Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
May 20, 1972 In Canada’s province of Ontario, a vehicular tunnel in the city of Welland was formally opened. This tunnel, which is part of East Main Street in the city, carries both Niagara Road 27 and the unsigned designation of Highway 7146 beneath the longstanding Welland Canal. The Main Street Tunnel also serves as... Continue Reading →
December 2, 1843 The Alexandria Canal was officially opened to trade and navigation on the Potomac River. (Alexandria was part of the District of Columbia at the time but would be returned to Virginia about two years later.) This canal, which ultimately ran southwards for seven miles (11.3 kilometers) through Alexandria and Virginia’s present-day Arlington... Continue Reading →
April 8, 1913 In the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW), the steam-powered ferry Karingal was launched at the shipyard of the company Morrison & Sinclair Ltd. in the Sydney suburb of Balmain. This wooden vessel was built by Morrison & Sinclair for Sydney Ferries Ltd., which operated ferry services in that region of... Continue Reading →
January 9, 1960 In a Saturday ceremony, a cantilever truss bridge in northern Delaware was officially dedicated. This structure, which was named the Summit Bridge after a community in that vicinity of the state, crosses the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. (This canal connects the Delaware River with the Chesapeake Bay.) The Summit Bridge replaced a... Continue Reading →
October 14, 1812 Construction began on Regent’s Canal in England. The original part of this project started in the area just north of central London. The canal was designed by noted architect John Nash (1752-1835) and owes its name to the then-Prince of Wales and future King George IV (1762-1830), who had assumed the role of... Continue Reading →
July 3, 1828 The North Carolina-based Fayetteville Weekly Observer was one of several newspapers throughout the United States to cite plans for a groundbreaking ceremony on Independence Day for a major canal in the Washington, D.C., region. This new waterway, the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Canal, would be built along the Potomac River from Washington... Continue Reading →
October 14, 1890 President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served as the 34th U.S. president between 1953 and 1961, was born in Denison, Texas. One of the defining moments of his presidency was when he signed into law the landmark Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 that made the Interstate System a reality. The provisions in Title... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 