U.S. Highway 12
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U.S. Highway 12
United States Highway 12 is an east-west United States highway. U.S. 12 is now the only U.S. highway route still serving downtown Detroit, Michigan, whose downtown street grid was laid by Augustus Woodward to have a five-way intersection of the roads that would become U.S. 12, U.S. 10, U.S. 16, U.S. 112, and U.S. 25. (US-24 serves Detroit from Puritan to 8-mile road on the far-west-side)
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Termini
As of 2004, the highway's eastern terminus is in Detroit at an indeterminate point downtown. Its western terminus is in Aberdeen, Washington at an intersection with U.S. Highway 101.
States traversed
The highway passes through the following states:
From Elkhorn, Wisconsin to near the Illinois/Wisconsin state line, it is a freeway with a 65 m.p.h speed limit.
Historical route information
Old Route 12 in Michigan
Old U.S. 12 in Michigan runs from downtown Detroit to Chicago. It was replaced by Interstate 94 in 1952, and the state of Michigan re-routed the U.S. 12 designation to the former route of U.S. Highway 112.
It was an old highway that ran through the middle of the major towns and cities of Michigan between Detroit and Chicago. In most cases the road is still there, and is named either Michigan Avenue, Old U.S. 12 or the Red Arrow Highway, named after a World War I army division. It is still possible to drive the highway from Belle Isle in Detroit all the way to The Magnificent Mile in Chicago, with only a few places in which one is required to navigate around the interstate highway. The major break in Old U.S. 12 is in the middle of Michigan half way between the village of Parma and the city of Albion. It is at this point that I-94 cuts south to some degree and bisects the old highway, forcing a motorist to navigate north on smaller roads.
The highway is considered an important historic road like Route 66. Some of it had been the original Territorial Road of Michigan laid out in the early 1800s.
Michigan cities on old route
Detroit, Michigan, Dearborn, Michigan, Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Chelsea, Michigan, Grass Lake, Michigan, Jackson, Michigan, Parma, Michigan, Albion, Michigan, Marshall, Michigan, Battle Creek, Michigan, Kalamazoo, Michigan, St. Joseph, Michigan, Niles, Michigan, Gary, Indiana, Chicago, Illinois
For a detailed discussion of the current U.S. 12 in Michigan, see the link for the old U.S. Highway 112, which received the designation U.S. 12 in the early 1960s.
Related US Routes
- U.S. Highway 112 (decommissioned)
- U.S. Highway 212
- U.S. Highway 312 (decommissioned)
- U.S. Highway 412 (not a "child" of US 12)
- List of U.S. Highways
Sources
- Endpoints of US highways (http://www.geocities.com/usend1019/End012/end012.htm) (used with permission)