OLD SPANISH TRAIL
ACHIEVEMENTS
TPROM 1915 TO 1922 WERE YEARS of dis-I coui'aging effort to establish a highway from sea to sea that could and would be built despite the fact it must be tied together across rivers, bays, plains, mountains and deserts, and must commit the States and the United States to more than one hundred millions of dollars for its construction.
IN 1922 SUCCESS WAS ATTAINED—the J- Old Spanish Trail was established as a Federal and State Highway from St.Augustine to San Diego. War Department recognition of military necessity was secured. Senators and Congressmen declared it of basic importance in the national interest. Recognition by the people of its primary importance followed and funds were made available from many sources.
TODAY there have been expended for construction §35,000,000 including §7,900,000 of road and bridge construction in progress. 830,000,000 more will be needed before construction is adequate to travel requirements.
FIFTY MILES of bridging over waterways and drainage basins are required. Bridges are completed or financed from the Atlantic to Mobile Bay, and from the Pacific to the Sabine River at the Texas-Louisiana state line.
HAVE PUBLISHED for distribution to members, travelers and inquirers 40,000 service and general maps; 20,000 travelogs; 10,000 four-color lithograph wall maps; 50,-000 miscellaneous leaflets and booklets.
OLD SPANISH HISTORY has been searched, edited and written covering three centuries from Florida to Mexico and California for magazine, publication and educational purposes.
Magazine and feature articles
have reached a circulation of over 4,000, 000 people.
OLD SPANISH TRAIL
'THE HIGHWAY AND ITS LITERATURE ■*- are used as text for teaching southern physical geography and old history in the public schools of the United States.
ROUTE MARKING has been extended over 2,000 miles of highway.
WE HAVE ORGANIZED the Department of Beautification, directed by the women, to preserve and promote the beauties of the highway and its countryside, sign historical places, promote travel comforts and pleasures, and to secure laws and prevent the roadside advertising abuse.
yERO MILESTONES have been placed at t-‘ San Diego and at San Antonio, and one will be fixed at St. Augustine. An interstate’ committee is seeking a design for an intermediate milestone of an historical character.
THE PAST has been largely a work of establishing the highway and of definitely committing the highway departments and the people to its construction.
THE PRESENT is a work of gathering, printing and distributing travel information; of building up travel comforts in the communities along the highway; of keeping the work of construction and re-construction constantly in progress; of drawing people to these 'southern borderlands and of making their visit pleasant.
THE DAY will never come when the Old Spanish Trail work is done.
WORK THAT IS NECESSARY
All plans contingent upon funds made available to meet the costs.
OOUTHERN TRUNKLINE SYSTEM wall O maps. 10,000 lithograph maps of this south country are needed, showing in colors the Old Spanish Trail and the main traveled trunklines feeding southward; also showing the cities, towns, waterways, attractions and development that all may know how to enjoy