Route books for Federal-Aid highways

The Federal Highway Act of 1921 required a state wishing to receive Federal highway aid to obtain approval of its designated system from the Bureau of Public Roads in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This responsibility was transferred to the Public Roads Administration in the Federal Works Agency in 1939, and to the reestablished bureau of Public Roads in the Department of Commerce in 1949. The Bureau of Public Roads became part of the Federal Highway Administration in the new Department of Transportation in 1967. Laws of 1936 specifically required the New York Superintendent of Public Works " to comply with federal aid highway acts." The Commissioner of Transportation assumed this responsibility in 1967. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973 required the states to prepare entirely new maps and descriptions of their Federal aid primary, secondary, interstate, and urban highways systems. This realignment was completed in New York in 1977, and the present series was closed.

The two volumes in this series contain letters designating New York Highways as primary or secondary routes eligible for federal aid. Volume 1 includes a description of each Federal aid primary and secondary highway route approved in New York as of January 9, 1931. The routes are numbered consecutively. Beginning and ending points and intermediate cities, villages, and hamlets are indicated for each route. The rest of the series consists of letters approving revisions or additions to the system, as it existed in 1931. Each letter states the number and the route of the primary highway added to the Federal aid system. (There are few if any letters approving changes in the secondary system.) Usually the length of the route is given, along the state's total primary mileage including the new route.

Starting in 1945 the volumes contain occasional correspondence (incoming and outgoing) concerning the state's designations of "urban areas." These were defined by the Federal-aid Highway Act of 1944 as any municipality of 5000 or more population along with any built-up areas outside the city or village limits. The States were eligible for special aid for designated highways in these areas. (In the 1960's and 1970's many of these urban areas were revised.) Starting in 1950, with the addition of the New York State Thruway to the primary highway system, there are letters approving Federal aid for highways now part of the Interstate Highways System. Starting in the 1960's most are photocopies of originals. There is no index; but most of the letters amending the 1931 system bear route numbers in red. The original 1931 route descriptions are annotated with the dates of the letters that amended particular routes. Many of the letters refer to maps that are not in the State Archives.

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