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 →
In the years since it became one of the original routes of the U.S. Numbered Highway System, U.S. Route 66 (US 66) has left an enduring and unrivaled cultural imprint. Journalist and historian Michael Wallis (born in 1945) summarized this legacy in his 1990 best-selling book Route 66: The Mother Road. “Route 66,” Wallis noted... Continue Reading →
A week after the fourth regional meeting of the Joint Board on Interstate Highways had taken place in Atlanta, the fifth of these meetings -- likewise focused on potential U.S. Highway Numbered System routes -- was held in New York City on June 15, 1925. The previous day’s edition of the New York Times reported,... Continue Reading →
April 15, 1924 The Rand McNally Auto Chum, a highways map guide for car travel throughout the United States, was published. This guide was the first edition of what ultimately became the best-selling Rand McNally Road Atlas. The Auto Chum came out at a time when cars were increasingly embraced and used nationwide, and highways to accommodate... Continue Reading →
December 2, 1594 Gerardus Mercator, whose influential work in cartography included a seminal 1569 map that depicted sailing courses worldwide, died at the age of 82 in the city of Duisburg in present-day Germany. He had been born on March 5, 1512, in the town of Rupelmonde in what is now Belgium. Mercator established a niche... Continue Reading →
