Skip to main content

USA

Union Station
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Buildings Era: 1890-1899 DateCreated: 1894 1820 Market Street
St. Louis State: MS Zip: Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Union-Station/ Creator: Link, Theodore , Pegram, George

In the early 1900s, Union Station was the hub of passenger railroad traffic in the central United States. It was one of the first stations to serve as a centralized terminal for multiple railroad lines. It originally served 22 rail lines; 13 from the east and nine from the west.

YearAdded:
1981
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Ron Reiring (CC BY 2.0) Image Caption: Union Station Era_date_from: 1894
Union Canal Tunnel
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Tunnels Era: 1800-1829 DateCreated: 1828 Union Canal Lebanon State: PA Zip: Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Union-Canal-Tunnel/ Creator: Ives, John

According to oral history, George Washington visited the canal diggings in 1792, and then again in 1794, while he was accompanying troops to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania. 

YearAdded:
1970
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Ospreye (CC BY 2.0) Image Caption: Union Canal Tunnel Era_date_from: 1828
Tunkhannock Viaduct
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Bridges Era: 1910-1919 DateCreated: 1915 Tunkhannock Creek Nicholson State: PA Zip: 18446 Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Tunkhannock-Viaduct/ Creator: Cohen, Abraham Burton, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad

This majestic viaduct was built during the golden age of railroading. It was at the western end of a major readjustment in grade and alignment of the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad, and had double tracks to carry the trains across the valley of Tunkhannock Creek. The Hallstead cutoff (between Scranton, Pennsylvania and Hallstead, New Jersey) reduced passenger travel time by 20 minutes, and freight travel time by over an hour.

YearAdded:
1975
Image Credit: Original Photo: Flickr/Jim Danvers (CC BY 2.0) Image Caption: Tunkhannock Viaduct Era_date_from: 1915
Bollman Truss Bridge
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Bridges, Transportation Era: 1860-1869 DateCreated: 1869 Little Patuxent River Savage State: MD Zip: Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Bollman-Truss-Bridge/ Creator: Bollman, Wendel

The design of the Bollman Truss Bridge-patented in 1852 and one of the first to use iron exclusively in all essential structural elements-was critical in the rapid expansion of American railroads in the 19th century. Replacing wooden bridges, which  were cumbersome to build and vulnerable to decay, the Bollman Truss Bridge could be built relatively quickly and inexpensively, while providing the long-lasting qualities associated with metal. This allowed new rail lines to be built over long distances in a short period of time.

YearAdded:
1966
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Andrew Bossi (CC BY-SA 2.0) Image Caption: Bollman Truss Bridge as it looks today, after the repairs done in 1934-84. Era_date_from: 1869
Borden Base Line
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Boundaries & Surveys Era: 1830-1839 DateCreated: 1831 South Deerfield State: MA Zip: Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Borden-Base-Line/ Creator: Paine, Robert Treat , Borden, Simeon

The Borden Base Line is a 39,009.73 feet (7.42 miles ) survey line through the State of Massachusetts. The line was the first project of its kind undertaken in America and its establishment was the key element for Massachusetts pioneering mandate to survey the entire state. 

The challenge was to use trigonometrical principles, instead of astronomical observation alone, to provide greater accuracy in surveying large areas.

YearAdded:
1981
Image Credit: Public Domain (Copyright Exp.) Image Caption: An 1871 map of Massachusetts highlighting the Borden Base Line Era_date_from: 1831
Triborough Bridge Project
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Bridges Era: 1930-1939 DateCreated: 1936 Robert F. Kennedy Bridge New York State: NY Zip: 10035 Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Triborough-Bridge-Project/ Creator: Moses, Robert , Ammann, Othmar

The Triborough Bridge Project is a three-branched waterway crossing that connects Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens at a junction of the East River and the Harlem River in New York City. The complex structure includes a suspension bridge from Wards Island to Queens, a vertical lift span from Randall's Island to Manhattan, a fixed span (designed to be convertible to a lift span) across the Bronx Kills, viaducts, and an innovative three-legged roadway interchange.

YearAdded:
1986
Image Credit: Public Domain (National Park Service) Image Caption: Triborough Bridge Project Era_date_from: 1936
Travel Air Airplane Manufacturing Company in Wichita
Society: AIAA Main Category: Aerospace & Aviation Sub Category: Manufacturing Era: 1920-1929 DateCreated: 1925 130 N Webb Rd
Beech Factory Landing Field
Wichita State: KS Zip: 67206 Country: USA Website: https://www.aiaa.org/HistoricAerospaceSites/ Creator: Cessna, Clyde , Beech, Walter

The Travel Air Airplane Manufacturing Company served as the incubator in which Wichita Kansas’ present-day status as the world’s “Air Capital” first developed. The firm was among the first viable airplane manufacturers to be established in Wichita (1925). It also was responsible for four aviation legends firmly establishing themselves in Wichita and forming the nexus between Wichita and world aviation: Walter Beech, Olive Ann Mellor (later Olive Ann Beech), Clyde Cessna, and Lloyd Stearman.

YearAdded:
2006
Image Credit: Courtesy Wikipedia/RuthAS (CC BY 3.0) Image Caption: Travel Air Airplane Manufacturing Company in Wichita Era_date_from: 1925
Central Pacific Railroad
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Roads & Rails Era: 1860-1869 DateCreated: 1863-1869 Western America Ogden State: UT Zip: Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/project/central-pacific-railroad/ Creator: Judah, Theodore , Crocker, Charles

Central Pacific Railroad served as the Western terminus of America's first transcontinental railroad, passing through the formidable Sierra Nevada Mountains. In all, 15 tunnels were blasted through solid granite. 

Thousands of Chinese from Kwantung Province were recruited by Central Pacific Railroad Company and became known for their diligence and hard work. In the second year of construction, nine out of ten workers on the CPRR were Chinese.

YearAdded:
1968
Image Credit: Courtesy Flickr/Jim Bowen (CC BY 2.0) Image Caption: Central Pacific Railroad Era_date_from: 1863
Thomas Viaduct Railroad Bridge
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Roads & Rails Era: 1830-1839 DateCreated: 1835 Patapsco River Arbutus State: MD Zip: 21227 Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Thomas-Viaduct-Railroad-Bridge/ Creator: Latrobe II, Benjamin Henry, McCartney, John

Opened in 1835, the Thomas Viaduct was the first multiple-arch, stone railroad viaduct in the United States. The viaduct is composed of eight arches each with a clear span of about 58 feet. The viaduct has an overall length of 614 feet and a height of about 60 feet above the Patapsco River. Construction of the viaduct began in August of 1833, and a ceremony marking its completion was conducted on July 4, 1835. The viaduct was constructed for the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O) Railroad and is named in honor Philip E. Thomas, who served from 1827 to 1836 as the first president of the B&O.

YearAdded:
1964
Image Credit: Public Domain (National Park Service) Image Caption: Thomas Viaduct Railroad Bridge Era_date_from: 1835
Theodore Roosevelt Dam
Society: ASCE Main Category: Civil Sub Category: Water Supply & Control Era: 1910-1919 DateCreated: 1911 Theodore Roosevelt Dam Tonto National Forest State: AZ Zip: 85545 Country: USA Website: http://www.asce.org/Project/Theodore-Roosevelt-Dam---Salt-River-Project/ Creator:

The first electric power generated by the Theodore Roosevelt Dam for commercial use was transmitted over a high-voltage line to Phoenix, where it was employed to operate the city's new streetcar system. 

YearAdded:
1970
Image Credit: Courtesy Bureau of Reclamation (CC BY-SA 2.0) Image Caption: Theodore Roosevelt Dam Era_date_from: 1911
Subscribe to USA

Innovations

Emanuel Bowen's 1747 map showing the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina.

The Royal Colonial Boundary of 1665 was decreed by England's King Charles II to demarcate his American colonies. It provided a survey from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River along 36 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude. The boundary now serves to divide Virginia from North Carolina and…

Read More
Point of Beginning, U.S. Public Lands

The "Land Ordinance of 1785" required that U.S. lands in the public domain be surveyed before sale, and that the surveys be made in accordance with a consistent, integrated system of lines grid-oriented to a true meridian (north-south reference line) and base line (east-west reference line),…

Read More
In January 1838, Samuel F. B. Morse and Alfred Vail first demonstrated publicly crucial elements of their telegraph system, using instruments that Vail had constructed during the previous months. Electrical pulses, transmitted through two miles of wire, caused an electromagnet to ink dots and… Read More
The HP-35 was the first handheld calculator to perform transcendental functions (such as trigonometric, logarithmic and exponential functions). Most contemporary calculators could only perform the four basic operations – addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The HP-35 and subsequent… Read More
Electric Fire Alarm System

On 28 April 1852 the first municipal electric fire alarm system using call boxes with automatic signaling to indicate the location of a fire was placed into operation in Boston. Invented by William Channing and Moses Farmer, this system was highly successful in reducing property loss and deaths…

Read More

A major advance in the history of computing occurred at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946 when engineers put the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) into operation. Designed and constructed at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering under a U. S. Army contract during…

Read More
Electronic Technology for Space Rocket Launches

The demonstrated success in space flight is the result of electronic technology developed at Cape Canaveral, the J. F. Kennedy Space Center, and other sites. A wide variety of advances in radar tracking, data telemetry, instrumentation, space-to-ground communications, on-board guidance, and real…

Read More
Experimental Breeder Reactor I

At this facility on 20 December 1951 electricity was first generated from the heat produced by a sustained nuclear reaction providing steam to a turbine generator. This event inaugurated the nuclear power industry in the United States. On 4 June 1953 EBR-I provided the first proof of "…

Read More
First Central Station in South Carolina

The United States Electric Illuminating Company of Charleston started up South Carolina's first central station for incandescent lighting in October 1882 -- only one month after Thomas Edison opened his famous Pearl Street plant in New York City. In the following years, the company's parent firm…

Read More

The first transmission of intelligible speech over electrical wires took place on 10 March 1876. Inventor Alexander Graham Bell called out to his assistant Thomas Watson, “Mr. Watson, come here! I want to see you.” This transmission took place in their attic laboratory located in a near here at…

Read More
In August 1974, the first real-time speech communication over a packet-switched network was demonstrated via ARPANET between MIT Lincoln Laboratory and USC Information Sciences Institute. By 1982, these technologies enabled Internet packet speech and conferencing linking terrestrial, packet radio,… Read More
First Semiconductor Integrated Circuit (IC)

On 12 September 1958, Jack S. Kilby demonstrated the first working integrated circuit to managers at Texas Instruments. This was the first time electronic components were integrated onto a single substrate. This seminal device consisted of a phase shift oscillator circuit on a tiny bar of…

Read More
Arne Larsson

During the winter of 1957-58, Earl E. Bakken developed the first wearable transistorized pacemaker, the request of heart surgeon, Dr. C. Walton Lillehei. As earlier pacemakers were AC-powered, this battery-powered device liberated patients from their power-cord tethers. The wearable pacemaker…

Read More
500 CPS Synchronous Rotary Gap transmitter at Brant Rock, Ma. Ca: 1906.

On 24 December 1906, the first radio broadcast for entertainment and music was transmitted from Brant Rock, Massachusetts to the general public. This pioneering broadcast was achieved after years of development work by Reginald Aubrey Fessenden (1866-1932) who built a complete system of wireless…

Read More

Chemicals from the Coal Facility of Eastman Chemical Company was the first in the United States to use coal rather than petroleum as a raw material in the commercial production of acetyl chemicals — important building blocks in the synthesis of a wide range of consumer products. The plant,…

Read More
Hunley submarine

In the context of naval warfare, H.L. Hunley changed the world.  Its builders' innovative use of materials, design and manufacturing techniques resulted in the world's first successful attack submarine.

Referred to as the "catalyst of the Industrial Revolution," textile manufacturing helped to transform the American economy from an agricultural to a manufacturing economy. It led to transitions from human to mechanical power and from wood to metal construction. Population shifts resulted from…

Read More

Apollo astronauts who ventured outside of the protective confines of their pressurized capsules faced a number of hazards, among them: exposure to cosmic debris, solar radiation, and surface temperatures that widely varied. The suit also needed to accommodate a wide range of motion to allow the…

Read More

A drive system that keeps the antenna pointed with millimeter precision regardless of factors such as environmental change

 

The Arecibo…

Read More

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

Please support America's only magazine of the history of engineering and innovation, and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to Invention & Technology.

Donate

Stay informed - subscribe to our newsletter.
The subscriber's email address.