Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
January 9, 1996 At the age of 71, aviation pioneer Berta Zerón de García – with more than 10,000 flight hours to her credit – took to the skies as a pilot for the last time. The airplane that she flew for her final trip was a Cessna 206. Born in the city of Pachuca in... Continue Reading →
January 7, 1907 Three days after a streetcar franchise in Enid, Oklahoma, had been awarded to C.H. Bosler, the Enid City Railway Company was established to build and run that public transportation network. The Enid City Council awarded the franchise with conditions such as streetcar speed limits of 10 miles (16.1 kilometers) per hour in the... Continue Reading →
January 4, 2011 The final Mercury vehicle was produced at the Ford Motor Company’s St. Thomas Assembly Plant in the Canadian township of Southwold. This last-of-a-kind vehicle was a white Mercury Grand Marquis automobile, and it rolled off the assembly line at 7:46 a.m. Crain News Service reported a couple of days later that “Mercury’s... Continue Reading →
January 2, 1842 In Philadelphia, the first major wire-cable suspension bridge in the United States was opened. The 358-foot (109-meter)-long bridge carried traffic over the Schuylkill River below Fairmount Dam. This bridge was designed and built by civil engineer Charles Ellet Jr. It replaced a bridge famously known as “The Colossus.” The earlier structure, which had... Continue Reading →
December 28, 1942 The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter (USCGC) Northwind, which would have an eventful career under various names and in the service of different nations as well as military branches, was launched just after noontime at Western Pipe & Steel Corporation’s shipyard in the Los Angeles community of San Pedro. Mrs. R.B. Lank, the... Continue Reading →
December 26, 1960 Airplane designer and builder Giuseppe Mario Bellanca died in New York City at the age of 74. Bellanca had been born on the island of Sicily in southern Italy in 1886. As a young man, he became enthralled with the possibilities of human flight. This enthusiasm led him in 1909 to help create... Continue Reading →
December 20, 1870 In what turned out to be a day-long celebration, a station for the Wallkill Valley Railroad in upstate New York was formally opened in the village of New Paltz in Ulster County (just south of the Catskill Mountains and on the western side of the Hudson River). The New Paltz station’s features included... Continue Reading →
December 18, 1962 In Seattle, the Ship Canal Bridge carrying Interstate 5 over Portage Bay between the city’s Capitol Hill and University District communities was opened. The bridge was named after the Lake Washington Ship Canal and serves as one of the crossings for that waterway. At the time of its opening, the giant double-deck steel truss... Continue Reading →
December 17, 1903 It was the dawn of a new era. Orville and Wilbur Wright made transportation history near the North Carolina town of Kill Devil Hills (about four miles, or6.4 kilometers, south of the better-known town of Kitty Hawk) by bringing about the world’s first controlled, powered, and sustained heavier-than-air human flight. The brothers each... Continue Reading →
December 14, 1986 The Rutan Model 76 Voyager, the first aircraft to circle around Earth without stopping or refueling, embarked on its historic flight at Edwards Air Force Base in California in the Mojave Desert. This westerly flight of 26,366 statute miles (42,432 kilometers) would end with great success nine days, three minutes, and 44... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 