Dedicated on October 28, 1928, a Madonna statue honored the pioneering spirit of women along a proposed coast-to-coast highway route from Bethesda, Maryland, to Upland, California. In 1911 the Daughters of the American Revolution proposed a model highway from Washington, DC, to Los Angeles, California, and in 1912 the National Old Trails Highway Association was established. By linking the National Road with the Santa Fe Trail, the route became one of many ocean-to-ocean highway plans promoted for automobile travel, and twelve statues marked its course. As the Women’s Movement matured during the 19th century, women’s roles expanded beyond wife, mother, and caregiver to advocate, promoter, and adventurer, and they became effective supporters of a national network of paved, interconnected roads. Their efforts grew alongside the Good Roads Movement, which arose after modern tires were invented in 1885 and as bicyclists, motorists, farmers, and business owners pressed for smoother roads; in the 1890s less than 10 percent of the nation’s roads were paved. Improved roads offered broader access to education, jobs, culture, and fresher produce. The automobile revived the National Road in the 1920s, and under the federal highway numbering system established in 1926 the old road became US Route 40, a transcontinental highway from Atlantic City, NJ, to San Francisco, CA. Gas stations, diners, and motels brought new prosperity, and until Interstate 70 was completed in the 1970s, US 40 remained one of the country’s main east-west routes. In 2002 the US Secretary of Transportation designated the Historic National Road from Maryland to Illinois an All-American Road, while Indiana has worked to preserve its part of the road, its structures, and its landscapes. Along this corridor, places such as the 1841 Huddleston Farmhouse in Cambridge City continued the road’s tradition of serving travelers, and Indiana-based Studebaker, which grew from the H&C Studebaker blacksmith shop into the world’s largest wagon manufacturer after 1868, later introduced electric and gasoline-powered cars and successfully shifted from horse-drawn to motor vehicles.