Titanic received six warnings of sea ice on 14 April but was travelling at a speed of roughly 22 knots (41 km/h) when her lookouts sighted the iceberg. Unable to turn quickly enough, the ship suffered a glancing blow that buckled her starboard side and opened six of her sixteen compartments to the sea. Titanic had been designed to stay afloat with up to four of her forward compartments flooded, and the crew used distress flares and radio (wireless) messages to attract help as the passengers were put into lifeboats. In accordance with existing practice, the Titanic's lifeboat system was designed to ferry passengers to nearby rescue vessels, not to hold everyone on board simultaneously; therefore, with the ship sinking rapidly and help still hours away, there was no safe refuge for many of the passengers and crew with only twenty lifeboats, including four collapsible lifeboats. Poor preparation for and management of the evacuation meant many boats were launched before they were completely full. (Full article...)
Image 28A cast iron fishbelly edge rail manufactured by Outram at the Butterley Company for the Cromford and High Peak Railway in 1831; these are smooth edge rails for wheels with flanges. (from Rail transport)
Image 29According to Eurostat and the European Railway Agency, the fatality risk for passengers and occupants on European railways is 28 times lower when compared with car usage (based on data by EU-27 member nations, 2008–2010). (from Rail transport)
Image 30A 16th-century minecart, an early example of unpowered rail transport (from Rail transport)
Image 41The Great North Road near High gate on the approach to London before turnpiking. The highway was deeply rutted and spread onto adjoining land. (from Road transport)
Image 42Modes of road transport in Dublin, 1929 (from Road transport)
Image 55German soldiers in a railway car on the way to the front in August 1914. The message on the car reads Von München über Metz nach Paris ("From Munich via Metz to Paris"). (from Rail transport)
Image 56Bardon Hill box in England (seen here in 2009) is a Midland Railway box dating from 1899, although the original mechanical lever frame has been replaced by electrical switches. (from Rail transport)
Image 57San Diego Trolley over Interstate 8 (from Road transport)
... that a section of Mississippi Highway 489 was designated as the Jason Boyd Memorial Highway to commemorate the MDOT superintendent who was killed while removing debris from the road?
... that when Charles P. Gross became the chairman of the New York City Board of Transportation, the mayor told him that "if you think war is Hell, then you have something waiting for you on this job"?