The Lincoln Highway

The Lincoln Highway. Indiana: Two Distinct Routes and The Ideal Section. , The approximate route of the Lincoln Highway from New York to San Francisco is:

. U.S. 1 south from New York to Philadelphia , . U.S. 30 west to Granger, Wyoming , . I-80 west to Wendover, Nevada , . U.S. 50 west to Sacramento, California , . I-5 south to Tracy , . I-580 west to Oakland , . I-80 west to San Francisco

, In Indiana, approximately 90% of the original 1913 and 1928 routes of the Lincoln Highway can still be driven. An adventure awaits as you travel on roads actually named Lincolnway East, Lincolnway West, Lincoln Highway, and others., The Lincoln Highway Association , A New Generation , The original Lincoln Highway Association dissolved with its final activities occurring in the early 1940’s. As the interstate highway system and super highways by passed the small towns and cities, great roads like the Lincoln Highway were nearly forgotten., By the early 1990s, however, interest in the Old Lincoln Highway was reawakened by many who understood its significance in the history of American transportation. A reorganized Lincoln Highway Association was established in 1992 with active chapters in 12 Lincoln Highway states., Their goals is not only to preserve, promote, and mark the Lincoln Highway route across the nation, but also to educate the general public on the various route and related historical resources., Travelers have rediscovered that a drive along the Lincoln is more interesting than that found on modern interstates or busier four lane highways., Indiana’s Early Roads , For thousands of years, the lands which include Indiana were inhabited by various tribes of Indians who established many trails across Indiana. Sometimes these trails became trade routes or were used by the military between various frontier forts when British or French controlled the area., As more settlers came, the population grew and towns developed. The State of Indiana was created and admitted to the Union in 1816, as the nineteenth state. By 1860, on the eve of the Civil War, Indiana census shows that there were 1.3 million people living in the state making it the fourth largest in the Union., By the early 1900’s, the automobile grabbed the imaginations of Americans and the demand for better roads became more intense. When the Lincoln Highway Association announced the intended route for an improved surface road across America, the state of Indiana was in a position to play a prominent role., The original Lincoln Highway route through Indiana, in 1913, moved through Fort Wayne and headed to South Bend through Goshen and Elkhart. It then proceeded to the state line by way of LaPorte and Valparaiso., With the adoption of the new numbered highway system in 1928, a new alignment of the Lincoln Highway in Indiana was developed as U.S. 30. This route left Fort Wayne going to Valparaiso by way of Columbia City, Warsaw, and Plymouth, making a more direct route across the state. This new alignment of about 150 miles between the Ohio and Illinois state lines was approximately twenty-one miles shorter than the 1913 route.