Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
December 30, 1824 A now-famous pedestrian bridge was opened in the city of Nuremberg in the present-day Federal Republic of Germany. (At the time of the bridge’s debut, Nuremberg was part of the district of Rezatkreis in the Kingdom of Bavaria.) This bridge, crossing the river Pegnitz, took only four months to build. The classification... Continue Reading →
December 27, 1895 Construction on a record-setting bridge in the Republic of Colombia was completed. The Puente de Occidente (Spanish for “Bridge of the West”), which took eight years to build, is located in northwestern Colombia’s department (administrative subdivision) of Antioquia. The bridge owes its name to the fact that it is in that department’s... Continue Reading →
December 20, 1935 Birchenough Bridge made its debut in what was then the British Crown colony of Southern Rhodesia (now the independent Republic of Zimbabwe). Sir Herbert Stanley, governor of Southern Rhodesia, officially opened the bridge, which was constructed across the Save River (also known as the Sabi River) to serve as a major link... Continue Reading →
December 3, 2015 The first segment of a cycleway (a special path intended primarily for use by bicyclists) was opened in the city of Auckland on New Zealand’s North Island. This route, which is known as the Nelson Street Cycleway, also includes sections that can be used for both bicycling and walking. This initial portion... Continue Reading →
December 2, 2018 In the state of Assam in northeastern India, a road-rail bridge began service when a freight train chugged across the newly built structure. Piyush Goyal, India’s minister of railways, used his Twitter account that same day to highlight this crossing. He tweeted that the inaugural train trip on December 2 was “a... Continue Reading →
November 14, 1922 Construction began on a record-setting suspension bridge in Florianópolis, the capital city of the state of Santa Catarina in southern Brazil. It was built to serve as the first fixed connection between the mainland part of Florianópolis and the city’s island of Santa Catarina. The bridge was designed by the American firm... Continue Reading →
November 6, 1937 Construction began on the Highland Park Bridge in the northeast area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This truss bridge was built to carry vehicular traffic across the Allegheny River and between the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Highland Park and the borough of Aspinwall. The structure was specifically intended to replace a narrower bridge downstream that had... Continue Reading →
November 4, 1877 The Maria Pia Bridge in northern Portugal made its public debut. (At the time, the country was a constitutional monarchy formally known as the Kingdom of Portugal.) The railway bridge, which spans the River Douro and connects the city of Porto with the municipality of Via Nova de Gaia, resulted from a competition... Continue Reading →
October 17, 2018 A cable-stayed bridge spanning the Nile was opened in the town of Njeru in the Republic of Uganda. Njeru is a suburb of the city of Jinja, which is located on the shores of Lake Victoria. Along with being Africa’s largest lake by area, Lake Victoria is also considered by many to... Continue Reading →
October 11, 2008 The Discovery Bridge, carrying U.S. Highway 81 across the Missouri River and connecting the city of Yankton, South Dakota, with Cedar County, Nebraska, was formally opened in a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by thousands of people. Public officials on hand for this Saturday morning event included Nebraska Governor Tim Heineman; U.S. Senators Tim... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 