Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Kathryn Dwyer Sullivan was born in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1951. She earned a B.S. degree in earth sciences from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1973 and a Ph.D. in geology from Dalhousie University in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia in 1978. It was also in 1978 that Sullivan formally became one... Continue Reading →
March 30, 1986 Richard Arista “Dick” Ward, who served as both Oklahoma’s director of transportation and president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), died after suffering a heart attack at his home in the city of Stillwater in the north-central region of the Sooner State. He was 66. Ward started... Continue Reading →
March 29, 1998 In Portugal, a cable-stayed bridge that is flanked by viaducts made its public debut in the frequesia (civil parish) of Parque das Nacões in the country’s capital city of Lisbon. This structure, which spans the river Tagus, was named after Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (1460s-1524). Measuring 7.7 miles (12.4 kilometers) in... Continue Reading →
March 28, 2003 A long-distance hiking trail was inaugurated on the Isle of Arran, an island off the western coast of Scotland. This 66-mile (107-kilometer)-long trail is called the Arran Coastal Way. It was formally opened by Cameron McNeish, an avid hiker who is considered to be one of Scotland’s leading authorities on outdoor pursuits... Continue Reading →
March 25, 1992 A new airport in the Republic of Malta, a country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, first became fully operational. This airport is in the town of Luqa, which is only 3.1 miles (five kilometers) southwest of Malta’s capital of Valletta. The specific island on which the airport is located... Continue Reading →
On October 8, 1922, Lillian Gatlin became the first woman to travel across the continental United States in a plane when she arrived at the U.S. air mail service station at Long Island’s Curtiss Field at 5:45 p.m. and three days after departing from San Francisco. Wearing a “special delivery” tag on her flying suit,... Continue Reading →
March 23, 2019 An underground rapid transit station known as Arroyofresno was officially opened to the public in Spain’s capital city of Madrid. Arroyfresno is one of 31 stations on Line 7 of the Madrid Metro. With a length of 182 miles (293 kilometers) altogether, the Madrid Metro is the world’s 14th longest rapid transit... Continue Reading →
March 22, 2014 The Hunter Expressway in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) was opened to traffic. This freeway covers 24.5 miles (39.5 kilometers) between the Pacific Motorway at the Newcastle Link Road interchange and the segment of the New England Highway that is just north of the town of Branxton. The Hunter... Continue Reading →
March 21, 1937 Southern Pacific (SP) Railroad’s two newest Daylight streamliner trains made their first regular runs between San Francisco and Los Angeles. These passenger trains were both originally known as the Daylight Limited. On the day of their shared debut, both trains each consisted of a dozen Pullman passenger cars that were pulled along by... Continue Reading →
March 18, 1834 The first railway tunnel in the United States made its formal debut in west-central Pennsylvania as part of the infrastructure for the Allegheny Portage Railroad. The Staple Bend Tunnel was specifically built between the borough of Conemaugh (the present-day city of Johnstown) and the settlement (now borough) of Hollidaysburg. At the time of... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 