New England By the Numbers: Mt. Washington Auto Road

24:37.6 minutes/seconds: record Auto Road time set by Harry Harkness in the first “Climb to the Clouds” race, July 1904

49:24 minutes/seconds: Thomas Danielson’s record cycling time up the Auto Road, set in 2002

6:20.47 minutes/seconds: current Auto Road driving record set by Travis Pastrana in Sept. 2010 (advance Clouds test session)

$5 cost per person to take a stagecoach up the Carriage Road in 1871

130 minutes: Freeman Stanley’s time driving the first auto to climb Mt. Washington, 1899

150 years old: age of the 7.6-mile Auto Road (called the Carriage Road in 1861), “America’s oldest manmade tourist attraction”

750,000 total number of cars driven up the Auto Road since 1899

3 number of fatalities that have occurred on the road since it opened in 1861

$25 cost per car and driver to travel up the Auto Road in 2011

140,000 number of people who drive the Auto Road each year

Ian Aldrich

Ian Aldrich is the executive editor at Yankee, where he has worked for more for two decades. As the magazine’s staff feature writer, he writes stories that delve deep into issues facing communities throughout New England. In 2019 he received gold in the reporting category at the annual City-Regional Magazine conference for his story on New England’s opioid crisis. Ian’s work has been recognized by both the Best American Sports and Best American Travel Writing anthologies. He lives with his family in Dublin, New Hampshire.

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