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 →
Only about two years after being built and opened along U.S. Route 66 (US 66) in the settlement of Grants Station (now the city of Grants) in the west-central part of New Mexico, a Standard Oil Company gas station was moved approximately 29 miles (46.7 kilometers) southeast to the community of Thoreau in the state... 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 →
In October 1930, ceremonies were held at the boundary between Iowa and Minnesota to commemorate the completion of the paved section of U.S. Route 65 (US 65) crossing both states. US 65 was one of the routes of the United States United States Numbered Highway System to be approved by the American Association of State... 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 →
It would be an understatement to say that John C. Nicholson (1862-1942), a lawyer residing in the city of Newton, Kansas, was a big fan of highways. A longtime advocate for well-paved, high-quality roads, Nicholson ultimately focused much of his time and enthusiasm on promoting U.S. Route 50 (US 50). As president of the U.S.... Continue Reading →
August 17, 1923 A vertical-lift bridge crossing the Piscataqua River and connecting the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with Badger’s Island in the town of Kittery, Maine, was formally inaugurated. This bridge was dedicated to the memory of American soldiers and sailors who had lost their lives during World War I just a few years... 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 central Illinois, operations began for the Standard Oil Gasoline Station in the southwest part of the village of Odell. This station is located along US Route 66 (US 66) – known far and wide today as simply Route 66 – and it was constructed by Irish-born building contractor Patrick O’Donnell to serve people driving... 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 →
Transportation History 