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Military tanks on us freeways9/19/2023 The 81-vehicle convoy-which included ambulances, tanker trucks, field kitchens, passenger cars carrying reporters and automotive company representatives, searchlight trucks and even a five-ton trailer hauling a pontoon boat christened Mayflower II-traveled all of four hours before problems began. On the morning of July 7, 1919, the great “motor truck train” slowly rumbled due west out of Washington, D.C., following an elaborate dedication ceremony for the Zero Milestone, the point from which all highway miles to the nation’s capital are to be measured, just south of the White House. Prodded by automakers, gasoline companies and tire manufacturers, the military saw the convoy as a way to both test the capabilities of the Army’s Motor Transport Corps and highlight the poor state of America’s roads. The War Department viewed the cross-country caravan-undertaken just months after the end of World War I-as part victory lap, part publicity stunt. Sixty miles an hour remained a daredevil’s dream, and many roads could only be traversed at the pace of a brisk walk. Dirt roads could be muddy quagmires or sun-baked into teeth-chattering ruts. ![]() Nothing of the sort had ever been attempted.” At the dawn of the motor age, drivers were more apt to encounter roads to nowhere rather than the open road. ![]() “To those who have known only concrete and macadam highways of gentle grades and engineered curves, such a trip might seem humdrum,” Eisenhower wrote in “At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends.” “In those days, we were not sure it could be accomplished at all. Captain Dwight Eisenhower stands next to a tank at Camp Meade, Maryland in 1919.
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