Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip


Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip
Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip
Directed byKen Burns
Directed by
Ken Burns
In the spring of 1903, on a whim and a fifty-dollar bet, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson set off from San Francisco in a 20-horsepower Winton touring car hoping to become the first person to cross the United States in the new-fangled "horseless carriage." Most people doubted that the automobile had much of a future. Jackson's trip would prove them wrong.
road trip
automobile
cross country
Last Updated: November 8, 2025

























