Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
Neal A. McCaleb, whose longtime career in public service has included key leadership roles in transportation, is a member of the Chickasaw Nation (a federally recognized Native American tribe with its headquarters in the city of Ada, Oklahoma). McCaleb was born in 1935 in Oklahoma City. He graduated from Putnam City High School in Warr... Continue Reading →
November 21, 1913 A major technological breakthrough in transportation took place when wireless messages -- sent in Morse code without any direct electrical connections involved -- from two railroad stations to a train crew on the move were successfully transmitted. This pioneering test in wireless telegraphy specifically occurred in the northeastern United States between a... Continue Reading →
November 17, 1919 A new train terminal made its debut with hardly any fanfare in Jacksonville, Florida, at a time when that city was increasingly evolving into a vital railroad hub. At a minute past midnight, regular operations at the Jacksonville Terminal formally began when its superintendent J.C. Blanton said to his crew, “Open the... Continue Reading →
November 2, 1863 Civil engineer Theodore Judah, whose vision and technical expertise helped bring about one of the most significant railroad accomplishments in American history, died of yellow fever at the age of 37 in New York City. He most likely contracted the viral disease in Panama while he and his wife Anne were en... Continue Reading →
Arlando Teller, a member of the Navajo Nation and a lifelong Arizona resident, became deputy director for tribal affairs at the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) on February 1, 2021. “I am really grateful for this opportunity, but know that I’m not doing this alone,” Teller said at that time in an interview with Indian... Continue Reading →
October 27, 1907 A major transportation hub in Washington, D.C., made its debut when the Pittsburgh Express passenger train of the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad pulled into the new facility at 6:56 a.m. The next day’s edition of the Washington Post reported that “4,000 or more prospective passengers and spectators who crowded up... 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 →
October 17, 1849 Railroad entrepreneur William Mackenzie was born near the settlement of Scott’s Plain (now the city of Peterborough) in what was then the British colony known as the Province of Canada. When Canada achieved its independence as a federal dominion in 1867, the area that had been the Province of Canada was divided... Continue Reading →
October 13, 1974 In southeastern India’s state of Andhra Pradesh, construction officially began on Dwaraka Bus Station (DBS) Complex in the eastern part of the city of Visakhapatnam. The inaugural ceremony for this project included having Jalagam Vengal Rao (1921-1999), who was chief minister of Andhra Pradesh from 1973 to 1978, lay the foundation stone... Continue Reading →
October 10, 1848 The first railroad locomotive to operate in Chicago arrived in the city via schooner. This steam locomotive, aptly named the Pioneer, had been built in 1837 for the Utica and Schenectady Railroad (U&S) in New York. Originally called Alert, this locomotive was used by the U&S for nine years before being sold to the... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 