United States Department of Transportation
i
Motor Routes to the California Expositions
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2023-06-30
[PDF-427.08 KB]
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Alternative Title:Motor Routes to the California Expositions: Close Analysis of Conditions That Will Be Found on the Four Principal Transcontinental Highways. Most Favorable Season for Undertaking the Trip on Each Route and Equipment Needed
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Abstract:The word pioneer has a flavor of something belonging to "ye olden days," but when applied to the motor car, it might almost be used regarding matters of yesterday. The men who crossed the United States in a motor car only five short years ago encountered conditions to overcome which required a courage and ingenuity not surpassed by that evidenced by the hunters and explorers of nearly a hundred years ago or by the emigrants of fifty years ago who plunged into the west to open up the country for habitation. In the far west, old trading routes, abandoned since the advent of railroads, had to be followed. While these old trails cunningly meandered along the line of least topographical resistance, they were, for the most part, owing to long years of disuse, in a condition which made them practically impassable. The hardships overcome by the first motor car travelers along these paths truly entitled them to have their names inscribed in enduring letters on the tablets of distinguished achievements someday to be erected by those giant Siamese Triplets: The Motor Car Industry, the Good Roads Movement and to adopt that apt French word, Motor Tourism. Indeed, these three mushroom growths, inseparably dovetailed and interdependent, have kept steps in strides which have amazed the entire world. Yesterday we had the rough trails with unbridged streams and ravines, rocky and steep hills, deep sand or perchance mud and slush, poor or no accommodations for man or car, motor cars of crude design and unknown weakness, and, Presto! today, overnight, we have well developed touring routes with fair and fast improving surface condition, bridges and culverts, easy grades, plentiful supplies, and well designed, all-around dependable cars. Verily, life is decidedly worthwhile, after all. Before taking up a detailed description of each of the five transcontinental routes shown on the accompanying map, it might be well to cover with a few general remarks such matters as are common to all of them.
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Content Notes:The original format of this document was an active HTML page(s) located under https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/history.cfm. The Federal Highway Administration converted the HTML page(s) into an Adobe® Acrobat® PDF file to preserve and support reuse of the information it contained. The intellectual content of this PDF is an authentic capture of the original HTML file. Hyperlinks and other functions of the HTML webpage may have been lost, and this version of the content may not fully work with screen reading software; The March 1915 issue of Motor magazine contained an article by A. L. Westgard on "Motor Routes to the California Expositions."
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