by Bob Walsh
Back in 1919 a young army officer by the name of Eisenhower was given an interesting assignment. He was ordered to take a military convoy by road from New York to SF.. essentially to see how long it would take. It took 62 days and was the impetus for President Eisenhower to start the ball rolling on the Interstate Highway System after WWII. It was, at least officially, a military highway system. That is part of the reason they standardized the overpass clearances. It was so a tank on a tank transporter could clear the over passes.
In any event the Military Vehicle Preservation Society has been rerunning the route, which follows the old Lincoln Highway. On Friday night they stopped at the American Legion Hall in Stockton. They began in York, Pennsylvania on August 10 and will have ended up in Lincoln Park in San Francisco last night if all went well.
This years convoy contained a lot of WWII and Korean War era vehicles and even more modern vehicles, but also included a 1918 Harley Davidson and a 1918 Dodge staff car.
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