Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
July 22, 1926 In what was widely believed to be a new record for America’s National Pastime and a notable “first” in aviation, sports legend Babe Ruth (1894-1948) caught a baseball from a plane flying well above Mitchel Field airport in Garden City, Long Island. “Babe Ruth Catches Ball from Skies,” announced a headline in that... Continue Reading →
US Route 66 (US 66), known far and wide today as simply Route 66, was one of the original routes of the United States Numbered Highway System to be approved by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) in 1926 and formally authorized and announced by the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads early the... Continue Reading →
July 20, 2016 In the Canadian province of British Columbia, the soft launch of a public bicycle-sharing system in the city of Vancouver began. A bicycle-sharing system is mobility service in which bicycles are available for shared short-term use on a low-cost basis. The version of this system in British Columbia’s most populous city is Vancouver... Continue Reading →
July 17, 2006 A light rail system serving Newark, New Jersey, and surrounding communities was inaugurated. The Newark Light Rail (NLR) is owned and operated by NJ Transit Bus Operations, a division of the state-owned New Jersey Transit Corporation. NLR was developed from a combination of Newark City Subway, which had been launched in 1935,... Continue Reading →
In April 1925, the first full-fledged meeting of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways was held at the headquarters of the U.S Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) in Washington, D.C. This two-day meeting took place just a few weeks after the board was formally established to work on developing what ultimately became the U.S. Numbered... Continue Reading →
July 15, 2013 The final section of the Trakia motorway in the Republic of Bulgaria was opened to traffic. Trakia (pronounced TRAH-kee-yah) is the Bulgarian version of “Thrace,” a historical region in southeastern Europe that encompassed part of what is now Bulgaria. The Trakia motorway, which is officially designated A1, has a total length of... Continue Reading →
U.S. Route 1 (US 1) was one of the major north-south routes of the of the newly created United States Numbered Highway System to be officially authorized by the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on New Year’s Day in 1927. US 1 – also known extensively early... Continue Reading →
July 13, 2005 The Millennium Bridge in Podgorica, the capital and largest city of southeastern Europe’s country of Montenegro, was officially opened to traffic. The inauguration of this cable-stayed bridge, which crosses the Morača river, took place on Montenegro’s National Day. It was on that date in 1878 that representatives on behalf of the major... Continue Reading →
July 10, 1854 A newly completed railway station was opened in the village (now suburban town) of Dalkey, which is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of central Dublin. At that time, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; this sovereign state remained in existence until... Continue Reading →
This is part of a series of posts commemorating the centennial of the United States Numbered Highway System. Less than a month before the 10th anniversary of the organization’s founding in Washington, D.C., the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) held its 1924 annual meeting in San Francisco. This meeting specifically took place in... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 