Audrey Fullerton-Samora of Sacramento, great niece of William and Grace McCarthy, donated the William M. McCarthy Photograph Collection to the California State Archives in 1996
Date Created and/or Issued
7/20/1934
Publication Information
California State Archives, a division of the California Secretary of State's Office
Caption: "Jefferson Davis Highway. U.S. No. 1. Virginia. July 20, 34." Grace McCarthy is standing next to a U.S. Route 1 sign along a highway in Virginia. The Jefferson Davis Highway project was begun by the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). As auto tourism increased across the U.S., so to did the need for roads on which to drive. Private interests such as the UDC began to develop routes across the country, but with no central administrating organization the routes were haphazard and confusing. The UDC planned a route that was to stretch from Virginia across the southern U.S. to San Diego, but the entire route never materialized. The federal government stepped in to impose a numbering system on various routes across the nation. That portion of the planned Jefferson Davis Highway through Virginia was numbered as U.S. Route 1.
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