The Open Road - Second Story Radio

ID: 137 ~ Source: Nebraska State Historic Preservation Office, Nebraska State Historical Society ~ Creator: Second Story Radio - Jackie Sojico ~ Date: 2013
This file appears in: Buffalo County's Lincoln Highway Seedling Mile
https://history.nebraska.gov/collections/rights-and-reproductions

We love road trips in the United States. But it turns out, it took a little while for them to catch on. It wasn’t that we didn’t like cars. Between 1904 and 1910, car ownership went from 55,000 to 500,000. But the first road cross-country road trip didn’t happen until 1913.

The problem wasn’t with drivers. It was with the roads. There weren’t any to get you from one state to another. This is the story of the first highway, and the first time we could take off on the open road.

Thanks to Rosemary Rubin and John Petersen at the Lincoln Highway Association for their help with this story. Thanks to all the drivers who spoke with us in Grand Island for this story!

This file appears in: Buffalo County's Lincoln Highway Seedling Mile

By The Explore Nebraska History team
The Lincoln Highway Association was founded in 1913 to promote a transcontinental automobile route from New York City to San Francisco. Dedicated on October 31, 1913, the route was marked by the…