Sometimes I wonder how US Presidents used to get around. Before the invention of the limousine, the private jet, or even the car, what exactly set the President’s mode of transportation apart from the mode of the regular citizen?
Armored cars are now considered almost essential for all high-profile figures in dangerous parts of the world. A Presidential Limousine has become virtually synonymous with the word “Armored Car,” in essence it is a vehicle of hardcore protection.
The Presidential limousine may seem like a recent invention, something that came about within the past few Presidential terms. This, however, is a misconception. Officially, the first President to ride in what has become known as the Presidential limousine was Woodrow Wilson. Taking the streets during a parade celebrating the US victory in World War I, he was honoring the end of the war and, unknowingly, starting the beginning of a transportation tradition.
Protecting world leaders is a serious business and there are only a handful of companies around the world with the specialist engineering skills. One of the first armored cars for a political leader is thought to have been a limousine built by engineering firm O’Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt for President Harry S. Truman in 1949.
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