What if they built a bridge and nobody ever drove on it?

Here’s a weird one – a bridge along US 50 in southwestern Illinois that has an unused twin!

Here it is, up close and personal.

There are actually four such bridges along this 21-mile stretch of US 50 between Carlyle and Lebanon. The State of Illinois built them in about 1973 anticipating a four-lane divided highway that [...]

Three abandoned bridges in a row

As you drive US 50 in Illinois, in several places you parallel an older alignment of the road. The state has intended at various times to build a four-lane expressway out of US 50, to the extent that new lanes have been laid down with the presumable intent of rebuilding the old lanes to carry [...]

Where Lincoln first entered Illinois

I just love to find an old brick road. This one used to be US 50 as it entered Illinois after crossing the Wabash River from Vincennes, Indiana.

Notice how the fellow who owns that house parks his cars on the old highway? A roadgeek’s dream!
You may have noticed that there’s no bridge in that photo. [...]

The National Road revisited

“I know!” someone at the highway maintenance barn exclaimed. “Let’s get drunk and go stripe some road!”

This and many other adventures, including an abandoned bridge, 10 miles of abandoned brick highway, and an 1830 stone arch bridge still carrying traffic, in my report on the Indiana and Illinois National Road, Revisited.