Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
October 31, 1913 The official dedication of the Lincoln Highway took place in the form of numerous ceremonies and other celebrations nationwide, notably in the hundreds of cities and towns along the approved route for the planned transcontinental thoroughfare for motor vehicles. “Cities en Route From Coast to Coast Mark Opening of Great Rock Road,”... Continue Reading →
October 30, 1919 Tony Pizzo pedaled into New York City on his bicycle to conclude one of the more unique coast-to-coast journeys using that mode of transportation. Pizzo, who had completed a stint with the U.S. Navy earlier in the year, began his transcontinental trek in California during the spring. He and C.J. Devine, another recently discharged... Continue Reading →
September 12, 1884 Charles F. Lummis began an ambitious trip from Cincinnati to Los Angeles, using only his feet for a journey of 3,507 miles (5,644 kilometers). The 25-year-old Lummis had been working for several years as a reporter in Chillicothe, Ohio when he was offered a job with the Los Angeles Times as its... Continue Reading →
July 16. 1957 U.S. Marine Corps Major John H. Glenn set a transcontinental speed record when he piloted a Vought F8U Crusader jet aircraft from Los Alamitos Naval Air Station in California to Floyd Bennett Field in New York City. Glenn dubbed this cross-country effort “Project Bullet” to emphasize the plane’s high-speed capability. Glenn completed... Continue Reading →
Transportation pioneer Augusta Van Buren was born in New York City. She and her sister Adeline, who was born in 1889, jointly undertook a record-setting motorcycle journey across the continental United States in 1916. (The sisters were descendants of Martin Van Buren, the eighth U.S. president.) Augusta and Adeline were active in the Preparedness Movement,... Continue Reading →
Anita King (1884-1963) was a silent-film star who achieved an additional measure of fame for establishing a transportation record. In 1915, King – at the time a Famous Players Film Company actress whose first film had been the Cecil B. De Mille western “The Virginian” – became the first woman to make a transcontinental solo... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 