"Between Metuchen and Highland Park, New Jersey. Said to be the heaviest traveled road in the world." 1923
I have a special interest in the Lincoln Highway, as it was the main street in my hometown, which was Highland Park, NJ. Better known as Raritan Avenue, it was also known as Route 27, and to a lesser degree as the Lincoln Highway. The image above is a stretch of the Lincoln Highway which ran between Highland Park and Metuchen. Even though that image was taken 22 years before I was born, I think I recognize that stretch of road seen here. There is now a restaurant there on the right named "The Pines," which is where I believe that photo was taken, but probably before the restaurant was built.
My memories as a child growing up was that it ran south through New Brunswick (Albany Street and French Street), which was just across the Raritan River from Highland Park, past Kingston, on to Princeton, and then on to Trenton and beyond. Heading north, past Metuchen; you would take it through Edison, Iselin, Rahway, Elizabeth, Newark and on to New York City where it began.
Metuchen was always the big Thanksgiving Day football rival of Highland Park High School, my alma mater. My parents are buried in a cemetery which is on Rt. 27/Lincoln Highway between New Brunswick and Princeton. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've traveled that stretch of the Lincoln Highway between Princeton, New Brunswick, Highland Park, Metuchen, and Newark.
This image is of the Albany Street bridge, which crosses the Raritan River. It connects Highland Park and New Brunswick, and the view here is looking northeast towards Highland Park. The bridge is Route 27—again, the Lincoln Highway, was built in 1887. I grew up less than a half mile beyond the hill in the background. The bridge in the distance to the left is the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge, now Amtrak. If you ever take train to New York, from points south, you cross that bridge. That tiny narrow strip of land on the far left of this image is the Raritan Canal towpath. Up until 1932 they used to tow barges filled with coal down the Raritan Canal with mules on the towpath. Rutgers University, which is in New Brunswick, uses the river for their crew team. This image is from 1918.
Anyone else live near some famous and/or important historical road?
Right now we live within .75 mile of The National Road, aka MD Rt. 144, which on and off becomes US 40, and runs parallel to I-70. This was the road that lead west from Baltimore to St. Louis. The 600-mile road was authorized by Congress in 1806, and was the first highway built entirely with federal funds. There are granite roadmarkers that still dot the road. In fact there's one less than a mile from our house that has "B 14 M" (Baltimore 14 miles) carved into it.
Metuchen was always the big Thanksgiving Day football rival of Highland Park High School, my alma mater. My parents are buried in a cemetery which is on Rt. 27/Lincoln Highway between New Brunswick and Princeton. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've traveled that stretch of the Lincoln Highway between Princeton, New Brunswick, Highland Park, Metuchen, and Newark.
This image is of the Albany Street bridge, which crosses the Raritan River. It connects Highland Park and New Brunswick, and the view here is looking northeast towards Highland Park. The bridge is Route 27—again, the Lincoln Highway, was built in 1887. I grew up less than a half mile beyond the hill in the background. The bridge in the distance to the left is the Pennsylvania Railroad bridge, now Amtrak. If you ever take train to New York, from points south, you cross that bridge. That tiny narrow strip of land on the far left of this image is the Raritan Canal towpath. Up until 1932 they used to tow barges filled with coal down the Raritan Canal with mules on the towpath. Rutgers University, which is in New Brunswick, uses the river for their crew team. This image is from 1918.
Anyone else live near some famous and/or important historical road?
Right now we live within .75 mile of The National Road, aka MD Rt. 144, which on and off becomes US 40, and runs parallel to I-70. This was the road that lead west from Baltimore to St. Louis. The 600-mile road was authorized by Congress in 1806, and was the first highway built entirely with federal funds. There are granite roadmarkers that still dot the road. In fact there's one less than a mile from our house that has "B 14 M" (Baltimore 14 miles) carved into it.
css1 says:
07:20 AM, 11/24/07
I live about 2 miles north of Lincoln Hwy in Colonia, NJ. I travel on it every day. Your first photo looks like a stetch of Lincoln Hwy. does today - traveling south the Colonia Country club is on your right and the NE corridor for Amtrak is on your left..
Thanks, This was great reading.
rsholland says:
08:27 AM, 11/24/07
Ah, another Middlesex County resident—and you're welcome. :)
The last time I was up there was 2 years ago, unfortunately to attend a high school classmate's funeral. I still keep in touch with some of my high school buddies. In fact I spoke to one last week about doing our 45th high school reunion! Yikes, I'm getting old!
rick8365 says:
04:00 PM, 11/24/07
Nice post.
My sister rowed and then coached for Rutgers under those bridges on the Raritan.
BTW - Middlesex is good........Monmouth County is better!! ;-)
rsholland says:
05:00 PM, 11/24/07
I just did a search on that site for "New Jersey" and found more images. Apparently "The Pines," as I remember it, was there , and was also a hotel back then. There's an image of it there.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/image-idx?q1=New+Jersey&rgn1=ic_all&op2=And&q2=&rgn2=ic_all&type=boolean&c=linchigh&med=1&view=thumbnail
I also did a search for "Highland Park," "New Brunswick" and "Rahway" and came up with a bunch of other images. This is a fun site. If you live anywhere near the Lincoln Highway—across the country—maybe there are some images that you can relate to.
estreka says:
01:02 PM, 11/25/07
Texas is full of historic trails and highways.
Nacogdoches (nac-ah-doe-chess), where I grew up, is the oldest town in Texas (founded by a Caddoan indian of the same name). Stephen F. Austin, who brought American frontiersmen to Texas, used Nacogdoches as his forward hub en route to his various colonies. Naturally, many of those original trails still exist in the form of roads and highways. There are even older trails used by the Spanish before the colonization of Texas, like the Old Spanish Trail (from Orange, TX to San Diego, CA) and La Bahía (Beaumont, TX to Goliad, TX).
Montana, where I live now, has trails believed to be the originals taken by Lewis and Clark. In fact, each year, Great Falls sponsors an event called The Icebreaker where citizens participate in a marathon down various historic streets throughout town.
steve_ says:
06:31 PM, 11/25/07
I drive over portions of the Oregon Trail all the time here in Boise. Out in the desert, you can still find wagon ruts from the trails. Last week we visited friends in northern New Mexico and crossed over the Old Spanish Trail near Green River Utah and also followed the North Branch variant from Great Sand Dunes down to Taos.
In my younger days, I lived near the midpoint of the Natchez Trace (close to where the new Toyota factory in N. Mississippi is being built) in the same county where the first concrete slab road in MS was built back in 1914 - supposedly the first paved road south of the Mason-Dixie line.
While visiting my mother-in-law a decade ago, we discovered that we both grew up along US Highway 45, which runs from Mobile to the heart of Yooper country in Ontonagon (you should appreciate that Bob with your connections up there!).
rsholland says:
06:50 PM, 11/25/07
Yes, I've heard Ontonagon mentioned a number of times by my Yooper relatives.
ateixeira says:
01:20 PM, 11/26/07
I didn't realize that so much of it was in MD.
The route seems to criss-cross the Mason-Dixon line, too, which I find interesting.
skierx420 says:
02:23 PM, 11/26/07
I am looking at the Lincoln Highway as you read this. My dealership is right on the original section in my town. We recently did a PT Cruise across Iowa on the original Lincoln Highway where it is still in tact. Tama Iowa has a very unique bridge.
rsholland says:
03:18 PM, 11/26/07
Did anyone read this link, that is a sub-link that was part of my original posting? It's all about how this road came into being (funding, support, politics, etc.), as well as how "numbered" roads eventually replaced "named" roads. Really interesting stuff.
http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/%7Ejlin/lincoln/history/part1.html
skierx420 says:
04:09 PM, 11/26/07
I just read all of that. It goes right along with all of the information in our museum here in town. My dealership got started because of the Lincoln Hwy. The original owner (the owners dad) sold White Rose Gasoline. In Colo Iowa there is an intersection of the Lincoln and Jefferson Highways. The campground and bus depot have been restored as has the resturant. I know most of the original route (that is still left) through most of Iowa if it would interest you I can send you some of the information. Edmunds should do a Lincoln Highway cruise in a couple of Long Term Vehicles for a test. That would be pretty cool.
brianbutko says:
10:42 AM, 11/27/07
This Lincoln Highway images at the UM archives is an amazing collection and we're doubly lucky that they digitized them so professionally. They really capture a period before roadside photography was common. I used the photos in both of my Lincoln Highway books and regularly in my blog http://www.lincolnhighwaynews.com
I'm also working with UM on a book that will focus on these images and the many other wonderful things in their archives.
Brian Butko
http://www.brianbutko.com
mobilene says:
07:03 AM, 12/ 3/07
I grew up in an LH town, South Bend, Indiana.
A couple good friends of mine from college grew up in Metuchen and Edison. I've been out there a couple times to visit, but before I became interested in the old roads, and so I did not know until now that these, too, are LH towns.
I live in the National Road town of Indianapolis and I've enjoyed exploring the western end of it. US 40 follows the Road except when it became necessary to build a new bridge; frequently, the old short road segment and its bridge were left for local access.
In Illinois, the Road gets even more interesting as there are many miles of abandoned brick and cement roadway between the IN/IL line and about Effingham, IL. Read about it here: http://jimgrey.net/Roads/NationalRoadIllinois/
I also live about .5 mile from the Michigan Road, the first state-funded road in Indiana. It was built in the 1830s, stretching from the Ohio River to Lake Michigan. Today, it is US 421, State Road 29, State Road 25, US 20, and other roads that have been decommissioned as state and US highways.