Jefferson Davis Highway

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The Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway was a transcontinental highway in the United States from Washington, D.C. west to San Diego, California. It was named for Jefferson Davis (1808-1889). He was an American soldier, U.S. Congressman, and Secretary of War in the cabinet of U.S. President Franklin Pierce. He is best known as the first and only president of the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861-1865).

Old marker for Jefferson Davis Highway in Gretna, Louisiana.

The Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway designation name was originally intended to be used on a nationwide highway early in the 20th century, as part of the National Auto Trail movement. In that era, it was common for private organizations to identify a route, give it a name, and promote its use and improvement. In 1912, highway pioneer Carl G. Fisher had announced his plans for a "coast to coast" rock highway to be called the Lincoln Highway; the route was announced in September 1913.

The Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway was conceived in 1913 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (U.D.C.). As was the common practice among the named trail organizations, the U.D.C. developed an official marker to be displayed on poles and trees, consisting of three bands, six inches wide or red, white, and red, with the letters "J D H" four inches high, placed one below the other in the center of the stripes. A metal marker was later designed to carry the markings.

The eastern terminal marker was placed at the Virginia end of the 14th Street Bridge which crosses the Potomac River from Washington, DC (depositing the driver into Crystal City in Arlington). Another monument marking the northwestern terminus of the Jefferson Davis National Highway was unveiled near the Peace Arch at Blaine, Washington in the northwestern U.S. near the border with Canada. The Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway marker originally at the Washington/Oregon state-line is now the central piece of the Jefferson Davis Park in Clark County, Washington.

While portions of the many named roads of that era still bear the designations, a national system of numbering became the primary designation for the U.S. highway system in 1926. All the transcontinental named routes, including the Lincoln Highway and the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway, were split among several numbers when the American Association of State Highway Officials adopted the U.S. numbering plan in November 1926. The Jefferson Davis National Highway was split among U.S. 1, U.S. 15, U.S. 29, U.S. 61, U.S. 80, U.S. 90, U.S. 99, U.S. 190 and others.

Much of U.S. Route 1 in Virginia still bears the designation. The section near the western terminus is now Interstate 5. In Alabama, the segment of U.S. Highway 80 from Selma, to Montgomery is the most famous part of the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway today. On this road, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., led the 1965 Voting Rights March that helped prompt Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. In 1996, the U.S. Department of Transportation designated the Selma-to-Montgomery Scenic Byway an All-American Road under the National Scenic Byways Program. As a National Historic Trail, the Selma-to-Montgomery stretch of U.S. 80 has become an international symbol of freedom.

In Virginia, between the City of Colonial Heights and City of Petersburg, the bridge on the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway which carries U.S. 1 and U.S. Route 301 across the Appomattox River was renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bridge.

The Jefferson Davis Highway in Virginia was defined by the General Assembly on March 17, 1922 to run from the District of Columbia at the 14th Street Bridge to the border with North Carolina south of Clarksville. This corridor was defined as U.S. Route 1 and U.S. Route 15 in 1926, though US 1 took a shorter route between south of McKenney and South Hill. (The Jefferson Davis Highway used what was then State Route 122 and State Route 12.^[1] This is now State Route 712 and U.S. Route 58, and is still defined as the Jefferson Davis Highway.) US 15 from South Hill to Clarksville is now U.S. Route 58. The Jefferson Davis Highway now uses the following business routes:^[2]

U.S. Route 58 Business in Lawrenceville
U.S. Route 58 Business in Boydton

State Route 110 now bears the name of Jefferson Davis Highway as it travels in Virginia between Rosslyn (near the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge) and U.S. Route 1 in Crystal City. A street in Crystal City now designated as "Old Jefferson Davis Highway" parallels the east side of U.S. 1. This street ends before reaching the 14th Street Bridge. ^[3]

In Louisiana, Jefferson Highway goes north out of New Orleans along US 61 and changes onto Louisiana Highway 73 near Prairieville, Louisiana. It continues along LA-73 into and across Baton Rouge, Louisiana. In Baton Rouge, the highway follows Government Street to the levee and then north along the levee to Florida Street (U.S. 190 Business Route). The road continued west across the Mississippi River on a now closed ferry into Port Allen, Louisiana. In Port Allen, Jefferson Highway goes north to the northern end of the town. The highway then follows west along Louisiana Highway 986. The roadway later changes to Louisiana Highway 76 and follows that highway into the town of Rosedale, Louisiana.