Traveling the Open Road

by Helen Barnstein

The road trip is an American phenomenon. It was most popular in the 1950s when the popularity of family vacations was highest as well. The allure of the road trip today translates into movies and songs directed at teens and adults in their twenties. It is an adventure of your own creation. This distinctly American trend came into being because of three major factors in American history. The automobile, the vacation, and the interstate highway system. These three parts of American history created change for the entire country, in many different ways. One of these ways was the road trip, and all the excitement it still entails.

Transportation has gone through many evolutions. From walking to flying, from horses to horsepower. One of the most innovative and world changing evolutions was the creation of the automobile. It distorted space and time. It changed how we express ourselves, and how we build cities, towns, and homes; it gave us almost unlimited mobility. A car is often viewed as more than an object and in some instances we have relationships with it, we consider it part of the family, we take care of it and worship it. A car is an expression of freedom to sixteen-year-olds with a brand new license. It is a world of possibility on four wheels. Before the car we were limited to walking, bicycling, riding horses or trains and eventually horse-drawn carriages. In 1891 Rene Panhard and Emile Levassor created the basis for what would become the automobile, (the radiator and engine in the front followed by the clutch, transmission and rear axle drive) and the world would never be the same.1
After Panhard and Levassor came the Jules-Albert de Dion – Georges Bouton's innovation of the rear axle, and after these “steam carriages” came Henry Ford.2 The automobile was not an overnight sensation, and where trains and cars still left gaps, bicycles filled the need for urban transportation. It was, in fact, these bicyclists who first lobbied for legislation improving roads. They were largely ignored, however, and it took something as large as the automobile to achieve progress. Before roads there were still cars, and in particular Fords, and this is their story. The car would have a bigger impact on American society than anywhere else because of the way Americans took to it; the way Americans made it a part of every almost aspect of their lives.

The Ford was not the first car. The first cross-country road trip was taken in a Winton, a car that is no longer produced. There were a few things that Ford did right that led to his lasting impression on the industry, and they were important. Henry Ford pioneered the assembly line which meant that his cars could be produced faster than any other car. His cars were uniform, which meant they were easier to repair. This ease of repair was a major selling point for those who did not have the high fund limit of men such as Dr. Horatio Jackson, who spent thousands of dollars on a cross country trip to win a fifty dollar bet.3 The increased profit that came from this small change allowed his factory workers a higher wage than any other car company, assuring his employees' loyalty and, in turn, the sale of even more Ford Model Ts.

Henry Ford, 1919 4

The invention of the assembly line in 1908 was of enormous consequence. It negated the need for skilled machinists, creating job opportunities for the underprivileged and undereducated in Ford factories. African Americans and European immigrants were being paid higher wages working for Ford than they could find almost anywhere else.5 The black workers were so proud of being employed by Ford that they even wore their company badges to church on Sundays.6 The basic principles that Ford applied to increase efficiency were that the work must be brought to the man, the work should be done waist high to eliminate lifting, waste of motion either human or mechanical had to be minimized, and each task must be reduced to the utmost simplicity.7 This mass production led to unparalleled cost reductions and production volume. It meant that standardization and highly specialized machines replaced highly skilled workers with the aforementioned unskilled workers.

The standardization also meant lower costs, which led to wider appeal since that lower cost of production meant that cars were affordable in ways they had never been before. Ford was producing and selling over a million cars a year by 1929.8 This availability created an entirely new mobile population. The mobility of the masses had a lasting impact on America. It gave the under-represented groups, specifically women and blacks, a new outlet.

With the self-starting engine and the Model T came a revolution of social progress for women. They drove across the country to gather support for suffrage. During World War I women drove taxis and ambulances to support the war effort.9 While the image of the flapper taking joy rides in her car was, and is still, pervasive, the advertisements of the day were still focused on more traditional gender roles. Women were featured as passengers to men in a majority of ads10, but despite that women had tasted the freedom that automobiles allowed and they would never give it up. The ability of women to drive did have an effect on their role in the household. Since they were suddenly mobile enough to go to the store or to take the children or pets places there was a new emphasis on self-service. This women-behind-the-wheel evolution meant many changes of focus for the automobile designer of the 1920s, '30s, and '40s.

Women were transporting the precious cargo of children, and because of this demanded safety features beyond what had been available to that point.11 One of the most significant changes was the closed top, or full-steel, body of the new generation of automobiles. The closed body was billed as safer, protecting the occupants from all sides. More superficial changes were enacted as well. Comfort orientated upgrades became available, allowing a person who spends a majority of their time in the car to have all the comfort and luxury of a day at home.12 These ads were aimed at women who would presumably be splitting the entirety of their days between their car and home. Cars did not immediately change the situation of women in society but it was yet another step in the direction of the equality of the sexes.

African Americans and their relationship to the automobile created a more drastic social change than it did for women. It was almost entirely a change of perspective, in one respect, and an economic advance towards equality in another. In the early days of the automobile blacks were drivers. They chauffeured upper class whites around.13 By the 1920s African Americans were making more money and therefore able to buy their own cars, particularly those that worked for Ford, and many did. Automobiles made the largest difference in African American lives during the 1950s and 1960s, especially throughout the civil rights movement.

On December 1st, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to move to the back for a white man on a public bus in Montgomery Alabama. This simple act caused a year long city wide boycott of buses in Montgomery. The boycott would not have been as successful, if possible at all, without African Americans owning their own cars. At first the black Montgomery citizens were unsure of sharing their cars, since owning a car for them was a status symbol to distinguish themselves from the less privileged but once even whites were offering to help babysitters and maids get to work the entire citizenry that was participating in the boycott was involved in a complex network of carpooling and pick-up and drop-off points to support the boycott.14 In order for the bus boycott to be successful transportation still had to be, and with the help of the automobile, it was.

Cars were practical in many situations - traveling to and from work or church; going to the store or to school events; taking family vacations. Before the ability to take a flight from Seattle to Orange County there was the ability to drive. Between trains and planes taking vacationers to their destinations, there were long car trips in the family vehicle. Whether these vacations were to Disneyland, or to Washington D.C., or just to extended family members in other cities or states you could pile the whole family into a car and take a drive.

Leisure time was created by the labor movement for the middle and lower classes. Before mandated shorter work days, no one had time for vacations except the wealthy.15 The wealthy had summer homes, and country cottages. They took vacations to the beach and went camping. They could choose to go to resorts, or quaint inns in rural villages. During the first half of the twentieth century, progressive reformers that championed better conditions for the working class also pushed for vacations for working-class people.16 This new vacationing population would cause change in all aspects of life for the nation as a whole. It was a nation-wide phenomenon that affected the food and lodging services, civic identity, and economic livelihoods of people and towns across the nation.

The new ability of the middle classes and below to take vacations meant quite a few things for society. It meant that they would be making the use of many kinds of transportation, more so traveling by car than by train after the 1920s. It meant that they would need places to stay that were more affordable than those that the rich stayed in. They began by “autocamping”. Autocamping, also called gypsying, was when families and groups would simply park their cars along the side of the road and set up tents. They did not have to pay and often this became a problem because of a lack of responsibility. The autocampers would leave litter strewn about where they had slept the night before, and drank dirty water which caused illness since they had little experience living in nature. In order to combat this problem, towns started charging fees for use of the land which opened the field to private entrepreneurs who built cabins. These cabins quickly evolved into motels.17

Hotels were around for the more wealthy traveler for some time, however the case against hotels for the middle class vacation was strong. Hotels had dress codes. The food was more expensive and more formal than cooking your own. Hotel staff was often “disagreeable.” And the cost of a hotel for a group or a family was often beyond the financial reach of the middle class traveler.18 Motels were a new phenomenon.

Motels (“motor-hotels”) began as roadside cabins, which had started as companions to other roadside vendors. They added to the draw of family owned roadside grocery stores, gas stations, and food stands.19 One chain of motels that is still popular today is the Holiday Inn, which started in 1952. Kemmons Wilson's inspiration to open the first Holiday Inn was the cost of taking children on vacation. He felt that if it cost an extra ten dollars a night to take your children then children would be excluded from vacations.20 Wilson was a father who had taken family vacations as a child and wanted to continue the tradition with his own family.21

Post World War II, family vacations became a national tradition.22 The reason for this surge of popularity of family vacations was the result of a culture that prized family ideals. The most common vacation was a vacation of “mobile citizenship” meant to “cultivate a sense of civic identity and attachment to American history.”23 For the most part, these vacations were road trips. Riding the wave of postwar consumerism Americans bought roomy family cars, which meant they could go anywhere, and they could do it in comfort. They traveled to the west for its Wild West styled adventure. They traveled to theme parks for safe thrills. They traveled to national parks for natural wonders and affordable lodgings. They traveled to national monuments and places rich in American history in order to claim citizenship in the national geography.24

The Negro Motorist Green Book 25

One of the most important aspects of claiming citizenship via family vacations on the road was the way it helped further civil rights. Roy Wilkins used the idea of family vacations to explain the humiliation that countrywide Jim Crow laws caused African American families.26 Cars were important to the civil rights movement as seen in the Birmingham bus boycott, and they were also important to individual blacks. Cars were a private area, and they were safe in their car. When they stopped, however, for food, lodging, gas, or just to rest, the humiliation began. They were turned away for rooms. They had separate beaches, restaurants, and even separate travel guides.27 They rarely traveled through the south, and the Freedom Rides in 1963 exemplified why they chose to travel elsewhere. As the NAACP lawyers argued, when they lobbied for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this country was their country, too.28 The way this discrimination was circumvented most often was the patronization of black-owned businesses on the road. The African Americans had a tight knit network of travel options and suggestions of places to travel; a much tighter travel network than that of the white Americans. They opened their homes to each other, which negated some of the need for hotels that could refuse them.29 The African Americans would later decide that by circumventing the humiliation they were accepting Jim Crow. This idea came to light once again when they fought for full citizenship. They refused to not stay the same places and eat the same places and pump the same gas as whites.30

This refusal would create a travel culture even richer than before. The southern states would become a place to visit as part of the mobile citizenship that many traveling vacations were aimed at. Tourism in the south increased as equality became widespread. The state of Florida is an excellent example of how tourism can create a place. A man named Henry Flagler, an oil tycoon, was so set on Florida becoming a vacation spot he bought railroads and extended them into Florida. He then continued his railroad further and further south, setting up hotels and resorts down the Atlantic coast.31 A railroad magnate named Henry Plant did the same on the Gulf coast side of Florida. Aquariums with shows and amusement parks opened up left and right, starting in the 1920s and picking up speed after World War II.32 Following the pattern that developed through these years, in order to get people to their attractions they needed to accommodate the traveler; they needed roads, not rails.

Transportation has undergone many changes over the centuries. For an extended period, horses were the main means of transportation. They pulled carriages and were ridden to and from anywhere one needed to go. Long range transport was often by water, in some form of ship. Ships evolved into riverboats, and then boats that traveled canals. Horses were replaced by trains for long range overland movement. With the advent of the car came the need for a new type of track. Cities had streets, or muddy paths for streets throughout them for carriages and foot traffic, but beyond city limits there was little more than dirt paths. Bicyclists lobbied in 1880 for improved roads, but these requests had little power over the federal government when backed with so little support.33 In fact, in 1893 the Office of Road Inquiry determined that the United States had 2,151,570 miles of highway and only 141 miles of that was considered acceptable for automobile traffic.34 In order for the automobile to get anywhere, roads would need improvement.

Thomas Harris MacDonald was the mind behind the interstate system. He began its planning in 1904. He was elected chief of the Federal Bureau of Public Roads under Woodrow Wilson in 1919.35 MacDonald's two principles were cooperation and technical expertise. Cooperation was often spearheaded by the lobbyist group the American Association of State Highway Officials.36 MacDonald used this group to foster cooperation between the state and federal governments. In 1916 Congress had allotted $75 million for five years through the Federal-Aid Road Act. By 1921, the Federal-Aid Highway Act began allotting $75 million per year.37

Two kinds of highways were laid. In the east highways were concrete or asphalt, since the traffic was so much heavier, and in the west highways were a mixture of gravel and sand-clay.38 By 1936, MacDonald had supported the building of nearly 225,000 miles of automobile-safe roads, adding 12,000 miles each year.39 The Pennsylvania Turnpike opened in December of 1940 and it was the first of what can be termed “modern highways”. It was sixty miles long, consisting of reinforced concrete, four lanes wide with better sight distance and wide curves so the need to slow down was minimized. It had bridges and underpasses and cut five hours out of the drive between Pittsburgh and Harrisburg. It was a “highway built to truly master nature.”40 The highway was funded privately, and the profits it made from its tolls opened a new door for the federal government. In order to fund its highways from 1956 and beyond, it levied taxes on gas, diesel, lubricating oils, tires, and heavy trucks.41 The construction was on a “pay-as-you-go” basis, leaving the federal government all but free from the responsibilities of funding the highway system.

Railroads were impacted negatively, though they were the only transportation system that suffered. MacDonald dismissed the railroad companies' concerns at first by ignoring the drop in profits from passenger business, and later saying that freight usage for railroads was sure to increase to cover the gap.42 Since railroads were already well established, the Depression era saw an increase in funding for road building because it meant increased job opportunities for the many unemployed people. In contrast, railroad and affiliate companies had been shortening track and laying people off left and right to make up for its losses. There was progress to be had in roads, not rails. The railroads never truly recovered, especially after transport was made possible on large trucks, over more direct routes via the highways.

Road building affected everything about American life. The highways changed space and time. It was as if every destination was closer than it had been before and more accessible no matter where the trip began. Roadside tourism became an economic blessing to any town near a highway. From giant balls of twine to restaurant chains, curiosity and good advertising would bring paying customers in, even if they weren't sure what they would be paying for- like House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin and Rock City and Lookout Mountain in Georgia; like the Ave Maria Grotto in Alabama and Frontierland in Florida. Attractions followed the roads, giving travelers a place to stop and stretch their legs, and giving them something to see while they did.

Rock City Barn Advertisement 43

The automobile became the family car (or minivan), allowing families to take a vacation to wherever they wanted on their own schedule. The higher wages and leisure time that came out of the progressive social movements in the early 20th century allowed vacations to take place for the majority. The roads that were built to cross the nation many times over in every direction gave everyone somewhere to go.

All of these intertwined events and changes in American society wrought one more phenomenon; the road trip. There is a certain mystique about the idea of a road trip. It is a combination of freedom, adventure, ownership, and discovery. Travelers bond over miles of paved highway, getting to know or better understand their fellow countrymen. Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson took the first cross-country road trip in 1903. Following him was the first female transcontinental drive, navigated by Alice Huyler. Families took road trips to national parks and monuments. African Americans claimed their citizenship in this country by traversing it in cars. Commuting by car gave travelers greater freedom to stop and take in the sights and the ability to explore beyond what a rigid track had allowed them on trains. By combining the ideas of manifest destiny that still lingered, the concept of connecting to America by driving through it, the connections drivers had to their vehicles, and the way that the interstate highway system tamed nature and the American country, the road trip emerged.

The road trip is a culmination of intangible things. It is an emotion more than it is a sequence of events. It is not just stopping at a gas station; it is a new gas station somewhere you have never been before. It makes the simple act of topping off into something much more significant than topping off would be at your local gas station. There is a reason that the nostalgia over Route 66, a highway that only existed for 40 years, is still strong today. There is also a reason why people try to constantly recreate the original routes from the beginning of the automobile era. This article has attempted to piece together the facts that make up the intangible aspects of the road trip.

Why do people still choose to take road trips today? With the invention of air travel it has become evident that many do not; they simply get there. The people that do, however, will tell you that it is not about the destination, but it is about the journey. For Dr. Jackson, it was winning a bet. For myself, it is about the hidden parts of America that so many never see.

One of the underlying themes that connect all Americans to their created culture is the concept of exceptionalism - the idea that Americans are special. This intangible feeling is prevalent in the idea that every little town along a highway has something worth seeing. Their town is special, or the caves they live near are special. Their Wall Drug store is special, the chain of restaurants that started here is special. The idea that the thing they want to show you is worth detouring off the planned route to see. What they think is important is worth seeing for everyone.

Another theme in American culture is the same idea of expansion that Manifest Destiny came from. The way America began was through colonization; other countries spreading across the ocean. From this American culture was born and it is not illogical to assume that part of our need to travel is a product of American cultural beginning. This land is American land and it is the American right to travel it and make it their own, from sea to shining sea.

The reason the idea of a road trip is embedded in our culture is because it is the end product of a combination of other things that we value as Americans. It is a trip you take in your car, and the automobile is a large part of American history. You drive on the roads that have more than any other form of transportation made this country accessible from edge to edge and border to border. Finally, the leisure time that is so important to so many Americans after being won through many hard fought battles evolved into vacations. These vacations took place in cars more than anywhere else for so long that the connection is still there even though the popularity of the road trip has declined as the accessibility of air travel increased. The fascination with road trips has not completely died out. There are many travelers who spend their vacations attempting to drive the stretches of Route 66 that still exist,44 and they are still gettin' their kicks.

1Heitmann, John. The Automobile and American Life. (North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2009), 9.

2Ibid:, 10.

3Horatio's Drive. Dir. Ken Burns. PBS: 2003.

4Courtesy of The Henry Ford Museum archives, <http://www.thehenryford.org/museum/archives>

5Heitmann, John. The Automobile and American Life. (North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc., 2009), 39.

6Ibid:, 40.

7Ibid:, 37.

8Ibid:, 61

9Ibid:, 94.

10Ibid:, 95.

11Heitmann, John. The Automobile and American Life. (North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc., 2009), 98.

12Ibid:, 99.

13Ibid:, 23.

14Williams, Juan. Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954–1965. (New York: Penguin Putnam Inc,.1987), 78.

15Aron, Cindy S. Working At Play: A History of the Vacations in the United States. (New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 1999), 3.

16Ibid:, 4.

17Belasco, Warren. Americans on the Road: From Autocamp to Motel, 1910 – 1945. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1979), 4.

18Ibid:, 51.

19Ibid:, 130.

20Hollis, Tim. Dixie Before Disney: 100 Years of Roadside Fun. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999), 31.

21Ibid:, 33.

22Rugh, Susan Sessions. Are We There Yet? The Golden Age of American Family Vacations. (Witchita: University of Kansas, 2008), 11.

23Rugh, Susan Sessions. Are We There Yet? The Golden Age of American Family Vacations. (Witchita: University of Kansas, 2008), 13.

24Ibid:, 67.

25Courtesy of The Henry Ford Museum, <http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Race/R_Casestudy/Negro_motorist_green_bk.htm>

26Rugh, Susan Sessions. Are We There Yet? The Golden Age of American Family Vacations. (Witchita: University of Kansas, 2008), 68.

27Rugh, Susan Sessions. Are We There Yet? The Golden Age of American Family Vacations. (Witchita: University of Kansas, 2008), 71.

28Ibid:, 70.

29Ibid:, 77.

30Ibid:, 91.

31Hollis, Tim. Dixie Before Disney: 100 Years of Roadside Fun. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999), 44.

32Hollis, Tim. Dixie Before Disney: 100 Years of Roadside Fun. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999), 58.

33Heitmann, John. The Automobile and American Life. (North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc., 2009), 73.

34Ibid:, 74.

35Lewis, Tom. Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life. (New York: Penguin Group Inc., 1997), 10.

36Ibid:, 13.37Ibid:, 18.

38Lewis, Tom. Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life. (New York: Penguin Group Inc., 1997), 19.

39Ibid:, 24.

40Ibid:, 62.

41Ibid:, 119.

42Ibid:, 23.

43Hollis, Tim. Dixie Before Disney: 100 Years of Roadside Fun. (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999), 96.

44Randall, Guy. “Route 66 the Great American Highway.” The Road Wanderer. 24 Jan 2004. Web. 16  Nov 2010.
<http://www.theroadwanderer.net/route66.htm>