Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
August 25, 1912 In northern Spain, operations began for a funicular in the city and municipality of San Sebastián. This cable railway system was built on a steep slope of Mount Igueldo. The Igueldo funicular was designed by engineer Emilio Huizi. Another engineer, Severiano Goñi, supervised the construction of the railway. The Igueldo funicular was... Continue Reading →
August 22, 1945 A cargo ship named after the capital of Louisiana was launched at Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyards in Baltimore. SS Baton Rouge Victory was one of the vessels known as Victory ships. A large number of these ships were built during World War II to help transport cargo for the United States in its global... Continue Reading →
August 21, 1982 A tied-arch bridge crossing a section of the Mississippi River between Iowa and Wisconsin was officially opened. This bridge connects the Iowa city of Dubuque with the Wisconsin town of Jamestown. The Cedar Rapids Gazette noted that “sunny skies greeted the structure’s debut.” More than 6,000 people turned out for the grand... Continue Reading →
August 20, 1908 A first-of-a-kind automobile journey in Australia came to a successful end when a trio traveling in a Talbot car arrived in the city of Darwin in the Northern Territory. The three men completing this long-distance trip, which that had begun in the city of Adelaide in South Australia, were Henry Hampden Dutton... Continue Reading →
August 19, 1913 An unprecedented round trip of U.S. Army personnel and other individuals in a large White Motor Company truck came to an end when they returned to the city of Valdez on the southern coast of the then-Territory of Alaska 22 days after the journey began there. (Alaska, which had been purchased from... Continue Reading →
August 18, 2015 Macif, a 98-foot (30-meter)-long vessel, was officially launched. This vessel is an Ultim-class maxi-trimaran, which is a type of multihull boat built with a main hull that has two outrigger hulls (floats) attached to it via lateral beams. Macif -- named for the French insurance company that owns her -- was designed... Continue Reading →
August 15, 1896 Operations began for a tram line in the town (now city) of Douglas on the Isle of Man, a British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea. (Douglas has been the capital of the Isle of Man since 1869.) The tram line in Douglas was among the first cable-powered systems of its kind... Continue Reading →
August 14, 1957 The Administration Committee of AASHO (now known as AASHTO) approved the now-familiar shield used on the Interstate Highway System. The committee made this decision in the wake of several months during which the association’s U.S. Route Numbering Committee sifted through and evaluated dozens of shapes and sizes for a possible route marker... Continue Reading →
August 12, 1971 Walter Owen “W.O.” Bentley, who achieved renown for the automobiles that he designed and built, died in a nursing home in northwestern England’s town and borough of Woking. He was 83. Bentley was born on September 16, 1888, in the Hampstead area of London. He attended Clifton College in Bristol from 1902... Continue Reading →
August 12, 1911 The Chicago International Aviation Meet was formally launched. This eight-day air show, which was characterized by the Indiana-based Logansport Journal as “the greatest aggregation of human birds ever assembled,” took place in the section of Grant Park that is along Lake Michigan. The event was held under the aegis of the International Aviation... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 