Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
February 18, 2019 An infrastructure milestone took place for City Railway Station in the city of Bengaluru (also called Bangalore), which is the capital of the state of Karnataka in southern India. This underground station on the East-West corridor of Namma Metro rapid transit system’s Purple Line had been opened on April 30, 2016. Nearly... Continue Reading →
February 17, 2012 The first cable-stayed bridge in Rio de Janeiro was officially opened. This 780-meter (2,559.1-foot)-long structure, which was named Ponte do Saber (Portuguese for “Bridge of Knowledge”), carries vehicular traffic across the Canal do Fundão (an artificial estuary created in 1951). The bridge serves as a connection between the Ilha do Fundão campus... Continue Reading →
February 12, 1938 A truss bridge built in the Montopolis neighborhood of Austin, Texas, in Travis County was dedicated during a Saturday ceremony. The next day’s edition of the Austin American reported, “The huge span of smooth concrete and shiny steel was constructed to replace [an] old iron bridge washed out by the flood of... Continue Reading →
February 10, 2023 In northern Taiwan, the Ankeng light rail transit line in New Taipei City’s Xindian District was formally opened. This event was marked by celebrations that involved everything from music to commemorative bottles of beer. Hou Yu-ih (born in 1957), who has been mayor of New Taipei City since 2018, was among those... Continue Reading →
February 6, 1989 In the municipality of Tavros in Greece, operations began for a station built as a link in the rapid transit system serving the city of Athens and other parts of the country’s region of Attica. This station, which is on Line 1 of the Athens Metro, was named after both the municipality... Continue Reading →
January 28, 1978 Operations began for St. Clair West station on the Yonge-University-Spadina Line (now called Line 1 Yonge-University) of the Toronto subway system. This station, which spans the block north of St. Clair Avenue West, was built as part of the 6.2-mile (9.9-kilometer) line extension between St. George and Wilson stations. St. Clair West... Continue Reading →
January 26, 1830 On Scotland’s northeastern coast, a lighthouse on the Tarbat Ness headland first went into service. (Tarbat is derived from “tairbeart,” a Gaelic word for “isthmus”; “ness” is an Old Norse term for “headland.”) This structure was designed by the renowned civil engineer Robert Stevenson for the Northern Lighthouse Board (the general lighthouse... Continue Reading →
January 23, 1855 A suspension bridge across the Mississippi River was officially opened in what was then the U.S. Territory of Minnesota. (This portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Minnesota in 1858; the territory’s western region was eventually reorganized as part of the Territory of Dakota.) The bridge, which... Continue Reading →
January 20, 1995 A cable-stayed road bridge in northwestern France’s Normandy region first went into service. The Pont de Normandie (Normandy Bridge) spans the river Seine and connects the commune of Honfleur with the major port city of Le Havre. This bridge has the distinction of being the last bridge to cross the Seine before... Continue Reading →
January 16, 1902 A newly completed bridge in Bangkok, the capital of the Southeast Asian country known at the time as Siam, was formally opened. (Siam was the official name of present-day Thailand until 1939 and then between 1946 and 1948.) Construction of the bridge was commissioned in 1901 by Valaya Alongkorn (1884-1938), a princess... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 