Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
About three-and-a-half months after their first full meeting was held in Washington, D.C., members of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways reconvened in the nation’s capital to assess and address the next crucial steps for shaping a coast-to-coast uniform highway system. This gathering of federal and state highway officials took place at the office of... Continue Reading →
The formal efforts to develop what became the U.S. Numbered Highway System began at the annual 1924 meeting of the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) in San Francisco. It was at this venue that the association approved a resolution called on the U.S. secretary of Agriculture (USDA was the “umbrella” department for the... Continue Reading →
On June 18, 1925, the sixth of the regional meetings of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways was held in Boston for the New England states. The specific location for this gathering was the boardroom of the Massachusetts Department of Public Works in the Massachusetts State House. This building, which was constructed during the 1790s,... Continue Reading →
“Highway Leaders Meet Here Today,” announced a headline in the June 8, 1925, edition of the Atlantic Constitution. That Monday gathering in Georgia’s capital city was the fourth regional meeting of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways focusing on potential U.S. Highway Numbered System routes. “The meeting is being held as one of a series... Continue Reading →
The third of the 1925 regional meetings of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways was held in a place that had been famously characterized by poet Carl Sanburg (1878-1967) as the City of Big Shoulders. This regional meeting, as with those both past and future, would largely involve having attendees figure out and decide upon... Continue Reading →
Less than two weeks after the first regional meeting focused on potential U.S. Highway Numbered System routes was held in San Francisco, the second of these meetings took place in a major midwestern hub located on the western edge of Missouri. A few days before this gathering in what is now Missouri’s largest city, the... Continue Reading →
In April 1925, the first full-fledged meeting of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways took place at the headquarters of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) in Washington, D.C. This board, which was chaired by BPR’s chief Thomas H. MacDonald (1881-1957), had been established just a few weeks earlier to work on devising what... Continue Reading →
Nearly a decade before the official authorization of the U.S. Numbered Highway System nationwide, the state of Wisconsin played a groundbreaking role in the establishment of such routes within its own boundaries. By 1917, an ever-increasing number of Wisconsin residents recognized the need for changes to be made to state trails and roads that were... Continue Reading →
In April 1925, the first full-fledged meeting of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways was held at the headquarters of the U.S Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) in Washington, D.C. This two-day meeting took place just a few weeks after the board was formally established to work on developing what ultimately became the U.S. Numbered... Continue Reading →
This is part of a series of posts commemorating the centennial of the United States Numbered Highway System. Less than a month before the 10th anniversary of the organization’s founding in Washington, D.C., the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) held its 1924 annual meeting in San Francisco. This meeting specifically took place in... Continue Reading →
