... . History of US Road
Systems 1806 -
33 National
Road
(Baltimore - Vandalia, Illinois, 780
miles) America's first interstate
highway 1825 Completion of the
Erie Canal linking the Great Lakes with
New York City 1826 First American
railroad completed in Quincy,
Massachusetts 1855 Walt Whitman
(1819-1892): Leaves
of Grass 1862 President Abraham
Lincoln signs the
Pacific Railway Act,
which directs two companies, the Union
Pacific and the Central Pacific, to
construct a transcontinental
railroad. 1865 The
Union
Pacific Railroad
begins moving westward, laying track at an
average rate of one mile per
day. 1883 Completion
of railroads:
The Southern
Pacific,
The Santa
Fe, and the
Northern Pacific Railroad, connecting the
northwestern states to points
east. 1892 In Chicago, more
than 1,000 attend organizational meeting
of National League for Good Roads,
designed to lobby for national road
legislation. General Roy Stone elected
general vice president and acting
secretary. 1893 Office of Road
Inquiry under General Stone established in
Department of Agriculture on Oct. 3, 1893,
with a $10,000 annual budget. 1896 First experimental
routes for rural free delivery of mail are
established in West Virginia. 1903 Ford Motor Company
founded 1907 First national road
inventory published (for 1904) 1908 Ford: Model
T 1911 California Highway
Commission formed 1913 Lincoln
Highway
(from New York City to San Francisco)
America's first intercontinental Highway,
3,400 miles) 1915 Organisational
Meeting for Dixie
Highway:
two lines: West Branch from Chicago, IL to
Miami, FL; and East Branch from Sault Ste.
Marie, MI to Miami, FL 1916 Federal-Aid
Road Act
establishes federal-aid highway program
with a 50/50 percent federal-state
share. 1921 Federal Aid Highway
Act (Revision of 1916 legislation) 1925 Beginning of
national highway construction. 1926 Route
40,
(Atlantic City, New Jersey - San
Francisco, 3'022 miles) 1927 Dixie
Highway
completed. 1930 Dedication
ceremonies take place upon completion of
$2 million Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway in Zion
National Park, Utah 1931 7 years' drought
begins in Oklahoma ("Dust
Bowl") 1934 Exodus of Oklahoma
farmers 1935 The first segment
of the German autobahn opens for traffic
in May 19. The German network becomes a
model for US Highway construction 1939 Steinbeck:
Grapes of Wrath 1956 Federal Aid Highway
Act leeds to the construction of the
41,000-mile system of Federal Interstate
Highways. Links / material
used: last changes: April 2003
Daimler/Benz: Viktoria
First electrified railway:
Baltimore
Ford: "Quadricycle"
Ford establishes first conveyor belt-based
assembly line
Western Headquarters Office directs
federal highway construction programs in
11 western states.
Route
66 (Chicago
to Los Angeles, 2,400 miles)
15 million Model Ts have been
manufactured
Construction begins on Blue Ridge Parkway
near the North Carolina-Virginia border.
U.S. Route 30 becomes first paved
transcontinental highway.
General History of American Highways:
U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway
Administration: Public
Roads online
[http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/spring96/p96sp44.htm]
Federal Highway Administration: Highway
History
[http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/history.htm]
History
of the US Highway System
[http://www.gbcnet.com/ushighways/history.html]
Links
to other sites
[http://www.gbcnet.com/roads/road_links.html]
Pennsylvania
Highways
[http://www.pahighways.com/misc/history.html]
Historical Maps
of Southern California
(1919 onwards)
[http://www.scvresources.com/highways/maps.htm]
Frank X. Brusca, History
of Route 40
[http://www.route40.net/history/index.shtml]
National
Historic Route 66
Federation.
[http://www.national66.com/]
Frantzen, Swa. Route
66
[http://www.historic66.com/index.html]
Ballard, Mike. Historical
Highways of Central and Southern
California Virtual
Tours on H6 and 99
[http://www.scvresources.com/highways/index.htm]
University of Basel, Switzerland
main
page: Shakespeare in Europe
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