Bankhead Highway Through Arlington
Arlington, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
THE BANKHEAD HIGHWAY, OFTEN REFERRED TO LOCALLY AS THE “DALLAS PIKE” EAST OF CENTER STREET AND THE “FORT WORTH PIKE” WEST OF THAT ROAD, PLAYED AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN ARLINGTON’S FUTURE BY CONNECTING IT TO DALLAS, FORT WORTH, AND THE REST OF THE U.S. THE PIKE, FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE OLD DALLAS-FORT WORTH ROAD, WAS ACTUALLY IN USE AS A WAGON ROAD LONG BEFORE ARLINGTON WAS PLATTED. THE ROAD, NOW ABRAM STREET, BEING THE BUSIEST STRETCH OF HIGHWAY IN TEXAS, WAS DESIGNATED AS STATE HIGHWAY 1 BY THE TEXAS HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT, WHICH WAS FORMED IN 1917 TO CREATE A STATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM. IN 1920, AS PART OF THE “GOOD ROADS” PROJECT, THE BANKHEAD HIGHWAY SYSTEM, NAMED FOR JOHN WILLIS BANKHEAD, WAS DESIGNED AS A PORTION OF THE NEW NATIONAL AUTO TRAIL SYSTEM, RUNNING FROM WASHINGTON, D.C. TO SAN DIEGO. THE ROAD MOSTLY FOLLOWED STATE HIGHWAY 1, AND WOULD BE BUILT ALONG DIVISION STREET IN ARLINGTON. THE CHOSEN SAFER ROUTE WAS ENTIRELY NEW CONSTRUCTION, 25 FEET WIDE AND EIGHT INCHES THICK, COVERING 5.84 MILES FROM THE DALLAS COUNTY LINE TO THE WEST SIDE OF ARLINGTON. BY DESIGN, RAIL CROSSINGS WERE ELIMINATED INCLUDING “DEATH CROSSING” WEST OF TOWN. THE HIGHWAY WAS DECLARED OPEN TO TRAFFIC IN NOV. 1922. OVER TIME, THE HIGHWAY HAS EXPANDED AND SOME OF ITS EARLY FEATURES NO LONGER EXIST INCLUDING JOHNSON CREEK BRIDGE’S DECORATIVE HANDRAIL AND A PEDESTRIAN UNDERPASS AT THE MASONIC HOME. IN 1926, STATE HIGHWAY 1 WAS REDESIGNATED AS U.S. HWY 80 AND AGAIN AS STATE HWY 180 IN 1991. THE BANKHEAD HIGHWAY OPENED UP BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES TO MANY SMALLER TOWNS ALONG ITS ROUTE, INCREASED COMMERCE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST TEXAS, STIMULATED AUTOMOBILE TRANSPORTATION, AND INCREASED TOURISM. OVERALL, THE HIGHWAY WAS A MAJOR FACTOR IN TRANSFORMING ARLINGTON FROM A SMALL TOWN TO A THRIVING COMMUNITY.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The road through Arlington began as a humble wagon route linking Dallas and Fort Worth long before the town was platted. Designated State Highway 1 by the new Texas Highway Department in 1917, it became part of the Bankhead Highway in 1920 — a transcontinental auto trail running from Washington, D.C., to San Diego under the national "Good Roads" movement. Opened as modern paved highway in 1922, complete with eliminated rail crossings, it transformed Arlington from a small town into a thriving community.
Why it matters
The Bankhead was one of America's first coast-to-coast auto highways, and its arrival shows how the automobile age remade small towns into engines of commerce and tourism.
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Related people
- · John Willis Bankhead
Related events
- · Good Roads Movement
Themes & tags
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