page_title: Dixie Highway
section_title: Routes
hierarchical_section_title: Dixie Highway / Routes
caption_attribution_description: Anderson Highway, Florida, c. 1914. Postcard view showing automobile and single brick paved lane. Spanish moss hangs from trees.
context_page_description: The Dixie Highway was a United States automobile highway, first planned in 1914 to connect the US Midwest with the Southern United States. It was part of the National Auto Trail system, and grew out of an earlier Miami to Montreal highway. The final result is better understood as a network of connected paved roads, rather than one single highway. It was constructed and expanded from 1915 to 1929.
  The Dixie Highway was inspired by the example of the slightly earlier Lincoln Highway, the first road across the United States. The prime booster of both projects was promoter and businessman Carl G. Fisher. It was overseen by the Dixie Highway Association, and funded by a group of individuals, businesses, local governments, and states. In the early years the U.S. federal government played little role, but from the early 1920s on it provided increasing funding, until 1927, when the Dixie Highway Association was disbanded and the highway was taken over as part of the U.S. Route system, with some portions becoming state roads.
  The route was marked by a red stripe with the white letters "DH", usually with a white stripe above and below. The logo was commonly painted on utility poles.
context_section_description: The Western route connected Chicago, Illinois and Miami, Florida via Danville in Illinois; Indianapolis and Bedford in Indiana; Louisville, Elizabethtown, and Bowling Green in Kentucky; Nashville and Chattanooga in Tennessee; Atlanta, Macon, and Albany in Georgia; and Tallahassee, Gainesville, Orlando, Arcadia, and Naples in Florida.
  Except for realignments made since the 1920s, the western route is now Illinois Route 1 and U.S. Route 136 to Indianapolis, Indiana State Road 37 and U.S. Route 150 to Louisville, U.S. Route 31W, U.S. Route 68, and U.S. Route 431 to Nashville, and U.S. Route 41, U.S. Route 231, U.S. Route 41A, and U.S. Route 41 to Chattanooga. At Chattanooga, the western and eastern routes intersected; the western took a longer route along U.S. Route 27 to Rome and then returned to U.S. Route 41 at Cartersville via U.S. Route 411. At Atlanta, the eastern route split off toward Madison, Georgia, with the western continuing to Macon along the present U.S. Route 41; then Georgia State Route 49, U.S. Route 19, and U.S. Route 319 to Tallahassee; U.S. Route 27 and U.S. Route 441 to Orlando; and U.S. Route 17 and U.S. Route 41 (over the Tamiami Trail) to Miami.
  The Eastern route connected Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan with Miami, Florida, running via Saginaw and Detroit in Michigan; Toledo, Bowling Green, Lima, Dayton, and Cincinnati in Ohio; Lexington in Kentucky; Knoxville and Chattanooga in Tennessee; Atlanta and Savannah in Georgia; and Jacksonville and West Palm Beach in Florida.
  In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the highway followed what is now M-129 from Sault Ste. Marie to Pickford and then west to follow a short portion of former U.S. Route 2, replaced by Mackinaw Trail. It crossed the Straits of Mackinac and then used what is now U.S. Route 23 and old U.S. Route 10 to Detroit. Currently it still exists in Michigan as the name of a secondary road from Saginaw southeast to the county line (as an alternate route to Flint), from southeast Flint to northwest Pontiac, and from Flat Rock southwest to Monroe ending at the state line. A short section of the Dixie Highway in northwest lower Michigan running north from Eastport in Antrim County to the village of Norwood in Charlevoix County is named Old Dixie Highway—U.S. Route 31 parallels this road to the east. In Ohio, it was old U.S. Route 25 to Cincinnati, current U.S. Route 25 and U.S. Route 25W to Knoxville, and U.S. Route 70 and U.S. Route 27 to Chattanooga. The eastern division took a more direct route than the western between Chattanooga and Atlanta, following the modern U.S. Route 41 all the way, but it followed a more circuitous path south of Atlanta. Traffic left Atlanta to the east on U.S. Route 278, following U.S. Route 441, Georgia State Route 24, a short section of U.S. Route 301, and Georgia State Route 21 to Savannah. There, the route turned south along the coast via U.S. Route 17 to Jacksonville and U.S. Route 1 to Miami. It is today (2016) a major street in towns and cities along the Florida East Coast.
  The Central route was a short cutoff between the western division at Macon, Georgia, and the eastern route at Jacksonville, Florida, forming a shorter route to Miami than the western on its own; it followed U.S. Route 41, U.S. Route 341, U.S. Route 129, Georgia State Route 32, and U.S. Route 1.
  The Carolina route cut the distance between Knoxville and Waynesboro, Georgia, on the eastern route. It is now U.S. Route 25W and U.S. Route 25, and passes through Asheville, Greenville, and Augusta on its way to the eastern route and Savannah.
caption: Postcard image of Dixie Highway in St. Johns County, Florida. This section was previously part of the older John Anderson Highway.
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