Before Route 66: The Story of America’s First Highway

Long before Route 66 captured the American imagination, another road did something far more ambitious: it connected the country. The Lincoln Highway, completed in 1913, was the United States’ first true transcontinental road—stretching from Times Square in New York to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. But while it revolutionized travel, kickstarted tourism, and helped birth car culture, most people today have never heard of it.

In this episode, we trace the rise and quiet fall of the Lincoln Highway: from muddy wagon trails and volunteer road crews to cement milestones, patriotic branding, and fierce industrial politics. You’ll discover how a group of dreamers and auto tycoons built a road without government help, changed how Americans moved—and then watched it get dismantled by the federal highway system. Buckle up: this is the lost story of the road that made road trips possible.