During the Great Depression, road construction became a mainstay for workers. Ever drive down a blacktop with seams cracking through? Underneath that asphalt is a concrete road from the 1930s.
My folks lived through the Great Depression. After the stock market crashed, so many people were out of work and desperate for income. They told me the government set up national work programs like the WPA. They did engineering work along waterways, like dams and culverts. Others focused on roads, bridges and housing. We should bring these back, because the infrastructure in this country is suffering badly from neglect in many areas, and people once again need new jobs.
I work road construction I haul asphalt for a living and you are absolutely right brother every single Road has concrete as the base rarely do we Mill down that far and take up the concrete will take up several layers in years of blacktop and then put asphalt back down on the original concrete
@Gale Bailey I often wonder if reports of the great depression are exaggerated. People write the history books with their final perspective. We see some of the same things today like hoovervills are the modern day tent encampments riddled with drugs. The perspective this moment is not that were in a depression. Because there is so many living well to disagree with the perspective everyone is suffering,
@@galebailey5583 sad part is … lots of people aren’t willing to work…they would rather thank the working persons tax dollars in the form of food stamps and welfare
Well presented, easily understood educational film. I never realized that limited access highways with overpasses, underpasses and cloverleaf designs were already being implemented by 1937. These are designs we take for granted today to ease the flow of traffic yet what a quantum leap forward these features were making over the barely passable rutted dirt roads as shown in the presentation. Today though even the 4+ lanes on modern highways can become clogged during peak travel times due to the vast increase in the numbers of vehicles on the roads.
Intersections have been designed to enable young people to have sideshows and takeovers in beaten up old Nissan's and dodge Hellcats. On the highway, trees have been planted to block the end of every single police chase filmed from a helicopter, and in the city, garbage lanes have been installed in front of all the meth addicts tents to allow dispersal of waste.
Nice video! Highlight at t=3.55min "Curves have been scientifically banked, to make the car hold the road easily at usual driving speeds". Still in year 2013 many outercurves on the road network have not been banked into superelevation. A Swedish study on fatal singlevehiclecrashes found out that these crashes are 5 times more common in outercurves than innercurves. The ROADEX III project (2008) concluded that adverse camber is a main cause to overrisk at outercurves. Amazing yr 1937 knowledge.
these 1930s roads in the US seem like an utopia to my home country for today, i believe it will never happen. i'm sure US success is a lot due to having this infrastructure way before any other country.
No, the autobahn was first engineered and some construction begun in the mid-20's under the Weimar Republic. The first public autobahn between Cologne and Bonn opened in 1932, a year before Hitler took power. Many more miles of these roads would have been built in the early 30's if not for the Depression. Hitler was an enthusiastic supporter of the concept. He supported the building of more autobahns, mainly as a way to put the unemployed to work. Nazi Germany did not build the world's first autobahn and Hitler had nothing to do with the idea.
Yes, these ads (that's what they are, really long advertisements) were shown in movie theaters before the main feature. When you stop and think about it, these Jam Handy ads treat the viewer as an intelligent human being who can understand complex concepts, unlike the lowest-common-denominator advertisements of today.
thank u for keepin this video until now. we can see how interested they were in getting better. and how we have got better indeed through out the years !! still we have a lot of traffic
thedalailama245 Many concrete roads are still used in La Jolla, San Diego, CA. Most have been paved over with asphalt but luckily the concrete roads still lie under them.
Traffic circles have now been removed across most of NJ -- ironically, the state where they were first introduced in the US -- b/c Americans couldn't be brought to obey the one rule for navigating them -- that one must yield to traffic already present in the circle. Accident rates were higher in circles than anywhere else in the state. Circles are common in Europe.
Most have been updated. I am wiling to be the circle and clover leaf at 5:45 have been rebuilt. The clover leaf at 6:00 has no room for acceleration room or slowing down on exit ramps
2:13 "they can stop, quickly and safely". You'll find that's a very relative term if you've ever tried to drive a car with old drums in modern traffic.
I drive my Cj-3a every day and can attest that it's drum brakes work just as well as any modern car's brakes (and I live in San Diego so you know they've saved me from a number of collisions). The problem with drums isn't that they aren't strong enough, it's that they don't dissipate heat as fast and can overheat more quickly than disc brakes (and they're more difficult to service).
Drum brakes work just fine unless you try to stop from 120mph or you're going down a hill at 60mph grinding your brakes. If that's the case, yea u ded lol
@@bliesberg That is true. I've owned lots of old drum brake cars and never found them to be weak but yes, during hard braking they are more prone to overheat and more difficult to service. One of the few things on an old car that's harder to service than a modern car.
@@Phenom98 Not if you know how to use them. You don't shove the peddle to the floor and leave it there. You apply the brakes gently and for short intervals. You also gear down to use the engine as a brake.
@@tomfournier4941 exactly, you never do that. The car will skid if you slam on the breaks, whereas with a roll stop...you take the car with you until it slows down enough that you can increase the push force.
And then, 30-40 years later, the American public turned against the roads they once loved, and revolted against freeways in cities across the land, with "NIMBY" as their rallying cry. And then proceeded to whine about traffic cutting through their neighborhoods to avoid overcrowded stoplight-lined city streets.
It also takes money from our govt. to upgrade our roads and make them safer for modern traffic. That's assuming that the govt. is able and willing to pay the workers enough to do the work.
@@waterheaterservices "confiscated" it's called taxes. everyone pays taxes so the country can operate and give us the infrastructure we need. if we didn't pay taxes to pay our share where would the money come from?
"No highway is for reckless speed." Wish I could say that in the Philippines. Drivers here act like they own the entire road. No sort of courtesy whatsoever.
If you knew anything and didn't just guess decades, you would know that this is easily late 1936 when the new chevrolet models were brought on the road.
I'd take one of these 1940's, 1950's vintage, simply designed and reliable vehicles any day over the pollution control choked, black box infested, high failure rate pieces of shit they pass off for cars today.
Hmm, limited 4-lane roads in 1937. But, it took until President Eisenhower (Republican) to begin the Interstate system (real infrastructure). FDR (Democrat) couldn't figure that out.
Wow you're so funny and interesting. This isn't even in color, and your pretending like it would actually look like this when they went off road with full frames that the eye could see instead of 25 fps. And you don't realize that this is EXACTLY what your civic looks like crossing over that.
During the Great Depression, road construction became a mainstay for workers. Ever drive down a blacktop with seams cracking through? Underneath that asphalt is a concrete road from the 1930s.
My folks lived through the Great Depression. After the stock market crashed, so many people were out of work and desperate for income. They told me the government set up national work programs like the WPA. They did engineering work along waterways, like dams and culverts. Others focused on roads, bridges and housing. We should bring these back, because the infrastructure in this country is suffering badly from neglect in many areas, and people once again need new jobs.
I work road construction I haul asphalt for a living and you are absolutely right brother every single Road has concrete as the base rarely do we Mill down that far and take up the concrete will take up several layers in years of blacktop and then put asphalt back down on the original concrete
@Gale Bailey I often wonder if reports of the great depression are exaggerated. People write the history books with their final perspective. We see some of the same things today like hoovervills are the modern day tent encampments riddled with drugs. The perspective this moment is not that were in a depression. Because there is so many living well to disagree with the perspective everyone is suffering,
@@galebailey5583 sad part is … lots of people aren’t willing to work…they would rather thank the working persons tax dollars in the form of food stamps and welfare
Well presented, easily understood educational film. I never realized that limited access highways with overpasses, underpasses and cloverleaf designs were already being implemented by 1937. These are designs we take for granted today to ease the flow of traffic yet what a quantum leap forward these features were making over the barely passable rutted dirt roads as shown in the presentation. Today though even the 4+ lanes on modern highways can become clogged during peak travel times due to the vast increase in the numbers of vehicles on the roads.
instablaster
Thanks for the upload. Man I'm addicted to these old videos.
I love these videos from Chevy and stuff
They should do a revised version of this for 2020.
They would make it political , guaranteed.
We're STILL waiting in 2021 for people to learn how to maneuver through traffic circles.
The Amish are along modern roads on a daily basis. They do avoid freeways.
@@bsteven885 And no auto manufacturer would show people driving on rutted dirt roads in a sedan.
Intersections have been designed to enable young people to have sideshows and takeovers in beaten up old Nissan's and dodge Hellcats. On the highway, trees have been planted to block the end of every single police chase filmed from a helicopter, and in the city, garbage lanes have been installed in front of all the meth addicts tents to allow dispersal of waste.
"Bridge approaches are wide enough to carry large emounts of traffic today and for years to come."
Not if Chris Christie has his way.
They did. For decades.
AWESOME film!! It is a shame we have forgotten our roads to wage war on other countries.
cadrolls
Very true
Endless wars. The last 25 years could have turned our infrastructure into the envy of the world.
Nice video!
Highlight at t=3.55min "Curves have been scientifically banked, to make the car hold the road easily at usual driving speeds".
Still in year 2013 many outercurves on the road network have not been banked into superelevation. A Swedish study on fatal singlevehiclecrashes found out that these crashes are 5 times more common in outercurves than innercurves. The ROADEX III project (2008) concluded that adverse camber is a main cause to overrisk at outercurves. Amazing yr 1937 knowledge.
the inner curve give you a little room for error
The guy singing the opening song sounds like Clark Griswald.
these 1930s roads in the US seem like an utopia to my home country for today, i believe it will never happen. i'm sure US success is a lot due to having this infrastructure way before any other country.
First real highways were built in... Nazi Germany! (Autobahns).
this_is_not_a_page
The free market supplies incredible products.
No, the autobahn was first engineered and some construction begun in the mid-20's under the Weimar Republic. The first public autobahn between Cologne and Bonn opened in 1932, a year before Hitler took power. Many more miles of these roads would have been built in the early 30's if not for the Depression. Hitler was an enthusiastic supporter of the concept. He supported the building of more autobahns, mainly as a way to put the unemployed to work. Nazi Germany did not build the world's first autobahn and Hitler had nothing to do with the idea.
@@sarjim4381 American concrete roads first started being built in the 1870s, then asphalt practices since the 1890s.
Prime cut video perciate it Hombre stay healthy safe travels 🥾
This is an excellent film from 1937 Chevrolet. I am wondering who the intended film was designed to entertain? The movie paying patron?
Yes, these ads (that's what they are, really long advertisements) were shown in movie theaters before the main feature. When you stop and think about it, these Jam Handy ads treat the viewer as an intelligent human being who can understand complex concepts, unlike the lowest-common-denominator advertisements of today.
@@LordSluggo they were shown in the chevrolet dealership...
Awesome video 🚬🔨
Waaaaaaaaaaaaagon Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeels, Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaagon Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeels ♪
Nice history lesson.
driving concrete highways over the section joints:
kathump kathump kathump kathump kathump kathump kathump kathump kathump
It was an improvement over taking the train , clackity clack , clackity clack .......
People as dumb as you not realizing that these automobiles made virtually zero sound.
GW bridge can be backed up 3 miles into NJ Heading North , I have been backed up for miles there.
thank u for keepin this video until now. we can see how interested they were in getting better. and how we have got better indeed through out the years !! still we have a lot of traffic
Fast forward - Where would we be without our interstate system? Imagine if we had them in the 1930s! Thanks and RIP President Dwight D Eisenhower!
scary when you consider these "modern highways" had absolutely no shoulder and no median barriers, and maybe 10' lane widths
I couldn't see lane markers or striping either.
10 feet isn't too far from what's still European Standart lanes, part reason the fancy all american cars don't sell well here
They were a great improvement in they're time. Definitely not modern by our standards but modern just the same.
Awesome documentary.
Are some of those roads still there today, like the concrete ones and the circles that they showed?
some
thedalailama245
Many concrete roads are still used in La Jolla, San Diego, CA. Most have been paved over with asphalt but luckily the concrete roads still lie under them.
Traffic circles have now been removed across most of NJ -- ironically, the state where they were first introduced in the US -- b/c Americans couldn't be brought to obey the one rule for navigating them -- that one must yield to traffic already present in the circle. Accident rates were higher in circles than anywhere else in the state. Circles are common in Europe.
Most have been updated. I am wiling to be the circle and clover leaf at 5:45 have been rebuilt. The clover leaf at 6:00 has no room for acceleration room or slowing down on exit ramps
I was wondering the same thing. It would be great see aerials of these exact roads now.
COOL Nice Video I LIKE IT!
Gotta love a car safety org. that names itself Jam Handy!
They produced all kinds of instructional films -- some of them thinly-veiled propaganda on behalf of various industries -- for many years.
I'm starting to think Chevrolet and Ford had stables and fleets of waggons just to make introductions to their films.
Those backroads look like some of the Township Roads in Southern Missouri today🙄
2:13 "they can stop, quickly and safely". You'll find that's a very relative term if you've ever tried to drive a car with old drums in modern traffic.
I drive my Cj-3a every day and can attest that it's drum brakes work just as well as any modern car's brakes (and I live in San Diego so you know they've saved me from a number of collisions). The problem with drums isn't that they aren't strong enough, it's that they don't dissipate heat as fast and can overheat more quickly than disc brakes (and they're more difficult to service).
Drum brakes work just fine unless you try to stop from 120mph or you're going down a hill at 60mph grinding your brakes. If that's the case, yea u ded lol
@@bliesberg That is true. I've owned lots of old drum brake cars and never found them to be weak but yes, during hard braking they are more prone to overheat and more difficult to service. One of the few things on an old car that's harder to service than a modern car.
@@Phenom98 Not if you know how to use them. You don't shove the peddle to the floor and leave it there. You apply the brakes gently and for short intervals. You also gear down to use the engine as a brake.
@@tomfournier4941 exactly, you never do that. The car will skid if you slam on the breaks, whereas with a roll stop...you take the car with you until it slows down enough that you can increase the push force.
They're still having trouble teaching American drivers how to drive through a 'traffic circle'.
these traffic circles actually were perfect. nice and big. unlike now.
Are you talking about a roundabout?
Millions of Europeans and Australians manage to negotiate roundabouts just fine. What's prevented their widespread use in the US?
Traffic circles? Grew up driving on them. Handy as hell.
And then, 30-40 years later, the American public turned against the roads they once loved, and revolted against freeways in cities across the land, with "NIMBY" as their rallying cry. And then proceeded to whine about traffic cutting through their neighborhoods to avoid overcrowded stoplight-lined city streets.
Or Jim Nabors
It also takes money from our govt. to upgrade our roads and make them safer for modern traffic. That's assuming that the govt. is able and willing to pay the workers enough to do the work.
The government does not pay for anything. Earnings confiscated by the government from the workers pays for everything.
@@waterheaterservices
"confiscated" it's called taxes. everyone pays taxes so the country can operate and give us the infrastructure we need.
if we didn't pay taxes to pay our share where would the money come from?
Or use the tax money here instead of the Middle East.
p p They aren’t. Israel has a nice wall.
What reason for 2 thumbs down I wonder?
Steamship Captains:)
Or equestrians. =D
History is resented by some who simply don't have the will or ability to grasp the benefits of understanding it
Steam car drivers
Anti Patriarchy Feminists.
Classical
Everybody now!! "Wagon wheel,Wagon Wheel!!"
"No highway is for reckless speed." Wish I could say that in the Philippines. Drivers here act like they own the entire road. No sort of courtesy whatsoever.
Roo-ouds.😜
There's only one place where there aren't traffic lights, that could greatly benefit. Mountain roads.
ah yes, Fallout real life videos.
Fascinating
Son of bitches have paved ever damn gravel road in Kentucky!!!!!!!!!
Revenue inhancement departments ( police) strive to use "safety" excuse as methods of profit across "our" land
Old Heads
What will they think of next !
Are we Sure this is 1937 ? Seems more like after WW2 ?
it was. most states had the divided highway in the population centers. the roads still went through towns.
greenstaraz -Yes we are sure.
If you knew anything and didn't just guess decades, you would know that this is easily late 1936 when the new chevrolet models were brought on the road.
I'd take one of these 1940's, 1950's vintage, simply designed and reliable vehicles any day over the pollution control choked, black box infested, high failure rate pieces of shit they pass off for cars today.
Sorry, but the cars of that era were far from anything resembling the word, "reliable".
How do you figure?
rlwieneke
I don't think you'd want to be in a big city in California when thousands and thousands of these cars were driving around.
Jam Handy......wasn't he W.C. Handy's little brother who found fame in Roller Derby?
This makes me want to see the world today in a brand new Chevrolet
O but the old gravel back roads are soooooo scenic. (If not bucolic.)
Wow, an American propaganda film. The best in the world.
America’s version of “Triumph of the Will”.
Buy a Jeep 😎
Now we are conquering Coronavirus😁
Hmm, limited 4-lane roads in 1937. But, it took until President Eisenhower (Republican) to begin the Interstate system (real infrastructure). FDR (Democrat) couldn't figure that out.
My civic does a better job off-road than that car does
Wow you're so funny and interesting. This isn't even in color, and your pretending like it would actually look like this when they went off road with full frames that the eye could see instead of 25 fps. And you don't realize that this is EXACTLY what your civic looks like crossing over that.
FORT KNOX GENERAL AND UNITED STATES CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY DIRECTOR LAMONTE M. WARD...📡💻🖱️💸💲💷💵💴💶💳©️™️®️🛰️🈂️🈯🈳🉐㊙️🔒