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A new kind of camping has been sweeping America for decades and becomes more and more popular each year. It is referred to as RVing (Recreational Vehicle-ing). Often fueled by married couples earning double incomes, these comfortable motor homes, exclusive travel trailers, convenient and compact cab-over campers, converted vans and pop-ups, and eloquent Fifth Wheels hit our nation's roadways by the thousands, every day of the year. Running water, furnaces and air-conditioning, microwaves, dual televisions, bathrooms, kitchens and queen-sized beds are only a few of the standards in an RV. These adventurous travelers enjoy their RVs on smooth surface roadways, encountering only an occasional pothole or other roadway obstacle. However, the Nation's first "campers"-the pioneers who migrated west by covered wagon train in the early to late 1800s-did not have today's luxuries and travel was not quite so easy.
Content Notes:
The original format of this document was an active HTML page(s) located under https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/history.cfm. The Federal Highway Administration converted the HTML page(s) into an Adobe® Acrobat® PDF file to preserve and support reuse of the information it contained. The intellectual content of this PDF is an authentic capture of the original HTML file. Hyperlinks and other functions of the HTML webpage may have been lost, and this version of the content may not fully work with screen reading software.
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
The National Road, in many places known as Route 40, was built between 1811 and 1834 to reach the western settlements. It was the first federally fund...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
Charles Henry Davis, who established the National Highways Association in 1911, traveled across the U.S. promoting his Four-Fold Highway System. As a ...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
The National Scenic Byways Program of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, has been in full swing with 309 projects ...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
Fifty-seven miles of rustic carriage roads weave around the mountains and through the valleys of Maine's Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island. ...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
In early colonial times, letter writers sent their correspondence by friends, merchants and Native Americans via foot or horseback. Most of this corre...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
As you travel toward the historic city of Cumberland, Maryland on I-68 from either direction, you will see a mountain ahead in the distance that makes...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
On February 13, 2003, Cheryl Cattledge, Civil Rights Specialist and member of the FHWA Black History Committee, sponsored a Luncheon Program entitled ...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
Many of our Nation's roadways were once dirt and mud paths until the early to mid–1800s. A modern movement at that time called for the building of w...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
South Dakota-named for the early inhabitants, the great Dakotah (later Dakota) Sioux Indians-has more than 83,000 miles of roadway and 5,900 bridges. ...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
Canals have a long history of providing drinking water, irrigation, and opportunities for travel. In the United States, canal building began in the 17...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
Fortunately, we rarely hear of traffic accidents involving buses, trains, or other highway public transportation vehicles. However, we sometimes hear ...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
Route 66 was built in the early 1900s and linked hundreds of rural communities from Chicago to Kansas to Los Angeles. Route 66 was popular for transpo...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
More than 155 years ago one of the worst tragedies in American travel occurred during the westward migration. The 1840s wagon train journey to Califor...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
The bloodiest battle of the Civil War took place on September 17, 1862, on Antietam Creek near the small town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. Four hours of i...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
A brief history of cooperation between highway officials and archaeologists involved in highway construction to preserve archaeological and historic m...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
A brief history of Mississippi State highways, including information about road construction, key legislation and funding sources, and the impact of t...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
Running parallel to the Mississippi River, Missouri's Highway 79 once linked riverboat boomtowns in Louisiana. Many of the mansions and businesses of ...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
A little piece of water transportation history is alive, well and operating in many towns and cities across America. Included is the small village of ...
2023-06-30 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
In American, covered bridges were first built in the 1800s as a free alternative to merchant run ferries for travelers looking to cross rivers and cre...
United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
2023-06-01 | FHWA Highway History Website Articles
Abstract:
Memorandum on key statements made by Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower towards General John S. Bragdon about the Interstate Highway Program on fun...
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