Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Linda Old Horn-Purdy, a member of the Crow Tribe, established herself as a trailblazer during her time in the U.S. Navy. In 1999, for example, she became one of the first women in that military branch to serve on a combatant ship. Old Horn-Purdy started out life on the Crow Agency reservation in Montana. “I... Continue Reading →
November 3, 2000 In the Japanese region of Chūgoku, a vehicular bridge spanning the Amagaseto Strait was opened to traffic. This 5,840-foot (1,780-meter)-long structure connects the small island of Tsunoshima with Honshu (Japan’s largest and most populous island). The Tsunoshima Bridge is second only to the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, which is located in the Kansai... Continue Reading →
November 2, 1864 A newly completed railway in the Kingdom of Italy was officially opened. (The Kingdom of Italy existed from 1861 to 1946; it was replaced by the present-day Republic of Italy.) That 61.5-mile (99-kilometer) line connected the city of Bologna in Emilia-Romagna region with the city and comune (municipality) of Pistoia in the... Continue Reading →
In 1980, Linda Garcia Cubero became a member of the first class of women to graduate from the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA). She made history as well as the first woman of Hispanic descent to graduate from any of the service academies. In a 2009 interview with Latina Style magazine, Linda discussed her own... Continue Reading →
September 12, 1906 The Newport Transporter Bridge, which crosses the River Usk in the city of Newport in southeastern Wales, was officially opened. This structure is only one of a dozen transporter bridges still in existence today -- a movable bridge that carries a segment of a roadway over a river that other types of... Continue Reading →
September 6, 1936 In Oregon, the Yaquina Bay Bridge -- nearly a month before its official dedication ceremony -- was opened to traffic on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend starting at 8:00 a.m. This 3,260-foot (990-meter)-long arch bridge carries U.S. Highway 1 (formally classified as the Oregon Coast Highway) over a section of Yaquina Bay... Continue Reading →
June 21, 1815 Thomas Smith, an engineer who made notable contributions to the illumination of street lights as well as far-flung lighthouses, died at his home at 2 Baxter’s Place in the Scottish city of Edinburgh. He was 62. Smith was born on December 6, 1752, in Broughty Ferry, a suburb of the Scottish city... Continue Reading →
June 9, 2003 In the eastern region of the Republic of Ireland, a bridge in the Boyne Valley was formally opened to motor vehicle traffic. This bridge, spanning the River Boyne, is located about two miles (3.2 kilometers) west of Drogheda (a town straddling the boundary between Counties Meath and Louth of the province of... Continue Reading →
Swati Mohan is an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a research and development center that is based in Pasadena, California, and managed by the California Institute of Technology. Since 2013, she has been significantly involved in the Mars 2020 mission. A large part of this mission has entailed dispatching both the rover... Continue Reading →
April 24, 2010 A unique type of pedestrian bridge was officially dedicated in southern Singapore. The Double Helix Bridge (now called just the Helix Bridge), which spans Marina Bay, serves as a major link between Marina South peninsula and -- within Singapore’s economic center known as Downtown Core -- Marina Centre. The Helix Bridge was... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 