Filling one's automobile radiator with water when traveling uphill is now a lost art with today's modern vehicles. Until around the 1970's, new cars and trucks could be counted on to need cooling down when engaged in mountain driving - and drivers would either pull off to the side of the road and run the engine at idle, letting the fan cool the engine down or stop to add water to the radiator. Sometimes both practices had to be done. Drivers, especially truck drivers, would often wait for cooler nighttime temperatures before attempting to traverse the Ridge Route in order to avoid overheating and repair problems from it. The sizable reservoir of water used to fill the small basin depicted here remains 500 feet west from this location (and no longer is filled with water as it once was).

Other mountain highway locations in the United States used to carry barrels and/or piped water and basins similar to what is shown here, but because modern vehicles do not overheat like they once did, the practice has since been stopped. Photo from private collection of avnative.

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