31 min listen
The Lost Highway: America's First Cross Country Road
The Lost Highway: America's First Cross Country Road
ratings:
Length:
34 minutes
Released:
Dec 21, 2017
Format:
Podcast episode
Description
In 1900, there were about 8,000 registered automobiles in the United States. They were a genuine novelty. Those that attempted to go on 'road trips' met with a frustrating reality -- there were no drivable roads, no unified road maps, no nation-wide infrastructure of gas stations or amenities. The first automobiles to attempt cross-country travel were essentially UFOs streaking through a sparsely populated and isolated America. This is the story of how that all changed. This is the story of the Lincoln Highway, the first cross-country road in the Untied States, linking Times Square in Manhattan with Lincoln Park in San Francisco via a patchwork of pre-existing roads in twelve states. The Lincoln Highway was developed by automotive executives who wanted to use the cross-country road to promote automobile sales. It accomplished more than that; the Lincoln Highway invented the pleasures and eccentricities of American road travel.
Released:
Dec 21, 2017
Format:
Podcast episode
Titles in the series (25)
The Cow and The Country Boy (The First Vaccine): This is the story of the first vaccine, perhaps one of the greatest inventions in modern human history. Starring -- a country doctor with a love of birds, a milkmaid with translucent skin, an eight-year-old boy with no idea what he's in for and a... by The First: Stories of Inventions and their Consequences