MTFCA Forum

We've all heard of named highways from the early days of motoring. The Lincoln Highway is the most famous, of course but there were many others. There were many local names (Lomita-Redondo Road, Chester Avenue, Pepper Tree Lane, etc.) and others that extended through several counties or states (the Ridge Route, Columbia River Highway, etc.) By the mid-twenties it became obvious that this was no way to run a highway system, and in 1926 legislation creating the US Highway system changed the designation process from names to numbers.

From the mid-teens on, the paving of streets and highways was a constant process.

Final approval was made of the plan for the paved road south of this city to the state line...June 9 in the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads office at Omaha, according to a letter received today by Commissioner Carl Dees... Bids will be opened July 16. ~ Arkansas City Daily Traveler, Thursday, June 12, 1924. By 1927 that newly paved road (about 4 miles) became a part of US Highway 77.


Part of the original US 77 still exists south of the state line in Kay County, Oklahoma. Watch out for the potholes that may knock some pieces off your car.

To add to the list

The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts, that evolved into one of the first major highways in the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Post_Road
The Upper Post Road was originally called the Pequot Path and had been in use by Native Americans long before Europeans arrived.[1] Some of these important native trails were in many places as narrow as two feet. What is now called the Old Connecticut Path and the Bay Path were used by John Winthrop the Younger to travel from Boston to Springfield in November 1645, and these form much of the basis for the Upper Post Road. The colonists first used this trail to deliver the mail using post riders. The first ride to lay out the Upper Post Road started on January 1, 1673. Later, the newly blazed trail was widened and smoothed to the point where horse-drawn wagons or stagecoaches could use the road. The country's first successful long-distance stagecoach service was launched by Levi Pease along the upper road in October 1783.
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Across Iowa --
The "White Pole Road" (aka The Great White Way) https://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/ar ... s-explores
The base of telephone poles were painted white to mark the way. --
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The river to river road --
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Across the US
U.S. Highway 6, (aka Grand Army of the Republic Highway,) which at one point was the longest continuous east-west route in the United States, stretching from Cape Cod, Massachusetts to Long Beach, California. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_6