Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
May 23, 1891 In the Wisconsin city of Superior (at the western end of Lake Superior), the whaleback freighter SS Charles W. Wetmore was launched at the shipyard of entrepreneur and Great Lakes captain Alexander McDougall’s American Steel Barge Company. This vessel was the latest of the whaleback freighters originally conceived by McDougall. These cargo... Continue Reading →
In 1976, Edwina Justus became the first black woman to work as a locomotive engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad (UP). Her life's journey began on July 11, 1943, when she was born in Omaha, Nebraska, to Lee and Caldonia Isaiah Chaney. In one of her earliest trailblazing roles, she was the first black student... Continue Reading →
December 31, 1932 A railroad bridge crossing the Ohio River between the city of Henderson, Kentucky, and Vanderburgh County, Indiana, was formally opened. This 12,123-foot (3,695)-long structure was constructed by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N) to replace the bridge that this company had built in the vicinity during the 1880s. That original bridge, which... Continue Reading →
December 23, 1871 Operations began for the first railway in the present-day state of Western Australia (WA). At the time of this railway’s debut, WA was a British crown colony. The railway was a private one owned by West Australian (W.A.) Timber Company. This 4.3-mile (seven-kilometer) line ran between the localities of Yokanup (now known... Continue Reading →
August 2, 1886 A railway station was inaugurated in the village of Yenice in what is now southern Turkey's Mersin province. Yenice was designated as a town in 1953; since 2013, it has been a neighborhood of the municipality and district of Tarsus. At the time of Yenice station’s opening, this region was part of... Continue Reading →
May 28, 1818 A pioneering sidewheel steamboat known as Walk-in-the-Water was launched at Black Rock, New York. (An independent community at that time, Black Rock is now part of Buffalo.) Walk-in-the-Water became the first steam-powered vessel to sail on Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan. An engineer named Noah Brown designed Walk-in-the-Water. Robert McQueen was the... Continue Reading →
January 17, 2004 In Australia, the first freight train to travel on the Adelaide-Darwin railway line in its entirety reached the end of its long journey. This long-anticipated line serves as a major transportation link between the cities of Adelaide, the capital of the state of South Australia; and Darwin, the capital of Australia’s Northern... Continue Reading →
January 9, 1843 Industrial engineer and coal-mining official William Hedley died at the age of 63 near the English village of Lanchester. He was instrumental in harnessing the untapped potential and practical applications of railways. Hedley’s greatest contribution in this regard took place when, as a manager at a coal-mining facility near the city of Newcastle... Continue Reading →
January 5, 1892 A notable milestone for Undine, a sternwheel-driven steamboat operating on rivers in Oregon, took place when she played a pivotal role in rescuing people who had been on board a vessel that sank in the Willamette River. (A major tributary of the Columbia River, the Willamette River is located entirely within the... Continue Reading →
October 5, 1889 On Maryland’s Eastern Shore, a vessel built for oyster dredging in the Chesapeake Bay was launched at Tilghman Island in Talbot County. This still-existing vessel is a “bugeye,” a type of sailboat specifically developed to collect bottom-dwelling oysters in that region of the United States. This particular bugeye was give the name... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 