Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
March 26, 1863 Truck industrialist George Albert Brockway was born in the village of Homer, New York. He was the son of William Northrup Brockway, who manufactured horse-drawn carriages and wagons. After William was stricken with a debilitating illness in 1888 that brought about his death the following year, George stepped in as the company’s business manager.... Continue Reading →
March 21, 1869 Albert Kahn, who helped create a number of key transportation-oriented facilities and is widely regarded as the “father of modern factory design,” was born in Rhaunen in the Kingdom of Prussia (now Germany). When Kahn was 11, he and his family immigrated to the United States and settled in Detroit. Kahn worked at... Continue Reading →
March 19, 1902 Joshua James, a renowned sea captain credited with saving numerous lives from shipwrecks along the coast of Massachusetts, died at the age of 75. James served as keeper of the U.S. Life-Saving Service’s Point Allerton Station near the town of Hull (located at the southern land point of the entrance to Boston... Continue Reading →
March 12, 1941 The car ferry S.S. City of Midland 41 made her maiden voyage along Lake Michigan between Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and Ludington, Michigan. (The ferry’s namesake was the city of Midland in central Michigan.) The all-steel vessel, which had been launched the previous September, was constructed by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company for the Pere Marquette Railway’s... Continue Reading →
March 7, 1877 The first train of the Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad began operations on a 14-mile (22.5-kilometer)-long stretch between the city of Seattle and town (present-day city) of Renton in what was then the Territory of Washington. (This territory became a state more than 11 years later.) The San Francisco Chronicle reported, “Excursion... Continue Reading →
March 5, 1923 Aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky established the Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation on Long Island, thereby opening a new and significant chapter in aircraft development. Igor Sikorsky immigrated to the United States from his native Russia in 1919 with comparatively little money and no job, but a strong interest and ability when it came... Continue Reading →
February 28, 1995 Denver International Airport, which is located approximately 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the downtown section of Colorado’s state capital, officially opened for business. This facility debuted the day after its predecessor, Stapleton International Airport in the northeastern part of Denver, ceased operations after more than 65 years of service. The inaugural festivities... Continue Reading →
February 26, 1931 Sam Hill, an ambitious businessman, and entrepreneur whose strongest passions included surface transportation died in Portland, Oregon, at the age of 73. While a number of stories about him are likely apocryphal – a key example being that he was the source of the popular saying “What in Sam Hill . .... Continue Reading →
February 19, 1866 Mary Anderson, a multifaceted entrepreneur who made a major contribution to transportation by inventing the first practical windshield wiper, was born in Greene County, Alabama. Anderson was inspired to create her version of a windshield wiper during a trip to New York City in the winter of 1902. While traveling on one... Continue Reading →
February 14, 1888 A new streetcar company was chartered in Georgia to provide a small but important transit link in the north-central part of the state. More specifically, this company was established to better connect the city of Covington and the town of Oxford (incorporated as a city in 1914) with each other as well... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 