DRIVING INTO THE FUTURE

Like Stonehenge, the pyramids of Giza, and Mick Jagger, the U.S. interstate highway system is one of those marvels that seems to have been around forever. The reality is quite the contrary. In fact, most superhighways are scarcely more than 50 years old.

The story of the interstates begins a decade into the 20th century, when the success of a handful of intrepid automobile drivers in crossing the country demonstrated the potential for long-distance travel by car. America was ready to start building a system of roads and highways to connect its distant ends. All that was needed was someone to help pave the way.

That person was Carl Fisher of Indianapolis, although at first he hardly seemed destined for success. He wasn’t much of a student and quit school at the age of 12, taking a job packing groceries to supplement the family’s income. Work taught Fisher more than he ever learned in school, especially when he took a job as a “news butcher” hawking newspapers, tobacco, and candy at the Indianapolis train station. He learned he had a natural gift for convincing people to buy whatever he had to sell. Soon he’d squirreled away $600, a substantial sum.

At the same time, he became swept up in the bicycling wave enthralling the country. Resolved to marry his talent for sales and passion for cycling, Fisher, at just 17 years old, convinced his brothers to join him in opening a bicycle shop in 1891, and by the age of 19, he owned the largest bicycle store in the city.

But Fisher realized that bicycles were being overtaken in popularity by faster and more thrilling machines: automobiles. He purchased what was likely the first automobile in Indianapolis, a French-made 2.5-horsepower De Dion-Bouton. He transformed his bicycle shop into an automobile dealership — possibly the first in America — and began selling cars using the same promotional tactics he had used successfully selling