Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
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 →
September 20, 2015 Operations began for the first line of a light rail system in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital and largest city. The Addis Ababa Light Rail was officially inaugurated by Hailemariam Desalegn, who served as prime minister of Ethiopia from 2012 to 2018. In an article appearing in the Ethiopian Herald a couple of... Continue Reading →
September 19, 2009 A state-of-the-art coastal mapping vessel built for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was launched into the East Pascagoula River at the shipyard of VT Halter Marine, Inc., in the vicinity of Moss Point, Mississippi. This vessel was formally commissioned as NOAAS Ferdinand R. Hassler (S 250) on June 8, 2012.... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 