Across the Continent by the Lincoln Highway

by Effie Price Gladding

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Historical

204 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 3, 2010

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book calls to mind the Johnny Cash song “I’ve Been Everywhere” …crossed the deserts bare, man. I’ve breathed the mountain air, man…Pasadena, Catalina, Reno, Colorado, Nebraska, Dayton…I’ve been everywhere. In the introduction Gladding explains that she and “T” (husband) intend to cross the U.S. on the newly opened Lincoln Highway. Her book was published in 1915. After a bit of an awkward statement suggesting they have seen cornbread growing in fields (metaphor) the author settles in and writes a decent book. They start in San Francisco, one of the ends of the highway but immediately take a major detour. They don’t actually get on the LH until 40% of their trip has been described. If you imagine a dragonfly with its head on San Francisco and tail pointing eastward, they first drive up the northern wing in California and then loop back to San Francisco and do another wing loop south on the old Spanish Camino Real to south of Los Angeles then turn northward on the wing before reaching the Lincoln Highway at last. All historically interesting and I’m sure beautiful in its day but definitely not the LH. Gladding is a good observer of nature, history, and historic hotels. And cafeterias! They must have been a relatively new phenomenon as she enthuses over them everywhere she finds them on her trip. I counted at least seven mentions. She was like an early Fodor’s for cafeterias and hotels. Amazingly, many of the hotels are still in existence.

At last they join the road. The LH was not what we’d recognize as a highway today. It was often, clay, sand, grassy pathways, rocky and full of chuck holes. I don’t remember any mention of paving at all. Because the going was slow and towns were few in the West, they often stopped at ranches and asked for food and lodging. She mentions a few breakdowns and getting stuck in mud or streambeds. People in wagons, farmers with heavy horse teams or drivers of the few other automobiles on the road would come to the rescue. They pushed on through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado etc. only to slip off the LH again and detour through WV, Virginia, and Maryland and eventually finish at the Eastern terminus in NJ.

Gladding is observant as to people’s foibles but not critical. She gets accustomed to men without coats or waistcoats in restaurants and to the reply “You Bet!” i.e. Are we on the Lincoln Highway?—“You Bet!” This was quite the adventure. I don’t think improved roads came along until Henry Ford’s Model T’s became readily available to the masses. The author and “T” started out in a Studebaker and switched in Denver to another “machine” as Gladding always called automobiles. They meet the occasional Stutz or Locomobile along the way. I definitely enjoyed her trip.

[Lucky_dog · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know why, but I really like old travel books. This is the story of a cross country trip taken in 1910 on the country's first real "highway", the Lincoln Highway. It describes towns and cities, scenery, road conditions, how travellers secured accommodations, even descriptions of the roads and other travellers they met in cars along the way. It is an interesting insight to automobile travel when most of the traffic was still by horse. What makes it even more impressive for its day was that it was written by a woman. Although at times descriptions were somewhat brief and choppy, I still thoroughly enjoyed it from coast to coast.

[Lauren Hiebner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a travel account of the Lincoln highway starting in California in 1914. The first 40% of the book takes place in California as the author travels from the San Fransisco area down Los Angeles and on to San Diego. Then Gladding heads east through the fertile fields of fruit and vegetables to Bakersfield and Fresno and finally reaches the Lincoln Highway. At this time much of the Lincoln Highway was not paved or bricked but rather dirt, sand, and gravel covered. Sometimes the only way to tell that you were on the Lincoln Highway was a red, white, and blue sign with the letter L on it. All along the route the author is very perceptive in describing what she sees such as; the conditions of the road, the land they travel through, the towns, the homes, ranches, and hotels they lodge in, the food they eat, the flora and fauna they see, the weather, and the fellow travelers they meet on the road. At times she can be quite critical of local foods and people and at other times almost a visionary as to what the future will hold for the lands they travel through. The author identified every type of automobile that they encountered on the road and often than not, they met up with covered wagons pulled by either horses or donkeys containing people going west to California or the Pacific Northwest. So the author traveled from California to New York mostly on the Lincoln Highway with numerous side trips off the road to see the sights. This made for an interesting read to see what traveling in the U.S. was like around 1914.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting. She had good descriptions of every place they visited, and I enjoyed looking at a map to follow along.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

She doesn't give much color commentary on the trip, but it's amazing to read about such a different time! She and her husband were in a car (actually two different ones, you find out at the end), but many others were doing this trip in covered wagons! I really enjoyed the glimpses into life 110 years ago, and took notes for my own upcoming Lincoln Highway trip!