Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
October 9, 1980 A railway station in the town of Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) was officially opened. This station replaced one that had first gone into service in 1929 as a link in the Central Australia Railway The present-day station was built as part of a segment spanning 515 miles (828 kilometers)... Continue Reading →
October 8, 1889 Philippe Thys, whose high-achieving career as a cyclist would include winning the Tour de France a total of three times, was born in the municipality of Anderlecht in central Belgium. Early on in his cycling career in 1910, Thys won the first edition of the Belgian National Cyclo-cross Championship. This type of... Continue Reading →
October 4, 2012 Bernard Holden, whose long life was devoted to railroads in a variety of contexts, died at the age of 104 in the English village and civil parish of Ditchling. Fittingly enough, he had been born in 1908 in the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway station house in the village of Barcombe... Continue Reading →
October 3, 1893 The first federal road agency in the United States -- and the original predecessor to today’s U.S. Department of Transportation -- came into existence when U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sterling J. Morton, under the Agricultural Appropriation Act that had been enacted earlier that year, formally established the Office of Road Inquiry (ORI). The... Continue Reading →
October 2, 1955 Operations began in Perambur, a neighborhood of India’s city of Madras (now known as Chennai), for a newly formed manufacturer of train coaches. Integral Coach Factory (ICF) was officially inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), who served as the first prime minister of India from 1947 until his death. The origins of... Continue Reading →
October 1, 1872 Henry Hooper Blood, who would earn widespread respect in the course of a high-profile career that included serving as chairman of the Utah State Road Commission – a predecessor of the present-day Utah Department of Transportation -- and president of the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO), was born in the... Continue Reading →
September 27, 1980 A dedication ceremony was held for a bridge in the city of Eugene in Oregon’s Lane County. Knickerbocker Bicycle Bridge, as it is popularly known, crosses the Willamette River. While originally built for use by the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) for carrying a water main across the river, the bridge... Continue Reading →
September 26, 2011 In the regional county municipality of Arthabaska in Canada’s province of Quebec, the Joseph-Édouard-Perrault Bridge in the municipality of Warwick was reopened following extensive renovations. This wooden covered bridge crosses the Rivière des Pins (River of the Pines), which is a tributary of the Nicolet River. The Joseph-Édouard-Perrault Bridge was built in... Continue Reading →
September 25, 1938 The big sports event in Washington, D.C., on that Sunday was without question the President’s Cup Regatta. This multi-day series of waterborne competitions had been introduced in the nation’s capital a dozen years earlier, and the annual event quickly became renowned for the motorboats and hydroplanes participating in a variety of races... Continue Reading →
September 24, 1973 Phra Pin Klao Bridge, which crosses the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, made its debut. This 2,158-foot (658-meter)-long structure serves as a link between the areas of Rattanakosin Island and Thonburi in Thailand’s capital and most populous city. Phra Pin Klao Bridge accommodates both motor vehicles and pedestrians. This bridge is located... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 