Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
May 4, 1870 George Preston Coleman, who would become chairman of the Virginia State Highway Commission (the Old Dominion State’s original highway agency) and the second president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHO), was born in Williamsburg, Virginia. Coleman came from a family of high-profile lawyers, professors, and public officials.... Continue Reading →
April 29, 1915 In San Francisco, the schooner SS Wapama began a long and varied career when she was officially entered into service as a ship of the Charles McCormick Lumber Company. The “ownership oath” for this acquisition of the Wapama was completed on that date by Sidney Hauptman, the company’s secretary. Two days later,... Continue Reading →
April 28, 1903 The second day of the National Good Roads Convention in St. Louis, Missouri, took place. This convention was held at the Odeon Theater on North Grand Avenue. The significance of the convention in promoting the need for good roads nationwide was a theme highlighted both by those who addressed the delegates that day... Continue Reading →
April 21, 1973 A new section of a shared use path in Northern Virginia was officially opened. This segment, covering 7.5 miles (12.1 kilometers) between the independent city of Alexandria and George Washington’s historic home of Mount Vernon, was built as part of a trail operated and maintained by the National Park Service (NPS). The... Continue Reading →
April 19, 1919 The longest non-stop flight up to that time was made by Captain Earl French White of the U.S. Army Air Service (USAAS) when he piloted a plane between Chicago and Long Island. The aircraft used for the flight was a Dayton-Wright DH-4 biplane. White was accompanied on this record-setting journey by a... Continue Reading →
April 18, 1917 Less than two weeks after the United States entered World War I on the side of the Allied Powers, a private motorboat designated as Patrol No. 4 was commissioned for service in the U.S. Navy. This vessel was owned by a Virginia resident named Guy Norman and, three days after her commissioning,... Continue Reading →
The April 2004 issue of Focus, a newsletter published by the Federal Highway Administration, highlighted various scheduled activities across the country for that year’s National Work Zone Awareness Week (NWZAW). In describing how the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) would use the week to promote the need to drive more safely through highway construction areas,... Continue Reading →
In the time since the first National Work Zone Awareness Week (NWZAW) took place in 2000, kickoff events have been a key component of these annual campaigns highlighting the importance of safe driving in road construction areas. An early and notable example of these events was the one held in April 2001 in Washington, D.C.... Continue Reading →
Over the past several decades, changeable message signs have taken on an increasingly significant role at highway construction areas across the United States. These electronic traffic control signs (also widely known as variable or dynamic message signs) are now extensively used to alert drivers as they approach work zones to proceed more slowly and carefully... Continue Reading →
April 8, 2013 The first segment of the PHX Sky Train, a small-scale automated transit system transporting people within and also to and from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Arizona’s capital and largest city, was opened to the public. Construction on this 1.7-mile (2.7-kilometer) segment of the PHX Sky Train had begun in 2008.... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 