US Ends .com

 ^ date reposted to this blog Jan. 20, 2021: originally posted to my old blog Dec. 2, 2023: last updated Did these routes ever exist? Short answer: they were designated by AASHO (very briefly), and for that reason they existed on some maps, but they were almost certainly never signposted. Read on for more details. Background: split US routes When the Bureau of Public Roads was planning the US route system in the mid-1920s, most local leaders wanted a US highway to pass through their town, because they recognized that such a designation would bring the perception of prestige and the potential for economic gain. Drivers traveling between two larger cities often had more than one route available to them, each having comparable distance, road surface quality, etc. Towns situated along the optional routes sometimes clashed over which route should be awarded a US designation, and sometimes these fights were so bitter that the state departments of transportation could not resolve them...

^ date reposted to this blog Mar. 16, 2023: originally posted to my old blog US 231 was included in the inaugural routes of Nov. 1926, but at the time it ran only from Montgomery AL to Marianna FL. US 241 was not among the original routes*, but neither was it far behind: it was commissioned in Mar. 1930. This was mostly done to appease certain Alabama interests who wanted a US route designation to be applied to their State Highway 1.  ​ *For the sake of clarity, there actually was a US 241 that was commissioned in 1926 to run between Nashville TN and Hopkinsville KY. However, it was never signposted as such in Tennessee, and possibly not in Kentucky either. AASHO officially canceled the US 241[i] designation in Jun. 1929, and its number was recycled less than a year later and applied to the route discussed on this page. To avoid confusion, this route is sometimes differentiated as US 241[ii]. A commercial state highway map from 1928 (by General Drafting) indicated that Alabam...