Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
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 27, 1903 SS Lord Baltimore, a coastal passenger steamship, was launched at the shipyard of Harlan & Hollingsworth in Wilmington, Delaware. SS Lord Baltimore was built by Harlan & Hollingsworth for the Ericsson Line of the Baltimore and Philadelphia Steamboat Company. This vessel was named after Cecil Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore (1605-1675), who served... 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 7, 1910 The steamship SS Ste. Claire was launched at the yards of the Toledo Shipbuilding Company along Lake Erie. The vessel was built by that company for the Detroit, Belle Isle, & Windsor Ferry Company (DBI&W), which had been established in 1881. DBI&W used its fleet of vessels to transport tourists and commuters... Continue Reading →
April 29, 2018 Two days after it had been dedicated by local public officials, a light rail station in San Diego was opened to passengers. This station was built near the San Diego Central Courthouse, which had been officially inaugurated just a little more than four months earlier. Courthouse station marks the western terminus of... Continue Reading →
April 22, 2016 Operations began for a rail station built at the intersection of East 40th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard in Denver. 40th & Colorado station, which is based in Denver’s Elyria-Swansea neighborhood, was one of eight stations opened on the same date to form the newly established A Line. This commuter rail line is... Continue Reading →
April 17, 1962 A dedication ceremony took place for an airport in the vicinity of Bhubaneswar, the capital city of eastern India’s state of Odisha. This airport was specifically dedicated to the people of Odisha, and it had the distinction of being the first commercial airport in the state. The airport is named after Biju... Continue Reading →
April 7, 1947 Ellis Dexter Atwood (1889-1950) completed construction on the Edaville Railroad on his 1,800-acre (278.4-hectare) cranberry farm in the Massachusetts village of South Carver on the inland end of Cape Cod. (The “EDA” in “Edaville” came from his initials.) That two-foot (0.6-meter) narrow gauge line is widely considered to be the world’s first tourist... Continue Reading →
April 3, 2011 On the South Side of Chicago, operations began for a passenger train station built on 35th Street in the city’s Bronzeville neighborhood. This station is part of the Metra commuter rail system’s Rock Island District line. The station was officially named not only for the street and neighborhood where it is located... Continue Reading →
March 26, 2025 In Utah’s Salt Lake County, a light rail station in the community of Daybreak was officially opened. Daybreak is part of the city of South Jordan. This city is one of many within the Wasatch Front, the name of the metropolitan region in the north-central section of the Beehive State. South Jordan... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 