Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
August 24, 2020 In the state of Assam in northeastern India, a newly installed aerial tramway system in the greater Guwahati region was formally inaugurated. Guwahati Ropeway crosses the Brahmaputra River and serves as a link between the neighborhood and commercial center of Panbazar in the city of Guwahati on the river’s southern bank; and... Continue Reading →
August 19, 2011 In southeastern Virginia’s Hampton Roads metropolitan area, operations began for the light rail system based in the city of Norfolk and named the Tide. This light rail system was the first one to go into service in the Old Dominion. The Tide, which took a little over three years to build, is... Continue Reading →
July 17, 2006 A light rail system serving Newark, New Jersey, and surrounding communities was inaugurated. The Newark Light Rail (NLR) is owned and operated by NJ Transit Bus Operations, a division of the state-owned New Jersey Transit Corporation. NLR was developed from a combination of Newark City Subway, which had been launched in 1935,... Continue Reading →
July 10, 1854 A newly completed railway station was opened in the village (now suburban town) of Dalkey, which is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of central Dublin. At that time, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; this sovereign state remained in existence until... Continue Reading →
July 1, 1977 The Blue Line of the Washington Metro first went into service. This line’s inaugural stretch between National Airport station in Arlington County, Virginia, and Stadium-Armory station in southeast Washington, D.C., joined the Red Line (introduced the previous year) in forming what was then the world’s newest major rapid transit system. The Orange... Continue Reading →
June 19, 2024 Three years after Juneteenth became a federal holiday, a group of 27 black military veterans and their chaperones flew from Atlanta to Washington, D.C. Their trip was hosted by the Honor Flight Network, a non-profit organization that has transported thousands of veterans – many of them elderly and infirm -- to the... Continue Reading →
June 17, 1892 Two years after construction on it began, the Brienz Rothorn Railway in central Switzerland first went into service. This line connects the municipality of Brienz with the summit of the mountain known as the Brienzer Rothorn (part of the western region of the Alps). The Brienz Rothorn Railway (“Brienz Rothorn Bahn” [BRB]... Continue Reading →
June 12, 2005 Passenger rail service returned after a hiatus of 41 years to the Vale of Glamorgan, a county borough in southeastern Wales. This service began on a regular basis two days after the Vale of Glamorgan Line was formally dedicated. The festivities that day included a train breaking through an inaugural banner at... Continue Reading →
June 10, 1822 A historic “first” in maritime transportation took place when the iron steamship Aaron Manby crossed the English Channel from England to France. While there had been crossings of wooden steamships between those countries by this time, the voyage of the Aaron Manby marked the first such voyage of a steamship built of... Continue Reading →
June 5, 2017 The day before it first opened for passengers on a regular basis, a newly built Amtrak train station in the city of Pontiac, Illinois, was inaugurated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and plenty of praise. Approximately 75 people attended this event. The funding for this station was a federal grant provided to the... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 