Lincoln Highway Illinois

The Main Street Across America

A guide to the "Coast to Coast Rock Highway" across Illinois celebrating the diversity of the state's people and places along the way.

View of the future of Lincoln Highway route near Creston, Illinois, 1915.  University of Michigan Lincoln Highway Digital Image Collection, lhc1243.

View of the future of Lincoln Highway route near Creston, Illinois, 1915.
University of Michigan Lincoln Highway Digital Image Collection, lhc1243.

Today, when hard-surfaced highways are a commonplace  and a man may pick and choose among routes to almost any  destination...

Lincoln Highway Illinois - Follow the Route

 


INTRODUCTION

Established in 1912 by early automotive entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, the Lincoln Highway is regarded as the country’s first transcontinental route and is affectionately known as the “Father Road.” Inspired by the Good Roads Movement and the National Old Trails Road, the Lincoln Highway was also the first route constructed specifically for automobile use, catalyzed by the need for all-weather, hard-surfaced, durable roads and the idea that the route would showcase what roads could be.

Before the Lincoln Highway, many of the nation’s overland routes were a disjointed web of dangerous and impassable dirt and gravel roads.

Using and improving existing roads, Fisher's idea became a reality in just three years, as the Lincoln Highway crossed 3,400 miles from New York to San Francisco when it was completed in 1915. The highway was dedicated to the memory of one of Fisher’s heroes, President Abraham Lincoln, and now connected communities from coast-to-coast through the nation's heartland.

View of the future of Lincoln Highway route near Creston, Illinois, 1915.  University of Michigan Lincoln Highway Digital Image Collection, lhc1243.

Neglected Road outside of Frankfort, Illinois, early 1900s
University of Michigan Lincoln Highway Digital Image Collection, lhc1243.


Travel the Lincoln Highway

Want to travel the original Lincoln Highway route in Illinois? Use the route map below published by the National Scenic Byway Foundation to travel the original 1915 alignment for the highway through Illinois.

Enlarge Map

In short, the Lincoln highway is practically the vertebrae of a great national system of good roads...