Lincoln Highway
The Lincoln Highway was one of the earliest transcontinental highways in the United States, designed specifically for automobiles. It started in Times Square, New York City and ended at Lincoln Park in San Francisco.
In the West, the Lincoln Highway followed sections of the Mormon Trail used by Brigham Young and the pioneers to reach Utah. The western terminus of the Lincoln Highway was originally planned to be in San Francisco's Lincoln Park, at the Palace of the Legion of Honor. However, the highway's official western end point was later designated as Lincoln Park itself.
The Lincoln Highway played a pivotal role in promoting cross-country automobile travel and the development of roadside services like hotels, gas stations, and restaurants along its route. It helped spur the creation of the numbered U.S. Highway system in the 1920s, which eventually led to the highway's demise as it was broken up and replaced by routes like U.S. 30.
Thw highway was conceived in 1912 by Carl G. Fisher an Indiana businessman. The states traversed by the Lincoln Highway California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.
Despite being supplanted by the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s, the Lincoln Highway left a lasting legacy as America's first transcontinental road designed for automobiles, paving the way for modern highway travel.
For more information:
