1906 - Transportation

Transportation

A 3-day Senate speech on railroad rates in April by the junior senator from Wisconsin Robert M. "Fighting Bob" La Follette elicits the comment from Pennsylvania Railroad president Alexander Johnston Cassatt, "I have for several years believed that the national government, through the Interstate Commerce Commission, ought to be in a position to fix railroad rates." Cassatt dies of heart disease at his Philadelphia home in Rittenhouse Square December 28 at age 67 as revelations come to light about graft among some of his company officials.

The Hepburn Act signed into law by President Roosevelt June 29 extends the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission to cover express companies, sleeping cars, bridges, terminals, and ferries (see Elkins Act, 1903). It gives the ICC authority to change railroad rates it considers unreasonable pending resolution of lawsuits filed by the railroads. Sen. Benjamin R. Tillman, now 58, has been among the bill's strongest supporters.

Chinese engineers complete a railroad from Hankow to a point near Beijing (Peking). Provincial offical Zhang Zhidong (Chang Chih-tung), now 68, proposed construction of the line in 1889 when he was transferred from Hupeh to Hunan.

Mexican engineers complete the $50 million, 190-mile Tehuantepec National Railroad across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec between Salina Cruz and Puerto Mexico, reducing the distance from California to East Coast markets by 4,330 miles and delivery time to 30 days (see transcontinental railroad, 1869; Panama Canal, 1914).

An electrically-powered New York Central locomotive pulls a train out of Grand Central Station September 30, and the Central begins running electrically powered multiple-unit suburban trains in December (see 1903; 1907). Electrifying the tracks beneath Park Avenue not only makes the tunnel to Grand Central safer but also puts an end to the sparks, smoke, and soot that have emanated through grilles to the avenue above.

The first tunnels under the Hudson River come together October 6 to permit commuter trains to operate between Hoboken, N.J., and Morton Street in New York's Greenwich Village (see 1904). Two single-track tubes, each more than a mile long, connect Jersey City with Manhattan (see 1908; Penn Station, 1910).

A trolley tunnel financed by August Belmont II opens in December under the East River to link Bowling Green with Brooklyn's Joralemon Street and reduce the need for ferries.

Tugboat mogul Capt. Michael Moran dies at his Brooklyn, N.Y., home June 28 at age 72, having started his fleet in 1863 by buying a half interest in the 42-ton, 60-foot tugboat Ida Miller. The military used some Moran tugboats in 1898 as dispatch runners between Florida and the U.S. fleet off Cuba. Moran's family business will become the largest of the Port of New York's towing companies.

The U.S. War Department begins excavation of the Panama Canal (see 1903; 1914; medicine, 1904; Goethals, 1907).

Rolls-Royce, Ltd., is incorporated March 16 by English balloonist and motoring enthusiast Charles Stewart Rolls, 29, son of Lord Llangattock, and automaker (Frederick) Henry Royce, 43, who has produced an almost silent-running motorcar with a six-cylinder engine that produces from 40 to 50 horsepower. Royce introduced the machine in April 1904 and C. S. Rolls and Co. has sold the F. H. Royce and Co. car on an exclusive basis for nearly 2 years; it has nickel-plated brightwork, and Rolls executive Claude Johnson dubs it the Silver Ghost. He demonstrates its durability with a test, and he promotes it with the slogan, "The Best Car in the World." The new firm will move from Manchester to Derby in 1908, and it will discontinue all previous models to concentrate on the Silver Ghost, a machine that has been driven "14,371 miles nonstop," has proved that a gasoline-powered car can run as smoothly as a steam-driven car, and will remain in production for 19 years while Rolls-Royce, Ltd., develops a reputation for making the world's most luxurious motorcars.

England's Rover Co. produces a six-horsepower four-wheel motorcar in a new factory at Longbridge on the outskirts of Birmingham (see 1904). The plant will continue to turn out cars for more than 90 years as Rovers develop a reputation for reliability that will make them popular with physicians and police departments (see Land-Rover, 1948).

A Stanley Steamer reaches a speed of 127.7 miles per hour at Ormond Beach, Florida, but its quiet, non-polluting external combustion engine requires a 30-minute warm-up and must take on fresh water every 20 miles (see 1899).

W. C. Durant's Buick Co. produces 2,295 motorcars, up from no more than 28 in 1904 (see 1905; General Motors, 1908).

The North American Review reports that more Americans have been killed by motorcars in 5 months than died in the Spanish-American War.

Princeton University president (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, 49, says of the motorcar, "Nothing has spread socialistic feeling in this country more than the use of the automobile. To the countryman, they are a picture of the arrogance of wealth, with all its independence and carelessness" (but see 1909).

The Mack truck is introduced by former Brooklyn, N.Y., wagon builders John, William, and Augustus Mack, who have moved to Allentown, Pa., and produced a 10-ton vehicle of considerable power that begins a reputation for "built like a Mack truck" bulldog stamina.

Aviation pioneer John J. Montgomery receives a patent September 18 for improvements to "aeroplanes," including "parabolically" curved (cambered) wings (see 1883). Now 48, Montgomery made highly publicized flights early last year and has sold the U.S. government on using his wings for Wright-built aircraft.

The first aircraft to take off under its own power and fly an appreciable distance taxis for 100 meters across a field at Bagatelle, outside Paris, October 23 and lifts off, flying a few meters above the ground for 60 meters in 7 seconds to win the 3,000-franc Archdeacon prize put up by the Aero-Club de France founded in 1898. Aviation pioneer Alberto Santos-Dumont has failed in a July attempt to fly a heavier-than-air craft (see 1903), but he achieved some success September 7 when the wheels of his 14-BIS lifted off for a moment at Bagatele in Paris, he reached a height of one meter there September 13, and on November 12 he travels 220 meters in 21 seconds at a height of six meters flying a machine of his own design that resembles a box kite. Santos-Dumont has solved the problem of making a heavier-than-air machine take off by its own means and establishes the world's first aviation record, achieving a feat that the Wright brothers have not yet accomplished.