Editing Lincoln Highway (section)

===Concept and promotion===
In 1912, railroads dominated interstate transportation in America, and roadways were primarily of local interest. Outside cities, "market roads" were sometimes maintained by counties or townships, but maintenance of rural roads fell to those who lived along them. Many states had constitutional prohibitions against funding "internal improvements" such as road projects, and federal highway programs were not to become effective until 1921.

At the time, the country had about {{convert|2.2|e6mi|km}} of rural roads, of which a mere 8.66% ({{convert|190,476|mi|km|disp=or}}) had "improved" surfaces: gravel, stone, sand-clay, brick, shells, oiled earth, etc. Interstate roads were considered a luxury, something only for wealthy travelers who could spend weeks riding around in their automobiles.

Support for a system of improved interstate highways had been growing. For example, in 1911, [[Champ Clark]], [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives]], wrote, "I believe the time has come for the general Government to actively and powerfully co-operate with the States in building a great system of public highways ... that would bring its benefits to every citizen in the country".<ref name="nyt-champ">{{cite news |title= Lincoln Highway Entering Wedge |work= The New York Times |date= August 27, 1911 |at= sec. III and IV, p. 8 |url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9807EFDB163AE633A25756C0A9629C946596D6CF | access-date=July 14, 2015}}</ref> However, Congress as a whole was not yet ready to commit funding to such projects.

[[File:Carl G Fisher 1909.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Carl G. Fisher|Carl Graham Fisher]], 1909]]
[[Carl G. Fisher]] was an early automobile entrepreneur who was the manufacturer of [[Prest-O-Lite]]  carbide-gas headlights used on most early cars, and was also one of the principal investors who built the [[Indianapolis Motor Speedway]]. He believed that the popularity of automobiles was dependent on good roads. In 1912, he began promoting his dream of a transcontinental highway and at a September 10 dinner meeting with industry friends in [[Indianapolis]], he called for a coast-to-coast rock highway to be completed by May 1, 1915, in time for the [[Panama–Pacific International Exposition]] in San Francisco.<ref>{{cite book |publisher= Rand McNally |title= The Lincoln Highway: A Much-Loved Route, Coast to Coast |year=1999}}{{full citation needed|date= July 2015}}</ref> He estimated the cost at about $10&nbsp;million and told the group, "Let's build it before we're too old to enjoy it!"<ref name="FHWA-LH" /> Within a month Fisher's friends had pledged $1&nbsp;million. [[Henry Ford]], the biggest automaker of his day, refused to contribute because he believed the government should build America's roads. However, contributors included former U.S. president [[Theodore Roosevelt]] and [[Thomas A. Edison]], both friends of Fisher, as well as then-current president [[Woodrow Wilson]], the first U.S. president to make frequent use of an automobile for relaxation.

Fisher and his associates chose a name for the road, naming it after one of Fisher's heroes, [[Abraham Lincoln]]. At first, they had to consider other names,<ref name="AHM">{{cite journal |title= The Lincoln Highway |url= http://www.americanheritage.com/content/lincoln-highway |journal= American Heritage Magazine |date=June 1974 |volume= 25 |issue= 4 |access-date= December 2, 2011 |first= Joe |last= McCarthy}}</ref> such as "The Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway" or "The Ocean-to-Ocean Highway," because the Lincoln Highway name had been reserved earlier by a group of Easterners who were seeking support to build their Lincoln Highway from Washington to Gettysburg on federal funds. When Congress turned down their proposed appropriation, the project collapsed, and Fisher's preferred name became readily available.

On July 1, 1913, the [[Lincoln Highway Association]] (LHA) was established "to procure the establishment of a continuous improved highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, open to lawful traffic of all description without toll charges".<ref name="FHWA-LH" /> The first goal of the LHA was to build the rock highway from [[Times Square]] in New York City to [[Lincoln Park (San Francisco)|Lincoln Park]] in San Francisco. The second goal was to promote the Lincoln Highway as an example to, in Fisher's words, "stimulate as nothing else could the building of enduring highways everywhere that will not only be a credit to the American people but that will also mean much to American agriculture and American commerce".<ref name="FHWA-LH" /> [[Henry Bourne Joy|Henry Joy]] was named as the LHA president, so that although Carl Fisher remained a driving force in furthering the goals of the association, it would not appear as his one-man crusade.<ref name="AHM"/>

The first section of the Lincoln Highway to be completed and dedicated was the [[Essex County, New Jersey|Essex]] and [[Hudson County, New Jersey|Hudson]] Lincoln Highway, running along the former [[Newark Plank Road]] from [[Newark, New Jersey]], to [[Jersey City, New Jersey]]. It was dedicated on December 13, 1913<ref>{{cite news |title= How 'Lincoln Way' Project Now Stands |work= The New York Times |date= April 5, 1914 |at= sec. 9, p. 8 |url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9807EFDB163AE633A25756C0A9629C946596D6CF | access-date=July 10, 2015}}</ref> at the request of the Associated Automobile Clubs of New Jersey and the Newark Motor Club, and was named after the two counties it passed through.<ref>{{cite news |title= English Auto Club An Example Here |work= The New York Times |date= December 31, 1913 |page= 12 |url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D01EEDC1F3BE633A25752C3A9649D946296D6CF |access-date= July 10, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title= Would Post Notice About Auto Fines |work= The New York Times |date= January 26, 1914 |page= 8 |url= https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E06E5DE113FE633A25755C2A9679C946596D6CF |access-date= July 10, 2015}}</ref>