Image from the 1984 film Cannonball Run 2. Long have Americans embraced the automobile, and even longer have we embraced the open road.  Roads have been around for millennia, as essential links between population centers, holding civilization itself together.  The Roman Empire could not have managed its size without roads holding its farflung provinces together, and the United States is no different.   Following the invention of the automobile, roads had to be reinvented.  Before World War I, the United States had about 18 miles of paved roads from coast to coast.  The US Route System was spurred on in 1916 with the Federal Aid Road Act, which was government spending that footed half the bill for US highways across the country.  Automobile associations and manufacturers were starting to promote recreational driving, which went hand in glove with the US Route System.  Paved roads are much more appealing to drive on. One inspiration for improv...