Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
September 11, 2001 The terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, resulted in the tragic deaths of nearly 3,000 individuals in the vicinity of New York City’s World Trade Center; the Pentagon in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area; and –where a hijacked airplane went down after passengers sought to overcome the terrorists... Continue Reading →
On November 5, 1935, the last segment of east-west U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) to be paved was officially opened in Nebraska. The inauguration of that 34-mile (54.7-kilometer) stretch of US 30 between the city of North Platte and the village of Sutherland in the Cornhusker State made that route the nation’s first fully hard-surfaced... Continue Reading →
September 8, 1896 In New York, what was technically the final leg of an ambitious and unprecedented transcontinental bicycle relay race took place when two bicyclists departed the southern tip of Manhattan known as the Battery for the U.S. Army post at nearby Governors Island at 1:55 p.m. A.H. Hand and Annie St. Tel, each... Continue Reading →
September 3, 2013 A bicycle-and-pedestrian path on the newly constructed eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (famously nicknamed the Bay Bridge) made its debut. The noontime opening of the completed two-thirds of the path took place the day after the roadway portion of the new span was inaugurated. A segment of the original... Continue Reading →
Bertram Dalley Tallamy, who served as a leading figure in the development of the U.S. highways network, was born on December. 1, 1901, in Plainfield, New Jersey. Tallamy received a degree in civil engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1925, and subsequently acquired substantial engineering experience in waterworks, dams, sewage treatment plants, roads, and... Continue Reading →
August 31, 1965 The maiden flight of the cargo plane “Super Guppy,” which was given that nickname due to both its extra-large size and fish-like appearance, took place in southern California between the Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles and the Kern County Airport at the southern end of the Central Valley. At the time of its... Continue Reading →
August 27, 1838 The Eastern Railroad, one of the earliest railroads in New England, began operations along a 13-mile (21-kilometer) segment in Massachusetts between Boston’s neighborhood of East Boston and the city of Salem via the then-town of Lynn. Construction on the line had begun in 1836. At the time of the formal debut of... Continue Reading →
Leno H. Menghini, whose career in transportation spanned four decades, was born on January 25, 1925, in the town of Superior, Wyoming. He attended the University of Wyoming until his studies were interrupted by World War II. Menghini was drafted into the U.S. Army and ended up serving in Greenland from 1943 to 1946. After... Continue Reading →
August 25, 1860 The Victoria Bridge in Canada was dedicated. This bridge, which spans the St. Lawrence River and connects Montreal with the south shore city of Saint-Lambert, was officially opened about eight months after the first trains had passed over the new structure. The Victoria Bridge was the first bridge over the St. Lawrence... Continue Reading →
August 24, 1907 A hot-air balloon called the Ben Franklin made a widely publicized maiden flight of more than six hours that began in Philadelphia. This balloon was the largest to be built in the United States up to that time, and its basket could carry a maximum of 3,200 pounds (1,452 kilograms). The... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 