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Los Angeles Times
Nov. 9, 1906
"All automobile records between San Francisco and Los Angeles were
smashed yesterday by Fernando Nelson, a northern contractor, who
covered the 504 miles in a 1906 40-horsepower Columbia in 18 hours, 13
minutes," The Times reported. "This is three hours better than any
previous record." Nelson arrived in Los Angeles, "down the Broadway
hill from the tunnel, with horn tooting loudly and his joyous
passengers cheering to the limit of their lung strengths."
Encountering
delays with horses and buggies and a wild black stallion, Nelson
lamented that "once in a while, men are encountered who hate the
automobile with a devil's hate, and who are meaner than is believable."
He averaged 28 miles per hour, with two breaks for "good square meals."
The Southern Pacific Railroad was then making the San Francisco-Los
Angeles run in 16 hours.
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To read a detailed account of
this trip
which was published in Sunset
Magazine,
click HERE
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