The
United States Highway Sign The
United States Highway SignSite created and maintained by Robert V. Droz.
History: US Numbered Highways have used the same basic shield since before their numbers were agreed upon.
1925: 
The preliminary design was first proposed
April 20, 1925. Leo Boulay of Ohio suggested using the official
US shield. It had been in use by the U.S. government in various
forms since the late 1700's and a version of it can be found on
modern American currency. 
Automobile Blue
Books, Inc. of Chicago, Illinois used a blue variant of the US
shield with white lettering to endorse Hotels, Garages,
Restaurants, Tea Rooms, and Inns in the 1920's. The Automobile
Blue Book shield shown is from Vol. 2, published 1925. The first
plan was to use the basic shape of the official US shield as the
route marker with the addition of "U.S.A." and a route
number. An early debate on color schemes was between yellow with
black numbers and white with black numbers. Yellow offered better
winter and snow visibility, but the color was also being proposed
for use with several other road signs at the time, all related to
road hazards. The color white was decided upon for the US shield.
Colonel Frederick S.
Greene of New York objected to the use of "U.S.A.",
favoring "T.C." for "Trans-continental", his
vision of the US Numbered Highway System. Colonel Greene favored
an extremely limited amount of routes, with a strong emphasis on
those routes being transcontinental in nature, much like the
Eisenhower Interstate System in modern times. His naming
suggestion was rejected in favor of the appellation "U.S.".
New York State still ended up bearing the brunt of his numbering
ideas. Many planned three-digit US numbered highways like US 220
end up with termini at the NY state line because these shorter
branch routes did not follow Col. Greene's vision. If he had
acceded to the direction route numbering was taking, it is
possible these routes would have been extended to a US route
across southern New York, possibly a rerouted US 6. US 6 in
Pennsylvania might have been part of extended routes US 106 and
US 120. On August 3, 1925, AASHO dropped the state name from the
proposed shield to add emphasis to the U.S. part. Many states
balked at this and on August 4, 1925, the state name was
reinstated, and the "State" "US" "number"
format formally adopted. The first US shield actually fabricated
as an example was the then-unused number '56' with the state of
Maine (See above left).
Late 1920's - Mid 1950's: 
In "American Highways" April 1927, Vol. VI
No. 2, the sign approved for the US numbered highway system was
described thusly: "The design adopted is the commonly known
United States shield outline, and this shield carries the route
number, as well as the State name through which the road passes."
The chosen size for the US highway shields was approxiamtely 18"
x 18". Early US signs were supposed to be all in block
letters, but some curves snuck in, like the 'S' in the rusty old
US 66 on the right side of the page. This US 66 picture is
courtesy Jim Ross. The
sign is authentic, and was probably posted in 1926. It used to
stand in Chandler, Oklahoma, facing westbound traffic before a
hard right turn in front of what is now (1999) PJ's Barbecue. The
post assembly was probably removed in 1930, when OK 7 was moved. 
The first US shields posted in 1926 and 1927
indicated left and right turns in the numbered route by R's and L's
in smaller US shields. Today we place just place arrows
underneath the shield. Briefly in Texas, they placed arrows in
the shield, next to numbers.
City U.S. Highway Shields: There
was a second type of early US shield, approved for city use. It
was smaller, at around eleven inches high and wide (11" x 11")
as these two 1939 pictures 
from
the U.S. Library of Congress archives show. The smaller city-use
signs dropped the state name, and only placed US in the banner
area that was formerly reserved for the state name. One example
of this is the sign tree for US 77, US 81, US 84, TX 67 "BUSINESS
ROUTE" that used to be posted in Waco, Texas (See left).
Bannered US routes started coming into wide usage after the
September 1934 AASHO meeting. 
Prior
to that, a suffix of T had been used to denote Temporary routes,
a designation that continues to be acceptable to this day as TEMP.
Another set of early banner routes were the US 27A's of 1933 in
Central Michigan, which became ALTERNATE US 27's, and now are
Business US 27s. AASHO's strong dislike for split US routes with
directional letter suffixes, like US 31E and US 11W, almost
resulted in US 37 and US 143 being signed in Kentucky and
Tennnessee. From the period's maps it looks like AASHO actually
approved both new numbers, but the states preferred the suffixes
which remain today. This "CITY ROUTE"' US 12 shield was
posted in Chicago, Illinois. The 45 M.P.H. speed limit had been
defaced at the time if the picture, showing that speed limits
were unpopular with some people even then. One hundred and forty-eight
miles per hour does seem a bit extreme for an urban highway. This
highway this sign was posted along was mainline US 12 until 1938,
so the US shield shown is fairly new.
Mid 1950's: In the mid 1950's, a
new Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) changed the
approved color for stop signs from black lettering on a yellow
background to the now-familiar red background with white
lettering. It apparently also authorized dropping the in-shield
bannering, leaving just a number inside the US shield shape.
Colors were not directly specified. Some states took the
opportunity to change the color of the US highway shield as well.
The state of Florida started color-coding its US shields in 1956,
resulting in odd colors like on the US 94 and US 541 shields
shown. 
Both routes were actually decomissioned @1950, the
colors shown are hypothetical. FHWA
was and still is is willing to let FDOT do this, as long as
it is all Florida funded. Any US shields placed with federal
money had to conform to the MUTCD. Throughout the 1980's, FDOT
maintenance crews replaced new black on white US signs on new
projects with FDOT color scheme equivalents. FDOT finally decided
the expense of the experiment was too great, and ceased placing
the colored scheme around 1994. New and replaced US highway signs
are the standard black numbers on white background which the
federal government will contribute to. Vesitiges of the old
coloring scheme remain, primarily in urban areas. Due to Florida's
aggressive sign replacement policy, you can expect few of these
to remain by 2000.
You can see photos of Florida's unique colored US signs at James
Lin's website and my Florida in
Kodachrome site. Kansas and Arizona
have also experimented with coloring US route signs. Rhode Island
reportedly used a red and white US 1 sign like Florida's.
Wisconsin also utilized colored US signs, Business / City US
signs were yellow (Like in Janesville,
WI in 1999), and WI DOT also may have used green and / or
pink on US signs.
Today: 
The states of California and Virginia use
cut-out US shields, as opposed to the standard approved black
square with a white shield. California even places US on some
shields. The US highway shield is still the highly recognizable
symbol of the road system that binds the country together, from
doorstop to doorstop. US 66 was decommissioned in 1985. There has
been such a demand to follow the old route between Chicago and
Los Angeles that "Historic US 66" brown and white US
shields are being posted in increasing numbers. The affection for
the old road along the interstate is such that the states along
the route have to protect the existing shields. Arizona had a
brief problem with the new "Historic US 66" being
stolen by souvenir hunters. Legally, US Route 66 may have been
decomissioned, but it stayed in the hearts of those who lived and
worked along its mostly two-lane alignment, and it stayed in the
conciousness of America. Today the State of California is also
using a modified US shield to unofficially bring back US 99 and
sections of US 101 decommissioned in 1964. Arizona decomissioned
or truncated many US routes in 1993, then reposted "Historic"
on sections at the end of the 1990's.
References :
"From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the U.S. Numbered
Highway System" by Richard F.
Weingroff, FHWA Information Liason Specialist, published in AASHTO
Quarterly, Spring 1997.
American Highways April 1927, Vol. VI No. 2
Florida: Trails to Turnpikes 1919-1964 by Baynard Kendrick,
1964
Older MUTCD information, especially about the CITY shileds, Bob
Ross
If you any have thoughts, comments, additions, suggestions, E-mail me or post it to the misc.transport.road newsgroup.
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US Highways :
From US 1 to (US 830)
Last update to this page on Wednesday, December 08, 1999 01:16:43 PM Eastern Standard Time.
