Starting in 1913, the 3,400 mile Lincoln Highway was constructed from Times Square in New York City to San Francisco. This first American transcontinental highway project was an improvement over existing roads and helped usher in the age of the automobile in America. At the time, railroads were still the best way to get across the country. Promoters of the Lincoln Highway had a goal of completing the project by the time San Francisco hosted the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
Thanks to a photo I saw in the December 2011 edition (#40) of the the Donner Summit Historical Society newsletter, I learned about an archive of photos documenting the early years of the Lincoln Highway in Nevada County. The photos are in the Lincoln Highway Digital Image Collection, which is part of the Transportation History Collection in the University of Michigan Special Collections Library. The photos in the Lincoln Highway collection (1910-1927), taken in various locations on the route, were commissioned by the Lincoln Highway Association, a group of businessmen, politicians and other community leaders who promoted the highway to boost tourism and other business along the route. But, then as now, people also were fed up with bad roads.
"In the high Sierras, west of Truckee, California" (1915)
A number of commissioned photos were taken at various times in the picturesque Donner Summit and Donner Lake area. No doubt, the view was impressive enough to merit snapping a picture, but the highway was slightly re-aligned in the mid-1920s on the downgrade just east of Donner Summit and there needed to be a record of those changes.
This was just a few decades after weary pioneers literally pushed, dragged and winched wagons and livestock over the steep and rocky Sierra crest. Until the Lincoln Highway was constructed, many local roads were barely better for travel than the emigrant trails they were built on. In 1915, it was still easier and safer to ride by rail from Colfax to Truckee. Motoring in the Donner Summit area before the 1920s (and even later) was akin to undertaking an expedition into a near-wilderness. It could only be accomplished from June to November. Road hazards were numerous and weather highly changeable in the High Country. There were a few “stations” and towns between Colfax and Truckee, but they were many miles apart. There were no roadside call boxes. If your car broke down in the middle of nowhere, you needed to be prepared to walk a fair distance for help, or camp and wait for help. And until the early 1930s, there were no snow plows to keep the road open in winter and spring. Imagine the ice, ruts, potholes and fallen rocks to negotiate on the road back then!
In the images below, we see “horseless carriages” on a graded gravel road that no doubt took its toll on tires, suspensions, axels and motorists’ spines. The steep inclines took their toll on brakes. Bridges in the area either were creaky and rustic, or very modern and magnificent (Donner Summit Bridge, completed in 1926). Motorists passed under and near the impressive railroad snowsheds, constructed with an enormous amount of timber. There were roadside waterfalls, big rocks, big trees and even bigger vistas to enjoy — and there still are.
The old Lincoln Highway was replaced (starting in 1925) by U.S Route 40. Some of the gravelly Lincoln Highway can be seen around Donner Summit and much of paved Route 40 can be still motored. Today (in good weather), we can swiftly and easily drive the route on the frontage roads beside Interstate 80 from Emigrant Gap to Soda Springs, then along Donner Pass Road from Soda Springs to Truckee, and appreciate the hardships and joys of early motorists cresting the mighty Sierra.
Back in 1915, this journey by car was arduous, often thrilling and occasionally dangerous, but much it was safer than what the emigrants experienced. Progress! No doubt those early motorists reflected on the experiences of the pioneer wagon trains who also traveled here and the poor souls that died en route.
Note: The slideshow below depicts scenes traveling on the Lincoln Highway west to east from roughly Emigrant Gap to the Donner Party Monument just east of Donner Lake. The 1915 photos were attributed to original Lincoln Highway Association members A.F. Bement (LHA’s secretary) and Henry Joy, president of the Packard Motor Car Company. The photo captions are original, except for the dates in parentheses.
Additional links about the Lincoln Highway
• Excellent U.S. Dept. of Transportation history of the Lincoln Highway by Richard F. Weingroff
• Hamilton Auto Atlas of 1914 (motorist maps and photos of Lincoln Highway)
Loving Nevada County 