Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
December 4, 1830 The Camden and Amboy Rail Road and Transportation Company (C&A), over a year-and-a-half after being organized with Robert L. Stevens as its president, began construction on its railroad line along the Delaware River at the borough (now city) of Bordentown, New Jersey. This railroad line was the first to operate in New... Continue Reading →
December 3, 1982 The Texas-based Pennybacker Bridge was opened to traffic five days after being officially dedicated. The through arch bridge, which is located in the Lone Star State’s capital city of Austin, carries Texas State Highway Loop 360 – popularly known as the Capital of Texas Highway – across the Colorado River and its water... Continue Reading →
Chapman Scanandoah, an inventor and decorated U.S. Navy serviceman who ultimately became chief of the Oneida people (one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy), was born in 1870 in the town of Lenox in upstate New York. The name Scanandoah means “He Moves with Fire” in the Oneida language. (This name was... Continue Reading →
November 30, 1951 While not yet completed at the time, the New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) was officially dedicated with a great deal of fanfare. The New York Times reported, “A major engineering feat, the new highway is an unimpeded route, without traffic lights, no cross roads, no lefthand turns and no grades over 3 percent.”... Continue Reading →
November 29, 1882 Aviation pioneer Henri Fabre was born in the French city of Marseille. Fabre’s advanced knowledge of science early on in life helped foster his powerful interest in human flight. With unmatched intensity, he studied and developed designs for planes and propellers. The result of Fabre’s efforts was his creation of the first... Continue Reading →
Eula “Pearl” Carter Scott made aviation history in1929 when she took off in a plane for a solo flight. Pearl, who was only 13 at the time, became the youngest pilot in the United States. She had been born in the city of Marlow in Oklahoma in 1915. Her mother was an enrolled member of... Continue Reading →
November 28, 1889 In one of the more noteworthy operations of its kind in the Great Lakes region, the crew of the U.S. Life-Saving Service (USLSS) station at Evanston, Illinois, rescued all of those on board the stranded and storm-battered steamship Calumet on Lake Michigan. While traveling from Buffalo the previous day to deliver coal... Continue Reading →
November 27, 1975 Automotive engineer Alberto Massimino died in the city of Modena in northeast Italy at the age of 80. Massimino, who was born in Turin in 1895, developed a strong interest in mechanics at an early age. Massimino earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the Technical Institute at Fribourg in Switzerland. He... Continue Reading →
Joseph J. Clark was a Native American pioneer in the U.S. Navy. He saw duty in three wars and steadily rose through the ranks of the Navy to become an admiral. Clark was born in 1893 in the town of Pryor Creek (now the city of Pryor) in present-day Oklahoma. At the time, that section... Continue Reading →
November 26, 1902 The Skreia Line, a railway line in eastern Norway, made its debut. Measuring a little over 13 miles (20.9 kilometers) in length, this single-track rail was a branch line from the GjøvikLine. The Skreia Line specifically ran between the villages of Reinsvoll and Skreia in the district of Toten. Paul Due One... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 