A Map Unfolds

A Century of the U.S. Highway System and the Promise of the Great American Road Trip

by

Travel

Bright neon signs, quirky motels, and miles of open road have mythically awaited travelers along Route 66, the “Mother Road” from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California, since November of 1926. The legendary highway once offered an escape to those searching for a new life out West. Today, its remnants offer an iconic road trip for nostalgic Americana junkies. 

This November will mark a century of this famous roadway, sure—but its anniversary also marks one hundred years of the entire U.S. numbered highway system. Here is a story of one of the greatest ideas in American highway history, and its impact can be seen crisscrossing the country—north to south, east to west, and even across the sugarcane and cotton fields of Louisiana. 

The History of the U.S. Highway System 

Many of today’s roads have origins in the days before cars, perhaps as footpaths expanded to accommodate wagons and later bumpy lanes traveled by Model Ts. “There were horse trails and buggy trails, and they turned into auto trails,” explained Sharon Strouse, the Executive Director of the National Scenic Byway Foundation. “In Louisiana, people were more concerned with ports than trails. Eventually, private citizens named the trails and maintained them because there was no Department of Transportation to call.”

The naming of trails dates to the early 1900s. “Boosters selected a route over existing—often, just barely existing—roads, gave it a colorful name, formed an association to promote the trail, and collected dues from businesses and towns along the way,” writes Richard Weingroff, Information Liaison Specialist with the Federal Highway Administration in an article titled “From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the Numbered Highway System." “The associations published trail guides and newsletters, held annual conventions, and promoted the improvement and use of their route.”

By the 1920s, more than 250 of these routes existed across the United States, some a single roadway connecting two major cities, others a system of trails offering multiple paths all under one name. In Louisiana, the transcontinental Old Spanish Trail, starting in St. Augustine, Florida, passed through New Orleans and Lafayette on its way to San Diego. The Jackson Highway brought adventurers from Chicago to New Orleans, while the Jefferson Highway linked Winnipeg, Canada, to the Crescent City, crossing the Atchafalaya River by ferry. In north Louisiana, motorists along the Dixie Overland Highway traveled through Monroe, Minden, and Shreveport on their way from Savannah, Georgia, to San Diego. Other recognized named trails in the state included the Lakes to Gulf Highway, the Lone Star Route, the Lone Star Trail, and the Mississippi Valley Highway.

During this time, automobiles were exploding in popularity in response to mass production and sudden affordability. Between 1910 and 1920, vehicle registrations increased from around 500,000 to 7.5 million. As more drivers hit the road, the trails continued to expand. And so did the controversies. 

According to Weingroff, “As interstate traffic grew in the 1920s, the named trails proved to be a jumble of overlapping roadways, poor marking, and indirect routing through towns willing to pay dues to an association.” 

In 1925, the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) stepped in to rein in the chaos. The AASHO, made up of highway associations that owned and maintained the roads, entreated the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to appoint a Joint Board on Interstate Highways. From April to August 1925, the Joint Board identified a list of the key interstate roads, which they labeled as “U.S. highways” and assigned each a number and road marker based on the U.S. shield. Primary routes running east to west ended in zero, while north-south routes ended either in one or five. Alternate roads, connecting routes, and branches were filled in with sequential two-digit or three-digit numbers.

The Joint Board turned over its final report, which labeled 75,800 miles of roads as U.S. numbered highways, to the Secretary of Agriculture in November 1925. When the Secretary presented the report to AASHO, the bickering and lobbying began. 

[Read this: "From Pine to Palm—One of America's oldest, greatest roadtrips, revived"] 

According to Weingroff, when AASHO’s Executive Committee met in Chicago in January 1926, the complaints had piled up. From trail associations to communities to individuals, each wanted more mileage, a different highway number, or a certain route or city to be included. 

The governor of Kentucky, livid that no transcontinental road traveled through his state, initially refused to use the numbered highways. After much haggling, the AASHO rerouted Route 60 through Kentucky, and the original path from Chicago to California became the now-famous Route 66. After addressing 132 changes from State highway agencies and expanding to 96,626 miles of U.S. numbered highways, AASHO adopted the final plan on November 11, 1926.

Louisiana's Highways

Closer to home, the Lafayette Daily Advertiser announced, “Louisiana has approximately 1,800 miles constituting the ten United States highways passing through the state … The plan provides for the uniform marking of all these highways so that tourists may go from place to place simply by following a given route number.” The Louisiana numbers, etched into roadside markers a hundred years ago, were U.S. Routes 51, 61, 65, 71, 80, 90, 165, 167, 171, and 190. For thirty years, these roads dominated the landscape, until the federal interstate system, started in 1956, arose as the primary system of cross-country travel.

The vestiges of the U.S. routes, though, remain a familiar fixture to anyone veering off the interstate in search of nostalgic highways and byways. This centennial is as good a time as ever to take a road trip across Louisiana and rediscover the glory days of this innovative highway system. Here’s a little inspiration to start your trip:

Route 51

A link between Louisiana and Wisconsin, Route 51 is the quieter lane seen from the speeding traffic on I-55. Starting in LaPlace, the highway squeezes between Lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas on its scenic journey north through Manchac Pass. Browse for antiques and pick up some strawberries in Pontchatoula before strolling the historic streets of downtown Hammond. Enjoy the rural path passing through Tickfaw, Amite City, and Tangipahoa and give a nod to Britney Spears’ hometown of Kentwood before crossing the Mississippi border at Osyka.

Route 61

Turn up the volume to Bob Dylan’s “Highway 61 Revisited,” and revisit this former “Blues Highway” that ran from New Orleans to Minnesota. The southern terminus is Airline Highway, a busy commercial stretch that was once the main conduit from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. Beyond the Capital City, the route passes through rural enclaves, such as the scenic town of St. Francisville, on its way north to Natchez and the forgotten juke joints of the Mississippi Delta. 

Route 65 

Only a small section of Route 65 passes through northeast Louisiana on its way from Natchez, to Minnesota. Skirting the Mississippi River, the path winds past cotton fields and pecan trees from Clayton to Tallulah, before continuing into Arkansas.

Route 71 

Historically beginning in Baton Rouge, the route was shortened slightly to run from Krotz Springs to the Canadian border at International Falls, Minnesota. In Louisiana, the route largely mirrors I-49. Kick off your tour at the Atchafalaya Basin and enjoy the pastoral drive northwest to Shreveport, stopping along the Red River in the “Heart of Louisiana” in Alexandria and detouring into Louisiana’s oldest permanent settlement in Natchitoches.

Route 80 

From the original Dixie Overland Highway to U.S. Route 80 to the Louisiana Scenic Byway, this north Louisiana highway has survived the test of time. Start with the Old Mississippi River Bridge near Vicksburg, Mississippi, and head west past Poverty Point World Heritage Site to the Chennault Aviation and Military Museum in Monroe. Grab a juicy peach in Ruston and tour Minden’s historic Main Street before embarking on the big-city nightlife of Shreveport. 

Route 90 

South Louisiana locals need no introduction to Highway 90, running from west Texas to Jacksonville Beach, Florida and parallelling much of I-10 along the way. Formerly the Old Spanish Trail, the Louisiana section of the route traverses Cajun country from the casinos of Lake Charles to the food havens of Lafayette and New Iberia, the shrimp and petroleum hub of Morgan City to the cultural snares of New Orleans. 

Route 190 

The original 1926 version of Route 190 was a short bypass of New Orleans along northern Lake Pontchartrain, from Slidell to Baton Rouge. The road was eventually expanded west across the state and into Texas Hill Country, but its origins can still be traced on Jefferson Highway in downtown Baton Rouge and through historic Covington. 

Route 165 

A spur road of Route 65, Route 165 originally connected Iowa, Louisiana (east of Lake Charles) to McGehee, Arkansas, with an extension added to North Little Rock in 1982. Running southwest to northeast, the highway brings travelers through bucolic settlements and the urban highlights of Alexandria and Monroe.

"There were horse trails and buggy trails, and they turned into auto trails. In Louisiana, people were more concerned with ports than trails. Eventually, private citizens named the trails and maintained them because there was no Department of Transportation to call."

—Sharon Strouse,  National Scenic Byway Foundation Executive Director 

Route 171 

Flanking the Texas border, Route 171 runs due north past forests and farmlands from Lake Charles to Shreveport. Be sure to stop and see the gothic Beauregard Parish Jail in the timber town of DeRidder, the army training base in Leesville, and the Civil War-era Mansfield State Historic Site.

Route 167 

Nearly bisecting Louisiana and Arkansas from south to north, today Route 167 travels from Abbeville to Junction City, Arkansas. However, its original southern endpoint in 1926 was northwest of Alexandria, where it met U.S. 71, following an earlier named trail of Pershing Way. A drive along the initial Route 167 highlights the beauty of Kisatchie National Forest and the Louisiana Tech college town of Ruston.