Roads & Routes

Reaching more than a mile in the sky and acting as the crown of the Presidential Range, Mount Washington and the Mt. Washington Auto Road have been luring and challenging adventure seekers on foot, on bicycles, or in race cars for over 150 years. The Mt. Washington Auto Road was opened to the public in 1861 and has remained in continuous operation ever since--making this the nation's first man-made attraction. Located in the heart of New Hampshire's White Mountains, the Mt. Washington Auto Road has witnessed the evolution of transportation from mountain wagons drawn by six-horse teams to the modern cars of today. Mt. Washington Auto Road documents the history of this eight-mile path to the summit of the Northeast's highest peak.

The White Mountains attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, all fascinated by the natural beauty of the area and awestruck each season anew by what the region has to offer. Adventurous city-dwellers began arriving almost as soon as carriages and dirt roads could carry them. As the number of visitors has increased with each passing year, one of the most telling barometers of change in the White Mountains has been the hostelry. This wonderful visual history reveals the history of the hotels, inns, and taverns in the White Mountains, and explains their impact on the area from the mid-nineteenth century to the late twentieth. Travel was an adventure in the mid-nineteenth century--not for the weak of heart--and travelers would generally find
accommodations in taverns on stage routes or in local farmhouses. The arrival of "steel roads" made the region much more accessible, and large, opulent hotels were built to cater to the rich and famous
while more modest country inns provided a quieter environment for artists and writers seeking sanctuary from the cities. Some of the most fascinating images here portray the opulent lifestyle that was enjoyed amidst the forests and falls of the mountains and capture a sense of serenity that was not to last.

The lighthouse is a pervasive icon in our culture, often used to symbolize positive qualities like faith, guidance, strength, and steadfastness. No structures embody these qualities more than wave-swept lighthouses, which were built to withstand the most extreme forces of wind and ocean waves, often in isolated, rocky locations far offshore. In the United States, the earliest attempts to build wave-swept lighthouses in the 1830s led to several masterpieces of engineering, a few of which are in the New England region. This book primarily focuses on six such structures: Whaleback (Maine), Saddleback Ledge (Maine), Minot's Ledge (Massachusetts), Halfway Rock (Maine), Graves Ledge (Massachusetts), and Ram Island Ledge (Maine). All of these wave-swept lighthouses stand in rugged testimony to the people who designed and built them, and they also serve to remind us of the struggles and sacrifices of the lighthouse keepers who "kept a good light" for so many years before automation.