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-AY TIIYIES-UNION, JACKSONVILLE, FI
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LORIDA, SUNDAY, JANUARY 3,
1922.
COAST TO GIST HIGHIUO IE SELECTED OOOI
FRENC
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Despite the fact that this is the :iotor age. that the automobile has | been universally adopted as the high-vohlcle, and that federal, state and county agencies have for several years accelerated road building, actual touring experience shows, according to the American Automobilo Association, that there has not been developed a single transcontinental road making an automobile trip from coast to coast a possibility at nil times. In order to make such a j trip possible throughout the year, program is now taking shape un-I dcr the auspices of the Dec Highway Association, assisted by the A.
I A. A.
As a result of this cooperation the | federal government, through the U. S. bureau of public roads and the state of Virginia. Tennessee. Arkansas. Oklahoma. Texas, New Mexico,
I Arizona and California, through ] thoir state road .departments, are • engaged in the selection of the I most direct feasible route from Washington, D. C., to Snh Diego. California, subsequently, effort is to bo concentrated for the speedy completion of all unfinished sections, ami for the systematic maintenance and widening and strengthening of I tho pavement as required by the volume and character of the traffic the pavement will be required to carry.
Alrcadv the route has been selected from Washington in a southwest diagonal down the valleys of Virginia and Tennessee through Roanoke. Bristol and Knoxville to Chattanooga. to Saji Diego.
November 12. Dr. S. M. Johnson, general director of the. Dee Highway Association, accompanied by an A. A. representative' and a -number, of J ernment offlcals left 'Momplih automobile to Inspect the cross-continent route. having previously completed inspection of routes' from Chattanooga to Memphis. Tho road followed was by wav of Dittle Rock and southern O.nklahoma to Clovis, Roswell and Alamagordo. New Mex-asusst 1 *ro- ^ Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces, Doming and Dordsburg. New Mexico. Duncan. Safford. Glove. Roosevelt Dam, Phoenix, Gila Bend, Wclton and Yuma, Arizona, and Holtville and El Centro to San Diego. Cali.
This newest transcontinental highway is to bear the fitting name of the great Southern chieftain, General Robert E. Leo. Eacli state is to so ’designate it and nut it in the interstate system which is to be created under the now federal aid road act.
In a statement relating to the Lee highway, Director-General Johnson says:
"From practically every county seat In tho series of counties between the national capital and San Diego tho city pavement extends a considerable distance in cither direction, and in many sections the pavement Is continuous for a hundred miles or' morp. This series of pavement is now to Ido connected. Tho road is of primary importance to each state and its completion will bo a main factor the further development of the state. It is a road of great local importance to a sorles of towns and cities stretching across . the continent, and. the connecting of these various sections of pavement will bo a prime factor in the further development of tho nation since it will facilitate interstate travel and promote the free commingling of tho people of the East and tho West. It will probably be shorter than any other southern transcontinental highway and can, thorfnrc, be complete.! re quickly. Within the next three irs, and possible sooner, thoro is »ry reason to anticipate a modern motorway botwen tho capital city of tho nation anti southern California."
The Dee Highway Association i3 one of the young'est of such organizations, having begun its work only, twenty months ago. Headquarters are in Washington. D. C. C. Ii. Huston, assistant secretary of commerce, is president of tho organization. Th* general director. Dr. S. M. Johnson is one of the country's most forceful good roads leaders. It was Dr. Johnson who conceived the idea and who has been tho moving spirt behind tho legislation whereby surplus war property, suitable for highway Improvement and amounting to over $130,000,000 in value, has been turned over by the fedral to tho stato governments.