Railways was Re: [AT] Gasoline $

[Don Bowen]

At 8/12/2005, you wrote:
>As Charlie said in a post earlier today
>it was trucks that lead to the demise of the intra state rail network ...
>however, I don't think that would have happened had it not been for the
>interstate highways.

Eisenhower was part of the US Army Convoy that travelled from Washington DC 
to San Francisco over the Lincoln Highway in 1920.  It was a grueling trip 
with roads not even marked in many places, bridges that could not hold even 
a light command car, and mud holes that could hold even the best tractors 
firmly in place.  During WWII he noticed how fast the Germans could move 
troops and how the US railways were a constant bottle neck.  So he launched 
a huge public works project, the US Interstate Highway system.

Much of the western end of the Lincoln Highway is now US 50.  In Nevada it 
is called the loneliest highway and I believe it.  About a month ago I 
drove US 50 and spent theee miserable days with a bad case of food 
poisoning.  One of those days was spent in a truck stop parking lot puking.

Don Bowen                          Awl Knotted Up

My travel journal
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html

My present location is the star on the map in the link below
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?latlongtype=decimal&latitude=39.16742&longitude=-119.76702