Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Australia’s Tarrawingee Tramway made its formal debut. The Tarrawingee Tramway covered approximately 40 miles between the city of Broken Hill and the town of Tarrawingee in the far western region of the colony (now state) of New South Wales. The primary reason for building the tramway was to facilitate the shipment of high-grade limestone mined at... Continue Reading →
Anatole Mallet, who became a consequential if initially underappreciated engineer and inventor, was born near Geneva, Switzerland. When he was very young, he and his family moved to France. Mallet’s longtime engineering career included helping to build the Suez Canal during the 1860s. His most significant contribution, however, was in the world of railroads. By... Continue Reading →
In the Austrian Empire, the first segment of a railway to connect the capital city of Vienna with the pivotal Hungarian city of Győr (the halfway point between Vienna and Budapest) was officially opened. This initial section had been constructed between the town of Baden, which is 16 miles south of Vienna, and the Austrian... Continue Reading →
A ceremony was held to lay the foundation stone for a new railway station in Western Australia’s city of Perth. This Monday afternoon event, however, received a decidedly lackluster review from the region’s Herald newspaper. “There was a very small attendance of the public, there being scarcely any persons present but officials and children,” reported... Continue Reading →
During the 19th century, Chin Lin Sou provided leadership and guidance to his fellow Chinese Americans in the construction of major railroads in the United States. Chin, who was born in the Chinese city of Guangzhou (also known as Canton), immigrated to the United States in 1859 at the age of 22. Chin first settled... Continue Reading →
Robert Gerwig, a civil engineer who specialized in designing railways for unusually challenging terrain, was born in the city of Karlsruhe in the Grand Duchy of Baden (now part of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany). Gerwig studied civil engineering at Polytechnische Schule (the present-day University of Karlsruhe), and initially focused on road construction.... Continue Reading →
The Australia-based Hawkesbury River Railway Bridge, carrying the Main Northern railway line over the Hawkesbury River on the northern outskirts of Sydney, was officially opened. The seven-span bridge, which would remain in use for more than a half-century before being replaced by the current bridge, was the final link in a railway network connecting Adelaide,... Continue Reading →
Alojz Knafelc, who created a now-iconic marker for hiking trails, died at the age of 77 in the city of Ljubljana in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (in a region that is now part of the Republic of Slovenia). Knafelc had been born in 1859 in the village of Šmihel in a section of modern-day Slovenia... Continue Reading →
Zhan Tianyou, an engineer who was responsible for the first railroad built in China without any foreign assistance, died in the city of Hankou in central China at the age of 57. He had born in 1861 in the present-day city of Guangzhou in southern China. In 1872, Zhan was selected to receive an education... Continue Reading →
After more than three years of construction, a railway bridge in the city of Krasnoyarsk in Siberia (part of the Russian Empire at the time) was completed. The six-span Krasnoyarsk Railway Bridge, measuring 3,300 feet in length, was built to carry the Trans-Siberian Railway over the Yenisei River. Construction on the railway line, which is... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 