Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast Along Route 30 from... || a trip back in time...
Written: Feb 22 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Packed with road-side observations, pictures, and stories of people building the future.
Cons: Not much use as an 'on-the-road' guide. Better find other sources for maps, etc..
The Bottom Line: A tribute to an American institution. It still exists, much of its history, its value, retained to this day. A good journey for any lover of a road less traveled.
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| sleeper54's Full Review: Michael Wallis - Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast A... |
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The highways of America have always held the promise of America: the promise of a new beginning, of escaping one's problems; the promise of reuniting with family, old friends; the promise of discovery, adventure; the promise of a new day, just over the next rise of the road.
Unlike the cold, frenetic, mile-a-minute interstates of today, the highways of yesterday melded with the land, the cities they sliced through, the people that anchored them in place and traveled over them. All these facets interacted to create a rich way of life with purpose. Every town had a story, every roadside diner had character, and every traveler had time to dawdle ...yet the need to press onward.
Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast Along Route 30 from Times Square to the Golden Gate is author Michael Wallis' tribute to a highway cobbled together, growing in fits and bounds, flourishing for a brief moment, and then fading to the background as the massive interstate system sucked her life blood dry.
Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast... is part history story, part picture album, part travelogue, part obituary.
Part history story
The Lincoln Highway was the dream of Carl Fisher, he of Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Miami Beach development fame. He had the vision to imagine a 'Coast to Coast Rock Highway' linking east and west, a highway that simply did not exist in the pre-WWI days of the US.
The highway was wisely planned to start in New York City; the support of New York politicians and NY money were important to make the entire project feasible.
Throughout the book route alterations are noted and reasons why changes were made are discussed. Often as not a chance to cut a mile or ten off the route or to include a city (or state..!!) willing to 'bribe away' the highway route was reason enough for a change.
Also included are the stories of many landmarks, famous hotels, restaurants and diners, and noted citizens; all associated, if only by accident of birth, with the Lincoln Highway.
Part picture album
From the neon lights of Times Square to the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco photographer Michael Williamson captures the beauty of concrete and glass city, green country, and sandy desert equally well. His numerous portraits of the people of the Lincoln Highway make them real in a way that an I-80 truck-stop cashier never could be.
Historical pictures of locations and buildings along the route and old Lincoln Highway guides and ads/promotional pieces all add to the content.
Part travelogue
"Departing Aurora, travelers cross the Fox River and turn north on Illinois 31 through North Aurora, where the road becomes the Lincolnway and leads to Mooseheart, a community with . . .."
There is more than a bit of this 'turn by turn, town to town' writing in the book. Perhaps necessary to gently guide the reader along but never quite enough to crowd out the stories woven into the text.
But even with all the 'driving directions' there are really no maps in the book, other than an overall map of the US, marked with the route and small pictographs of major points along the way. This book should probably not be used as touring guide on the road. It might better serve in an armchair at home than in the front seat on the road.
Part obituary
Luckily this content is a minor part of the book. The demise of the Lincoln Highway is perhaps most obvious in the western states where the wide-open spaces and sparse population of the high plains, mountains, and deserts left little local support for the Lincoln Highway when the coming of the interstates drew all the traffic away.
Throughout the rest of the country local towns, travel, and industry have helped maintain the presence of the highway, even under the economic stresses of the last few decades. In recent years the trend toward remembering and 'saving' our cultural past has reached out to encompass our historical highways and the way of life once so closely intertwined with them.
The Bottom Line
Where we came from has value beyond nostalgia. To remember where we came from and how we got here is to rekindle our sense of who we are and where we are going.
Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast Along Route 30 from Times Square to the Golden Gate is but one slice, one ribbon, one guide to an America that still exists in our small towns, in our neighbors willing to help a traveler, in our wanderlust to discover who we are and to discover our place in this ever-changing land we call America.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
sleeper54
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Member: ...tom...
Location: "Is this Heaven?"......"No. It's Iowa."
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About Me:
Back-in-the-heartland...brief respite before real-world work begins. Hopefully less intensive than I imagine it will be..!!
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