On September 1, 1912 at a dinner party for automobile manufacturers at the Deutsches Haus in Indianapolis, Carl G. Fisher, President of the Prest-O-Lite Company and father of The Indianapolis 500 unveiled his plan for a highway spanning the country from New York City to California. "A road across the United States! Let's build it before we're too old to enjoy it!" Fisher urged the auto executives. A few months after the Indianapolis dinner, Fisher received a letter from Henry Joy, Packard Motor Company president, pledging $150,000 for the proposed roadway. Joy, a leading force behind getting the coast-to-coast highway built, also suggested that the road be named for Abraham Lincoln. On 1 July 1913 the Lincoln Highway Association was created with Joy as President and Fisher as Vice President. The Association's goal was to "procure the establishment of a continuous improved highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific, open to lawful traffic of all description without toll charges: such highway to be known in memory of Abraham Lincoln, as ?The Lincoln Highway.'"
The Lincoln Highway in Indiana has two routes. The 1913 Route followed a more northern path in the state. The route was straightened and moved south with the advent of the National Highway Act in 1926. The Lincoln Highway was numbered Highway 30 in accordance with the new national system of marking in the US.
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