First came the French. A syndicate led by Ferdinand de Lesseps, the diplomat who had led construction of the Suez Canal, began excavating a channel through Central America in 1881.
This 1956 image depicts the world record, long-span, glue-laminated timber arches being assembled for a 3,500-seat jai alai front in West Palm Beach, Fla. The arches had a clear span of 242.5 ft, a rise of 74 ft, and a circumferential length of 294 ft.
This 1956 photo shows the massive inclined ramp, known as the Helix, carrying traffic out from and into the Lincoln Tunnel on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River.
When the U.S. entered World War I in April 1917, the nation had a standing army of only 100,000 troops. Efforts to recruit and train a fighting force 2 million strong and convert the economy to serve the war effort were all-consuming.
This 1958 cover image shows ironworkers atop the Glen Canyon Bridge in Arizona. It was built to transport materials for the construction of Glen Canyon Dam, given the dam’s remote location in a deep sandstone canyon over the Colorado River.
The explanation for the unusual device depicted on this 1942 ENR cover reads: “Developed by Harold Buckley, clearance engineer for the New York Central Railroad, as a means of insuring passage of bulky wartime loads, this ‘Porcupine’ railroad car is now in operation on the company’s lines.
