Not quite a golden spike, but a milestone nonetheless

On this day in 1927: Gov. Angus McLean of North Carolina and Gov. Harry Byrd of Virginia unlock a ceremonial gate across the section of U.S. 1 now linking their states.

The nation’s first major border-to-border highway will eventually cover 2,467 miles from Canada to Key West. In North Carolina it enters in Warren County, runs through Henderson, Raleigh, Sanford and Rockingham and exits from Richmond County.

Addendum: Several decades ago in an antique mall near Elkin I saw a photo of this ceremony, but I couldn’t deduce what I was looking at. Google doesn’t yield up an image, but surely one survives.

 

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