Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
July 11, 1974 The central government of India formally declared an artificial seaport in the section of the Gulf of Mannar along the city of Tuticorin (present-day Thoothukudi) to be one of the nation’s major ports. The all-weather Tuticorin Port was accorded this designation as a result of the exponential growth of maritime traffic... Continue Reading →
July 10, 1904 The final section of the Albula Railway in Switzerland’s easternmost and largest canton (member state) of Graubünden made its formal debut. This 1.9-mile (3-kilometer)-long segment links the municipality of Celerina with the village and internationally renowned spa resort of St. Moritz, and it began operations a year after the opening of the... Continue Reading →
July 9, 1861 In present-day South Africa, the legislature of the British colony widely known as the Cape Colony (in existence until 1910) passed an act allowing the creation of a company to provide transit services between Cape Town and the suburb of Sea Point. This legislative authorization led to the development of the Cape... Continue Reading →
July 8, 1919 [This post is the first in a series of history pieces celebrating 100 years of The U.S. Army’s Cross-Country Motor Transport Train.] The U.S. Army’s Cross-Country Motor Transport Train, making its way from Maryland and into Pennsylvania, completed the first full day of its ambitious and unprecedented journey across the United States.... Continue Reading →
July 3, 2014 A new transportation record for India was set when a WAP-5 electric locomotive hauled a passenger train from the urban district and nation’s capital city of New Delhi to the city of Agra within 90 minutes and at a speed of 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour. (The distance between those locations... Continue Reading →
July 2, 1883 In southeast Brazil’s state of Rio de Janeiro, the tramway system Companhia Carris Urbanos received government authorization to operate a new kind of tramcar. (At the time, the present-day Federative Republic of Brazil was part of the Empire of Brazil.) The battery-powered tram car adopted for use by the Companhia Carris Urbanos... Continue Reading →
July 1, 2000 The Øresund Bridge, which spans across the Øresund strait and connects Denmark with Sweden, was officially opened. The structure encompasses both the double-track Øresund Railway and four lanes of the international highway European route E20. The bridge runs for about five miles (eight kilometers) from the Swedish coast to the artificial island... Continue Reading →
June 28, 2013 A new bicycle sharing system was launched in Chicago. This system was named “Divvy” to highlight a key defining characteristic of bicycle sharing, namely how participating riders divide and share the use of bicycles in this type of service. The efforts to establish such a system in the Windy City began in... Continue Reading →
June 27, 1998 In Malaysia, a record-setting airport was officially opened about 28 miles (45 kilometers) south of the central part of the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. The Saturday night inaugural festivities for Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), which is specifically located in the Malaysian state of Selangor, took place five years after the... Continue Reading →
June 26, 1860 The first public railway in present-day South Africa made its official debut. The Natal Railway formally began operations at 11:00 a.m. in the seaport town (now city) of Durban amid a great deal of fanfare and with the inaugural run of the steam locomotive Natal. (Durban was part of the British colony... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 