Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Hispanic-American surfmen Pablo Valent, Mariano Holland, and Indalecio Lopez were among those serving at the U.S. Coast Guard’s Texas-based Brazos Life-Saving Station (the present-day South Padre Island Station) who undertook a high-risk rescue operation in the Gulf of Mexico during a severe storm in September 1919. (Valent had entered the U.S. Life-Saving Service in 1912... Continue Reading →
October 5, 1872 In southern California, construction on a major wooden pier along the Pacific coast was completed in the city of Ventura. “At last a steamer can lay alongside of the wharf, and discharge and take on cargo and passengers,” reported the Ventura Signal newspaper. “It is a grand improvement upon the old way,... Continue Reading →
October 2, 1922 Over a year after the first segment of the Boulevard of the Allies made its debut, the entire route in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was opened to traffic. The road, which links downtown Pittsburgh with the city’s Oakland neighborhood, was named in honor of the Allied Powers that had fought against Germany and the other... Continue Reading →
In 1986, astronaut Franklin R. Chang Díaz became the first Hispanic-American to travel into outer space when he flew on board the Space Shuttle Columbia. Chang Díaz, the son of a father of Chinese descent and a mother who is Costa Rican, was born in San José, Costa Rica, in 1950. He moved to the... Continue Reading →
October 1, 1979 Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) made its debut with the opening of the first five miles (8.1 kilometers) of the Kwun Tong Line. “As champagne corks popped and a Chinese dragon danced for luck,” reported the Associated Press later that week, “Hong Kong christened its new subway system on Sunday and sent... Continue Reading →
Federico Fernández Cavada was born sometime around 1831 in the city of Cienfuegos on the southern coast of Cuba. After his father’s death in 1838, his U.S.-born mother brought him and his brothers with her to live in Philadelphia. Fernández Cavada, who became both an engineer and topographer, joined the Union Army shortly after the... Continue Reading →
September 28, 2008 The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge was officially opened to foot and bicycle traffic two months ahead of schedule. The footbridge crosses over the Missouri River and links the cities of Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska. The 3,000-foot (914.4-meter) structure, which can be found north of the Interstate 480 girder bridge, is the longest... Continue Reading →
September 27, 1825 The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) made its debut in northeastern England’s County Durham, thereby launching the first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains. It linked the village of Witton Park with the market town of Stockton-on-Tees and also provided connections to several coal-mining facilities near the town of Shildon. The S&DR, covering a... Continue Reading →
By the late 1930s, Dragon Bottling Company was firmly established as a major force among Texas-based soft drink industries. This was due in large part to both the entrepreneurial skills of the company’s president Herlinda Morales Rodríguez and the extensive transportation network that she used for getting beverages to market. Morales Rodríguez had been married... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 