U.S. Route 40 (1926–1974)

U.S. Route 40 (1926–1974) was the original transcontinental United States Numbered Highway alignment designated in 1926 that connected the West Coast, Midwest, and East Coast before systematic truncation and replacement by the Interstate Highway System. The route linked major urban centers, industrial corridors, and historic trails, intersecting with corridors such as U.S. Route 66, U.S. Route 1, and later Interstate 80. Its corridor traced precursor roads including the National Road, Lincoln Highway, and portions of the Victory Highway, becoming a template for regional planning and transportation policy during the Great Depression, World War II, and the postwar highway expansion.

Route description

The original alignment traversed from San Francisco, California through Sacramento, California, Reno, Nevada, Salt Lake City, Denver, Colorado, Kansas City, Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, Indianapolis, Indiana, Columbus, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Baltimore, Maryland, and into Atlantic City, New Jersey and the Delaware shore, intersecting corridors controlled by agencies like the American Association of State Highway Officials and the Bureau of Public Roads. Along its course it paralleled historic routes such as the California Trail, the Oregon Trail, and the National Road, and linked infrastructure nodes including the Port of San Francisco, Reno Airport, Salt Lake City International Airport, Denver Union Station, Kansas City Union Station, Gateway Arch, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The roadway crossed major rivers including the Mississippi River, the Missouri River, the Ohio River, and the Delaware River via bridges and ferry terminals coordinated with local authorities such as the Pennsylvania Department of Highways and the Maryland State Highway Administration.

History

The designation emerged from the 1925–1926 planning meetings of the American Association of State Highway Officials and the USDA Bureau of Public Roads, reflecting policy debates involving figures like Herbert Hoover and institutions such as the National Highway Traffic Administration's predecessors. It consolidated older named routes including the National Road, the Lincoln Highway, and the Victory Highway into a numbered federal system influenced by events like the 1929 stock market crash and initiatives during the New Deal under Franklin D. Roosevelt, which funded pavement projects through agencies like the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. During World War II, the corridor supported mobilization linked to sites such as Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and the Bethlehem Steel plants near Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Postwar planning with leaders including Dwight D. Eisenhower and policy frameworks like the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 resulted in construction of Interstate 80, Interstate 70, and Interstate 64 that paralleled and eventually supplanted large segments of the route.

Major intersections and alignment changes

Original junctions included major interchanges with U.S. Route 101 in California, U.S. Route 395 near Ridgecrest, California, U.S. Route 95 in Nevada, U.S. Route 89 in Utah, U.S. Route 6 and U.S. Route 287 in Colorado, U.S. Route 24 in Missouri, U.S. Route 50 in Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. Route 31 and U.S. Route 136 in Indiana, U.S. Route 22 and U.S. Route 30 in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and connections to U.S. Route 13 and U.S. Route 130 in the Mid-Atlantic region. Realignments over the decades responded to urban bypass projects in Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Baltimore, to river-crossing improvements like the Chain of Rocks Bridge and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, and to new limited-access segments that became parts of Interstate 70, Interstate 64, and Interstate 76. State highway commissions in California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, and New Jersey executed truncations, reroutings, and co-signings with numbered routes such as U.S. Route 50 and U.S. Route 522.

Notable structures and landmarks

The route incorporated or passed near monuments and structures including the Golden Gate Bridge, the Sierra Nevada, the Bonneville Salt Flats, Independence Hall, the Gateway Arch, the Pebble Beach, the Hoover Dam corridor detours, the Rocky Mountains approaches at Loveland Pass, the Chain of Rocks Bridge, and urban landmarks like Union Station (Denver), Soldiers and Sailors Monument (Indianapolis), and the Baltimore Inner Harbor. Roadside businesses and cultural sites such as the Salt Lake Temple, the Coors Brewery in Golden, Colorado, Union Station (Kansas City), the Steele's Tavern era service stops, and attractions like Atlantic City's Boardwalk contributed to the corridor's role in tourism, freight logistics, and regional identity. Engineering achievements included major river crossings and mountain pass alignments supervised by contractors linked to firms such as Bechtel and design work influenced by engineers educated at institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign.

Decommissioning and legacy

During the 1950s–1970s buildout of the Interstate Highway System following the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 the corridor was progressively bypassed by Interstate 80, Interstate 70, and Interstate 64, prompting state truncations and decommissioning actions culminating in 1974 when much of the original numbered alignment was removed from the federal system and replaced by U.S. Route 50 segments, state routes, and interstate designations; agencies involved included the Federal Highway Administration and multiple state departments of transportation. The corridor's legacy persists in preserved segments designated as historic routes, adaptive reuse projects around structures like Chain of Rocks Bridge and Union Station (St. Louis), and in cultural memory reflected in media about Route 66, cross-country travel narratives by authors like John Steinbeck and journalists covering the Dust Bowl, and in transportation scholarship at institutions such as the Transportation Research Board and the Smithsonian Institution. Many communities along the former alignment continue to promote heritage tourism centered on surviving bridges, motels, diners, and the imprint of early 20th-century American automotive culture.

Category:U.S. Highways