Thursday, March 21, 2024

Dixie and Lincoln (US-30) Highways Overview

Lincoln Highway Link

I'm also working on US-66 (Route 66), US-20 and US-40 (National Roads).

Dixie Highway

I saw a PBS show about some Chicago history, and when they were on the south side, they talked about being on the Dixie Highway to Florida. Now I know the rest of the route.
1915 (source)
Billy Shockey: Also Western Ave. I believe it is the longest street in the United States.

I knew Western Avenue was the only street in Chicago that went all the way from the north border to the south border. I didn't realized that it went south of the Chicago border and continued as the Dixie Highway to Florida.
Satellite

Looking some more at the national map, I knew that Lincoln Highway (US30) went through Fort Wayne, IN. I didn't know that US-24 west of Fort Wayne was part of the initial national highway system. 
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Lincoln Highway


The reason I documented the Dixie Highway before I documented the Lincoln Highway is because I've already discussed the Lincoln Highway here and there in my notes. And the work required to pull it all together intimitaed me. I still can't do all that work, but at least I can get started. 

Currently, my main source of information is a gazebo in Rochelle, IL. It has a much more detailed map of the highway than this map. (I just discovered that the link given in that gazeo, http://www.drivelincolnhighway.com/, no longer works. Bummer) But this map is a nice overview.
Brian Butko posted

This map more accurately shows the "bump" in Indiana.
Janice Olszewski Spann posted

I live in the Midwest, and I did not realize that US-30 was not the Lincoln Highway in the west until I saw this post.
U.S infratructure posted, cropped
U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route of the United States Numbered Highway System, with the highway traveling across the Northern U.S. With a length of 3,112 miles (5,008 km), it is the third-longest U.S. Highway, after US 20 and US 6. The western end of the highway is at US 101 in Astoria, Oregon; the eastern end is at Virginia Avenue, Absecon Boulevard, and Adriatic Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The "0" as the last digit in the number indicates that it is a coast-to-coast route and a major east–west route. Despite long stretches of parallel and concurrent Interstate Highways, it has not been decommissioned unlike other long-haul routes such as US 66. It is also the only U.S. Highway that has always been coast-to-coast since the beginning of U.S. Numbered Highway System.
Larry Lawton: I remember when US-30 went to Oakland, California -- the other highway to Portland Oregon was US-30N. The routes divided at Granger Junction in Western Wyoming.
[Other comments indicate that the Lincoln Highway terminated in Western Wyoming.]

A map with an even more accurate bump in Indiana. And it shows how the highway originally went up through the far western suburbs of Chicagoland before it headed west. Note that the overview map at the bottom explains: "the Lincoln Highway was the first successful, all-weather, coast-to-coast automobile highway."
20150913,16 4721r via Dennis DeBruler
lll

Chick Edmonson posted five images with the comment:
THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY #5
THE SEEDLING MILE.
By the end of 1913, the route of the Lincoln Highway had been chosen by the newly formed Lincoln Highway Association. The dream of a paved, toll-free, transcontinental route from New York City to San Francisco was gathering momentum. To achieve the goal, the association came up with the plan of Seedling Miles to promote construction. Mile long paved sections would be constructed through local donations of funds and materials in the hope that other contributions would come in, adding to the construction. Of the four seedling miles across the entire national route, the very first was completed in 1914 near a stretch of what is now Rt. 38 near Malta Illinois. An infamously bad dirt and gravel road was transformed into a stretch of smooth concrete. Markers near Kishwaukee College and along Rt. 38 fronting the Malta Cemetery commemorate this small achievement. The vintage photo of the actual construction from the collection of Janet Palm Lannan, showing her grandfather Charlie Palm at work on Malta's Seedling Mile. Next, driving the route.
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Steve OConnor commented on Chuck's post
Road building was often done with temporary industrial railroads. The terrible condition of dirt roads during rain made truck traffic all but impossible. The solution was to lay tracks parallel to the road and run small industrial locomotives to shuttle concrete from a temporary concrete plant erected along the road.

Steve OConnor commented on Chuck's post
A train loading up at the temporary concrete plant along side the road bed. Ironic that these locomotives were building the very roads that one day would help put them out of business.

Steve OConnor commented on Chuck's post
Here is a Whitcomb built in Rochelle doing road construction duty.

This post is my motivation for starting an overview.
Paul gilger posted
The Western Terminus of the Lincoln Highway is San Francisco’s Lincoln Park, seen here in the lower right corner of this photo.
[But the closest route marking of US-30 on Google Maps is in Nebraska.]

Notes that mention Lincoln Highway from east to west:
Old Gas Stations has multiple geographic locations.

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