Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
May 28, 1925 William M. Jardine (1879-1955), who had started serving as U.S. secretary of agriculture on March 5 of that year and would remain in the position until 1929, was a featured speaker at the Mid-West Transportation Conference in Chicago. This conference was held at the now defunct La Salle Hotel at the northwest... Continue Reading →
May 6, 1895 The third elevated rapid transit line in Chicago, and the first of those lines to be electrically operated, made its debut. The first train of the Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railroad -- also called the Metropolitan “L” -- left the Robey Street station at six o’clock that morning for the downtown terminal at... Continue Reading →
May 2, 1810 A groundbreaking ceremony was held in southeast Washington, D.C., for a new canal. Those attending this event included James Madison (1751-1836), who served as the fourth U.S. president from 1809 to 1817. The building of the Washington City Canal reflected the widespread enthusiasm during that era for waterways that would help facilitate... 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 7, 1878 A newly completed train station in Kansas City, Missouri, made its official debut. “The new Union Depot of Kansas City will be opened to the public for the first time this morning,” announced that day’s edition of the Kansas City Times. “It will be an event in the history of Kansas City... Continue Reading →
December 31, 1932 A railroad bridge crossing the Ohio River between the city of Henderson, Kentucky, and Vanderburgh County, Indiana, was formally opened. This 12,123-foot (3,695)-long structure was constructed by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N) to replace the bridge that this company had built in the vicinity during the 1880s. That original bridge, which... Continue Reading →
October 4, 2012 Bernard Holden, whose long life was devoted to railroads in a variety of contexts, died at the age of 104 in the English village and civil parish of Ditchling. Fittingly enough, he had been born in 1908 in the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway station house in the village of Barcombe... Continue Reading →
June 21, 1954 NBC Radio presented the final broadcast of The Railroad Hour. This program, which had been on the air for 16 years, was sponsored by the American Association of Railroads (AAR). The program had a music-and-drama format, and Jeannette MacDonald (1903-1965) and Adolphe Menjou (1893-1963) were among the performers who graced those broadcasts.... Continue Reading →
April 30, 1939 The 1939 New York World’s Fair at Flushing-Meadows Corona Park was formally opened. This world’s fair ranks second only to the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis as the largest event of its kind to be held in the United States. With its opening slogan of “Dawn of a New Day,”... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 