Five Horseless Carriages Race From New York City to Seattle, 1909

On June 1, 1909, five horseless carriages lined up at New York City Hall (illustrated below) to begin a cross-country race. Would the Acme, the Shawmut, the Itala or one of the two Model-T Fords win? Would any of them make it all the way to Seattle, Washington? Twenty-two days later, the Model-T crossed the finish line, arriving in time for Seattle’s Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition. The winning company placed the following account in an advertisement in The Southern Planter, 1944.

“President Taft Gave the Starting Signal” from a 1944 advertisement in The Southern Planter.

It is June 1, 1909. For weeks the papers have been full of the exciting news. Now, before the New York City Hall, five ‘Horseless carriages”—an Acme, a Shawmut, an Itala and two Model-T Fords—stand hub to hub.

Anxiously mechanics make final adjustments.  Then, from the White House, President Taft flashes the starting signal. And America’s first transcontinental auto race is under way.

West of St. Louis 7-day rains had turned the country roads into quagmires. Across the prairies and in Colorado average speeds were cut to 10 miles an hour.

At Cheyenne, Wyoming, the big Itala quit the race. The others plowed on. Near the summit of the Cascades they fought their way against towering snow drifts.

Days later, Ford Car Number 2—the winner—entered the gates of Seattle’s Alaska-Yukon Pacific Exposition. It had crossed the continent in 22 days and 55 minutes, with New York air still in the two front tires!

As he awarded the trophy cup, Colonel M. Robert Guggenheim said: “Mr. Ford’s theory that  a light-weight car, highly powered…can go places where heavier cars cannot go, and can beat heavier cars costing five and six times as much, on the st3eep hill or on bad roads, has been proved.

“I believe Mr. Ford has the solution of the problem of the popular automobile.”

The proof of that no longer rests in a single car which won a race, but in the 30 million cars and trucks Ford has built since then. And today millions of them are providing reliable, economical transportation for wartime America.

Meanwhile the inventive genius and the precision skills associated with the name Ford continue to serve the nation in the mass production of giant aircraft and other means to victory.

In the days of peace ahead, Ford’s resourcefulness will again produce soundly-engineered motor cars, priced within the reach of the largest number of people.