Route 16, Pinkham Notch P.O. Box 278, Gorham, NH 03581 (603) 466-3988 http://www.mtwashingtonautoroad.com

The company first convened on September 1 in nearby Gorham, and was presided by David O. Macomber. The secretary was J.R. Lufkin, and other members were Barker Burbank, James Dingly, J.R. Hitchcock, Abner Lowell, R.J. Robinson, and John M. Woods. Their original plans states, "The road is to be sixteen feet wide, macadamized, and have a protection-wall, three feet high in dangerous places. A route has been thoroughly surveyed and located, with no greater rise than that of one foot to eight, to the top of Mount Washington, from Thompson's Glen House."

In the summer of 1854, work had begun on the Carriage Road, which soon climbed up toward what is now called Chandler Ridge. However, in the autumn of 1856, the Company went bankrupt (due to extremely high costs) and the new road reached no further than the newly-constructed halfway house (seen at left), about four miles up from the Glen House. [You may even remember this halfway house, as it lasted until December 6, 1984, when it was destroyed by fire.]

By the end of the 1850s, enough funding allowed work to resume on the Carriage Road, with high hopes of completing the monumental job, "thus completing a carriage-route that for novelty, and unparalleled wonder-exciting location, will not in the western world have an equal." (J.H. Spaulding, Historical Relics of the White Mountains, 1858.)

Progress resumed in 1859 under the reorganized Mount Washington Summit Road Company, and soon a course was laid all the way to the summit, winding southwestward over the ridge, past what is now called Ball Crag, and around to the east of the summit buildings. The route was officially completed on August 8, 1861, but Colonel Joseph M. Thompson (owner of the Glen House) was able to make the first complete ascent of Mount Washington by carriage three weeks prior. The Carriage Road was a tremendous success, providing local residents and foreign visitors alike an exciting and relatively quick way to experience the world above treeline on New england's highest peak. A stage service was set up at the Glen House, and as many as 125 horses were stabled here at a time, ready to take passengers on a ride up the Carriage Road.

The first successful automobile ascent of Mount Washington was made on August 31, 1899 by Mr. and Mrs. Freelan O. Stanley, in their steam-driven "Locomobile". In 1911, the road's name was officially changed to the "Mount Washingto Auto Road", as cars vastly outnumbered horse-drawn carriages, but it was not until decades later that it slowly became known as the Mt. Washington Auto Road. [As late as the 1960s, people still referred to it as the Carriage Road!] By 1913, the first automotive stage was put into service, taking visitors back and forth from the Glen House to the summit in a 1911 Thomas Flyer. Those who drove their own vehicles were given long, thin bumper tags that read "This car climbed Mt. Washington, NH".