Page:America's Highways 1776–1976.djvu/115

 out in conferences between the BPR and the individual States and by regional conferences between the States to coordinate across State boundaries. The first inter-State conference at Troy, New York, resulted in completely coordinated primary systems for New England, New York, and New Jersey.

System selection and highway correlation were somewhat different in the west where population was scattered, road distances great, and financial resources very limited. “The designation of a system of roads in such States adequate at once to serve local requirements and at the same time correlate satisfactorily with the roads of adjoining States demands very careful adjustments in order to keep the mileage, the resources, and the service value of the roads properly balanced and economically justified.” In a few of the larger western States, three-sevenths of the total Federal-aid mileage was insufficient to make all of the connections to interstate roads in adjoining States, and some of the secondary Federal-aid mileage had to be used for this purpose.

The huge job of designating and approving all of the 48 State systems and correlating them across State lines was completed November 1, 1923, the work published by the Bureau of Public Roads in the form of a national map of the Federal- Aid Highway System. Because many States designated less than 7 percent of their total mileage on the Federal-aid system, the roads shown on this map totaled only 168,881 miles, or 5.9 percent of all U.S. roads. However, almost immediately, the system began growing and it has been growing ever since. By July 1923, Maryland, Delaware, and Rhode Island had completed their original systems to a satisfactory standard and had been granted increases by the Secretary.

The Bureau of Public Roads estimated that for the country as a whole at least 90 percent of the population resided not more than 10 miles from a Federal-aid road, and in a few States, this figure was as high as 97 or 99 percent. The BPR estimated that at least 94 percent of the cities of 5,000 or more population were directly on the system.

The Federal Highway Act concentrated a sizable amount of money on a limited mileage of roads, resulting in the rapid improvement of interstate routes. Fiscal year 1922 was a banner year in which nearly 14,000 miles of the Federal-aid system were improved. By July 1925, 46,486 miles, or over one-quarter of the system, had been brought up to a reasonably travelable standard.

However, the production of motor vehicles increased at an even more rapid rate. From 1916 to 1921 registrations increased at about 1.4 million per year. From 1921 to 1925 the rate increased to about 2.37 million per year, and in 1925 the total number of motor vehicles of all types registered was 19.95 million. With the increase in vehicle ownership, there came an immense increase in travel and tourism, and cross country motoring rapidly became the major recreational activity of millions of Americans.

The cross country wagon trails of the prerailroad era were a romantic episode in American history. These trails furnished the emigrants one essential service that outweighed all others—the assurance that if the traveler followed the trail, he would eventually arrive at his destination and not become lost.

When the Lincoln Highway Association was organized in 1913, this assurance was lacking for anyone so rash as to attempt a long overland trip, for the roads were almost completely unsigned and there were few reliable maps. Few residents along a road could give the traveler reliable information on the condition of the roads in the next county or even beyond a distance of 10 miles in their own county. By selecting and mapping the best roads over the most direct routes and by encouraging the local officials to improve them and the local auto clubs to mark them, the Lincoln Highway Association provided services of real value to motorists. The American Automobile Association augmented these services by publishing its famous “Blue Books,” advising tourists of the accommodations to be found along the route. In 1915 Lewis Stubbs of St. Joseph, Missouri, proposed marking auto trails by painting colored bands around utility poles, and the Automobile Club of St. Joseph marked a considerable mileage of the Pikes Peak Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, the “Appian Way of America,” in this manner.

The National Old Trails Association formed in 1913 was dedicated to preserving and improving the old Cumberland Road and the old Santa Fe Trail as a transcontinental route. In 1915 Carl Fisher was instrumental in organizing the Dixie Highway, a network of parallel roads extending from the Straits of Mackinac to Miami, Florida. Between 1914 and 1916 community boosters put together the Yellowstone Trail, under the slogan “A good road from Plymouth Rock to Puget Sound,” with the Pikes Peak Ocean-to-Ocean Highway following in 1916.

Because they were marked and advertised, these pioneer auto trails became channels for the rising tide of tourist traffic. After World War I, competing auto trails burgeoned in scores. In the absence of an official marking system, these trails provided a useful service to motorists, even though they were established in large part to promote the commercial interests of their sponsors. But within a few years, the movement got out of hand as more and more trails were organized. By 1924 there were at least 250 marked trails sponsored by 100 or more separate organizations, each with a headquarters and issuing maps and promotional material and collecting funds. Some of these routes were interstate in character, some of only local significance. Some routes were promoted to further roadbuilding by arousing public opinion, some were purely scenic, and some existed only to provide salaries for their organizers.

109