All language subtitles for Hazardous.History.with.Henry.Winkler.S02E15.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[mellow music]

- [Henry] Do you remember

when driving cross country
required a shovel and axe?

- Any potential driver
should have been suspicious

about the claims
of great luxury.

- You can get lost
in a sandstorm.

On a snowy mountain pass,
you can go right off the road

because there are no guardrails.

- Or when the open
road had you seeing things?

- Highway hypnosis means
that you're completely awake,

but your brain has checked out.

- All of these incidents
create sort of a panic.

It comes to be called a
new and deadly killer.

- Or when the right
of way was determined

by hand-to-hand combat.

- They would have some
poor sucker out there.

You go, you stop, you go.
Nobody's paying attention.

- Which also means a bunch
of people start fighting

in the streets.

- These are the things we
used to do for fun, for money,

or maybe out of boredom
that we'll never see again.

Were they dangerous? Certainly.

Deadly? Occasionally.

But boy, wasn't it exciting?

[dramatic music]

- Remember when the open
road felt like freedom,

a full tank of
gas, a fold out map

and miles of highway
stretching toward the horizon

and no road captured that
spirit better than Route 66.

But as millions of Americans
would soon discover,

getting your kicks came
with more than a few bumps.

- In the early 20th century,

if you wanted to go from
Chicago to Los Angeles,

you better have several
months of free time

because it is a long journey
and also a really slow one.

It's mostly rough,
unpaved roads.

The maximum speed is
about 20 miles an hour.

And if you break down,
you're often breaking down,

literally in the
middle of nowhere.

- [Henry] But much of
that changes in the 1920s

when a new highway
is established,

one that stretches from Chicago
all the way to Los Angeles

and they call it Route 66.

- This roadway really
becomes the symbol

of freedom and adventure

and this notion that
you can have the life

that you want out west, you
just got to get on this road

and go find it.

- [Edward] At first, it's a
patchwork

of dirt roads stitched together.

So if you look at a
map, it seems a bit wild

with all the twists and
turns scattered throughout,

but hundreds of
thousands of people

in the 1930s begin driving on it

as part of a great
westward migration.

- At this time, Route 66 is
going through a lot of farmland,

so it wasn't unheard
of to be stopped

because of a herd of cattle
that are just crossing the road.

- [Henry] Eventually it becomes

the first fully paved
highway in America.

- By 1938, so many people
have driven Route 66

that they've begun to
call it The Mother Road.

- [Rutledge] You also have the
birth of the roadside

attraction, like the world's
biggest rocking chair

or the world's biggest
ketchup bottle.

Each one of those was designed

to grab some of those
tourism dollars.

- [Henry] By 1955, over a
million cars are traveling

along Route 66 every year
and that's a problem.

- The road is
basically unchanged

from when it was first laid.

It's this really narrow road,
no lane dividers, no shoulder,

and this is America's most
trafficked tourist roadway.

- [Rutledge] And there's no
rules about who can be

on the road,

so that means cars, trucks,
18 wheelers, even tractors.

All the cars are sharing
this nine-foot wide lane,

which is smaller than some
grocery store aisles today.

Everybody's just using it to
get to where they need to go,

but that's what makes it so
intense and so dangerous.

- [Negin] There are no merging
lanes at this time.

So to get onto Route 66,

you're essentially making
a hard right, flooring it,

and then hoping that no one
comes and hits you from behind.

- [Edward] So just getting

onto this busy highway is
already a recipe for disaster.

- [Adam] It bears noting
that at this time,

most states don't
have a speed limit.

And even if a state
has a speed limit,

there's no fancy
reflective signs

or any kind of lights
along the highway.

No, no, no, no, no.

If you're lucky, there is a
hand-painted or wooden sign

that you can't
even see at night.

- [Rutledge] Keep in mind, the
cars back then were these

gigantic hunks

of steel and safety wasn't
even a consideration.

Hundreds of people are dying
from all these crazy accidents.

You've got the Devil's
Elbow, Dead Man's Alley,

Dead Man's Curve.

- [Henry] In 1953, New Mexico
alone sees 110 fatalities

on Route 66.

- [Natalia] Thanks to all this,

Route 66 gets a new
nickname, Bloody 66.

- [Adam] Finally, the federal
government steps in

to create the modern interstate

with the 1956
Federal Highway Act.

However, there is
a massive downside.

Less traffic means that the
businesses all along Route 66

begin to close
because quite simply,

they can't afford to stay open.

- [Edward] Route 66 proves to
be a dramatic milestone

for our growing country.

We owe a lot of gratitude
to these forgotten roads

that pave the way for what
we now take for granted.

- As the nation's
highways improved,

driving became faster,
smoother, and more predictable,

which turned out to be
a problem on its own.

- When the US starts laying
tens of thousands of miles

of these new super highways,

they're a complete game changer.

Now people are flying
down these roads

at 60, 70 miles an hour

and they're cutting down hours
from their daily commutes.

- But as drivers start
to take advantage

of these smooth new highways,

suddenly there's
a new phenomenon

and we begin to hear these
unusual reports from drivers

that drive long distances,
especially at night.

- [Kavitha] In 1958, a driver is
going through Illinois

when he sees a tiger
and slams on the brakes.

- Around the same time,

there's a man driving
in rural Georgia

when he says he sees
a big colonial mansion

in the middle of the road

and he swerves in order
to avoid running into it.

- There's a guy in
Pittsburgh who is convinced

that he ran over some guy
in the middle of the road.

He stops, he calls the cops.

They look for this body
and they can't find it.

- [Henry] But it turns out
these incidents aren't real.

They are hallucinations

and they are occurring
all over the country.

The new smooth super highways
are creating a new phenomenon

that is labeled
highway hypnosis.

- [Hakeem] Highway hypnosis
means that you're completely

awake, your eyes are wide open,
but your brain has checked out.

- Researchers find out

that new highways are
literally too easy to drive on

and that lulls people into
sort of a trance-like state.

- [Hakeem] Before this, car
accidents were caused

by multiple car collisions

or there's a major
problem with the road.

- [Lance] Now a new category is
growing faster than any other

and that is the
one car collision

when a lone driver
just spins off the road

or runs into a pole or a
bridge for no apparent reason.

- In 1956, newspapers report

that single car
accidents are responsible

for 40% of all
traffic fatalities.

- [Lance] All of these incidents
create sort of a panic.

It comes to be called a
new and deadly killer.

Chevy releases a safety
film on the subject.

- [Presenter] The steady pace

of monotonous high speed driving

on a highway can lull
the driver's eyes

and mind off the road.

- [Henry] To combat highway
hypnosis, drivers get a lot

of practical advice.

- [Negin] The government starts
suggesting all of these kind

of crazy things like
take your right shoe off,

put your hand out the
window, listen to music,

or sit on an
uncomfortable board.

They're just these
strange hacks.

- [Presenter 2] An ACE driver.
Alert, courteous, educated.

- The Navy recommends
running the windshield wipers

even in dry weather just
to have the distraction.

- [Negin] One safety engineer
actually recommends

taking your
mother-in-law with you

because she'll
probably keep you up

through various annoyances.

- [Kavitha] None of these weird
remedies actually fix the

problem and it soon becomes
clear that a super smooth road

with too little stimulation
can be a danger in itself.

- So the result is
a range of fixes

that we would recognize today,
but also we take for granted.

Things like reflective
paint on the roads

and on the road signs, raised
barriers between lanes.

- There's a whole effort to
make the roads less straight

so they add curves
to the highway

that force the driver to
pay attention and stay awake

even if that makes
the route less direct.

- [Hakeem] But the biggest
change comes in 1955

on the Garden State Parkway.

They installed the
first singing shoulders.

That's that edge of the
highway where it's all serrated

and if you drift over there,

then it makes a loud noise
and that'll awaken you

and today we call
these rumble strips.

- Ah, the rumble strip.

The highway's way of saying,

"Hey, wake up before
things get interesting."

- In the 1970s, with
their big rigs, convoys

and CB radios,
truckers ruled the road

but when it came to following
the rules of the road,

let's just say it
was a different time.

- For the first half
of the 20th century,

if you wanted to
move large amounts

of cargo around the country,
your best option is a train.

- This all changed in the 1950s

as people began moving from
the cities to the suburbs.

The Federal-Aid Highway
Act supercharges

interstate highway construction.

Trucks get bigger
and more powerful,

capable of carrying
everything from your produce

to the government's
nuclear weapons.

- There was a mystique
to the trucker back then.

Big rigs were exotic,
beautiful, powerful,

and as a kid interested
in big machines,

I was just swept
directly into it.

- [Henry] By 1972, nearly
a million big rigs are

on the highways.

It's a $15 billion industry.

And many of the truckers
are independent contractors

and they're all competing for
a bigger slice of the pie.

And the rules, they're
largely non-existent.

- In a lot of
states in the '70s,

in the heyday of
trucking, you didn't need

to get a special license.

You just needed a
driver's license

and to be of a certain age.

Then they gave you the
keys to a tractor trailer

and the same guy who
learned to drive on like a

Dodge Dart was suddenly
barreling down the highway

in something half the
size of a city block.

- [Henry] With
little restriction,

legions of truckers hit the road

but the new administration

imposes new obstacles
to overcome

including lowering the speed
limit to 55 miles per hour.

- [Don] Truckers decide the
answer is not to reduce

their speed,

but rather to keep driving
fast and avoid getting caught.

- [Austin] One thing working
in their favor,

in the 1970s, states don't
share driving records.

This means truckers take
advantage of the system

by getting different
licenses in different states.

If they're pulled over,
they just take out the one

with the fewest violations.

- [Don] They embrace something

that was originally
made for farmers.

It's called Citizens
Band radios or CBs.

- [Brian] CB radios started
popping up in these trucks

to warn each other
where the cops were.

So you had a massive
surveillance system on the cops

and then a massive deception

with all these multiple
driver's licenses.

But hey, truckers gotta truck.

- [Austin] The big rig truckers
become heroes.

Think of Smokey and the
Bandit, a number one film.

Think of C.W. McCall's Convoy.

Kids are dressing like them.

They're the coolest
guys on the highway.

Everyone wants to be a trucker.

- [Henry] But the brakes
are about to be put

on all the fun.

- [Natalia] There's a reason
that today truckers are subject

to so many more regulations.

In truck crashes, the
casualty count tends

to be much, much higher.

- [Don] Truckers in the '70s
had brutal deadlines,

which often resulted
in taking pep pills

to stay awake for long journeys.

That, along with minimal
safety regulations,

made the highways
extremely dangerous.

- [Natalia] If the truck is
carrying some kind of dangerous

substance, these
crashes can be lethal.

In 1976, there's this
tragic truck crash.

Ammonia spills everywhere.

It kills six people
and injures nearly 180.

- [Henry] In 1979, there
are over 6,000 fatal crashes

involving big trucks.

The deadliest year on record.

And the era of no-rules trucking
comes to a screeching halt.

- [Austin] By 1986, the
Commercial Motor Safety Act

standardizes the rules

for getting a commercial
driver's license

across the states

but that hated 55 mile
an hour speed limit,

that stays around till 1995.

- [Brian] In the era that I grew
up,

truckers had this almost
mythological feeling to them.

Before all these
rules come in to be like,

"hey, you can't just pluck
some dude off the street

and put him behind the
seat of a rolling tank

and set him loose on society."

- Of course, truckers
weren't the only ones

pushing the limits.

There was one
driver in particular

whose need for speed
inspired a road race

so extreme it became
the stuff of legend.

- [Jason] Brock Yates loves
cars, he's an amateur racer.

He's a writer for Car
and Driver Magazine.

And for him, driving fast
is the American dream.

- In 1971, Yates is concerned

that we've got so many new
safety regulations and rules

that it's taking the
fun out of driving

and so he comes up with
a really interesting idea

to protest that.

- [Jason] The idea is a
race across America.

You start in New York,
you end in Los Angeles.

Get there as fast as you can

and do it by any
means necessary.

- He names the competition
after a legendary racer

from the early 1900s,
Erwin Cannon Ball Baker,

famous for driving
cross country 143 times.

- It's known as
the Cannonball Run.

- On November 15th,
1971, 23 competitors

in eight vehicles gather to
start the 2,800 mile race

at a Manhattan garage
called the Red Ball Garage.

- They take off just after
midnight and whoever gets

to Redondo Beach,
California, the fastest wins.

- [Jason] During the race,
drivers are on the road all day

and all night.

They are averaging
100 miles per hour,

sometimes topping out
at 175 miles per hour.

- [Rutledge] On a public road

that someone else is doing 55
miles an hour, that's insane.

- [Nicole] To avoid stopping for
gas,

competitors are
carrying hundreds

of gallons of fuel with them.

You literally are
going to explode

if a crash were to happen.

- Despite the
insanity of this race,

the police are not all that
interested in stopping it.

- [Edward] Laws differ from
state to state.

And at this time, communication

between different state police
forces is sorely lacking.

- [Rutledge] Surprisingly, the
cops only give out 10 tickets.

In fact, when one
of the competitors

reaches the finish line in LA,

they actually
got a police escort

with a cop car and a motorcycle.

- [Nicole] After 35 hours, 54
minutes,

the winner crosses the
finish line and it's Yates.

This is by far the fastest
anyone has ever driven

across country at this time.

- [Henry] The races run
four more times in the 70s

with racers continuing to
outmaneuver each other,

but their risks are shared
with everyone on the road.

- [Lance] Dangers do start
to show themselves.

Cars are not really meant to
be driven 100 miles an hour

for hours and hours at a time.

- [Nicole] Lots of things go
wrong during the race.

I mean, there's engines blowing,

there's transmissions
overheating, tires being blown.

- [Jason] Today, mainstream
media reports would likely frame

this reckless activity
in a negative manner,

but then the Cannonball Run
sort of gets a glowing writeup.

Car and Driver Magazine puts
a headline right on its cover

and says these men are wanted

for breaking the dumbest
law since Prohibition.

And just as a reminder,

Brock Yates is not only a
writer for Car and Driver,

but he's an editor.

- [Henry] But with
more eyes on them,

drivers have to rely on their
wits to stay on the road.

- [Kavitha] Eventually, cops
start cracking down,

so drivers stoop to
ridiculous lengths

to keep the race going.

- [Rutledge] Yates' team dresses
up their van to look like an

ambulance so they could get
through traffic faster.

Another crew dresses
like Catholic priests.

There's even a
team with a cooler

that's loaded with
pig's eyes on ice

and it says "Rush to
Eye Bank" on there.

I mean, that's clever, I feel
like that would have to work.

- [Edward] When one team
gets pulled over,

they actually show fake permits

that say they're part of an
official highway speed study.

It's even rumored

that one of the teams
turns off its headlights

and uses night vision to
evade cops during the night.

There are no major accidents

or fatalities during any of the
races, so I guess it worked.

- I love a good road trip.

I just prefer arriving
without setting any records.

- Have you ever been stopped
at a traffic light so long

that you started to wonder,
"hey, is that thing stuck?"

Well, in the early
days of automobiles,

drivers didn't have that problem

because there weren't
any traffic lights.

- [Rutledge] In 1908, the Model
T really changes the face

of transportation
in this country.

Suddenly everyone's got cars,

but there is a little
bit of an issue.

- The streets are
already pretty crowded.

They're crowded
with other people,

with street cars, with horses.

- [Rutledge] Most of them don't
really know

what to do at an intersection.

No one really knows when to go,

which also means a bunch
of people start fighting

in the streets.

- [Negin] It was chaos.
Cities realize it can't go on

like this.

And their first
solution is an umbrella

that said on one side, stop
and on the other side, go.

If it's raining,

that poor guy, he has a
little coverage from the rain.

- [Brian] Yeah, umbrellas that
had stop and go printed on it

and they would have some
poor sucker out there

twisting the umbrella each way

to let you go, you stop, you go.

The problem is not
everybody can read.

Then if it was
dark out at night,

can you even see the umbrella?

The system broke down
almost immediately.

- [Austin] In 1914, there
was a breakthrough.

Cleveland inventor James Hoge

creates the world's first
electric traffic light.

It's a system of four pairs

of red and green lights
placed on a post.

- This is a huge leap forward.

Drivers can actually see
these lights. They're high.

It allows people to do
a lot more night driving

and they can drive faster

because they have the reliance
of these traffic lights.

- [Negin] However, there's
no transition light.

It's just stop and go.

So you have no warning.

That creates a lot of accidents.

- [Rutledge] If you're doing
30 miles an hour

in your Model T,
just cooking up to it

and it changes from go
to stop, you're going

to hit something.

You're not going
to make the light.

- [Henry] By 1920, electric
lights are the norm

on city blocks,

but there are still plenty
of kinks to work out.

- In really busy areas
like Midtown Manhattan,

three story structures are built

in the middle of
the intersection

with the traffic lights atop.

- [Negin] The early traffic
lights are on posts

that are sort of smack dab
in the middle of the street,

which is great because
it's like in your eye line,

you can't miss it

but also you like
physically can't miss it.

You're like crashing into it
a lot, the placement is poor.

- [Brian] People are
clipping this thing,

people driving, nobody's
paying attention,

who's fighting with his wife.

Boom, right into
the stupid thing.

And these things are
going down like trees.

It's like timber
down, down, down.

- [Austin] The timing of
these light changes

are inconsistent
and unpredictable.

They're triggered
by an operator.

If the guy doing it snoozes off

or gets distracted,
you don't know

how long you're going to
be waiting at said light.

- [Negin] Eventually people get
annoyed

and so they start running lights

and you know, there's
some more chaos.

- [Henry] Even when
lights go automatic,

the problems aren't
slowing down.

Road deaths keep climbing.

And in 1935,

the federal government
standardizes traffic lights.

- [Austin] The Feds issue

The Manual on Uniform
Traffic Control Devices

for Streets and Highways.

It standardizes the
traffic signal language

across the country.

Red on top for stop, yellow
in the middle for caution,

green on bottom for go.

That is with one exception.

A neighborhood of Syracuse,
New York populated

by Irish immigrants
sees a red above a green

as a symbol of British dominance

then they begin
smashing the red light.

- [Brian] "You put England over
Ireland?

We will never obey
these laws ever."

You got to appreciate
that sort of moxie.

So what does the government do?

They're like, "All right,
for the Irish people's sake,

we're going to swap it."

- Green is still above red

in a certain
neighborhood in Syracuse.

- Of course, keeping
cars moving was only part

of the challenge.

Sooner or later, all
drivers had to stop for gas.

And there was a time

when getting gas was
less routine errand

and more Russian Roulette.

- [Don] In 1859, the American
petroleum business is born

when crude oil is struck in
Titusville, Pennsylvania.

Jump ahead 40 years to the
start of the 20th century

and everything changes.

The ascent of the automobile

with its gas burning engine

suddenly makes gasoline
a hot commodity.

Now the question becomes, how
do you get gas into the car?

- In the beginning,
fueling up is very DIY.

Fuel is kept in these big
tanks at hardware stores

or at these depots
at the edge of town.

You take your
canister, fill that up

and you pour it in by hand.

- Back then, cars didn't
have a fuel gauge in them

and what that led to was a
lot of people ran out of gas.

You would never be able to tell

whether or not you're
running on a full tank

or if you're about
to be on foot.

- [Henry] By 1910, a
more high-tech solution

becomes widespread,
the gas pump.

- [Hakeem] The pumps have the
gas stored underground

and the driver uses a crank

to move the gas up through
a hose and into the car.

Compared to sloshing
around jugs of gasoline,

these pumps are neat,
tidy, and efficient.

- [Don] The gas pump is
such a breakthrough

that cities begin
putting them all over.

But American cities

in the 1910s and 20s are
actually really bad places

for these things.

- [Hakeem] Initially, the pumps
were placed roadside

right on the curb
like a mailbox.

And so the driver would
pull up to fill their tank.

Cars would pile up behind them.

The other drivers would
have to swerve around.

It just creates a big mess.

- [Dan] And let's say a driver
accidentally bumps

into the gas pump.

It's what happens
after the gas leak

that you need to worry about.

- A few teaspoons of liquid
gasoline becomes liters

of gasoline vapor and
it's denser than air,

so there's a layer of gasoline
vapor covering the ground.

- [Dan] And here's where things
really go sideways.

American cities have
lots and lots of sparks.

- [Don] There are streetcars
everywhere raining little hails

of fire whenever
they make a hard turn

and don't forget smoking.

- [Hakeem] All it takes is one
spark from a backfiring car,

a cigarette, a streetcar,

and wooh, somebody's
going to get crispy.

- [Dan] The early 20s are full
of these ridiculously scary

stories of gas pump disasters
like the pipe smoking trucker

who in 1925 accidentally
tossed a lit match

into a puddle of gas.

His pump and three other
pumps nearby exploded together

in a giant wall of flame.

- [Edward] So as a consequence
of all this chaos,

New York takes on the problem

and in 1923, says
you can't have a pump

on the side of the road.

You have to put it
in a designated lot.

- [Don] Once gas pumps are
forced into their own area,

it births a new kind of
business, the gas station.

- [Martin] And now when you pop
in to get some gas, you're going

to get a snack, a big
fountain beverage,

and probably lotto tickets.

- Today, the only
thing challenging

about filling up your
tank is the cost.

- [Henry] Today, when there's
road work,

we use reflective
signs, flashing lights,

and bright orange cones to
keep drivers and workers safe

but there was once a time

when road crews used something
else to alert drivers,

and it was kind of a bomb.

- [Martin] In 1916, Woodrow
Wilson signs a bill providing

$75 million for paving roads
across the country.

This means that
motorists are going

to encounter road construction

more than they have ever
encountered it before.

And how do you alert motorists

to the presence of
construction teams after dark?

- [Austin] At first, road crews
improvise

from an unlikely
source, citrus farmers.

Citrus farmers utilize
these metal cans

with an open flame
called smudge pots

to keep their groves
warm at night.

The road workers take
these and repurpose them

as roadway signaling devices.

- [Martin] They weren't ideal

and that's because all it takes
is a little bit of rainfall

or maybe even a gusting wind

and the smudge pot
will be blown out.

- [Austin] In 1929, a better
smudge pot emerges in

Toledo, Ohio.

It's made by the Toledo
Pressed Steel Company,

and it's called
the Toledo Torch.

- [Adam] The design is a sphere
that has a weighted bottom

so it can right itself if
it ever gets tipped over

and it has the wick tucked
inside so it's protected.

And most impressively, it
can burn for about 48 hours.

- [Henry] Soon, smudge pots
are lighting up detours, digs

and damp pavements
across America.

They remain the standard

throughout the road
building boom

of the 1950s, but
they aren't foolproof.

- [Martin] The problem is that
they burn at a thousand degrees

and the smoke contains
toxins that are carcinogenic

and sometimes they're close
to a playground of a school.

- [Adam] So imagine you're a
kid,

you're hanging out
with your friends,

and suddenly you come across
something that looks like this.

- [Austin] This looks like
something that would blow up

in a Looney Tunes'
character's face,

which means it would be
particularly compelling to steal

and play with,
with your friends.

- It looks like a
fun cartoon bomb.

- [Henry] The result is
a series of incidents

that almost seem
like cartoon chaos.

- In 1955, a kid throws
a rock at a pot, hits it,

and it explodes
flames everywhere.

- In 1958, a couple
of kids decide

to roll one like a bowling ball

and it rolls toward one
of the construction trucks

at the site, it gets
lodged underneath the tire

and then sets the
whole thing on fire.

- [Hakeem] In 1960, a truck in
Arizona is carrying a load

of 40 of these pots when it
suddenly bursts into flames.

Luckily, the driver
thinks quickly

and drives directly
to a fire station.

As these flare pot accidents
continue to rack up,

the authorities begin
to look for alternatives

and by the 1970s, they find it.

- [Martin] Eventually,
construction sites settle on

non-hazardous
and non-toxic ways

of alerting traffic to
dangers on the road.

- Smudge pots were just
one roadside hazard

of the last century.

Another was an
iconic ad campaign

that was so captivating drivers
just couldn't look away.

- [Adam] In 1925, there is a
little shaving cream company

out of Minnesota

and they want to make
a name for themselves,

in particular, a product
they have called Burma-Shave.

- [Don] They want to advertise

so they put up billboards all
along the side of the highway

to capitalize on the rise of
the country's auto industry

but they need to stand out

from all the other
billboards popping up

so they try a bold approach.

- [Natalia] The first step pops
up on Minnesota highways

and they have these
cute little rhymes like,

"My job is keeping faces clean

and nobody knows the
stubble I've seen.

Burma-Shave."

- [Don] Each billboard is set
about 100 feet apart

and each one has a
single line of a joke.

So you got to read
each billboard

and you got to read
the very last one

if you want the whole
joke plus the punchline.

So that's a lot of time
with your eyes off the road.

- [Edward] Once you start
reading one of these billboards,

it's almost impossible
to not read to the end.

It's just human nature.

Our brains hate to
leave a task unfinished.

So drivers become
almost hypnotized,

locking their eyes on
the side of the road

instead of in front of them.

- [Henry] By the late 1930s,

there are 42,000
Burma-Shave signs scattered

across more than 40 states.

- [Martin] Burma-Shave kind of
owns the marketplace

at the time.

It's just ever present.

People mentioned it constantly

and there were even
references to it in movies.

- [Edward] They even have a gag
contest.

Rip a fender off your car, mail
it in for a half pound jar.

So you might wreck your car,

but the consolation is you'll
get a free jar of Burma-Shave.

- [Natalia] The thing about
these advertisements is

they were almost too good.

Once you start reading,
you can't stop.

It is like early days
distracted driving.

- [Jason] In the 1930s, this is
a very risky thing to do.

Roads are becoming
more perilous.

Every time you come
up onto these things,

you increase your chances
of rear-ending a vehicle,

going off the road, going
into oncoming traffic.

I mean, these things
are creating hazards.

- [Henry] In 1937, the
motor vehicle death rate

hits the highest year on record,

30 deaths per 100,000 Americans.

- So the executives at
Burma-Shave feel like they have

to do something to address the
growing dangers of the road,

but their solution is
to keep doing exactly

what they've been doing

but now the signs are
going to be safety themed.

- [Adam] "Don't take a curve at
60 per.

We'd hate to lose a customer.

Burma-Shave."

- [Edward] The signs are
still distracting.

Only now you can read a helpful
message about road safety

before smashing into
the car in front of you.

- [Henry] Burma-Shave
eventually veers away

from their iconic
roadside signs,

but not for the
reason you'd think.

- Eventually Burma-Shave
loses its dominance,

not because of concerns about
safety and their ad campaign

but because more and more
ad money is going into TV

and into radio.

- [Jason] The fact that
highways become faster

and faster makes it impossible

to read the jokes
in the same way.

No one's going to slow
down to read a joke anymore

because they got places to be.

- For years, we worried
about distracting billboards

and then came the smartphone.

Some call that progress.

- Driving cross country has
long been a rite of passage

and a chance to experience
our nation's beauty up close

but for the first drivers
who attempted the trip,

it was less about scenery,
more about survival.

- [Lance] In 1913, some
prominent industry leaders

are celebrating a
brand new milestone.

They are opening
the nation's first

coast to coast highway for cars.

- [Edward] The route runs 3,400
miles from Times Square

in New York City
to San Francisco,

and it's known as
the Lincoln Highway.

- [Lance] This is really a
landmark moment for the country.

Previous to this,

the only way you could
get across country was

to get on a slow
and expensive train.

Now for the first time, you
can get into your own vehicle

to drive across the
country without having

to sit in a train car
with dozens of strangers.

- [Henry] Traffic on the
Lincoln Highway starts slow,

but it eventually surges
to 20,000 cars per year.

- [Rutledge] Part of what's
luring drivers is the ads are

saying, "Hey, this is the
best way to travel.

If you want to see the
coast, do it in the luxury

of your own vehicle."

- [Jason] There's also this idea

that taking the Lincoln
Highway is a patriotic act.

Like America wants you to
take the Lincoln Highway

and prove that we are ready
for the 20th century of travel.

- [Henry] But when the
motorists actually hit the road,

they find something
very different

than the scenic
joyride they were sold.

- [Natalia] What's sort of
hilarious is that the first clue

that the Lincoln Highway
may not be exactly

what it's marketed as is in
the promotional guide itself.

There's a packing
list of what to bring.

Any potential driver

of the Lincoln Highway should
have been a little suspicious

about the claims
of great luxury.

- [Rutledge] They say bring
multiple days of provisions

for food and don't
wear nice shoes.

I'm sorry, what kind
of road is this?

So you want me to bring an axe?

I don't know what
I'm going to dig up

or bury with this shovel, but
also bring three days of food?

This does not sound great.

- [Edward] On a map, the Lincoln
Highway looks amazing.

It's a nice thick line all
the way from Times Square

all the way across the
country to San Francisco.

In reality, the Lincoln Highway
is nothing more than a bunch

of small roads that are
sort of stitched together

in the imaginations of
the highway builders

to make it a highway.

- [Henry] The Lincoln Highway

isn't actually a highway at all.

- [Martin] When it's introduced,
less than half

of the Lincoln Highway
is actually paved.

There are things that are left
over from the 19th century

when Pioneers cross the
American West trying

to get to California.

Old wagon trails that have
been stitched together

and then labeled
the Lincoln Highway.

- [Rutledge] Most of the
travelers

that are taking a trip
like this are kind

of your upper echelon.

You know, like they're fancy
and they want some adventure.

What they don't realize
is once they get west

of the Mississippi, the
trip's going to turn a bit.

- [Lance] Every day is
physically exhausting.

The slightest rain turns
the entire road into mud.

The cars flood as you
try to ford rivers.

The frame is broken or cracked

as you try to climb
up rocky hills.

- [Jason] If you make it to the
west, you can get lost

in a sandstorm.

On a snowy mountain pass,
you can go right off the road

because there are no guardrails.

You are at the complete
mercy of the elements.

- [Henry] In 1919, the
Lincoln Highway Association

comes up with an idea to give
the road's reputation a boost.

- [Martin] A publicity stunt is
staged

in which an army
convoy of 81 vehicles,

including 34 heavy trucks,
will drive to California

on the Lincoln Highway.

The idea here is that

if the Lincoln Highway
can sustain the weight

of a military convoy
weighing 400 tons,

well, it can certainly
handle the weight

of your family in
a four-door sedan

as you journey to California.

- [Edward] It is not ready.

The US Army actually
has a worse trip

than maybe anybody else.

They get stranded in
quicksand in Nebraska.

They get stopped in
a salt marsh in Utah.

All in all, there are
21 serious injuries,

including concussions
and broken bones.

- [Martin] By the time that
they finally limp

into San Francisco after
62 days on the road,

they look less like a
triumphant military force

that's just completed
this epic journey

than something that has just
rolled off of a battlefield.

- [Edward] So if the Army
can't handle it,

the family car
doesn't have a prayer.

- [Henry] With all this
exposure, more funding pours in

and by 1935, the
entire route is paved.

- There is one silver lining
which is that one of the people

that participated
was a young officer

named Dwight D. Eisenhower.

And when he becomes president
of the United States,

he will push for

and oversee the passage of
the Interstate Highway Act,

which will build a massive
modern highway system

from coast to coast.

- Next time you're
on a long road trip,

just be glad you don't
need an axe and a shovel.

- They say the road to hell
is paved with good intentions.

Turns out our roads
were once paved

with something a
bit more troubling.

- [Lance] In the early 1960s,
American automotive culture

is getting very, very cool.

We become sort of the
muscle car country.

They have much bigger engines.

They're much heavier and
that's wreaking havoc

on roads and streets, many of
which were laid decades before

with a much more primitive
and fragile form of asphalt.

- Highway authorities
are looking for a way

to make pavement stronger
and more resilient

so that roads won't need
to be paved as often.

And they hear about
this miracle ingredient,

something that could
prevent potholes

and make road repairs
a thing of the past.

- [Hakeem] It's cheap, abundant,

and made of these
super thin fibers

that are flexible and strong.

Mixing just a bit of this stuff

into the asphalt will
make roads more stable

and crack resistant.

- [Dan] And one of the big
selling points is how easy it is

to work into the existing
process of making asphalt.

They don't need any
special equipment at all.

- [Announcer] The addition
to the asphalt mix calls

for little change in operations.

On the job, the mix requires
no special handling.

- [Lance] Soon more than 150
highway authorities

across the United
States and Canada start

to use this more resilient
new road surface.

It's spread across cities,
suburbs, and interstates.

- And for drivers,
this is amazing.

Driving on these
new improved roads,

no more potholes,
that is awesome.

- [Henry] But this powerful
ingredient is more

than it's cracked up to be.

- [Negin] So the material comes
from this small town

in which it's mined
just over the border

in Canada called Asbestos.

The town is called
Asbestos, Canada

Many, many, many miles of
American road are lined

with this toxic
material, asbestos.

- [Dan] The thing that makes
asbestos

so valuable to
highway engineers,

its thin, flexible, incredibly
strong fibers, turns out

to also make it super
deadly when it's inhaled.

Those fibers can get stuck
in your lungs and kill you.

- At first, there
are no regulations

around working with asbestos.

You don't have to wear a mask.

You don't have to wear gloves.

No protection is
needed whatsoever.

There's a reason why today

asbestos removal workers
are wearing hazmat suits.

It's extremely dangerous.

- [Hakeem] It becomes clear in
the 1970s

that working with asbestos
is completely toxic

and these road workers
across the United States

and Canada are bearing
the brunt of the cost

and they're getting really sick.

- [J Mack] And it's not just the
construction workers

that are getting
affected by this.

Over time, wear and tear

of the roads will send these
asbestos fibers into the air

that are then inhaled by
pedestrians and by motorists.

- Driving itself is bad enough.

You're moving at high speeds.
You can have collisions.

It's known to be dangerous,

but now the road
itself is dangerous.

- [Dan] During the '70s and
'80s,

the federal government
tightens restrictions

around working with asbestos.

So it gets phased out of
road construction altogether.

- [Negin] Also, the town
of Asbestos, Quebec

ends up renaming itself
to Val-des-Sources

and so far, no toxic
chemicals have been associated

with the term Val-des-Sources.

- It's hard to believe

there was a time when
asbestos wasn't just allowed

to be in our streets,

but celebrated for
being in our streets.

In this 1960s promotional
film, the narrator's asking

what probably seems like a
thoughtful question at the time.

- [Announcer] What will
our present techniques

look like 50 years from now?

- Today, we know the
answer is totally insane.

- Looking back at
life on the open road,

whether we were lining
the highway

with flaming smudge pots,

racing across the country
at breakneck speeds,

or drifting into a
trance behind the wheel,

when we hit the gas, things
didn't always run smoothly,

but that sense of freedom is

what made our hazardous
history worth a few bumps

in the road.