Stretching over 2,400 miles along the East Coast--from remote, forested northern Maine to bucolic, artsy Key West--U.S. Route 1 is one of America's most historic but long-ignored highways. While roads such as the decommissioned Route 66 have found their way into American pop culture through songs, books, and TV shows, Route 1 is largely forgotten while it still thrums with life as thousands navigate it each day. This eclectic road started as a pathway for patriots trying to launch a new nation and ultimately became one of the country's most important thoroughfares as the automobile arrived early in the 20th century. Because of its unique position along the East Coast, it is a critical lens through which to observe how what was once known to Europeans as the New World has evolved over centuries.Early in the summer of 2014, I set out to drive every inch of this road. My goal was to experience a road trip similar to the car journeys of my early youth, and to witness for myself what the so-called New World had become some four centuries after pilgrims began landing here. After a lifetime living on a tight schedule as a daily newspaper journalist and as a senior manager in corporate America, I resolved to set out with no itinerary. My only goal was to drive the road while absorbing the stories of the people who live along the thoroughfare and to experience the diverse geography through which the highway twists and turns. Over two weeks I found myself in situations ranging from the exhaust-filled canyons of The Bronx to the wide-open expanses of the Carolinas to an intimate meeting with a deer in Maine. Among the people who spoke with me were a Baptist minister in South Carolina, a policeman in Camden Yards ballpark in Baltimore, and the curator of a historical museum in Key West. I woke up each day with no real plan for my journey and went to sleep each night amazed at what Route 1 showed me. And it was during a quick stop in Boston to visit my two sons on the third day of the trip that I began to understand what I was trying to do. When they pressed me for answers about why I had launched my whimsical journey, I finally arrived at one response: I have always been in love with this diverse country and--through my drive--I wanted to leave my sons with some sort of snapshot of the 21st century America none of us sees on the news each night or reads about in the news each day. It was a simple goal, but I found so much more. So I decided to share my experience in this book.Travelogues have always fascinated me. Whether it was the epic story of a man who journeyed to and walked on the moon or the humorous tale of a middle-aged man trying to hike a 2,000-mile trail, I have always reveled in narratives that helped me see a journey through a travelers' eyes and words. None of us can go everywhere to experience all the sights and sounds of our beautiful planet. We must rely on the stories of men and women who went places and took their time to tell us their stories. It is my hope to add the story of my trip to this valuable collection of travel and history literature.

Describes such Route 1 highlights as restaurants, roadside curiosities, historic sites, and well-known local characters

Fully revised and updated edition. Filled with all-new vintage postcards and photos. Maps for travelers following the original route.

A VIVID AND FASCINATING LOOK AT AMERICAN HISTORY THROUGH THE PRISM OF THE COUNTRY’S MOST STORIED HIGHWAY, THE BOSTON POST ROAD During its evolution from Indian trails to modern interstates, the Boston Post Road, a system of over-land routes between New York City and Boston, has carried not just travelers and mail but the march of American history itself. Eric Jaffe captures the progress of people and culture along the road through four centuries, from its earliest days as the king of England’s “best highway” to the current era. Centuries before the telephone, radio, or Internet, the Boston Post Road was the primary conduit of America’s prosperity and growth. News, rumor, political intrigue, financial transactions, and personal missives traveled with increasing rapidity, as did people from every walk of life. From post riders bearing the alarms of revolution, to coaches carrying George Washington on his first presidential tour, to railroads transporting soldiers to the Civil War, the Boston Post Road has been essential to the political, economic, and social development of the United States. Continuously raised, improved, rerouted, and widened for faster and heavier traffic, the road played a key role in the advent of newspapers, stagecoach travel, textiles, mass-produced bicycles and guns, commuter railroads, automobiles—even Manhattan’s modern grid. Many famous Americans traveled the highway, and it drew the keen attention of such diverse personages as Benjamin Franklin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, P. T. Barnum, J. P. Morgan, and Robert Moses. Eric Jaffe weaves this entertaining narrative with a historian’s eye for detail and a journalist’s flair for storytelling. A cast of historical figures, celebrated and unknown alike, tells the lost tale of this road. Revolutionary printer William Goddard created a postal network that united the colonies against the throne. General Washington struggled to hold the highway during the battle for Manhattan. Levi Pease convinced Americans to travel by stagecoach until, half a century later, Nathan Hale convinced them to go by train. Abe Lincoln, still a dark-horse candidate in early 1860, embarked on a railroad speaking tour along the route that clinched the presidency. Bomb builder Lester Barlow, inspired by the Post Road’s notorious traffic, nearly sold Congress on a national system of expressways twenty-five years before the Interstate Highway Act of 1956. Based on extensive travels of the highway, interviews with people living up and down the road, and primary sources unearthed from the great libraries between New York City and Boston—including letters, maps, contemporaneous newspapers, and long-forgotten government documents—The King’s Best Highway is a delightful read for American history buffs and lovers of narrative everywhere.

Route 128 traces its origins to the late 1920s, when the Massachusetts Department of Public Works cobbled together a makeshift network of existing roads through Boston's suburbs. Between 1947 and 1956, during a statewide push to build new highways, Route 128 was reconstructed as a major regional expressway. The new highway immediately fueled explosive growth in many of the region's once bucolic suburbs. What was once "the road to nowhere" quickly became a major commercial nexus for eastern Massachusetts and a critical link in the region's highway network. The visionary highway project vigorously promoted by William F. Callahan permanently altered the character of the two dozen towns through which it passed. Building Route 128 vividly documents the highway's construction and its impact on towns such as Waltham, Dedham, Lynnfield, and Gloucester. Drawing on previously unpublished images from the Massachusetts Department of Public Works and archives from many of the cities and towns affected, Building Route 128 tells the story of a region forever changed by the highway's construction.

"Route 1 has been a highway of history for three hundred years. Travelers on it today are reminded of the early days by old towns and villages; but they also cannot miss the unique places of interest -- doughnut shops, gift shops, restaurants, stores, museums, parks and scenic tunrouts -- to be found along its length." -- Page 4 of cover.

With prose supplementing modern and vintage photographs, the author tells how motorists can still travel over the remnants of Route 66, enjoying beautiful scenery and interesting people.