Jones Horse-Drawn Streetcar, circa 1875

Drop the top, and cruise like a movie star! It sounds like fun. But movie stars live in sunny California -- most of us don't. Convertibles may draw people into showrooms, but sedans take them home. In 1956, only about 2.6 percent of Chevy customers drove home in ragtops. Despite that fact, the carefree appeal of 1950s convertibles has made them a symbol of that era.

The horse-drawn streetcar was an important means of public transportation in 19th-century American cities. New York's Brooklyn City Railroad ran this car on its line between Hunters Point in Long Island City, and Erie Basin in South Brooklyn. But horses were expensive to stable and feed -- and messy too. Operators embraced electric streetcars starting in the late 1880s.

Few American cities embraced the automobile like Los Angeles. The southern California metropolis opened the first of its many limited-access freeways in 1940. Work on the Harbor Freeway, seen here, began in the early 1950s. Now designated Interstate 110, this freeway connects the downtown area with the Port of Los Angeles to the south, and with Pasadena to the northeast.

Abbot, Downing & Company of Concord, New Hampshire, was the largest and best-known maker of stagecoaches. Sturdy, durable, and comfortable, Concord coaches were shipped by rail all over the country.