Vermont Route 18 - History

History

Vermont Route 18 was originally part of the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway, a transcontinental auto trail organized in 1919 running from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine via Ontario. Several years later, in 1922, the New England states adopted the New England road marking system, assigning route numbers to the main through routes in the region. The Roosevelt Highway routing in Vermont was assigned Route 14 from Burlington to Montpelier, and Route 18 from Montpelier to the New Hampshire state line in Waterford. The original Vermont portion of Route 18 ran 40 miles (64 km) from Montpelier to St. Johnsbury using modern U.S. Route 2, then modern Vermont Route 18 from St. Johnsbury to the New Hampshire line.

In late 1926, the U.S. Highway system was established. U.S. Route 2 in Vermont was designated on New England Route 14 (Burlington to Montpelier), New England Route 25 (Montpelier to Wells River) and New England Route 15 (St. Johnsbury to Lunenburg), connected by a brief overlap with U.S. Route 5. In 1935, the portion of U.S. Route 2 between Montpelier and St. Johnsbury was relocated to use the alignment of Vermont Route 18. The previous alignment from Montpelier to Wells River was designated as part of newly established U.S. Route 302, and the overlap with U.S. Route 5 was eliminated. This truncated the northern/western end of Vermont Route 18 to St. Johnsbury.