By now you’re well aware that U.S. Route 6 is the Grand Army of the Republic Highway. But did you know it has another historical designation and is named for a famous president?
You can find out all about it in this article I wrote for the July 2009 issue of the Black Swamp Trader & Firelands Gazette. It appears here courtesy of that publication.
You can find out all about it in this article I wrote for the July 2009 issue of the Black Swamp Trader & Firelands Gazette. It appears here courtesy of that publication.
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U.S. 6: A Historical Highway by Any Name
By Dan Brady
Many famous American highways have their fans and
enthusiasts. There are associations, clubs and websites devoted to the Lincoln
Highway, the National Road and the much-celebrated U.S. 66. But here in
northern Ohio, we have an often-overlooked transcontinental U.S. highway that
enjoys not one but two historical designations. We know the road as U.S. 6, but
it also goes by two other names: the Roosevelt Highway and the Grand Army of
the Republic Highway. Let’s look back at how U.S. 6 started out on the road to
fame.
In the early days of motoring, various private trail
associations developed the nation’s first interstate highways by erecting signs
to promote their sponsored routes, such as the Dixie Highway and the National
Old Trails Road. Eventually, there were hundreds of these named trails and,
with many of the routes overlapping, it began to get confusing for the
motorists.
Finally, in 1925 the federal government devised a
standardized numbering system that would replace the named roads. Major
east-west routes would be assigned numbers ending in zero, from U.S. 10 in the
north to U.S. 90 in the south. North-south routes would be numbered odd from
east to west, and minor east-west roads would be numbered even from north to
south.
With this system in mind, it’s obvious that U.S. 6 was not
planned as a major east-west road. It was conceived originally as a short route
between Providence, Massachusetts and Brewster, New York. But as roads were
improved, highway officials began to extend U.S. 6 on the map until by 1927 it
stretched across Pennsylvania.
Vintage Brochure (Dan Brady Collection) |
By 1931, U.S. 6 was extended to Denver, Colorado. In January
1937, with the extension of the highway from Denver to Los Angeles, U.S. 6
became a transcontinental route and the longest U.S. highway at that time. The
coast-to-coast Roosevelt Highway was consequently promoted as “the scenic way
from the Atlantic to the Pacific” in brochures that included attractions such
as Yosemite National Park and Ohio’s own Cedar Point.
Even before U.S. 6 had achieved its status as a
coast-to-coast highway, it had attracted the attention of two Civil War
organizations, the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), comprised of veterans of
the Union forces, and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW). The
SUVCW had hoped to name a memorial highway to honor the fallen Union soldiers,
and U.S. 6 was an appealing choice as it extended across the country.
And so, in 1934 Major William L. Anderson of the U.S. Army
proposed designating U.S. 6 as the Grand Army of the Republic Highway. Each of
the fourteen U.S. 6 states was asked to act on the proposal, and over time all
of the states passed legislation to officially adopt the name. Uniquely shaped
highway signs with the star-shaped GAR insignia were erected in all of the
states.
On May 3, 1953, a formal dedication of the Grand Army of the
Republic Highway took place in Long Beach, California with service
organizations including the SUVCW in attendance. A monument was placed in front
of the Municipal Auditorium “in memory of the heroic services and unselfish
devotion of the Union Soldiers, sailors and marines who laid down their lives
on the altar of sacrifice during the Civil War.”
Today, the Grand Army of the Republic Highway designation appears
to be making a comeback, with old and new signs found in all fourteen states.
In Ohio, Sheffield Lake has one sign in the original design and Andover has two
signs at the village square identifying the route.
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