There’s no easier way to see America than from behind a steering wheel. The US highway network snakes from coast to coast and connects bustling cities across wide open landscapes. Today, Americans are renowned for taking big trips in big cars on big roads, and the country’s love affair with four wheels began with its very first automobiles.
Click through this gallery to discover historic images from America’s automotive past...
Carl Benz patented the first gasoline-powered motor car in Germany in 1886, and American engineer Charles Duryea built his own version of the new invention in the early 1890s – the first ever made in the US. That car went on to win America’s first motor race in Chicago in 1895, completing a 54-mile (87km) course in seven hours and 53 minutes. The following year, Charles and his brother (pictured here in their creation) produced another 13 models for paying customers, making the Duryea Motor Wagon America’s first commercial automobile. The new industry grew quickly, and by 1899 there were 30 other car manufacturers in the US.
At the turn of the 20th century, cars remained a rare sight on the roads since only the very rich could afford them. After buying their new rides, most of these wealthy car owners joined the American Automobile Association (AAA), which was founded in 1902. This exclusive club campaigned to improve the condition of roads, most of which were still little more than dirt tracks churned up by horse hooves and carriage wheels. The AAA also printed road maps and hotel guides, and officiated America’s first motor races.
In the spring of 1903, physician Horatio Nelson Jackson accepted an unusual wager – to cross the United States from west to east by car for the very first time. He accepted the bet despite not owning a vehicle and enlisted the help of mechanic Sewall Crocker, who helped him purchase a 20-horsepower touring car that he named 'The Vermont'. The journey took 63 days to complete, and Jackson and Crocker arrived in New York to great fanfare. The media were particularly taken with Bud, a bulldog the pair had purchased in Idaho as a travelling companion. They had given the dog – pictured here in front of the steering wheel – goggles to wear to keep the dust out of his eyes.
Although American factories churned out 25,000 new cars in 1905, the supply of vehicles wasn’t large enough to justify a national network of dealerships. Instead, cars were mostly exhibited by enterprising store owners alongside other wares, with the occasional standalone showroom like this one at Smith and Mabley's in New York. From left to right, this photo shows the 1905 Panhard, the 1905 Mercedes and the 1905 S&M Simplex.
William Durant was initially suspicious of motor vehicles. As a manufacturer of horse-drawn carriages, he was afraid the internal combustion engine would drive him out of business. But Durant eventually embraced the new technology and set up his own car factory in Flint, Michigan. He quickly expanded his business by buying up competitors, including Oldsmobile, Buick and later Cadillac. The 1908 Buick seen in this photo was one of the first produced after Durant brought multiple brands under a single holding company named General Motors.
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Detroit engineer Henry Ford shipped the first of his Model T cars to a paying customer in 1908. Five years later, when this photo was taken, the Model T was already America’s best-selling automobile. Ford was responsible for a number of design innovations that made his Model T easier to drive and maintain, and he embraced publicity stunts like driving a Model T up the steps of the Tennessee Capitol and to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado.
Early car dealer and Indianapolis Motor Speedway owner Carl Fisher knew that road conditions quickly worsened once motorists left major towns and cities. His solution was a single paved road stretching coast to coast from New York to San Francisco. The Lincoln Highway, named after Abraham Lincoln, cost around $10 million and was designated in 1913, though work continued on the road for many years. In this photo workers are putting up signs on the highway in Salt Lake City in 1918.
In the summer of 1919, bored military officer Dwight D Eisenhower volunteered for an unusual duty – escorting a military convoy from Washington DC to San Francisco, California. The epic road trip took 62 days at an average of 52 miles (84km) a day, and it opened the future president’s eyes to the shoddy state of America’s roads. Even the Lincoln Highway was already pocked by ruts and potholes, and the convoy got stuck in ditches and trapped by low bridges. Eisenhower would later take the lead in creating the Interstate system.
General Motors founder William Durant was kicked out of the company in a 1920 boardroom coup, but he returned to the auto industry almost immediately by forming a new company, Durant Motors, which settled in Detroit. Detroit was already the hub of American car manufacturing and was home to General Motors, Ford and several other car makers. Detroit would enjoy a 50-year boom as America’s 'Motor City' until its factories began to close in the 1980s. This photo shows workers waiting for trolley cars outside Ford's Highland Park plant.
In 1921, now under pressure from US Army generals as well as car drivers, the government finally took an interest in the country’s roads. The Federal Aid Highway Act funnelled federal funding into the development of a national highway system that linked the states together. Perhaps most importantly, all these new roads were to be paved – unlike the dirt track seen here trapping a delivery truck – and the 1920s went on to be a golden age for road-building.
By the early 1920s, more than half the cars in the world were Ford Model Ts. In all, more than 15 million were built thanks to Henry Ford’s innovative production system – a rolling assembly line in which each worker had a very specific task. Assembly lines soon became the standard method for complex manufacturing – including for other car companies. Two years after this photo was taken, with new vehicle varieties catching the eyes of customers, the last Model T rolled out of the Ford factory.
In the 1930s, car drivers started ranging further afield. Many used their vehicles for road-trip vacations, and the best way to make the most of the open road was to sleep on it. RVs and towed trailers like these Curtiss Aerocars offered a slice of luxury with sleeping berths, observation decks and sometimes even running water. They were often used to explore America's ever-growing network of national parks.
American cars underwent a makeover in the 1930s, when boxy designs were replaced by more streamlined models engineered in wind tunnels. The pioneer of this sleek new look was the Chrysler Airflow, which launched in 1934, although its groundbreaking design initially put off potential customers. The Airflow was dropped after just three years, but other manufacturers soon adopted its futuristic shape.
After the 1929 Wall Street Crash, America slumped into the Great Depression – a decade of severe economic downturn that led to huge increases in unemployment and poverty – and President Franklin D Roosevelt took office in 1933 with a plan to tackle the crisis. This plan included spending hundreds of millions of dollars on large-scale building projects. Many roads were built as part of Roosevelt’s New Deal, like the Lake Merced Parkway Boulevard in San Francisco, seen here being built by labourers with pickaxes and wheelbarrows.
Explore these fascinating images of America’s Great Depression
One of the great American roads, Route 66 was established in 1926, when a national system of numbered highways came into effect. The 2,400-mile (3,862km) road began in Chicago and rolled through the Great Plains to Los Angeles. A popular route for westbound migrants and tourists who enjoyed the spectacular scenery, Route 66 hit the big time in 1946 thanks to Bobby Troup’s iconic song of the same name, later covered by The Rolling Stones on their debut album.
In 1940 a 162-mile (261km) stretch of road opened that was unlike any other in the United States. The Pennsylvania Turnpike was a four-lane, high-speed highway modelled on Germany’s autobahns. Drivers had to enter and exit the Turnpike via ramps and paid a toll for access, but its smooth, speedy surface was so popular that it became a model during America’s post-war roadbuilding boom.
The number of cars in the United States more than doubled between 1945 and 1955, reaching a total of 52.1 million. With more people on the roads, American cities began to sprawl beyond their old boundaries. Middle-class families left overpopulated city centres in search of more space, and soon millions of new homes were built in the suburbs. These homes were still well-connected thanks to the cars that invariably sat in their driveways, as in this newly-built suburb in Queens, New York.
The population shift from urban to suburban had a knock-on effect on commerce. Many retailers followed their customers to the suburbs, where land prices and rents were lower. Shopping malls provided vast, free car parks that often had a bigger footprint than the stores themselves, and car owners appreciated the proximity and the ability to drive from door to door.
The boom in post-war car ownership and the rise of suburbia came with an unforeseen consequence that would become a bane of American life: the traffic jam. As workers commuted to and from downtown, long lines of cars ground urban roads to a halt. This queue into Philadelphia off the Ben Franklin Bridge became a daily event; one that was – and to some degree still is – replicated in almost every American city.
During the 1950s American youths got into cars in a big way, especially in Southern California. In some communities this quickly became a race to see who had the fastest and flashiest ride, and many kids souped up their cars with spare parts. These so-called 'hot rods' often raced against each other – sometimes in organised competitions along SoCal’s dried up lake beds, sometimes in illegal street races.
In 1956 President Dwight D Eisenhower – who had slogged across America by road in 1919 – signed a new law into effect. The Federal-Aid Highway Act funded the creation of a new Interstate network of roads with uniform signage and construction specifications, like this new stretch in Lawrence in Kansas. Eisenhower’s hope was that the Interstates would be safer and speedier for drivers, stimulate economic growth and ensure that the American military could quickly traverse the country in a national emergency.
Eisenhower’s reforms led to a sweeping construction boom, but it came at a cost. Almost half a million homes were demolished to make way for highways as they carved into cities, and African-American neighbourhoods were particularly badly hit. Some African-American communities like this one in San Francisco were deliberately isolated by a ring of asphalt and concrete, making it harder for residents to travel.
As America became increasingly embroiled in the Cold War, car designers were increasingly inspired by rockets and jet aircraft. New models featuring decorative tailfins hit the road, and, as the 1950s progressed, an automotive cold war developed as manufacturers strove to build the biggest and most flamboyant rear ends. The tailfin era reached a garish pinnacle with the 1959 Cadillac de Ville, pictured here.
Nothing symbolised the convenience of the car more than motels. These small, family-owned businesses like the Royal Anchor in Old Orchard Beach, Maine (pictured here), attracted drivers with the promise of roadside rooms with on-site parking. Some enticed guests to stay for longer periods with pools and sun loungers, while others served long-distance travellers and were little more than a bed and a bathroom.
A brand-new car remained out of reach for a lot of post-war Americans, but many families got their first taste of the open road with a second-hand model. Used car lots sprang up across the country to cater to the growing number of people wanting or needing wheels. Fast-talking salesmen soon developed reputations for slippery business practices, but without used car dealers like this one in Arlington, Virginia, many Americans would not have been able to drive.
More cars on the roads led – perhaps inevitably – to a dramatic increase in car accidents. In the early 1960s there were barely any proper safety regulations on American roads, and in 1965, 5.3 Americans were killed for every 100 million miles of car travel (for context, in 2019 that number was 1.1). Ralph Nader's 1965 best-seller Unsafe At Any Speed alerted the general public to the poor safety features of American cars, and the following year President Lyndon B Johnson began a crusade to clean up the road. New legislation steadily made seat belts and airbags mandatory, and over the next six decades fatality rates would drop by more than 80%.
American auto manufacturing entered a golden age in the 1960s and 1970s with a succession of lightweight, high-powered machines that remain iconic today, such as the Chevrolet Corvette, the Dodge Charger and the Ford Mustang (pictured here). Their big-block V8 engines gave drivers unprecedented horsepower, but speed came at a cost. Muscle cars, as the high-performance vehicles were nicknamed, were thirsty beasts with atrocious fuel economies.
By the early 1970s, America was hooked on gasoline – but the country’s addiction to big engines caused enormous problems when war in the Middle East in 1973 sparked oil shortages around the world. Gas prices jumped and many filling stations couldn’t get enough to keep up with demand, leading to long lines at the pumps, as seen in this photo of a gas station in Brooklyn, New York.
In the aftermath of the 1973 Oil Crisis, car buyers switched from gas guzzlers to more fuel-efficient models, and when American manufacturers couldn’t ramp up production quickly enough customers looked to foreign manufacturers to plug the gap. Japan was the biggest beneficiary and the Toyota Corolla became the world’s best-selling car in 1974, while sales of Honda Civics more than doubled in the US between 1973 and 1975.
Over the course of a century, the automobile became a deep-rooted part of the American psyche. The average American drives far further each year than the average European, and now there are almost the same number of cars in the US as there are Americans old enough to drive them. Although electric power, self-driving vehicles and smart highways may fundamentally alter the way we drive, the American love affair with the car looks set to continue for a long time yet.
Now check out these astonishing images of America's earliest railroads