Lincoln Highway

Before I left for the Route 66 tour, I talked with a lot of people about the history of the road. Most people had some idea about was Route 66 was, although more than a few mistakenly believed that it ran from coast-to-coast. When I told them about the Lincoln Highway, America's first coast-to-coast highway, none of them had ever heard of it.

The Lincoln highway was conceived in 1912 by a man named Carl Fisher -- the same guy that built the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and developed Miami Beach. He originally named it the Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway, but later named it Lincoln Highway in 1913 to woo Congress.

Like Route 66, the Lincoln Highway had a history of being amended and rerouted. Today, you can find much of the old Lincoln Highway by following US Route 30 -- although near the coasts the route followed other roads, including modern-day US 1, US 40, US 530 and US 50.

Given the historical and cultural similarities between Route 66 and the Lincoln Highway, it was appropriate to start the journey home to New York on a section of the old Lincoln Highway. Our official start was the intersection of 94th Avenue and US 30. From there, we improvised a route to Rensselaer, IN to intersect with the Adventure Cycling route that we will be using for the bulk of the trip. We will probably intersect Lincoln highway a few more times before we reach the shore.

Photos

Miscellaneous stuff including the start point, the Indiana border in the town of Dyer, a stupid lawyer trick (David joining a conference call at 20 mph), and the heavy truck traffic near a huge landfill that we spotted (and detoured to investigate). I could not get a picture that demonstrates the massive scale of the landfill mound -- there were no objects nearby to provide the proper sense of scale. I'm guessing that the thing is about a 1/2 square mile in area and about as high as a 30 story building. It is very possible that the highest elevation in Indiana is a landfill.

Photo Journal

Ride Summary

70 miles to Rensselaer, IN

Miles this year: 4469