U.S. Route 40
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| U.S. Route 40 |
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| Length: | 2054 mi[1] (3306 km) | ||||||||
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| Formed: | 1926[1] | ||||||||
| West end: |  I-80 near Park City, UT |
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| Major junctions: |
 I-25 at Denver, CO I-135 at Salina, KS I-35 at Kansas City, MO  I-55/I-64 at St. Louis, MO I-65 at Indianapolis, IN I-75 near Dayton, OH I-71 at Columbus, OH I-95 at Baltimore, MD |
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| East end: | Atlantic Ave in Atlantic City, NJ | ||||||||
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U.S. Route 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.
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.[2]
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[edit] States traversed
The highway passes through the following states:
[edit] Utah
[edit] Legal definition
The Utah section of U.S. 40 is defined at Utah Code Annotated § 72-4-109(8).[1]
[edit] Colorado
U.S. 40 becomes Lincoln Avenue as it runs through historic downtown Steamboat Springs. In the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Area, U.S. Route 40 is Colfax Avenue, the main east-west thoroughfare through the city notorious as the longest commercial street in the country and for its somewhat sleazy reputation (as noted in the Erection Day episode of South Park).
[edit] Kansas
[edit] Missouri
U.S. 40 is multiplexed with Interstate 70 for most of its path across Missouri. It crosses the Mississippi River on the Poplar Street Bridge in St. Louis and is multiplexed with Interstate 64 until its terminus between the Missouri River and Interstate 70. It continues on multiplexed with U.S. Route 61 until it meets Interstate 70. From there it is multiplexed with Interstate 70 save for a short portion between Columbia, Missouri, and Rocheport, Missouri.
[edit] St. Louis area
The stretch of US-40 between the Illinois state line at the Poplar Street Bridge westbound through St. Louis, St. Louis County, and St. Charles County is known as the Daniel Boone Expressway. It is multiplexed with Interstate 64 throughout most of that stretch, whose terminus is currently between the Daniel Boone Bridge over the Missouri River and Interstate 70. This is due to the fact that US-40 has signalized intersections and loses its grade separation 5 miles before its interchange with Interstate 70 in Wentzville. This could change because MoDOT is building US-40 to interstate highway standards in this area now.
MoDOT is also rebuilding I-64/US-40 through St Louis currently. From Kingshighway Boulevard to I-270, this section of US-40 is the oldest section of limited access highway west of the Mississippi River; most of it was built in the 1940s. Due to the low bridges (none are higher than 15 feet), multiple slip roads being too close together (on average there's an exit and entrance every 3/4 of a mile), and the tight curves of those slip roads (at Hampton Avenue for example, the exit speed is 15 MPH!) MoDOT is rebuilding the highway from the roadbed up (The New I-64).
[edit] Illinois
In the state of Illinois, U.S. 40 runs east from the Poplar Street Bridge (with Interstates 55, 64 and 70) over the Mississippi River in East Saint Louis, Illinois, to just west of Terre Haute, Indiana. U.S. 40 parallels I-70 for its entire length in Illinois.
[edit] Indiana
US 40 enters Indiana from the west at Terre Haute and parallels I-70 across the entire state. Between Terre Haute and Indianapolis, the highway is north of I-70. In downtown Indy, the two change alignment with each other, with I-70 now lying north of US 40. This alignment continues all the way to the Indiana - Ohio state line just east of Richmond, Indiana, where I-70 once again crosses US 40 and aligns itself south of the historic highway. Oddly, Indiana is the only state traversed by US 40 to have dual lane construction for the entire length, except for a narrowing to two lanes through Indianapolis. Several old alignments of the original National Road are still visible along the highway. Some of these between Plainfield and Brazil can be driven by following "Old National Road" signs, though they pass through largely overgrown areas and the roadbed itself is quite bumpy.
[edit] Ohio
Route 40 cuts Ohio through the center paralleling I-70 for much of its course. Except as a bypass to construction on the aforementioned interstate and as a local road in Zanesville, Columbus, and Springfield, US-40 appears to serve little purpose. Plaques commemorating the highway’s rich history can be found about every two miles in some sections.
[edit] West Virginia
U.S. 40 runs for about 10 miles (16 km) through West Virginia, passing through Wheeling.
[edit] Pennsylvania
US 40 enters Pennsylvania at West Alexander and travels for 80 miles (129 km) to the Maryland border, east of Addison. It parallels Interstate 70 from West Virginia until it reaches Washington, where it turns southeast toward Uniontown. Southeast of Uniontown, travellers pass the Fort Necessity National Battlefield, and US 40 follows much of the Braddock Road (Braddock expedition) from Uniontown into Maryland.
[edit] Maryland
In the west, US 40 enters Maryland from Pennsylvania near Grantsville. It runs parallel to, and at times concurrently with, Interstate 68 until 68 terminates at I-70 near Hancock. US 40 then parallels, and at times overlaps, I-70 east to Baltimore. US-40 continues through Baltimore, and on the other side of the city it parallels I-95 to the northeast. The stretch of US-40 between Baltimore and where it joins U.S. Route 13 near New Castle, Delaware is known as the Pulaski Highway.
[edit] 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 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.
[edit] Delaware
U.S. 40 runs for about 15 miles (24 km). Coming in from Maryland, it continues along the Pulaski Highway. Then it becomes concurrent with northbound U.S. 13 to within a few miles of Wilmington, then it exits the state concurrently with I-295 across the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
[edit] New Jersey
U.S. 40 runs from the Delaware Memorial Bridge to Atlantic City, where it terminates. The last part of this route runs concurrent with U.S. Route 322 / Black Horse Pike.
[edit] History
[edit] Interstate 70
Interstate 70 closely parallels much of US-40; the two are concurrent through most of Missouri. During the early years of Interstate 70 in the early 1960s, Ohio overlapped 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 overlapping in Ohio.
[edit] 1954
In 1954, Bill Price flew the length of US 40 from east to west in a Convair L-13, carrying a Fairchild K-20 4"x5" 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, however, a set of contact prints of all of the negatives survived. Some of the photographs were at last published in the January, 2000 issue of Air & Space magazine.
[edit] Historic termini
When the original 1926 routes were commissioned, the western termini of both US 40 and US 50 were in Oakland, California. By 1931, US 40 was terminated at the Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco by way of a ferry connection across San Francisco Bay from a 3.5 mile long pier at the foot of University Avenue in Berkeley. [2] US 101 also utilized the Hyde Street Pier before the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge, thereby making the pier a junction as well as a termination point for US 40. With the opening of the Bay Bridge in 1936, US 40 (together with US 50) terminated at a new junction with US 101 at Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco.
In some parts of California, such as Davis, Sacramento, Vacaville, 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.
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. Since Interstate 80 was built over the US-40 alignment from Park City, Utah, to Reno, Nevada, it was decommissioned west of Park City following the completion of I-80.
[edit] Historic names
US-40 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, US-40 is concurrent with U.S. Route 322 and comprises a portion of the "Black Horse Pike".
[edit] 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 to avoid the snows at Donner Pass, elev. 7,085 feet (2160 m) in the Sierra Nevada. It ran through Yuba City and Oroville to Quincy along U.S. 99 and the Oroville-Quincy Highway where it met U.S. 395. Here it crossed the Sierras over the much lower Beckwourth Pass, elev. 5,221 feet (1592 meters).
[edit] Related U.S. Routes
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
- Interstate 40 last retrieved March 7, 2007.
[edit] References
- ^ a b US Highways from US 1 to US 830 Robert V. Droz
- ^ Endpoints of US highways
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Main U.S. Routes | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | |
| 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | |
| 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 |
| 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 87 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | ||
| 101 | 163 | 400 | 412 | 425 | |||||||||||||||
| Lists | U.S. Routes - Bannered - Divided - Replaced | ||||||||||||||||||
| Browse numbered routes | ||||
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<  SR 39 |
UT | SR 41  > |
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<  I-39 |
IL | ILL 40  > |
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<  PA 39 |
PA | PA 41  > |
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<  NJ 39 |
NJ | NJ 41  > |
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Categories: Lincoln Highway | Transportation in St. Louis | U.S. Highway System | U.S. Highways in California | U.S. Highways in Nevada | U.S. Highways in Colorado | U.S. Highways in Delaware | U.S. Highways in Illinois | U.S. Highways in Indiana | U.S. Highways in Kansas | U.S. Highways in Maryland | U.S. Highways in Missouri | U.S. Highways in New Jersey | U.S. Highways in Ohio | U.S. Highways in Pennsylvania | U.S. Highways in Utah | U.S. Highways in West Virginia | Interstate 95 | Interstate 70 | Interstate 80 | Cumberland, Maryland
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