European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 11, 1947, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Pass that baby continued autobahn Beckon motorists from Pope this photo will Appeal in the papers with a witty caption Reading something like and then the Mamma Bear said to the baby Bear what did we Tell you Marilyn has graduated to Reading movie scripts Here she is working with a studio this photograph Hast much to do with babies but a Little cheesecake never the routes toward Aachen and Saar Bruecken on the Western would in less than five years be cluttered with death on wheels for them and their germans in the few years preceding the inveterate tourists of their own in More than autos and on motorcycles they ranged up and Down the two thousand Miles of Germany they could take Oft from Hamburg or Stettin in the North and work their Way or go on a junket with Frankfurt main or Karlsruhe As a starting tourists did not find on the Auto Bahns the innumerable hamburger de luxe gasoline station that crowd but dotting the roads were about Hundred one could drink a Glass of Beer and stay one All these places operated by a specially chartered the aut Bahnen one the most famous of the to germans and for eign visitor was the one situated on Lake the largest Lake in it is now a rest Camp for gasoline stations were spaced about eighteen Miles in Addi Tion to dispensing fuel and refresh furnished one service As far As is was provided Only by the that was paging motorists wanted on the for in if Herr Mueller in Berlin wanted to reach his Friend Herr Schmidt who was travelling on the Berlin Frankfurt Herr Mueller called the Gas stations on the in would rack up a placard in front of the station announcing that Herr Schmidt wanted on the there was no extra charge for this in spite of the similarity Between the roads and the the tourist might have noticed some there was the fourteen foot wide continuous strip separating the opposing the German engineers favored these not Only for greater but also As a Means of cutting Down the Glare from autobahn headlights at Les noticeable differences in the material used in the ten inches autobahn engineers prescribed stones for Concrete of one Inch in where american Road men used stones twice As the germans later Learned to that the larger stones gave better the germans Cut joints in the rigid pavement to Cope with contractions and expansion with temperature the americans inserted boards Between sections for the same although the German and Amer ican methods of laying their roads differed sex biggest Gap was the matter of the actual amount of machinery the proportion of hand labor employed by the germans was use of machinery was Cut to the Barest practically no machinery was permitted in construction of the stretch of the autobahn from Frankfurt to of this was state policy designed to bypass swiftness and efficiency of rollers and other for the Sake of fattening employment while admiring much of the construction of the autobahn american engineers who have finally had a Chance to examine the roads in detail have one serious criticism to from a professional Point of the autobahn uneconomical and experts in the highways transport division of military say that the building of two each with two was had the built single Carriage ways of the autobahn could have been located in places inaccessible to the highways and would have served the purpose twice As since the of German traffic was never enough to make use of roads of such it May be that Hitler was no partic ulary interested Xin economies when his autobahn were solving his employment problems and serving As carriers of the wehrmacht pointed at the Borders of his War game in Many y v former Road drafted into the services were replaced by labor imported by the germans from occupied but the War work on the aule Bahns came a virtual the slave labor was diverted into tones to make German never finished were routes from Frankfurt to Heilbronn to Nurr Iberg via Nurnberg via Regensburg to the last Sec Tion of autobahn was built from Ingol Stadt to Munich in Allied planes watched autobahn like Hawks for any thing that Short Side roads off the autobahn  Merly used to Park their became shelters covered Over with bran the bombed out of its began to use the autobahn for with nearby Woods As improvised Han planes took off from makes Hift strips Between Munich and Salz and Munich and and one near though damage to the roads them selves was As a result of Allied by far the greatest destruction was wrought on the autobahn because the principle of level Crossings and the number of natural demanded the autobahn were thickly sewn with Bridges and of completed and 1819 under construction at the wars More than 275 of them were Large costing Over almost All of the spans secreted within them selves demolition Chambers and Al most 100 per cent of these were used As the germans american although not impressed with the High Span of which came1 up to have praised the Small and Middle Span of especially High Quality they con the steel plate girder the germans did have one Bridge of impressive proportions in the print designed As a suspension Bridge Over the Elbe River at Ham it was to have been the widest the the tons of steel required for it went instead for planes and As the reconstruction of the Auto Bahns continues yanks have added some distinctly american except that no advertising men have embellished the landscape with billboards extolling the Virtues of Mouth the Rosthauser for weary travellers have been replaced by the snack Emer gency Highway stations with their Mobile repair shops Are ready to help the who hits More than fifty Miles an hour will find the impassive constabulary trooper asking him in the american wheres the ii