How on Earth Did People Drive Across the Country Before the Highway System?

Until the 1960s , country route , urban center streets , and a confusing jumble of barely paved byway were all that linked the four corners of the United States . While some of these were technically called " highways " , they were n’t the straightaways you ’re thinking of . alternatively of a net that easily select rider from A to B , this hodgepodge meant the " scenic itinerary " was the only path . An American rite of enactment , crossing the country , could takeupwards of two weeksinstead of just five days . But the experience was far unlike , too : check , flavor , and even smelling the difference in each town , sampling regional delicacies , stop to chaffer with veridical locals , getting lost on back - route detours , and stumble across attractiveness featured on no map .

Below are 10 routes that allowed that in the first half of the 20th hundred , so next clip you ’re doing 75 on the interstate , interest only about finding the most commodious Chick - fil - A and cleanest set of rest area bath , take account the tough oeuvre our adventurous ancestors put in with a smell at how some of our most iconic highways come to be . As John Steinbeck suppose in his epical road trip bookTravels With Charley , “ Interstates are a great way to travel between New York and Los Angeles and see nothing . ”

1. The Lincoln Highway

Before the Interstate System became a reality in the 1950s under President Dwight D. Eisenhower , the Lincoln Highway , which ran from New York City to San Francisco , was the most famous overland cross - country route in the US . But even it featured vast patch of unpaved road that turned stale in dry weather and hopelessly boggy in rain . Case in gunpoint : in 1919 , when Eisenhower traveled with the US Army ’s Cross - Country Motor Transport Train march a newfangled invention call the " tank " to the American public , it took62 daysto make it from the Atlantic to the Pacific – and that was with a school principal start in Washington , DC !

2. The National Old Trails Road (US 40)

Before he was Vice President and finally President , Harry Truman headed the National Old Trails Road Association , which advocated for a square - pellet US highway scheme make on the imprint of famous paths of the past ( like the Santa Fe Trail ) . After Truman became a US Senator in 1935 , he even tout about his love of driving to Washington , DC , from his home in Missouri on US 40 . But the National Old Trails Road , which started in Baltimore before traverse Pennsylvania , Ohio , Indianapolis , Illinois , Missouri , Kansas , Colorado , New Mexico , Arizona , and Southern California , never earned the same cachet promised by Route 66 – in fact , the western part of the National Old Trails Road from Las Vegas to Los Angeles was co - opted and demonstrate as 66 as early as 1926 . Today , Truman is belike birl in his grave since to route - slip purists Route 66 is far more mythologized than the mostly block ol’ US 40 .

3. Route 66

No main road encapsulated the romanticistic American spirit of cross - country travel like Route 66 – and it ’s safe to say no stretch of blacktop will ever gain nicknames like “ the Main Street of America ” again . But before a thriving tourer thriftiness sprang up along the Chicago - to - Los Angeles route and kitschy songs were penned about the kicks you could recover on it , the highway was a gravel and grade dirt chance ( in 1938 , it became the first in full paved highway in the country ) . After World War II , with thousands of Americans head Benjamin West , Route 66 rightfully became the “ Mother Road . ” Fast food was even born on this stretch of main road , with the first drive - thrus opening at Red ’s Giant Hamburg in Springfield , MO , and McDonald ’s in San Bernardino , CA , in the 1950s . That only cemented Route 66 ’s position as an idealistic microcosm of automobile - obsessed American culture .

4. US 1

The longest north - south route in the United States , US 1 connect every major city on the East Coast from Miami to Boston – but then goes a step far at its northern and southern terminus by stretching all the manner from the Canadian edge to Key West . This is where the eldritch old Florida of alligator farm , roadside citrus stand , and space - theme car - court motel was abide , and where other American travelers first play rural scummy - country boils and real Carolina pulled pork . Pre - interstate , US 1 was the lifeblood of polar cities like Raleigh , NC , Richmond , VA , and Washington , DC – in New Jersey and New York , it was by all account America ’s first multi - lane superhighway devoted to industriousness . But in New England , US 1 meander along Long Island Sound , the stately Rhode Island waterfront , and Maine ’s craggy coastline , offer former compass north - south nomad a perfect moving-picture show of America ’s wildly various East Coast .

" … the 101 became within just a few short twelvemonth synonymous with a drift West Coast culture . "

5. Highway 101 from Seattle to San Diego

There ’s no argument that US 1 ’s western equivalent weight , Highway 101 , wowed early drivers far more in the jaw - dropping position department . From the Mexican margin to Washington ’s Olympia Peninsula , a ride along the historical highway , completed in 1926 and hound the El Camino Real Spanish missionary lead of the 1700s , bring the majestic heap of the West Coast right into gadget driver ’ eyelines – often in the form of hairpin curves and outrageous fall that ultimately provided approach to California ’s most iconic landscapes ( but were hell for the car - pallid fain ) . From urban Los Angeles and San Francisco to unaffected redwood groves and the furrowed & desolate Lost Coast , there ’s a intellect why the 101 became within just a few short year synonymous with a freewheeling West Coast culture . But it was n’t easy , either – Harvey M. Harper , the first man to drive through the Avenue of the Giants redwood forest , had to literally shovel out paths around the ancient tree so his Model T Ford could make it through a rutted , sloughy hell . And making it all the way to the 101 ’s northern terminus at imposing Mt. Olympus in Washington could take three days if you got stick behind a motortruck on the terrifyingly steep mickle passes .

6. Highway 30 and Highway 20

By the 1950s , Highway 30 had plunge much of the legendary Lincoln Highway along its 3,073 - mile run from Atlantic City , NJ , to Astoria , OR . But a arresting stand - alone northern stint through Wyoming , Idaho , and Oregon gave thousands of Americans their first look at the unspoiled West . Where else could early drivers discover something like the Thousand Springs Scenic Byway , which descends into the Hagerman Valley and through the Snake River canyon , where countless stream and runnel pelt forward from its eastern wall ? Highway 20 paralleled Highway 30 through much of the American Heartland , but deflexion out west through Wyoming ’s iconic Yellowstone National ballpark and back east through Massachusetts ’ beautiful Berkshires made the old Yellowstone Trail the longest route in the country – at 3,365 miles , early ill-tempered - country travelers considered it the gold standard when it came to automobile risky venture .

7. The Dixie Overland Highway (Highway 80)

Give ’em credit for make such foresight : the Automobile Club of Savannah first propose this transcontinental itinerary in 1914 , and when Highway 80 was commissioned in 1926 , it was the first all - atmospheric condition sea-coast - to - seacoast path awaiting intrepid driver . bulge out measure from the Atlantic Ocean in Tybee Island , GA , the road conk through important regional hub like Savannah , Montgomery , Jackson , Vicksburg , Shreveport , and Dallas - Ft . Worth . West of there , Highway 80 dropped through the vast West Texas desert into El Paso , the last truly urban stop for hundreds of mile until Tucson and Phoenix , where over 85 historical motel await aweary drivers on the Miracle Mile . Beyond that , it was just another mean solar day ’s journey to San Diego and the cool Pacific – every other coast - to - coast traveller ’s Holy Grail .

8. Highway 11 from New Orleans to Syracuse

Another member of the inaugural 1926 class of cross - country highways , US Route 11 spans 1,645 miles from New Orleans to the Canadian border in New York . That countenance 20th - one C adventurer the rare chance to sample everything from the Big Easy ’s French - Cajun - Creole mish - mash to Alabama ’s oak - line pate jewel , Tuscaloosa , to Tennessee ’s hidden gem of battle of Chattanooga and Knoxville , all on the same stretch of highway . North of there , US Route 11 , called the Valley Pike by topical anaesthetic , open up up the Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountain Ranges in Virginia and West Virginia , along with the Poconos in Pennsylvania , to commodious geographic expedition – this is the same forbidding terrain that in pre - auto time would take weeks to navigate .

US Route 11 also serve as a vital trucking link for important industrial cities like Harrisburg , Scranton , Binghamton , and Syracuse , but the reinforcement after passing through those industrial domain was deserving it : a grummet around the picturesque Adirondacks punctuated by a final stop in the gelid blue waters of Lake Champlain and , if you were so inclined , a hybridisation into the French - Canadian heartland in Quebec .

9. Highway 41 from Miami to Lake Superior

Once early main road addicts did Miami to Maine , Miami to Michigan became the next north - south challenge to curb . interbreed Florida ’s Everglades , Highway 41 cut magnetic north and careened between rural purdah – think Gibsonton , a small Florida town ground by carnival workers – and big metropolis like Tampa , Atlanta , and Nashville . The mental synthesis of Highway 41 spurred a perimeter war between Kentucky and Indiana where the road cut through the Ohio River into Evansville , although no fights have been documented since 1926 over the undermentioned 282 miles of Hoosier State vacancy . That abruptly ended , however , for other drivers enter bustling Chicago , where Highway 41 ( or Lake Shore Drive ) was a main thoroughfare through the city ’s most scenic sections – and home to the vaunted Soldier Field .

North of the metropolis , Highway 41 was the earliest “ vacationist ’s route , ” with legions of American families riding the newfound freedom of the automobile north to Lake Michigan , Lake Winnebago , and Michigan ’s idyllic Upper Peninsula , most of which has maintain the rustic good luck charm it had in the mid-20th century .

10. The CanAm Highway (US Route 85)

While the 19,000 - mile PanAm Highway take nearly a century to come to fruition , the CanAm Highway was finish in 1926 , Year Zero for America ’s best cross - country roadstead . US Route 85 took former drivers north from the Mexican border outside El Paso , rise slowly ( good for those other , not - so - reliable car ) through New Mexico cities Las Cruces , Albuquerque , and Santa Fe before fudge the regal Rocky Mountain range through Pueblo , Colorado Springs , and Denver . North of Cheyenne , the CanAm make progressively more tough to navigate , though , as early adventurers got a spirit at South Dakota ’s Black Hills , with an eastbound jog through once - bumpy - and - tumble Wild West ghostwriter towns like Deadwood and Spearfish . After that , nothing but beautiful scenery stand in the way of the Canadian border , include a pass - by of North Dakota ’s high point , White Butte and Black Butte , and a drive through the salient Badlands . Surely the extraterrestrial terrain there was something no other twentieth - century traveler had ever fancy before the Second Coming of the machine .