09/03/2026
🏍️ She Stamped Her Foot... and Made History
In 1937, Sally Halterman was just 26 years old, 4 feet 11 inches tall, and weighed 88 pounds. But she had a motorcycle, and plenty of determination.
On May 12, 1937, Sally walked into a Washington, D.C., police examiner’s office to take her motorcycle test. The examiner apparently thought a woman her size had no business riding a motorcycle.
Sally disagreed.
She literally stamped her foot until he relented and handed her the first motorcycle license ever issued to a woman in the District of Columbia. 🏍️
Just four months later, on August 31, she and Bert Halterman eloped, on their motorcycles. They rode to Vienna, Virginia, where they got married. Sally later told a reporter that all of their dates had been motorcycle rides. She hadn’t even been in an automobile for months!
Her motorcycle weighed 380 pounds, more than four times her body weight, and had to be modified so she could reach the clutch, brake and handlebars at the same time.
And Sally wasn’t planning to stop there. She wanted a custom built, chrome plated motorcycle capable of 130 mph because she hoped to become the first woman motorcycle racer.
A photograph taken shortly afterward shows her proudly sitting on her motorcycle in front of the Lincoln Memorial, a remarkable image of a woman who simply refused to accept that something was “not for women.”
She had been riding since she was 12 years old.
Sally Halterman’s story is a great reminder that sometimes breaking a barrier starts with nothing more complicated than refusing to take “no” for an answer.
🏍️ A tiny woman. A huge motorcycle. And an even bigger attitude.
