According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a road trip is “a long trip in a car, truck, etc.” and the world’s first recorded long distance trip in a car happened in August 1888 when the wife of Karl Benz, the inventor of the first patented motor car (the Benz Patent-Motorwagen), travelled 66 miles from Mannheim to Pforzheim in a car that had approximately a 10 mph maximum speed.
Fifteen years later, Horatio Nelson Jackson, Sewall Crocker, and a dog named Bud took the first “Great American Road Trip” after someone bet Jackson $50 that he couldn’t make it to New York City from San Francisco by car in less than 90 days. Challenge accepted, Jackson purchased a Winton touring car he nicknamed “Vermont” and set off for the first American road trip. (Jackson DID win his wager and made it to New York City with almost a month to spare— although it cost him $8,000 in the process.)
Where would you stop on YOUR road trip? This 1963 map outlines all the top attractions in each of the 50 states, including Plymouth Rock and Provincetown Monument—two landmarks that highlight our country’s earliest beginnings!
