Arcadia Bestsellers

In 1755, Major General Edward Braddock and two army regiments set out from Alexandria with the objective of capturing Fort Duquesne, near present-day Pittsburgh.

To transport their sizable train of artillery and wagons, they first had to build a road across the rugged Appalachian Mountains. It was almost 289 treacherous miles from Alexandria, Virginia, by way of Fort Cumberland in Maryland and on to the French fort; the road they built was one of the most impressive military engineering accomplishments of the eighteenth century. Historian Norman L. Baker chronicles the construction of the road and creates the definitive mapping of those sections once thought lost. Join Baker as he charts the history of Braddock's Road until the ultimate catastrophic collision with the combined French and Indian forces.

Take a journey on the Pennsylvania Turnpike - the "superhighway" that went from one generation's tourist destination to the ridicule of another's.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike opened to traffic on October 1, 1940. Built using the right-of-way and unfinished tunnels of the never completed South Pennsylvania Railroad, it was a supreme achievement of civil engineering. The new highway immediately captured the public's imagination and proved to be an unqualified success. Motorists flocked from around the country to drive on the new "superhighway," and it became a tourist destination on its lonesome. But along with that success, the seeds were planted for its eventual fall from grace. Under-engineered, poorly maintained, and the victim of premature obsolescence, the highway became the object of public scorn in little more than a generation. Only since the turn of the 21st century were real efforts made to change that perception.

Route 66 goes through the heart of Illinois: between the great cities of Chicago and St. Louis, there are 300 miles of adventure, history, culinary delights, and quirky attractions.

This is the Land of Lincoln and roadside giants. There are cozy motels, cozy diners, and Cozy Dogs. Interstate 55 will speed travelers to their destination, but Route 66 offers something more. It goes through the hearts of the towns, wandering onto old brick pavement far from the roar of the interstate. Historic restaurants like Lou Mitchell's in Chicago, the Palms Grill in Atlanta, and the Ariston Cafe in Litchfield still keep their coffee pots warm. Waitresses, pump jockeys, gangsters, cops, and politicians all gave the Main Street of America its distinctive personality, and their stories are within these pages. So slow down, take the next exit, and head toward the beckoning neon in the distance. Come explore Route 66 in Illinois - where the road began.

See how the Pennsylvania Turnpike proved the doubters wrong and came to be known as the World's Greatest Highway.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike is one of the best-known highways in the United States. Most Pennsylvania Turnpike travelers are unaware that its construction was inspired by the route of the never-completed South Pennsylvania Railroad. In the 1930s, men of great vision conceived, planned, and built the nation's first long-distance superhighway using the abandoned railroad's partially finished tunnels as its foundation.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike draws from the extensive photograph collection in the Pennsylvania State Archives. Many were taken by photographers hired by both the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and its contractors, and most have never been published previously. Originally predicted to be a financial failure, the project wound up being a tremendous success and, eventually was expanded and improved, laying the groundwork for the nation's Interstate Highway System.

The Blue Ridge Parkway began as a dream in the late 1800s and became reality in 1983 when the 469-mile scenic highway was completed. Heavy construction was done by contractors who won bids for the different projects along various sections of the parkway.

Construction of the Blue Ridge Parkway began in September 1935 at Cumberland Knob. Civilian Conservation Corps troops took care of the roadsides, landscaping, and structure building. As part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, this project was intended to provide jobs throughout the region. Images of America: Building the Blue Ridge Parkway contains approximately 200 construction photographs of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Long Island Motor Parkway was constructed at a pivotal time in American history, and it often considered a precursor to the modern highway system.

A forerunner of the modern highway system, the Long Island Motor Parkway was constructed during the advent of the automobile and at a pivotal time in American history. Following a spectator death during the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup Race, the concept for a privately owned speedway on Long Island was developed by William K. Vanderbilt Jr. and his business associates. It would be the first highway built exclusively for the automobile. Vanderbilt's dream was to build a safe, smooth, police-free road without speed limits where he could conduct his beloved automobile races without spectators running onto the course. Features such as the use of reinforced concrete, bridges to eliminate grade crossings, banked curves, guardrails, and landscaping were all pioneered for the parkway. Reflecting its poor profitability and the availability of free state-built public parkways, the historic 48-mile Long Island Motor Parkway closed on Easter Sunday, April 17, 1938.

Building the Mass Pike details the urban history and construction of old Boston, with previously unpublished images from the Turnpike Authority archives.

By 1950, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its capital city had fallen on hard times. The solution came in 1952 from one man and the road he devoted the last decade of his life to building. With the region's railroads in decline and the roads in appalling disrepair, the difficulty of moving people and goods around the state and into its largest port was taking a heavy toll on the economy. The man was William Callahan, and the road was the Massachusetts Turnpike. Building the Mass Pike tells the story of the road's planning, construction, and impact on the communities through which it passed. The book includes previously unpublished images from the Turnpike Authority archives and provides a vivid document of the largest public works project in the state's history and the firestorm of controversy that surrounded it. Written by an engineer-historian, Building the Mass Pike will appeal not only to those fascinated by the history of the Commonwealth and its capital but also to those with an interest in construction, urban history, and the politics of old Boston.

Before there was Route 66, there was the iconic Lincoln Highway. A symbol of limitless potential, America’s first coast-to-coast highway spanned Iowa from the Mississippi River to the Missouri River. When you travel U.S. 30 across Iowa today, you’re never far from the historic Lincoln Highway, if not right on top of it. Learn the history of an Iowa landmark.

Follow the road through New Jersey, the Jersey Turnpike, the road that brings the indsutrial prosperity and businesses of the state together. A main thoroughfare through the state, don't miss the many diners along the way!

The New Jersey Turnpike chronicles the history of the highway from 1949 through the present day. With vivid images, it follows the road's progress from an ambitious vision, through construction, to opening, and into the future. Built as a utilitarian, four-lane, limited-access highway, the New Jersey Turnpike has evolved into the economic engine of New Jersey, the foundation of industrial prosperity and personal mobility. The highway traverses the entire state and is part of the Interstate 95 Corridor Coalition, which covers the East Coast from Maine to Florida. Today, more than two hundred forty million vehicles travel along the route, and many of those travelers stop at the turnpike's twelve service areas.

Take a ride through historic Massachusetts down Route 128!

Route 66 may be the most famous highway in the United States, but the country is home to countless roads ushering millions of motorists along decade after decade. Route 128 traces its origins to the late 1920s, when the Massachusetts Department of Public Works cobbled together a makeshift network of existing roads through Boston's suburbs. Between 1947 and 1956, Route 128 was reconstructed as a major regional expressway, and immediately feuled explosive growth in the region. What was once the "road to nowhere" quickly became a major commercial nexus for eastern Massachusetts and a critical link in the region's highway network. Building Route 128 vividly documents the highway's construction and its impact, drawing previously unpublished images from the Massachusetts Department of Public Works and tells the story of a region forever changed.

Garden State Parkwayshows how this iconic New Jersey roadway gained its place in history and continues to combine safe transportation in a parklike setting.

The Garden State Parkwayhas transformed the lives of New Jersey residents since opening in 1954. Spanning 173 miles from Cape May to the New York State line, it has fostered tourism to the Jersey Shore and given commuters an easier way to get to work.

Gov. Alfred E. Driscoll had envisioned the impact a new highway could have on the state, and a large team of planners, engineers, and contractors made it happen. In 1952, the legislature created the New Jersey Highway Authorityto ensure the funding and completion of the $330-million parkway and to self-sufficiently operate the roadway through toll revenue.

Since 1938, when the Merritt's first 7-mile section was opened to traffic, millions have shared a fascination for Connecticut's Merritt Parkway and its bridges.

A survey made in 1928 called for a two-lane macadam highway to run from Stratford to Greenwich; with $1 million of state money, construction started on the Merritt Highway in 1932. Opened for 38 miles on September 2, 1940, it became known throughout Fairfield County as the ""Queen of Parkways."" Discover the beginnings of this groundbreaking advance in American travel in Traveling the Merritt Parkway. This pictorial history preserves and pays tribute to the history of the Merritt, and explores the construction of the parkway, as well as the little-known parent highway for which the earliest bridges were constructed, including White Plains Road in the town of Trumbull.

The story of the bridge that transformed Maryland's Eastern Shore from a sleepy backwater to a major tourism destination and caused an economic boom in Baltimore in the west.

When it opened to traffic in 1952, the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge - simply called the Chesapeake Bay Bridge - was the third-longest bridge in the world. The four-mile long span was constructed over the Chesapeake Bay in a dramatic 2.5-year period of progress that became known to the workers as Operation Link, because it would be the first physical connection between the two widely separated parts of Maryland. Today, the two spans - the original Bay Bridge from 1952 and the parallel span built alongside it in 1973 - are towering architectural landmarks along the East Coast of the United States.

Prairie Avenue evolved into Chicago's most exclusive residential street during the last three decades of the 19th century.

Chicago's wealthiest citizens--Marshall Field, Philip Armour, and George Pullman--were soon joined by dozens of Chicago's business, social, and civic leaders, establishing a neighborhood that the Chicago Heraldproclaimed, "a cluster of millionaires not to be matched for numbers anywhere else in the country."

Substantial homes were designed by the leading architects of the day, including William Le Baron Jenney, Burnham and Root, Solon S. Beman, and Richard Morris Hunt. By the early 1900s, however, the neighborhood began a noticeable transformation as many homes were converted to rooming houses and offices, while others were razed for construction of large plants for the printing and publishing industry. The rescue of the landmark Glessner House in 1966 brought renewed attention to the area, and in 1979, the Prairie Avenue Historic District was designated. The late 1990s saw the rebirth of the area as a highly desirable residential neighborhood known as the South Loop.

William H. Tyre is executive director of the Glessner House Museum, H. H. Richardson's masterpiece of residential design that features an extraordinary collection of original English and American arts and crafts furnishings.

Cruise down Indiana's ""road that built the nation"" and delve into its history and beauty told through hundreds of images.

The Indiana National Road Association works to preserve, protect, and promote the Historic National Road. This byway is designated an All-American Road through the National Scenic Byways program and traverses six states from Baltimore, Maryland, to East St. Louis, Illinois. The road began as a primary route west for pioneers, and today the byway allows travelers to explore the American past--it is truly ""the road that built the nation."" This volume continues the story that began on the eastern leg of Indiana's Historic National Road, inviting readers to complete their photographic journey westward from Indianapolis to Terre Haute. These images document the people and stories that are part of the National Road's heritage, and it is hoped this book will encourage advocacy for the protection of important heritage resources.

Decorated with a breathtaking landscape and a treasured collection of diversely styled bridges, the Merritt Parkway runs thirty-seven and a half miles through Fairfield County.

From its complicated beginnings to the present, authors Laurie Heiss and Jill Smyth navigate the hard-fought yet picturesque path of this beloved road. Meet the bridge artist, the landscapers, the politicians and the activists whose involvement in the Merritt transformed Fairfield County from farms and country estates to one of the wealthiest counties in the nation. With the dedication of preservationists and conservationists, the Merritt Parkway today remains both functional and beautiful, holding a unique place in the heart of Connecticut's drivers.

Once known as the "Main Street of America," the Lincoln Highway route was established across northern Indiana in 1913, linking larger cities--Fort Wayne, Elkhart, Goshen, South Bend, LaPorte, and Valparaiso--to smaller communities. Most Lincoln Highway towns renamed their main streets Lincolnway in recognition of the nation's first coast-to-coast auto road. When the Lincoln Highway Association shortened the route in 1926, the route linked Fort Wayne to Columbia City, Warsaw, and Plymouth, giving the state two Lincoln Highway routes. From Fort Wayne to the famous Ideal Section, between Dyer and Schererville, Indiana's Lincolnway towns remain proudly connected to Lincoln Highway history. Through vintage photographs, postcards, advertisements, and other historical records, this armchair tour of the highway visits sites favored by early tourists, documents the people and places that made the highway a vital corridor, and celebrates Hoosier Carl Fisher's leadership in the formation of the Lincoln Highway Association, as well as the people who work to preserve its legacy today.

This one-hundred puzzle book also works as a travel guide to help travelers explore national parks all across America.

Whether you're all cooped up or in your coupe, this unusual mix of puzzle book and travel guide will help you hit the real or virtual road and learn about places along the way. Throw it in the back seat and let your antsy passengers have fun and learn. Or make a pit stop, grab a cup of coffee, and puzzle through where you'll go next. From your car or your couch, the road trips in this book help you discover places that reveal diverse aspects of America's inspiring national parks. Enjoy the journey!

This pictorial history of Natchez Trace illustrates the people, places, and events that have shaped the area's cultural and natural history.

The Natchez Trace is one of the oldest trails in North America. In 1801, President Jefferson ordered the Army to build a road along the trail to provide a route for moving troops and delivering mail. Jefferson dispatched soldiers down the road in 1803 to protect the Louisiana Purchase, and Andrew Jackson and his troops followed it to battle the British in the War of 1812. As an 1800-era link between Nashville, Tennessee, and Natchez, Mississippi, the road served as a pathway for settling much of what we now know as the South. Twentieth-century writers such as Eudora Welty later embellished its lore of heroes, bandits, and spies, inspiring Southern leaders to revive the Natchez Trace.

Few roads can match Route 20's beauty, history, or contribution to New York's vitality. In 1926, Route 20 became a federal highway and evolved into New York's foremost east-west road. But unlike most early highways, it has survived almost completely intact. The story of Route 20 is told through more than 200 vintage postcards showing scenes from the Shaker communities in Columbia County to the Lake Erie Shore. The postcards show the personality of the road: main streets, the Finger Lakes, and scenic vistas. Not to be forgotten are the tourist courts, hotels, diners, and gas stations that made travel possible.

In The Revolutionary War in Bergen County, Carol Karels and her team of scholars weave a masterful account of the war in northeastern New Jersey. Here in Bergen County General Washington took the young Marquis de Lafayette under his wing; here in Bergen County the future antagonists Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were baptized by fire; here in Bergen County families--in a prelude to the Civil War--split bitterly along Loyalist and Patriotic lines. From Washington's miraculous November 1776 retreat to the Delaware to the beginning of the Continental Army's epic August 1781 march to destiny at Yorktown, The Revolutionary War in Bergen County, comprehensively encompasses one of the Revolutionary War's most dramatic and pivotal fronts.

At its opening in 1964, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel was named one of the "Five Wonders of the Modern World" by Reader's Digest magazine.

It was the culmination of a concerted, decade-long push by a group of men, led by Lucius J. Kellam Jr., an Eastern Shore native and businessman who dreamed of opening up the remote Eastern Shore to the bustling Virginia mainland. This $200-million, 17.6-mile-long series of bridges, tunnels, islands, and trestle in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay - long dismissed as impractical and even impossible - won the attention of the world at its opening. It also brought an abrupt end to the ferry service that was long a cornerstone of the New York-to-Florida "Ocean Highway," shuttling millions of cars between the Eastern Shore and Hampton Roads.

In the 1860s, Broad Street formed the western edge of downtown Philadelphia and was little more than railroad tracks and train depots.

However, with the building of Philadelphia City Hall in the 1870s, Broad Street rapidly developed into one of the city's premier streets. Rows of mansions sprung up south of Spruce Street, and the area north of Spruce became known as ""hotel row."" Four-story brownstones lined both sides of North Broad Street, interspersed with the mansions and gardens of the nouveau riche and punctuated by clubs, theaters, schools, churches, and synagogues. Philadelphia's Broad Street: South and North is the first photographic history devoted exclusively to Broad Street in its ""gilded age."" These vintage images provide a vivid reminder, if one is needed, of how dramatically the street has changed in the last one hundred years.

Journey the historic path from wagon ruts to blacktop highways across Nebraska.

For centuries, Nebraska’s Platte River Valley has served as a natural passageway for the nation’s travelers. The Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails guided intrepid settlers west. Soon, the Pony Express, roughly following those trails, provided the first direct mail service connecting the West Coast with east of the Mississippi River. These historic routes later evolved into the transcontinental railroad, the Lincoln Highway, and eventually modern-day Interstate 80. History buffs, road-trippers, and the generally curious alike can navigate the tracks that each era of travel left locally and nationally. 

Blending vivid historical detail with memorable personal narratives, author Andrea M. Riley offers an enlightening journey through one of the country’s most important transportation corridors.

If the weathered landmarks and forgotten trails of the Lone Star State could talk, this is what they might say. The TV show Expedition Texas brings to life stories of abandoned buildings, ghost towns and other lost Texas history locations. Hit the road with Bob Mauldin and his crew and hear the stories behind the stories. Venture deep beneath the surface to explore a missile launch site. Climb crumbling stairs high above the ground to the top of amazing historical hotels. There's lost history all over Texas. And, on Expedition Texas, we're gonna find it.

Join native Kentuckians Cameron M. Ludwick and Blair Thomas Hess as they explore all the unique features that make the Bluegrass State one of a kind.

While the middle of the United States tends to be dismissively referred to as flyover states, one would have a much different impression if they drove. To fly over Kentucky would be to miss treasures like Abraham Lincoln's boyhood home that rests inside a Greek-style temple, or the Jefferson Davis monument rising from a field in Fairview like a lone, stone Redwood. From the rip-roaring barn dances in Rabbit Hash to the silent reverence of the monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani, the Commonwealth is rich with timeless landmarks and history.

Texas has a tight cohesiveness perhaps stronger than any other section of America. Rich, poor, Panhandle, Gulf, city, country, Texas is the obsession, the proper study and the passionate possession of all Texans. —John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Although occasionally long and roughly paved, roads less traveled reveal cultural gems in every region of the state. From the peaks of the Guadalupe Mountains to the valleys of the Rio Grande, find the best food you’ve ever indulged in, the kindest people you’ve ever met and stories that’ll last a lifetime. Make time for Texas’s wineries and historic churches. Explore true crime and paleontology specific excursions, and relish natural wonders and landmarks of human ingenuity. Author Raegan Scharfetter leads a tour through some of the most rewarding destinations in the Lone Star State.

Columbia, South Carolina, sits in a perfect position--each of the numerous treasures of the Palmetto State is less than a day's drive from the capital.

Near Charleston, 137 miles from Columbia, you can enjoy more than seventeen thousand square feet of shade from the iconic Angel Oak. In Blackville, 49 miles from Columbia, you can visit a natural spring that has been deeded to God since 1944. A 53-mile trip to Edgefield will put you in the heart of Peach Country, where you can see many of the peach orchards that make South Carolina one of the nation's leading producers of the sweet fruit. Join author and day-tripper Tom Poland as he maps the beautiful treasures of South Carolina.

Named for the famous Spanish explorer who was said to have discovered the Fountain of Youth, Atlanta's Ponce de Leon Avenue began as a simple country road that conveyed visitors to the famous healing springs.

Now, few motorists realize that the avenue, one of Atlanta's major commuter thoroughfares, was a prestigious residential street in Victorian Atlanta, home to mayors and millionaires. An economic turn in the twentieth century transformed the avenue into a crime-ridden commercial corridor, but in recent years, Atlantans have rediscovered the street's venerable architecture and storied history. Join local historian Sharon Foster Jones on a vivid tour of the avenue - from picnics by the springs in hoopskirts and Atlanta Crackers baseball to the Fox Theatre and the days when Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable and Al Capone lodged in the esteemed hotels lining this magnificent avenue.

Featured in films and on television and used as a backdrop to countless photos, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade offers the public a view that is usually reserved for the rich at the top of a tower.

From this one-third-mile stretch, locals and tourists take in the Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and New York Harbor. But its history is less harmonious. Plans by the powerful Robert Moses to run the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway through a resistant neighborhood led to contention and an unforeseen eventual compromise. In this volume, Brooklyn Heights Press editor Henrik Krogius presents this history, along with his articles that document the fate of the Promenade over the years.

Maxwell Street is one of Chicago's oldest, distinct landmarks where a melting pot of nationalities lived. Home to the famous to the Maxwell Street Market, a hub of innovation, where where anything from eggs to shoelaces was sold.

The story of Maxwell street and its market is the story of immigrants and their children, generations of working class people who contributed to the advancement of our nation. The famous area became the ""Ellis Island"" of the Midwest drawing immigrants from all over the world. It's demise began in the 1950s and 1960s and was completed by the 1990s, but it will live on in many minds as the incubator for business and the electrified Chicago Blues, a starting place for working class immigrants and migrants and as a great streetscape for its shops and outdoor market.

Highway historian and retired highway engineer Larry Larned, author of Traveling the Merritt Parkway, has appeared in television and radio interviews speaking about Route 15 and the nation's early roads. Route 15: The Road to Hartford presents images from his forty years of collecting and documenting Connecticut roadside culture, architecture, and engineering. His detailed account of the road to Hartford includes personal recollections of traveling Route 15 as a youngster and studying the details along the way-the tollbooths, the bow-tied gas station attendants, the families on picnics at rest stops.