Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
October 24, 1906 On Spain’s northeastern coast, operations began for the Vallvidrera Funicular in the district of Sarrià-Sant Gervasi in the city of Barcelona. This cable railway system was built on a steep slope of a hill that is part of the Collserola mountain range. The funicular serves as a link between the neighborhood of... Continue Reading →
October 16, 1888 CGS (Canadian Government Ship) Stanley, which is widely considered to be Canada’s first fully functional icebreaker, was launched at the shipyard of Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited (Fairfields) in the burgh of Govan (now part of Glasgow) in Scotland. This steamship was named after Frederick Arthur Stanley (1841-1908), 16h Earl of Derby,... Continue Reading →
October 14, 1971 In northwestern England’s ceremonial county of Lancashire, a motorway service area (MSA) in the civil parish of Anderton was opened to the public. This MSA is specifically located between the junctions 6 and 8 for the motorway M61. MSAs are facilities in the United Kingdom and Ireland where drivers and their passengers... Continue Reading →
October 8, 1974 The hydrographic survey vessel Ammiraglio Magnaghi (A 5303) was launched into Mediterranean Sea at Riva Trigoso, a frazione (subdivision) of northwestern Italy’s town and comune of Sestri Levante. (“Ammiraglio” is the Italian word for “admiral.”) This ship was the first survey vessel to be both designed and constructed entirely in Italy for... Continue Reading →
October 3, 1923 A vehicular bridge in southern England’s town of Reading was inaugurated on a Wednesday marked by both rain and strong winds. The next day’s edition of the London-based Daily Telegraph reported on the debut of this structure. This newspaper stated, “With as much civic pomp as the wretched weather would permit the... Continue Reading →
October 2, 1902 Operations began for a lighthouse in England’s ceremonial county of East Sussex. This lighthouse is located in the part of the English Channel that is below the cliffs of the headland known as Beachy Head. It was built to replace the Belle Tout Lighthouse, which had been in service since 1834 and... Continue Reading →
September 26, 1895 A complex of two railroad truss bridges in what was then the Kingdom of Romania was formally opened. (The Kingdom of Romania remained in existence until 1947, when it was replaced by the Romanian People’s Republic; that communist state – eventually renamed the Socialist Republic of Romania – stayed intact until 1989... Continue Reading →
September 25, 1845 Construction began on a lighthouse in the port city of Calais in northern France. This lighthouse was built as a navigational aid for vessels traveling through the Strait of Dover, a narrow but heavily used passage of water that separates France from England and marks the boundary between the English Channel and... Continue Reading →
September 24, 2004 In the westernmost region of Slovenia, a vehicular bridge crossing the Osp Valley and located near the village of Črni Kal was first opened to traffic. The Črni Kal Viaduct, which is part of the 152.4-mile (245.3-kilometer)-long A1 motorway (also called Slovenika), was jointly designed by Janez Kožel and Marjan Pipenbaher. Construction... Continue Reading →
September 16, 1946 In the aftermath of World War II, the airline Aerolinee Italiane Internazionali was formally instituted in Rome. “British European Airways and the Italian Institute for Industrial Reconstruction signed an agreement today establishing a new British-Italian airline to be called the ‘Italian International Airlines,’” reported the Associated Press. “At the start the line... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 