Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
On October 25, 2017, a dedication ceremony was held for a memorial commemorating West Virginia state highway employees who have lost their lives in work zone collisions. The creation of this memorial was spearheaded by the West Virginia Division of Highways (WVDOH), the largest agency of the West Virginia Department of Transportation (WVDOT). The WVDOH... Continue Reading →
April 15, 1924 The Rand McNally Auto Chum, a highways map guide for car travel throughout the United States, was published. This guide was the first edition of what ultimately became the best-selling Rand McNally Road Atlas. The Auto Chum came out at a time when cars were increasingly embraced and used nationwide, and highways to accommodate... Continue Reading →
April 10, 1951 The Battery Park Underpass, a vehicular tunnel at the southernmost tip of Manhattan in New York City, was officially opened during a noontime ceremony. This underpass is located near the neighborhoods of Battery Park and South Ferry. It serves as a link between Franklin D. Roosevelt East River Drive (popularly known as... Continue Reading →
January 28, 1988 A cantilever bridge spanning the Ohio River was officially opened. This bridge connects Washington Township (near the city of Portsmouth) in Ohio with the community of South Portsmouth in Kentucky. It was named after Carl D. Perkins (1912-1984), who served as a U.S. congressman from Kentucky from 1949 until his death. Measuring... Continue Reading →
January 22, 1884 Samuel Eckels, who would carve out a longtime and consequential career in the development of highways in the United States, was born in the borough of West Brownsville, Pennsylvania, in the Pittsburgh area. In 1905, he graduated from Washington & Jefferson College in that region of the Keystone State with a bachelor of... Continue Reading →
January 9, 1960 In a Saturday ceremony, a cantilever truss bridge in northern Delaware was officially dedicated. This structure, which was named the Summit Bridge after a community in that vicinity of the state, crosses the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. (This canal connects the Delaware River with the Chesapeake Bay.) The Summit Bridge replaced a... Continue Reading →
December 12, 1914 The American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) was formally launched. Highway engineers from various states convened that Saturday morning at the Raleigh Hotel in Washington, D.C., to establish an association for addressing their priorities of mutual concern at the national level. (The now-defunct Raleigh Hotel was located at Pennsylvania Avenue and 12th Street,... Continue Reading →
November 11, 1914 A meeting that would have a big and far-reaching impact on transportation throughout the United States occurred during the Fourth American Road Congress, which had commenced a couple of days earlier in Atlanta. As Motor Age magazine confirmed, Georgia’s capital city during that week was “a vortex of good roads enthusiasm.” There... Continue Reading →
October 3, 1893 The first federal road agency in the United States -- and the original predecessor to today’s U.S. Department of Transportation -- came into existence when U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sterling J. Morton, under the Agricultural Appropriation Act that had been enacted earlier that year, formally established the Office of Road Inquiry (ORI). The... Continue Reading →
October 1, 1872 Henry Hooper Blood, who would earn widespread respect in the course of a high-profile career that included serving as chairman of the Utah State Road Commission – a predecessor of the present-day Utah Department of Transportation -- and president of the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO), was born in the... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 