Classic American Road Trips: Walking Tours of Towns along the Susquehanna Trail (Look Up, America!)

By 1911 it was apparent the automobile was not going to be a passing fad. Henry Ford had sold his first Model T from an assembly line in 1908 and the price of the car targeted at the middle class was dropping every year. Enthusiastic motorists formed automobile clubs which promoted the building of roads and opportunistic promoters lobbied to bring those roads into their towns.

Many of these efforts took their cues from the Good Roads Movement that was founded in May 0f 1880 to improve the nations roadways for bicycles. In 1912 the Good Roads Movement inspired the Lincoln Highway Association determined to build a navigable road across the continental United States. Carl Fisher, who manufactured headlights and was a co-funder of the Indianapolis Speedway, was the leading cheerleader for the transcontinental road that eventually covered 3,389 miles and passed through more than 700 cities when it opened in 1913.

In the wake of the Lincoln Highway’s success other multi-state auto trails were created, often by giving a route a name and painting it on telephone poles along the road. Hundreds of auto trails were created in America, many that brought about road improvements and amenities that more or less matched the promises of colorful advertising brochures in the competition for tourist dollars. Others not so much.

The era of the auto trail was short-lived. In the 1920s automobile registration tripled and in 1926 the federal government created the U.S. Highway system utilizing numbers. Today many of the roads that made up these historic auto trails can still be traveled by adventurous motorists. The Susquehanna Trail linked the nation’s capital in Washington, D.C. with Buffalo, New York and extended a little ways further to Niagara Falls. Several U.S. highways, including Routes 1, 11 , and 15 pass through the towns that make up the backbone of the old Susquehanna Trail.

There is no better way to see the towns of the Susquehanna Trail than on foot. And there is no better way to appreciate what you are looking at than with a walking tour. Whether you are visiting a new town or just out to look at your own town in a new way, a walking tour is ready to explore when you are. Each walking tour describes a mix of historical and architectural and ecclesiastical landmarks. A quick primer on identifying architectural styles seen on America’s streets can be found at the end of the book.

So hit the road and look up, America!

Tour towns include:

Washington DC
Laurel
Baltimore
York
Harrisburg
Lewisburg
Williamsport
Corning
Buffalo
North Tonawanda