Relics of a Roadway: Old Highway 80

On October 20, 1926, Colonel Ed Fletcher steered his automobile eastward from San Diego, California, resolute to reach Savannah, Georgia, in record time. The land developer's stunt was geared to drum up support for a transcontinental driving route to San Diego, even though road trips were considered "something of a sporting proposition." Indeed, most roads were narrow dirt lanes, slippery when wet.

Fletcher's race with destiny ran along part of the Dixie Overland Highway, one of 250-plus "named trails" of the 1920s. With more families buying cars (Model T Fords sold for $300), business associations, such as the Dixie Overland Highway Association, laid out routes of interconnecting local roads through member towns. Signs painted on poles, barns, and even rocks offered meager driving directions.

After a breakneck (though relatively uneventful) coast-to-coast escapade–including an all-day drive across Texas–Fletcher made his 2,535-mile trip in record time, reaching Savannah on October 23 in a little over 71 hours.

That same year, federal and state officials rolled out a national plan, long in the making, for a numbered U.S. highway system. Much of the Dixie Overland Highway became part of the new US Highway 80.

See the full article in the March 2007 issue.

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