The opportunity to “kick his tires” on the most ambitious mass movement of vehicles across the country must have piqued Firestone’s imagination and tipped his hat and hand to the convoy. One year earlier, in 1918, he debuted his Ship By Truck advertising crusade, plug- ging a new way to sell tires and transport
Fairbanks; or ventured to the island of Oahu, Hawaii; crossed the U.S.-Canadian border in Houlton, Maine; or circum- navigated Puerto Rico, you know where Eisenhower’s Interstate System can take you. And, likely, you can appreciate the value of good treads. President Eisenhower’s role in the
ceaseless flow of information throughout the Republic is matched by individual and commercial movement over a vast system of inter-connected highways crisscrossing the country and joining at our national borders with friendly neigh- bors to the north and south.” Eisenhower’s vision of a national net-
A chance encounter between Harvey Firestone (far left) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (far right) during the 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy helped inspire the rubber baron’s Ship By Truck campaign and the future President’s Interstate Highway system.
goods. It served as a novel promotion for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, and an important endorsement for emerging motor freight carriers. To Eisenhower, the message resonated as well. Firestone’s generosity and friend- ship, and the performance of his tires on a rutted cross-country odyssey, set in motion a transportation revolution that rolls to this day. Uniting the States If you’ve ever driven the Alaskan tri- angle between Tok, Anchorage, and
development and expansion of the U.S. transportation system is well docu- mented. In 1956, he introduced what was popularly titled the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (later The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956), ear- marking $25 billion to develop highway infrastructure across the United States. In a letter to Congress on Feb. 22, 1955, Eisenhower addressed the importance of such endeavor: “Our unity as a nation is sustained by free communication of thought and by easy transportation of people and goods,” he wrote. “The
work of roads was a conflux of influences: his experiences during World War II and the efficiency of the German Autobahns; the 1919 Transcontinental Motor Convoy; and the existing, if nebulous, Lincoln Highway system. But his objective was far more cohesive. Eisenhower wanted a reliable means for effectively transport- ing military armaments to defend the country in case of foreign attack, and, ultimately, conveying commercial goods more efficiently and expeditiously. His casual encounter with Harvey Firestone in 1919 had an immeasurable
32 Inbound Logistics • September 2009
FACING LOGISTICS CHALLENGES? USE IL’S 3PL EXPERTS AND
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