A Glimpse of the Future
By 1926, the Post Office Department had established ten air-mail routes covering almost 5,000 miles. Regular postage cost two cents. To fly a letter to your destination would cost ten cents, the equivalent of $1.82. In this shot from May 8, 1926, a Western Air Express Mail plane passes over Zion National Park en route from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City.
Bridging the Gap
In the days before talk radio and Top 40 programming, radio stations had to be creative to fill air time. Here, broadcasters Phillips Carlin and Graham McNamee deliver their Tuesday Night bridge lesson on station WEAF in New York in 1926.
Changing Lanes
In 1926, New York was just beginning to build roads that could handle modern traffic, like what’s shown here on Fifth Avenue. Over on Sixth Avenue, residents and shop owners were scrambling to find new locations as the city got set to lengthen and widen the street; over 160 buildings would soon be knocked down. It was a major undertaking that would solve some of the traffic congestion. Temporarily.
This article is featured in the May/June 2026 issue of The Saturday Evening Post. Subscribe to the magazine for more art, inspiring stories, fiction, humor, and features from our archives.
Become a Saturday Evening Post member and enjoy unlimited access. Subscribe now
