Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
March 19, 1947 William Starling Burgess, whose transportation legacy spans multiple means of mobility, died at his home in Hoboken, New Jersey. He was 68. Burgess was born in Boston on Christmas Day in 1878. His father, Edward Burgess, was a renowned yacht designer. Early on in life, William Starling Burgess demonstrated a high level... Continue Reading →
March 12, 1882 Edwin George “Cannon Ball” Baker, who would achieve widespread fame for his motorcycle and automobile records, was born in the community of Weisburg, Indiana. He first became known to the public as a vaudeville performer but started focusing instead on transportation-oriented pursuits after winning a dirt-track motorcycle race in the Hoosier State... Continue Reading →
March 7, 1925 After more than a quarter-century of service in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the U.S. Navy tugboat USS Iroquois (AT-46) was decommissioned. This steam tugboat was the second Navy vessel named after a confederacy of Native Americans and First Nations peoples originally based in the northeastern part of North America. The... Continue Reading →
March 6, 2009 Construction began on a 3.2-mile (5.1-kilometer) light rail tunnel in Seattle. This structure is a key connection within Sound Transit’s Link light rail system serving that metropolitan area. The two-bore tunnel is specifically part of the University Link of the 1 Line of that system and carries trains running between the Downtown... Continue Reading →
March 5, 2008 John C. Mackie, who served as Michigan’s state highway commissioner, passed away in Warrenton, Virginia, at the age of 88. He was also the 51st president of the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO), which is now known as the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Mackie was... Continue Reading →
February 29, 2016 The newly built terminal for an airport in the north-central region of North Dakota first went into service. This airport, which is located two miles (3.2 kilometers) north of the city of Minot, dates back to the 1920s. Originally known as the Port of Minot, its first airstrip was developed on a... Continue Reading →
February 19, 1914 In the city of Oakland within the San Francisco Bay Area, a major addition to the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Sixteenth Street Station was officially opened. This station, in the years following the calamitous San Francisco earthquake in 1906, had gained ever-increasing importance for its role in helping to facilitate the renewed travel,... Continue Reading →
February 16, 1893 A Thursday morning launch of a pilot boat named the J. Henry Edmunds was held in the city of Brooklyn (now one of the five boroughs of New York City). This type of vessel operates in the vicinity of a port and is used to transport maritime pilots to ships in the... Continue Reading →
February 14, 1941 A formal acknowledgement -- albeit one that had to be clarified -- was accorded the person who drove the one-millionth motor vehicle through New York City’s Queens-Midtown Tunnel about three months after the debut of that structure. The office of William H. Friedman, commissioner of the New York City Tunnel Authority (now part... Continue Reading →
February 13, 1913 The Miah Maull Shoal Light off the coast of southern New Jersey was completed. This lighthouse is specifically located on the north side of the ship channel in Delaware Bay and southwest of the mouth of the Maurice River. The Miah Maull Shoal Light became the last offshore lighthouse to be built in... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 