Dixie Highway - After The U.S. Highway System

After The U.S. Highway System

The eastern route Dixie Highway mostly became U.S. Highway 25. In the late 20th century, the route was largely paralleled and in some sections replaced by Interstate 75, which starts in Miami, Florida, and ends in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. A large portion of the former US 25 in western Ohio ultimately ended up in 1963 (after Interstate 75's completion in that area) as County Highway 25-A. A four-lane portion runs through Bowling Green between Cygnet and Toledo as Ohio State Route 25. In Michigan, M-25 from Port Huron to Bay City incorporates the segment of old US 25 that Interstates 75 and 94 did not supplant as a through route. The eastern portion from Jacksonville, Florida south was largely replaced with U.S. Route 1.

The portion of the western route from Nashville, Tennessee north to Louisville, Kentucky is now U.S. Highway 31W. In most of the cities it traverses in Kentucky, it is still referred to as "Dixie Highway" or "Dixie Avenue". The western route generally follows the present-day route of U.S. Highway 31 from Louisville to Indianapolis. From Nashville to Indianapolis, the route parallels Interstate 65. Portions of this stretch were originally parts of the Louisville and Nashville Turnpike, which began construction in the 1830s.

The name "Dixie Highway" persists in various locations along its route where the main flow of long-distance traffic has been rerouted to more modern highways and the old Dixie Highway remains as a local road. In some South Florida cities, Dixie Highway (or sometimes Old Dixie Highway) parallels "Federal Highway" (U.S. Route 1), sometimes just a block away. In Tennessee, the name lives on in Dixie Lee Junction (where Dixie Highway and Lee Highway intersected). In Western North Carolina, seven bronze plaques on granite pillars placed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in the late 1920s mark the route of the Dixie Highway (and honor General Robert E. Lee); these markers can be found in the towns of Hot Springs, Marshall, Asheville, Fletcher and Hendersonville, and on the NC/SC and NC/TN state lines. Today this is the route of US 25. An eighth monument of identical type can be found on US 25 in downtown Greenville, South Carolina. Two additional monuments can be found in Franklin, Ohio at the intersection of the Old Dixie Highway and Hamilton-Middletown Road, and near Bradfordville, Florida on US 319. The name Dixie Highway is also still commonly used in portions of Michigan's Lower Peninsula, such as in the Waterford MI area, where it is very much a major thoroughfare known as US 24.

In some cities and towns, Dixie Highway is the north–south axis of the street numbering system. The extension of development westward means that the northwest and southwest quadrants of the grid defined in this manner are generally much larger than the northeast and southeast ones which are constrained by the Atlantic Ocean. Also, the route of Dixie Highway generally parallels the coast, often running diagonally instead of straight north and south, causing irregularities in the numbering system.

The Dixie Highway-Hastings, Espanola and Bunnell Road (also known as County Road 13 or the Old Brick Road) is a historic section of Old Dixie Highway in Florida. It is located roughly between Espanola (in Flagler County) and CR 204 southeast of Hastings near Flagler Estates (in St. Johns County). This is one of the few extant portions of the original brick Dixie Highway left in Florida. On April 20, 2005, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

There is also a small section of the original brick Dixie Highway, and a monument marking the county line, near Loughman, Florida on the Osceola County/Polk County border.