U.S. Highway 40
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
United States 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.
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Termini
As of 2004, the highway's eastern terminus is in Atlantic City, New Jersey, near the Atlantic Ocean (and close to the end of U.S. Highway 30). Its western/ terminus is north of Park City, Utah at an intersection with Interstate 80.
Historic termini
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 US 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.
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.
History
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.
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.
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]
States traversed
The highway passes through the following states:
- New Jersey
- Delaware (about 15 miles, 24 km, through Wilmington)
- Maryland
- Pennsylvania
- West Virginia (about 10 miles, 16 km, through Wheeling)
- Ohio
- Indiana
- Illinois
- Missouri
- Kansas
- Colorado
- Utah
formerly:
Related US routes
See also
Sources and external links
- Endpoints of US highways (used with permission)
- Route 40 Tribute Site
| Primary U.S. Highways |  |
||||||||
| 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. Highways - Bannered U.S. Highways |
|||||||||
| New Jersey State Routes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: 38 (39, 40) |
US 40 | Succeeded by: 41 |
