U.S. Route 40

From Free net encyclopedia

Template:Routeboxus U.S. Highway 40 is an east-west United States highway. As the "0" in its route number suggests, US 40 was once a coast-to-coast route, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. However, the entire segment west of Salt Lake City, Utah has been decommissioned in favor of Interstate 80.

Image:US-40 scenic overlook 2005-10-14.jpg

1 Termini
2 Historic termini
3 Alternate routes
4 History
5 States traversed
6 Major cities
7 Related US routes
8 See also
9 Sources and external links

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Termini

As of 2006, the route's eastern terminus is in Atlantic City, New Jersey, near the Atlantic Ocean (and close to the end of U.S. Highway 30). As of 2004, its western terminus is north of Park City, Utah at an intersection with Interstate 80.

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Historic termini

Image:Historic US 40 (CA).svg When the original 1926 routes were commissioned, the western termini of both US 40 and US 50 were in Oakland, California. These highways' endpoints were extended to San Francisco (at U.S. Route 101) with the construction of the Bay Bridge in 1936. But the rise of the Interstate highway system saw the end of the road creep eastward starting in the 1960s.

In some parts of California, such as Davis and Vallejo, the streets that were once part of US 40 are signed as Historic Route 40, although the highway is not listed in the Streets and Highways Code with the other highway route definitions.

Along with US 30 (the Lincoln Highway), US 40 crossed California's Sierra Nevada mountain range at Donner Pass. Segments of the original route are marked with Historic Route 40 signs and pass through such Sierra towns as Colfax, Soda Springs and the old railroad town of Norden. One of the longer preserved sections allows travelers to drive from Interstate 80 at Soda Springs all the way to Truckee by way of the Sugar Bowl ski resort and Donner Lake.

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Alternate routes

As of 2004, Alternate US 40 in Maryland has an eastern terminus in Frederick. It rejoins US 40 about 20 miles (32 km) later in Hagerstown. While the main line of US 40 serves as a local access road for Interstate 70, Alternate US 40 veers to the south to serve Boonsboro.

In addition, a mixture of designations appear on the original US 40 routing (before Interstate 68 was constructed) in western Maryland. Some sections are designated Alternate US 40 in the Maryland panhandle, other sections are signed as Maryland State Route 144, and one other section is signed as US 40 (Scenic), one of only two such designations, the other on U.S. Highway 412.

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History

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Historic names

It is the National Road from Cumberland, Maryland to Vandalia, Illinois. In 1926, the U.S. 40 Association promoted the highway as "The Main Street of America"; however, the U.S. Highway 66 Association also proposed the name for their highway and were more successful. In New Jersey, between Atlantic City and Mays Landing, it is concurrent with U.S. Highway 322 and comprises a portion of the "Black Horse Pike".

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Historic alternate routes

Until the mid-1930s, US 40 split into US 40N and US 40S in Manhattan, Kansas, rejoining for a few miles in Limon, Colorado, then split apart again as each crossed Colorado.

Also, in the late 1930s, there was a temporary routing of Alternate US 40 in California that ran north from Davis, California to avoid the snows at Donner Pass, elev. 7,085 feet (2160 m) in the Sierra Nevada (US). It ran through Yuba City and Oroville to Quincy along U.S. 99 and the Oroville-Quincy Highway where it met U.S. Highway 395. Here it crossed the Sierras over the much lower Beckwourth Pass, elev. 5,221 feet (1592 meters).

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A Flight Along US 40

In 1954, Bill Price flew the length of US 40 from east to west in a Convair L-13, carrying a Fairchild K-20 aerial camera. Price shot 938 photographs on his 24 day expedition. He intended to publish these as an aerial portrait of the United States, but he could not find a publisher to print his voluminous work. In 1994, his negatives were destroyed in a fire, but some of the contact prints were at last published in the January, 2000 issue of Air&Space Magazine. [1]

Image:Continental Divide CO 2005-10-15.jpg

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Trivia

Interstate 70 closely parallels much of US-40, with the two multiplexed in most of Missouri. During the early years of Interstate 70 in the early 1960's, Ohio multiplexed stretches of Interstate 70 with US-40 in Clark County, Licking County, Montgomery County, and Muskingum County in an effort to lure drivers used to driving US-40 to use I-70 instead. The original sections of US-40 were then designated as State Route 440. Once the bulk of traffic was using Interstate 70 instead of the original US-40, State Route 440 was decommissioned and redesignated back to the original US-40, with US-40 and Interstate 70 no longer multiplexed in Ohio.

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