Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
September 17, 1871 Within the Alps mountain range in Europe, a tunnel connecting the French commune of Modane with the Italian town and commune of Bardonecchia was officially opened to rail traffic. This transportation route runs through the region of the massif known as Mont Cenis and beneath both the Pointe du Fréjus (a mountain)... Continue Reading →
September 9, 1963 More than a century after it had first gone into service, Linley Hall station on the Severn Valley Railway line in England’s West Midlands region was permanently closed. This railway station was opened on February 1, 1862. It had been built at the behest of Thomas C. Whitmore (1807-1865), a prominent local... Continue Reading →
August 16, 1993 In the central part of Finland’s capital city, a newly built station in the district of Ruoholahti was opened for public use. Ruoholahti metro station is served by lines M1 and M2 of the Helsinki Metro, the northernmost metro system in the world. This underground station was designed by architects Jouko Kontio... Continue Reading →
August 12, 2004 In Greece, a bridge crossing the Gulf of Corinth (an inlet of the Ionian Sea) was opened to the public. This bridge serves as a link between the towns of Rio (also known as Rion) on the Pelponnese peninsula and Antirrio on the country’s western mainland. The Rio-Antirrio Bridge carries the Greek... Continue Reading →
August 1, 1894 Ottavio Bottecchia, who would achieve widespread renown as a champion cyclist, was born in the comune of Colle Umberto in northeastern Italy. He was the eighth of nine children. Bottecchia had only one year of formal schooling. His earliest jobs included working as a shoemaker and then a bricklayer. After Italy entered... Continue Reading →
July 30, 1977 A girder bridge in the city of Taranto in southern Italy’s Apulia region was formally opened to traffic. This 6,263-foot (1,909-meter)-long vehicular bridge crosses the Gulf of Taranto and serves as a link between the city’s areas of Punta Penna and Punta Pizzone. The bridge was built to accommodate the increasingly heavy... Continue Reading →
July 26, 1820 A dedication ceremony was held for the Union Chain Bridge spanning the River Tweed and serving as a link between the village of Horncliffe in England and the parish of Fishwick in Scotland. At the time of its opening, this structure – with a length of 449 feet (137 meters) – was... Continue Reading →
July 19, 1869 Masonry construction was completed on a new lighthouse in the Celtic Sea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. This took place nearly five years after William Douglass, the engineer supervising the project, laid the first stone of the structure. This lighthouse is located on a rock that is 18 nautical miles... Continue Reading →
July 18, 1924 After more than three decades of service, the Belleville funicular tramway in Paris ceased operations. This railway consisted of cable cars connecting the Place de la la République (Republic Square) in the north-central region of France’s capital city with Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Belleville, a major church on a hill in northeastern Paris’s Belleville... Continue Reading →
July 17, 2012 A terminal station that had been built to serve Humberto Delgado Airport (Aeroporto Humberto Delgado) and is located on the Red Line of the Lisbon Metro – the rapid transit station operating in the metropolitan area centered on Portugal’s capital city – was officially opened. Humberto Delgado Airport, which is informally known... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 