Motorcade Route

Tue 29 Nov 2016, 3:57 am

I determined the location of the presidential motorcade in this historical image below to be at the intersection of Main and Ervay Streets in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

Motorcade Route Main%26%20Ervay11.22.63

I make this determination comparing the historical image to a current image with Google Maps. The buildings at the intersection match.

Motorcade Route Main%26%20Ervay8.16

According to Walt Brown's Chronology, the motorcade made the turn onto Main St. at 12:10 pm. Ervay is approximately 880 feet west of Harwood St. If we assume the motorcade was travelling an average of 10 mph along this stretch, the presidential limousine would be at the intersection of Main and Ervay approximately at 12:11 pm, or about 1 minute after the turn onto Main.

Motorcade Route Main%26%20ErvayMap

This portion of the motorcade route has some significance that Greg will make clear in Volume 3 of Lee Harvey Oswald's Cold War: Why the Kennedy Assassination should be Reinvestigated.

EDIT

I made an error when I said the motorcade turned onto Main at 12:10 pm. According to Brown, the motorcade made this turn at approximately 12:23 pm. (See post with updated map below.)

Tue 29 Nov 2016, 9:52 am

Thanks Stan! Nice job.

Tue 29 Nov 2016, 2:00 pm

Good work, Stan.

Tue 29 Nov 2016, 5:11 pm

Beautiful work Stan.
This bleeds over to the Bus thread too, timings, sirens, when those watching would return to their business.

Anticipating Volume Three to be a knock out!
Cheers, Ed

Wed 30 Nov 2016, 2:59 am

The following are a series of screen grabs from a video clip of the JFK motorcade as is turned onto Main St. from Harwood in Dallas:

Motorcade Route Harwood-Main%201

Note the large crowds. In his Chronology, Walt Brown said that the crowds were large here and the motorcade speed was quite slow.

Motorcade Route Harwood-Main%202

This is following the turn onto Main as the motorcade proceeded west to the point shown in the Main & Ervay image in the first post above.

Motorcade Route Harwood-Main%205

I posted these to try to provide a visual sense of what the environment was like during this portion of the motorcade. As indicated above, the significance of this will be made clear in Greg's next book.

Original research you won't want to miss!

Fri 20 Jan 2017, 4:46 pm

I was reading Walt Brown's timeline and I noticed an error I made above when I stated that the motorcade turned onto Main from Harwood at 12:10 pm. 12:10 pm refers a situation that occurred in this vicinity at this time.

According to Brown, the motorcade was at 2025 Cedar Springs Road at 12:20 pm (the red X on the map below).

Brown says at 12:24 pm (time approximated from context) the motorcade was on Main with about "18 blocks of the motorcade before Dealey Plaza" (18 blocks ~ 1 mile). That would make the turn from Harwood onto Main at approximately 12:23 pm.

Motorcade Route Motorcade%20Route%20Corrected

Motorcade Route Motorcade%20Route%20Corrected

Tue 07 Feb 2017, 9:27 pm

12.23.....when Norman and Jarman leave the front steps to go to the 5th floor.

Tue 07 Feb 2017, 11:46 pm

November 22, 1963, 12: 10 p.m., CST— time approximate, --Dallas, Texas. The Presidential motorcade begins to encounter larger crowds as the approach is made to Dallas: “I thought it was normal— the crowds, going through the suburbs, were, I would say, from medium to heavy for that trip. I noted they were mostly white collar, most industrial places we passed by which I would say were highly technical. Therefore , the crowd reflected a middle to an upper class type. They were not unfriendly or terribly enthusiastic. They waved. But were reserved, I thought.” (Deposition of Kenneth P. O’Donnell, 7H 446) Special Assistant to the President for Congressional Relations Lawrence O’Brien gave virtually identical testimony: “The crowds were large, unusually large for an extremely long— mileage-wise— long trip into the city. I was impressed with the size of the crowd. The comment in our car, however, was that the crowd was rather reserved.” (Deposition of Lawrence F. O’Brien, 7H, 462) Note: It is a measure of the political astuteness of the Kennedy White House that such an observation would be made, even if the staffer were high level. The trip was about politics and nothing else. The failure of political astuteness came in making the trip in the first place.
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This is Brown's entry for the Motorcade at 12:10. Can't tell where precisely it is though.

There might be a case that motorcade was running about 15 minutes late give or take. If so, the motorcade was due in the target area at about 12:10.

Wed 08 Feb 2017, 12:34 am

From "Map of the motorcade route from Love Field to Parkland Hospital":

https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth337962/m1/1/

LISTING OF MILES AND ROUTE OF THE PRESIDENT'S MOTORCADE:

2.3 miles, place of landing Love Field to Inwood & Lemmon
4.3 miles, place of landing Love Field to Lemmon & Turtle Creek
5.7 miles, place of landing Love Field to Cedar Springs & Harwood
6.6 miles, place of landing Love Field to Main & Harwood
7.6 miles, place of landing Love Field to occurrence of the shooting incident
9.9 miles, place of landing Love Field to building where luncheon to be held
11 miles, place of landing Love Field to Parkland hospital, 5201 Hines 3.4 miles from place where shooting incident on Elm street just west of Houston street to Parkland hospital
.9 tenths of mile from City Hall to County Jail

Wed 08 Feb 2017, 12:45 am

Here's the Google map of the motorcade route from Love Field to Dealey Plaza:

Motorcade Route Motorcade%20Route%20Entire

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