Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
A major milestone for the portion of U.S. 10 (US 10) in North Dakota took place when the segment of that east-west route between the cities of Fargo and Mapleton in Cass County was fully paved. This paving project brought about the Flickertail State’s first hard-surfaced, all-weather section of US 10, which had been one... Continue Reading →
September 1, 2009 Wayne Shackelford, who served for nearly a decade as commissioner of the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), died at what is now known as Piedmont Eastside Medical Center in the city of Snellville in the north-central part of the Peach State. He was 75. Shackelford was born in Carroll County, Georgia, on... Continue Reading →
August 7, 1973 On the south shore of Long Island, a newly built railroad station in the village of Amityville first went into service. Amityville is located mostly in the town of Babylon in Suffolk County; a small portion of the village lies within the town of Oyster Bay in neighboring Nassau County. Amityville station... Continue Reading →
By the fall of 1930, a major milestone took place in Nebraska for the upgrading and opening of the U.S. Numbered Highway System’s transcontinental route designated as U.S. Route 30 (US 30). This milestone involved the finishing touches on a continuously paved segment of that highway from New York City to the city of Columbus... Continue Reading →
Nearly a decade before the official authorization of the U.S. Numbered Highway System nationwide, the state of Wisconsin played a groundbreaking role in the establishment of such routes within its own boundaries. By 1917, an ever-increasing number of Wisconsin residents recognized the need for changes to be made to state trails and roads that were... Continue Reading →
January 2, 1923 “The old year is dead, prosperous live the new year,” asserted the Washington Post on New Year’s Day in 1923. “Now that the world is changing its calendar, writing another numeral at the end of its date lines, it is profitable to strike balances and to determine what is due in the... Continue Reading →
August 21, 1982 A tied-arch bridge crossing a section of the Mississippi River between Iowa and Wisconsin was officially opened. This bridge connects the Iowa city of Dubuque with the Wisconsin town of Jamestown. The Cedar Rapids Gazette noted that “sunny skies greeted the structure’s debut.” More than 6,000 people turned out for the grand... Continue Reading →
August 14, 1957 The Administration Committee of AASHO (now known as AASHTO) approved the now-familiar shield used on the Interstate Highway System. The committee made this decision in the wake of several months during which the association’s U.S. Route Numbering Committee sifted through and evaluated dozens of shapes and sizes for a possible route marker... Continue Reading →
Fujio Matsuda was born in Honolulu on October 18, 1924. His parents Yoshio and Shimo had both emigrated to Hawaii from Japan. They taught Fujio, who would later be affectionately called “Fuj” -- a nickname ultimately modified to “Fudge” -- to embrace a wide range of traditional Japanese values that included gambare (to persevere), kansha... 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 →
Transportation History 