Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
The Montgomery Bus Boycott, along with being a transportation-oriented protest against racial segregation practices in Alabama’s capital city, was a pivotal chapter in the larger civil rights movement in the United States. At the time of this boycott during the mid-1950s, longstanding Jim Crow laws that enforced segregation throughout the American South were very much... Continue Reading →
January 26, 2010 In the Republic of Indonesia, the Kanci-Pejagan Toll Road on the island of Java was officially opened. Those participating in the dedication ceremony for the new road included Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born in 1949), who was president of Indonesia from 2004 to 2014. This 22-mile (36-kilometer)-long toll road, which is located in... Continue Reading →
January 22, 1960 A steel girder bridge in Pennsylvania’s capital city of Harrisburg was officially opened. The multi-lane John Harris Bridge carries Interstate 83 and that region’s Capital Beltway across the Susquehanna River. This bridge was specifically named after John Harris Sr. (1673-1748), a prominent trader and ferry operator in that area. Harrisburg was likewise... Continue Reading →
January 16, 1932 The Arlington Memorial Bridge, crossing the Potomac River and linking Virginia with Washington, D.C., was opened. A caravan of 12 automobiles became the first vehicles to travel over this stone, steel, and neoclassical masonry arch bridge. The first of these automobiles transported President Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) and First Lady Lou Henry Hoover (1874-1944). While... Continue Reading →
January 10, 1975 In West Germany (now part of the Federal Republic of Germany), a vehicular tunnel crossing under the Elbe River in the city of Hamburg was officially opened. Construction on the New Elbe Tunnel -- also called Elbtunnel -- had begun in 1968. Helmut Schmidt (1918-2015), who served as chancellor of West Germany... Continue Reading →
January 8, 1908 New York City’s University Heights Bridge was officially opened to traffic. This bridge, which crosses the Harlem River, links West 207th Street in Manhattan’s Inwood neighborhood with West Fordham Road in the University Heights section of the Bronx. Construction on this steel-truss revolving swing bridge began in 1903. The fixed and swing spans of... Continue Reading →
December 10, 1910 The Hawthorne Bridge in Portland, Oregon, was officially opened to traffic. This bridge had been designed by Waddell & Harrington and, as part of the inaugural festivities, C.K. Allen from that engineering firm formally recommended acceptance of the new structure to the city. Portland Mayor Joseph Simon responded by declaring, “Let it open!” This... Continue Reading →
December 7, 1953 A new version of the Chamberlain Bridge in South Dakota was dedicated. This structure spans Lake Francis Case, an artificial reservoir that is impounded by Fort Randall Dam on the Missouri River, and it connects the city of Chamberlain in Brule County with the town of Oacoma in Lyman County. The present-day... Continue Reading →
December 4, 2007 A newly built tunnel in northeastern Spain’s autonomous community of Catalonia was inaugurated. This 3.3-mile (5.3-kilometer)-long tunnel is actually the second of two tunnels that are part of the N-230 road and connect the municipality of Vielha e Mijaran, capital of the administrative entity of Aran, with the comarca (administrative division) of... Continue Reading →
November 29, 1957 A pair of two-lane road tunnels built southeast of downtown Baltimore was officially inaugurated. These 1.4-mile (2.3-kilometer)-long tunnels, collectively known as the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, carry Interstate 895 under the Patapsco River. Theodore McKeldin, who was governor of Maryland from 1951 to 1959, presided at the opening ceremonies for the Baltimore Harbor... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 