Lincoln Highway / US 40 Route

CITRUS HEIGHTS CAR WASH is located at 7742 Auburn Boulevard in Citrus Heights, California. 

Auburn Boulevard is on the historical US Route 40 corridor, originally known as "The Lincoln Highway", which runs from San Francisco, CA to Atlantic City, NJ. This highway was created in 1913 to celebrate the automobile and encourage leisure driving. 

Carl Fisher was an automobile pioneer who had a vision to create a transcontinental highway, that ran from coast-to-coast. The concept was originally funded by Frank Seiberling, president of Goodyear Tire, and Henry Joy, president of Packard Motor Car Company. To give it more "patriotic appeal" they decided to name the highway after President Abraham Lincoln. 

Back in 1912, most of the roads were made of dirt and difficult to drive on. In the dry season, the roads were dusty and rocky, that turned to thick mud during the rainy season. 

As the automobile grew in popularity in the 1950's, so did the idea for a national, interstate highway.  President Dwight Eisenhower saw the highway system as a way to connect the country, help it grow and move troops in case of war.  In 1956, the National Interstate and Defense Highway Act was passed that funded the building of the massive interstate highway system we know today. 

In 1926, the US Numbered Highway System was established and the original "Lincoln Highway" name was gradually replaced with numbered designations. The route from Pennsylvania to Wyoming became part of US Route 30.  When the Interstate Highway System was formed in the 1950s, other parts of "Lincoln Highway" became known as US 40 Route and Interstate 80.

Although the California segment of this highway was decommissioned in 1964, "Historic US 40 Route" signs have been placed along the remaining parts of the highway in California, notably along Auburn Blvd. in Sacramento, Citrus Heights and Riverside Drive in
Roseville. 

Sources: Citrus Heights Historical Society, Lincoln Highway Association