Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Michael J. Hoffmann of Minnesota served as president of the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) in 1946, in an era when both that association and the United States were moving further away from the World War II years and grappling with the major peacetime challenges facing the nation’s highways. In two key benchmarks... Continue Reading →
Robert Files Lopez was born in the city of Davenport, Iowa, on March 31, 1857. He was admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy in 1874 and made history in 1879 as the first Hispanic American to graduate from that institution. Lopez’s subsequent naval career included serving as an ensign aboard the USS Thetis when that... Continue Reading →
September 14, 1974 Brazil’s first underground rapid transit system made its public debut when regular service began on a 4.3-mile (6.9-kilometer)-long section of the São Paulo Metrô between the Jabaquara and Vila Mariana stations on the North-South Line (the present-day Blue Line). Those taking part in the formal inauguration of this system included Miguel Colasuonno, who... Continue Reading →
September 11, 2001 The terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, resulted in the tragic deaths of nearly 3,000 individuals in the vicinity of New York City’s World Trade Center; the Pentagon in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area; and –where a hijacked airplane went down after passengers sought to overcome the terrorists... Continue Reading →
September 10, 1962 Construction began on twin tunnels in the city and unitary authority area of Newport in southern Wales. These tunnels were built to carry M4 of the United Kingdom (UK) motorway network under Brynglas Hill in that region of Wales. Sir Owen Williams, the prolific English engineer and architect, was in charge of... Continue Reading →
On November 5, 1935, the last segment of east-west U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) to be paved was officially opened in Nebraska. The inauguration of that 34-mile (54.7-kilometer) stretch of US 30 between the city of North Platte and the village of Sutherland in the Cornhusker State made that route the nation’s first fully hard-surfaced... Continue Reading →
September 8, 1896 In New York, what was technically the final leg of an ambitious and unprecedented transcontinental bicycle relay race took place when two bicyclists departed the southern tip of Manhattan known as the Battery for the U.S. Army post at nearby Governors Island at 1:55 p.m. A.H. Hand and Annie St. Tel, each... Continue Reading →
September 4, 1894 A newly built lifeboat was launched at Sheringham, an English town along the North Sea. This rescue vessel replaced the lifeboat Augusta, which had been stationed at Sheringham since 1838.The new lifeboat had been constructed by Sheringham native Lewis “Buffalo” Emery and was provided to the town by a prominent local resident... Continue Reading →
September 3, 2013 A bicycle-and-pedestrian path on the newly constructed eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (famously nicknamed the Bay Bridge) made its debut. The noontime opening of the completed two-thirds of the path took place the day after the roadway portion of the new span was inaugurated. A segment of the original... Continue Reading →
Bertram Dalley Tallamy, who served as a leading figure in the development of the U.S. highways network, was born on December. 1, 1901, in Plainfield, New Jersey. Tallamy received a degree in civil engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1925, and subsequently acquired substantial engineering experience in waterworks, dams, sewage treatment plants, roads, and... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 