after the start of the American Revolutionary War, the Declaration of the Independence – officially called The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America – was adopted by the Second Continental Congress at Pennsylvania State House (later renamed Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. On that same... Continue Reading →
July 1, 1977 The Blue Line of the Washington Metro first went into service. This line’s inaugural stretch between National Airport station in Arlington County, Virginia, and Stadium-Armory station in southeast Washington, D.C., joined the Red Line (introduced the previous year) in forming what was then the world’s newest major rapid transit system. The Orange... Continue Reading →
June 30, 2023 On Hawaii’s island of Oʻahu, Kualakaʻi station in the community of East Kapolei first went into service. This station was one of nine that were officially opened on the same date. These stations constituted the inaugural segment of Skyline, a light metro rapid transit system that is managed by the Honolulu Department... Continue Reading →
June 29, 1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) ushered in the Era of the Interstate System by signing into law the landmark Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. At the time, he was at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, recuperating from major intestinal surgery that had been performed 20 days earlier. To say that June... Continue Reading →
June 26, 2004 Just northwest of downtown Minneapolis, operations began for a light rail station built in the city’s Warehouse District – a longtime neighborhood – on 5th Street North (between 1st Avenue North and Hennepin Avenue). The Warehouse District/Hennepin Avenue station was constructed as part of the first segment of the Blue Line of... Continue Reading →
June 25, 2011 A dedication ceremony was held for the Peace Bridge in the city of Derry in Northern Ireland. This 771-foot (225-meter)-long bridge, which crosses the River Foyle, was built for pedestrians and cyclists. The bridge serves as a link between Ebrington Square, a public space, on the east bank of the river; and... Continue Reading →
June 24, 2024 Operations formally began for a Paris Metro station built at Orly Airport, which is located approximately 8.1 miles (13 kilometers) south of the central area of France’s capital city. This airport is based in Paris’s southern suburbs of Orly and Villeneuve-le-Roi. It is one of two international airports serving Paris. (The other... Continue Reading →
June 23, 2015 More than three weeks after it first went into operation, the cable car system Skyway Monte Bianco within northwestern Italy’s Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley was formally inaugurated. This system serves as a link between its base station in the frazione (subdivision) of Entrèves in the town and comune of Courmayeur; and... Continue Reading →
June 22, 1950 The Highway Research Board (the present-day Transportation Research Board) formally announced the imminent launch of a major highway research project in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. This project would specifically take place in the vicinity of La Plata, a Maryland town about 32 miles (51.5 kilometers) southeast of the nation’s capital. The... Continue Reading →
June 19, 2024 Three years after Juneteenth became a federal holiday, a group of 27 black military veterans and their chaperones flew from Atlanta to Washington, D.C. Their trip was hosted by the Honor Flight Network, a non-profit organization that has transported thousands of veterans – many of them elderly and infirm -- to the... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 