But the new roads anchored the necessities and aspirations of the car into the public imagination. And the first motel opened in 1926 in San Luis Obispo, California. The first drive-in filling station-as opposed to the curbside pumps-opened in 1905, 1907 or 1913, depending on whom you believe. This process whereby the car fundamentally alters the landscape had begun much earlier. Since you could only get on or off these roads at specified locations, filling stations became little villages with shops and, often, motels attached. The idea of the limited or controlled access highway-the technical terms for these roads-transformed much of the surface of the planet and, by clearing an easy pathway for the car, they created a new way of life. They both believed in dowsing and the latter claimed to be able to sense the geology of the land beneath his feet. And two of the great makers of the system-Fritz Todt and Alwin Seifert-adhered to curious, magical beliefs. The autobahns were to become “the pyramids of the Third Reich”-to be rediscovered a thousand years later as evidence of a glorious civilization. This vast project was woven into Nazi magical thinking. But Hitler correctly saw that there were two sides to people’s transport-the cars and the roads. The Model T had been designed by Ford as a car that could go anywhere because, in 1908, there were few decent roads in America. Having been intended as a Nazi achievement, the postwar Beetle became an emblem of the rebellion of youth against the power of Detroit.īut Hitler achieved something more than just a car, because he began the building of the autobahn system-the precursor of the American interstates and the British motorways. Hitler, when he came to power, pursued the idea of a “people’s car.” This turned out to be the Volkswagen Beetle, but the war intervened and the German people were denied their personal transport system. The global success of the T and its production system signaled to the two dictators and to theorists like the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci that Ford had invented a new form of human organization. Ford had simultaneously perfected mass production-a development eyed with envy by both Hitler and Stalin-and a global market. Cheap and manufactured on a colossal scale in his Highland Park plants in Detroit, the T signified that the car was no longer a toy, it was a useable tool available to nearly everybody. Then, in 1908, Henry Ford produced his Model T. People, in irritation, would cry “Get a horse!” as the clattering machines passed. It was the first sign of the way the car could conquer the wilderness and transform our sense of time and distance.īut it was to remain a curiosity, a rich man’s toy. Most gloriously and most casually-he did it for a $50 bet-in 1903 Horatio Nelson Jackson drove his 2 cylinder, 20 horsepower Winton from San Francisco to New York in less than the 90 days specified by the wager. Of course, there were many signs of what was to come. It was a sensation and a proof of principle - that a viable automobile could be made - but it was to be 23 years before the revolution began.
The following year he drove it through the streets of Mannheim, Germany. The successor to the horse and, for a very short time, the bicycle, the car arrived, by common, though often disputed, consent in 1885 when Karl Benz constructed his Patent-Motorwagen. But now the very existence of the ICE machine is threatened. The car is so prevalent, so commonplace, that we seldom notice how thoroughly it has remade the world. Lists of such things usually include the stirrup and the mobile phone but never the internal combustion engine (ICE). Cars, as an influence on society and culture, are underrated.
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