mobilene

Dave, nope, I don't have any scans from that one!!! jim

Roadmaven mentioned to me several months ago that it was up. I don't know anything about it either. I have half a notion to do a nighttime tour of US 40 across Indy and capture all the signs and stuff along the road!

I don't get it myself! I just roll with it! jim

Dave, didn't you scan just this guide for me, at least the MD-PA-WV etc portions, before my trip last April? With your permission, I can share those scans with Steve if you don't have them still. jim

What about the Smithsonian or some other national institution?

I know I blogged about my Indy-to-Illinois trip as I went along, but my blog didn't share every last detail. So I wrote one of my usual obsessively complete road trip reports for my personal site. Follow the NR across western Indiana in excruciating detail here: http://jimgrey.net/Roads/NationalRoadWeste...diana/index.htm jim

Enjoyed living vicariously through your site on this trip, Denny! I love it when you take the less-known roads like this. jim

Are you willing to break this collection up? My experience is that state historical societies and state universities tend to have map collections, but those tend to care only about the state they're in. jim

I LOVE that bridge over the White at Cotter, Arkansas -- the one you snapped from the side and while cruising it. Awesome! I've got to see that one in person!

I did notice, but I didn't know what the word meant! Thanks for filling in the blanks! jim

"This route is in atrocious condition and cannot be recommended." That cracks me up! Well, I suppose it wouldn't crack me up if I lived 100 years ago and needed to get from Cumberland to Wheeling.

I've done a ton of exploring of the NR in Indiana and Illinois. It's my second favorite road haunt. (My favorite is the Michigan Road, Indiana' pioneer highway connecting the Ohio River to Lake Michigan.) Although Indiana's US 40 was widened to 4 lanes, divided in most places, in the 1930s, some old alignments of the road remain. No stone bridges remain, although I've heard of an 1800s steel or iron truss bridge that used to cross the NR but was relocated to a nearby county road when a concrete-arch bridge was built in about 1925. Need to go see the older bridge one day. Many miles of original concrete and brick NR remain, abandoned, in Illinois. The bridges and culverts were all removed, sadly. One stone bridge remains, that I know of, in Illinois, on the west end of the town of Marshall. I've blogged quite a bit about all of this. All of my NR blog entries are indexed here: http://jimgrey.wordpress.com/tag/national-road/ (You will notice that I call the "bank road" between Balt and Cumberland the NR. I know it's wrong, but it's a popular misconception and so I just roll with it.) I've also taken a ton of photos, all geotagged on Flickr. Indiana: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobilene/sets...57601898391525/ Illinois: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobilene/sets...57622142269220/ jim

When I made my NR in MD trip this year, I totally hosed up Cumberland. I'm not sure how I managed it, but I believe I took a wrong route. I don't recall seeing this spot at all, and now I regret it. I very seriously need to make a return trip to MD! jim

Garrett Co. is probably the most interesting along the road in MD, except perhaps for the portion of the original road that goes over Polish Mountain. I tell you, I could probably spend a week or more just driving the bank road from Balt to Cumberland, and then the NR to the PA line, exploring and photographing! I hope to do that one day. I'm in Indianapolis (about 6 miles north of the NR) so a trip to MD is not trivial. Have you seen Christopher Busta-Peck's excellent (aborted) blog about the NR out east? http://nationalpike.blogspot.com/. jim

Very exciting! I drove the NR in MD this year and enjoyed it very much. I found a few old alignments and abandoned bridges and such. I hope you'll continue to share here as you keep exploring! jim

Thanks for the tip! I'll add it to my to-read list. You *know* I love knowing how the old roads once felt!

Sure wish the soda fountain was still there -- I would have stopped! jim

Hi John, I looked up the bridge on Google Maps and tried to trace Old SR 1 south from there. What a route that must have been! see Old SR 1 in two segments, bisected by current SR 1. Google sent its photo car down the hairpin curve so I followed it in street view. I've got to drive this one someday! jim

I really enjoyed the video. Makes me want to take a car ferry one day just for the experience of it!

For those of you following along, the Michigan Road Historic Byway project has solidified support in northern Indiana and has made its first steps into southern Indiana to build support. We had meetings last week with interested parties in Greensburg and Madison. There's some good enthusiasm for the project and willingness to participate, so we're pretty encouraged. We still hope to submit the byway application to INDOT next summer. One disappointing bit from my drive home from Madison. Most of what I believe was an old bypassed alignment of the MR appears recently to have been removed in a widening of State Road 44, which runs parallel to it. Thankfully, I photographed the road last summer before construction began. A short bit of the old alignment remains; I'm pretty sure it's this part (below). But the part removed was the most interesting part because of its roll -- original terrain.

More from this trip: The city of Richmond. Half of its downtown was destroyed in a 1968 explosion: http://jimgrey.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/richmond/ There are two milestones on the Indiana National Road: http://jimgrey.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/in...oad-milestones/ Centerville reminds me of one of the many little towns on the NR in Maryland: http://jimgrey.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/arch-city/

Just north of Terre Haute, there was a place where you had to take a ramp to follow 41. If you had continued straight, you would have stayed on old US 41. It's not signed, but it's Clinton Ave (which becomes Lafayette Rd.) to 7th St., then 7th south to Wabash Ave., the Crossroads. The Hilton stands where the Terre Haute House used to. It was Terre Haute's grand hotel, but it hadn't been open since probably the 1970s and was razed in favor of the Hilton. It was sad to see it go. Here's a link with a photo: http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine...y-in-terre.html (I lived in Terre Haute for 9 years in the 80s and 90s.) jim

Excellent set of photos. I'm especially glad to hear you spent the night at the Crossroads of America in little old Terre Haute!

I made a trip down US 40 and the NR in eastern Indiana on Halloween. It was actually a partial trip -- my road-trip friend and I were taking it easy, and we spent a lot of time in the antique stores in Centerville and Cambridge City, and we ran out of daylight before we got halfway down the road. Denny wrote about the Dayton Cutoff some time ago, which I reference in my blog post about where the Cutoff ends, just inside Indiana. http://jimgrey.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/th...-dayton-cutoff/

Some buddies of mine in college made the trek to Helena every year and I always had a reason not to go along. Sure wish I'd done it now. Glad it's still around; maybe next year!