Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
February 26, 1930 The Texas Highway Commission (a predecessor of today’s Texas Transportation Commission) approved the designation of a new highway to be built through the longtime State Cemetery in the city of Austin. The origins of this cemetery in the eastern part of Texas’s state capital date back to the 1850s. The State Cemetery,... Continue Reading →
February 12, 1961 Charles Richelieu McMillan, who shepherded major changes to roads throughout South Carolina during his tenure as the Palmetto State’s chief highway commissioner, died in the state capital city of Columbia after a long illness. He was 61. The South Carolina-based Florence Morning News praised McMillan at the time of his death as... Continue Reading →
February 5, 2016 In Delaware, a groundbreaking ceremony took place for a highway project to help reduce congestion and strengthen commerce along a significant portion of the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. The focus of this project was on building a new version of U.S. Route 301 (US 301) in Delaware. This new 13-mile... Continue Reading →
January 31, 1980 A new international airport officially began operations in the south-central area of El Salvador. This facility – originally called Cuscatlan International Airport – is located in the municipality of San Luis Salvador, which is about 26 miles (42 kilometers) from the country’s capital city of San Salvador. The first flight for the... Continue Reading →
January 29, 2018 As a key part of a major reconstruction project in the city of Portsmouth, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) closed the Stark Street Bridge to all vehicular and pedestrian traffic. This structure, dating back to the 1940s and crossing over the U.S. Route 1 Bypass (US 1 Byp), was shut... Continue Reading →
January 22, 2008 The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) launched a test program for travel times on freeways in the Phoenix metropolitan area. (The freeway system in the vicinity of Arizona’s capital is one of the largest and fastest-growing networks of its kind in the entire United States.) ADOT’s pilot project involved using a select... Continue Reading →
January 21, 2016 A new line of the Mexico City Metrobús rapid transit system made its debut. Line 6 of Metrobús was formally inaugurated by Miguel Ángel Mancera, who served as the head of Mexico City’s government from 2012 to 2018. This east-west line, which runs along the arterial road Eje 5 Norte, has 37... Continue Reading →
January 15, 1853 Sidney Suggs (third from left on the top row in the picture above), a leading good roads advocate who became the first director of the Oklahoma Department of Highways (forerunner of today’s Oklahoma Department of Transportation), was born near the city of Tupelo, Mississippi. When Suggs was 14, he and his family... Continue Reading →
January 8, 1927 In the northwestern area of Washington state, a new bridge crossing the Puyallup River and linking the cities of Tacoma and Fife in Pierce County was dedicated. The Puyallup Avenue Bridge had been designed by engineers of the Washington State Department of Highways (now part of the Washington State Department of Transportation)... Continue Reading →
January 7, 1911 Just over seven years after the Wright Brothers’ pioneering flight at Kitty Hawk, the first bulk delivery of newspapers via a plane took place in California. French barnstorming pilot Didier Masson agreed to transport several bundles of the Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles to San Bernardino. The bundles were strapped to the... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 