The first coast-to-coast paved roadway in the United States opened on this date a century ago. Known as the Lincoln Highway, the road originally ran for nearly 3,400 miles through 13 states, connecting New York City with San Francisco. As a young army officer, Dwight Eisenhower drove in an army convoy on the Lincoln Highway — an experience which lay behind his later support as president for the Interstate Highway System that we enjoy today. And the Lincoln Highway, with some route adjustments and sharing, still serves American motorists, but with the designations of U.S. routes 1, 30, 530, 40 and 50. Across the U.S., there are just over four million miles of roads, about three quarters of them in rural areas. Profile America is in its 17th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.