The Lincoln Highway, The Great American Road Trip
Monday, September 11th — The route of the nation’s first coast-to-coast paved roadway was announced this week 105 years ago. Known as the Lincoln Highway, its combination of new roads linking existing metropolitan roads originally ran for nearly 3,400 miles through 13 states, connecting New York City with San Francisco.
Ironically, the instigator of this transcontinental road, Paul Fisher, was famous for building a much shorter, oval road — the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And the Lincoln Highway, with some route adjustments, still serves American motorists, but with the designations of five separate U.S. routes. Today, there are about 2.7 million miles of paved public roads nationwide, employing some 39,000 highway maintenance workers.
You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey.
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