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 hi
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.
U.S. Route shield
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The U.S. Route shield is the highway marker used for United States Numbered Highways. Since the first U.S. Route signs were installed in 1926, the general symbology has remained the same, but many cha
United States Numbered Highway System
…not be limited to the federal-aid network; if the best route did not receive federal funds, it would still be included. The tentative design for the U.S. Route shield was also chosen, based on the shield found on the Great Seal of the United States. The auto trail associations rejected the elimination of the highway…
Original-style Vermont US 7 shield with embossed features
1948-style shields for US 6 and US 202 in Connecticut, with the state name abbreviated
Modern (left) and 1961 (right) shields in Newcastle, Oklahoma; the older shield uses the FHWA Series A typeface, which has since been discontinued.
Wide and narrow 1971-style U.S. route shields