MetaFilter posts tagged with transportation and history

Polin' on the River

Miko — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:26:33 -0800

Since 1870, the Hatton Ferry in Hatton, VA, has been helping people and vehicles cross the James River - under pole power [ferry is cable-assisted, and poling starts at 3:42]. Before the nation was connected by a network of bridges, pole barges like this were a common means of transportation across smaller waterways. Hatton Ferry is thought to be the very last working survivor of those thousands of the pole-driven ferries; but today, due to DOT budget constraints, it may go out of existence. I wouldn't have known about this without having received an interesting ListServ email from Dr. Jurretta Jordan Heckscher, Research Specialist, Digital Reference Section of The Library of Congress, who provided many of the news and LOC links. Also, best part of the video is when the raft of tubers drifts along, 12-packs cooling in the water and all.

Hell's Gate and Beyond

Miko — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:00:40 -0800

Maritime New York

Jesus Boots perfected!

skallas — Tue, 03 Aug 2004 09:54:18 -0800

Jesus Boots perfected! NYT: In the last 150 years, Americans have patented about 100 water-walking inventions. The first, in 1858, was by H. R. Rowlands, who lived in Boston, not far from where Mr. Rosen resides, in Newton, Mass. Most of the subsequent patents, Mr. Rosen said, are iterations of that same idea. "Unfortunately," Mr. Rosen observed, "none of them actually work."

NycRoads.Com

PrinceValium — Sun, 15 Jun 2003 01:30:30 -0800

NYCRoads.com is an exhaustive history of the expressways, parkways, and river crossings that shaped metro New York over the last century and a half.