ABSTRACT
In 1896, Charles Duryea won the first significant horseless carriage race in America. Thirty vehicles were entered but only six showed on race day. Of the six, four belonged to the Duryea Motor Company of Springfield, Massachusetts. The remaining two entries were a Booth-Crouch carriage and the Roger Carriage, a French invention. The course for the Cosmopolitan Horseless Carriage Race was from City Hall, New York to Irvington and back, the day was May 30th, Decoration Day, and the purse was a respectable $3,000. The judges agreed to employ the following points system to score the race: top speed maintained by vehicle, 35 points; simplicity of construction and durability of vehicle, 30; ease in operating and safety of vehicle, 25; and cost of vehicle, 10–for a maximum of 100 points. As the carriages awaited the start of the race a crowd of onlookers grew to such proportions that police reserves stood ready to maintain order. At five minutes to noon, the six fanciful vehicles began their assault on the streets which had not been cleared for the race.
The ride through the city was very exciting. The carriages dodged back and forth in front of and around cable cars and wagons and demonstrated beyond argument that the horseless carriage is much more capable of control than the ordinary horse and carriage. They passed through the most crowded portions of the city, which was in holiday attire in honor of the day…. The only serious accident of the day occurred on the Boulevard, where a wheelman was run into and seriously hurt by one of the horseless carriages. The operator was arrested.
