The Hardest, Longest Race: Henry Ford and the Cross-Country Contest That Changed America
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In 1909, America was home to 253 automakers, a landscape of visionaries and would-be barons of the new century. But when millionaire M. Robert Guggenheim announced an “Ocean to Ocean” contest from New York City to the Seattle World’s Fair, only three companies were brassy enough to show up at the starting line: Acme, Ford, and Shawmut.
Oddsmakers favored the Acme and Itala, a pricy import also joining the race, while dismissing the pint-sized Ford — a homely little number called the Model T— and the long-shot Shawmut, struggling to survive after a factory fire. Many didn’t believe any of the cars would reach Seattle at all, as they would need to forge a 4,106-mile course of mountain ranges, mud bogs, washed-out wagon bridges, and harrowing canyon trails, long before the era of asphalt highways, seatbelts, and service stations.
But Henry Ford was intent on proving that the Model T could beat out the muscular luxury cars---and he didn’t plan to leave it to chance. A little over three weeks after the race began, a Ford crossed the line hours ahead of the Shawmut.
Except that victory was a fraud.
The Hardest, Longest Race is a colorful tale of ambition and subterfuge, but it is also a love letter to America at the turn of the 20th Century. As a seeming people’s champion—a car for the masses—traverses the vast nation, Moskowitz brings to vivid life the diverse populace and landscape that it would soon transform.