page_title: U.S. Route 40
section_title: Illinois
hierarchical_section_title: U.S. Route 40 / Route description / Illinois
caption_attribution_description: English: Vandalia State House State Historic Site, Vandalia, Illinois. The pure white Statehouse sits in the middle of a green lawn surrounded by budding trees. The Madonna of the Trail stands before it.
context_page_description: U.S. Route 40 or U.S. Highway 40, also known as the Main Street of America, is a major east–west United States Highway traveling across the United States from the Mountain States to the Mid-Atlantic States. As with most routes whose numbers end in a zero, US 40 once traversed the entire United States. It is one of the first U.S. Highways created in 1926 and its original termini were in San Francisco, California and Atlantic City, New Jersey. In the western United States, US 40 was functionally replaced by Interstate 80, resulting in the route being truncated multiple times. US 40 currently ends at a junction with I-80 in Silver Summit, Utah, just outside Salt Lake City.
  Starting at its western terminus in Utah, US 40 crosses a total of 12 states, including Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey. US 40 passes through or by major cities including Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus, Baltimore, and Wilmington. Three former and four current state capitals lie along the route.
context_section_description: The next 159.99 miles (257.48 km) of US 40 lie within the state of Illinois. Except where the route has been re-aligned with Interstate 70, it is an entirely undivided surface route. Formerly a major highway, it has lost most of its non-local traffic to Interstate 70. Some early bypasses of towns were built with the apparent intention of twinning them as a divided highway with access limited to intersections. I-70 uses none of those old bypasses that remain as sections of US 40. The westernmost portion of the historic National Road lies on most of the US 40 alignment in Illinois.
  US 40 crosses into Illinois at East St. Louis on the Poplar Street Bridge concurrent with I-55/I-64. The route has a close relationship with I-70 for the remainder of the time it spends in the state, being directly concurrent with or paralleling it throughout Illinois.
  Between Pocahontas and Mulberry Grove, US 40 passes through several small towns. In Vandalia, Illinois, the former state capitol, it follows Veterans Avenue and Kennedy Boulevard (with US 51) through town. The Old State House in Vandalia marks the western terminus of the National Road, one of the earliest roads upon which US 40 was designated. From Vandalia, the road continues to the northeast passing through the early German settlement town of Teutopolis and several city streets in Effingham. Beyond Effingham, US 40 passes through many small unincorporated towns before leaving the state near Marshall.
  Up until 1935, Illinois Route 11 roughly followed the old alignment of US 40 from St. Louis to near Terre Haute, IN. After 1935, IL 11 was decommissioned. But in the mid-1940s, IL 11 was reused after US 40 was realigned south of downtown Greenville and Mulberry Grove, Illinois. In 1947, IL 11 was extended to Vandalia via the old alignment after US 40 bypassed north of Hagarstown. It followed a part of the original alignment of US 40 between IL 127 in Greenville and US 51 in Vandalia. By 1948, IL 11 was partially replaced by US 40 Alternate; later acquired by IL 140 in 1967.
caption: The Old State House in Vandalia, and its Madonna of the Trail sculpture, marks the western terminus of the National Road, a precursor to US 40.
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