Historically significant, extant highways

[berberry]

By "historically significant", I mean a highway that pioneered some sort of style or construction method.  Hooker Cut in Missouri is my example.  I had never heard of it until I saw it mentioned on History Channel.  Turns out, this was one of America's first rural segments of divided, four-lane highway.  Construction on this segment was completed in 1943.  The method used to cut through the rock was brand new at the time and made possible a quick bypass of a long and dangerous former alignment of US 66.  The video's use of the word "abandoned" is intended to mean "little used by cross-country traffic", since the road is still open.

[NE2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_Columbia_River_Highway
Thread over.

[Alps]

The Pulaski Skyway pioneered using the country's entire supply of iron in a single project.

[Pete from Boston]

Wasn't US 1 and NJ 35 in Avenel the first cloverleaf? Provides a unique opportunity to see America's first obliteration of the first cloverleaf.

[sdmichael]

US 99 had segments of rural expressway in 1939 from Grapevine to near Greenfield, beating that stretch of US 66. A significant portion of that expressway exists today as Union Avenue.

[Alps]

Wasn't US 1 and NJ 35 in Avenel the first cloverleaf? Provides a unique opportunity to see America's first obliteration of the first cloverleaf.

Can't really say it's extant, though. There are pieces of the Long Island Motor Parkway left, including a road built on the former alignment named Motor Parkway, but it's not the same road that was historically significant in its day.

[roadman65]

The Pennsylvania Turnpike pioneered the modern day freeway.  The first segment opened to traffic October 1940 and was built from Irwin to Middlesex (today's Carlisle).

[getemngo]

It didn't really pioneer much besides "being an auto trail", but there's still original brick portions of the Dixie Highway out there.

[roadfro]

First freeway in the U.S.: Arroyo Seco Parkway (CA 110) in Pasedena, CA

[Brandon]

First freeway in the U.S.: Arroyo Seco Parkway (CA 110) in Pasedena, CA

I thought that honor was either,

A, The Pennsylvania Turnpike (for first all-traffic road in the US free [hence "freeway"] of intersections, or
B, The Davison Freeway (now M-8), first depressed urban freeway (and free of tolls) in the US.

[NE2]

The Arroyo Seco was (probably) the first on the west coast. The West Side Highway (1930) and Pulaski Skyway (1932), among others in the NYC area, predate it (and the PA Turnpike, and the Davison).

[sdmichael]

The Arroyo Seco Parkway fully opened December 30, 1940. Parts were open as early as 1939.

[Pete from Boston]

There's a tiny stretch in Carver, Mass., called Savery Road that parallels a through route and has plaques calling it something like the first divided roadway.  Wikipedia has a date of 1860 for it, for whatever that (or any of it) is worth.

Not really a highway, but if the story is true, it is an ancestor of the divided highway. 

[vdeane]

The Long Island Motor Parkway

[NE2]

The Long Island Motor Parkway

There are pieces of the Long Island Motor Parkway left, including a road built on the former alignment named Motor Parkway, but it's not the same road that was historically significant in its day.

[SidS1045]

Route 128...the first beltway run through suburbs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Route_128

[DandyDan]

Surely one of the old Roman roads has to still be extant.

[spooky]

Route 128...the first beltway run through suburbs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Route_128

America's Technology Highway.

[Alex4897]

Isn't a section of US 13 (Dupont Parkway) somewhere near Wilmington given the honor of first divided highway?

[dgolub]

The Bronx River Parkway was the first limited-access highway in terms of construction start date.  It's still there and functional.

[english si]

Surely one of the old Roman roads has to still be extant.

a great many, though they have typically been resurfaced in the last 100 years, or are underivable tracks (heh, the road surface on most of these roads was the best around for 1500ish years!)

In Southern England, there are pre-human habitation trackways that, while upgraded, are still in use as roads. Stonehenge, for instance, was built near a prehistoric junction junction. Sadly, after 10000 years in use, the junction has been permanently closed).

[roadman]

Route 128...the first beltway run through suburbs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Route_128

America's Technology Highway.

Which was changed to America's Technology Region about six months after the BBS panels were installed, due to loud protests from members of the MA National Guard's Yankee Division.  MA 128 between Braintree and Gloucester was designated the Yankee Division Highway in 1948 by act of the Massachusetts Legislature.

[sdmichael]

Lest we forget the "Castaic-Tejon Ridge Road" or the "Ridge Route" from 1915. It still remains intact with much of the original paving remaining.

[Jardine]

Were any of those 'seed' miles of early pavement ever located on a road that was never further developed?  And is still in existence ??

[Brandon]

Here's one for you, Sauk Trail.  The road dates back to at least the 1670s, and maybe much earlier (prehistoric era) as a game trail between Detroit and Rock Island.  It was reconstructed into the Chicago Road between Detroit and Chicago.  Part of the road is now gone, but many, many stretches remain, including some still called Sauk Trail in Cook and Will Counties.  However part between Detroit and Niles, Michigan, became US-112, later US-12.