The "Adventures on the Lincoln Highway: Part I" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just got back from Columbia, Pennsylvania after taking some photos to illustrate a story on the many bridges that connected the cities of Wrightsville and Columbia.  On the Columbia side of the bridge is a Pennsylvania Historical Marker that details the road that I was following.  The Lincoln Highway has an interesting history that dates back to the early 1900s.  As I read the sign I realized that 1913 marks the the beginning of this historic roadway.  The Lincoln Highway has been part of my life since I was born.  It runs directly through the center of Lancaster City and was designed to provide the country with it's first coast-to-coast highway, traveling between New York and San Francisco.  As per the highway marker: The highway changed the way people traveled and the landscape of nearby towns.  Industries such as filling stations, tourist cabins, and restaurants sprang up along the highway.  In 1925, much of the route through Pennsylvania became Route 30.  Over the past few Sundays the local newspaper printed a series of stories about the 100th Anniversary of the Lincoln Highway.  Stories were written by a local blogger who submitted them to the newspaper.  I would like to tell you my story of a few of the stops and places found on the Lincoln Highway in my immediate area.  My travels will be limited to a few of the counties that touch Lancaster, my home.  It all began, as it usually does, with an ingenious person who had an idea on how to improve something.  

Carl G. Fisher

Carl G. Fisher manufactured carbide-gas headlights that were used on most of the cars of the era.  He also was one of the builders of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  The importance of good roads would lead to the popularity of automobiles he believed so in 1912 he began promoting his idea of a transcontinental highway. At a meeting with friends in Indianapolis he proposed a rock highway from coast-to-coast that would go through 13 states.  In no time his friends had pledged $1 million.  He wanted the rock highway to be completed by May 1, 1915, in time for the Panama-Pacific International Expo in San Francisco.  Contributors included Edison, former President Theodore Roosevelt and then-current President Wilson.  One notable big name, Henry Ford refused to contribute, since he believed that the government should build the highway.  One of Carl's heroes was Abraham Lincoln and so he chose his name for the highway.  On July 1, 1913, the Lincoln Highway Association was established to create the rock highway from Times Square, NY to Lincoln Park in San Francisco.  It was proposed that the road be toll free so as to attract more motorists.  The first officially recorded length of the entire Lincoln highway in 1913 was 3,389 miles.  About half of the Lincoln Highway was to be previously constructed roadway which would be improved.  

Gas pump sculpture in
Chambersburg, PA.  Pix by
Michael Grass

In Pennsylvania, the highway would follow the 62-mile Philadelphia to Lancaster Pike, the first extensive turnpike in the United States that was completed in 1796, and a British military trail built in 1758 from Chambersburg to Pittsburgh during the French and Indian War.  In the West the Lincoln highway used sections of the Mormon Trail as well as the route of the Overland Stage Line and the Pony Express.  As motorists entered California they would cross the Sierra Nevada through the Donner Pass.  During the early years of the Lincoln Highway, a trip from the Atlantic to the Pacific took 20 to 30 days at an average speed of 18 miles an hour.  Eventually route numbers were assigned to roadways in the U.S. and the Lincoln Highway was assigned U.S. Route 30.  Today the Lincoln Highway still exists, but with many bypasses around densely populated areas.  My trip today was on the old Lincoln Highway, now currently Route 462 and the resulting story of that trip with photos will appear soon.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  PS - I plan to post several stories in the coming weeks about my adventures on different parts of the Lincoln Highway.  Stay tuned!