U.S. Route 2 - History

History

A large portion of the western segment of US 2, and a shorter piece of the eastern segment, follows the old Theodore Roosevelt International Highway. This auto trail, named in honor of the late former president and naturalist Theodore Roosevelt, was organized in February 1919 to connect Portland, Maine with Portland, Oregon. The route taken by this highway left Portland, Maine to the northwest, crossing New England via Littleton and Montpelier to Burlington. It crossed Lake Champlain on the Burlington-Port Kent Ferry and headed west across upstate New York, through Watertown and Rochester to Buffalo. After crossing southern Ontario, the highway re-entered the U.S. in Detroit, running northwest and north via Saginaw and Alpena to the Upper Peninsula, where it turned west along the northern tier of the country. This portion took the route past Duluth, Minot, Havre, and Glacier National Park to Spokane. In order to reach Portland, Oregon, the highway turned south in Washington via Walla Walla to Pendleton, where it headed west again via the Columbia River Highway to Portland. The last piece of the highway to be completed was over Marias Pass through Glacier National Park; cars were carried through the park on the Great Northern Railway until 1930.

The first inter-state numbering for the Roosevelt Highway was in New England, where the New England road marking system was established in 1922. Route 18 followed the auto trail from Portland northwest to Montpelier, where it continued to Burlington via Route 14. Many of the states along the route also assigned numbers to the highway; for instance, New York labeled their portion Route 3 in 1924. The Joint Board on Interstate Highways distributed its preliminary plan in 1925, in which a long section of the highway was labeled US 2, from St. Ignace, Michigan west to Bonners Ferry, Idaho. East of St. Ignace, instead of crossing to the Lower Peninsula like the Roosevelt Highway, the proposed Route 2 traveled north to the international border at Sault Ste. Marie. It reappeared at Rouses Point, New York, following Route 30 and then rejoining the auto trail between Burlington and Montpelier. US 2 and the Roosevelt Highway both connected Montpelier to St. Johnsbury, but the latter took a direct path along Route 18, while the former was assigned to Route 25 to Wells River, where it overlapped proposed US 5 north to St. Johnsbury. There, where the Roosevelt Highway turned southeast to Portland, Route 2 continued east along Route 15 to Bangor and Route 1 to Calais, then heading north on Route 24 to end in Houlton.

By the time the U.S. Highway system was finalized in late 1926, one relatively minor change had been made to US 2; it was swapped with US 1 between Bangor and Houlton, Maine, placing US 2 along the entire portion of Route 15 east of St. Johnsbury. Several other major parts of the auto trail received numbers, most notably US 30 from Portland, Oregon east to Pendleton, US 195 in eastern Washington, and US 23 in Michigan's Lower Peninsula. In the mid-1930s, much of New York's portion of the road became US 104, and the part southeast of Littleton, New Hampshire to Portland, Maine became US 302, but by far the longest piece was that followed by US 2 between St. Ignace and Bonners Ferry. In 1946, US 2 was extended west of its original western terminus in Bonners Ferry in Idaho to Everett in Washington via Spokane along what was then Alternate US 10.