Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
September 6, 1919 The U.S. Army’s Cross-Country Motor Transport Train arrived in San Francisco, completing a transcontinental trip of 3,251 miles (5,232 kilometers) that began on July 7 in Washington, D.C. On the evening of September 6, convoy commander Lieutenant Charles W. McClure formally confirmed the end of this historic journey in a telegram that... Continue Reading →
August 26, 1919 The U.S. Army’s Cross-Country Motor Transport Train, having crossed over into Nevada from Utah just a couple of days earlier, spent much of August 26 continuing to slog through what would be the toughest section of the entire transcontinental journey. “U.S. TRUCK TRAIN MIRED IN NEVADA DESERT,” proclaimed a headline in the... Continue Reading →
August 19, 1919 Just a couple of days after crossing from Wyoming to Utah, the U.S. Army’s Cross-Country Motor Transport Train took eight-and-a-half hours to travel 73 miles (117.5 kilometers) from its overnight stay at Glenwood Park in Ogden to Salt Lake City. The imminent stopover of the convoy in Utah’s state capital was awaited... Continue Reading →
August 12, 1919 The U.S. Army’s Cross-Country Motor Transport Train, four days after arriving in Wyoming and making its first stop in the capital city of Cheyenne, continued to snake its way through the south-central part of the Equality State. After camping for the night on a hillside south of the town of Medicine Bow,... Continue Reading →
July 29, 1919 One week after the U.S. Army’s Cross-Country Motor Transport Train traveled across the Mississippi River via the High Bridge to enter Iowa, this convoy crossed over the Missouri River to leave the Hawkeye State and journey through neighboring Nebraska for several days. The convoy departed the Iowa city of Council Bluffs at... Continue Reading →
July 15, 1919 The U.S. Army’s Cross-Country Motor Transport Train, just over a week after leaving Washington, D.C., to embark on its pioneering transcontinental journey, was traveling through Ohio and struggling with the aftereffects of heavy rain that threatened to significantly slow down the convoy. The California-bound procession of vehicles had crossed over into Ohio... Continue Reading →
July 8, 1919 [This post is the first in a series of history pieces celebrating 100 years of The U.S. Army’s Cross-Country Motor Transport Train.] The U.S. Army’s Cross-Country Motor Transport Train, making its way from Maryland and into Pennsylvania, completed the first full day of its ambitious and unprecedented journey across the United States.... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 