The "Beast": A History of Presidential Limousines

The automobile has been a central part of American culture since the early 1900's--and has been a part of Presidential history for just as long. From the earliest Stanley Steamers to the special-built Cadillac limousine (referred to by the Secret Service as "The Beast&quot used by Barack Obama, here is a history of Presidential limousines.

The first "true" automobiles, four-wheeled with gasoline-fueled internal combustion engines, were made in Germany; Karl Friedrich Benz produced his first model in 1885, followed by Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler in 1886. The first practical electric car was introduced in 1891, by Scottish immigrant William Morrison, of Des Moines, Iowa. And in 1897, two twin brothers, Francis and Freelan Stanley, began manufacturing a steam-powered car, called the Stanley Steamer, in Massachusetts.

In 1899, the Stanley brothers, as a marketing stunt, visited the White House and offered a ride to President William McKinley. McKinley had his doubts about the safety of the contraption and agreed only reluctantly; afterwards he told people that the automobile would never replace the horse carriage as a mode of transportation. McKinley was of course wrong about that--but he does go down in history as the first President to ever ride in a car.

After McKinley was assassinated in 1901, President Teddy Roosevelt took office. Under his term, the White House purchased its first automobile, a Stanley Steamer, but Roosevelt seldom used it--an avid outdoorsman, he always preferred his horses. It wasn't until Roosevelt's successor William Howard Taft was in office that the first official Presidential limousine, a Model M Steamer made by the White Automobile Manufacturing Company, was obtained. Taft had the horse stable on the White House grounds replaced with a four-car garage, which he filled with two White Steamers and two Pierce-Arrow gasoline cars. He also had a Baker electric car. The Secret Service agents assigned to protect Taft created the White House Transportation Agency to maintain the automobiles, and when Taft was driven around in one of his cars, Secret Service agents always followed in another car behind him.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/03/1280557/-The-Beast-A-History-of-Presidential-Limousines