Portal:Michigan highways/Selected article/September 2012

US Highway 16 (US 16), also called Grand River Avenue for much of its length, was one of the principal pre-Interstate roads in the state, replaced by the modern Interstate 96. Before the creation of the US Highway System in 1926, the highway had been designated M-16. Before the late 1950s, US 16 used other roads between Muskegon and Grand Rapids, and then followed Grand River Avenue in a northwest–southeast fashion to Detroit. With the coming of the Interstate Highway System, US 16 was shifted from the older roads to the new freeways. When the freeway was completed, the US 16 designation was decommissioned in the state.

The original pathway along Grand River Avenue was an Indian trail used by the first European settlers to the area in 1701. Later this trail was expanded into a plank road that formed one of the first state highways. Current segments of the roadway are still part of the highway system as sections of M-43 or business loops off I-96; one section of Grand River Avenue in Detroit is an unsigned highway. Grand River is one of five major avenues planned by Judge Augustus Woodward in 1805 that extend from downtown Detroit in differing directions. (more...)

Recently selected: Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive* US 131* M-185