Did you know that railroads
carried the coffin to their own funeral?
Did you know that railroads
carried the coffin to their own funeral?
America's Railroads, during the World War I era, thought automobiles
and trucks would always be subservient to the rails; that these
flimsy conveyances would be limited to a distance of 30 to 40
miles over the rutted, muddy paths that passed for roads. So they
petitioned legislatures for paved roads, so farmers would be able
to deliver produce to the railhead quicker in their Model T's.
But the smooth roads had the opposite effect, leading to the birth
of the trucking industry, which soon was competing with railroads
for long hauls. By the mid-1920s, the beleaguered railroads began
abandoning lines.
