A New Name, New Number and New Alignments

A Coast To Coast Highway

With the growth of highway travel caused by the improvement of road surfaces across the country, new road designations were provided in order to help travelers find their way.

Older roads were combined into long cross-country routes, often originally made up of shorter roads across a region or state although sometimes originally several states long themselves (as was the case for the National Road).  Roads such as the Lincoln Highway (US Rt. 30 today) were formed in this process, given a name and a colorful logo which could be used on signs to help drivers find their way and stay on the correct path.

The National Road was combined with several other roads which traveled from St. Louis through Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona and ended at Los Angeles California.  This new coast-to-cast road was named the National Old Trails Road.”

Numbering Roads for a Growing Nation

In 1927, the naming system was studied and changed, names being replaced with a uniform system of numbers and roads broken apart and rearranged.  This numbering was to be issued in a grid, East-to-west roads would be given even numbers assigned from top to bottom, roads ending in “0” being major arteries, while north-to-south roads would be given odd numbers starting with US Rt. 1 along the atlantic coastline and traveling west, with roads ending in “1” being the most significant arteries in that direction.  The National Road was given the number US Route 40, and was attached to a series of roads which continued west to San Francisco instead of LA.

Hagerstown was to be the intersection of US Rt. 40 and US Rt. 11.  Both of these roads now run parallel to interstates 70 and 81, continuing to serve as a major interchange of north/south and east/west travel.

Separated from the National Road during the numbering, the western third of the National Old Trails Road from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, New Mexico (not the casino lined one in Nevada) was connected with a series of roadways traveling to Chicago and became US Route 66.  As the National Old Trails Road, the two routes became known as the Main Street of America because of the many towns and cities which appeared along the route and called it their main street over two centuries.  Although they were separated, both the Historic National Road and Historic Rt. 66 continue to share that nickname.

New Road Alignments

During the 1930s and 1940s, portions of the National Road underwent drastic changes.