lecture 33 08 cars1

8/3/2019 Lecture 33 08 Cars1

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No other technological innovationhas so transformed the geographyof the United States as the automobile.Landscapes inherited from pre-automobiletimes have been remade to suithighway-oriented technology, and newlandscapes have emerged shaped strictly

in its image. The automobile has enabledAmericans to act o ut long-establisheddreams. The motor car has not imposed

new values as much as it has reinforced old values. Jakle, 29 3.

Chapter 15: LANDSCAPES REDESIGNED FOR THE AUTOMOBILE,pp.293-310AutomobilesHighwaysLandscapes: Rural places, the suburbs, inner cities, centralbusiness districts, commercial strips

TODAY MONDAYWEDNESDAY

Manufacturing core

Manufacturing periphery

Finished pr oduct s

Raw materials

Urban command node

Manufacturing core

Manufacturing periphery

Finished pr oduct s

Raw materials

The most visible landscape expression of these urban command nodes were

the skyscrapers that housed corporate managers and clerical workers

based in DetroitGrand Canyon

8/3/2019 Lecture 33 08 Cars1


CaliforniaRoute 1,Big Sur coastline

Bixby Creek Bridge13 miles southof Carmel

1932.

Largest single-archconcrete bridge inWorld when finished

Rte 1 finished 1937

Interstates:Interchangein Texas

US 202 and 422, outside Philadelphia Underlying the love affair with the automobile is an American drivefor:

* individual fulfillment through freedom of mobility,

* the love o f newness coupled with a naïve belief in change as progress,

*the embracing of privatism fueled by competitive rather than communalimpulses,

*the pursuit of the utilitarian that embodies profound disrespect for theenvironment,

*and the belief in equality whereby a tyranny of the majority often rules.

(Jakle, p. 293 )

Automobiles =1. Buggy

1888: Parry Manufacturing Company, Indianapolis,produced 1,000 buggies and carts a day. Nineteenbuildings, covering 20 acres, connected withrailroad switches running into the factory grounds.By 1896, over 2,800 persons employed.

8/3/2019 Lecture 33 08 Cars1


1888: Parry Manufacturing Company, Indianapolis,

1899 Parry Top Piano Box

1899 Phaeton, Extension Top

http://www.omnipages.com/resa/buggy2.htm

Automobiles =Buggy + 2. bicycle

In Hartford, CT, the WeedSewing Machine Co. (with

excellent machine-work andfine mechanical skills in the

labor force), turned to make

Columbia bicycles in 1878.

Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1880swww.leavenworthbicycleclub.com/pages/history.html

Annual Meet of theWheelmen, Corry Hill, Boston,June 5 1886

"Bicycling on the Riverside Drive, New York," T. De Thulstrup, Harper's Weekly ."The Eighteenth Annual Meet ofthe L. A. W. - in Front ofHeadquarters, Philadelphia,"W. P. Snyder Coll ier' s Weekly 1897.

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1896 Lewiston WA bicycle club. Even though bicycles were expensive at $100-125, bicycle riding was the sport of the day. Organized bicycle clubs enjoyedshort local trips for picnics. Some riders took a 22-mile, four-hour ride. They

were an early lobby group for improved roads.

http://twinriverscyclists.org/Administration/administration.htm

Automobiles =Buggy + bicycle + 3. internal combustion engine

8/3/2019 Lecture 33 08 Cars1


Automobiles

1908 .2m cars (Un ited States 90 million people)

1915 Model T

Ford’s Model T made quality cars accessible to ordinary people1916 2 m1920 8 m1923 10 m1930 23 m

Automobiles

1908 .2m cars (United S tates 90 million peop le)Ford’s Model T made quality cars accessible to ordinary people

1916 2 m1920 8 m1923 10 m1930 23 m

Price declined from $950 in 1910 to $290 in 19 24It took an average worker 22 months to buy a Ford in 1909,but only 3 months in 1925

Highland Park, Ford Assembly Plant Henry Ford’s Model T Automobile Plant, Highland Park, Detroit

Moving assembly line. Factory designed by industrial architect Albert Kahn.Built in 1909, it once produced 1000 cars a day.

Highland Park, Detroit

River Rouge

Highland Park, Ford Assembly Plant

1920

Highland Park, 60 acre plant

Designed for easy transit ofraw materials and partsthrough a complex that employed13,000 workers in 1914.

8/3/2019 Lecture 33 08 Cars1


Highland Park, 60 acre plant

Machines for metal forging,stamping, machining, painting,and baking produced parts– 5000 per car –so similar and reliable that fewrequired hand finishing.

Highland Park 80,000 cars in 1912

230,000 cars in 1914

The moving assembly linerevolutionalized manufacturing,but workers hated it. Workersquit in waves.Turnover reached380 percent late in 1913 .

In January 1914, Ford doubledthe average pay of eligibleworkers to five dollars for aneight-hour shift, which solvedthe turnover crisis.

The system of mass productionand high wages enabledworkers to be consumersthemselves.

This led to an immense surge inproductivity!

Henry Ford, 1909

“I will build a motor car for the greatmultitude. It will be large enough forthe individual to run and care for. Itwill be constructed of the bestmaterials, by the best men to behired, after the simplest designs that

modern engineering can devise. But itwill be so low in price that no manmaking a good salary will be unable toown one.”

Quoted in Jakle, 294

8/3/2019 Lecture 33 08 Cars1


The first center line on a rural, state highway was paintedbetween Marquette and Ishpeming, Mich., in 1917

But dirt, and muddy, roads were still common in the 1930s

By 1920, only 35,000 miles of rural roads had been paved.

An early Iowa road. Grading was one thing, but stoneor brick, let alone concrete, was another.

1930s

Highways

First concrete highway 1909Named trunk highways (Lincoln, Dixie, Jefferson)

1916 Federal Highway Act makes federal funds available to statesbased on area, population and postal road mileage.

Named trunk h ighways that linked regions (Lincoln, Dixie,Jefferson) were often privately funded.

In 1912, Carl Fisher, who developed the Indianapolis Speedway,thought up the idea of a Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway. Thegraveled road would cost $10m. Communities along the routewould provide the equipment and in return wo uld receivefree materials and a place along America's firsttranscontinental highway.

To be finished in time forthe 1915 Panama-PacificExposition, it would

run from the exposition'shost, San Francisco, toNew York City.

Lincoln Highway,Baywood south ofRobertsville, Ohio

Fisher asked for cash donations from auto manufacturers andaccessory companies of 1 percent of their r evenues.Ford would not support the project: the public would neverlearn to fund good roads if private industry did it for them, heargued.

8/3/2019 Lecture 33 08 Cars1


Two men from the automobile industrydi d pledge money for the highway’sdevelopment:

Frank Seiberling, president of Goodyear,and Henry Joy, president of PackardMotor Car Company.

Joy came up with the idea of namingthe highway after Abraham Lincoln.

Dixie Highway

South ofJupiter F L1916

Jefferson Highway, 1910s, New Orleans to Winnipeg, The “Palm to Pine” Highway

HighwaysFirst concrete highway 1909Named trunk highways (Lincoln, Dixie, Jefferson)1916 F ederal highway act makes federal funds available to states based on area,

population and postal road mileage.

Parkways: The Bronx River Parkway in New York was the firstscenic highway, opened in 1924.

Divided, limited-access roads – Merritt Parkway, CT,and Pennsylvania Turnpike, 1938

Interstates: 1956 Highway Act began the funding of 41,000miles of roads, (5,000 in cities),90% paid by federal government

The Bronx River Parkway in New York was thefirst scenic highway, opened in 1924 15.5 miles

White Plains

Early view in Yonkers (no median)

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Merritt Parkway in Connecticut , built 1934-40, 37.5 miles longThe Pennsylvania Turnpike began in 1938, and in 1940 the first 160miles “unfurled the concrete banner of the superhighway”12 mile straight stretch east of Blue Mountain Tunnel

Pennsylvania Turnpike – using the South Penn RR alignment

No cross streets, driveways, traffic signals, crosswalks or railroadgrade crossings.

Along the same distance on the Lincoln Highway and US 11,there were 939 cross streets, 12 railroad crossings and 25 trafficsignals.

Pennsylvania Turnpike

Pennsylvania Turnpike –

8/3/2019 Lecture 33 08 Cars1


Federal Highways, 1950. Federal funds had built a network of 644,000 miles;an additional 1.6 million miles of state and local roads had been surfaced or pavedsince 1920. But many outdated or ov ercrowded after surge of growth following WWII.

42,500 milesby 1987

Wednesday April 14,1954Pit t sburgh Sun-Telegraph

NEED OF BETTERHIGHWAYS FORCIVIL DEFENSE

EVACUATION

US InterstateHighways42,500 milesby 1987

June 29, 1956 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed theInterstate Highway Act.

This set up the financing for$25 billion in federal fundingfor a national system of fourlane, controlled-access freehighways.

By offering 90% of the funding,states jumped on thebandwagon and abandonedplans for toll roads.

Route 66, Laclede Co, Missouri(later I-44)

lecture 33 08 cars1

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