Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
The Sand Springs Railway in northeastern Oklahoma was incorporated. By that May, the railway formally began operations on 8.6 miles (13.8 kilometers) of track between the community of Sand Springs and the city of Tulsa. The major force behind the new railway was a Wisconsin-born businessman and philanthropist named Charles Page. He and his family... Continue Reading →
This post and others throughout African-American History Month will highlight notable African-Americans in transportation. African-American aviation pioneer James Herman Banning died during an air show at the U.S. Navy base in San Diego County, California. He was only 32. “The heroic young flyer was killed when a Travelair two-seater plane, in which he was a... Continue Reading →
Internationally renowned railroad executive Ralph Budd died in Santa Barbara, California, at the age of 82. His obituary in the New York Times noted, “Mr. Budd, a bulky, exuberant man who spent a half-century on railroading, approached the work with the drive of a locomotive churning through a tunnel.” Budd had been born on a... Continue Reading →
Off the coast of mainland Rhode Island, a new lighthouse began operations on the southeastern shore of the Ocean State’s Block Island. This lighthouse, located on 150-foot (46-meter)-high clay cliffs known as the Mohegan Bluffs, was built in response to concerns about the hazardous waters along and near that part of Block Island. These concerns... Continue Reading →
A milestone in the development of American highways took place when the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads issued a certificate of completion for the first project finished under the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916. The project was based in Contra Costa County, California, and it involved a 2.6-mile (4.2-kilometer) stretch of road between the... Continue Reading →
In southeastern Massachusetts, the first segment of the Cape Cod Branch Railroad was opened. This 14.7-mile (23.7-kilometer) section was built between the towns of Middleborough and Wareham in Plymouth County. By that May, an additional 12.9 miles (20.8 kilometers) of the railroad had been extended to the town of Sandwich on Cape Cod (conterminous with... Continue Reading →
Automobile designer Gordon M. Buehrig died in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, at the age of 85. Buehrig had been born in Mason City, Illinois, in 1904. Early on in life, he developed a robust enthusiasm for automobiles and drawing pictures of them – an enthusiasm that wasn’t always readily shared or even encouraged by others. ... Continue Reading →
Briggs Cunningham, an entrepreneur and sportsman who made notable contributions involving both yachts and automobiles, was born in Cincinnati. Early on in life, Cunningham spent summers with his family in the northeastern United States. When he was a teenager, his family moved to Southport, Connecticut. Cunningham was 17 when he joined the Star Class racing... Continue Reading →
A train station was opened in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to provide direct service to General Mitchell International Airport in that metropolitan area. The groundbreaking for the Milwaukee Airport Railroad Station had taken place during the summer of 2004. Those cutting the ceremonial ribbon for the formal debut of the facility on January 18, 2005, were Wisconsin... Continue Reading →
In southwestern Florida, a new mile (1.6-kilometer)-long bridge across the Peace River in Charlotte County made its formal debut. More than six decades earlier, the first bridge spanning that section of the river had been opened. This original structure, located just east of the current bridge, connected Live Oak Point on the river’s north bank... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 