Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
May 5, 1914 In Florida, the last official flight of the St. Petersburg-Tampa (SPT) Airboat Line took place. This line, which provided the world’s first scheduled commercial airline service using winged aircraft, had made its inaugural flight on January 1 of that year. SPT Airboat Line was operated by aviator and aircraft manufacturer Thomas W.... Continue Reading →
April 30, 1978A special preview run took place for a passenger train that would serve a recently authorized commuter rail line between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. This train was named the Chesapeake. It was one of three trains, each with four cars, leased by the Maryland Department of Transportation for Amtrak to operate on the... Continue Reading →
April 23, 2017 Aubin Grove railway station in the vicinity of the state of Western Australia’s capital city of Perth made its official debut. This station -- located within the median of the Kwinana Freeway -- serves the Perth suburbs of Atwell, Aubin Grove, Hammond Park, and Success. Aubin Grove railway station is part of... Continue Reading →
April 22, 1833 The Erie and Kalamazoo Railroad (E&KRR) was chartered in the then-Territory of Michigan, which became a state in 1837. This railroad ultimately ran from what was at that time Port Lawrence, Michigan (now Toledo, Ohio) near Lake Erie to the village of Adrian, Michigan, on the River Raisin to the northwest. E&KRR was... Continue Reading →
April 18, 1905 A passenger train crossed a five-span cantilever truss bridge built to carry train traffic across the Mississippi River between the community of Illmo (now part of Scott City) in Missouri and the village of Thebes, Illinois. This train was the first one to cross the Thebes Bridge, thereby (in the words of... Continue Reading →
April 9, 1961 The California-based Pacific Electric (PE) mass transit system ended its operations after nearly six decades of serving the Greater Los Angeles Area. At its zenith during the 1920s, this network was the world’s largest electric railway system. More than 2,100 PE interurban trains covered about 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) of tracks altogether, providing... Continue Reading →
April 8, 1913 In the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), the steam-powered ferry Karingal was launched at the shipyard of the company Morrison & Sinclair Ltd. in the Sydney suburb of Balmain. This wooden vessel was built by Morrison & Sinclair for Sydney Ferries Ltd., which operated ferry services in that region of... Continue Reading →
April 4, 1901 In Switzerland, a funicular railway in the city of Zurich first went into service. This railway was built to carry people up and down the ZĂĽrichberg, a 2,228-foot (679-meter)-high hill in the northeastern part of the city. A key destination on this hill at the time was a restaurant named Rigiblick that... Continue Reading →
March 28, 2001 Regular operations began for Athens International Airport (AIA) Eleftherios Venizelos in Greece. This airport serves the Greek administrative region of Attica, including the country’s capital city of Athens. AIA is specifically located in Spata, a municipal unit that is 12 miles (20 kilometers) east of downtown Athens. The airport was named in... Continue Reading →
March 27, 1976 The first 4.6 miles (7.4 kilometers) of the Washington Metro were officially opened just over six years after construction on this rapid transit system had begun. “The nation’s capital got a subway Saturday,” announced a subsequent Associated Press news article, “an itty-bitty one by most metropolitan standards, but a subway nonetheless.” This... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 