Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
February 20, 1927 Just a little over two months after first being placed into service on a trial basis, the Leça Lighthouse on northwestern Portugal’s Atlantic coast was officially inaugurated. This lighthouse was built in the then-civil parish of Leça da Palmeira (now part of the civil parish of Matosinhos e Leça da Palmeira) in... Continue Reading →
February 19, 1914 In the city of Oakland within the San Francisco Bay Area, a major addition to the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Sixteenth Street Station was officially opened. This station, in the years following the calamitous San Francisco earthquake in 1906, had gained ever-increasing importance for its role in helping to facilitate the renewed travel,... Continue Reading →
February 16, 1893 A Thursday morning launch of a pilot boat named the J. Henry Edmunds was held in the city of Brooklyn (now one of the five boroughs of New York City). This type of vessel operates in the vicinity of a port and is used to transport maritime pilots to ships in the... Continue Reading →
In 2010, La’Shanda R. Holmes Hawkins became the first African American female helicopter pilot in the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG). As an officer in that uniformed service, she has amassed more than 2,000 flight hours while helping to carry out search-and-rescue missions; law enforcement operations; and various other duties. Hawkins, who was born in... Continue Reading →
February 14, 1941 A formal acknowledgement -- albeit one that had to be clarified -- was accorded the person who drove the one-millionth motor vehicle through New York City’s Queens-Midtown Tunnel about three months after the debut of that structure. The office of William H. Friedman, commissioner of the New York City Tunnel Authority (now part... Continue Reading →
February 13, 1913 The Miah Maull Shoal Light off the coast of southern New Jersey was completed. This lighthouse is specifically located on the north side of the ship channel in Delaware Bay and southwest of the mouth of the Maurice River. The Miah Maull Shoal Light became the last offshore lighthouse to be built in... Continue Reading →
February 12, 2010 Wilford Suspension Bridge, located in the city and unitary authority area of Nottingham in England’s region of East Midlands, was formally reopened at 12:30 p.m. to the public after an extensive restoration. This structure crosses the River Trent and actually serves as a combined suspension bridge and aqueduct. Wilford Suspension Bridge connects... Continue Reading →
February 9, 1954 A dock landing ship built for the U.S. Navy was launched along the coast of Pascagoula, Mississippi. (A dock landing ship is an amphibious vessel that serves as both a means of transport and a launchpad for helicopters as well as seagoing watercraft such as boats and barges.) This new military vessel... Continue Reading →
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, along with being a transportation-oriented protest against racial segregation practices in Alabama’s capital city, was a pivotal chapter in the larger civil rights movement in the United States. At the time of this boycott during the mid-1950s, longstanding Jim Crow laws that enforced segregation throughout the American South were very much... Continue Reading →
February 7, 2010 Velas Sudamerica 2010, a multi-month tour of tall ships (large, traditionally rigged sailing vessels) traveling along the coastline of Latin America, officially began with the departure of that flotilla from Rio de Janeiro. This tour was organized by the navies of Argentina and Chile to commemorate the bicentennial of when those countries... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 