The Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate

Product Description

The best-selling author of Route 66 and a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer celebrate America’s first transcontinental highway in all its neon glory. It began in 1913 with a glorious new highway―stretching across 3,389 miles and 13 states―that connected the bright lights of Broadway with the foggy shores of San Francisco. It was a magnificent and meandering road that enticed millions of newly motoring Americans to hop into their Model Ts and explore the fading frontier. The Lincoln Highway. It was the road of Gettysburg, Pretty Boy Floyd, Notre Dame, the Great Salt Lake, and the Gold Rush Trail. Once a symbol of limitless potential, it is now undergoing (as Route 66 did twenty years ago) a miraculous revival. With hundreds of new and rare photographs provided by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Michael S. Williamson, this ode to a bygone era guides us across the true spine of the country, exploring vintage diners, Art Deco buildings, and funky roadside attractions, all waiting to be discovered. 300 color illustrations

From Publishers Weekly

One look at the retro artwork on the cover of this travel tome will tell you what’s in store for you—a visit down memory lane the length of the U.S. Following the 3,000-mile Lincoln Highway—much of it has been replaced or renamed—from New York City’s Times Square to San Francisco Bay, Wallis (
Route 66: The Mother Road) expertly captures the oft-forgotten and offbeat sights and tales of an America bypassed by superhighways. Most every town, restaurant, mom-and-pop store the author encounters along The Main Street Across America has seen better days, but Wallis still takes the time to celebrate their classic architecture and down-home recipes. With an eye for details and a gift for storytelling, he moves just as smoothly between the role of tour guide and yarn spinner as he does between the road’s history and its current incarnation. The juxtaposition between old and new is further underlined by the presentation of classic images and new photographs by Williamson. With a chapter dedicated to each of the 13 states that the highway passes through, this book will delight those looking to uncover their local roots as well as adventurers yearning for that American rite of passage—a cross-country road trip.
(July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

If you liked Wallis’
Route 66, you’ll love
The Lincoln Highway. —
Brian Butko, author of Greetings from the Lincoln Highway and Lincoln Highway Companion

It’s just as good as
Route 66, which is the highest praise one can give. Another volume of happy memories. —
Tony Hillerman, author of The Shape Shifter

The Lincoln Highway is lovingly resurrected here, with stubborn insistence on the details of its history. A visual, informed, and literate journey. —
Andrei Codrescu, author of New Orleans, Mon Amour

About the Author

Michael Wallis, the best-selling author of
Route 66 and
Billy the Kid, has published eighteen books and won numerous honors and awards. He is a popular public speaker and a highly acclaimed voice actor. He lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Michael S. Williamson, a photographer for the
Washington Post, won a Pulitzer Prize for
And the Children After Them and another for his war photography in Kosovo.