Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
John Beargrease, who was also known as Eshquabi, was born in the vicinity of Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior in 1858. He was the son of Moquabimetem, a chief of the Ojibwe people in that region. (The Ojibwe people are part of the group of Native American tribes collectively called the Anishinaabe.) Moquabimetem also... Continue Reading →
November 25, 1931 A suspension bridge crossing the Ohio River was opened. This structure, which had been designed by the firm Modjeski and Masters, serves as a link between the city of Maysville, Kentucky, and the village of Aberdeen, Ohio. The 1,991-foot (607-meter)-long bridge was named after Simon Kenton (1755-1836), a famous frontiersman and soldier... Continue Reading →
November 24, 2007 The Lynx Blue Line first went into service in Charlotte, North Carolina. This light rail line, which is owned and operated by the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS), made history as the first major rapid rail service in the Tar Heel State. On the day of Lynx’s formal debut, CATS allowed all... Continue Reading →
In 1878, a newly built lifesaving station began operations on Waddah Island on the Makah Indian Reservation in the U.S. Territory of Washington. (This territory in the Pacific Northwest became the 42nd state in 1889.) The Waddah Island Lifesaving Station, which was specifically located at Neah Bay, became one of the earliest U.S. federal government... Continue Reading →
November 20, 1954 Clyde Cessna died in Wichita, Kansas, at the age of 74. By the time of his passing, he had left a large and longtime imprint on the transportation world as an aircraft designer and aviation entrepreneur. Cessna was born in 1879 in Hawthorne, Iowa. When he was only two years old, he... Continue Reading →
November 19, 1921 A recently completed railway station was officially opened in the village of Bjorli, which is located along the Rauma river in southern Norway. Bjorli Station was built as the western terminus for the first section of the Rauma Line. That section covered 35.3 miles (56.8 kilometers) between the village of Dombås and... Continue Reading →
The State Board of Public Roads of Rhode Island was established in 1902 to oversee the construction, maintenance, and improvement of the Ocean State’s highways system. Up until the establishment of this board, there had been no state-level entity in place to supervise and monitor work on public roads within Rhode Island; those duties were... Continue Reading →
November 17, 2007 A “rededication” ceremony was held for the McKinley Bridge, which crosses the Mississippi River and links St. Louis, Missouri, with Venice, Illinois. This bridge had been designed by renowned engineer Ralph Modjeski and it first opened in 1907. Contrary to a widespread assumption, the bridge was not named after President William McKinley; the... Continue Reading →
Ola Mildred Rexroat, who achieved fame as the only Native American to serve as one of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II, was an enrolled member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. She was born in Argonia, Kansas in 1917. Early on in her life, Rexroat moved with her family to South... Continue Reading →
November 13, 1940 In western Kentucky, the Livermore Bridge was officially opened. This through truss bridge starts at the city of Livermore in McLean County, crosses over the Rough River, spans a small part of Ohio County, and then ends up on the south bank of the Green River back in McLean County. That design for... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 