Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
As a young engineer, Victor M. Mendez wasted little time deciding what to focus on in his career. “Thinking back, I migrated to transportation very early,” he said in an interview with the Washington Post in 2012. “I remember how satisfying it was to be able to say I helped design and construct a road... Continue Reading →
Leno H. Menghini, whose career in transportation spanned four decades, was born on January 25, 1925, in the town of Superior, Wyoming. He attended the University of Wyoming until his studies were interrupted by World War II. Menghini was drafted into the U.S. Army and ended up serving in Greenland from 1943 to 1946. After... Continue Reading →
April 13, 1846 The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) received its charter. The first president of this railroad was Samuel Vaughan Merrick, who had been born in Maine in 1801. He moved to Pennsylvania as a teenager, settling in Philadelphia. Merrick subsequently acquired a strong knowledge of engineering, and in 1824 he helped establish what was then... Continue Reading →
April 10, 1899 The Napoleone Pimpinelli Company was awarded a contract to build an electric tram (streetcar) line in the city of Perugia in central Italy. The company subsequently carried out that construction project under the supervision of the German electrical engineering company Siemens & Halske AG. The project was part of a larger modernization... Continue Reading →
April 9, 2019 (Image courtesy Alstom.) The first two X’Trapolis Mega electric passenger trains to be assembled in the Republic of South Africa were officially introduced to the public. The X’Trapolis Mega is a type of high-capacity train produced by the French multinational rail transportation company Alstom and designed for use in suburban and regional... Continue Reading →
April 8, 2005 In north-central New Jersey, a major phase of the construction project for the new Victory Bridge was completed. This phase involved installing segments of the superstructure (the part of a bridge supporting the deck and linking one substructure to another) on the northbound section of the bridge. This bridge was built as... Continue Reading →
April 7, 1911 An early experiment in long-distance truck delivery took place between New York City and Philadelphia. A British-made Commer truck was used for the Friday morning delivery by New York City’s automotive firm Wyckoff, Church & Partridge (WCP), which owned the U.S. rights for promoting and selling those heavy-duty vehicles. As the New York... Continue Reading →
April 6, 1957 Shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis officially launched Olympic Airways in Greece. The genesis of this enterprise can be traced to three airlines that been established in Greece by 1947: Technical and Aeronautical Exploitations Company (TAE); Hellenic Airlines; and Aeroporiki Metfori Elados (AME). In 1951, the poor financial performances of these airlines led the... Continue Reading →
April 3, 1983 A new bus service began operations in the Republic of Singapore. Trans-Island Bus Services (TIBS) had been incorporated the previous year. The company’s founder was entrepreneur Ng Ser Miang, who was born in China in 1949 but has lived in Singapore for most of his life. (Over the years, Ng has also... Continue Reading →
April 2, 2017 In India, a record-setting road tunnel was formally opened in the state (now union territory) of Jammu and Kashmir by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This inaugural ceremony took place at the end of the tunnel located near the town and tehsil (administrative subdivision) of Chenani. Following the ceremony, Modi traveled in... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 