The 1919 Motor Convoy
1919
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The original caption for this photograph reads: Lemonade-gratis. Townspeople in an unidentified location offered lemonade to military transportation personnel involved in the 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy.
The U.S. War Department had wanted to know if the country’s roads could handle long-distance emergency movements of motorized army units across the nation, since vehicles had played a vital role in World War I. As a test, the convoy of 80 military vehicles and 280 officers and enlisted personnel set out from Washington, DC, to San Francisco, California, along the Lincoln Highway on July 7, 1919.
In the manner of the wilderness scouts of the 19th century, army personnel — mounting Harley-Davidsons instead of horses — ran ahead of the convoy to check out the conditions that lay just ahead. The vehicles broke down; got stuck in dust, quicksand, and mud; and sank when roads and bridges collapsed.
After 62 days, the convoy reached San Francisco. It had covered 3,251 miles, averaging 58 miles a day at an average speed of 6 miles an hour. The official report of the War Department, chronicling the 230 motor accidents of the convoy, concluded that the existing roads in the United States were "absolutely incapable of meeting the present day traffic requirements."
Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower, a 28-year-old officer grown bored with his peacetime posting at Fort Meade, was one of the army observers on the convoy.
The U.S. War Department had wanted to know if the country’s roads could handle long-distance emergency movements of motorized army units across the nation, since vehicles had played a vital role in World War I. As a test, the convoy of 80 military vehicles and 280 officers and enlisted personnel set out from Washington, DC, to San Francisco, California, along the Lincoln Highway on July 7, 1919.
In the manner of the wilderness scouts of the 19th century, army personnel — mounting Harley-Davidsons instead of horses — ran ahead of the convoy to check out the conditions that lay just ahead. The vehicles broke down; got stuck in dust, quicksand, and mud; and sank when roads and bridges collapsed.
After 62 days, the convoy reached San Francisco. It had covered 3,251 miles, averaging 58 miles a day at an average speed of 6 miles an hour. The official report of the War Department, chronicling the 230 motor accidents of the convoy, concluded that the existing roads in the United States were "absolutely incapable of meeting the present day traffic requirements."
Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower, a 28-year-old officer grown bored with his peacetime posting at Fort Meade, was one of the army observers on the convoy.
This primary source comes from the Collection DDE-1038: Still Photograph Collection.
National Archives Identifier: 890219
Full Citation: Photograph 81-17-51; Photograph of the 1919 Motor Convoy; 1919; Photographs Received from the Gettysburg Farm, 1900 - 1978; Collection DDE-1038: Still Photograph Collection; Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Abilene, KS. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/motor-convoy, April 24, 2024]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.