Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
July 18, 1924 After more than three decades of service, the Belleville funicular tramway in Paris ceased operations. This railway consisted of cable cars connecting the Place de la la République (Republic Square) in the north-central region of France’s capital city with Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Belleville, a major church on a hill in northeastern Paris’s Belleville... Continue Reading →
July 17, 2012 A terminal station that had been built to serve Humberto Delgado Airport (Aeroporto Humberto Delgado) and is located on the Red Line of the Lisbon Metro – the rapid transit station operating in the metropolitan area centered on Portugal’s capital city – was officially opened. Humberto Delgado Airport, which is informally known... Continue Reading →
July 16, 1973 A rapid transit station at 1215 Isabella Street in the Chicago suburb of Evanston was closed permanently. Isabella station served the Evanston Line (the present-day Purple Line) of the Chicago “L” (short for “elevated”), which is operated by the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). This station had been opened on April 1,... Continue Reading →
July 10, 1908 The Thamshavn Line, Norway’s first electric railway, made its debut. The initial segment of this trailblazing line was formally opened by Norway’s King Haakon VII (1872-1957). This railway was built to carry ore from the mines at the village of Løkken Verk in central Norway to the ports of Orkanger and Thamshavn... Continue Reading →
July 9, 1923 The Logan Valley Bus Company (LVBC) began operations in the vicinity of Altoona, Pennsylvania, in the south-central region of the Keystone State. (A portion of this area has long been known as Logan Valley.) The LVBC was formed the previous week as a subsidiary of the Altoona & Logan Valley (A&LV) Electric... Continue Reading →
July 1, 2002 On Japan’s island of Shikoku, a passenger railway station was opened in the town of Kagami in Kōchi Prefecture. (In 2006, Kagami became part of the newly formed city of Kōnan; however, the name of the station has remained the same.) Kagami Station is located on the 26.5-mile (42.7-kilometer)-long Asa Line of... Continue Reading →
June 12, 2004 In the western region of the Federal Republic of Germany, a train station at Cologne Bonn Airport made its formal debut. Cologne/Bonn Airport station was officially opened by Gerard Schröder, who served as chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. Construction on this four-track underground station had started on January 29, 2002.... Continue Reading →
May 30, 2014 In the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the first part of an aerial cable car transit system serving country’s La Paz- El Alto region officially began operations. This system, known as Mi Teleférico (Spanish for “My Cable Car”), took shape in July 2012. That is when Evo Morales Avma, who was president of... Continue Reading →
May 28, 1818 A pioneering sidewheel steamboat known as Walk-in-the-Water was launched at Black Rock, New York. (An independent community at that time, Black Rock is now part of Buffalo.) Walk-in-the-Water became the first steam-powered vessel to sail on Lakes Erie, Huron, and Michigan. An engineer named Noah Brown designed Walk-in-the-Water. Robert McQueen was the... Continue Reading →
May 23, 2009 In New York City’s borough of the Bronx, daily operations began for a station of the suburban commuter transit system Metro-North Railroad. This new stop was the Yankees- East 153rd Street station on Metro-North Railroad’s Hudson Line. The station was constructed to serve both Yankee Stadium and the Bronx’s Concourse neighborhood. It... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 