Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
On November 5, 1935, the last segment of east-west U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) to be paved was officially opened in Nebraska. The inauguration of that 34-mile (54.7-kilometer) stretch of US 30 between the city of North Platte and the village of Sutherland in the Cornhusker State made that route the nation’s first fully hard-surfaced... Continue Reading →
Bertram Dalley Tallamy, who served as a leading figure in the development of the U.S. highways network, was born on December. 1, 1901, in Plainfield, New Jersey. Tallamy received a degree in civil engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1925, and subsequently acquired substantial engineering experience in waterworks, dams, sewage treatment plants, roads, and... Continue Reading →
August 28, 2018 In England’s North East region, the recently completed Northern Spire Bridge within the city and metropolitan borough of Sunderland was opened to pedestrians. This two-span cable-stayed bridge carries the highway A1231 over the River Wear and serves as a link between the Sunderland suburbs of Pallion and Castletown. The 1,102-foot (336-meter)-long structure... Continue Reading →
Leno H. Menghini, whose career in transportation spanned four decades, was born on January 25, 1925, in the town of Superior, Wyoming. He attended the University of Wyoming until his studies were interrupted by World War II. Menghini was drafted into the U.S. Army and ended up serving in Greenland from 1943 to 1946. After... Continue Reading →
August 20, 1914 Starting at their home base in the Los Angeles region, the members of the Automobile Club of Southern California formally launched a project that would take them well beyond the Golden State. The inauguration of that project, while easily overshadowed by other news such as the recent outbreak of World War I... Continue Reading →
The last leg of Interstate 70 (I-70) was officially inaugurated in the vicinity of Glenwood Canyon in western Colorado on October 14, 1992. This final stretch of I-70 to make its debut is a 12-mile (19-kilometer) portion that follows the contours of Glenwood Canyon along the Colorado River and encompasses the No Name Tunnel, Hanging Lake... Continue Reading →
Morris Luther Shadburn, who became a leading highway official both within his native state of Georgia and on the national level, was born on February 4, 1897, in the Atlanta-area city of Buford. In 1917, he graduated from the Georgia School of Technology (now the Georgia Institute of Technology) with a B.S. in civil engineering.... Continue Reading →
Rex Marion Whitton, who became a leading U.S. highway official, was born in 1898, in Jackson County, Missouri. He graduated from the University of Missouri in 1920 with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Whitton then began what became his 40-year career with the Missouri State Highway Department. (In 1980, the Missouri State Highway Department was... Continue Reading →
July 29, 1913 Paul D. Sargent became the first chief engineer of the newly formed Maine State Highway Commission (MSHC) when his appointment was officially confirmed by Governor William T. Haines and the Executive Council. (The Executive Council was a government body that had been established when Maine became a state in 1820; this council... Continue Reading →
July 20, 1934 In California, construction began on a new bridge that would cross the Sacramento River and connect the state capital of Sacramento in Sacramento County with the city of West Sacramento in Yolo County. This vertical lift bridge was built to replace the M Street Bridge, which was owned by the Sacramento Northern Railway.... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 