Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

July 5, 2013: Three Bridges Park on the east side of Grand Junction

The name was announced in July, but the path from coast to coast wasn’t made official until Sept. 13, 1913. The New York Times article about the announcement is reprinted here.

At the time, the Lincoln Highway entered Tama from the east on what is now 9th Street; the 5th Street extension, with the famous bridge, would not open for another few years. The official online Lincoln Highway Association map now reflects this.

This is a timed post.

July 12, 2013: This loop is really a spur. It runs from the state line to the corner of 6th and Erie in Missouri Valley.

When US 30 was paved west of Boone in 1931, it completed the Lincoln Highway in Iowa. But at the end of the year, a significant change to the national route took place — AASHO, the governing body in charge of the US route system, moved US 30 out of Council Bluffs and Omaha and routed it instead through Blair, Nebraska, on a bridge that had opened 2½ years earlier. This created a direct connection between Missouri Valley and Fremont.

Although the Lincoln Highway Association had been officially defunct for years, the markers across the country still held great importance. They were removed from the old route and placed on “new 30”.

The connection into Iowa would not be paved until 1937. Even then, US 30A would remain signed for about another 30 years on the old route.

This is a timed post.