Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
On January 1, 1915, Wilma K. Russey became a high-profile transportation pioneer by launching her career as New York City’s first female taxi driver. “New York’s First Feminine Chauffeur Starts Business on New Year’s Day,” proclaimed a headline in the next day’s edition of the New York Times. Russey, who had been employed for more... Continue Reading →
Costa Rica’s first nationally operated airline, Empresa Nacional de Transportes Aéreos (ENTA), was established by an American émigré named William Schoenfeldt. The airline made its debut a little over two decades after the first-ever plane flight in the Central American country had taken place. When ENTA began operations, it provided only intermittent flight service between... Continue Reading →
A new and record-setting dual carriageway (divided highway) toll bridge was opened in the Malaysian state of Penang. The Sultan Abdul Halim Muadzam Shah Bridge, which was formally designated Expressway 28 (E28) and is also known as the Penang Second Bridge, took a little over five years to construct. With one lane for motorcycles and... Continue Reading →
In an early and important aviation milestone for Siam (now known as Thailand), three army officers departed the kingdom to undergo flight training in France. The officers were Major Luang Sakdi Sanlayawut (Sakdi), Captain Luang Arwut Likitkam (Arwut), and Lieutenant Tip Ketuthat (Tip). Their training began just over a year after Belgian aviator Charles Van... Continue Reading →
Just over two months before being completed, the Tetteh Quarshie Interchange in Ghana’s capital city of Accra was first opened to traffic. The two-level roadway junction, which features non-directional loop ramps, is formally known as a cloverleaf interchange because of its resemblance to a four-leaf clover when viewed from above or depicted on maps. The... Continue Reading →
A pivotal moment took place in the development of the Simplon Tunnel, a railway tunnel running through the Alps in the vicinity of Simplon Pass and linking the city of Brig (now part of Brig-Glis) in southwestern Switzerland with northern Italy’s Piedmont region. More than six years after the construction project began, both halves of... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 