America was made by the railroads. The opening of the Baltimore & Ohio line — the first American railroad — in the 1830s sparked a national revolution in the way that people lived thanks to the speed and convenience of train travel. Promoted by visionaries and built through heroic effort, the American railroad network was bigger in every sense than Europe's, and facilitated everything from long-distance travel to commuting and transporting goods...

Based on exhaustive research and interviews with driving experts and traffic officials around the globe, Traffic gets under the hood of the everyday activity of driving to uncover the surprisingly complex web of physical, psychological, and technical factors that explain how traffic works, why we drive the way we do, and what our driving says about us. Vanderbilt examines the perceptual limits and cognitive underpinnings that make us worse drivers...

"What forms of transportation are used on land? How do ships stay afloat? Which aircraft don't use wings to fly? The Do You Know?(TM) books provide an in-depth look at a wide range of popular subjects"--Provided by publisher.

Readers will learn interesting and historical facts about the New York City Subway, like when it began operation and how it is used today.

From ancient chariots and Viking longships to racing cars, rockets, and solar-powered airplanes, our world has been changed by the pioneering development of many incredible vehicles. Take a journey through time to discover how these 50 groundbreaking inventions changed the world and how they might even shape our future . . .

"A bus driver named Joe heads out on his route, stopping at one bus stop after another to pick up passengers. He picks up five dogs and five cats in all, dropping nine of them off at the plane, train, or boat. The tenth passenger, a dog, Joe takes home"--

"When war broke out in Europe in August 1914, the new German luxury ocean liner SS Vaterland was interned in New York Harbor, where it remained docked for nearly three years--until the United States officially entered the fight to turn the tide of the war. Seized by authorities for the US Navy once war was declared in April 1917, the liner was renamed the USS Leviathan by President Woodrow Wilson, and converted into an armed troop carrier that transported...

Presents over 1,000 vehicles in easy-to-follow graphics, describing key features of each main type of transportation and how they work.

"From the best-selling author of My Weird School: a new entry in the hilarious biography series that casts fresh light on high-interest historic figures. Did you know that Amelia Earhart loved heights so much she built a roller coaster in her backyard? Or that she used to race worms with her sister? Bet you didn't know that she took photographs of garbage cans to pay for flying lessons! Siblings Paige and Turner do-and they've collected some of the...