Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
December 17, 2012 In the Scottish town of Port Glasgow, the ferry MV Hallaig was launched at the yard of Ferguson Shipbuilders – now known as Ferguson Marine Engineering – on the Firth of Clyde (the estuary of the River Clyde). Nicola Sturgeon (born in 1970), who was serving as deputy first minister of Scotland... Continue Reading →
October 16, 1888 CGS (Canadian Government Ship) Stanley, which is widely considered to be Canada’s first fully functional icebreaker, was launched at the shipyard of Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Limited (Fairfields) in the burgh of Govan (now part of Glasgow) in Scotland. This steamship was named after Frederick Arthur Stanley (1841-1908), 16h Earl of Derby,... Continue Reading →
April 8, 1913 In the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), the steam-powered ferry Karingal was launched at the shipyard of the company Morrison & Sinclair Ltd. in the Sydney suburb of Balmain. This wooden vessel was built by Morrison & Sinclair for Sydney Ferries Ltd., which operated ferry services in that region of... Continue Reading →
Henry Brown was born into slavery in 1815 on a plantation in Virginia’s Louisa County. At the age of 15, he was sent to the state’s capital city of Richmond to work in a tobacco factory there. He resided in Richmond with his wife Nancy and their three children, all of whom were likewise enslaved.... Continue Reading →
December 11, 1937 The ferry Gov. Harry W. Nice was launched in Baltimore, Maryland. This ferry, which had been built by the Maryland Drydock Company, was named after the state’s incumbent governor. His wife Edna Viola Amos Nice, as a matter of fact, was the one who christened the vessel. The Gov. Harry W. Nice ferry could... Continue Reading →
October 16, 1965 The Fitzgerald Bridge, which carries Seaham Road across the Williams River in the Australian state of New South Wales, was officially opened. This prestressed concrete bridge was named after Ray Fitzgerald (1879-1963), who served as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly from 1941 to 1962. Measuring 862.7 feet (263... Continue Reading →
September 9, 1963 More than a century after it had first gone into service, Linley Hall station on the Severn Valley Railway line in England’s West Midlands region was permanently closed. This railway station was opened on February 1, 1862. It had been built at the behest of Thomas C. Whitmore (1807-1865), a prominent local... Continue Reading →
July 22, 1893 Here’s proof that transportation not only gets you from point A to point B but can also be inspirational. . . It was on this date that 33-year-old Katharine Lee Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, found herself taking in a majestic view from atop the Colorado-based mountain Pikes... Continue Reading →
December 6, 1913 The steam ferry Leschi was launched from Rainier Beach on Lake Washington, a large freshwater lake adjacent to Seattle. Chief Leschi (1808-1858), for whom this vessel was named, served as the leader of the Nisqually Indian Tribe in the vicinity of Puget Sound in present-day Washington State. The ferry Leschi had the... 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 →
Transportation History 