Around one hundred classic automobiles cruised through Wendover this week as part of the tour to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln Highway.
Stretching from New York City’s Times Square to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, the Lincoln Highway was the first transcontinental road in the United States.
Conceived and promoted by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher the Lincoln was formally dedicated October 31, 1913.
The Lincoln Highway is America’s first national memorial to President Abraham Lincoln, predating the 1922 dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. by nine years. As the first automobile road across America, the Lincoln Highway brought great prosperity to the hundreds of cities, towns and villages along the way. The Lincoln Highway became affectionately known as “The Main Street Across America.”
The Lincoln Highway was inspired by the Good Roads Movement. In turn, the success of the Lincoln Highway and the resulting economic boost to the governments, businesses and citizens along its route inspired the creation of many other named long-distance roads, known as National Auto Trails, such as the Yellowstone Trail, National Old Trails Road, Dixie Highway, Jefferson Highway, Bankhead Highway, Jackson Highway, Meridian Highway and Victory Highway.
Many of these named highways were supplanted by the United States Numbered Highways system of 1926. Most of the 1928 Lincoln Highway route became US Route 30, with portions becoming US Route 1 in the East and US Route 40 and US Route 50 in the West. Since 1928, many sections of U.S. Route 30 have been realigned with new bypasses; therefore, today’s U.S. Route 30 aligns with less than 25% of the original 1913–1928 Lincoln Highway routes.
Most significantly, the Lincoln Highway inspired the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956, which was championed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, influenced by his experiences as a young soldier crossing the country in the 1919 Army Convoy on the Lincoln Highway. Today, Interstate 80 is the cross-country highway most closely aligned with the Lincoln Highway. In the West, particularly in Wyoming, Utah and California, sections of Interstate 80 are paved directly over alignments of the Lincoln Highway.
“Our goal is to gather 100 participants who will ship their historic vehicles to the U.S from overseas and spend 4 weeks crossing the American Continent on the Lincoln Highway.” wrote the Lincoln Highway Centennial Tour Group on their facebook page. “This will help raise public awareness and renew interest in the Lincoln Highway during its centennial celebration. U.S residents are also encouraged to join the tour making it as grand and diverse as possible. The tour will conclude at the Lincoln Highway’s western terminus; the Lincoln Park in San Francisco on July 26th, 2013, having covered an approximate 3389 miles and journeyed through 13 states.”
After touring Wendover the classic cars headed south to Ely to continue their journey to the City by the Bay.
