Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
January 16, 1932 The Arlington Memorial Bridge, crossing the Potomac River and linking Virginia with Washington, D.C., was opened. A caravan of 12 automobiles became the first vehicles to travel over this stone, steel, and neoclassical masonry arch bridge. The first of these automobiles transported President Herbert Hoover (1874-1964) and First Lady Lou Henry Hoover (1874-1944). While... Continue Reading →
January 10, 1975 In West Germany (now part of the Federal Republic of Germany), a vehicular tunnel crossing under the Elbe River in the city of Hamburg was officially opened. Construction on the New Elbe Tunnel -- also called Elbtunnel -- had begun in 1968. Helmut Schmidt (1918-2015), who served as chancellor of West Germany... Continue Reading →
December 29, 2021 In the Indonesian province of East Java, a bus transit system (BTS) serving the city of Surabaya and surrounding regencies (administrative divisions) and cities was officially inaugurated. (Surabaya, the capital of East Java, is second only to Jakarta as Indonesia’s largest city.) This BTS owes its name in part to pecel semanggi,... Continue Reading →
November 10, 1955 The East Capitol Street Bridge in Southeast Washington, D.C., was officially opened. This bridge, carrying East Capitol Street across the Anacostia River, had been built to help reduce increasingly heavy traffic in that region of the nation’s capital. The dedication ceremony for the East Capitol Street Bridge commenced at 3:30 on that... Continue Reading →
October 12, 1962 The Thatcher Ferry Bridge, which spans the Pacific Ocean entrance to the Panama Canal, was officially opened. This bridge, until the debut of the Centennial Bridge in 2004, was the only non-swinging bridge to reconnect the land masses of North America and South America that had been separated by the canal. The... Continue Reading →
July 11, 1936 New York City’s Triborough Bridge -- connecting the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx -- was officially opened to traffic. The structure crosses the East and Harlem Rivers as well as the Bronx Kill strait. This bridge is actually a complex encompassing three long-span bridges, a web of viaducts and smaller bridges, and... Continue Reading →
June 9, 2003 In the eastern region of the Republic of Ireland, a bridge in the Boyne Valley was formally opened to motor vehicle traffic. This bridge, spanning the River Boyne, is located about two miles (3.2 kilometers) west of Drogheda (a town straddling the boundary between Counties Meath and Louth of the province of... Continue Reading →
June 6, 1933 The first open air drive-in movie theater opened on Crescent Boulevard in Camden, New Jersey. Richard M. Hollingshead (1899-1975), finding a new way to use the “horseless carriage,” worked out the details for that theater by experimenting with the setup in his own driveway. One major challenge involved the automobiles that would... Continue Reading →
On April 8, 1996, a dedication ceremony was held for the Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) Employee Memorial near the city of Paxico in the northeastern region of the Sunflower State. This memorial, which is specifically located at the Paxico Safety Rest Area on Interstate 70, commemorates state highway employees who have lost their lives... Continue Reading →
April 6, 1974 In the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), a dedication ceremony was held for a concrete box girder bridge crossing the Myall River and connecting the towns of Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest. The Tea Gardens-Hawks Nest Bridge was officially opened by Leon Punch (1928-1991), who served as NSW’s minister for... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 