Presidential Motorcade Route
The route scheduled to be driven was as follows: left turn from the south end of Love Field to West Mockingbird Lane, right on Lemmon Ave., right at the "Y" on Turtle Creek Blvd, straight on Cedar Springs Rd, left on North Harwood St, right on Main St, right on Houston St, sharp left on Elm St, through Triple Underpass, right turn up ramp to North Stemmons Freeway, to Dallas Trade Mart at 2100 North Stemmons (This same exact route cannot be driven today; there is a "No right turn" sign on the corner of Main and Houston as well as highway progressions in other areas)
The original route had the motorcade continue straight onto Main instead of turning onto Houston, but it was discovered that Elm Street provided the only direct link from Dealey Plaza to the Stemmons Freeway, thus the route was altered.
The presidential motorcade began its route without incident, stopping twice so President Kennedy could shake hands with some Catholic nuns, then some school children.
At 12:29 pm CST, the presidential limousine entered Dealey Plaza after a 90-degree right turn from Main Street onto Houston Street. Over two dozen known and unknown amateur and professional still and motion-picture photographers captured the last living images of President Kennedy.
Just before 12:30 pm CST, President Kennedy was riding on Houston Street and slowly approached the Texas School Book Depository head-on. This point in the route gives birth to one of the better conspiracy theories that there were several shooters, for if there was only a single shooter in the sixth floor in the Book Depository, the shooter would have had a much better view of the President on Houston Street, slowly coming towards the shooter, not when the President was moving away from the shooter on Elm Street. Then the limousine made the 120-degree left turn directly in front of the depository, now only 65 feet (20 meters) away.
Read more about this topic: Timeline Of The John F. Kennedy Assassination
Famous quotes containing the words presidential and/or route:
“Because of these convictions, I made a personal decision in the 1964 Presidential campaign to make education a fundamental issue and to put it high on the nation’s agenda. I proposed to act on my belief that regardless of a family’s financial condition, education should be available to every child in the United States—as much education as he could absorb.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“By whatever means it is accomplished, the prime business of a play is to arouse the passions of its audience so that by the route of passion may be opened up new relationships between a man and men, and between men and Man. Drama is akin to the other inventions of man in that it ought to help us to know more, and not merely to spend our feelings.”
—Arthur Miller (b. 1915)