Forgotten Lands, Places and Transit

As urban development continues to expand, the natural habitats of wildlife are increasingly fragmented by roads and highways. This is not a new phenomena, but there are innovative ways that planners and traffic engineers are working to mitigate these harms, which we should note, not only endanger animals but also poses significant risks to drivers. Wildlife crossings, such as bridges and tunnels designed specifically for animals, offer a promising solution to these challenges. The Wyoming Department of Transportation partnered with the state wildlife agency and nonprofit groups to create a series of wildlife crossings, a concept lauded by environmentalists and transportation officials alike. (Image via Patch ) Simply put, wildlife crossings are structures that allow animals to safely cross over or under roadways. These can take the form of overpasses, underpasses, tunnels, and viaducts , often covered with vegetation to blend into the natural landscape. The idea is to provide a safe pa...

As  the third word in our name implies, we are just as interested in highway infrastructure as abandoned railways, yet we have never tried to make a map of abandoned highways. The reason for this is simple; roads are very rarely abandoned in their entirety.  Take Route 66 for example, much of the original route is still able to be traversed today, and plenty of what is not is simply used for local connections. It's why we likened the current state to the Ship of Theseus . Whereas the longest abandoned railroad is hundreds of miles long (depending on how you define what is the longest, each one is still over 100 miles), the longest stretch of abandoned highway I can think of offhand is the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike , about 12 miles in length (ironically, owing its existence to the never-completed South Pennsylvania Railroad ) Laurel Hill Tunnel in 1942 , part of the abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike. Arthur Rothstein photo, US Library of Congress. It's been too difficult t...

The Overseas Railroad spanned over 156 miles and connected mainland Florida to Key West, a chain of islands at the southernmost tip of the state in an absolute marvel of engineering. The railroad was constructed in the early 1900s by the  Florida East Coast Railway  (FEC) and was completed in 1912, after years of grueling labor and numerous setbacks. ( Right of way ) A vintage FEC Postcard showing the Overseas Railroad  at Long Key Viaduct. Palm Beach Florida Weekly The idea for the Overseas Railroad was conceived by  Henry Flagler , a businessman and entrepreneur who was instrumental in developing Florida’s tourism industry. Flagler recognized the potential of the Florida Keys as a tourist destination and saw the need for a reliable transportation system to connect the mainland to the islands. THE  HAVANA SPECIAL  EXPRESS crossing the two-and-a-half miles stretch of Long Key Viaduct on the way to Key West. (Mikes Railroad History) The FEC Key West Extensio...

The Ship of Theseus is a classic philosophical thought experiment that asks whether an object that has had all of its parts replaced over time is still fundamentally the same object.  The problem takes its name from the ship that Theseus, a legendary Greek hero, used to sail to Crete to slay the Minotaur. Bing AI Image The story goes that after returning to Athens, Theseus' ship was preserved by the Athenians, who gradually replaced all of its parts as they decayed over time. The question then arises: if all of the parts of the ship have been replaced, is it still the same ship? Or is it a new ship altogether? The Ship of Theseus problem has puzzled philosophers for centuries and raises fundamental questions about the nature of identity and change. Is identity based on the object's material composition or on its function? If all of an object's parts are replaced, does it lose its identity and become a new object? These questions have real-world implications beyond philosop...

I once read a story sent through an email chain which I've seen pop up every now and again, which asserts the fact that two horses standing side by side are roughly 5 feet apart is the reason that is the standard gauge of railroad tracks is 4'8 1/2". Created with Bing AI It isn't true , or at the very least there's far more that can be said on how standard gauge came into being. For example, the Southern Railway had a 5' gauge originally . I found this from a Trains forum posts which is one of a few of these stories to go around. I apologize in advance for the rough editing. Railroad gauge     Fascinating Stuff . . .   Railroad Tracks   The U.S. Standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches.   That's an exceedingly odd number. Why was that gauge used?   Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates designed the U.S. Railroads.   Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail l...

Much like the Interstate Highway System , there exist in the United States some head-scratching US Highways and alignments that make you question how and, more importantly, why, these routes continue to exist.  The US Highway System predates the Interstate Highway System by about 30 years, and as such, there were some routes that were eliminated, consolidated, or supplanted by the new Interstate System. The website US Ends tracks the changes and eliminations in US Highways quite well, and we use them a lot for research when discussing US Highways.  AASHTO even went as far to enact policy to remove all US Highways that are less than 300 miles in length unless they exist in more than one state. Interestingly, there exist numerous routes, some on this list and some outside of it, that just enter a second state so that the policy above would not apply. Wherever there is a loophole, it will be exploited I suppose. However, some routes fit neither of these criteria, and nonetheles...