Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
September 7, 1918 USS Falcon (AM-28), the third U.S. Navy vessel bearing that name, was launched at the yard of the shipbuilding firm collectively known at the time as the Gas Engine & Power Company and Charles L. Seabury Company. (That shipbuilding firm had been formed by the merger of the Gas Engine & Power... Continue Reading →
September 2, 1892 A bicycle relay race between Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh began in the former of those two cities. This major event was organized and sponsored by the Pittsburgh Leader newspaper. The stated purpose of the race was to have dozens of bicyclists take turns carrying a message from U.S. Army Brigadier General Albert... Continue Reading →
September 1, 1973 The first U.S. federal safety standard relating to school buses officially took effect. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) No. 217 was issued by the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration, a part of the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), to help better protect the lives of passengers on certain large buses (intercity... Continue Reading →
August 27, 1966 The Astoria-Megler Bridge, which had been jointly built by the Oregon State Highway Department (now the Oregon Department of Transportation) and the Washington State Highway Department (the present-day Washington State Department of Transportation) made its official debut. This steel cantilever through-truss bridge spans the Columbia River between the city of Astoria, Oregon, and... Continue Reading →
August 25, 1930 Approximately 25,000 people were on hand for the grand opening of the Mid-Hudson Bridge in southeastern New York. This bridge, which measures about 3,000 feet (910 meters) in length, carries traffic over the Hudson River between the city of Poughkeepsie and the hamlet of Highland. This structure was the world’s sixth longest suspension... Continue Reading →
August 24, 1912 President William Howard Taft signed into law the Post Office Appropriations Act for 1913. This measure put into place an experimental federal-aid post road program for the United States. The law specifically provided a total of $500,000 to improve roads intended to be used for mail delivery. In one respect, the Post... Continue Reading →
August 23, 1985 The Constituyentes Station on Line 7 of the Mexico City Metro was formally opened. (The Mexico City Metro is a rapid transit system serving the metropolitan area of Mexico’s capital; it ranks second only to the New York City Subway as the largest metro system in all of North America.) The Constituyentes... Continue Reading →
August 20, 1873 A lighthouse built at Yaquina Head on the Oregon coast first went into service. (Yaquina Head is a headland extending into the Pacific Ocean, and it is situated just north of the city of Newport.) Fayette Crosby was this lighthouse’s first head keeper. His previous assignments included serving at the Umpqua River... Continue Reading →
August 18, 1899 Just off the North Carolina coast, Erasmus “Rasmus” S. Midgett of the U.S. Life-Saving Service (USLSS) single-handedly rescued 10 men from a sinking ship. Midgett, who was born on North Carolina’s Hatteras Island in 1851, had become a surfman for the USLSS during the 1880s. (The USLSS was established in 1878 and remained... Continue Reading →
August 17, 1964 In the Washington, D.C., area, the final segment of the Capital Beltway (Interstate 495) made its official debut in a big ceremony near the New Hampshire Avenue exchanges on the Maryland side of the recently completed route. Thousands of people were on hand for this event. “There is a danger of using... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 