Nowadays, traveling is not only a favored hobby, but a necessity, too, for some people, who can probably no longer remember their life without it. But whether it’s vacation time or a business trip, they have plenty of options to choose from to get themselves from point A to point B. Even if the destination is on the other end of the world, they can get there in roughly a day, which was once a thing difficult to imagine.
Clearly, many things seemed impossible at a certain point in time; but, thanks to the development in technology and engineering, quite a few have become reality. If you’re curious to take a step back in time and see what travel looked like back in the 19-20th centuries, you’re in luck, as today we’re focusing on the period between 1830-1955.
On the list below you will find some fascinating pictures, as shared by the ‘Golden Age Of Travel 1830-1955’ Facebook group that depict everything from the first subway ride in New York, to German monorails, and much more. So wait no longer, scroll down to browse them and make sure to upvote your favorites!
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Norway was, in addition to Australia, Austria and South Africa, one of the countries where Coca Cola was introduced in that year. (Neighboring country Sweden had to wait until 1953.) My partial colorization of Anders B. Wilse´s photo in the Norsk Folkemuseum archive
Image credits: Frank Hellsten
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Planes were so loud back in the day that the cabin crew had to use megaphones so the passengers could hear them. Flights from the UK to Australia took 11 days. The plane could drop 100’s of feet randomly thus motion sickness bowls were placed beneath the seats.
Image credits: Elisa Elena Jiménez Emán
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hese “åttring” boats with four (sometimes five) pairs of oars represent a continuous boat building tradition from the pre-Viking Age.
My restoration and digital hand colorization of Anders Beer Wilse´s
photo in the Norsk Folkemuseum archive.
Image credits: Frank Hellsten
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Investors believed airships would soon be used for cross-Atlantic travel, and the building’s top seemed perfect for docking.
The plan was for airships to land at the top, secure quickly, and let passengers walk into the building’s top floor. Then, they could take an elevator down to Manhattan, arriving within seven minutes of landing. A docking mast was even built on the building.
However, engineers couldn’t figure out how to safely dock an airship on a 1,250-foot building with strong winds. Airship companies considered the idea too risky, and interest waned. Still, a private blimp did dock for three minutes in September 1931, causing traffic jams below, but no unloading occurred.
The era of cross-Atlantic airships ended with the 1937 Hindenburg disaster, when the world’s largest airship caught fire while landing in New Jersey.
Image credits: Ciarra Tavares-Girsback
Image credits: Vellore Eruthukattu
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The vehicle was powered by two supercharged Napier Lion VIID (WD) W-12 aircraft engines. These engines were the gift of Marion ‘Joe’ Carstairs, who had previously used them in her powerboat Estelle V. Coupled together, these two engines made 2,700 hp (2,013 kW) @ 3,600 rpm, and 3,939 lbft (5,341 Nm) torque.
With the huge powers thus available, the limitation was in finding a transmission and tyres that could cope. Reid Railton found a simple and ingenious solution to this by simply splitting the drive from each engine to a separate axle, giving four wheel drive.
The vehicle weighed over 3 tonnes and was 28 ft 8 in (8.74 m) long, 8 ft (2.4 m) wide and 4 ft 3 in (1.30 m) high. The front wheels were 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) apart and the rear 3 ft 6 in (1.07 m). The National Physical Laboratory’s wind tunnel was used for testing models of the body
On 16 September 1947, the wind had picked up considerably and the course was still less than ideal, but the car was ready. Cobb decided to make a record attempt.
Setting off to the south, Cobb shifted into second gear at around 120 mph (193 km/h) and hit third at around 250 mph (402 km/h). The Railton shot through the measured mile (1.6 km) at 385.645 mph (620.635 km/h).
The tires were changed and fluids refilled. On the run north, Cobb covered the mile (1.6 km) at 403.136 mph (648.785 km/h). The two-way average of the runs was a new LSR at 394.197 mph (634.399 km/h).
And so it was that a 47-year-old man in a 10-year-old car with 20-year-old engines established a new Land Speed Record
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Following the 1928 St. Francis Dam failure, the Mulholland Dam was reinforced with tons of dirt on the downstream side as a precautionary measure. Later studies confirmed that the St. Francis Dam disaster was due to geological instability, not a design flaw
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