Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
November 20, 1990 The final 14.5-mile (23.3-kilometer) section of Interstate 15 was opened to traffic near the city of Tremonton, Utah. The opening of this link of I-15 created a continuous interstate highway of about 1,430 miles (2,301.4 kilometers) between the community of Sweetgrass, Montana, at the U.S. boundary with Canada and San Diego, California... Continue Reading →
November 19, 1993 At Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania, then-Federal Highway Administrator (and later U.S. Transportation Secretary) Rodney Slater played the key role in a ceremony honoring somebody who had distinguished himself both as a war hero and important good-roads advocate. Roy Stone had served in the Union Army during the Civil War and,... Continue Reading →
November 15, 1928 The first commercial use of a rail detector car in the United States took place. Since the advent of the train, a key challenge had been to avert service failures and dangerous derailments along the tracks carrying that mode of transportation. Inventor and entrepreneur Elmer A. Sperry, in response to this challenge, started to... Continue Reading →
November 14, 1877 Ralph H. Carpenter, who launched and led one of the largest manufacturers of school bus bodies in the United States, was born in southern Indiana. As a teenager, Carpenter set up his own blacksmith shop in the city of Mitchell in the Hoosier State. A significant part of Carpenter’s job as a... Continue Reading →
November 13, 1927 The Holland Tunnel was opened to traffic in the New York metropolitan area just one minute after midnight. This highway conduit, which runs beneath the Hudson River and connects New York City’s island of Manhattan with Jersey City, New Jersey, was the first twin-tube underwater vehicular tunnel in the United States. The tunnel... Continue Reading →
November 9, 1895 The last horse-drawn streetcar in Detroit made its final run. Banners on each side of the vehicle read “The last horse car.” Two horses pulled it along the Chene Street line, which was the last of Detroit’s streetcar routes to be equipped with electric streetcars. “Detroit takes final leave of the horse... Continue Reading →
November 7, 1910 The first commercial air freight shipment occurred in Ohio between the cities of Dayton and Columbus. Max Morehouse, owner of the Columbus-based Morehouse Martens department store, asked aviation pioneers Orville and Wilbur Wright for help in transporting to him by air a 100-pound (45.4-kilogram) shipment of silk from a wholesaler in Dayton... Continue Reading →
November 6, 1818 In northwestern Pennsylvania, a lighthouse in the borough (now city) of Erie began operations when keeper John Bone lit the oil wick in the new structure. The lighthouse had been built on a bluff overlooking Lake Erie and was specifically located across the water from Presque Isle, a seven-mile (11.3-kilometer)-long peninsula that... Continue Reading →
November 5, 1896 The Cascade Locks and Canal, which were built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, officially opened on the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington. The key reason for the navigation project was the need for more efficient and uninterrupted transportation along the Columbia River to help further develop the economic well-being of... Continue Reading →
November 1, 1895 The American Motor League (AML), the first automobile club in the United States, held its preliminary meeting in Chicago. A total of 60 people were at the meeting, which took place at the Chicago School of Electricity on Dearborn Street. The new club’s main objectives included promoting continued technological innovations for automobiles, which were... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 