World Tour 1903

No, I didn't do this one; it was fifty years before I was born, fercryingoutloud.

And in 1903, the idea of a cross-country motor trip was simply unheard of. This was long before Interstates — there were few roads as we know them, and no pavement to speak of — and long before mass-produced motor vehicles. In fact, it was before you could even get auto parts; Henry Leland was only just then assuming command at Cadillac, and had yet to introduce the startling concept of standardized, mass-produced, interchangeable parts, a notion which would win Cadillac a Dewar Trophy in 1908.

In the Age of Teddy Roosevelt, though, a sense of adventure was still something in good supply, and in 1903, a Vermont physician, Dr Horatio Nelson Jackson, having bet $50 (a tidy sum in those days) that he could cross the country in a car in 90 days or less, put his motor where his mouth was, and set off from San Francisco with the hope of getting to New York in one piece.

This is the sort of period Americana that almost cries out for a Ken Burns-type documentary, and as good fortune would have it, Horatio's Drive, a documentary directed by, yes, Ken Burns, will premiere in October on PBS. Once again, Burns' partner is Dayton Duncan, who worked with him on Lewis and Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery (1997).

Nowadays, people drive four thousand miles without so much as breaking a sweat; seeing what it was like a hundred years ago should be a revelation.

(Muchas gracias: Syaffolee.)

Posted at 1:44 PM to Driver's Seat