The Lincoln Highway, officially dedicated on 31 October 1913, was the first automotive transcontinental highway in the United States. This highway has its eastern terminus at Times Square in New York City and its western terminus at Lincoln Park in San Francisco.

The original route of this highway traversed 13 states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. The first officially recorded length of the Lincoln Highway in 1913 was 3389 miles.

In 1915, the so called Colorado Loop was removed and by 1924, the Lincoln Highway had been shortened to 3,142 miles and during 1928-1930, a realignment routed the Lincoln Highway through the northern tip of West Virginia. This, changed the state count to 14 which included more than 700 cities, towns, and villages through which the highway passed.

The Lincoln Highway, leaving New York, uses several roads and US routes to arrive at Philadelphia PA where it connects with US 30 across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. However, there were several alignments between Aurora, IL to Sterling, IL.

From Sterling, IL, the Lincoln Highway continued westward on US 30 across western Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming to Grand Junction where it follows former US 30S and US 530 (now IH 80) At some locations, the Lincoln Highway follows IH 80B or frontage road.

The Lincoln Highway entered Utah on now modern Interstate 80 to Echo Junction where it joined I-84 and followed the Weber River to Ogden. In Ogden, it turned south to Salt Lake City (SLC). After passing SLC, it followed SR 171, 138, 196, next through the Dugway proving ground, then south of Black Rock Hills and joining the old Pony Express route. The highway then goes past Fish Springs NWR, Callao, UT, next Ibapah, UT and then crosses into Nevada.

In Nevada, the original 1913 highway entered on county roads west of Ibapah, Utah near the Pony Express stop of Eightmile, Nevada, and then past the ghost towns of Tippett and Schellbourne. At what is now U.S. Route 93, the Lincoln Highway turned south, passing through McGill to Ely. Then, the highway splits and followed both US 50 and US 50A to the California state border.

In California, the highway continues on both US 50 and US 50A to where they join in Sacramento, then south (mostly on) SH 99 to Stockton, then on what is now IH 5, along county roads paralleling IH 580 to Oakland and across San Francisco Bay on the Oakland-San Francisco Ferry.

In 1912, there were practically no automotive roads in the United States, at least not outside of the few miles of improved road within some cities and towns. During this time, a road was improved if it was graded. There were a few which had a top surface of brick or gravel; for asphalt and concrete was not in used yet.

Most of the two and a half million miles of existing roads were dirt, they were bumpy and dusty in dry weather, and they were impassible in wet weather. The worse part of the national road map is that all of the available roads did not go anywhere, but were just aimlessly spread out from the population areas. For someone to travel from one city to another one, it was much easier to take the train.

The Lincoln Highway was one of the earliest transcontinental highways for automobiles in the United States and was widely publicized. The route of the Lincoln Highway was determined not only by civil engineering considerations but even sometimes by politics, which was the case with the loop into Colorado. When the route was announced, it did not pass through either Colorado or Kansas. However, the governors of those states after having heavily supported the route and after finding their states bypassed sent forceful appeals. It was then announced that there would be a dogleg from Big Springs, Nebraska southwest to Denver and then back up to the main highway at Cheyenne, Wyoming. However, by 1915, the dogleg was abandoned, which effectively left Colorado off of the Lincoln Highway.

In many regions, there was general consensus among those who had power or interest in influencing the route, but in a few regions the choice of route was a contentious topic during the 1920s. However, by the mid 1920s, interest in the Lincoln Highway dropped considerably and the governing agency, the Lincoln Highway Association ceased activity at the end of 1927. Their last major effort was to mark the highway not as a route but as a memorial to Abraham Lincoln. This was done with the help of thousand of Boy Scouts would would install small concrete markers on which was a small bust of Lincoln and the inscription, This Highway dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.

During March of 1925, a new highway association was formed composed of both state and federal highway officials. This association proposed a new numbered highway system and in November of 1925, this now familiar numbered highway system was approved and this association adopted a standard set of road signs and markers. Further, as part of their standards, all markers of all named roads would have to be taken down.

By the 1940s, the Lincoln Highway was quickly fading from memory. A new generation of Americans were born which came to be familiar with on the numbered highway system.