US Highway Birth Date??

[Route20guy]

I am attempting to clarify information about the creation/adoption/implementation of the U.S. Highway System.

In doing research on this process, it seems that our current accepted history simplifies everything. My purpose for this post is creating information, documents and being factual, and I do not want to face a backlash, but rather openly discuss my concept and see what the overall opinion is based on facts. For example, we are creating some images that state "Est 1925 or Since 1925".

The way the histories are written now and many publications all tend to say November 11, 1926 is the official adoption of the US highway system. https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/numbers.cfm
Others will claim November 11, 1926 to be the birthday or anniversary of the US Highway System - such as many Route 66 groups.

I always try to stress that ALL (well most) of the US Highways were created on the same day.  Like 20,30, 66 etc, but that date is November 18, 1925, and I explain my reasoning below.

The process for the creation of the US Highway system was complicated but follows this overall history:*   

1. The Federal Highway Act of 1921 passes allowing federal dollars to improve roadways

2. April 1925- Federal Highway Administration sets forth plans to create a uniform system of federal highways letting States know that plans are underway

3. May and June 1925 Regional Highway Administration offices meet to determine which highways should become Federal US highways. No indication of how they will be classified as given just destination points are announced such as the Boston to Albany Road.

4. August 3-5,1925 after the spring meetings, all regions meet for 3 days in Washington DC to connect the dots for the federal highways. The undertaking is large and a subcommittee is formed to create maps due at a later date. The Federal Highway Shield is adopted and determined roads will be numbered.

5. November 18, 1925 all of the US highway numbers are announced publicly.

  a. It is revealed lowest numbers in the north and east highest in the south and west period in a uniform order.

THIS IS THE DATE THAT I BELIEVE IS THE OFFICIAL CREATION DATE AND BIRTH OF THE US HIGHWAYS AND SPECIFICALLY FOR MY PURPOSE U.S. 20

6a. If no State objected to the designation of a Federal Highway number and placement, that state could begin the renumbering process immediately.

6b. If a state objected, they had one year to submit their objection and to allow for a change to happen with the American Association of State Highway officials.

7. In several newspaper sources it is indicated that some states began numbering and placing shields in the spring or summer of 1926 and some states were completed by the end of the summer of 1926. Meaning in some locations you could travel a highway and see US Highway Shield numbers in August of 1926.

7a.  Even some regional maps and tourism guides indicate that the change or creation of the new highways numbers in the spring and summer of 1926.

8. November 11, 1926 American Association of State Highway officials announces the completion and adopted the finalized alignments. Stating that all roads are completed and will not need to be done again or additional routes numbered or signed.


So here is my argument

On November 18, 1925 ALL of the US highways numbers and alignments are officially and publicly announced -  like US 20 and Route 66.  Would not this indicate that this is the actual creation date or birth date of the US highway system? (yes, there was pending approval of states) The November 11, 1926 date is actually the completion date when the final alignments and maps were approved.

What it comes down to is saying -  "we" knew in 1925 and all through 1926 what and where the US highways like 20, 66 etc were going to be. And to say that November 1926 is the birthday seems wrong to me.   Here are two analogies to say I see both points of view.

Pro- November 18, 1925

1. The Federal Highway Administration uses the word "adoption of the US Highway System".  In terms of a child's adoption, most people will celebrate the date the child was born and not their adoption date. Therefore the US Highway System was born/created on November 18, 1925.

2.  June 29, 1956 is the accepted date of the creation or birthdate of the Eisenhower Interstate System, the day he signed the bill - although no interstates were created (depending on sources) or numbered yet and the interstate shield was not approved until August 14, 1957.

anti - the definition of adoption is:  the act or process of giving official acceptance or approval to something previously created

Pro- November 11, 1926

You are expecting a baby or planning to be married, you plan for that date, but you do not usually accept the date of conception or engagement as your anniversary or birthday.

  Anti- If the baby comes early or you get married early (placing US highway shields on roadways prior to Nov. 11,1926).

In closing too,  the fanfare for the US Highways came in the press from May to November 1925!   In fact the headlines from November 1925 signify a great success.   The November 11, 1926 date actually did not get publicly announced until January 1, 1927.

Thank you for your time!


*I have my documentation at my page:  http://www.historicus20.com/historic-us-route-20.html

[Scott5114]

While it's somewhat unusual to have an exact date for a highway designation or change, in most cases, when a specific date is referenced, it tends to be the date that a government agency approves and enacts the change. The modern-day equivalent is AASHTO meetings–while we know all of the submitted items beforehand, they take effect only when approved by AASHTO, and therefore are only said to have "happened" at that point. State-level equivalent examples include Oklahoma Transportation Commission items or Texas minute orders.

[usends]

I think of the 1925 routes as a preliminary list, open to discussion and revisions.  Several routes on that list ended up being deleted in favor of other routes that were on the final list of 1926.  And some of those states that began signing their US routes early (prior to Nov. 1926) were dismayed to learn that they had signposted numbers that were not in the final plan.

[Alps]

Here's my take. The birthday of the system is November 11, 1926, as stated. That is when the system was adopted. Individual highways may have been "born" earlier if they were signed earlier. You would need to find additional documentation proving that US 20 was signed earlier than 11/1926 in order to establish when that birthday is. The release of the preliminary list, itself, is not a birthday at all. That was the date of "conception".

[US 89]

What it comes down to is saying -  "we" knew in 1925 and all through 1926 what and where the US highways like 20, 66 etc were going to be

I disagree. The 1925 plan had US 20 following the corridor of the modern US 30 west of Pocatello, and didn't include US 66 at all. That was US 60 at the time, which is why Kentucky was so pissed they didn't get an x0.

The 1925 plan wasn't intended to be final; it was sent to the states for any suggestions or changes. That alone suggests to me that 1925 wasn't the real creation date for the US system, just the date the routes were first proposed to the states. So much got changed between the suggestions in 1925 and the final 1926 approval that I would still consider 1926 the creation of the US system.

[Kulerage]

I would think of November 1925 as the conception of the highways, and November 1926 as the actual "births" of the original highways.

Plus there's all the highways created after the system and so on

[Highway63]

I agree with Kulerage; 1925 is the conception, 1926 is the birth. The system was conceived in late 1925, but every Iowa primary source I have shows that signage did not happen until October 1926. The 1925 draft was where US 66 was US 60. Changes were happening up until the final meeting in November 1926, when US 18 was extended across South Dakota.

Iowa Highway Commission Service Bulletin, Oct-Nov-Dec 1925, had this statement on the cover:

Black and white U.S. standard road marker shields, like the one pictured above, will be placed on approximately 3,000 miles of the Iowa primary road system within the next few months. The markers will take the place of the yellow and black Iowa outline symbols with which travelers on the Iowa roads have been guided for the past four years. Changing the numbers of the primary roads selected as part of the federal system to conform to the U.S. system of numbering will require many changes in the numbering of other portions of the Primary Road System.

Also:

The executive committee of the [AASHO], at a recent meeting in Chicago, passed a resolution urging that each state use every effort to have its markers in place by July 1.

Knowledge something was coming was public during 1926 (Waterloo Evening Courier, 2/9/26) but signage didn't exist (Osceola Sentinel, 2/11/26, "Numbers up by July First").

Signage was complete in Iowa in mid-October. "New road markers now being erected," Le Mars Globe-Post, 10/11/26; "New Highway Markers Being Installed," Postville Herald, 10/24/26 - "...either Iowa or Minnesota is in error in the marking of No. 53"; "New road signs up Monday," Belle Plaine Union, 10/7/26.