Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
August 18, 1957 An arch bridge in the municipality of Fredrikstad in southeastern Norway was opened. The Fredrikstad Bridge crosses the river Glomma and connects the eastern and western parts of the municipality. Crown Prince Olav (1903-1991) officiated at the inaugural ceremony for this bridge. At the time, he had been serving as the country’s... Continue Reading →
August 13, 1955 Nearly four months after it first went into service, the Canso Canal Bridge in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia was formally opened. C.D. Howe (1886-1960), who served as Canada’s minster of trade and commerce from 1948 to 1957, presided at the inaugural ceremony for that rotating swing bridge. This structure crosses... Continue Reading →
July 13, 2005 The Millennium Bridge in Podgorica, the capital and largest city of southeastern Europe’s country of Montenegro, was officially opened to traffic. The inauguration of this cable-stayed bridge, which crosses the Morača river, took place on Montenegro’s National Day. It was on that date in 1878 that representatives on behalf of the major... Continue Reading →
June 22, 1950 The Highway Research Board (the present-day Transportation Research Board) formally announced the imminent launch of a major highway research project in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. This project would specifically take place in the vicinity of La Plata, a Maryland town about 32 miles (51.5 kilometers) southeast of the nation’s capital. The... Continue Reading →
May 19, 1988 A box girder bridge off the western coast of France was officially opened. This 9,601-foot (2,926.5-meter) structure serves as a pivotal link between Ȋle de Ré, a French island in the Atlantic Ocean; and La Rocehelle, a city on France’s mainland. The Ȋle de Ré Bridge was designed by structural engineer Michel... Continue Reading →
April 6, 1956 An arch bridge in what was then known as the Federation of Malaya was officially opened. At the time, this country in Southeast Asia was a self-governing colony of the United Kingdom. The steadily gathering momentum for a fully independent Federation of Malaya was reflected in the name of the new bridge.... Continue Reading →
March 30, 2003 An arch bridge in northern Portugal’s Porto metropolitan area was inaugurated. This 1,217-foot (371-meter)-long bridge spans the river Douro and carries both vehicular and pedestrian traffic between the city of Porto and the city and municipality of Vila Nova de Gaia. The bridge was named after Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460), the... Continue Reading →
March 19, 1964 The Great St Bernard Tunnel joining Switzerland and Italy was officially opened to vehicular traffic. This tunnel became the first one running through the formidable Alps for automobiles, and it is a major link between the municipality of Martigny in southwestern Switzerland and the comune of Aosta in northwestern Italy. The tunnel... Continue Reading →
March 12, 1985 A prestressed concrete bridge in southeastern Australia was officially opened to traffic. This 1,086-foot (331-meter)-long structure, which carries the Sturt Highway across the Murray River, serves as a link between the town of Buronga in the state of New South Wales (NSW) and the city of Mildura in the state of Victoria.... Continue Reading →
March 11, 2016 In the Australian state of Victoria, an arterial route built in the vicinity of southeastern Melbourne’s suburb of Dingley Village first went into service. Dingley Bypass was officially opened by Luke Donnellan (born in 1966), who served as the minister for Roads and Road Safety within the Executive Council of Victoria from... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 