40 Motel, Columbus, Ohio Empire, Colorado Lucy, Atlantic City, New Jersey Wade Ray George R. Stewart Earl's Diner 49er Motel - Sacramento, California Marshall, Illinois Lucy, Atlantic City, New Jersey Empire, Colorado 40 Motel, Columbus, Ohio Why is Route 40 golden? Return to the Route 40 home page. E-mail, guest book and other contact information. Take a virtual tour across the country on Route 40. Historical information about Route 40. Information about books, magazine and newspaper articles, and more! Road songs! Everything else I couldn't categorize! Information about this web site.
Lincoln Highway Sign Topeka, Kansas The Narrows, Cumberland, Maryland Greetings from Reno, Nevada Red Brick Tavern, Lafayette, Ohio Muffler Man Cowboy, Woodstown, New Jersey

Comparing Route 40 with the Lincoln Highway and Route 66

Below is a table comparing the National Road and Route 40 with the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. A large portion of this table came from James Lin who first created the table comparing the Lincoln Highway with Route 66. James deserves the credit for coming up with this great comparison page as well as the data for the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. Thanks, James!

Became official in-
National Road: 1806
Route 40: 1926
Lincoln Highway: 1913
Route 66: 1926
Terminal Cities-
National Road:

Baltimore (then Cumberland), Maryland
Vandalia, Illinois

Route 40:

Atlantic City, New Jersey
San Francisco, California
In the 1970's, the highway's western terminus was Reno, Nevada
Today the highway ends near Park City, Utah

Lincoln Highway:

New York, New York
San Francisco, California

Route 66:

Chicago, Illinois
Santa Monica, California

Original Length-
National Road: 780 miles, 1176 km
Route 40: 3,022 miles, 4556 km
Lincoln Highway: 3,389 miles, 5454 km
Route 66: 2,448 miles, 3618 km
States through which the road passes-
National Road: Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois
Route 40: Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California
Lincoln Highway: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, California
Route 66: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California
Primary Proponents-
National Road: Thomas Jefferson, Henry Clay
Route 40: Federal Highway Administration
Lincoln Highway: Henry Joy
Route 66: Cyrus Avery
Routes Based on-
National Road: Fredericktown Turnpike, Bank Road, Nemacolin's Trail, Washington's Road, Braddock's Road, Zane's Trace
Route 40: Post Roads, Fredericktown Turnpike, Bank Road, Nemacolin's Trail, Washington's Road, Braddock's Road, Zane's Trace, Boone's Lick Road, Santa Fe Trail, Pony Express Route, Oregon Trail, Sublette's Cutoff, California/Overland Trail, National Old Trails Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, Victory Highway, Lincoln Highway
Lincoln Highway: Mormon Trail, Pony Express Route, Oregon Trail, California/Overland Trail, Victory Highway
Route 66: Ozark Trail, National Old Trails Ocean-to-Ocean Highway
Aviators and Astronauts who lived along the road-
National Road: Robert Curbeam, Marsha Ivins and Thomas Jones (Baltimore, MD)
John Glenn (Cambridge, OH)
Donn Eisele and Richard Linnehan (Columbus, OH)
Wilbur & Orville Wright (Dayton, OH)
Anthony England and David Wolf (Indianapolis, IN)
Route 40: Nancy Currie (Wilmington, DE and Troy, OH)
Robert Curbeam, Marsha Ivins and Thomas Jones (Baltimore, MD)
John Glenn (Cambridge, OH)
Donn Eisele and Richard Linnehan (Columbus, OH)
Wilbur & Orville Wright (Dayton, OH)
Anthony England and David Wolf (Indianapolis, IN)
Thomas Akers (St. Louis, MO)
Joe Engle (Dickinson Co., KS)
Gerald Carr (Denver, CO)
Jeffrey Ashby and Scott Parazynski (Evergreen, CO)
Michael Coats and Stephen Robinson (Sacramento, CA)
John Young (San Francisco, CA)
Lincoln Highway: Karol Bobko, Jeffrey Hoffman and Mario Runco (New York, NY)
Andrew Allen, James Bagian, Charles Conrad and Scott Horowitz (Philadelphia, PA)
Jerome Apt (Pittsburgh, PA)
Michael Gernhardt (Mansfield, OH)
Janice Voss (South Bend, IN)
Mark Brown (Valparaiso, IN)
Jerry Ross (Crown Point, IN)
Michael Coats and Stephen Robinson (Sacramento, CA)
John Young (San Francisco, CA)
Route 66: Eugene Cernan and John Grunsfield (Chicago, IL)
Scott Altman (Lincoln, IL)
Thomas Akers (St. Louis, MO)
Janet Kavandi (Springfield, MO)
Gordon Cooper and Shannon Lucid (Oklahoma City, OK)
Rick Husband (Amarillo, TX)
Steven Lindsey (Arcadia, CA)
Michael Clifford (San Bernardino, CA)
Kevin Chilton, Anna Fisher and Ellen Ochoa (Los Angeles, CA)
U.S. Presidents, Vice Presidents and presidential candidates who lived along the road-
National Road:

Spiro Agnew (VP 1969-1973)
James Cox (candidate 1920)
Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
Dan Quayle (VP 1989-1993)
Eugene V. Debbs (candidate 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, 1920)

Route 40:

Spiro Agnew (VP 1969-1973)
James Cox (candidate 1920)
Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
Dan Quayle (VP 1989-1993)
Eugene V. Debbs (candidate 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, 1920)
Harry S Truman (1945-1953; also VP in 1945)
Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961)
Bob Dole (candidate 1976, 1996)

Lincoln Highway:

Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)

Route 66:

Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)
Barry Goldwater (candidate 1964)

Passes through state capitals-
National Road:

Columbus, Ohio
Indianapolis, Indiana

Route 40:

Columbus, Ohio
Indianapolis, Indiana
Topeka, Kansas
Denver, Colorado
Salt Lake City, Utah
Sacramento, California

Lincoln Highway:

Trenton, New Jersey
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Salt Lake City, Utah
Carson City, Nevada
Sacramento, California

Route 66:

Springfield, Illinois
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Passes through former state capitals-
National Road:

Wheeling, West Virginia
Vandalia, Illinois

Route 40:

New Castle, Delaware
Wheeling, West Virginia
Vandalia, Illinois
St. Charles, Missouri
Fort Riley, Kansas
Golden, Colorado

Lincoln Highway:  
Route 66:

Tulsa, Oklahoma

Earliest known reference to the road being "America's Main Street"-
National Road: Judge Joseph M. Lowe in his book National Old Trails Road: The Great Historic Highway of America; A Brief Resume of the Principle Events Connected with the Rebuilding of the Old Cumberland, now the National Old Trails Road -- from Washington and Baltimore to Los Angeles, 1925
Route 40: Leah A. Kazmark in an article in The National Republic, "The Main Street of America: Pioneer Mothers Who Helped Conquer the Wilderness Will Be Honored Along Historic Highway One," April, 1928.
Lincoln Highway:
Route 66: Cyrus Avery in a speech before state Route 66 associations, Tulsa, Oklahoma, February 4, 1927.
Most authoritative book on the subject-
National Road: Archer Butler Hulbert's Great American Trails series, vols. 3, 4 & 10, 1901-1904.
Route 40: George R. Stewart's U.S. 40: Cross Section of the United States, 1953.
Lincoln Highway: Drake Hokanson's The Lincoln Highway: Main Street of America, 1988.
Route 66: Michael Wallis' Route 66: The Mother Road, 1990.
Contemporary Comment about the Road-
National Road:  
Route 40: [By traveling Route 40] one can maintain, the richest historically of any of the transcontinentals, thus best demonstrating the cross section in time, but it is also a business-like modern highway, getting across from ocean to ocean with a minimum of deviation either for geographical or political reasons, and therefore displaying to best advantage the cross section in space.
- George R. Stewart, U.S. 40, 1953
Lincoln Highway: The traveler may shed tears as he drives the Lincoln Highway or dream dreams as he speeds over the Jefferson Highway, but how can he get a "kick" out of 46 or 55 or 33 or 21?
- New York Times editorial, c. 1925
Route 66: "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66"
- song written by Bobby Troup
Used as a Backdrop for-
National Road:

A poem, "Recollections of Greenfield, Indiana" by James Whitcomb Riley, 1879.
A children's book, The Bells of Christmas, by Virginia Hamilton, 1989.

Route 40:

A song, "Idaho Red," by Chuck Thompson and Ray Wade, 1954.
A novel, On the Road, by Jack Kerouac, 1955.
A song "40 West" by Ellery Eskelin.
A song "Highway 40 West" by Bona Fide.
A song "Highway 40 Blues" by Ricky Skaggs and Larry Cordle.
A song "80, 40 and 10" by Tanya Savory.
A song "U.S. 40" by Country Cooking.
A song "Going Over 40" by Amazing Delores.
A song "Highway 40 Unplugged" by Space Ghost.
A song "Highway 40 Revisited" by Space Ghost.
A song "Lovelock to Winnemucca" by Center Divide.
A song "Roll Truck Roll" by Red Simpson and Terry Allen.

Lincoln Highway:

A radio show, "Lincoln Highway," ca. 1940 for two seasons.
A novel, On the Road, by Jack Kerouac, 1955.

Route 66:

A novel, The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, 1940 (later made into a film by John Ford)
A song, "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66," by Bobby Troupe, ca. 1955.
Numerous songs by Woody Guthrie.
A TV show, "Route 66," 1960 to 1964.
A movie, Bagdad Cafe, 1988.
A movie, Rain Man.
A movie, Midnight Run.
A movie, Kalifornia.
A movie, Bound for Glory.

Routes into which the road was split-
National Road: U.S. 40, I-70, I-68
Route 40: I-95, I-70, I-68, I-80
Lincoln Highway: U.S. 1, U.S. 30, U.S. 30N, U.S. 30S, U.S. 530, U.S. 40, U.S. 50, I-95, I-70, I-68, I-80/90
Route 66: I-55, I-44, I-40, I-15, I-10
Date the highway "lost" its official designation-
National Road: 1850
Route 40: Still officially designated as far as Silver Creek Junction, Utah
Lincoln Highway: 1928
Route 66: 1985

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