The Second Transportation Revolution involved the development of the automobile. Europe was the hearth for the first automobiles which were powered by steam and could reach speeds as high as 15 miles per hour. By 1889 Gottlieb Daimler had invented the internal combustion engine and, working with inventors such as Karl Benz, had adapted this engine to the automobile.
Shown above is a replica of an 1886 Benz which is on display at the Montana Auto Museum.
During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the American automobile industry was in its infancy. Inventors experimented with many different designs. They tried means of propulsion that included internal combustion engines, steam engines, and electric engines. Many entrepreneurs launched new companies, many of which failed to survive the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Shown above is an 1899 Locomobile Style 2 Steam Car which is on display at the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum in Hood River, Oregon. Founded in 1899, the Locomobile Company of America manufactured affordable small steam cars until 1903.
Shown above is a 1908 Stanley Model K Steam Car which is on display at the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum in Hood River, Oregon. The Stanley Motor Carriage Company manufactured steam-engine cars from 1902 to 1924.
Shown above is a 1914 Detroit Electric, Model 63 which is on display at the Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum in Hood River, Oregon. The Detroit Electric was manufactured by the Anderson Electric Car Company from 1907 to 1939. The company built about 13,000 cars. The car was advertised as getting 80 miles between battery charging and had a top speed of about 20 miles per hour.
Shown above is a 1914 Detroit Electric which is on display at the Montana Auto Museum. According to the display:
“It was as an urban vehicle, one for women drivers especially, that the Detroit enjoyed most of its success.”
While development of automobiles in the United States lagged behind Europe initially, during the first decade of the twentieth century the American automobile industry began to become a major force. In 1913 there were 1 million cars in the United States and a decade later, in 1923, there were 10 million and by 1927 there were 26 million. Ultimately, the internal combustion engine came to be the dominant power source, winning out over steam and electric.
While automobiles became increasingly popular during the first two decades of the twentieth century, long distance roads were non-existent. Roads tended to be muddy or dusty, and poorly marked. Long distance transportation was dominated by the railroads. Automobile owners found that the federal, state, and county governments had little interest in developing roads for them. Groups such as the Yellowstone Trail Association formed to help lobby for better roads.
In 1919, an Army expedition set out in an automobile caravan to drive from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco. The Army expedition, which included Captain Dwight David Eisenhower, encountered poor road conditions. It took them 62 days to complete the trip, averaging about five miles per hour.
After World War II, General Dwight David Eisenhower was impressed with the durability of the German Autobahn: a single bomb could render a rail road useless, but Germany’s wide highways had proved to be difficult to destroy. Eisenhower was soon convinced that efficient highways were important. As President, Eisenhower presided over a nation that was frightened about the possibility of a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. An efficient highway system, it was believed would both facilitate the rapid evacuation of cities and allow the rapid movement of military equipment across the country.
By 1954, President Eisenhower was pushing for a system of interstate highways. In 1956, the Federal Aid Highway Act set the stage for the modern interstate system and changed the landscape of the United States.
Interstate Highways were highly regulated so that they were standardized across the country: lanes were to be 12 feet wide; shoulders were to be 10 feet wide; there was to be a minimum of 14 feet of clearance under bridges; grades had to be less than 3%; and the highway had to be designed for 70 mile per hour travel. The defining characteristic of the Interstate Highway, however, was that it had limited access through a limited number of interchanges. There is an average of one interchange for each two miles of road.
Initially, the plans called for the 42,000 miles of the Interstate Highway system to be completed in 16 years: it actually took 27 years. As with the development of the transcontinental railway system a century before, development followed the Interstate system.
There is actually a plan for numbering the Interstate Highways: highways running north and south are odd numbered with the lowest numbers in the west, while those running east and west are even numbered with the lowest numbers in the south. Beltways and loops have a 3-digit designation with the last two digits indicating the Highway to which they are attached. Thus:
I-5 is the western-most north-south Interstate; I-805 is a loop off of the I-5
I-95 is the eastern-most north-south Interstate
I-8 and I-10 are the southern-most east-west Interstates
I-90 and I-94 are the northern-most east-west Interstates.