How High Is the Price of Gas (Historically)?

Do the swoon-worthy gas rates companies are charging at the pump these days make you think, "Geez, if only it were 1918. Then, I'd only have to fork over a measly 25 cents per gallon to keep this sucker running"? While a quarter per gallon today would certainly be a sweet bargain, that wasn't the case then.

The good people over at the U.S. News and World Report have compiled data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the American Petroleum Institute to find the ten most expensive years for gasoline (adjusted for inflation) in the nation's history. Turns out, the $3.45 per gallon we averaged through the first four months of 2011 was bad, but not the worst. The worst year was 1918, where the 25-cent gas translated to $3.70 per gallon today. In the modern era, the early-1980s and 2008 were bad, but historically speaking, things have been worse at the pump.

Click here to check out the full report (complete with nifty pictures of vintage automobiles from the corresponding years).