BUILDING A HIGHWAY (1948, 10:18)
The process of construction of a two lane intrastate highway 1940s style, from breaking ground to surface finishing, is here exposed.
CALIFORNIA STATE HIGHWAY 101 OPENING (1929, 3:42 [Silent])
Newsreel footage of the extraordinary events surrounding the opening of the San Francisco - San Mateo County highway, including 50,000 people attending a parade from the San Francisco Civic Center, San Francisco Mayor James "Sunny Jim" Rolph & various aerial dignitaries.
CAUGHT MAPPING (1940, 8:50)
How road maps were created in the 1940s, with special emphasis on the importance of "road scouts" in checking drawn maps before they are approved for printing.
CONQUERING ROADS (1937, 8:48)
The complicated world of 1930s era intrastate highway engineering, complete with quaintnesses like traffic circles, venerables like cloverleaf junctions, and inevitables like good-ole railroad trestles.
FREEDOM OF THE AMERICAN ROAD (1955, 26:40)
In an effort to drum up support for the Interstate Highway System, Henry Ford II introduced this film to present the efforts of communities throughout the United States to improve their roads and highways - from San Francisco Bay to Boston's Route 128, from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania to St. Joseph Missouri, and those points in-between. A fine film with classic shots of classic cars & motorways.
GIVE YOURSELF THE GREEN LIGHT (1954, 24:07)
The grand color film General Motors sponsored to convince the entire country that the Interstate Highway system was in the best interests of the country at large and the communities it traversed in particular. Simply outstanding!
HENRY FORD'S MIRROR (1962, 35:58)
Rare, extraordinary archival footage from the Ford Film Collection of the history, culture, manufacturing techniques and the life of automotive man between approximately 1915 and 1930, with particular emphasis on early film manufacture, early New York City, Coney Island, rail and trolly traffic, World War I tanks, classic early automobile and roadway footage, archetypical crash and stunt film, early Ford airplanes & more!
HIGHWAY HEARING (1956, 29:32)
The fictional town of Connorsville is to be tranversed by a superhighway, and the resistance of the locals is overcome by highway offiicials who convince them at a town meeting that it's all for the best of the community.
LINCOLN HIGHWAY DEDICATION (1915, 1:03)
My beloved Lincoln Highway (I grew up in Edison, New Jersey, which it traverses), the very first transcontintental interstate highway, and which begins at Columbus Circle in New York City, is here historically dedicated at its terminus in Lincoln Park in San Francisco.
TO NEW HORIZONS (1940, 22:59)
THIS is the complete renowned motion picture that the famous 1939 World's Fair "World of Tomorrow" films clips of futuristic cars travelling on far-out superhighways of "the wonder world of 1960" (!) that you've seen in so many documentaries come from. Simply a must-see!
WHEELS OF PROGRESS (1927, 13:41 [Silent])
A Jazz Age restrospective of American transportation intended to suggest the pressing need for more & better road systems.