America's Highways 1776–1976: A History of the Federal-Aid Program/Part 1/Chapter 6

by Federal Highway Administration

 

Layout 2

Dawn
of
the
Motor Age

The Early Automobiles
In 1900 there were about 8,000 automobiles in the United States, practically all concentrated in the major cities.^[1] Probably half of these were electric-motor driven, silent and dependable, but limited by their lead-acid batteries to an operating radius of 25 to 30 miles. Since dependable pneumatic tires did not become available until 1897, practically all of these electrics ran on solid rubber tires, and most of them were European-made.

In the late 1890's, the Stanley brothers of Newton, Massachusetts, perfected the European steam car into a reliable American vehicle with a greater driving range than the electric. By 1900 their steamers had driven the European models from the American market and two factories were producing cars under the Stanley patents.^[2]

Karl Friedrich Benz of Mannheim, Germany, built the first reliable internal combustion engine automobile—a three-wheeler—in 1885. This extraordinary vehicle had electric ignition, water cooling system, a differential gear and surface carburetor—all Benz inventions. Later Benz invented the fixed front axle with steerable stub axles and in 1899 the gear box for changing speeds.^[3] In 1893 he exhibited a four-wheel vehicle which incorporated most of these advanced mechanical ideas at the Chicago World Fair. This machine, which incorporated in rudimentary form, practically all of the essential features of the modern automobile, was the inspiration for many others produced by American inventors in the following decade.

The total production of TJ.S.-made automobiles for the year 1900 was 4,192 machines, of which 1,575 were electrics, 1,681 were steamers and 936 were gasoline engine-driven.^[4][5] These, along with the European imports, were individually handcrafted and correspondingly expensive, costing from $3,000 to $12,000 each at a time when industrial and farm laborers were paid $1 for a 10-hour day.

Auto Manufacturers Tap Mass Market
These early automobiles were large, heavy and clumsy, partly from a paucity of engineering knowledge on how to compute the stresses in their various parts and partly from lack of strong light materials for their manufacture. About 1906 vanadium alloy steel, developed in Europe, became available in the United States, and by using it and other alloys, Henry Ford of Detroit, Michigan, was able to redesign his big, heavy touring car into a much lighter and smaller vehicle—the famous Model T. At the same time, he tooled up to mass-produce components for this one vehicle and designed a moving assembly line on which to put the components together into cars.^{[N 1]}

An early American automobile built around 1898.

An early American automobile built around 1898.

By thus redesigning the vehicle and standardizing the production process, Ford was able to increase production from 1,599 units in 1905 to 8,729 units in 1906 and 14,887 units in 1907, at the same time reducing prices. These lower prices, in turn, opened the door to a huge mass market. As sales increased, Ford was able to realize further economies of scale in manufacturing, and still further reductions in cost, until by 1917 he was selling cars for less than $600 apiece.^[7]

A 1907 Columbia built by the Electric Vehicle Co. in Hartford, Conn. However, this is not an electric car. The auto manufacturers of that period numbered in the thousands, but often a manufacturer built no more than a dozen or so cars.

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1. Henry Ford did not invent mass-production, nor was he the first to apply it to auto making. The French made interchangeable parts for musket locks before 1785, and the Colt Armory at Hartford, Connecticut, was mass-producing firearms before the Civil War.^[6] Ford's contribution was in organizing manufacturing into a smooth coordinated process, eliminating wasted time and effort, and continuously applying technology to increase productivity.

As Ford's competitors adopted his methods in a rush to catch up with him, the automotive industry turned out an ever-increasing flood of vehicles at lower and lower prices.^{[N 1]} To an increasing extent, the owners of these vehicles began using them on the country roads, as well as the city streets, bringing about a rural road crisis that began to be seriously felt by about 1910.

Competitive Auto Racing Spurs Vehicle Development
Some of the pre-1900 autos were used as for-hire cabs in the cities, but most were owned by wealthy people who used them for personal convenience and as pleasure vehicles. In Europe, where there were many miles of smooth macadam roads, road racing by wealthy owner-drivers was a popular sport. Backed by motor car manufacturers and tire makers, road racing eventually became big business there, and contributed a great deal to the rapid improvement of motor design and mechanical reliability, which, in turn, gave Europe undisputed leadership of the motor car industry up to the outbreak of the war in Europe in 1914.

As the Wheelmen had done before them, the American motorists organized themselves into clubs for social enjoyment of their hobby and to protect themselves from restrictive legislation. The Automobile Club of America, one of the oldest of these social clubs, organized a road race, which was run on April 14, 1900, between Springfield and Babylon, Long Island. A 5-horsepower electric car won this 50-mile event in the surprisingly good time of 2 hours 3½ minutes, followed by a steamer (2 hours 18 minutes) and a gasoline car (2 hours 30 minutes).^[9] However, road racing never became popular in the United States, partly because of hostile laws, but mostly for lack of sufficient mileage of reasonably motor able roads.^{[N 2]}

“Toot ‘n’ be darned.” A common problem when horsedrawn vehicles and automobiles mixed on narrow roads.

“Toot ‘n’ be darned.’ A common problem when horsedrawn vehicles and automobiles mixed on narrow roads.

Harry Grant driving a 60-hp Berliet at Lowell, Mass, Sept. 7, 1908. Grant came in second.

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1. Annual production of U.S.-made motor vehicles was 25,000 in 1905, 187,000 in 1910 and 969,930 in 1915.^[8] The average new motor vehicle price in the United States in 1916 was about $605.
2. In 1906 a group of racing enthusiasts, headed by William K. Vanderbilt, Jr., organized the Long Island Motor Parkway Company, which built a motor road on private right-of-way as a race course for the Vanderbilt Cup. The first unit of this parkway, opened October 10, 1908, was 11 miles long, paved with reinforced concrete, and was one of the first roads in the world to have superelevated or banked curves. When completed in 1910, this road was 45 miles long, and when not used for racing, it was opened to pleasure vehicles as a toll road.^[10][11] The European counterpart of the Long Island Motor Parkway was the Avus, begun in 1913 but not completed until 1919. This was a divided highway 6 miles long laid out on an absolutely straight line from Charlottenburg to Berlin, Germany, with no grade crossings and limited access to the traffic lanes.^[12] In 1909 Carl G. Fisher built a 2½-mile oval racing speedway at Indianapolis, Indiana.^[13]

The Automobile Ventures Into the Country
In the early 1900’s a motor trip for any considerable distance into the country was an uncertain undertaking. To run out of fuel was disastrous and might entail a walk of several miles to the nearest hardware or paint store. Mechanical service was practically unobtainable; blowouts and tire punctures were frequent and not easy to repair. Dust was a major nuisance in dry weather. Most embarrassing of all, there were no comfort stations, and tourists were dependent on private kindness or the more secluded portions of the right-of-way for sanitary accommodations.

The automobile, to the dismay of road officials, was unexpectedly damaging to macadam and gravel roads. According to Director Page:

. . . The driving wheels of motor cars moving at high rates of speed exert a powerful tractive force on the road surface, which displaces the materials composing the surface. The result is that the finer particles and dust are thrown into the air to be carried off by cross currents of air. The rubber tire of the automobile does not wear any appreciable amount of dust from the rock fragments, and consequently, the loss of rock dust is a permanent loss to the road. Under these conditions, the road soon ravels, making travel difficult and allowing water to make its way to the earth subgrade or foundation.^[14]

The initial reaction to this destruction of the rural roads was a clamor to bar automobiles from the highways or severely limit their speed. Fortunately, calmer counsels prevailed, and some observers, such as the editor of American Highways magazine, actually viewed dusting as a blessing in disguise:

. . . However, the motors are unquestionably here to stay and are going to play an important and very useful part in the lives of coming generations, and instead of trying to bar them off the roadways or misusing their owners, highway commissioners should attack the problems they present and should solve them as they have former problems. It is rather fortunate than otherwise that the motors have appeared on the scene before road-building in the better sense engaged public attention. Had their advent been postponed until the country had built up a complete system of roads a tremendous expense would have been incurred for tearing up the old material and relaying it.^[15]

It was, perhaps, inevitable that the early motorists should come into conflict with the farmers. Despite the fact that most surfaced rural roads built after 1900 had been made possible by State aid, paid for largely by city people or by urban support for county bond issues, many rural residents looked upon the motorists as intruders. This feeling was exacerbated by a minority of the motorists who used the roads for racing, often with mufflers cut out, frightening livestock and teams and raising clouds of dust. Some of the farmers countered by refusing to yield for overtaking, forcing motorists to creep along behind them for miles. It was even alleged that some farmers buried spikes and glass in the roads to puncture tender tires.

This division between farmers and urban motorists affected the solidarity of the Good Eoads Movement, and was not finally resolved until the farmers themselves became motorists along with everyone else, and motoring ceased to be regarded as a rich man’s pastime. The final burying of the hatchet came with the enactment of the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916.

The Problems of Automobile Registration and Regulatory Laws
In the early years of this century, pleasure driving was restricted by a host of State and local laws and ordinances, as well as by the condition of the roads and other hardships. New York was the first State to require registration of motor vehicles, and in 1901, the first year a fee was charged, this State collected nearly $1,000 from its motorists.^[16] The New York law was primarily a measure for legal control rather than for revenue, but in later years New York and other States collected sizable amounts of money in registration fees.^{[N 1]}

As other States began charging registration fees, problems of reciprocity between the States arose to plague motorists. New York, the leader in the registration movement, allowed any vehicle to use its roads, provided that vehicle was registered in its own State, and provided that State granted the same privilege to cars registered in New York. At this time, New York had full reciprocity with 15 other States but not with New Jersey. As a result, thousands of New Yorkers who had summer homes on the Jersey coast had to register their machines for the full year in both States.^[18] A similar relation existed with Massachusetts and 17 other States which did not grant full reciprocity.

Lack of reciprocity was a serious hindrance not only to pleasure travel, but also to interstate commerce which was just beginning to use the roads again after a lapse of 60 years. As the secretary of state of New York said in 1911:

. . . It seems to be a failure to recognize the importance of the automobile, when a tourist is confronted by the necessity of carrying with him on a tour throughout the States the license of each State he enters. . . . The automobile gives opportunities of seeing the country which the people have never had to such an extent before. It leads to many small interesting places which even the railroad with its great facilities has not been able to make sufficiently accessible. It enables the people to know their country better. It brings people into closer contact. Especially is this true of the commercial vehicle. Trips from New York to Philadelphia are very frequent. It surely will not be conducive to the growth of this phase of the industry and to business generally if a merchant in Philadelphia, desiring to carry goods to New York City, will have to have his machine registered in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York and to pay a fee in each State. . . .^[19]

In many States, registration fees were not the only imposts on motor vehicle owners. Some cities and villages required the motorist to pay a “wheel tax” of $10 to $20 per year for the privilege of driving on their streets. A number of States collected a personal property tax on the vehicle in addition to the registration fee.

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1. In the first 10 months of 1911, 35 States collected a total of $3,746,938 in registration fees and operator license fees from 516,977 owners of motor vehicles. The amounts collected ranged from $986 in Utah (442 owners and 51 operators) to 2,975 in New York (81,665 owners and 33,485 operators).^[17]

After he had solved the registration and tax problems, other hazards confronted the motorist when he ventured beyond the limits of his own city. The individual municipalities had their own ordinances regulating speeds, parking, the use of bells, horns and

The Pasear was the name given to a combination of three highways in California: El Camino Real or the Royal Highway; El Camino Sierra or the Mountain Highway; and El Camino Capital or the Capital Highway. These roads form a 1,500-mile scenic circuit from San Francisco to Los Angeles, to Lake Tahoe, and back, to San Francisco. In 1912 the advocates of the Pasear urged that the roads be improved for motor travel in time for the Panama-Pacific Exposition to be held at San Francisco in 1915. These scenes along the El Camino Sierra are a prelude to the rugged beauty to be found on the Pasear.

gongs, the making of unnecessary exhaust noise and the emission of noxious gas, smoke or steam, and they could impose fines for violations. These regulations varied widely from city to city and, especially in the smaller municipalities, were often enforced in a discriminatory way. The operation of “speed traps” by local peace officers was a widespread abuse in rural communities, with the fines going into the local treasury or the pocket of the police justice or magistrate.^{[N 1]}

One of the challenges of the early AAA tours.

One of the challenges of the early AAA tours.

The widespread variations in traffic regulations, and especially in registration requirements, laid a severe burden on motorists and also on automobile manufacturers who regarded them as obstacles to vehicle ownership and the expansion of the market for automobiles. Combating restrictive legislation was a principal reason for the organization of both the American Automobile Association in 1902^{[N 2]} and the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce in 1913.^{[N 3]} These and other organizations backed a bill in the 60th Congress that would have required Federal registration for all vehicles. They also worked diligently to standardize the motor vehicle laws in all the States. Eventually, both goals were achieved without Federal intervention, as shall be seen.

The Motor Pathfinders
Up to 1903 no automobile had crossed the United States under its own power, and most people who knew anything about American roads, especially those of the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains States, thought such a trip impossible. Dr. H. Nelson Jackson, of Burlington, Vermont, thought otherwise, and he burned with the urge to be the first person to travel from coast to coast by motor. On May 23, 1903, he left San Francisco, in secrecy, with his chauffeur Sewell K. Crocker, in a 20-horsepower Winton touring car. Sixty-three days later, the two pathfinders rolled into New York after averaging 90 miles per day in 44 days actual running time, despite terrible weather.^[21]

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1. The speed trap racket was so bad in New York prior to 1910 that the Legislature passed an act that year requiring all fines imposed for violations of the motor vehicle laws to be turned over to the State treasurer. This reduced the fines collected from motorists to a mere trickle.^[20]
2. A number of State and local automobile clubs banded together to form the American Automobile Association, which rapidly became the national voice of the automobile owners and a powerful lobby for good roads.
3. Now the Motor Vehicles Manufacturers Association.

A year after Doctor Jackson’s feat, a group of motor enthusiasts conceived the idea of a mass motor tour or “pilgrimage” from the major eastern cities to the Louisiana Purchase Centennial Exposition in St. Louis. The logistics for such an expedition at this time were formidable. There were no through routes, no reliable road maps, no way of knowing the condition of the roads in advance, no road signs or route markers. Between major cities, getting repairs for a breakdown, or even fuel, was an uncertain business. The promoters of the tour enlisted the aid of the automobile clubs along the way who agreed to select and map the best roads in their areas and mark them with confetti at the critical cross roads so the out-of-State motorists wouldn’t get lost. The trip was planned in 100-mile stages, and each entrant was provided with marked maps showing the assembly points, the selected routes, and points along the way where repairs, fuel, lodging and meals might be obtained. Finally, the promoters persuaded the American Automobile Association (AAA) to supervise the affair through a set of committees.^[22]

Fifteen cars left New York City July 25, 1904. At Albany they were joined by a contingent from New England led by Charles J. Glidden, the most experienced motorist in America, who, with Mrs. Glidden, had already logged 17,782 miles in 17 countries in his English Napier. The tour continued through Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo, South Bend and Chicago to St. Louis, losing a few machines enroute from mechanical failure, but picking up new entrants at the principal cities. Of 108 machines registered for the tour, 70 reached starting points and only 58 of these reached St. Louis. The Boston entrants covered 1,264 miles in 17 days, an average of 70 miles per day of hard driving.^[23] Unlike Dr. Jackson, who had shunned publicity, the St. Louis World Fair Motor Caravan carried reporters from the Nation’s principal newspapers and was attended by enormous ballyhoo, which focused on the execrable condition of most of the roads encountered by the hardy pathfinders.

Upon arrival in St. Louis, Charles Glidden announced that he was presenting a trophy to the American Automobile Association on which would be engraved the name of the owner-driver of the car making the best record on a carefully organized long distance tour such as the one just completed. This reliability contest would be an annual affair, supervised by the AAA, which would draw up the rules for the contest and retain ownership of the trophy.

The first Glidden Tour of 34 participants left New York City July 11, 1905, on an 870-mile junket through New England. Thereafter, the Tour was held annually until 1910.^[24]

The Ohio Mud Hen during a cross country trip in 1911 about to cross the Gila River in Arizona with the aid of a couple of mules.

The Pioneer Freighter bridging a swampy area on the north side of the White Mountains in Arizona.

The Jackson-Crocker transcontinental trip had been a daring stunt, like crossing the Atlantic in a rowboat, with no underlying purpose other than to show that it could be done. The St. Louis tour was a similar challenge on a larger scale. The competition for the Glidden Cup, however, had a more serious objective—to focus national attention on the difficulty of traveling any considerable distance on the common roads—and it was remarkably effective in meeting this objective. The Glidden Tours showed conclusively that motor cars were mechanically capable of traveling long distances if the roads were reasonably good, and they fueled a rising demand from motorists for motorable long-distance roads, even a coast-to-coast highway.^{[N 1]} Many people thought the States and counties would never be able to provide such highways, and they seriously advocated that the Federal Government build and operate national highways.

The Pioneer Freighter, a gasoline-powered motor truck made by the Saurer Motor Car Company, made two memorable cross country trips in 1911. This 37 horsepower vehicle weighed 3 tons and carried a load of 3½ tons of lumber for bridging creeks and soft places, plus supplies of fuel and camp equipment. The expedition was in the charge of A. L. Westgard of the Touring Club of America, who had also been commissioned a Special Agent of the Office of Public Roads by Director Page.

The first trip of the Pioneer Freighter began March 4, 1911, at Denver, Colorado, and proceeded via Santa Fe and Phoenix to Los Angeles. This trip traversed 1,450 miles in 66 days, of which 53 days were consumed in actual travel. The average speed was 3.26 miles per hour—about as fast as a man could walk. The machine was shipped to Pueblo, Colorado, by rail, leaving there under its own power June 12, 1911, and ending in New York City in July 1911. The full significance of these trips would be felt a few years later, when the United States began mobilizing for World War I.^[26]

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1. In 1907 a group of promoters proposed a toll road from New York to Boston to be built on a 150-foot fenced right-of-way with two one-way 25-foot roadways and entrances every 6 or 7 miles. They estimated that traffic would be 250 cars per day each way and planned to charge each one a toll of 5 cents per mile.^[25]

The Pioneer Freighter fording a river near Ft. Apache, Ariz.

REFERENCES

1. 1971 Automobile Facts and Figures (Automobile Manufacturers Association, Detroit, 1971) p. 18.
2. C. Borth, Mankind on the Move (Automotive Safety Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1969) p. 171.
3. R. Kirby, S. Withington, A. Darling & F. Kilgrou, Engineering In History (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1956) pp. 406, 407.
4. Supra, note 1, p. 3.
5. A. Rose, Historic American Highways—Public Roads of the Past (American Association of State Highway Officials, Washington, D.C. 1953) p. 102.
6. A. Burstall, A History of Mechanical Engineering (M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, 1965) p. 224.
7. A. Rose, supra, note 5, p. 103.
8. Supra, note 1, p. 3.
9. A. Rose, supra, note 5, pp. 101, 102.
10. Id., p. 106.
11. H. Kelly, Toll Roads, Public Roads, Vol. 12, No. 1, Mar. 1931, p. 4.
12. C. Tunnard & B. Pushkarev, Man-Made America: Chaos or Control? (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1963) p. 163.
13. A. Rose, supra, note 5, p. 103.
14. L. Page, Roads, Paths and Bridges (Sturgis and Walton, Co., New York, 1912) p. 216.
15. Editorial, American Highways, Vol. 2, No. 8, Jan. 1908 (American Highways Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Mich.) p. 239.
16. A. Rose, supra, note 5, p. 102.
17. E. Lazansky, A Model State Motor Vehicle Law, Papers, Addresses and Resolutions Before the American Road Congress (Richmond, Va., Nov. 1911), (Waverly Press, Baltimore, 1912) p. 151.
18. Id., pp. 153, 154.
19. Id.
20. Id., p. 157.
21. A. Rose, supra, note 5, pp. 102, 103.
22. C. Borth, supra, note 2, pp. 178–183.
23. Id.
24. A. Rose, supra, note 5, p. 103.
25. Plan Great Auto Boulevard, American Highways, Vol. 1, No. 10, Mar. 1970 (American Highways Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Mich.) pp. 278, 279.
26. A. Rose, supra, note 5, p. 107.