Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
A day after it was officially opened, the first electric tram (streetcar) line in all of Scandinavia began regular operations in Norway’s capital city of Kristiania. (In 1924, the city formally readopted its original name of Oslo.) This tram line was run by the company Kristiana Elektriske Sporvei (KES) as a part of the Oslo... Continue Reading →
On January 1, 1915, Wilma K. Russey became a high-profile transportation pioneer by launching her career as New York City’s first female taxi driver. “New York’s First Feminine Chauffeur Starts Business on New Year’s Day,” proclaimed a headline in the next day’s edition of the New York Times. Russey, who had been employed for more... Continue Reading →
Costa Rica’s first nationally operated airline, Empresa Nacional de Transportes Aéreos (ENTA), was established by an American émigré named William Schoenfeldt. The airline made its debut a little over two decades after the first-ever plane flight in the Central American country had taken place. When ENTA began operations, it provided only intermittent flight service between... Continue Reading →
Mary Ann Brown Patten – through highly unexpected and unique circumstances – became the first female commander of a U.S. merchant vessel. Her husband Joshua Patten was a sea captain who, in 1856, was given command of the clipper ship Neptune’s Car for a voyage from New York to San Francisco to transport cargo. Mary,... Continue Reading →
A new and record-setting dual carriageway (divided highway) toll bridge was opened in the Malaysian state of Penang. The Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge, which was formally designated Expressway 28 (E28) and is also known as the Penang Second Bridge, took a little over five years to construct. With one lane for motorcycles and... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 