1 No other technologica l innovation has so transformed the geography of the United States as the automobile. Landscapes inherited from pre-automobile times have been remade to suit highway-oriented technology, and new landscapes have emerged shaped strictly in its image. The automobile has enabled Americans to act o ut long-established dreams. The motor car has not imposed new values as much as it has reinforced old values. Jakle, 293. Chapter 15: LANDSCAPES REDESIGNED FOR THE AUTOMOBILE, pp.293-310 Automobiles Highways Landscapes: Rural places, the suburbs, inner cit ies, central business districts, commercial strips TODAY MONDAY WEDNESDAY Manufacturing core Manufacturing periphery Finishe d pr oduc t sRawmaterials Urban command node Manufacturing core Manufacturing periphery Finished pr oduc t sRawmaterials The most visible landscape expression of these urban command nodes were the skyscrapers that housed corporate managers and clerical workers based in Detroit Grand Canyon
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No other technological innovationhas so transformed the geographyof the United States as the automobile.Landscapes inherited from pre-automobiletimes have been remade to suithighway-oriented technology, and newlandscapes have emerged shaped strictly
in its image. The automobile has enabledAmericans to act o ut long-establisheddreams. The motor car has not imposed
new values as much as it has reinforced old values. Jakle, 29 3.
Chapter 15: LANDSCAPES REDESIGNED FOR THE AUTOMOBILE,pp.293-310AutomobilesHighwaysLandscapes: Rural places, the suburbs, inner cities, centralbusiness districts, commercial strips
TODAY MONDAYWEDNESDAY
Manufacturing core
Manufacturing periphery
Finished pr oduct s
Raw materials
Urban command node
Manufacturing core
Manufacturing periphery
Finished pr oduct s
Raw materials
The most visible landscape expression of these urban command nodes were
the skyscrapers that housed corporate managers and clerical workers
excellent machine-work andfine mechanical skills in the
labor force), turned to make
Columbia bicycles in 1878.
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1880swww.leavenworthbicycleclub.com/pages/history.html
Annual Meet of theWheelmen, Corry Hill, Boston,June 5 1886
"Bicycling on the Riverside Drive, New York," T. De Thulstrup, Harper's Weekly ."The Eighteenth Annual Meet ofthe L. A. W. - in Front ofHeadquarters, Philadelphia,"W. P. Snyder Coll ier' s Weekly 1897.
1896 Lewiston WA bicycle club. Even though bicycles were expensive at $100-125, bicycle riding was the sport of the day. Organized bicycle clubs enjoyedshort local trips for picnics. Some riders took a 22-mile, four-hour ride. They
Machines for metal forging,stamping, machining, painting,and baking produced parts– 5000 per car –so similar and reliable that fewrequired hand finishing.
Highland Park 80,000 cars in 1912
230,000 cars in 1914
The moving assembly linerevolutionalized manufacturing,but workers hated it. Workersquit in waves.Turnover reached380 percent late in 1913 .
In January 1914, Ford doubledthe average pay of eligibleworkers to five dollars for aneight-hour shift, which solvedthe turnover crisis.
The system of mass productionand high wages enabledworkers to be consumersthemselves.
This led to an immense surge inproductivity!
Henry Ford, 1909
“I will build a motor car for the greatmultitude. It will be large enough forthe individual to run and care for. Itwill be constructed of the bestmaterials, by the best men to behired, after the simplest designs that
modern engineering can devise. But itwill be so low in price that no manmaking a good salary will be unable toown one.”
The first center line on a rural, state highway was paintedbetween Marquette and Ishpeming, Mich., in 1917
But dirt, and muddy, roads were still common in the 1930s
By 1920, only 35,000 miles of rural roads had been paved.
An early Iowa road. Grading was one thing, but stoneor brick, let alone concrete, was another.
1930s
Highways
First concrete highway 1909Named trunk highways (Lincoln, Dixie, Jefferson)
1916 Federal Highway Act makes federal funds available to statesbased on area, population and postal road mileage.
Named trunk h ighways that linked regions (Lincoln, Dixie,Jefferson) were often privately funded.
In 1912, Carl Fisher, who developed the Indianapolis Speedway,thought up the idea of a Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway. Thegraveled road would cost $10m. Communities along the routewould provide the equipment and in return wo uld receivefree materials and a place along America's firsttranscontinental highway.
To be finished in time forthe 1915 Panama-PacificExposition, it would
run from the exposition'shost, San Francisco, toNew York City.
Lincoln Highway,Baywood south ofRobertsville, Ohio
Fisher asked for cash donations from auto manufacturers andaccessory companies of 1 percent of their r evenues.Ford would not support the project: the public would neverlearn to fund good roads if private industry did it for them, heargued.
Two men from the automobile industrydi d pledge money for the highway’sdevelopment:
Frank Seiberling, president of Goodyear,and Henry Joy, president of PackardMotor Car Company.
Joy came up with the idea of namingthe highway after Abraham Lincoln.
Dixie Highway
South ofJupiter F L1916
Jefferson Highway, 1910s, New Orleans to Winnipeg, The “Palm to Pine” Highway
HighwaysFirst concrete highway 1909Named trunk highways (Lincoln, Dixie, Jefferson)1916 F ederal highway act makes federal funds available to states based on area,
population and postal road mileage.
Parkways: The Bronx River Parkway in New York was the firstscenic highway, opened in 1924.
Merritt Parkway in Connecticut , built 1934-40, 37.5 miles longThe Pennsylvania Turnpike began in 1938, and in 1940 the first 160miles “unfurled the concrete banner of the superhighway”12 mile straight stretch east of Blue Mountain Tunnel
Pennsylvania Turnpike – using the South Penn RR alignment
No cross streets, driveways, traffic signals, crosswalks or railroadgrade crossings.
Along the same distance on the Lincoln Highway and US 11,there were 939 cross streets, 12 railroad crossings and 25 trafficsignals.
Federal Highways, 1950. Federal funds had built a network of 644,000 miles;an additional 1.6 million miles of state and local roads had been surfaced or pavedsince 1920. But many outdated or ov ercrowded after surge of growth following WWII.
42,500 milesby 1987
Wednesday April 14,1954Pit t sburgh Sun-Telegraph
NEED OF BETTERHIGHWAYS FORCIVIL DEFENSE
EVACUATION
US InterstateHighways42,500 milesby 1987
June 29, 1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed theInterstate Highway Act.
This set up the financing for$25 billion in federal fundingfor a national system of fourlane, controlled-access freehighways.
By offering 90% of the funding,states jumped on thebandwagon and abandonedplans for toll roads.