Everything about U S Route 1 totally explained
U.S. Route 1 (US 1) is a major north-south
U.S. Highway that serves the
East Coast of the United States. It runs over 2000 miles (3000 km) from
Key West, Florida north to
Fort Kent, Maine at the
Canadian border. US 1 generally parallels
Interstate 95, though it's significantly farther west (inland) between
Jacksonville, Florida and
Petersburg, Virginia. The highway connects most of the major cities of the east coast, including
Miami, Florida;
Jacksonville, Florida;
Augusta, Georgia;
Columbia, South Carolina;
Raleigh, North Carolina;
Richmond, Virginia;
Washington, D.C.;
Baltimore, Maryland;
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
Newark, New Jersey;
New York City;
New Haven, Connecticut;
Providence, Rhode Island;
Boston, Massachusetts; and
Portland, Maine.
US 1 is the easternmost of the main north-south U.S. Highways, all of which end in one, but there are areas where it isn't the easternmost route of the system, with large portions of
US 9,
US 13, and
US 17 occupying corridors closer to the ocean. When the system was laid out in the 1920s, US 1 was mostly assigned to the existing Atlantic Highway, which followed the
fall line between the
Piedmont and the
Atlantic Coastal Plain north of Augusta. At the time, the highways further east were of lower quality and didn't serve the major population centers.
Route description
Florida
US 1 travels along the east coast of
Florida, beginning in
Key West and passing through
Miami,
Fort Lauderdale,
West Palm Beach Fort Pierce,
Melbourne,
Daytona Beach,
Palm Coast,
St. Augustine, and
Jacksonville. The southernmost piece through the
Florida Keys, about 100 miles (150 km) long, is the two-lane
Overseas Highway, originally built in the 1930s after the
Florida East Coast Railway's
Overseas Railroad was ruined by the
Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. The rest of US 1 in Florida is generally a four-lane
divided highway, despite the existence of the newer
I-95 not far away.
State Road A1A is a mostly-continuous beachfront alternate to US 1, cut only by inlets and the
Kennedy Space Center. North of Jacksonville, US 1 turns northwest in order to reach the
fall line at
Augusta, Georgia;
US 17 becomes the coastal route into
Virginia, where
US 13 takes over. Until the 1990s, US 1 used high contrast markers (white text on a red background).
Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina
The part of US 1 in
Georgia, as it shifts from the coastal alignment in Florida to the fall line alignment in South Carolina, is generally very rural, passing through
swamps and former
plantations between the towns and cities of
Folkston,
Waycross,
Baxley,
Swainsboro, and
Augusta. After crossing into
South Carolina, US 1 is paralleled by
Interstate 20 along the fall line through
Aiken and
Columbia to
Camden. Beyond Camden, US 1 continues northeast into
North Carolina, becoming a freeway at
Southern Pines. US 1 continues through
Sanford, and on to
Raleigh. North of Raleigh US 1 crosses I-540 and then again becomes a four-lane
divided highway to
Interstate 85 near
Henderson; from Henderson into Virginia, US 1 parallels I-85 as a two-lane road.
Virginia, Washington D.C., and Maryland
Through
Virginia, US 1 is paralleled by Interstates: the remainder of
Interstate 85 to
Petersburg,
Interstate 95 through
Richmond and
Fredericksburg to
Alexandria, and
Interstate 395 into
Arlington. Within Virginia, US 1 is called
Jefferson Davis Highway by state law, although local communities have renamed it without consequence. It is best known as "Jeff Davis Highway". US 1 crosses the
Potomac River with I-395 on the
14th Street Bridges, and splits to follow mainly
14th Street and
Rhode Island Avenue through the
District of Columbia. After exiting the District into
Maryland, US 1 follows the Baltimore-Washington Boulevard, the first of several modern highways built along the
Baltimore-Washington corridor;
I-95 is the newest, after the
Baltimore-Washington Parkway. The route bypasses
downtown Baltimore on its west and north sides and exits the city to the northeast on Belair Road, gradually leaving the I-95 corridor, which passes through
Wilmington, Delaware, for a straighter path towards Philadelphia. Around and beyond
Bel Air, US 1 is a two-lane road, crossing the
Susquehanna River over the top of the
Conowingo Dam before entering Pennsylvania. (US 1 bypasses
Delaware, unlike I-95). and the northern terminus was changed to
Calais, Maine. Due to the overlapping of auto trail designations, portions of the route had other names that remain in common use, such as the
Boston Post Road between
Boston and
New York, the
Lincoln Highway between New York and
Philadelphia, Baltimore Pike between Philadelphia and
Baltimore, and the
Dixie Highway in and south of eastern
Georgia. North of
Augusta, Georgia, the highway generally followed the
fall line, rather than a more easterly route through the
swamps of the
Atlantic Coastal Plain.
When the
New England road marking system was established in 1922, the Atlantic Highway within
New England was signed as
Route 1, with a Route 24 continuing north to
Madawaska;
New York extended the number to
New York City in 1924 with its own
Route 1. Other states adopted their own systems of numbering, and by 1926 all states but
Maryland had signed the Atlantic Highway as various routes, usually changing numbers at the state line. In 1925, the
Joint Board on Interstate Highways created a preliminary list of interstate routes to be marked by the states, including Route 1 along the Atlantic. This highway began at
Fort Kent, Maine and followed the existing Route 24 to
Houlton and
Route 15 to
Bangor, beyond which it generally followed the Atlantic Highway to Miami. In all states but
Georgia that had numbered their
state highways, Route 1 followed only one or two numbers across the state. The only significant deviation from the Atlantic Highway was between
Augusta, Georgia and
Jacksonville, Florida, where Route 1 was assigned to a more inland route, rather than following the Atlantic Highway via
Savannah.
One of the many changes made to the system before the final numbering was adopted in 1926 involved US 1 in Maine. The 1925 plan had assigned Route 1 to the shorter inland route (Route 15) between Houlton and Bangor, while
Route 2 followed the longer coastal route via Calais. In the system as adopted in 1926, US 2 instead took the inland route, while US 1 followed the coast, absorbing all of the former Routes 24 and 1 in New England. Many local and regional relocations, often onto parallel
superhighways, were made in the early days of US 1; this included the four-lane divided
Route 25 in
New Jersey, completed in 1932 with the opening of the
Pulaski Skyway, and a bypass of Bangor involving the
Waldo-Hancock Bridge, opened in 1931. The
Overseas Highway from Miami to
Key West was completed in 1938, and soon became a southern extension of US 1.
With the construction of the
Interstate Highway System in and after the 1950s, much of US 1 from Houlton to Miami was bypassed by
Interstate 95. Between Houlton and
Brunswick, Maine, I-95 took a shorter inland route, much of it paralleling US 2 on the alignment proposed for US 1 in 1925. Between
Philadelphia and
Baltimore, I-95 leaves US 1 to pass through
Wilmington. Most notably, I-95 and US 1 follow different corridors between
Petersburg, Virginia and
Jacksonville, Florida; while US 1 followed the fall line west of the coastal plain, I-95 takes a more direct route through the plain and its swamps. Although some of this part of US 1 was followed by other Interstates -
I-85 between Petersburg and
Henderson, North Carolina, and
I-20 between
Camden, South Carolina and
Augusta, Georgia - the rest remains an independent route that has been four-laned in many places. By the late 1970s, most of I-95 had been completed, replacing US 1 as the main corridor of the east coast and relegating most of it to local road status.
Further Information
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