Mt. Washington Auto Road - Gorham NH
Posted by: 
nomadwillie
N 44° 16.210 W 071° 18.203
19T E 316167 N 4904460
The Auto Road to the summit is pricey, but once you have pulled out the money and ride the 8 mile road maybe you will have forgotten how much it cost and enjoy the breath taking views.
Waymark Code: WM165Z0
Location: New Hampshire, United States
Date Posted: 05/14/2022
Views: 3
It was on August 8, 1861 -- the early days of the Civil War -- that the road to the summit of New Hampshire's Mt. Washington officially opened for business.
The road wasn't built because Mt. Washington needed it, but because its backers believed that people would pay to ride up it. They did, and they still do, setting a precedent for separating tourists from their money and earning for the road the right to call itself "the oldest man-made tourist attraction in the United States."
The route has remained unchanged for over 150 years. It's steep and narrow, nearly eight miles long, with hairpin switchbacks and harrowing drop-offs. There are no guardrails and no pavement in spots, particularly above the tree line. The weather can be unpredictable, with howling winds and a temperature at the summit considerably lower than that at the base.
In its first decades the road was climbed either by foot or horse-drawn carriages. The first ascent by automobile was in 1899 and took 2 hours and 10 minutes. In 2011 a race driver reached the top in 6 minutes and 11 seconds. Your time, if you chose to attempt it, will be considerably longer because you won't be able to pass all the drivers in front of you, gingerly edging their way around the more than 100 turns in the road.
Since the 1950s, every auto that's successfully reached the 6,288 foot summit has been christened with a "This Car Climbed Mt. Washington" bumper sticker -- an icon of tourism. In honor of the road's sesquicentennial, every vehicle that showed up with that bumper sticker on August 8, 2011, got to climb the road again for free.
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