Iowa Almanac
Iowa Almanac -- Monday, July 01, 2024
The Lincoln Highway. More from the Iowa Almanac in a moment. The 57th Chevrolet is here. Sweet, smooth, and sassy. Your road trips will never be the same, when you're behind the wheel of an American legend. Cam Courageous is giving you the chance to win a 57 Chevy Bel Air Sportgoop. This is the car people turn their heads for. Get your raffle tickets now at camcourageous.org. Learn more and get your raffle tickets now For a chance to glide down the road in a classic 57 Chevy, visit camcourageous.org. Americans have seemingly always wanted to connect our nation from coast to coast. The first explorers traveled westward to find the end of the continent. Then came the railroad and the race to connect east to west. Finally, in the 20th century, with the advent of the automobile, the push was for a highway that spanned across the United States. Carl Fisher was an early auto enthusiast. He was one of the investors in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and built the gas headlights used in early automobiles. He dreamed of a transcontinental highway, and by 1912 began to build on that dream. His theory was that the popularity of automobiles was dependent on having quality roads. So if there were good roads, he thought more people would drive cars. In a short time, he had raised a million dollars in funding for the highway from major contributors including Teddy Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, and then President Woodrow Wilson. On July 1, 1913, the Lincoln Highway Association was created to procure the establishment of a continuous, improved highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, open to lawful traffic of all description without toll charges. Their mission was to get the highway built and then promote it. Ultimately, the highway would run from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, a span of 3,389 miles. In Iowa, the highway ran through Clinton, Belle Plain, Marshall Town, Boone, and Missouri Valley. Soon, highways were numbered instead of named, and the route of the Lincoln Highway essentially became U.S. Highway 30. Thanks to highway changes over time, today's Highway 30 lines up with only a quarter of the original Lincoln Highway. Today, you'll find markers along much of that original route featuring a large L, as well as some unique vestiges such as the Stone Bridge East of Tama that spells out the words "Lincoln Highway" on each side. But the grassroots movement to get Americans excited about a transcontinental highway started with the creation of the Lincoln Highway Association, on this date in 1913. And that's Iowa Almanac for July 1st. There's more online at IowaAlmanac.com. Until tomorrow, I'm Jeff Stein.