Transcontinental Airmail Route

[FLRoads]

My uncle sent me an interesting article this evening about the initial airmail route markings that can still be found across the United States. A Congress approved project starting in the 1920's, 70-foot long concrete arrows were poured along with 50-foot tall beacons (adjacent to each arrow) approximately 10 miles apart across the U.S., gradually stretching from New York to San Francisco. At each location, the arrow was painted yellow for the ability to be seen from the air. This was done in an effort to decrease the travel time of getting mail from the east coast to the west coast since the Pony Express had pretty much disappeared.

Though this method of airmail routing lasted only until the 1940's, and the beacons are long gone, many of these concrete arrows remain in the countrysides and the deserts of the U.S.

There are several articles on this subject, and you can even see one just to the east of Interstate 80 in Lake Point, Utah. If you zoom near the center you can see three rectangles and the arrow pointing northeastward.

I'd be interested to know how many more of these can be seen either from aerials and/or driving to them.

[ZLoth]

Here is a neat piece of almost forgotten history. Concrete arrows were used to help guide pilots for air mail in the 20s. From Messy Nessy Chic and Snopes.