After more than two decades of bill introductions and debate, Congress finally agreed upon a way to improve the nation's highways and to make travel by car a much less formidable "adventure" due to the preponderance of unpaved dirt paths across the country at the time that were called roads. In 1916, Dorsey William Shackleford (D-MO) introduced a bill in the House of Representatives that called for Federal aid to be made available to States for the construction of rural postal roads. The bill was amended to include provisions for highway aid as well. Full implementation of the bill's financial aid was delayed, however, by World War I.
In 1921, Congress passed the Federal Aid Highway Act (introduced in the Senate by Lawrence C. Phipps (R-CO)). The Highway Act provided further Federal financial support for highway construction by individual states, The funds supported the construction of the nation-spanning Lincoln Highway and Victory Highway - the two were the nation's first transcontinental highways, stretching from New York to California. (They have since been replaced by more modern highways, most notably by the current Route 80, but are an important part of the history of the US highway system.)
The Lincoln Highway started in Times Square in New York City. It passed through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California, ending in Lincoln Park in San Francisco. It stretched through 12 states.
(Note: The Lincoln Highway eventually included a branch into Colorado.)Lincoln Highway Marker in Fallsington, Bucks County, PA
(Image Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Public Domain.) The Victory Highway also started in New York City and connected to San Francisco, CA. In between, the road passed through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah and Nevada. It generally followed a route south of the Lincoln Highway through 14 states.
Lincoln Highway and Victory Highway Map
(Image Credit: Cosmos Mariner (Photographer), The Historical marker Database. Fair use; education.)Side Note: The idea for a transcontinental stone road named after Abraham Lincoln is rooted in the vision of Carl Fisher who, in 1912, envisioned a gravel road - originally, the Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway - that would have New York City, NY and San Francisco, CA as its east and west, respectively, terminal points. The road construction project was to use a combination of private funds and local government-supplied equipment. The roadway was to be completed in time for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco to make it easier for those who desired to travel to the Exposition by auto to do so. The project did not reach/sustain its funding goals, however, and was not completed. Before the project engaged Federal funds, it had been decided to name the roadway the "Lincoln Highway." The completion of the highways was cause for celebration at the time. While ceremonies were held in multiple states, Nevada went a step above and held a dedicated exposition - the "Nevada Transcontinental Highways Exposition."
The Exposition was held in Reno from June 25, 1927 through July 31, 1927 and featured exhibits from most Nevada Counties, as well as from neighboring states - especially California.
(Side Note: The famous "Reno Arch" that welcomes folks to "The Biggest Little City in the World" was originally built in 1926 to promote the Exposition.) In addition to celebrating the opening of the highways, the Exposition also previewed/promoted the coming growth of tourism in the State via tourists arriving by automobile.
In December 1925, Senator Key Pittman (D-NV) introduced a coin bill that sought silver half dollars "in commemoration of the completion of the Lincoln Highway and the Victory Highway under the Federal Highway Act, which event is to be celebrated by an exposition to be known as the 'Nevada Transcontinental Highways Exposition,' to be held at Reno, Nevada, in 1927, and to assist the exposition to provide funds for the accommodation of Federal exhibits." The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency; a companion bill was introduced in the House in January 1926 by Representative Samuel Shaw Arentz (R-NV) and referred to the House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures.
The bills called for the striking of up to one million (!) half dollars for the benefit of the Nevada Transcontinental Highways Exposition of Reno, NV. The bills' language did not include a requirement for a specific date/year to appear on the coins, a defined period for the striking of the coins or any restrictions on coin orders other than they had to be paid for prior to delivery. Such a lack of specific details was not uncommon for coin bills of the time. The large number of coins authorized coupled with the bill's open-ended language allowed for the potential of coins to be struck at multiple US Mint facilities over the course of several years - such "loose" language had not yet been exploited by coin sponsors, however, but that changed with the Oregon Trail Memorial Association program that began in 1926!
Neither of the bills was reported out of Committee or considered further by its respective chamber. Maybe Congress believed the tens of millions of dollars it had already contributed to the construction of the Lincoln and Victory Highways was enough? When the 69th Congress adjourned, the Lincoln Highway commemorative coin bills slipped quietly into "failed" history.
For more of my topics on commemorative coins and medals, including many more What If? stories, see:
Commems Collection.
Posted 03/14/2023 12:40 pm
