Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
June 1, 1982 A little over two months before the Helsinki Metro was officially inaugurated, Hakaniemi station became one of a few stations of that rapid transit system to be opened to the public for test drives of trains during the morning and afternoon rush hours. Hakaniemi station is named for an area within the... Continue Reading →
May 28, 1870 Operations began for a funicular -- a railway designed to travel both up and down steep slopes -- on Mount Washington in Pittsburgh’s South Side area. This section of the Steel City is located along the Monongahela River and across from the city’s downtown area. The origins of this funicular, which... Continue Reading →
May 26, 1989 Operations began for a fully automated container and bulk goods port in the city of New Bombay (since renamed Navi Mumbai) in western India’s state of Maharashtra. It became the first new port built in India in more than two decades. This port was named after Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), who served as... Continue Reading →
May 21, 1961 The first National Highway Week in the United States was officially launched. The idea for this commemorative week had taken place about three months earlier in Washington, D.C., during a Public Understanding Workshop co-sponsored by the Better Highways Information Foundation (BHIF) – a group founded by several highway industry organizations – and... Continue Reading →
May 20, 1972 In Canada’s province of Ontario, a vehicular tunnel in the city of Welland was formally opened. This tunnel, which is part of East Main Street in the city, carries both Niagara Road 27 and the unsigned designation of Highway 7146 beneath the longstanding Welland Canal. The Main Street Tunnel also serves as... Continue Reading →
May 19, 1988 A box girder bridge off the western coast of France was officially opened. This 9,601-foot (2,926.5-meter) structure serves as a pivotal link between Ȋle de Ré, a French island in the Atlantic Ocean; and La Rocehelle, a city on France’s mainland. The Ȋle de Ré Bridge was designed by structural engineer Michel... Continue Reading →
May 13, 1885 Operations officially began for a rapid transit system in what was then the independent city of Brooklyn, New York. This new means of public transportation in Brooklyn was the first elevated railway – a transit system with its tracks above street level and on a viaduct or some other raised structure –... Continue Reading →
May 11, 1991 The first segment of the Green Line of the Washington Metro rapid transit system was formally opened. The next day’s edition of the Washington Post highlighted the fanfare surrounding this public transportation milestone in the nation’s capital. “The politicians were there,” reported Washington Post staff writer. Stephen C. Fehr. “So were clergy... Continue Reading →
May 6, 2015 In the state of Western Australia (WA), a bridge in the suburb of Maylands was officially opened. (Maylands is about 2.8 miles [4.5 kilometers] northeast of Perth, the capital city of WA.) This vehicular bridge carries Seventh Avenue in Maylands over both a segment of the Midland line, a suburban rail service... Continue Reading →
May 5, 1991 In northern Italy’s administrative region of Emilia-Romagna, an airport located a mile-and-a-half (2.4 kilometers) from the city of Parma was officially opened. This civil airport was built on the site of an airfield that had existed there as far back as 1923. Regularly scheduled flights at the airport began on the same... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 