United States Numbered Highway System
The United States Numbered Highway System is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these highways were coordinated among the states, they are sometimes called Federal Highways, but the roadways were built and have always been maintained by state or local governments since their initial designation in 1926.
The "final" U.S. Highway plan as approved November 11, 1926
This sign, photographed in 1941 on US 99 between Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, illustrates one rationale for a federal highway system: national defense.
A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or a translation for Autobahn, autostrada, autoroute, etc.
A typical Interstate Highway in Chicago, Illinois, United States
The Tampere Highway in Vantaa, Finland
The I-75/I-85 Downtown Connector in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States
Part of the AVUS road in Berlin, the first automobile-only road, which served as an inspiration for Piero Puricelli's 1924 autostrada between Milan and the northern Italian lakes, the first motorway in the world.
