Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
June 18, 1817 A granite bridge crossing the River Thames in London was formally opened by the Prince of Wales and future King George IV (1762-1830), who had assumed the role of Prince Regent and taken over the royal responsibilities of his incapacitated father King George III (1738-1820) six years earlier. This bridge was built... Continue Reading →
June 15, 1898 In what was then the British colony of New South Wales (NSW), a truss bridge built across the Hunter River in the town of Morpeth made its public debut. (NSW was a British colony until it became one of the states of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901.) Morpeth Bridge was designed... Continue Reading →
April 9, 1906 In the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), a dedication ceremony was held for the McFarlane Bridge in the town of Maclean. The bridge, which was designed by civil engineer Ernest de Burgh (1863-1929), carries Lawerence Road across the south arm of the Clarence River. This structure provides a key transportation... Continue Reading →
March 30, 2003 An arch bridge in northern Portugal’s Porto metropolitan area was inaugurated. This 1,217-foot (371-meter)-long bridge spans the river Douro and carries both vehicular and pedestrian traffic between the city of Porto and the city and municipality of Vila Nova de Gaia. The bridge was named after Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460), the... Continue Reading →
November 25, 1823 The Royal Suspension Chain Pier in Brighton on England’s southeastern coast was opened. This pier was the first major one to be built at that seaside resort. Widely known as the Chain Pier, it was designed by civil engineer (and Royal Navy veteran) Samuel Brown (1776-1852). Brown was a trailblazer when it... Continue Reading →
April 18, 1905 A passenger train crossed a five-span cantilever truss bridge built to carry train traffic across the Mississippi River between the community of Illmo (now part of Scott City) in Missouri and the village of Thebes, Illinois. This train was the first one to cross the Thebes Bridge, thereby (in the words of... Continue Reading →
August 6, 2018 In northern India, the Sir M. Vishweshwaraiah Moti Bagh station on the Delhi Metro’s Pink Lane was officially opened. The Delhi Metro is a mass rapid transit system serving the city and union territory of Delhi and also the nearby cities of Faridabad, Gurgaon, Noida, and Ghaziabad in India’s National Capital Region.... Continue Reading →
May 24, 1915 Civil engineer Arthur Hale applied for a patent for his design of a road interchange focused on facilitating the flow of automobile traffic. Hale, who resided in the village of Rowlandsville in Maryland, characterized this design as one that contained “certain new and useful improvements in street crossings.” Hale’s proposed interchange consisted... Continue Reading →
September 18, 1896 Edward Orpen Moriarty, a civil engineer who had undertaken a wide range of public works projects across the globe, died in the community of Southsea within the city and unitary authority of Portsmouth in southeastern England. He was 71. Moriarty was born on October 11, 1824, in County Kerry in southwestern Ireland.... Continue Reading →
March 13, 1883 Civil engineer Clifford Milburn Holland was born in the town of Somerset, Massachusetts. His career would encompass construction on several tunnels in and around New York City. His crowning achievement when it came to those tunnels involved the one that now bears his name: the Holland Tunnel, which was built under the Hudson... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 