Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
September 12, 1906 The Newport Transporter Bridge, which crosses the River Usk in the city of Newport in southeastern Wales, was officially opened. This structure is only one of a dozen transporter bridges still in existence today -- a movable bridge that carries a segment of a roadway over a river that other types of... Continue Reading →
September 8, 1966 A dedication ceremony was held for a suspension bridge spanning the River Severn between England and Wales. The Severn Bridge, which connects the unitary authority area (local government seat) of South Gloucestershire in England with the County of Monmouthsire in Wales, was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II. Measuring about a mile... Continue Reading →
September 5, 1862 English meteorologists James Glaisher (1809-1903) and Henry Tracey Coxwell (1819-1900) set a new record in altitude for human flights when they soared in a balloon far above Stafford Road Gasworks in the then-borough of Wolverhampton, England. The intent of that flight was to examine what happened to water vapor as it rose into... Continue Reading →
September 1, 1964 The Alte Weser Lighthouse in the northwestern region of what was then West Germany (now part of the Federal Republic of Germany) first went into service. This 125-foot (38-meter)-tall red tower with white horizontal bands is offshore from the estuary mouth of the river Weser, which is within the German Bight (a... Continue Reading →
August 25, 1866 Shipbuilder and naval architect Fop Smit died in the town of Niewe Leckerland (now known as Nieuw Lekkerland) in the Netherlands. He was 88. Smit had been born on October 11, 1777, in the Dutch town and municipality of Alblassderdam. His father Jan Foppe Smith (1742-1807) and uncle Jacques Foppe Smit (1756-1820)... Continue Reading →
August 22, 2012 In the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina (more widely known as Bosnia), a unique type of pedestrian bridge was officially opened in Sarajevo. This 124.7-foot (38-meter)-long bridge, which crosses the Miljacka river, serves as a link between Radićeva street and the Mak Dizdar street in Bosnia’s capital city. The name for... Continue Reading →
August 4, 1902 The Greenwich Foot Tunnel, which crosses beneath the River Thames in East London, England, made its debut. This tunnel, connecting the district of Greenwich in the south with the Isle of Dogs to the north, was designed by civil engineer Sir Alexander Binnie (1839-1917). The Greenwich Foot Tunnel replaced a costly and too... Continue Reading →
August 3, 2020 In northwestern Italy, an inaugural ceremony was held for a viaduct in the city of Genoa. (A viaduct is a type of bridge that encompasses a series of arches, columns, or piers; and connects two endpoints of roughly the same elevation.) The Genoa Saint George Bridge, which carries the Autostrada A10 motorway... Continue Reading →
July 27, 1950 The luxury liner SS Ocean Monarch was launched at the Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd. shipyard at Newcastle-upon-Tyne in northeastern England. This yacht-like, single-funnel ship was built by Vickers-Armstrongs for the steamship line Furness, Withy & Company (also called Furness Withy). Those on hand for the launch of Ocean Monarch included California-born Mary Duffil Lewis. As... Continue Reading →
July 26, 2022 The Pelješac Bridge in the Dubrovnik-Neretva County, the southernmost county of the Republic of Croatia, was officially opened to motor vehicle traffic. This cable-stayed bridge, which carries a two-lane expressway across Bay of Mali Ston (a bay of the Adriatic Sea), serves as a key connection between Croatia’s peninsula of Pelješac and... Continue Reading →
