Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
The first passenger railway train in eastern India (at the time under the rule of the British East India Company) steamed out of the present-day city of Howrah at 8:30 a.m. for the city of Hooghly. The trip took a total of 91 minutes. This segment of the East Indian Railway Company – ultimately known... Continue Reading →
More than 16 months after leaving Abu Dhabi, the experimental solar-powered monoplane Solar Impulse 2 completed its first-of-a-kind circumnavigation of Earth by returning to the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The innovative aircraft had been one of two built as part of a privately financed aviation project in Switzerland. The Swiss citizens leading this... Continue Reading →
The Trans-Siberian Railway was officially completed after more than a decade of construction throughout a large stretch of the Russian Empire. Thousands of workers helped build this network of railways linking Moscow with the Russian Far East. While formally finished, trains had already been running on some portions of the system; other segments, however, would... Continue Reading →
Following the completion of her sea trials, a new state-of-the-art vessel was delivered by India’s Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) to the Indian Navy. INS Sumitra was the fourth and last Saryu-class patrol vessel to be built for the Indian Navy. Measuring 344 feet in length, she is also the Indian Navy’s longest offshore patrol vessel.... Continue Reading →
Pictured: The first Jaffa–Jerusalem train arriving in Jerusalem, 1892 The end of an era in Middle East transportation took place when Amos Uzani, chief executive officer of the state-owned Israel Railways, decided to completely close the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem railway line that had long served as a transit link between those major cities. The final train... Continue Reading →
A key moment in the prolonged efforts to build a major bridge across the Jamuna River in present-day Bangladesh took place when Shamsul Haque, a member of the Provincial Assembly from the city of Rangpur, formally introduced a legislative resolution for constructing that bridge. (At the time, this section of South Asia was a provincial... Continue Reading →
In western India, the Bandra-Worli Sea Link was first opened to traffic. Characterized by the Mumbai-based Economic Times as “India’s latest showcase to the world,” the cable-stayed bridge formally debuted with only four of its eight lanes opened. The other four lanes were opened nearly nine months later. The bridge, measuring three-and-a-half miles in length,... Continue Reading →
In Southeast Asia, the newly established Wearnes Air Services (WAS) began operations. This marked the first regular commercial air service between the island of Singapore and the Malay Peninsula, with a de Havilland DH.89 Dragon Rapide biplane known as “Governor Raffles” making the inaugural flight from Singapore (at the time part of the British territories... Continue Reading →
Tsuru Shima Lighthouse, which can be found on the island of Tsuru Shima in southeastern Japan and remains in operation today, was first lit. This lighthouse was one of 26 in the Land of the Rising Sun that were designed by Scottish-born engineer Richard Henry Brunton during the early years of the Meiji era, a... Continue Reading →
Elattuvalapil Sreedharan, who has played a key role in the development of public transportation in India, was born in the town of Pattambi in South India’s present-day state of Kerala. Sreedharan studied civil engineering at the Government Engineering College (now called Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University) in Kakinada, and eventually secured a position with the Indian... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 