US Route 40 manifested as one of the most important travel corridors across the United States, assuming the position of the historic National Road.  Today, it runs from Atlantic City, New Jersey, west to Park City, Utah.  Between central Colorado and southwestern Pennsylvania, US Route 40 hugs alongside Interstate 70, its modernized counterpart.  The westernmost piece of US Route 40 bends northwesterly out of northeastern Utah to Interstate 80 at Park City, where it ends.  US Route 40 is a rural surface highway across northeastern Utah and northwestern Colorado, joining Interstate 70 west of Denver.  Interstate 70 and US Route 40 run side-by-side with the occasional concurrency, through Denver, Salina, Topeka, Kansas City, Columbia (MO), St. Louis, Terre Haute, Indianapolis, Dayton, Columbus (OH), and Wheeling, West Virginia.  At Washington, Pennsylvania, where Interstate 70 meets Interstate 79, US Route 40 diverts from Interstate 70, heading southeasterly into western Maryland.  At Hancock, Maryland, Interstate 70 appears from the north once again, and US Route 40 hugs alongside that Interstate highway once again.  This trend continues through Hagerstown and Frederick, but as Interstate 70 is cut off in Baltimore, US Route 40 must continue east beyond Baltimore without its Interstate companion.  US Route 40 cuts northeasterly around the northern end of Chesapeake Bay to skirt across northern Delaware.  The most downstream bridge over the Delaware Waterway, the Delaware Memorial Bridge, carries Interstate 295 and US Route 40 into New Jersey.  US Route 40 will spend the rest of its life crossing southern New Jersey from that bridge crossing.  It ends in Atlantic City, just a couple blocks from the Atlantic Ocean.

My featured photo for US Route 40 replaces an older one. The new, improved photo appears next, but the older photo still appears on this page, at the bottom. Coincidentally, both US Route 40 photos are from Indiana.

My newer photo of US Route 40 signage comes from Indianapolis, specifically the eastern side of town. US Route 40 enters the city from the east, but Indianapolis kicked all of the numbered surface routes out of town and onto the Interstate beltway surrounding the city, years ago. That Interstate beltway is Interstate 465. Knowing that, you can discern that the signage here shows westbound travelers that they need to take this onramp to Interstate 465 south in order to continue onward along US Route 40. This onramp starts out toward the north, but it hooks around and puts travelers on the southbound side of the Interstate, using a 180-degree turn. This photo was taken on a trip to Indianapolis in July 2024.

My older photo of US Route 40 comes from the eastern outskirts of Terre Haute, Indiana, where Indiana State Route 340 has its western terminus. The guide assembly in the photo faces west, showing eastbound travelers where to turn onto Indiana State Route 340.  This photo was taken in April 2018, during a trip focused on photographing state route markers in southern Indiana and southwestern Ohio.

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