The use of cars and trucks over the past century has remade American geography—pushing big cities ever outward toward suburbanization, spurring the growth of some small towns while hastening the decline of others, and spawning a new kind of commercial landscape marked by gas stations, drive-in restaurants, motels, tourist attractions, and countless other retail entities that express our national love affair with the open road. By its very nature, this landscape is ever changing, indeed eph...

The first half of the 20th century was a period of great change along the historic Ohio River corridor. It was then that the Ohio became the most heavily engineered river in the world, facilitating its use as an artery of commerce. It was also a period of great change in transportation as different means of travel appeared along the margins of this storied waterway. And it was the era of the picture postcard, in which postcard publishing companies chose views for the public to buy and shar...