Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
August 18, 1957 An arch bridge in the municipality of Fredrikstad in southeastern Norway was opened. The Fredrikstad Bridge crosses the river Glomma and connects the eastern and western parts of the municipality. Crown Prince Olav (1903-1991) officiated at the inaugural ceremony for this bridge. At the time, he had been serving as the country’s... Continue Reading →
August 10, 1897 In southeastern Norway, a sailing ship built at the Prosgrund Baatbyggeri shipyard in the municipality of Porsgrunn was launched. (At this time, the present-day kingdom of Norway was part of the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway.) The ship was named after the wyvern, a mythical winged reptile that resembles a dragon... Continue Reading →
December 1, 1982 Nearly nine decades after it was opened, a railway station in the town of Brevik in southeastern Norway was closed. (That town has officially been part of the municipality of Porsgrunn since 1964.) The station was built as part of the Brevik Line, a 6.2-mile (10-kilometer) railway in that region of Norway.... Continue Reading →
1942: A Pivotal Milestone for Dodge Trucks Used Extensively as Ambulances During World War II October 23, 1942 Nearly eleven months after the United States entered World War II, the U.S. Army adopted a standardized design for the trucks that served as the main field ambulances for the Allies for the remainder of that global... Continue Reading →
September 16, 1946 In the aftermath of World War II, the airline Aerolinee Italiane Internazionali was formally instituted in Rome. “British European Airways and the Italian Institute for Industrial Reconstruction signed an agreement today establishing a new British-Italian airline to be called the ‘Italian International Airlines,’” reported the Associated Press. “At the start the line... Continue Reading →
August 1, 1946 A major European airline was established to handle the intercontinental flights of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. This new entity was named Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), and it specifically started out as a consortium pooling together the operations and resources of Swedish Intercontinental Airlines, Danish Air Lines and Norwegian Air Lines. Per A.... Continue Reading →
Maritime transportation entrepreneur Thea Foss was born in the hamlet of Eidsberg in Norway in 1857. She immigrated to the United States in the early 1880s. Not long after arriving in her new homeland, she married fellow Norwegian immigrant Andreas Oleson in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (The couple subsequently changed their last name to Fossen to distinguish themselves... 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 →
August 16, 1983 The first subsea (underwater) tunnel in Norway made its formal debut. This two-lane vehicular tunnel, measuring 9,480 feet (2,890 meters) in length, was built during the course of three years beneath the Bussesundet strait in northeastern Norway. The tunnel connects the town of Vardø on the island of Vardøya with the village... Continue Reading →
A new railway line made its official debut in south Norway. The Krøderen Line, spanning 16 miles (26 kilometers) from the Krøderen lake to the town of Vikersund, was built as a narrow-gauge branch line of the Radsfjorden Line. The formal opening of the Krøderen Line took place without any fanfare; the actual celebration for... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 