Route of the Lincoln Highway
This article possibly contains original research. (March 2018) |
Note: A fully interactive online map of the Lincoln Highway and all of its re-alignments, markers, monuments and historic points of interest can be viewed at the Lincoln Highway Association Official Map website.
As the Lincoln Highway was one of the earliest transcontinental highways for automobiles across the United States and was widely publicized since its inception, the route of the Lincoln Highway was determined not only by civil engineering considerations but also by politics.[1] In many regions, there was general consensus among those who had power or interest in influencing the route. But in a few regions the choice of route was a contentious topic during the 1920s.[1] The highway took the following route:
New York
The very short Lincoln Highway section in New York went west from
New Jersey
The original route of Lincoln Highway came off the
Veering west it crossed the Hackensack River via the
After construction of the
From the corner of Frelinghuysen Avenue and Poinier Street in Newark to Brunswick Circle in
- The original road may have followed Clinton Avenue to Elizabeth Avenue in Newark and North Broad Street in Elizabeth.
- Route 27 now has a one-way pair in Elizabeth. The northbound side, on Cherry Street, is the old Lincoln Highway.
- In 1919, the New Jersey State Highway Commission built a new road on the west side of the Pennsylvania Railroad (now the Northeast Corridor) from near the northeast of Dow Avenue between Colonia and Iselin to Cedar Street in Menlo Park, to avoid two railroad crossings. The old road is now Middlesex-Essex Turnpike and Thornall Street, on the east side of the tracks. A 1905 map shows the main road using Thornall Street all the way to its end at Evergreen Road and crossing the tracks there, with the road on the west side existing north to Cedar Street as a stub; this may have changed between then and 1919. However, until 1919, the main road used Colonia Boulevard, New Dover Road and Middlesex Avenue to get from Rahway to Green Street.[1]
- Until 1919, the main road was what is now named Old Road, lying east of the current road north of Kingston.
- The old bridge over the Millstone River at Kingston still exists, south of the current bridge (built in 1969).
The Lincoln Highway entered
In 1916, the Lincoln Highway was designated the following State Highway numbers:
- Route 1 (Later Renumbered to Route 25) from Elizabeth to New Brunswick
- Route 13 (Present Route 27) from New Brunswick to Trenton
The Highway in Trenton, and in and north of Elizabeth, did not receive a number.
In 1927, the whole Lincoln Highway in New Jersey was assigned the number U.S. Route 1, though that number was soon moved to newer bypasses.
The
Pennsylvania
The path of the Lincoln Highway was first laid out in September 1913; it was defined to run through Canton, Ohio, Beaver Falls, Pittsburgh, Greensburg, Ligonier, Bedford, Chambersburg, Gettysburg, York, Lancaster and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Camden, New Jersey. This bypassed Harrisburg to the south, and thus did not use the older main route across the state between Chambersburg and Lancaster. From Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, this incorporated a number of old turnpikes, some of which still collected tolls.
This original 1913 path of the Lincoln Highway continued east from Philadelphia, crossing the Delaware River to Camden, New Jersey on the Market Street Ferry. By 1915, Camden was dropped from the route, allowing the highway to cross the Delaware on a bridge at Trenton (initially the Calhoun Street Bridge, later the Bridge Street Bridge).
In 1924, the entire Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania was designated Pennsylvania Route 1. In late 1926 the route from West Virginia to Philadelphia (using the new route west of Pittsburgh) was assigned U.S. Route 30, while the rest of the Lincoln Highway and PA 1 became part of U.S. Route 1.
West Virginia
The Lincoln Highway did not enter
Ohio
The routing through Ohio followed modern US Route 30 to
Indiana
The Lincoln Highway entered Indiana on current
In time, the route was shortened, following U.S. Route 30 through the entire state. Many cities along U.S. 30, including Warsaw, Plymouth, Merrillville and Schererville contain stretches of the Lincoln Highway (usually marked as "Old Lincoln Highway", "Lincolnway", "Joliet St" or "Joliet Rd") while modern U.S. 30 runs just outside the cities.
Illinois
The route through Illinois was chosen to deliberately avoid Chicago, instead providing "feeder routes" to the city. The main feeder routes included Illinois Route 1 at Chicago Heights, Illinois Route 4 (later U.S. Route 66) at Joliet, and Illinois Route 38 at Geneva.
The Lincoln Highway entered Illinois on U.S. Route 30, which it followed to Aurora where it became Illinois Route 31, which it followed to Illinois Route 38 at Geneva where it turned west to Dixon. From Dixon, it continued west on Illinois Route 2 to Sterling where it rejoins U.S. Route 30. It followed U.S. Route 30 to just east of the Iowa state line, where it turned slightly northwest of Illinois Route 136.
Lincoln Highway enters Illinois on the eastern border in Sauk Village, as Joliet Street in Dyer separates from being one Native American trail into two separate paths: the current route of Lincoln Highway turns north to cross Ford Heights and Chicago Heights at 14th Street, and the original route following Sauk Trail to South Chicago Heights before turning north on Chicago Road. Chicago Road in Chicago Heights is also Dixie Highway, leading to a major intersection of Carl Fisher's two major auto trails.[4]
Continuing west, Lincoln Highway crosses Olympia Fields (211th Street), Matteson, Frankfort, and New Lenox (Maple Street) before its next major directional change in Joliet. In Joliet, Cass Street is the original path, but when several roads were redesigned as one-way streets, a loop was added to include Jefferson Street (US-52), Center Street and Collins Street (Archer Avenue, IL-171). Lincoln Highway also crosses Chicago Street, part of the alternate route of Route 66. After crossing the Des Plaines River, US30 travels northwest and is known as Plainfield Road. It crosses Crest Hill before entering Plainfield. The route originally changes direction to west on Lockport Street, through downtown Plainfield, then north on Wallin Drive, stepping north and west every few blocks towards Aurora. It presently follows Division Street north before a more direct diagonal path.
When originally designed, Lincoln Highway crossed the Fox River near downtown at Benton Street and Downer Place, following Lake Street (IL-31) to Geneva, where the road shifted to leave the Chicago area and extend west towards the Iowa border. Presently, Lincoln Highway never enters Aurora as it crosses Montgomery as Baseline Road. At the intersection of IL-47, it travels north to Sugar Grove before turning west towards the Iowa border.
Iowa
The Lincoln Highway entered Iowa on the Lyons-Fulton bridge, since torn down, north of the present-day Iowa Highway 136 bridge. It then went south on Second Street in Clinton along what is now U.S. Route 67. From there, it generally followed these present-day roads:
- U.S. Route 30 from Clinton to Lisbon, including some roads known today as "Old Highway 30"
- Local roads and city streets from Lisbon to Marion and later Cedar Rapids, rejoining present-day 30 on the southwest side of Cedar Rapids
- U.S. 30 from there to northeast of Belle Plaine, where it turned south and followed County Roads V40 and E66 through Chelsea and rejoined 30 east of Tama. The famous bridge is just west of where 30 and the Lincoln Highway currently separate.
- Local streets in Tama and County Road E49, rejoining 30 near Le Grand
- U.S. 30 to four miles (6 km) west of Le Grand, where it followed city streets through Marshalltown and left town on Lincoln Way
- County Road E41 from west of Marshalltown which passes through State Center, then runs west crossing U.S. Route 65 at Colo and continues onto Nevada. The Nevada Lincoln Highway Committee has hosted for the past 25 years an annual celebration called Lincoln Highway Days. The route continues on "Old 30" to Ames, about a mile north of "New 30", going along the south and west sides of Iowa State University.
- Gravel roads to Iowa Highway 17, where it again followed County Road E41 through Boone to Ogden
- U.S. 30 from Ogden to Grand Junction, County Road E53 through Greene County, and north through Scranton, then west to near Ralston
- From there it generally followed U.S. 30 to the Missouri Valley, where it turned south to Council Bluffs on County Road L20. It crossed the Missouri River to Omaha, Nebraska via Broadway and the Ak-Sar-Ben Bridge
Nebraska
Traveling westward from the Douglas Street Bridge. West to 18th or 24th Street depending on year. South to Farnam Street. West to 40th where it turned North to
Colorado
The 1913 proclamation included a loop through
- U.S. Route 138, Big Springs to Sterling, Colorado
- U.S. Route 38 (now U.S. Route 6), Sterling to Wiggins, Colorado
- unnumbered (State Highway 79?), Wiggins to Bennett, Colorado
- U.S. Route 40, Bennett to Denver
- U.S. Route 287, Denver, Lafayette, Longmont, Loveland, Fort Collins to Cheyenne, Wyoming. US 287 was not created until 1935, so the Lincoln Highway may well have used a portion of:
- Unnumbered (State Highway 1), Fort Collins to Cheyenne. Today this highway does not run north out of Ft. Collins, but it may well have in 1915 or so, perhaps having been absorbed in the "new" US 287 (which does not enter Wyoming at Cheyenne, but rather at Laramie).
Wyoming
The Lincoln Highway entered Wyoming east of
Utah
The Lincoln Highway entered Utah on modern Interstate 80 to Echo Junction where it joined I-84 and followed the Weber River to Ogden. In Ogden, it turned south to Salt Lake City.
In western Utah, the original chosen alignment headed west from Salt Lake City to Timpie in order to run around the north side of the Stansbury Mountains, largely along present State Route 171 and State Route 138. From Timpie it turned south roughly along present State Route 196, past Iosepa, to Orr's Ranch (40°18′23″N 112°44′06″W / 40.306334°N 112.734897°W). Orr's Ranch is now a bit north of the east gate of the Dugway Proving Ground).
Between Orr's Ranch and the north edge of the
Around 1919 a new route, known as the Goodyear Cutoff, and named after
The Goodyear Cutoff cut largely across the
However, Utah did not care much for the Lincoln Highway, instead preferring the
Thus the Goodyear Cutoff was never paved, and was closed to the public in the 1940s when the
Nevada
In Nevada, the original 1913 highway entered on county roads west of Ibapah, Utah near the Pony Express stop of Eightmile, Nevada, and then past the ghost towns of Tippett and Schellbourne. At what is now U.S. Route 93, the Lincoln Highway turned south, passing through McGill to Ely. In the mid-1920s, the routing was realigned to enter Nevada via the Wendover Cut-off. The road then headed south towards Ely along what is now Alternate U.S. Route 93.
From Ely to Fallon, the highway followed U.S. Route 50 through Eureka and Austin. A shortcut is now Nevada State Route 722 between Austin and Middlegate.
West of Fallon, the Sierra Nevada Northern Route followed Alternate US Route 50 to Fernley, then old US 40 (paralleling I-80) through Reno to Verdi, Nevada on the California state line.
To get to Carson City from Reno, the current routing of US 395 Alternate was used.
The Sierra Nevada Southern Route continued down US Route 50 from Fallon through Carson City up King's Canyon Grade, over Spooner Summit, or to Genoa following the old Pony Express route then up Kingsbury Grade and around the south end of Lake Tahoe to Stateline, Nevada on the California state line.
California
In California, the Lincoln Highway followed two different routes over the
The Sierra Nevada Northern Route from
The Sierra Nevada Southern Route from
From Sacramento to San Francisco, the original 1913–1927 Central Valley Route departed Sacramento southbound on Stockton Blvd to Rt 99, then southbound on 99 to Galt, then south on Lower Sacramento Rd to Pacific Ave and El Dorado St into downtown Stockton. From Stockton, the route departed southbound on Center St to French Camp Turnpike, Manthey Rd, and French Camp Rd to the town of French Camp, then Harlan Rd and Manthey Rd (again) southwest to 11th St into Banta, jogging through Banta, then west on 11th (again) into Tracy (old US 50). From Tracy, it followed Byron Rd, Grant Line Rd and Altamont Pass Rd to the top of Altamont Pass. It continued west on Altamont Pass Rd arriving in Livermore via Northfront Rd, Vasco Rd, First St and Junction Ave. From Livermore, the route followed today's I-580 westbound into Dublin, then Dublin Canyon Rd, East Castro Valley Rd, Grove Way and A Street into downtown Hayward. From Hayward to downtown Oakland it followed Foothill Blvd, I-580 (again), MacArthur Blvd, Foothill Blvd (again), First Ave, 13th St, Harrison St, 9th St and Broadway to a ferry pier on the Oakland Estuary (now Jack London Square) for an automobile ferry to the Ferry Slips at the south end of the Ferry Building, at the base of Market Street, in San Francisco.
Upon the completion of the first
Arriving in San Francisco from 1913 to 1921, you departed the ferry from Oakland at the Ferry Slips at the south end of the Ferry Building, drove west on Market St, right on Van Ness Ave, left on Chestnut St (past the
Arriving in San Francisco from 1922 to 1927, you departed the ferry from Oakland at the Ferry Slips at the south end of the Ferry Building, drove west on Market St, right on Post St (a traffic movement that is impossible today, as Post runs one-way eastbound), left on Presidio Ave, right on Geary Boulevard, right on 36th Ave, entering into Lincoln Park from the south (now enter via 34th).
Arriving in San Francisco in 1928, you departed the ferry from Berkeley at the Hyde Street Pier, drove south on Hyde, right on North Point St, left on Van Ness Ave, right on California St, right on 32nd Avenue, left on El Camino del Mar, entering into Lincoln Park from the northwest.
The Lincoln Highway Western Terminus is the plaza and fountain in front of the
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0805068832. See throughout, but especially index entry "Lincoln Highway route controversy".
- ^ "Union City street name changes". Archived from the original on September 7, 2008.[self-published source?]
- ^ "Chapter 7: The Lincoln Highway in West Virginia" (PDF). Lincoln Highway Resource Guide.
- ^ https://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/info/il/
- ^ "Chapter 13: Lincoln Highway in Colorado" (PDF). Lincoln Highway Resource Guide.
- ^ "History of the Lincoln Highway: From Dirt Path to Concrete Highway".[self-published source?]
- ^ "South Napa County boasts old Lincoln Highway route". Napa Valley Register. April 1, 2017. Retrieved April 1, 2017.
- The Lincoln Highway Association (1993) [1924]. A Complete Official Road Guide of the Lincoln Highway. Tucson, Arizona: Patrice Press. ISBN 1-880397-05-6.