September 19, 2013

One Hundred Years Ago Today in Transportation

President Woodrow Wilson became the first member of the Lincoln Highway Association. That Detroit-based association, which had just been formally set up the previous July, planned to hold dedication ceremonies nationwide for its efforts on October 31. The group decided to use memberships to further publicize the idea of building a transcontinental route for motor vehicles.

Wilson's interest in the development of highways was anything but casual. He deeply appreciated the benefits of an improved system of roads nationwide, a view he reflected not only by joining the LHA but also when meeting with representatives of the American Association of State Highway Officials on the same day that association was established in 1914 and signing into law in 1916 the act that launched the federal-aid highway program.

The No. 1 membership card (or "contributors ticket") sent to Wilson was signed and dated by the association's secretary A.R. Pardington.

"The holder of this card is a contributor to the funds of the Lincoln Highway Association," read the language included on that card, "whose object is to immediately promote and procure the establishment of a continuous, improved highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, open to lawful traffic of all descriptions without toll charges: and to be of concrete wherever practicable."

Wilson paid five dollars to join the association and the LHA, which arranged for that donation through a member of Congress, widely and eagerly promoted the first person to officially become one of its members. The card and the envelope in which it was sent can now be found in the Smithsonian Institution.

On a more personal level, Wilson very much enjoyed traveling in automobiles and did not let his job as president keep him away from leisurely drives on a regular basis. "No more ardent motorist ever occupied the White House than President Wilson," reported an article that appeared in the September 1916 edition of the periodical Northwestern Motorist. "Mr. Wilson probably has spent an average of two hours a day in an automobile since he became president."

In addition, Wilson's involvement with the LHA went beyond just becoming its first member. In 1916, for example, he agreed to have some photographs of himself taken on the White House grounds for inclusion in a film promoting the coast-to-coast enterprise ("President Movie Actor for Lincoln Highway," announced one newspaper headline).