Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
July 17, 2024 In southern Italy, operations officially began for a new segment of the rapid transit system serving the city of Naples. The start of regular service for this extension of Line 6 of the Naples Metro took place the day after Gaetano Manfredi, who has been mayor of the city since 2021, joined... Continue Reading →
April 7, 1878 A newly completed train station in Kansas City, Missouri, made its official debut. “The new Union Depot of Kansas City will be opened to the public for the first time this morning,” announced that day’s edition of the Kansas City Times. “It will be an event in the history of Kansas City... Continue Reading →
February 14, 2012 A newly completed terminal for Devi Ahilya Bai Holkar (DABH) Airport in India’s state of Madhya Pradesh was formally opened. The public officials taking part in this inaugural ceremony included Shivraj Singh Chouhan (born in 1959), chief minister of Madhya Pradesh; and Ajit Singh (1939-2021), India’s minister of civil aviation. This terminal... Continue Reading →
February 13, 1851 A railway station in southeastern England’s village of Hamstreet first went into service. This station was built as part of the South Eastern Railway (SER), which operated in this area of the country from 1836 to 1922. At the time of its opening, the station was spelled out as “Ham Street” rather... Continue Reading →
December 17, 1925 In the northern part of Sweden, a major railway station in the city of Sundsvall was first opened. The Sundsvall Central Station was designed by Folke Zettervall (1862-1955), who served from 1895 to 1930 as head architect for the government agency known as the Swedish State Railways. The Sundsvall Central Station remains... Continue Reading →
During his long career as an architect, Gyo Obata achieved international acclaim for the wide range of major buildings that he designed. He was born to Japanese immigrants on February 28, 1923, in San Francisco. His mother Haruko Obata was a well-established floral designer and his father Chiura Obata became a widely known artist. ... Continue Reading →
February 11, 1888 Construction began on a new terminal building for Sirkeci railway station in the city of Constantinople (now known as Istanbul) in the present-day Republic of Turkey. (At the time, Turkey was part of the Ottoman Empire; Constantinople served as the empire’s capital.) With Constantinople straddling the Bosporus strait between Europe and Asia,... Continue Reading →
March 21, 1869 Albert Kahn, who helped create a number of key transportation-oriented facilities and is widely regarded as the “father of modern factory design,” was born in Rhaunen in the Kingdom of Prussia (now Germany). When Kahn was 11, he and his family immigrated to the United States and settled in Detroit. Kahn worked at... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 