Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
The place was New York City, and on Sunday, July 16, 1854, Elizabeth Jennings -- a member of a prominent family in that city’s African American middle-class community -- was on her way to the First Colored Congregational Church at Sixth Street and the Bowery to play the organ for a service there. Since she... Continue Reading →
October 20, 2015 After more than a half-century without any tram (streetcar) service in Medellín, the transit system known as the Ayacucho Tram was formally launched in that major Colombian city. The Ayacucho Tram, which is operated by the rapid transit network Medellín Metro, is currently the only tram service in all of Colombia. For... Continue Reading →
August 6, 1891 In north-central Pennsylvania, trial runs were completed for the inaugural electric streetcars adopted for use in the city of Williamsport. These runs had been launched late the previous night. The first of those vehicles began its trial run at around 11:00 p.m. on August 5, leaving the streetcar depot at Edwin and Campbell... Continue Reading →
July 28, 1911 In Canada, a new streetcar system was launched in Regina, Saskatchewan. A brief dedication ceremony took place at ten o’clock on that Friday morning, and then the first four electric streetcars of the system made their way through the capital city of Saskatchewan. Hundreds of people lined up along the streets to watch... Continue Reading →
December 31, 1952 In Chile, a new transit era began with the debut of trolleybus service in Valparaíso. These trolleybuses were introduced the day after the city’s trams (streetcars) had made their final runs. (Valparaíso’s longtime tram service started in 1863 with the inauguration of a horse-drawn railway; electric trams were introduced into those operations... Continue Reading →
December 5, 1885 A new system of horse-drawn trams (streetcars) was inaugurated in the vicinity of Bridgetown on the Caribbean island of Barbados. At the time, Barbados was a British colony; it has been an independent state and Commonwealth realm (with Queen Elizabeth II reigning as the current monarch) since 1966. As far back as... Continue Reading →
November 26, 2017 In the Australian state of Victoria, a new railway station was officially opened on Bay Road in the Melbourne suburb of Cheltenham. Southland railway station, which is part of the Frankston railway line (a commuter rail passenger train service in the Melbourne area), made its debut more than 130 years after building... Continue Reading →
July 2, 1883 In southeast Brazil’s state of Rio de Janeiro, the tramway system Companhia Carris Urbanos received government authorization to operate a new kind of tramcar. (At the time, the present-day Federative Republic of Brazil was part of the Empire of Brazil.) The battery-powered tram car adopted for use by the Companhia Carris Urbanos... Continue Reading →
February 14, 1888 A new streetcar company was chartered in Georgia to provide a small but important transit link in the north-central part of the state. More specifically, this company was established to better connect the city of Covington and the town of Oxford (incorporated as a city in 1914) with each other as well... Continue Reading →
January 24, 1954 It was the end of an era in Cleveland when that city’s streetcars made their final runs. Approximately 10,000 people – some from as far away as Maryland – showed up to bid farewell to those streetcars and take advantage of the free rides being offered on that last day of operation. Those... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 