ShareThisIt's the one presidential limousine that's etched in the minds of generations of Americans: the midnight-blue 1961 Lincoln convertible that John F. Kennedy used as he rode through Dealey Plaza in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.
Two days after the assassination, the Secret Service ordered the limousine sent back to Ford Motor Co. to be completely rebuilt, equipped with armor, a redone engine and a top welded onto it.
It marked the last of the convertible presidential limousines, and the last to be built without protective armor. And the start of an era of ever more secure vehicles, a trend that kicked into high gear after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Barack Obama's inauguration will mark the official debut of a new presidential limo, designed and engineered in such secrecy by General Motors that about all that's publicly known is that it has hand-stitched leather seats and a CD player.
While the engine size and type of the Cadillac has not been revealed -- nor the car's dimensions -- the limo is believed to be equipped with "run-flat" tires (that work even if punctured); 5-inch thick armored plating; bullet-proof windows; and a chassis sealed to protect against chemical or biological attack. The Secret Service will not reveal its cost.
Not much of the first presidential conveyance -- nor many since -- has survived.
Curators at George Washington's house in Mount Vernon, Va., say the only remnant they have of the first president's vehicles is a wooden coat of arms from one of his carriages, displayed now in the hallway of the house. They believe some of his carriages may have been broken up and given away as souvenirs.
The Smithsonian Museum of Natural History has only the carriage President Ulysses Grant used during his 1873 inauguration, which was bought retail from Meeks Carriage Depository, and kept in the White House stables, located where the Oval Office now stands.
Wealthy New Yorkers gave Millard Fillmore's wife Abigail a carriage complete with horses and silver harnesses, but Fillmore sold it and pocketed the proceeds. Chester Arthur rode around in a monogrammed carriage, painted green with red detailing, green lace ropes and lace curtains. "The entire turnout is a model of quiet magnificence and good grace," wrote one observer. After Herbert Hoover left the White House, he bought one of the Cadillac limousines he used as president.
The Henry Ford Museum has another brougham that was used by Theodore Roosevelt in 1902 -- the last horse-drawn vehicle used to carry a president. But in its later life, it was passed to the White House housekeepers, who used it to carry groceries until 1928.
"It was used, and well used up," says Casey. "They were wooden vehicles, so subject to the vagaries of rain and wood rot." Casey said many 19th-century presidential carriages probably had the same fate, traveling down the food chain until they fell apart.
The first president to set foot in a car was William McKinley, who rode in a Stanley Steamer on July 13, 1901, two months before his assassination.
His successor, Theodore Roosevelt, preferred horses, although the White House had its first government-owned automobile - a white Stanley Steamer. William Howard Taft, at 300 pounds, had little use for horseback riding, and liked to settle back in the seat of a Pierce Arrow.
When he left office, Taft had emptied the White House stables of horses, and replaced them with five cars. The stables officially were closed by act of Congress in 1951, and the mews turned into the area where the president's Oval Office and Rose Garden now are situated.
Calvin Coolidge, who had great regard for Henry Ford, was the first president to get a Lincoln, and the company had a relationship with the White House for more than half a century, leasing presidential limousines to the president at $1 a year.
One of the most famous of these was the "Sunshine Special," a 1939 Lincoln convertible delivered to Franklin Roosevelt in 1939. The unarmored convertible became as famous as Roosevelt's dog Fala, and the president often gave press conferences sitting in the backseat.
It was only after Pearl Harbor that the Secret Service ordered the car fortified with armor and inch-thick bulletproof glass. But after it was returned, Roosevelt insisted on keeping the top down when he drove around so he could be seen, and the 4 1/2-ton car was used until it was retired from White House duty in 1950 with 55,000 miles on the odometer.
The Secret Service ordered a fleet of 10 cars in 1950, including one called the "Bubbletop" because of its Plexiglas roof. The Secret Service will not specify how many vehicles are in the presidential fleet today.
Nixon's White House limousine was the last to be equipped with a sunroof so the president could stand up and wave to passersby. The Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, Calif., obtained another famous presidential limousine -- the 1967 Lincoln dubbed the "Rolling Fortress" that Nixon took around the world with him.
The limousines on display at the Ford museum and at presidential libraries are the only ones the public will get to see. The Ford museum got the last presidential limousine, which was being used by Ronald Reagan in the 1981 assassination attempt.
Since 1992, the Secret Service has bought the cars rather than lease them. The three Cadillacs delivered to Bill Clinton in 1993 reportedly cost a total of $10 million.
The Secret Service prefers the public not see how the limousines are made.
The agency has little to say about the 2001 Cadillac DeVille that was used by President Bill Clinton for only a few weeks before it was transferred to George W. Bush.
That Cadillac "was hand-crafted from the ground up" and contained security equipment and communications devices that the Secret Service contended, at the time, make the limousine "the most advanced in the world."
Until now.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
