Today's Washington Post has a long article on the Army's first Transcontinental Motor Convoy, from Washington D.C. to San Francisco, 100 years ago today (may be paywalled for non-subscribers):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/07/07/driving-cross-country-was-crazy-idea-an-army-convoy-set-out-show-it-could-be-done/?utm_term=.fcbdf28a1e86
The difficult cross-country trek was an important event in road history, even though it wasn't the first transcontinental auto road trip:
-- The travails of the convoy convinced the Army that if there were an enemy attack on the West Coast, it would be hard to bring in reinforcements.
-- That in turn help promote to the legislation in the 1920s establishing the U.S. routes system.
-- Then Lt. Colonel and later President Dwight D. Eisenhower went along for the ride. The Convoy, and later travels during World War II on Germany's Autobahns, convinced him of the military importance of a well-developed U.S. national highway system, and inspired the Interstate highway system later named for him.
I get the Sunday Post- What section was it in?
^ I saw it on the Post's website. I think a "Retropolis" item would normally appear in Metro, but it's not in my paper either. Maybe tomorrow's?
I saw a similar story on another website I frequent, but it's normally very political, so I did a search for something on a less political site.
The convoy is chronicled in the book American Road. Eisenhower didn't just "go along for the ride", he was second-in-command. And yes, the trip is what first gave Eisenhower the idea for the Interstate highway system.