Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
May 13, 1976 A major milestone took place for a steel arch bridge being built over the New River Gorge in the southern region of West Virginia. This milestone was a “topping out” ceremony in which the final link for the 1,700-foot (518-meter) supporting arch for the bridge was installed. “Bridge Work Gap Filled,” read... Continue Reading →
April 30, 1974 The Queen Juliana Bridge was officially opened in Willemstad, the capital of the southern Caribbean island of Curaçao. (A constituent country of the Netherlands, Curaçao was part of the Netherlands Antilles at the time of the Queen Juliana Bridge's debut.) This four-lane road bridge spans across St. Anna Bay and replaced a... Continue Reading →
April 17, 2016 After 129 years of service, the Jubilee Bridge in eastern India was permanently closed. This structure crosses over the Hooghly River (a distributary of the Ganges River) between the city and municipality of Naihati and the town of Bandel in the Indian state of West Bengal. The bridge was created for railway... Continue Reading →
April 8, 2005 In north-central New Jersey, a major phase of the construction project for the new Victory Bridge was completed. This phase involved installing segments of the superstructure (the part of a bridge supporting the deck and linking one substructure to another) on the northbound section of the bridge. This bridge was built as... Continue Reading →
March 19, 1932 Australia’s Sydney Harbour Bridge, which carries traffic between that New South Wales (NSW) city’s central business district and North Shore area, was officially opened in ceremonies attended by hundreds of thousands of people. The lavish festivities on that Saturday for the steel through-type arch bridge included decorated floats in a nearby parade in... Continue Reading →
March 12, 1910 The first steel bridge in the present-day Republic of Singapore made its official debut. (At that time, Singapore was part of the British territories collectively known as the Straits Settlements.) The dignitaries attending the Saturday opening ceremony for the bridge included Sir John Anderson, for whom the new structure was named. Anderson... Continue Reading →
February 24, 1914 In the southeastern area of present-day India, a new railway bridge connecting the town of Mandapam on the mainland with Pamban Island was officially opened. At the time of the bridge’s debut, this region was part of an administrative subdivision of British India known as the Madras Presidency. The structure is called... Continue Reading →
February 6, 1872 Civil engineer Robert Maillart was born in Bern, Switzerland. Maillart left a lasting imprint on his profession through his aesthetical approach to bridge construction and his innovative use of structural reinforced concrete for that purpose. Two prominent examples of Maillart’s work are the Salginatobel and Schwandbach Bridges that he designed and built. The Salginatobel... Continue Reading →
January 29, 2018 As a key part of a major reconstruction project in the city of Portsmouth, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) closed the Stark Street Bridge to all vehicular and pedestrian traffic. This structure, dating back to the 1940s and crossing over the U.S. Route 1 Bypass (US 1 Byp), was shut... Continue Reading →
January 24, 1953 The Xiluo Bridge in the western region of Taiwan’s main island was formally dedicated. The bridge, which crosses over the Zhuoshui River, connects Xiluo Township in Yunlin County with Xizhou County in Changhua County. At the time of its debut, the structure – measuring 6,361.7 feet (1,939 meters) in length and featuring... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 