Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Joan Newton Cuneo, who played a trailblazing role for female race car drivers, was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1876. She was the last of four daughters born to Leila Vulte and John Carter Newton. Joan’s strong interest in transportation took root early on in her life. As a child – and under her indulgent... Continue Reading →
March 12, 1831 Clement Studebaker, a wagon and carriage manufacturer who helped establish and nurture a formidable family legacy when it came to surface transportation, was born in Pinetown, Pennsylvania. He learned the blacksmith trade as a teenager in his father’s shop and later worked as a teacher. In 1852, he and his older brother Henry formally... Continue Reading →
February 26, 1925 In the southeast region of Virginia, Captain Albert F. Jester launched a then-innovative type of ferry service on the James River between the community of Scotland in Surry County on the southern bank and historic Jamestown Island (site of the first permanent English settlement in the Americas) in James City County on... Continue Reading →
February 16, 1843 Henry Martyn Leland, who would leave an indelible mark on the American automobile industry, was born in northeastern Vermont. As a young man, he worked as for the renowned tools manufacturer Brown & Sharp in Providence, Rhode Island. That job and others helped Leland refine a wide range of mass-production and mechanical... Continue Reading →
February 5, 1880 Aircraft and automobile manufacturer Gabriel Voisin was born in the commune of Belleville-sur-Saône in eastern France. Voisin developed a strong enthusiasm for the potential of airborne transportation at a young age, and was especially inspired by the work and words of aviation pioneers Clément Ader and Ferdinand Feber. Voisin’s aviation career began in earnest... Continue Reading →
February 2, 1957 A dedication ceremony was held for a still-incomplete bridge crossing the Hudson River in southeastern New York. This bridge, which is about 96 miles (154.5 kilometers) north of New York City, serves as a link between the city of Kingston in Ulster County and the hamlet of Rhinecliff (part of the town... Continue Reading →
January 20, 1908 In the north-central region of the State of Washington, the first highway bridge in the United States crossing the Columbia River was officially opened. The Columbia River Bridge, which was built by the Washington Bridge Company over the course of two years, has provided an important link between the city of Wenatchee in... Continue Reading →
December 31, 1909 New York City’s Manhattan Bridge, which crosses over the East River and links Lower Manhattan at Canal Street with Brooklyn at the Flatbush Avenue Extension, was officially opened to traffic. This structure joined the Brooklyn and Williamsburg Bridges as the suspension bridges carrying traffic over the lower East River. At the time of... Continue Reading →
November 17, 2007 A “rededication” ceremony was held for the McKinley Bridge, which crosses the Mississippi River and links St. Louis, Missouri, with Venice, Illinois. This bridge had been designed by renowned engineer Ralph Modjeski and it first opened in 1907. Contrary to a widespread assumption, the bridge was not named after President William McKinley; the... Continue Reading →
November 12, 1901 Industrial designer Alexis de Sakhnoffsky was born in the Ukrainian city of Kiev in what was then the Russian Empire. He fled his homeland by 1920 in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution and ended up pursuing a wide-ranging design career that included many transportation makes and models. Throughout a large part of... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 