IMAGES From Nostalgiaville
NEW HAMPSHIRE- MT WASHINGTON, NH- 8/16/05

MT WASHINGTON, NEW HAMPSHIRE
(Near Gorham, NH)

ATTENTION
The Mt Washington auto road is steep, narrow, mountain road without guardrails.  If you have a fear of heights, you may not appreciate this driving experience.  Guided tours are available.

The first company to undertake the project failed three years later, but the present company completed the road and opened it to the public on August 8, 1861.  The feat was celebrated in the newspapers of the day, and the resulting development of tourist activity around Mount Washington was correctly predicted.  Until that time, it had been impossible to reach the summit except by walking or by riding a pony up one of the existing bridle paths.  Soon the number of visitors to the top of the mountain increased several fold and led to major improvements in the two stone inns that had been built on the summit in 1852 and 1853.

Since its opening, the road has been the means by which 3,000,000 people have visited the summit of the Northeast's highest peak.  In the early 1860's a hundred stage passengers, and visitors driving their own horse-drawn vehicles, would have made a busy day.  Now it isn't unusual for a thousand cars plus forty loaded stages to make the trip in a single day.  Even so, this unusual mountain road has a remarkable safety record.

Specially designed, six-horse, twelve-passenger mountain wagons, many belonging to the various hotels throughout the White Mountains, were the preferred mode of transportation during the "horse and buggy" days.  These gradually gave way to automobiles near the turn of the century.

The first automobile ascent was made in 1899 by F O Stanley in his famous steamer, but cars were only allowed by special arrangement until 1911.  The following year, the Glen and Mt Washington Stage Company bought its first motorized stage... a Thomas Flyer... and at the end of that season retired the last of its horses and mountain wagons.

As you travel up the road, keep in mind that it was built entirely with hand tools, horses and oxen, and old-fashioned blasting powder.  Through it has been widened and otherwise improved over the years, the road follows the same course that was laid out over 136 years ago, and still utilizes most of the original stonework, which was laid down by laborers before Abraham Lincoln became President.

THE APPALACHIANS