Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
November 13, 1940 In western Kentucky, the Livermore Bridge was officially opened. This through truss bridge starts at the city of Livermore in McLean County, crosses over the Rough River, spans a small part of Ohio County, and then ends up on the south bank of the Green River back in McLean County. That design for... Continue Reading →
November 12, 1901 Industrial designer Alexis de Sakhnoffsky was born in the Ukrainian city of Kiev in what was then the Russian Empire. He fled his homeland by 1920 in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution and ended up pursuing a wide-ranging design career that included many transportation makes and models. Throughout a large part of... Continue Reading →
November 10, 1949 The first flight of the multi-purpose Sikorsky S-55 helicopter took place in the skies above Bloomfield, Connecticut. This helicopter was built by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, which had been established by aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky in 1923 and originally known as Sikorsky Aero Engineering Corporation. (Sikorsky Aircraft has been part of Lockheed Martin... Continue Reading →
November 6, 1998 The Raftsund Bridge in the northern region of Norway was officially opened to traffic. This structure provides a road route across the Raftsundet strait between Austvågøya and Hinnøya, which are among the larger islands of the Lofoten archipelago in Norway’s Nordland county. The Raftsund Bridge measures 2,333 feet (711 meters) in length and... Continue Reading →
November 5, 1893 Industrial designer Raymond Loewy was born in Paris, France. Loewy would spend most of his professional career in the United States, and his wide range of design efforts included many with a transportation theme of some kind. These efforts started at an early age. When he was only 15 years old, for example, Loewy... Continue Reading →
In 1968, construction began on Puerto Rico Highway 52 (PR-52). This project was completed seven years later. PR-52, which is maintained by the Puerto Rico Department of Transportation and Public Works, covers 67.4 miles (108.5 kilometers) between Puerto Rico’s capital of San Juan in the north and the city and municipality of Ponce on the... Continue Reading →
November 3, 1900 The first major automobile show in the United States opened on a Saturday evening at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. The next day’s edition of the New York Times reported, “From the hour the doors of the big building swung inward until midnight a throng of spectators variously estimated at from... Continue Reading →
October 30, 1905 In Australia, a newly built electric tram system first went into service in the town (present-day city) of Fremantle in the state of Western Australia. This system, which was owned and operated by the Fremantle Municipal Tramways, was the first-ever public transportation network in that town. In an even broader context, the... Continue Reading →
October 29, 1932 The ocean liner SS Normandie was launched into the River Loire at Saint-Nazaire, France. At least 40,000 people – including French President Albert Lebrun and his wife Marguerite – were on hand for the event. Madame Lebrun was selected to christen the ship, and she performed the duty with the world’s largest bottle of champagne. As... Continue Reading →
Between 1920 and 1923, the Illinois Division of Highways (IDH) --now part of the Illinois Department of Transportation -- oversaw a series of tests to help determine the best type of pavement to use on that state’s roads. IDH launched these tests at a time when it was preparing for major construction projects to accommodate... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 