Title

American road : the story of an epic transcontinental journey at the dawn of the motor age

Description

The story of the First Transcontinental Motor Train, an expedition of "eighty-one vehicles and nearly three hundred men" from the White House in Washington, D.C. to San Francisco in 1919.

Identifier

1075439

080506883X

Creator

Davies, Pete

Format

1st ed.

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

2002

Program air date: September 29, 2002

Publisher

H. Holt

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Notes on front endpapers state that 6 of the 81 vehicles didn't finish the journey; that 230 accidents occurred during the trip. It is estimated that over 3 million people saw the convoy in 325 communities. Several marriages took place along the way. Kearney, Nebraska, is identified as the mid-point of the journey - 1733 miles to Boston and to San Francisco. -- These questions and statements are included in the notes: "How much trouble did vehicles have?" - "Worst roads?" - "How long were their days?" - Where was the Transcontinental Railroad?" - "When was the car invented?" - "How many towns were made because of Lincoln Highway?" - "When was it names Lincoln Highway?" - "Why is there still a Lincoln Highway Association?" - "Nation already had 500,000 trucks on the road." - "Soldiers would tell people that [the] roads in [the] last state were the worst." - "Earl Thomas steals car to go home." -- Annotations by Brian Lamb in the margins and underlining of pertinent phrases throughout the book. -- Examples: p. 196: "Fifty-seven days after leaving the White House, they'd finally reached California." -- p. 214: "Thirty-seven years later, President Eisenhower signed into law the biggest civil-engineering project in the history of the world: the building of the interstate system."

Subject

"Overland journeys to the Pacific."

"Automobile travel--United States--History--20th century."

"Travelers--United States--Biography."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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