Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
October 17, 1888 The Eckington & Soldiers’ Home Railway became the first electric streetcar service to begin operations in Washington, D.C. The company’s streetcars initially ran along tracks from the intersection of Seventh Street and New York Avenue, N.W., in the downtown area -- and near the Soldiers’ Home that had been in existence in... Continue Reading →
April 24, 1951 In Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County, a cantilever bridge crossing the Monongahela River was officially opened at noon. The bridge serves as a connection between the city of McKeesport and borough of Dravosburg. (Both McKeesport and Dravosburg are part of the Greater Pittsburgh area; the Steel City is not only the largest city in... Continue Reading →
February 7, 1908 A newly established electric streetcar line connecting Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Annapolis was formally launched. The first trip of the Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway (WB&A) began in Baltimore at 11 o’clock that morning. “The cars are handsome, and of the newest design,” noted the next day’s edition of the Washington... Continue Reading →
April 24, 1949 It was the end of a transportation era in San Diego, California, at 5:45 that morning. This was when streetcar no. 446 of the San Diego Transit Company (known as the San Diego Electric Railway up until September of the previous year) completed its final run by pulling into the car barn... Continue Reading →
February 19, 1914 In the city of Oakland within the San Francisco Bay Area, a major addition to the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Sixteenth Street Station was officially opened. This station, in the years following the calamitous San Francisco earthquake in 1906, had gained ever-increasing importance for its role in helping to facilitate the renewed travel,... Continue Reading →
January 29, 1896 The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company (TMER&L) was incorporated. The establishment of this transit enterprise took place nearly four decades after streetcars had been introduced in Milwaukee in the form of horse-drawn vehicles. TMER&L specifically came into existence when the properties and operations of the Milwaukee Street Railway Company were sold to... Continue Reading →
December 22, 2012 A single-track tramway line in Oranjestad, the capital city of the Caribbean island country of Aruba, was officially dedicated. Aruba is a constituent country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands and -- along with the Netherlands’ special municipalities and other constituent countries in the Caribbean Sea -- it is part of those... Continue Reading →
July 13, 1898 The opening of a terminal for ferries traveling across San Francisco Bay was officially opened. The San Francisco Ferry Building was built as a replacement for a wooden structure that had been a ferry depot at that site since 1875. The second and current version of the terminal in that region of... Continue Reading →
As a longtime businessman and civic leader in the city of Portland in Oregon, Bill Naito became a strong champion of public transportation initiatives in that part of the world. He was born in Portland on September 16, 1925, to Hide and Fukiye Naito, who had immigrated to the United States from Japan in 1912.... Continue Reading →
May 19, 1897 In southeastern New Hampshire, construction on the Exeter Street Railway -- an electric streetcar line that would link together the towns of Exeter and Hampton as well as the highly popular Hampton Beach resort -- officially began with a late-morning ceremony. At around 10:30 a.m., Judge Charles M. Lamprey spoke to those... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 