1938 - Transportation

Transportation

The new Pickwick Landing Dam on the Tennessee River creates a reservoir that extends into northwest Alabama and deepens the Muscle Shoals section of the river that was impassable to barge traffic before construction of the Wilson Dam in 1927.

A Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) created by act of Congress June 23 moves to regulate the growing U.S. aviation industry. Appointed to head the new authority is former Life Savers candy maker Edward J. Noble, now 56.

Howard Hughes sets a new round-the-world speed record July 15, flying a twin-engine Lockheed plane from California to California in 3 days, 19 hours, 14 minutes, 28 seconds. Now 32, Hughes has $3 million per year in Hughes Tool Co. profits to finance his flying exploits and Hollywood film making (see energy, 1908; Post, 1931; Odum, 1947; TWA, 1939).

"Wrong-Way" Corrigan makes headlines July 19. Douglas G. (Gorce) Corrigan, 31, has flown nonstop from Los Angeles to New York July 10 and took off in his 1929 $900 Curtiss Robin July 16, presumably on a return flight. When he lands at Dublin after a 28-hour, 13-minute flight he insists that he intended to fly west but had compass trouble. Authorities say that his flight and landing were illegal, but Corrigan is lionized.

Eastern Airlines is created out of North American Aviation's Eastern Air Transport by World War flying ace E. V. "Eddie" Rickenbacker, who buys into North American with substantial backing from Standard Oil heir and venture capitalist Laurance S. (Spelman) Rockefeller, 28, who last year inherited his grandfather's seat on the New York Stock Exchange, has learned to fly, and is an aviation enthusiast (see North American, 1933). Now 48, Rickenbacker has worked in the auto industry and for several aircraft and airline companies; he will make Eastern a hugely profitable carrier, obtaining routes up and down the East Coast and to Mexico and the Caribbean; Eastern will continue operations until 1991.

Douglas Aircraft has sales of $28.4 million as its DC-3 gains popularity. The company solicits orders for a new four-engine DC-4, but Boeing goes into production with a four-engine 307 that challenges Douglas for leadership in commercial aircraft (see B-17, 1935; TWA, 1940).

El Capitán goes into service February 22 for the Santa Fe between Chicago and Los Angeles. The new once-a-week all-coach express has two chair cars, a baggage-dormitory coach, lunch-counter/tavern car, and chair observation car, carries 192 passengers, and operates on the same schedule as the Super Chief (see 1936).

The San Diegan goes into service March 27 for the Santa Fe. The new express goes between Los Angeles and San Diego in 2½ hours and makes two round-trip runs per day.

The New York Central introduces a streamlined version of its 36-year-old Twentieth Century Limited June 15, and the Pennsylvania Railroad introduces a streamlined version of its Broadway Limited the same day. Henry Dreyfuss has designed the Central's train, Raymond Loewy the Pennsy's.

U.S. railroads struggle to cope with the decline in freight as the Great Depression continues to take its toll: by year's end companies that control 77,500 track miles (one-third of the total) are in receivership.

General Motors joins with Standard Oil of California to organize Pacific Coast Lines, a firm that will convert West Coast electric street railways into motorbus lines (see 1932; 1939).

New York's 60-year-old Sixth Avenue El ceases operations December 4 after the last northbound train from Rector Street arrives at 53rd Street and Eighth Avenue. Ridership has declined sharply during the Depression, Mayor La Guardia wants the elevated train structures removed to increase property values along their rights of way, and demolition will begin next year (see 1940).

Golden Gate Bridge builder Joseph B. Strauss dies at Los Angeles May 16 at age 68.

The Florida Overseas Highway extends U.S. Route 1 by 180 miles and brings Key West to within 5 hours' driving distance of Miami. The new road that opens July 4 employs spans built by Henry Flagler for his Florida East Coast Railway of 1912, which was repaired after the hurricane of 1926 but completely wiped out by the hurricane of 1935. Bulldozers and power shovels have reduced the cost of moving earth to 21 cents per cubic yard, down from 40 cents in 1922.

The Wantagh State Parkway Extension opens on Long Island December 17—3 months ahead of schedule. Robert Moses boasts in a brochure distributed at the ribbon-cutting ceremony that in less than 15 years the metropolitan area transportation system has been augmented by an arterial system that includes 110 miles of new parkway in New York City and on Long Island, three major bridges (Triborough, Henry Hudson, and Marine Parkway), and 191 grade-eliminating bridges, but the growth of automobile ownership, even in a time of economic depression, has made Moses's "arterial system" inadequate despite all the new construction.

The Volkswagen is assembled by hand in Nazi Germany and the cornerstone for a Volkswagen factory dedicated May 26 at Wolfsburg on the Mittelland Canal 40 miles east of Hanover in Lower Saxony. Ferdinand Porsche, now 63, has designed the low-cost vehicle with a rear-mounted engine on commission from Adolf Hitler, who said in 1934 that his regime would support development of the "people's car" as part of its Strength through Joy program, specifying that it should be able to go 62 miles (100 kilometers) per hour, travel 33 miles per gallon of gasoline, have an easily maintained air-cooled engine, and be able to hold four or five people. A New York Times reporter calls the car a "beetle," which will later be translated into der Käfer (see 1939).

Tire maker Harvey S. Firestone dies at his Miami Beach, Fla., winter home February 7 at age 69; former automaker Charles E. Duryea at Philadelphia September 28 at age 76.

Schwinn Bicycle Co. introduces a spring fork mechanism that gives its bikes improved suspension (see 1933). Founder's son Frank Schwinn now heads the company, whose Black Phantom bike with a spring fork for balloon tires will gain popularity in the late 1940s.