Nicknamed the Queen of the Arabian Sea, Kochi was an important spice trading center on the west coast of India from antiquity. The port of Muziris traded with the Romans, Persians, Arabs, and Chinese. From 1503 to 1663, the Portuguese established Fort Kochi (Fort Emmanuel), before it was taken over by the Dutch in 1663. The Dutch then ceded the area to the United Kingdom. Kochi remained under the control of the Kingdom of Cochin, which became a princely state of the British. Today, Kochi has been described as the financial, commercial and industrial capital of Kerala. Kochi is the only city in the country to have a water metro system, which has been described as the world's largest electric boat metro transportation infrastructure. The Cochin International Airport is the first in the world to operate solely on solar energy. Kochi was one of the 28 Indian cities among the emerging 440 global cities that will contribute 50% of the world GDP by 2025, in a 2011 study done by the McKinsey Global Institute. In July 2018, Kochi was ranked the topmost emerging future megacity in India by global professional services firm JLL. (Full article...)
Image 23The Great North Road near High gate on the approach to London before turnpiking. The highway was deeply rutted and spread onto adjoining land. (from Road transport)
Image 24Swiss & German co-production: world's first functional diesel–electric railcar 1914 (from Rail transport)
Image 25First powered and controlled flight by the Wright brothers, December 17, 1903 (from Aviation)
Image 29European rail subsidies in euros per passenger-km for 2008 (from Rail transport)
Image 30A cast iron fishbelly edge rail manufactured by Outram at the Butterley Company for the Cromford and High Peak Railway in 1831; these are smooth edge rails for wheels with flanges. (from Rail transport)
Image 31Bulk cargo of minerals on a train (from Rail transport)
Image 42German soldiers in a railway car on the way to the front in August 1914. The message on the car reads Von München über Metz nach Paris ("From Munich via Metz to Paris"). (from Rail transport)
Image 52The engineering of this roundabout in Bristol, United Kingdom, attempts to make traffic flow free-moving.
Image 53A 16th-century minecart, an early example of unpowered rail transport (from Rail transport)
Image 54According to Eurostat and the European Railway Agency, the fatality risk for passengers and occupants on European railways is 28 times lower when compared with car usage (based on data by EU-27 member nations, 2008–2010). (from Rail transport)
Image 57The Lockheed SR-71 remains unsurpassed in many areas of performance. (from Aviation)
Image 58Bardon Hill box in England (seen here in 2009) is a Midland Railway box dating from 1899, although the original mechanical lever frame has been replaced by electrical switches. (from Rail transport)
The SS America was an ocean liner built in 1940 for the United States Lines. She carried many names in the 54 years between her construction and her 1994 wrecking, as she served as the SSAmerica (carrying this name three different times during her career), the USS West Point, the SS Australis, the SS Italis, the SS Noga, the SS Alferdoss, and the SS American Star. She served most notably in passenger service as the SS America, and as the Greek-flagged SS Australis for Chandris. In 1941, she carried two Nazi spies from the Duquesne Spy Ring in her crew: Erwin Wilhelm Siegler and Franz Joseph Stigler. Both men were charged by the FBI with espionage and sentenced to 10 years and 16 years' imprisonment, respectively.
... that United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg wrote an essay in 2000 on Bernie Sanders, his future competitor in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries?
... that when Charles P. Gross became the chairman of the New York City Board of Transportation, the mayor told him that "if you think war is Hell, then you have something waiting for you on this job"?
... that a section of Mississippi Highway 489 was designated as the Jason Boyd Memorial Highway to commemorate the MDOT superintendent who was killed while removing debris from the road?