This year, though, Vickie did me one better. The book I received was all about the history, politics, and routing of the Lincoln Highway. What is the Lincoln Highway, you may be asking? (more likely you're asking when is the last time I had a CAT scan). Well, we must go back about 110 years, when automobiles were still in their infancy. How infantile? If you put it in terms of computer operating systems, today we are in Windows 10, but 110 years ago it was MS-DOS with no mouse!
In that time, the concept of paved roads was also a novelty. Many still rode the train or a horse or a bicycle or just plain walked. Yet, the car was catching on and there was a huge interest to construct a road, or at least connect a lot of different roads, often dirt, into a continuous highway stretching all across the nation. One of the nabobs in charge of all this was in favor of naming this loose path the Lincoln Highway in honor of the senior member of the Mod Squad.....no, I mean Abraham Lincoln of course, a much revered Prez in the early 20th century before the millenial weenie roast began.\
The highway began in New York City, then into New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and finally California. Some brave people dared to travel the entire length, including etiquette center square Emily Post! Now, people must consider that the MS DOS cars of the 1910s didn't go that fast...in fact what we consider slow, inthis case below 40 miles per hour, was actually fast in those days! On top of that, these hardy travelers spent a lot of time digging their cars out of mud, waiting for the car to cool down after crossing railroad tracks (very rough back then) and other little mishaps. A trip across the nation could take over a month!
With time, however, along with rough maps, painted concerete markers, and other public relations guides, the Lincoln Highway emerged as something really special. Towns rallied to have the highway go through their bailiwick and if it didn't, they had a wily coyote put up misleading road signs telling them to come their way instead of staying on the Lincoln! No, just kidding about the coyote, but towns anxious for new tourist business went to great lengths to divert drivers.
Another concept one can thank the Lincoln Highway for is motels! Back then, as motor roads were still new, there was nothing in the way of stopping over someplace for the night. At first, there were motor 'parks' cleared out...which meant you slept in the car or you camped out among the wildlife. Many of these camps were on public land, which meant they were often left trashed. Private businesses were set up where one paid a small fee, often around 50 cents, to stay in a newly built cabin. From there the motel concept grew.
Other rough highways came about in this time, such as the Midland Trail, National Trail, Victory Highway, and others, all vying for a piece of the transcontinental voyage action.
In 1925, the Federal Government established numbered highways to better organize the loose collection of named roads. While the Lincoln Highway was still intact, even improved in many areas as time went on, the numbered system confused drivers. Much of the Lincoln between Pennsylvania and Wyoming was on U.S. route 30. While that was all fine and good, the Lincoln's western terminus was in San Francisco, while highway 30 jogged north in western Wyoming, then cut across Idaho and Oregon to end in Astoria, Oregon. You can see how people assumed the Lincoln took them to Oregon as a result!
The book I got the pleasure to read recounted in great detail exactly where the Lincoln was...and is! It can still be driven on a majority of its original routing, although freeways in many areas were built right on top of it, therefore lost forever as far as we know. The state by state guide told not only the original routing but also future generation reroutings, often far from the original!
In my current home of Nevada, the Lincoln follows much of U.S. 50, currently labeled as The Loneliest Highway between Ely and Fernley (almost 300 miles!). In my home state of Pennsylvania, U.S. 30 (before it was upgraded to freeway and bypassed many towns on the eastern half) carried the Lincoln through classic PA Dutch farmlands. Luckily, the old routing is quite driveable if you have the right guide. Between York and Irwin, U.S.30 stays true to the routing for the most part. When I lived in California, I drove on most of the Lincoln between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, though some side streets in the Sacramento area carries the true road.
Over time, the Lincoln would be superceded in fame by Route 66, another highway ruined by progress and freeways. Both roads have their place in history, though. This is where that wonderful DeLorean, or at the very least a 74 Pinto, could take me back through time to experience how it was, though I am pretty sure that even in the 1930s and 40s it wasn't all that rosy like I want to imagine things were.
Now if you don't mind, Ross is interested in Rachel...again!
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