Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
January 4, 2017 Robert Marchand, a 105-year-old French cyclist, established a world record in one-hour track cycling for people in his age group. At the Paris-area indoor track known as the Velodrome National, he completed 92 laps and in the process covered a total of 14 miles (22.6 kilometers). Marchand achieved this record while wearing... Continue Reading →
November 18, 1885 In the Kingdom of Württemberg (at the time a state of the German Empire and now part of the Federal Republic of Germany), 17-year-old Paul Daimler undertook the first trial run of what is widely regarded as the world’s first motorcycle. His father Gottlieb Daimler, along with Wilhelm Maybach, built the vehicle in... Continue Reading →
April 21, 1890 Frank E. Weaver launched a coast-to-coast trip, pedaling out of New Haven, Connecticut, on a four-foot (1.2-meter)-high bicycle built by the Eagle Bicycle Manufacturing Company. The 19-year-old Weaver was originally from New Bedford, Massachusetts, but had lived in New Haven for four to five years. Weaver established himself as one of the most accomplished... Continue Reading →
October 8, 1897 A large parade of bicyclists took place in Louisville, Kentucky. The event, which was part of a carnival celebration, reflected the strong enthusiasm for bicycling throughout that era. On the day before the parade, the city’s Courier-Journal newspaper even ventured that the event could be “as pretty a bicycle display as has ever... Continue Reading →
September 8, 1896 In New York, what was technically the final leg of an ambitious and unprecedented transcontinental bicycle relay race took place when two bicyclists departed the southern tip of Manhattan known as the Battery for the U.S. Army post at nearby Governors Island at 1:55 p.m. A.H. Hand and Annie St. Tel, each... Continue Reading →
September 3, 2013 A bicycle-and-pedestrian path on the newly constructed eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge (famously nicknamed the Bay Bridge) made its debut. The noontime opening of the completed two-thirds of the path took place the day after the roadway portion of the new span was inaugurated. A segment of the original... Continue Reading →
August 28, 2018 In England’s North East region, the recently completed Northern Spire Bridge within the city and metropolitan borough of Sunderland was opened to pedestrians. This two-span cable-stayed bridge carries the highway A1231 over the River Wear and serves as a link between the Sunderland suburbs of Pallion and Castletown. The 1,102-foot (336-meter)-long structure... Continue Reading →
June 18, 2018 As work on a suspension pedestrian bridge in Australia neared completion, the LED lighting on that new structure was officially tested for the first time. This Monday evening trial run, according to the West Australian newspaper, was held “with the inclement weather failing to dampen the colorful display.” The bridge crosses over... Continue Reading →
May 19, 1993 In the Republic of Slovenia, the replacement for a longtime bridge in that European country’s capital city of Ljubljana was opened for public use. The current version of the Kavšek Bridge, just like its predecessor, crosses Glinšĉica Creek in Ljubljana’s neighborhood of Podutik. Nearly two years before the debut of this new... Continue Reading →
May 14, 1940 Tommy Godwin of England completed a 500-day cycling journey in his native country. He used a total of two bicycles during the course of his ambitious long-distance journey and ultimately set records for that two-wheeled transportation mode when it came to the most miles (kilometers) covered in a single year and the... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 