James Powell and Gordon Danby of Brookhaven received the first patent for a magnetically levitated train design in the late 1960s. The idea came to Powell as he sat in a traffic jam, thinking that there must be a better way to travel on land than cars or traditional trains. He dreamed up the idea of using superconducting magnets to levitate a ...

A magnetically levitated (maglev) train developed by Central Japan Railways Co. operates a test run on May 11, 2010 in Tsuru, Japan. Junko Kimura/Getty Images. The evolution of mass transportation has fundamentally shifted human civilization. In the 1860s, a transcontinental railroad turned the months-long slog across America into a week-long journey. Just a few decades later, passenger ...