"The automobile age arrived in Dallas on October 5, 1899, when Edward Green and George Dorris drove a motorized "horseless carriage" from Terrell to downtown Dallas. *** The trip of Green and Dorris from Terrell to Dallas is widely regarded as the first automobile trip on Texas soil."
 
Historian and Dallas attorney Jeff Dunn recounts the arrival of the automobile to Texas in an article published in the Dallas Historical Society's Spring 2000 issue of Legacies magazine: The Development of Automobile Roads in Dallas County: 1905-1926. Dallas County's reaction over the next few years to the arrival of that first automobile very much dictated the region's place in national commerce and tourism today.
 
Roads at the time, such as they existed, were for horses, carriages, and wagons. There were no federal or state programs to finance better roads. But those conditions did not stop area residents from purchasing the new machines. Some locals saw them as a passing fad but the number of automobiles kept climbing. The drivers wanted better roads. The first attempt to raise money to build those roads failed when a county bond election failed.
 
Undeterred, "good roads" advocates, like those across the country, continued to push for suitable roads to smooth the ride of their autos. There was a freedom associated with the auto that wasn't available with trains or streetcars, the freedom to go where you wanted and to follow your own schedule … if there was a road. Efforts succeeded in 1903 when voters agreed to borrow $500,000 for a system of roads into the county.
 
Garland Rd was one of the twelve cardinal roads. Travelers from across the country that coaxed their autos toward Dallas often found the finest roads of their trip, smooth and gravel-paved, once they had crossed into the county. Garland Rd was the initial leg of the route from Dallas to Missouri. The Dallas roads attracted national attention from automobile enthusiasts and local enthusiasts were soon lobbying to have Dallas as a major spoke on the routes being mapped across the nation.
 
The Good Roads movement attracted a major sponsor in Alabama's Senator John Hollis Bankhead. Although Dallas County had done well to build better roads, most other counties did not have the money. A southern transcontinental highway from Washington, DC, to San Diego had been identified but effectively seeing it paved to boost travel looked remote. Sen Bankhead sponsored the federal legislation that made funds available to pave all sections of the highway that would soon bear his name.
 
In the first of four postings covering the history of the Bankhead Highway in Garland, historian Jerry Flook focuses on the Good Roads Movement.
 
Mr Dunn's and Mr Flook's accounts of these early days of the automobile in Dallas County and Garland paint a historical picture that shows that the Dallas area became the national and international travel center it is because of a vision by local dignitaries and residents. Reading both articles forever changes how you see Garland Rd and Main St but just as much Preston Rd, Richardson Rd, Fort Worth Rd, and several others that have evolved to sometimes be called by other names but whose paths for travelers have long lain just where they are.
 
My thanks to Mike Hayslip, Garland historian and a board director of the Garland Landmark Society, for sharing his knowledge of Garland and for the link to Mr Dunn's article. Copies of Mr Hayslip's book, Garland: It's Premier Century, are available at the Garland Landmark Museum. While getting a copy of the book alone makes the trip worthwhile, touring the museum goes a long way to explain Garland's own crossroads and the history that has shaped our community. The museum, just east of City Hall in Downtown, is open from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm the 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month.