Take a Road Trip On America’s Oldest Transcontinental Highway

Not Route 66 but the Lincoln Highway

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When it comes to famous historic road trips, Route 66 is the king. Route 66 has captured the American imagination for generations and has been the subject of endless fascination and media attention. However, there is another highway that is just as historic that treads a similar path. The Lincoln Highway was the first transcontinental highway in the United States to be built with automobiles exclusively in mind. You can still follow the route today if you are willing to make the trip.

The Lincoln Highway runs from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. The route snakes over 3,000 miles, traversing 14 states, 128 counties, and over 700 cities and towns.

The highway was originally dedicated in 1913 at the dawn of the automobile age. The initial official length was 3,389 miles. Over the years, the route was tweaked, changed, and rerouted numerous times. With improvements, the road was shortened to 3,142 miles by 1924. If you count all of the routes that were at one point included in the Lincoln Highway System the total balloons to 5,872 miles. Not too shabby for one of the first major highway systems in America.