Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
September 1, 1964 The Alte Weser Lighthouse in the northwestern region of what was then West Germany (now part of the Federal Republic of Germany) first went into service. This 125-foot (38-meter)-tall red tower with white horizontal bands is offshore from the estuary mouth of the river Weser, which is within the German Bight (a... Continue Reading →
July 31, 1829 In southeastern Brazil, a lighthouse on the island of Rasa (“Ilha Rasa” in Portuguese) was inaugurated. This island serves as the entrance to the Port of Rio de Janeiro, which is located in a cove on the western shore of Guanabara Bay. (At the time of Ilha Rasa Lighthouse’s debut, most of... Continue Reading →
July 7, 2012 Berth 6, a key addition to the Port of Manila, was fully opened for commercial operations. The Port of Manila is the collective term for various terminals and other infrastructure located in the Port Area and Tondo districts of the Philippines’ capital city of Manila. The Port of Manila is the largest... Continue Reading →
February 3, 1862 The first railway line in New Zealand was opened with considerable fanfare. (At the time, New Zealand was a British colony; it gained semi-independent status as a dominion of the British Empire in 1907 and achieved full autonomy in 1947.) Horse-drawn train cars were used for this 13.4-mile (21.5-kilometer)-long privately owned and... Continue Reading →
September 16, 1956 A newly built lighthouse first went into service in the Tuscany region of central Italy. This lighthouse is located at the south entrance of the port of the city of Livorno, which is on the coast of the Ligurian Sea (an arm of the Mediterranean Sea). The Port of Livorno is the... Continue Reading →
November 1, 1876 In the Netherlands, the North Sea Canal was officially opened by the nation’s monarch King William III. The Dutch waterway, which extends from the Netherlands’ capital of Amsterdam to the North Sea at the city of IJmuiden, was built to allow seafaring vessels to more easily reach the Port of Amsterdam. The... Continue Reading →
On the east coast of India, the foundation stone was laid for a new artificial, deep-water port at the municipality of Paradip in the state of Odisha. The area for this planned port -- situated at the confluence of the river Mahanadi and the Bay of Bengal – had once been a swamp formed and dominated... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 