Definition: Named Highways. A highway by name only, an Auto Trail that transverses the United States which had been created by an organization in order to promote travel and tourism along their particular roadpath route, and almost never does the organization that created the Named Highway ever do any construction or maintenance upon that roadpath.

Definition: Auto Trails. These Auto Trails, most commonly refer to marked highway routes in the United States (and some in Canada) which were an historical highway system created in the early days (early 1900s) of the automobile travel. Auto Trails were identified by colored bands painted on on utility poles along side the roadpath. Most Auto Trails were replaced in the mid to late 1920 by the US Numbered Highway System.

In some cases, these Named Highways were proposed by the promoting organization, who solicited and received monetary subscriptions from many local establishments along the route. These subscriptions almost always only lined the pockets of of the promoters because most often, the route was never established. In other instances, the proposed route was eventually created, some becoming well traveled, a few even being used when the federal government began creating the national numbered highway system.

The Named Highways, also known as Named Trails were a product of the pioneer days of auto travel before the government took any interest in interstate roads. Still, during these early days of motor cars, most long distance travel, even by the most avid advocate of auto travel, took place in the comfort of the National railroads. Although named trails can be traced to the 1890s, the movement began in earnest during the early 1910s, with the National Old Trails Road, Dixie Overland Highway, Jackson Highway, Lee Highway, Lincoln Highway, Old Spanish Trail, Pikes Peak Highway, Victory Highway, Yellowstone Trail and many, many others.

Often, when a Named Highway was created, those who did so formed an association, selected the route over existing roads (even those that were unimproved), gave the route a colorful name often to memorialize some event and then began to promote the improvement and use of the roadpath by publishing trail guides, newsletters and even holding annual conventions. Then the association would route the traffic through only the dues paying townships and only in front of the dues paying businesses.

As early as 1919, the US Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) had serious misgivings about the Named Highway movement. One memorandum directed to the BPR stated about the associations who would promoted their own Named Highway, "The associations conduct a propaganda, quite usually referring to their projects as national roads of importance... associating their routes officially with Government undertakings in such a way as to lead citizens to believe that the roads ...were actually proposed by the Federal Government ...constructed by the Federal Government... handled by the Federal Government, and etc."

By 1920, with trail associations having over 250 different Named Highway routes, highway officials realized that Named Highways, even while their numbers began to swell, had little or no usefulness.

Questions began to be raised about the intentions of the promoters, whether they really had public interest in mind or were just lining their own pocket with profits.

In 1925, the Joint Board of Interstate Highway worked to form a national numbering system so as to define and organize all the many roads. After several meetings, and feedback from the states, the US Highway System was approved on 11 November 1926 and then routes were named, signs were created and installed.

U.S. Routes in the contiguous United States follow a grid pattern, in which odd-numbered routes run generally north to south and even-numbered routes run generally east to west, though three-digit spur routes can be either.

Usually, one-digit and two-digit routes are major routes, and three-digit routes are numbered as shorter spur routes from a main route. Odd numbers generally increase from east to west; U.S. Route 1 (US 1) follows the Atlantic Coast and US 101 follows the Pacific Coast. (US 101 is one of the many exceptions to the standard numbering grid. This highway must be thought of as having its first digit as 10, and that it is a main route on its own and not a spur leading off of US Route 1.)

Even numbers tend to increase from north to south; US 2 closely follows the Canadian border, and US 98 hugs the Gulf Coast. The longest routes connecting major cities are generally two-digit that are numbered to end in a 1 or a 0, such as east-west US 80 and north-south US 81.

However, extensions and truncations have made this distinction largely meaningless. These guidelines are very rough, and exceptions to all of the basic numbering rules exist.

This federal numbered highway system continued until 1956 when then President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation for the new Interstate Highway system.

The Bankhead Highway was a United States cross-country automobile highway connecting Washington, D.C., and San Diego, California. The Bankhead Highway′s beginnings can be traced back to 1916 when the Bankhead Highway Association was organized to promote the highway′s development.

This highway was one of the first and often forgotten transcontinental Auto Trails which was promoted to improve southern infrastructure.

It was part of the National Auto Trail system. The road was named for Alabama politician John H. Bankhead, a leader in the early national road-building movement. In later years, several stretches of U.S. Route 78 in northwest Alabama were renamed for Bankhead's son, former U.S. representative and speaker of the House William B. Bankhead.

Much of the original road was eventually replaced by US 80 and in some locations, IH 20 and IH 30, but many old, often abandoned alignment still exist.

Western Route: to Chicago, Illinois

Eastern Route: to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

The Dixie Highway was a United States Auto Trail first planned in 1914 to connect the Midwest with the South. It was part of a system and was expanded from an earlier Miami to Montreal highway. The final system is better understood as a network of connected paved roads, rather than one single highway. It was constructed and expanded from 1915 to 1929.

The Dixie Highway was inspired by the example of the slightly earlier Lincoln Highway, the first road across the United States. The prime booster of both projects was promoter and businessman Carl G. Fisher. It was overseen by the Dixie Highway Association and funded by a group of individuals, businesses, local governments, and states. In the early years, the U.S. federal government played little role, but from the early 1920s on it provided increasing funding until 1927. That year the Dixie Highway Association was disbanded and the highway was taken over by the federal government as part of the U.S. Route system, with some portions becoming state roads.

Eventually, the Dixie highway was Expanded to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In 1927, the Dixie Highway Association was disbanded and the highway was taken over by the federal government as part of the US Route system, with some portions becoming state roads.

The states where the route traversed included: Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Florida

The Dixie Overland Highland (DOH), conceived in 1914 by the Automobile Club of Savannah, was a pioneering, all-weather Auto Trail spanning from Savannah, Georgia, to San Diego, California. Primarily known as a forerunner to U.S. Route 80, it facilitated early 20th-century coast-to-coast travel and boosted tourism.

The Dixie Overland Highway was an Auto Trail across the southern United States. It was conceived in July 1914 by the Automobile Club of Savannah, which envisioned a practical all-year driving route from Georgia to California, developed as a cross-country route, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean making history as the first ever ocean to ocean highway route.

An association was formed, officers were elected, and a plan of operation agreed voted upon. Construction was promoted and the use of the highway would be through the states of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. After investigating and researching where the most efficient points of interest would be in order to determine the location of the highway, a practical route was found, connecting the cities of Savannah, Columbus, Montgomery, Selma, Meridian, Jackson, Vicksburg, Shreveport, Dallas, Fort Worth, Alamogordo, El Paso, Lordsburg, Douglas, Phoenix, Yuma, San Diego, and Los Angeles, which were almost guaranteed to never be snowbound, and provide all-year road access.

In 1925, the Federal Joint Board on Interstate Highways created U.S. Route 80, largely following the route of the Dixie Overland Highway.

Between 1964 and 1991, US 80 was slowly removed in increments between Dallas and San Diego. US 80 was seen as obsolete to the western states, which favored the new Interstate highways in its place. As such, US 80 is no longer an active U.S. Highway in California, Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas. Today, I-8, I-10 and I-20 have largely replaced US 80 between Dallas and San Diego.

Notable surviving sections of old US 80 include the entirety of both New Mexico State Road 80 and Arizona State Route 80, and all of County Route S80 in Imperial County, California. Other former sections of US 80, particularly in California and parts of Arizona, carry the title Old Highway 80 or similar variations of that name. Multiple efforts are working to designate whole sections of US 80 as a historic route. California became the first state to recognize Historic U.S. Route 80 in 2007. As of 2018, the states of California, Arizona and Louisiana recognize former and current sections of US 80 as a historic route

LA SH 01, US 69, US 66, US 71, US 65, US 10, US 75, CAN 75, and others

The Lee Highway was a United States Auto Trail through the American South and Southwest. When opened in 1923, it connected Washington, D.C., and San Diego, California.

Created to be a southern complement to the Lincoln Highway, the Lee Highway was named for the Confederate general Robert E. Lee. The route was laid out by the Lee Highway Association, a private group founded in 1919 to create the route and encourage the improvement of roadways between Washington and San Diego. The later extensions used existing developed highways which added distinctions to New York and San Francisco.

By 1926, the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) adopted the U.S. numbered highway system to replace named trails. Parts of Lee Highway were designated with route numbers (east to west): U.S. 211, U.S. 11, U.S. 72, U.S. 70, U.S. 366, and U.S. 80, while other parts retained vestiges of its earlier name and history.

The Meridian Highway was a United States Auto Trail in the early twentieth century. It roughly followed the path of present-day U.S. Route 81 from Pembina, North Dakota to Fort Worth, Texas, and Interstate 35 from Fort Worth to Laredo, Texas.

U90S

Supplanted by US 40: 1926

US 40