On my long drive to Pittsburgh for my 50th High School reunion, I took a short diversion along Pennsylvania Route 30 near Bedford and photographed some quirky subjects.
Route 30 is a portion of an original transcontinental roadway which was the idea of Carl Fisher who also was know for the creation of the Indianapolis Speedway. It was named after Carl’s hero Abraham Lincoln and ran from Times Square to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. With the increase of vehicular traffic along this route, business owners tried some eye catching architectural ideas to lure customers.
One of those was the 2-1/2 story “The Coffee Pot” in Bedford…
In 2008, the Sprout Fund from Pittsburgh financed the Roadside Giant project where Lincoln Highway area Career and Tech Schools could create giant works of art to be erected along the highway. One of those is the Giant Quarter created by the Bedford Tech Center weighing nearly a ton.
Another giant attraction is the 18 foot tall Pied Piper in Schellsburg…
…which also is the town of the Vincent Van Gogh gas pump…
In the small town of Manns Choice is the Fifties Place and Mini Museum with gas station pumps outside and an interior crammed with operational TV’s and radios from bygone eras (it is free to visit).
Love those giants, especially the ones that were actually businesses. Long Island, New York used to have quite a few of them also, referred to as ‘ducks’ because one of the most famous was a giant Long Island duck that housed a poultry store. It’s still there, but no ducks!
One of my favorite childhood ‘car books,’ published in the early 1950s to celebrate 50 years of cars (oh, my!) was full of pictures of pioneer drivers on under-construction portions of the Lincoln Highway, and on the random unpaved roads Carl Fisher’s vision meant to replace, so it has a special meaning for me.
One added note: U.S. 30 starts in Philadelphia, not New York…
You’re both right. From Wikipedia: “…the Lincoln Highway ran coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City west to Lincoln Park in San Francisco…”. “…after the establishment of the U.S. Numbered Highway System in 1926, with most of the route becoming part of U.S. Route 30 from Pennsylvania…”.