{"id":135,"date":"2010-02-22T23:21:09","date_gmt":"2010-02-23T04:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pahighways.com\/blog\/?p=135"},"modified":"2023-06-29T20:15:19","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T00:15:19","slug":"pennsylvania-highways-v0-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pahighways.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/22\/pennsylvania-highways-v0-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Highways v0.1"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Let me tell you kids about the good ol’ days, as some folks like to call them. Human knowledge would be put into “books,” which are like websites. These “books” were similar to a Kindle, iPad, or Slate, but consisted of “paper” rather than microchips. They also did not need recharging every other day, nor a Wi-Fi or cellular connection. Even back in these “analog” days, there was a Pennsylvania Highways presence.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In this simpler time, a “superhighway” consisted of asphalt and concrete rather than fiber optics and servers. These roads would connect the farthest reaches of the country with the other farthest reaches.\u00a0 In the early days of the highway system, there were no signs nor maps. Forget about GPS devices! They wouldn’t be available at the local Sears, Roebuck and Company for about another eight decades.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Associations formed around the United States to solve the problems that early travelers faced on unmarked and unnumbered trails. In this early period of road travel, names marked highways rather than numbers. Two of the more notable ones were the Lincoln Highway and the Yellowstone Trail.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

States saw what these groups were doing and decided to take matters into their own hands. They began marking those routes by numbers rather than names.\u00a0 Pennsylvania was one of the first to number main highways in 1925. It was also the first to assign a single designation to cross-state routes.\u00a0 To spread the world to the traveling public about these routes and help tourism across the Commonwealth, PennDOT’s predecessor the Department of Highways published the booklet Pennsylvania Highways: Facts Motorists Should Know<\/i> in 1927.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Pennsylvania Highways circa 1927<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I did not know about this booklet when I named the website<\/a>, which was originally entitled Pennsylvania Highways and Byways<\/i>.\u00a0 My uncle discovered this rare gem on eBay<\/a>. He gave it to me as a birthday gift, roughly 80 years after it was printed. The North-South Parkway<\/a>, or the “New 48” as it was referred to, would have cut through where he lives had it been built.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The booklet begins with a message about being the keystone of the highway system from Governor John S. Fisher and one about the highway program from Secretary of Highways, James Lyall Stuart.\u00a0 Further articles talked about the Pennsylvania Highway Patrol (State Police) and how motorists benefit from maintenance from the Department of Highways Chief Engineer. There is even one on the highways of Pennsylvania from the perspective of a woman.\u00a0 One article that stood out was from the President of the Pennsylvania Motor [AAA] Federation Richard C. Haldeman, who proclaimed in the title, “Pennsylvania Has the Best Highway System in America.”<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Much like the modern version, the booklet contains descriptions of routes under the State’s jurisdiction, as well as pictures from various points along them. The following is a list of the state routes which existed at the time of publication:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n