Roads, more than rail lines or the airways, are at the heart of travel. I am going to devote a few posts to historic roads, what we can learn from them and why we should save them. This is the seventh post in an eight-part series.
As we have seen in the past few posts, roads in the early 1900s were a sorry mess in comparison to today’s standards. In fact, good roads—smooth and solid mile after mile—were but a dream in most places.
This was not lost on Carl Fisher (1874-1939), an Indiana entrepreneur and tireless promoter of the still-fledgling automobile industry. Born in Greensburg, Indiana, Carl suffered from severe astigmatism all his life.
The condition made it difficult for him to concentrate or focus on school studies. He left school in 1886 to help support a family abandoned by an alcoholic father.
The next few years were an odyssey of odd jobs—everything from stints in grocery stores and bookstores to jobs as a salesman hawking such goods as newspapers, tobacco, candy and a host of other items.
In 1891 Carl and two of his brothers opened a bicycle shop. Next came bicycle racing and eventually auto racing. Stunts staged to promote auto racing often led to injuries as a result of bumpy dirt and gravel roads. It’s easy to see why Carl developed an early personal interest in road improvements.
After an initial contact with a maker of the acetylene headlights for automobiles, Fisher formed a firm to start producing the lamps. Eventually he supplied virtually every headlight used on autos produced in the United States. In 1909 Carl sold the business (Prest-O-Lite) to Union Carbide, making millions in the deal.
In the same year, Carl joined a group of moneyed men from Indianapolis to finance what would become the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The condition of the unpaved track was so bad that the first race staged there was halted at its halfway point due to accidents, injuries and deaths of drivers and spectators.
The setback might have stopped lesser men in their tracks, but Carl Fisher responded with a new plan. He convinced backers to fund the installation of more than three million paving bricks, providing a stable racing surface—and the foundation for the reputation as the storied “brickyard.”
On May 30, 1911, 80,000 fans watched the first installment of the race that would come to be known around the globe as the Indianapolis 500.
Fisher soon began selling autos, and he opened in Indianapolis what is generally regarded as the first auto dealership in the nation. If you were in the market for an auto in those days, you could find offerings from Oldsmobile, Packard, Stutz, Reo, Stoddard-Dayton and other manufacturers on Carl’s showroom floor.
A natural promoter, Fisher staged outlandish events to gain the public eye. One involved floating a car suspended from a hot air balloon across the city. On another occasion, he arranged for a car to be pushed from a building’s roof and then driven away to demonstrate its durability.
Fisher’s genius for promotion and his keen personal interest in improved roads set the stage for his grandest plan: The first transcontinental highway, a span intended to link New York with Los Angeles.
As originally conceived, it was known as the Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway. He estimated the 3,400-mile route would cost ten million dollars. The name was changed to the Lincoln Highway when Henry Joy suggested it to Fisher as a tribute to the former President.
Previous: Good roads were just a dream in 1912
Next: Discover the Midwest roots of the 1913 Lincoln Highway
Like what you are reading? Get our latest articles via e-mail every week!
No information will be given to outside parties. Unsubscribe
Article Comments
Leave a Reply