Transportation
Southern Pacific Railroad completes New Orleans to California route
The Southern Pacific Railroad completes its transcontinental “Sunset Route” from New Orleans to California, consolidating its dominance over rail traffic to the Pacific. One of the most powerful railroad companies of the 19th century, the “Espee” (as the railroad was often ...read more
How the Orient Express Became the World’s Most Glamorous Train
What do Lawrence of Arabia, Mata Hari, Leo Tolstoy and Marlene Dietrich have in common? They were among the 20th century’s most fascinating figures—and over the years, each experienced the opulence of the Orient Express. The famous train threaded its way from Paris to Istanbul, ...read more
The Great Subway Race of 1967
This is how a group of whiz kids, using a mainframe computer as big as an elevator, messengers stationed at pay phones and a pair of subway tokens, staged a wild race against time under the streets of the Big Apple. Massachusetts Institute of Technology student Peter Samson ...read more
Hilarious Rider Complaints From the Early Years of the NYC Subway
The New York City subway system is nearly 113 years old, and it’s certainly feeling its age. This summer, New Yorkers have endured delayed trains, canceled trains, derailed trains, trains whose doors won’t open to let people escape, and myriad other problems with the United ...read more
The Strange Tale of New York’s Forgotten Subway
On October 27, 1904, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company opened the first line of what is now the New York City subway system. For the cost of a nickel per ride, passengers could travel over nine miles from City Hall all the way to 145th Street in Harlem. “For the first time ...read more
8 Things You May Not Know About Route 66
1. John Steinbeck gave it one of its most famous nicknames In his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1939 novel “The Grapes of Wrath,” about Dust Bowl migrants of the 1930s, Steinbeck devoted a chapter to Route 66, which he dubbed “the mother road,” a nickname that stuck. Like the ...read more
The Epic Road Trip That Inspired the Interstate Highway System
In the early summer of 1919, Dwight Eisenhower was in a funk. With his wife and infant son living 1,500 miles away in Denver, the 28-year-old lieutenant colonel stationed at Maryland’s Camp Meade wasted away his considerable boredom by playing bridge with his fellow soldiers and ...read more
When was the first U.S. driver’s license issued?
In 1886, German inventor Karl Benz patented what is generally regarded as the first modern car. Less than two decades later, in 1903, Massachusetts and Missouri became the first states to require a driver’s license, although it wasn’t necessary to pass a test to obtain one. In ...read more
8 Ways Roads Helped Rome Rule the Ancient World
1. They were the key to Rome’s military might. The first major Roman road—the famed Appian Way, or “queen of the roads”—was constructed in 312 B.C. to serve as a supply route between republican Rome and its allies in Capua during the Second Samnite War. From then on, road ...read more
10 Things You May Not Know About London’s Underground
1. The first Underground trains ran on steam. Recent studies have found that London’s air quality below ground is 70 times worse than it is above, and that, due to exhaust and poor ventilation, a 40-minute ride on the system is equivalent to smoking two cigarettes. This may shock ...read more
Terrorists attack London transit system at rush hour
On the morning of July 7, 2005, bombs are detonated in three crowded London subways and one bus during the peak of the city’s rush hour. The synchronized suicide bombings, which were thought to be the work of al-Qaida, killed 56 people including the bombers and injured another ...read more
Automobile History
The automobile was first invented and perfected in Germany and France in the late 1800s, though Americans quickly came to dominate the automotive industry in the first half of the twentieth century. Henry Ford innovated mass-production techniques that became standard, and Ford, ...read more
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Shipping and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) was a self-made multi-millionaire who became one of the wealthiest Americans of the 19th century. As a boy, he worked with his father, who operated a boat that ferried cargo between Staten Island, New York, where they ...read more
Canada’s transcontinental railway completed
At a remote spot called Craigellachie in the mountains of British Columbia, the last spike is driven into Canada’s first transcontinental railway. In 1880, the Canadian government contracted the Canadian Pacific Railroad to construct the first all-Canadian line to the West Coast. ...read more
New York City subway opens
At 2:35 on the afternoon of October 27, 1904, New York City Mayor George McClellan takes the controls on the inaugural run of the city’s innovative new rapid transit system: the subway. While London boasts the world’s oldest underground train network (opened in 1863) and Boston ...read more
James Dean dies in car accident
At 5:45 PM on September 30, 1955, 24-year-old actor James Dean is killed in Cholame, California, when the Porsche he is driving hits a Ford Tudor sedan at an intersection. The driver of the other car, 23-year-old California Polytechnic State University student Donald Turnupseed, ...read more
Danica Patrick becomes first woman to lead Indy 500
On May 29, 2005, 23-year-old Danica Patrick becomes the first female driver to take the lead in the storied Indianapolis 500. Having previously distinguished herself in the Toyota Atlantic series, Patrick had qualified fourth–another best for a woman–for the 89th Indianapolis ...read more