Forgotten Lands, Places and Transit

In the area of Utah, Idaho and Wyoming that surrounds Bear Lake, one could circumnavigate the lake using four highways: US Highway 30, US Highway 89, Utah Route 30, and Wyoming Highway 89. Confused yet? Image: Google Maps To add to the confusion, both state highways exist in discontinuous segments through their respective states. Today we explore how this situation came to exist, by going over how each of the state highways got their numbers. Lets start with the simpler Wyoming Highway 89 . WY-89 starts in Evanston, WY at I-80/US-189 on its south end, and continues northwest. The road then enters Utah where it becomes UT-16. To put it mildly, it's a beautiful drive, even if my old photo from college doesn't do it much justice. UT-16 at MP 7. My photo from November 2011. From UT-16, you take UT-30 to the Wyoming State Line, where it becomes Wyoming 89 again. WY-89 then continues north, multiplexing with US -30, and then continuing north, becoming the border with Idaho. Once the ...

It seems hard to imagine today, but less than 100 years ago, neither the US Highway System nor Illinois Numbered Highways existed. New England had begun a rudimentary numbering system for highways, and Iowa began theirs in 1919, but the numbered highways we know and understand today were at best in their infancy.  As were roads. What predated the roads we have today are the Auto Trails , which had varying levels of paving and services along their routes. Further, these were maintained by organizations, not governments, at least not in their entirety.  1917 Illinois Highway Map. Illinois Digital Archives The Auto Trails were named, not numbered, and while many had names that no one would question today ( The Lincoln Highway , Grant Highway, and the Quincy Trail as some examples), viewing maps today of Illinois or Iowa from the early 1920's would have one notable exception: The Swastika Trail. Illinois Digital Archives 1924N Map Importantly, the swastika is an ancient symbol...

In the early 20th century, with the advent of the automobile becoming inexpensive enough to be affordable by the Middle Class, America's highway infrastructure was nearly non-existent.  Road networks were essentially a series of dirt roads and plank roads outside of major cities, and the interurban  railways of the day were usually more reliable forms of transportation.  Historic Yellowstone Trail Marker in North Fond du Lac, WI. Image: RoyalBroil, Wikipedia Commons From these paths, an informal network of roads began to coalesce that would be become known as Auto Trails . Today we're going to look at this system, and how from the Auto Trails, the US Highway System, and later the Interstate Highway would come to fruition.  To understand the Auto Trail in the context of transportation history, one must go back to the beginning of the development of the transportation system of the United States, which begins thousands of years before the United St...

US Highway 48 is the only two-digit US Highway that has existed in more than two places, having been the number for three different routes throughout US Highway history. Image: CalTrafficSigns via AARoads The first US 48 was signed from San Jose to French Camp, CA as part of the first US Routes in 1926 . Five years later, it became one of the first routes to be removed from the system, having been replaced by an extended US-50, and ultimately part of present-day I-880. The second US 48 was opened in 1975 between Morgantown, WV and Hancock, MD. This road was upgraded to a freeway, and in 1991, was replaced by present-day Interstate 68 . The third US 48 was applied to a highway relatively close to the second one, just somewhat more east. It was designated in 2002, making it one of the youngest US Highways, and is part of Appalachian Corridor H. When fully complete, it will run between Weston, WV and Strasburg, VA for a distance of 157 miles. Image: Corridor H milepost on U.S. 48 near M...

The United States Numbered Highway System , or simply US Route System, is a network of roads across the US. They were the successor to the Auto Trail system, which itself was a mixture of public and private roads, and not necessarily coordinated with one another. The most famous example of an Auto Trail would be the Lincoln Highway . The system differs from State Route systems in that the routes connect different parts of the US; US Highway 20 runs from Oregon to Massachusetts, while state routes (typically) remain in their own state. They also differ from the Interstate System in that the vast majority were built in the early 1920's, long before current highway standards were adopted. A US Highway can be a freeway, but a US Interstate cannot be below freeway grade, unless you live in Wyoming . Just like interstates, there are 2-digit and 3-digit US Routes, which relate to their parent route in some way. As it is much older than the Interstate System, and vast swaths of US ...

Most people in Illinois are familiar with the numbered route system, for one reason or another. Maybe they curse I-290 on a daily basis, or want Route 53 built already!  Regardless, a road's name and number are typically an interchangeable way of describing it in this state. Illinois, like every state, has a numbered route system , consisting of highways that are maintained by the state, or more specifically, the Illinois Department of Transportation, (IDOT). For example, most of Illinois Route 21 is known as Milwaukee Ave, and either are acceptable and easily understood by most people. The State Route system has been around since 1918, and just like the roadway network, it has expanded, grown, and changed over time. As US Routes were added, state routes were sometimes decommissioned, and as the Interstate Highway System came to fruition, even more changes occurred, and continue even to this day. While routes are continuously upgraded and moved, the roads that they once trav...

I decided to take things off the rails with this blog and talk about roads. While all infrastructure needs to be updated over time, roads are rarely abandoned, unlike railroads. When a railroad line's existence can no longer be justified by its traffic volume, as a privately owned piece of infrastructure, it is sold off or liquidated, or abandoned. If the Main Street in your town is bypassed by a brand new six-lane freeway on the outskirts, it still serves a purpose to the townsfolk, and more importantly, is continuously funded by them. However, roads are not immune to abandonment either. Here are five roads you can no longer drive on today.  1) Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike (East of Breezewood, PA) Wikipedia Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike. Photo: Jgera5 Breezewood, PA is a strange little town when it comes to roads. It's home to one of the very  few traffic lights on an Interstate Highway, as to continue east on I-70 requires you to do a loop in Breezewood. East ...