All Aboard This Quiz on the History of Transportation

The Hansom safety cab was invented by John Hansom and made its debut in 1835. As fast as previous cabs but more stable, the cab allowed the driver to sit in the back and control the horses, while two or three customers rode in between. It became the most popular cab in London and spread to New York and Boston. The safety cab’s reputation lives on through its mentions in Sherlock Holmes stories and other literature of the Victorian era.

Built by zoologist William Beebe and engineer Otis Barton, the bathysphere was a steel sphere with portholes in the side that was suspended by a cable from the side of a boat. Weighing 5,000 pounds with a diameter of 5 feet, it took two explorers to a depth of 1,300 feet during its first launch in 1930. Four years later, it reached 3,000 feet. The bathyscaphe, which was developed in the mid-20th century, has since gone deeper, and is considered safer and more maneuverable.

Invented in Paris by Eugène Meyer in the mid-19th century, penny-farthings were bicycles with very high front wheels. The bike got its name because the size ratio of its wheels resembled large U.K. pennies and farthing coins, which were one-quarter the size of a penny. While penny-farthings were smooth on rough terrain, they had an unfortunate tendency to topple forward.

In 1852, Wells Fargo was created with the goal of bringing delivery and banking services to the new Western settlements. Their stagecoaches brought passengers, gold and silver, and goods all over the territories. The coaches were eventually replaced by trains, and Wells Fargo’s banking and express divisions split in 1905, before the government took over the delivery arm in 1918.

Tempted by a $25,000 prize offered to whoever could make the first nonstop flight between New York and Paris, Charles Lindbergh built the Spirit of St. Louis himself. He took off on May 20, 1927, and arrived in Paris the next day, after 33.5 hours in the air. Others had died making the attempt, so Lindbergh’s successful trip earned him instant fame, and he later won the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In 1843, solicitor Charles Pearson proposed underground trains for London. Parliament discussed the matter for 10 years before finally authorizing the first 3.75 miles of line. The London Underground opened in 1863, and the marvel was an immediate success. Nationalized in 1948, the train system now delivers more than 1 billion annual passengers to 270 stations.

Twin brothers Francis Edgar and Freelan O. Stanley had already invented a new photography method when they built their first steam-powered car in 1897. Two years later, they founded the Stanley Motor Carriage Company, and sold autos with kerosene boilers to make steam. In 1906, the Stanley Rocket set a land speed record. However, steam cars were expensive, and the company was outsold by competition and folded in 1927.

The Orient Express ran luxury trains between Paris and Constantinople (later Istanbul) from 1883 to 1977, with stops in major cities along the way. It featured gourmet dining, salons and drawing rooms, and luxury furnishings. In 1934, it was the setting for Hercule Poirot to solve a mystery in Agatha Christie’s novel “Murder on the Orient Express.” A revived version of the line began in 1982 and still runs today.

There were countless kinds of carriages used for horse travel, but buggies eventually became the most popular form of transportation by the 19th century. Buggies were four-wheeled carriages that often had a top and were pulled by a horse. By the 1870s, they were mass-produced, which also made them affordable. However, by the early 20th century, the automobile’s greater speed allowed it to win out in popularity.

Built after several other great transcontinental railways and never surpassed, the Trans-Siberian Railway begins at Yaroslavsky Station in Moscow and ends 5,776 miles away in Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean. Construction lasted from 1891 to 1916 and involved more than 85,000 people, building what is still the backbone of the world’s largest country’s rail system.

Formed in 1839 to carry mail, Cunard became a top-level shipping line. The steamships carried passengers during the golden age of transatlantic travel in the 1920s and ’30s, under the slogan, "Getting There Is Half the Fun." The company’s rival, White Star, lost a ship in the 1912 Titanic disaster and merged with Cunard in 1934. But by the 1950s, air travel had started seriously eroding the market for ship travel.

Henry Ford started selling cars in 1903 and introduced the Model T in 1908. In 1913, he installed an assembly line to mass-produce cars at his Highland Park plant. This cut the time to make an automobile from 12 hours to 1 hour and 33 minutes. By 1924, a Model T cost $260 (the equivalent of $3,500 today), which made almost every American family a potential Ford customer.

Ancient Roman chariots were two-wheeled vehicles pulled by two to six horses that could reach up to 40 miles per hour. Sportsmen raced them in large amphitheaters, including the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus, which could seat 250,000 spectators. Fandom was intense, and though accidents were common, successful racers could become rich from their prize winnings.

Cable cars were born in San Francisco, when a local named Andrew Smith Hallidie patented the first one in 1861. Loops of metal rope pulled the cars around town, making getting around convenient and easy. While the transport became associated with San Francisco, other American cities had adopted cable car systems by 1890. Many have since abandoned theirs, but for San Francisco, they have remained a point of civic pride.

Venice, an Italian city built on many canals, became a rich maritime power in the Middle Ages. The medieval Venetian Republic used long, flat-bottomed boats called “gondolas” as transportation over its many waterways. Painted black since 1562, they are steered by standing gondoliers, and are one of Venice’s biggest tourist attractions.