Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
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 →
June 22, 1950 The Highway Research Board (the present-day Transportation Research Board) formally announced the imminent launch of a major highway research project in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. This project would specifically take place in the vicinity of La Plata, a Maryland town about 32 miles (51.5 kilometers) southeast of the nation’s capital. The... 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 →
November 11, 1914 A meeting that would have a big and far-reaching impact on transportation throughout the United States occurred during the Fourth American Road Congress, which had commenced a couple of days earlier in Atlanta. As Motor Age magazine confirmed, Georgia’s capital city during that week was “a vortex of good roads enthusiasm.” There... Continue Reading →
October 24, 1923 The Pacific Highway was officially opened in Olympia, Washington. This international highway would ultimately extend from Vancouver in British Columbia to San Diego in California. There were 1,687 miles (2,715 kilometers) of the Pacific Highway in place by 1926, making this route the longest continuously paved road at that time. The 1923... Continue Reading →
November 15, 1932 A major milestone for a pioneering highway in northern Virginia with took place with the inaugural ceremony for the Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, which had been built by the Bureau of Public Roads of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to commemorate the bicentennial of George Washington’s birth. The new route, stretching from... Continue Reading →
Transportation History 