Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
In central Illinois, operations began for the Standard Oil Gasoline Station in the southwest part of the village of Odell. This station is located along US Route 66 (US 66) – known far and wide today as simply Route 66 – and it was constructed by Irish-born building contractor Patrick O’Donnell to serve people driving... Continue Reading →
August 7, 1973 On the south shore of Long Island, a newly built railroad station in the village of Amityville first went into service. Amityville is located mostly in the town of Babylon in Suffolk County; a small portion of the village lies within the town of Oyster Bay in neighboring Nassau County. Amityville station... Continue Reading →
In April 1925, the first full-fledged meeting of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways took place at the headquarters of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) in Washington, D.C. This board, which was chaired by BPR’s chief Thomas H. MacDonald (1881-1957), had been established just a few weeks earlier to work on devising what... Continue Reading →
A pioneering regional system of numbered routes took shape at a meeting of highway officials from each of the six New England states in April 1922. The meeting was hosted by the Automobile Club of American (ACA) and the others in attendance included representatives from the New England Hotel Men’s Association, and the Automobile Blue... Continue Reading →
By the fall of 1930, a major milestone took place in Nebraska for the upgrading and opening of the U.S. Numbered Highway System’s transcontinental route designated as U.S. Route 30 (US 30). This milestone involved the finishing touches on a continuously paved segment of that highway from New York City to the city of Columbus... Continue Reading →
July 27, 1918 With the United States heavily engaged in fighting World War I as one of the Allied Powers, the U.S. Navy commissioned a civilian tugboat into military service as USS Advance (identification number 3057). This vessel had been built in 1912 by Marcellus Mitchell Davis (1858-1925) at his shipyard at Solomons Island, Maryland.... Continue Reading →
July 24, 1920 A steamship constructed by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation was launched at the company’s shipyard in the industrial area of Sparrows Point in the Baltimore region. Initially called Bertice, this ship was renamed Buckeye State – the nickname of the state of Ohio – by the time of her launch. SS Buckeye State... Continue Reading →
Nearly a decade before the official authorization of the U.S. Numbered Highway System nationwide, the state of Wisconsin played a groundbreaking role in the establishment of such routes within its own boundaries. By 1917, an ever-increasing number of Wisconsin residents recognized the need for changes to be made to state trails and roads that were... Continue Reading →
July 22, 1926 In what was widely believed to be a new record for America’s National Pastime and a notable “first” in aviation, sports legend Babe Ruth (1894-1948) caught a baseball from a plane flying well above Mitchel Field airport in Garden City, Long Island. “Babe Ruth Catches Ball from Skies,” announced a headline in that... Continue Reading →
US Route 66 (US 66), known far and wide today as simply Route 66, was one of the original routes of the United States Numbered Highway System to be approved by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) in 1926 and formally authorized and announced by the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads early the... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 