Which U.S. highway was the first transcontinental highway, completed in 1913?

The Lincoln Highway was the first major transcontinental automobile highway in the United States, formally dedicated in 1913. It was conceived as a coast-to-coast route from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, connecting 13 states on its original alignment.

Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher promoted the project in 1912, arguing that dependable roads would encourage automobile use and commerce. The Lincoln Highway Association was established on July 1, 1913, and the route was announced that September. Its dedication on October 31, 1913, made it a nationally publicized transcontinental highway, although many sections were still primitive, unpaved, or dependent on existing roads and trails rather than newly built pavement.

That distinction explains a common wording trap: the Lincoln Highway was established and dedicated in 1913, but it was not a single newly paved road completed everywhere that year. It was an organized, marked route assembled from roads across the country. The National Road was an earlier east–west federal road, while the Yellowstone Trail was another early transcontinental automobile route.

After the U.S. Numbered Highway System began in 1926, much of the Lincoln Highway became U.S. Route 30. Later, Interstate 80 followed or overlapped substantial portions of its western route, preserving the Lincoln Highway’s importance in American road history.