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• The Ferdinand Magellan, also known as US Car No. 1, was used by US presidents between 1943 and 1954.
• It was the president’s official transportation in the days before Air Force One.
• The car used by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Dwight Eisenhower can still be borrowed.

Long before US presidents traveled aboard Air Force One, their main form of long-distance transportation was a 10-foot-wide train car.

The Ferdinand Magellan, a Pullman car rebuilt in 1942 for presidential use, served as the president’s official mode of transportation from 1943 until its last official use in 1954. The car is also known as US Car No. 1.

The armored car was the heaviest passenger railcar ever built in the US after it was fitted with detailed security features and enlarged spaces for President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the height of World War II.

Today, it is the only passenger train car to ever be declared a National Historic Landmark.

While it pales in comparison to the current Air Force One in terms of space, luxury, and technology, the Ferdinand Magellan allowed the president to continue his duties in comfort while on the move. The car was often accompanied by other train cars dedicated to radio communications, White House staffers, and members of the press, making it a “White House on wheels.”

See how US presidents traveled in the days before Air Force One.

US Car No. 1 was presented to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in December 1942.

On December 18, 1942, the Pullman Company presented a luxury train car — originally built in 1928 — that had been rebuilt at the request of the US Secret Service, which had determined that the president needed a secure way to travel during wartime.

Roosevelt most often used the car to travel from Washington, DC, to his home in Hyde Park, New York. The president insisted on not surpassing a speed of 35 miles per hour when traveling aboard the Ferdinand Magellan, making his journeys less efficient and heightening security measures, per the White House Historical Association website.

He last rode the car on March 30, 1945, when he visited his Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia, where he died a few weeks later.

During his time, the president rode over 50,000 miles aboard the presidential train car.

It was most famously used in 1948 during Harry Truman’s “whistle-stop” campaign tour.

While the car was rebuilt with Roosevelt in mind, including certain designs that would allow him to use a wheelchair on the train, it was his successor, President Harry S. Truman, who used it the most.

The president, who, unlike Roosevelt, opted for a speed of 80 miles per hour, employed the car in his iconic 35-day whistle-stop tour during his reelection campaign in 1948, where he delivered 356 speeches from the back of the Magellan, per Architectural Digest.

By the time Truman’s successor, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, took office, more efficient air travel was starting to replace rail travel, and the US Car No. 1 was used for the last time in 1954.

The car was last used by Ronald Reagan during a commemorative whistle-stop tour in Ohio in 1984.

In 1984, Reagan brought the Magellan out of retirement for a one-day whistle-stop tour through Ohio during his reelection campaign.

The president traveled from Dayton to Perrysburg and stopped at five locations to give speeches from the rear platform of the presidential car.

Today, the US Car No. 1 sits in a small museum near Zoo Miami.

In 1959, the Gold Coast Railroad Museum in Miami, Florida, acquired the car, which in 1958 had been declared surplus and donated to the Smithsonian, which had no way to store it.

Since then, the car has stayed in South Florida, where it is now open to the public.

The Gold Coast Railroad Museum is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. A regular adult ticket for the museum costs $12, and tickets for the presidential train car cost an additional $10.

To carry the president, the unique armored car had enhanced security features.

The car, which is 84 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 15 feet tall, was covered with over 1/2 an inch of nickel-steel armor on its sides and featured 3-inch-thick bulletproof glass windows.

It was also the heaviest passenger train car built in the US. After it was refurbished for presidential use, the train car weighed 285,000 pounds, making it much heavier than modern-day war tanks, which often weigh around 100,000 pounds.

The car also had its name, Ferdinand Magellan, removed from its sides in an effort to conceal the president’s presence, although its design often stood out.

Other security features included two escape hatches and a complex security protocol, which included diverting traffic on the rails to ensure that no train traveled ahead or behind the president for at least 30 minutes. Operating under the code name POTUS, the president’s train always had the right of way.

Passengers boarded from the front of the train, which housed the staff quarters and kitchen.

The entrance through which presidents and their guests would’ve entered is at the front of the car.

In the kitchen, an onboard chef had access to ovens and refrigerators.

The train’s dedicated chef prepared the president and guests’ meals inside this kitchen.

On the other side of the kitchen, the staff had pantry space to plate the dishes.

The kitchen was also equipped with a pantry and a full-size metal sink.

The car housed two staff members: a chef and a porter.

Near the kitchen, the two-person staff had sleeping quarters that featured an upper and lower berth.

The dining and conference room was in the main cabin of the car.

The presidential car’s main cabin featured a 6-foot solid mahogany table where the president and his guests — often diplomats or foreign leaders — could gather for dinners or meetings.

The dining room had its own set of presidential fine china.

Presidents and guests didn’t have to sacrifice the White House‘s luxuries while they were on the move — the dining room had its own set of china decorated with the presidential emblem.

Today, the room displays an example of the glass used in the car’s windows.

The 3-inch-thick laminated bulletproof glass windows were installed when the car was refurbished for the president’s use.

The windows were sealed, so to keep the car ventilated there was a simple form of air conditioning in which fans pushed air cooled by blocks of ice.

The car included two guest bedrooms along with a presidential suite.

The first of two guest bedrooms aboard the US Car No. 1, Stateroom D, included an upper and lower berth, where guests could sleep, and an in-room bathroom.

In these guest rooms, Truman welcomed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill during his visit to the US in 1946, during which he delivered his iconic Iron Curtain speech.

The presidential suite included the president’s sleeping area.

Designed to accommodate Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wheelchair, the president’s room included a full-size bed, a dresser, and an in-room toilet.

Like most rooms in the car, it was also connected to a telephone, which was extremely rare at the time.

The connecting bathroom inside the presidential suite featured a bathtub, toilet, and sink.

The presidential suite bathroom, equipped with a bathtub, toilet, and sink, connected the president’s and the first lady‘s rooms, staterooms B and C.

The bathroom also contained an escape hatch, which was added as a security measure during the car’s refurbishing.

The first lady’s room was located parallel to the president’s.

Inside the first lady’s quarters was a bed and a dresser, although she didn’t have an in-room bathroom.

The secondary guest bedroom could also be used as a breakfast or gathering room.

Located towards the back of the car, Stateroom A, the second guest room aboard the Magellan, featured convertible berths, like the other guest room, that could also be used as a breakfast, gathering, or office space for the president or his guests.

The upper berth could be raised into the ceiling, and the lower one could be converted into a sitting booth with a pull-out table.

The presidential car was often attached to train cars housing Secret Service, White House staffers, and the press.

The Ferdinand Magellan functioned as a White House on wheels, and was often attached to train cars dedicated to Secret Service, White House staffers, and reporters traveling with the president.

The US Car No. 1 was also often accompanied by two communications cars equipped with control consoles for radio broadcasts and telegraph communications so the president could be reached while he was on the move, per Atlas Obscura.

A narrow hallway led from the staterooms to the observation deck.

A slim, wood-paneled hallway led from the four staterooms to the observation deck at the rear of the car.

The observation lounge featured some of the presidential car’s original furniture.

The observation room was also enlarged during the refurbishing of the car, allowing it to function as a secondary gathering room for the president and his guests.

During the refurbishment, a submarine escape hatch was added to the car.

Part of the car’s security modifications included the addition of escape hatches, like this submarine hatch on the observation lounge.

Today, the observation lounge shows signs of hurricane damage that the car has sustained.

In 1992, Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida, and among its many damages were some sustained by the Magellan.

Although minor, a small window crack shows how the presidential car has stood the test of time.

Traveling presidents could address crowds from a podium on the car’s rear platform.

At the end of the presidential car was an exposed podium from where the president often addressed crowds.

During Truman’s whistle-stop tour, he spoke from the podium repeatedly, often addressing crowds in different cities within the same day.

The preserved train car stands as a remnant of US history and of how presidents spread their message.

Inactive as the president’s main form of transportation for over 70 years, the Ferdinand Magellan stands as a memory of America’s past.

However, our tour guide pointed out that the car is still on a track connected to current-day railroads and can be requested for use at any moment by the sitting US president.

Although I doubt Donald Trump would want to travel aboard the historic cabin, a modern-day president going on his own whistle-stop tour on US Car No. 1 remains a possibility.

• My husband and I lived on a boat full-time for a year and a half.
• The lifestyle was our dream, but the reality was much more challenging than we expected.
• We felt like we had to stay alert all the time, and working in such a small space was difficult.

Three years ago, my husband and I packed up our lives in the suburbs of London and moved aboard a 36-foot sailboat.

We’d sailed before and had spent weeks on boats each year for our vacations, but living on one full-time proved to be very different. We ended up living aboard and sailing through Europe for 18 months before my husband received a job on land, and we had to leave.

The lifestyle was a dream in many ways, but some aspects were more challenging than we ever could’ve expected.

Instead of feeling free, I felt limited

Once our boat left the dock, we were limited to only the supplies that we had on board. We had to carry everything with us: food, water, diesel fuel, cooking gas, medical supplies, spare parts, and anything else we could need.

Knowing exactly how much of something we had — but not knowing exactly how long we’d need to make that thing stretch — naturally made us want to ration just about everything.

I found myself monitoring how much food we were eating each day, how much water it took to do the dishes, and how long the stove had been on. I was very aware of our limits.

We also had to stay mindful of how charged our batteries were. Aside from the potential annoyances of the lights going out or the fridge no longer working, running out of power can become dangerous quickly at sea.

We’d need electricity to power the lights and systems that let other boats see us; we also needed to keep our radio powered in case we had to call for help.

Living in a tiny space also made life difficult. Neither of us is claustrophobic, and we both actually liked the boat’s coziness, but working remotely was tough.

If one of us had a call, there was nowhere to escape the noise, and it was very hard to avoid distracting each other.

We always had to be alert and could never fully relax

So much can go wrong on a boat, and the consequences can be very serious. To sail safely, you need to understand the risks and know how to solve problems that arise … which doesn’t exactly create the most relaxing environment.

We needed to be constantly attuned to changes in the weather. I had to check the forecast multiple times a day, monitor the actual conditions we were experiencing, and move the boat if things ever felt unsafe.

Then, there was the stressful topic of money. Boat repairs can be unpredictable and pricy, and working as consultants also meant that our finances fluctuated.

If a key system like our Starlink internet broke, we would not only have to deal with replacing it — we also wouldn’t be able to earn any income from our remote work while it was down.

Maintenance and repairs became an ongoing battle

Even with the best planning, boats can be a nightmare to maintain. The salty, wet environment meant that our electrical wiring would corrode quickly, any exposed metal would quickly rust, and we’d frequently find mold growing on walls and inside cupboards.

Plus, systems don’t just break during the daytime. Alarms go off at all hours, and emergencies need to be dealt with immediately.

We once woke up to find that the lowest part of the boat was completely filled with water. I started bailing out the water while my husband tried to find the source of the leak. By the time we’d cleaned everything up and gotten back to bed, it was 3 in the morning.

Despite the many challenges, though, I’m still very glad I got the opportunity to live at sea. I explored the entire west coast of Europe, got really good at problem-solving, and gained confidence in my own abilities.

Sailing full-time is hard, but it was worth it for me — even though I’m glad I’m back on land now.

Rolls-Royce cars have never been more expensive. While a new Rolls-Royce starts at around $370,000, many buyers spend hundreds of thousands, even millions, more on customizations. Some owners, like the car influencer Supercar Blondie, pay aftermarket companies more to modify their cars than they paid for the vehicle itself.

Rolls-Royce customizes hand-painted coachlines and light-filled ceilings and makes one-off coachbuilt models costing tens of millions of dollars. Nearly every car that leaves the automaker’s Goodwood factory is personalized. As more ultrawealthy buyers seek products no one else can own, Rolls-Royce is investing $400 million to expand its bespoke operations.

So why are the world’s wealthiest spending more than ever on Rolls-Royces? And what makes these highly customized cars worth the price?

• Russia launched a massive overnight bombardment that included 23 ballistic missiles.
• Ukraine didn’t shoot down any of the ballistic missiles in the attack, which killed and hurt dozens of people.
• Officials said Kyiv’s stocks of high-end US-made Patriot interceptors are running low.

Ukraine didn’t shoot down a single Russian ballistic missile during a massive attack that began Sunday night and killed and wounded dozens of people.

Ukrainian officials said that the ballistic missiles were able to penetrate their country’s air defenses and strike their targets because Kyiv lacks critical interceptors, specifically the much-sought-after Patriot PAC-3 made by the US.

Russia launched 23 ballistic missiles, more than three dozen cruise missiles, and hundreds of drones in the attack, which mainly targeted the capital, Kyiv. Ukraine’s air force said defenders shot down most of the threats; however, they didn’t intercept any of the ballistic missiles.

“Our warriors performed well today in intercepting drones and cruise missiles, but unfortunately not Russian ballistic missiles,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday, a day after he warned that a large-scale attack was imminent. “The reason lies in the insufficient supply of interceptor missiles.”

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s defense minister, said that Russian forces are ramping up their ballistic missile use, “launching them at a scale not previously seen while exploiting the critical shortage of interceptor missiles for Patriot air defense systems.”

Ukraine has multiple air defense layers to protect major cities such as Kyiv, and these rely heavily on Western-donated systems. The most high-profile of these is the MIM-104 Patriot battery — widely regarded as the country’s best defense against high-speed Russian ballistic missiles.

The US-made Patriot fires several different types of interceptors, including the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, or PAC-3, which has an estimated price tag of nearly $4 million. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that Kyiv doesn’t have enough of these in its arsenal and have pleaded with NATO countries to send more.

Ukrainian officials renewed these calls on Monday, arguing that there are plenty of Patriot interceptors in global stockpiles and that they would be of better use in Kyiv’s hands.

“Interceptor missiles belong in Ukraine’s air defense system now — not sitting in stockpiles,” the defense ministry said.

Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump this week on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, a White House spokesperson told reporters on Sunday. In previous meetings, air defense has been central.

Mark Rutte, the NATO secretary general, confirmed to reporters on Monday that interceptors are still flowing into Ukraine. However, he acknowledged that there’s a “limit to the amount of interceptors there are” in alliance territory and called on member states to ramp up production.

While industry is surging the production of Patriot interceptors, these defensive tools are in high demand globally. The US and its allies in the Middle East fired hundreds during the weekslong conflict with Iran earlier this year. Air defense doctrine typically calls for at least two interceptors for each incoming missile, so stockpiles can rapidly dwindle in a high-intensity conflict.

Global stockpiles were already under significant strain, and production has long struggled to keep pace with demand. To address its critical supply problem, Ukraine has been turning to its European partners for help with the long-term acquisition of interceptors.

“We have already signed contracts for Patriot interceptor missiles and continue to secure additional agreements, with deliveries scheduled to begin next year,” Fedorov said Monday.

“Our appeal to our partners is straightforward: transfer missiles from your stockpiles now, and replenish them later through our future deliveries,” he added.

• A healthcare worker is making $330,000 secretly juggling two full-time jobs.
• RTO, layoffs, and employee tracking have forced him to adapt.
• The extra income has brought financial security, but longer hours have also fueled burnout.

Editor’s note: In February 2025, Business Insider wrote about a medical professional named “Daniel,” who was secretly juggling two full-time remote jobs and on track to earn about $280,000. (Daniel is a pseudonym, but Business Insider has verified his identity and employment.) Read that story here. In a recent interview, Daniel shared how his overemployment situation has evolved.

When Business Insider spoke with Daniel last year, secretly juggling two full-time remote healthcare jobs was relatively straightforward.

Since then, one employer has required him to come into the office a couple of days each month. The other one is now tracking how he spends his time. To make matters worse, Daniel’s working longer than ever — going from roughly 40 to 50 hours a week across both jobs to as many as 60.

Yet Daniel is still secretly juggling both jobs. In fact, he’s on track to earn roughly $330,000 this year — more than ever before.

“We go to the grocery store, we buy whatever we need, we never tap into credit cards,” said Daniel, who’s in his 40s and lives in Texas. “So it’s kind of surreal to see the struggles around me.”

Daniel’s experience reflects a broader shift in the overemployment movement. In recent years, secretly juggling multiple jobs has become considerably more difficult amid return-to-office mandates, a tougher job market, layoffs, and new employee-monitoring measures.

Yet changing workplace norms have not stopped workers from juggling multiple full-time jobs. Several of them told Business Insider they have simply had to change how they approach the practice.

Some have embraced AI tools to work more efficiently, while others have adapted in other ways.

For workers like Daniel, the financial rewards remain powerful enough to keep them going.

Adapting to overemployment’s new challenges

After one of Daniel’s employers began requiring some in-person work, he began bringing his other job’s laptop to the office, carefully squeezing in work there when time allowed.

The arrangement is possible in part because his second job has become much less demanding over time. Additionally, Daniel said some coworkers know he has outside work, which has made him less concerned about being discovered. In his experience, they seem more concerned with the quality of his work than the hours he spends on it.

Other challenges have proved harder to solve.

One employer began requiring workers to manually track how they spend their time. Daniel said he’s delayed complying for as long as possible, because the policy could force him to stretch the truth.

The same employer also conducted layoffs recently. In response, Daniel said he’s worked to maintain a reputation as a strong performer, taking on additional responsibilities and positioning himself for a potential promotion.

This has meant working considerably longer hours in the past year. He said AI-powered medical tools have helped offset some of the added workload, allowing him to complete certain tasks more quickly and prevent his hours from climbing even higher.

The rewards of job juggling — and the tradeoffs

The extra income from job juggling gives Daniel plenty of motivation to persevere through the challenges that arise.

Earlier this year, he purchased a rental property, hoping to eventually have enough passive income to reduce his dependence on full-time work. The additional income has also made it easier to cover his child’s college tuition.

“I can’t even imagine going back to just a single job,” he said. “I’ve gotten used to the income.”

While the financial benefits of job juggling have been substantial, Daniel said it’s come with tradeoffs. His desire to perform well, combined with a heavier workload and the demands of juggling two jobs, has left him at times feeling exhausted. Though he remains committed to the arrangement, he said the pace can be difficult to sustain.

“It seems like every day I’m living just to see the next day,” he said. “I think I need a vacation or something, but it’s doable.”

Do you have a story to share? Reach out to this reporter via email at jzinkula@businessinsider.com or via Signal at jzinkula.29.

• Summer has officially begun.
• Summer vacation these days looks quite different from how it did in the 1920s.
• Kids used to play sports in the streets, explore on bikes, or play on “dangerous” playgrounds. 

Summer vacation used to mean two months of freedom: pools, playgrounds, and hours spent hanging out with your friends.

But for Gen Alpha and the youngest members of Gen Z, summer is starting to look a little different.

Changing technology, safety standards, more cautious parents, and social media have all changed how summer looks. Imagine explaining a unicorn pool float to a Victorian child — it’d send them into a tailspin.

These photos show how summer vacation has changed over the last century.

In the early 1900s, school used to be centered on crops, and summer wasn’t a vacation — it was a time for hard work.

Before child labor laws were adopted in the first half of the 20th century, an 1890 United States Census report showed that 20% of kids ages 10 to 15 were workers, or over 1.5 million children. A decade later, that went up to 1.75 million gainfully employed kids, according to The Social Welfare History Project.

Bathing suits used to be a little more elaborate.

Bathing suits have come a long way over the past century.

Kids didn’t need any fancy technology; a stick and a hoop used to be more than enough to keep everyone entertained.

Officially, this was called hoop rolling or hoop trundling. It’s been around since the 1600s and lives on today in a different fashion: the hula hoop.

Stickball was the sport of choice, especially when there was no grass to be found.

Stickball has been around since the 1800s and is still played now, but many parents are wary of the potential dangers of playing a sport in the middle of the street.

Who doesn’t remember sliding down a burning hot metal slide in the dog days of summer?

Playgrounds used to play fast and loose with kids’ safety … which was half the fun anyway.

They’re considerably safer today, although some anthropologists argue there are developmental benefits to playing on challenging structures, like those of the past.

“Generally, researchers have found that risky play helps children build resilience and confidence, skills that resonate throughout life,” said Zane Thayer, an associate professor of anthropology at Dartmouth College, in a 2024 report from the school.

Over time, metal was replaced by wood and wood chips, which still wasn’t great. Remember all the splinters?

That’s pretty much the only downside of them, though.

Kids used to have to meet up with each other just by biking around the neighborhood and seeing who was available.

It’s rare now to see a pack of young kids biking around without a chaperone.

Pool floats were a lot simpler.

In general, most things were simpler. There were no Instagram or TikTok followers to show off for.

Arcades eventually became the entertainment of choice, with games like “Pac-Man” and “Asteroids” taking over.

After “Asteroids” was released in 1979, it reportedly became Atari’s best-selling arcade game. “Pac-Man” was also at its peak in the early 1980s, after its US release in 1980.

Now, in 2026, arcades are something of a dying institution — you can play all your favorite video games in the comfort of your own home. The only arcades left are the big chains like Dave and Buster’s, or bars like Barcade that are for adults, not kids.

But before ’80s kids even had video games, they had comic strips and crosswords.

Kids and adults would crack open the daily newspaper and play the games, whether it was a crossword, a word scramble, or a word search.

And, of course, you can’t forget about the comics section — Charlie Brown was just as famous as Bluey or the pups of Paw Patrol.

Sometimes, all you needed for a fun time was a tarp, soap, and a hose — voila! A makeshift slip-and-slide.

Never mind that sticks, rocks, and anything else on the ground could rip the tarp and cut up your arms and legs. That was part of the fun.

And it didn’t matter if there was nothing to stop your momentum — sliding into your friends and knocking them over was the whole point.

Ideal summer jobs were lifeguarding or being a camp counselor.

Even though working teenagers are in high demand and could be making good money, the labor force participation of teens is much lower than it used to be.

In 2024, 5.7 million 16-to-19-year-olds worked over the summer, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a five-year high, but nothing compared to the 8.3 million teens who worked during the summer of 1978.

Now, bathing suits look a little different.

Vintage-style bathing suits are coming back, though, like the ’80s-era high-cut one-pieces or belted bathing suits of the ’70s.

For kids with access to virtual-reality games, the devices mean they don’t even have to go outside to get the summer experience.

According to a Florida Atlantic University study in 2024, one in three kids has access to a VR headset. But even if a kid doesn’t have access to an Oculus or an Apple Vision Pro, they might have a tablet or some type of video game system.

“In our research, we found that kids were spending a lot less time outside,” Ruslan Slutsky, an education professor at the University of Toledo, told Vox. “They were spending a lot less time in traditional forms of play because they were playing with devices.”

Playgrounds are so safe that some kids have forsaken them altogether.

A study conducted in 2012 published by Pediatrics Digest found that kids aren’t using playgrounds anymore because they’re not stimulated enough.

The Atlantic reported that lead researcher Kristen Copeland found that “some participants said that overly strict safety standards made much of the climbing equipment uninteresting, thus reducing children’s physical activity.”

Per a 2024 report by the World Playground Research Institute, not much has changed in the intervening 12 years. In the UK, 27% of kids reported playing outside regularly.

Teens and tweens make plans via text, and even when they’re together, phones still compete for their attention.

In 2018, Common Sense Media found 54% of surveyed teens agreed that social media “often distracts me when I should be paying attention to the people I’m with.” When it came to their preferred ways of communicating with friends, texting ranked top at 35%, ahead of in-person communication at 32%.

Now, a pool can’t be seen without a gigantic float.

There’s an overwhelming amount of pool floats to pick from in 2026.

Sports are well-organized these days and significantly less dangerous.

Though it’s probably a good thing that kids aren’t allowed to roam the streets without being able to call home, or play sports in the street, or play on potentially dangerous playgrounds, it’s just not the same. 

Even slip-and-slides have been commodified into giant events.

Slide the City was a cool event while it lasted — a giant slip-and-slide took over a few blocks of your city — but it was not the same as getting covered in dish soap with your friends.

However, in 2026, there’s an emerging trend toward play habits of the past, especially as some families seek to reduce their use of tech.

Some families are attempting to replace devices with more outside play, as well as unstructured play, for their young children.

Surveys, including a Pew Research Center survey released in October 2025, show that many parents are trying to manage their children’s screen time through household rules and by offering alternate entertainment. That shift echoes a broader interest among some Gen Z members in seeking out more analog experiences.