RCA introduced television at the 1939 World's Fair. General Motors built its Futurama. But Ford's "Road of Tomorrow," shown here at the Ford Pavilion in Flushing Meadows, featured a cork-and-rubber surface and ramps that were stacked like platters of spinning records.

Here, drivers would take fair visitors on an endless figure-eight track to "symbolize the advances America may expect in transportation." The Times wrote that the model highway would forecast the future of elevated roads. Aside from giving riders a great view of the Fair, the road also threaded through the Ford building itself where passengers could get a glimpse of Henry Ford's first car.