Finding the unexpected in the everyday.
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 →
“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 →
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 →
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 →
Transportation History 