Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
December 3, 1967 After 65 years of service, the New York Central Railroad (NYC) express passenger train 20th Century Limited completed its final journey. The half-full train pulled into LaSalle Street Station in Chicago at 6:45 p.m. The Limited had actually been scheduled to arrive nine hours earlier, but was delayed due to a freight... Continue Reading →
On January 19, 1967, a recently completed segment of U.S. Highway 49 (US 49) in Mississippi made its official debut. This segment encompassed 16 miles (25.8 kilometers) between the town of Mount Olive and the community of Weathersby (now part of the city of Mendenhall) in the Magnolia State’s south-central region. The dedication ceremony for... Continue Reading →
November 25, 1931 A suspension bridge crossing the Ohio River was opened. This structure, which had been designed by the firm Modjeski and Masters, serves as a link between the city of Maysville, Kentucky, and the village of Aberdeen, Ohio. The 1,991-foot (607-meter)-long bridge was named after Simon Kenton (1755-1836), a famous frontiersman and soldier... Continue Reading →
November 24, 2007 The Lynx Blue Line first went into service in Charlotte, North Carolina. This light rail line, which is owned and operated by the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS), made history as the first major rapid rail service in the Tar Heel State. On the day of Lynx’s formal debut, CATS allowed all... Continue Reading →
November 20, 1954 Clyde Cessna died in Wichita, Kansas, at the age of 74. By the time of his passing, he had left a large and longtime imprint on the transportation world as an aircraft designer and aviation entrepreneur. Cessna was born in 1879 in Hawthorne, Iowa. When he was only two years old, he... Continue Reading →
The State Board of Public Roads of Rhode Island was established in 1902 to oversee the construction, maintenance, and improvement of the Ocean State’s highways system. Up until the establishment of this board, there had been no state-level entity in place to supervise and monitor work on public roads within Rhode Island; those duties were... Continue Reading →
November 17, 2007 A “rededication” ceremony was held for the McKinley Bridge, which crosses the Mississippi River and links St. Louis, Missouri, with Venice, Illinois. This bridge had been designed by renowned engineer Ralph Modjeski and it first opened in 1907. Contrary to a widespread assumption, the bridge was not named after President William McKinley; the... Continue Reading →
November 13, 1940 In western Kentucky, the Livermore Bridge was officially opened. This through truss bridge starts at the city of Livermore in McLean County, crosses over the Rough River, spans a small part of Ohio County, and then ends up on the south bank of the Green River back in McLean County. That design for... Continue Reading →
November 10, 1949 The first flight of the multi-purpose Sikorsky S-55 helicopter took place in the skies above Bloomfield, Connecticut. This helicopter was built by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, which had been established by aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky in 1923 and originally known as Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation. (Sikorsky Aircraft has been part of Lockheed Martin... Continue Reading →
In 1968, construction began on Puerto Rico Highway 52 (PR-52). This project was completed seven years later. PR-52, which is maintained by the Puerto Rico Department of Transportation and Public Works, covers 67.4 miles (108.5 kilometers) between Puerto Rico’s capital of San Juan in the north and the city and municipality of Ponce on the... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 