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U.S. Route 40

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Template:Cleanupus Template:Infobox U.S. Route

Scenic overlook about 43 miles east of Heber City, Utah

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.

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.[1]

Historic termini

Variations of this sign are posted along old alignments in California.

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, California. [1] 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, 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.

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. Since Interstate 80 was built over the US-40 alignment from Park City, Utah to Reno, Nevada, it was decomissioned west of Park City following the completion of I-80.

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.

History

Historic names

A National Road mile marker in central Ohio

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". It was also known as the "Lincoln Highway".

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).

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 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. [2]

A view of the Continental Divide from northwest of Winter Park, Colorado. US-40 crosses the Divide at Berthoud Pass.

Miscellanea

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 1960s, 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.

A section in Baltimore is known as Pulaski Highway.

States traversed

US-40 crossing the Great Plains in Kansas

The highway passes through the following states:

formerly:

Major cities

The Forty Motel in Columbus

The highway passes through the following major cities:

Formerly:


See also

References

  1. ^ Endpoints of US highways
Browse numbered routes
← Error: Invalid type: ILLIL→ Error: Invalid type: ILL
← PA 39PA→ PA 41
 NJ 
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