A Traveler and his Cat exploring America.





Thursday, September 25, 2014

A Good Fence on the Seedling Mile


Grand Island, Nebraska

You may be wondering what is so special about this fence to be on Good Fences?  Or even the fact that it is more of a barrier than a fence.  Well it is there in order to preserve the only remaining
Seedling Mile of the Lincoln Highway in America. 

So what is a Seedling Mile you ask?  The middle paragraph explains it.

This is it. This is all the wider the highway ever was 100 years ago.  In fact the majority of the road from New York to San Francisco was just a rutted dirt track.

So you can well imagine what a relief this must have been for the tourist
to drive on even if for only a single mile in some towns.  

Some people like to go see the big tourist attractions like Times Square, Las Vegas Strip, Niagara Falls, Disney World, but for me it things like this that blows my dress up.
This is history.  This was an important part in the growing of America.
And I enjoyed walking it more than you can imagine.

For more fences go to TexWisGirl's GOOD FENCES







30 comments:

s.c said...

Its beginning to look like the Via Appia in Italy. Another famous way although a bit older.

biebkriebels said...

To walk over a historical road is always special. In Europe we have several of those old roads, each country has its history. But I also liked to walk in Times Square, that is new history for me:)...

Tanya Breese said...

i agree, this would be awesome to see...wow!

Anonymous said...

I can just visualize a circa 1914 roadster moving along that paved road before taking the bounces of the next mile. Thank you for the lesson on road engineering...it was like I was right there.

eileeninmd said...

Great post! I would have liked to see what the area looked like a hundred years ago! Enjoy your day!

Coloring Outside the Lines said...

I love history- this would be super to visit.

Latane Barton said...

I never knew about the Lincoln highway. How neat to discover the last remaining stretch of it and to walk on it. Amazing.

Anonymous said...

Roads are just important now as they were when paving began. Unfortunately, they are not maintained as well as they should be, for the traffic they must endure. As a trucker, Bill encounters far too many dangerous roads and too much ongoing slow construction.

jp@A Green Ridge said...

Old roads are great...gravel are my favorite!...:)JP

TexWisGirl said...

wow. a unique concept of putting these mile patches in place to eventually form a string across the nation. i really liked your heartfelt reaction to it. :)

bj said...

Such a great piece of history.

Anonymous said...

What a neat site! A history lesson for me!

Carola Bartz said...

I do like those places as well - yes, they are history. I would have enjoyed walking that mile as well. What a very special place.
However, I do think Golden Gate Bridge is part of our history as well. And I still get goosebumps when I drive over it, no matter how often I do it.

Karen said...

What an adventure it would have been travelling cross country on that road!

MarkD60 said...

Reminds me of the history of Route 66!

A Colorful World said...

I agree with you...this kind of thing is the real history of America, the story of the people who make this country great! I had never heard of this, and found this a fascinating post!

Ida said...

I just love how blogging helps you learn stuff you would never know about like this. Thank you for sharing. It was very interesting.

Linda Kay said...

Some sections of old Rt 66 have become rutted like the one in your pictures. New highways have been built bypassing some of the ones that till exist. Very interesting.

RedPat said...

Good fence indeed!

theconstantwalker said...

A wonderful post John... many thanks for sharing.

EG CameraGirl said...

This is the sort of thing I like to visit and take photos of too, John. But I'm not a person who is fascinated by glitz...usually.

Karen said...

Nice :)

Anonymous said...

oh great show and tell. Thanks.

Randy said...

It won't keep much out.

Randy said...

It won't keep much out.

Jeanne said...

Wonderful!! I love finding the old treasures. This is a real treasure.

Oakland Daily Photo said...

John, I just love traveling with you to these wonderful places.

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

This would be great to see. great post.

Rose said...

We were driving on some roads the past few days that had no room for passing another car...and no, the big things do not draw me. I love going somewhere and just driving around the backroads and seeing where and how people live.

CJ said...

So interesting --the history of a "seedling mile." I had never heard of that before. I love history, too, so I enjoy learning new (to me) info.

I would bet about 99% of your readers never heard of Grand Island, NE. I used to work for a major cell-phone company. Even though I was in PA, my calls all came from MN, ND, SD, IA and NE. I often talked to customers in Grand Island and needed to refer to maps to see what kind of coverage they should have.

However, I always wondered how the center of NE could have a town with "Island" in its name.