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The last stone-arch bridge still in use on the Illinois National Road
The historic marker says that this bridge was completed between 1834 and 1837, making it both the oldest surviving bridge, and the only stone bridge, still in use on the National Road in Illinois....
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Neat creatures, 2 cents
Clark Center is barely a town, as it features just a handful of homes and what looks like a warehouse. But the original US 40 and National Road alignment runs right through it, the 1920s brick road...
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The nine-foot-wide highway
As you follow the old National Road westward across Illinois, shortly before you reach Martinsville the abandoned brick highway abruptly turns into an abandoned concrete highway. Here’s an eastbound...
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The beautiful homes on Main Street in Casey, Illinois
If you ever visit Casey, Illinois, be sure to do two things: (1) pronounce it “cay-zee,” and (2) drive in from the east on Main Street. The first is to prevent embarrassing yourself should you talk to...
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The Village of the Porches
We drove our car on asphalt pavement into Greenup, Illinois. But it would have seemed somehow more fitting if we had ridden in on horseback on a dusty dirt road, so much did the town remind us of the...
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The covered bridge over the Embarras River
The Embarras (AM-braw) River doesn’t seem to want National Road travelers to cross. Its waters have damaged or destroyed three bridges. A wooden covered bridge was built here in 1832, but it washed...
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Are there two alignments of the National Road in Effingham, Illinois?
We drove right on through Effingham on our May trek across Illinois on the National Road. We had lingered in Clark and Cumberland Counties, and I really wanted to get to the end of the National Road in...
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Drunken road striping
West of Effingham, Illinois, US 40 makes a wide curve and passes over a railroad track. An earlier alignment of the road was left behind when the overpass was built. Here’s what all of this looks like...
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A confluence of roads near Vandalia
The bonanza of abandoned old pavement along the Illinois National Road dries up just before Montrose, a little town just east of Effingham. Thence west, US 40 almost entirely follows the same alignment...
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The end of the National Road
The plan was to build the National Road all the way to the Mississippi River at St. Louis. Unfortunately, money ran out about 70 miles to the east at Vandalia, Illinois, and that was that. I don’t know...
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A visit to Rose-Hulman
I missed my 25th college reunion in early October, so I was glad to have a chance to visit campus the day before Halloween. I was officially on campus to interview summer-intern candidates to work for...
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Captured: Oasis Diner
It’s a gleaming stainless-steel 1954 Mountain View diner, shipped by rail from the New Jersey factory and opened for business on US 40, the old National Road, just east of Plainfield, Indiana. It...
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The Central State Hospital for the Insane
For nearly 150 years, those thought to be intractably mentally ill in Indiana were housed there. It opened in 1848 as The Indiana State Hospital for the Insane, on more than 100 acres facing the...
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The McOuat building
The McOuat (Mi-COO-it) building was a blight. Few buildings in downtown Indianapolis looked this bad. But a renovation completed in 2010 brought this 1901 building back to life. It’s now stores and...
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Revealing the bricks on the National Road in Indianapolis
Work on an old road sometimes reveals old surfaces. A project in Downtown Indianapolis along Washington Street, the city’s east-west main drag, cut this groove into the center of the road and revealed...
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Favorite Photos Week: US 40 in Putnam County, Indiana
Do you see that spot where the road disappears into the trees? I want to go there. I want to find what’s around that curve. I’ll take some pictures when I get there. I’ll use an old camera, probably...
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Lifting a blighted neigborhood: The Angie’s List campus
This was the scene in 2008 where the Michigan Road and the National Road intersect on Indianapolis’s Eastside. Ew. Since then, this block and the block to the east have been extensively renovated. Here...
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Old McDonald’s sign on the National Road in Richmond, Indiana
My friend Dawn and I recently took our annual road trip. Our 2009 trip along the old National Road, aka US 40, from Ohio to Indianapolis several years ago, was cut short by a family emergency. So we...
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Neon sign, lost
Two things have changed for me in the nine years I’ve been taking road trips. First, in the old days it was mostly about exploring, and now it’s mostly about enjoying a day’s journey. Second, I’ve seen...
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