The Great Auto Dash to Puget Sound
A multi-millionaire mining tycoon sponsors a massive automobile race from New York City to Tacoma to boost the dream of a national highway.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
At 1 o'clock on the afternoon of June 1, the contestants in the cross-the-continent automobile race will leave the city hall in New York city for a dash to Puget sound. The race has been promoted by M. Robert Guggenheim, son of Daniel Guggenheim, the multimillionaire miner and promoter, and is held under the auspices of the Seattle Automobile club, with the sanction of the Automobile Club of America. There will be a trophy valued at $2,250 for the winner and trophies and cash prizes aggregating $5,300 to be divided among the first five. T. Francis Moore, an enthusiastic autoist of New York, has been engaged to take charge of the details. The pathfinding cars will survey the routes, and at intervals of five miles, painted signs will be placed indicating the direction and distance. It is the desire that this race and the proposed overland race from New York to San Francisco will be the initial instruments in establishing a great national highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
“It is the desire that this race... will be the initial instruments in establishing a great national highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific.”
This race was an early marketing spectacle to generate political and public demand for a paved, cross-continental highway system. The project reflects the 'Boom' era's obsession with transforming the American landscape to serve the emerging automobile industry.
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