COB STRUCTIOH 03? THE OLD SPANISH TRAIL A RECORD IK ,aCHIEVEIiC'2TT Tho Old Spanish Trail has Icon one of the most difficult to finance and build of all the national trunk lines but something of the dauntless spirit of the padres and of the conquistadores flamed again for the men who' knew this southern borderland country decided the old trails and the new should be welded together into the Ration’s greatest travelway. How it is the most complete arterial highway across the continent and the only one open all tho year. Over $>70,000,000 have been'spent for road.HEs bridge and paving construction. Twenty miles of bridges were completed during 1937 and seventeen miles more wore completed the spring of 1938. Until construction opened the way across the great rivers, bays and drainage basins in the East and the great ranges in the West only a series of uneonnocto ’ roads offers . doubtful chance to cross the continent. Perries that in the past distressed travelers no longer exist._ Two ferries remain, the Mississippi River at Hew Orleans and Berwick Bay at Morgan City, Louisiana, with efficierb service and all-night seherules. In the East the waterways are crossed at points where under-water foundations have boon difficult or where floods spread rivers out miles wide. Two-thirds of tho drainage waters of the continent are crossed by this highway near the Gulf of Mexico where tho accumulated waters are a mighty force. In the .Vest are mountains, vast ranches and plains---all strangely fascinating, but a country so sparsely populated there was little local need for v highway; the force of & national project had to bo cultivated. The engineers, highway commissioners and the men behind the work have risen to high achievement. The spell of the country . is in their blood. They have connected Florida and California thru Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Hew Mexico.and Arizona-—the country of the Gulf cf Mexico and the Mexican Borders They have provided pleasures for the people ever;" day of the year and they have opened the greatest frontier of the Nation to ssttlemait and: investment.