U.S. Route 30 in Pennsylvania - History

History

The path of the Lincoln Highway was first laid out in September 1913; it was defined to run through Canton, Ohio, Beaver Falls, Pittsburgh, Greensburg, Ligonier, Bedford, Chambersburg, Gettysburg, York, Lancaster and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Camden, New Jersey. This bypassed Harrisburg to the south, and thus did not use the older main route across the state between Chambersburg and Lancaster. From Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, this incorporated a number of old turnpikes, some of which still collected tolls:

• Pittsburgh and Greensburg Turnpike, Pittsburgh to Greensburg
• Stoystown and Greensburg Turnpike, Greensburg to Stoystown
• Bedford and Stoystown Turnpike, Stoystown to Bedford
• Chambersburg and Bedford Turnpike, Bedford to Chambersburg
• Chambersburg and Gettysburg Turnpike, Chambersburg to Gettysburg
• York and Gettysburg Turnpike, Gettysburg to York
• Wrightsville Turnpike, York to Wrightsville
• Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, Wrightsville to Columbia
• Lancaster and Columbia Turnpike, Columbia to Lancaster
• Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike, Lancaster to Philadelphia

This original 1913 path of the Lincoln Highway continued east from Philadelphia, crossing the Delaware River to Camden, New Jersey on the Market Street Ferry. The city of Philadelphia marked the route from the ferry landing west on Market Street through downtown and onto Lancaster Avenue to the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike in early 1914. By 1915 Camden was dropped from the route, allowing the highway to cross the Delaware on a bridge at Trenton (initially the Calhoun Street Bridge, later the Bridge Street Bridge).

In 1924, the entire Lincoln Highway in Pennsylvania was designated Pennsylvania Route 1. In late 1926 the route from West Virginia to Philadelphia (using the new route west of Pittsburgh) was assigned U.S. Route 30, while the rest of the Lincoln Highway and PA 1 became part of U.S. Route 1. The PA 1 designation was gone by 1929, but several branches from east to west - PA Route 101, PA Route 201, PA Route 301, PA Route 401, PA Route 501 and PA Route 601 - had been assigned by then. (PA Route 701 was assigned later as a branch of PA 101.)