Telegraph Road (Michigan)

US Highway 24
Telegraph Road
US 24 highlighted in red
Route information
Maintained by MDOT
Length:	79.828 mi (128.471 km)
Existed:	November 11, 1926 (1926-11-11) – present
Major junctions
South end:	US 24 near Erie
	I-275 near Carleton I-94 in Taylor US 12 in Dearborn I-96 in Redford I-696 / M-10 in Southfield
North end:	I-75 near Clarkston
Location
Counties:	Monroe, Wayne, Oakland
Highway system
United States Numbered Highway System List Special Divided Replaced Michigan State Trunkline Highway System Interstate US State Byways ← M-23 M-24 →

Business US Highway 24
Location:	Pontiac, Michigan
Length:	7.121 mi (11.460 km)
Existed:	1986–present

US Highway 24 (US 24) is a United States Numbered Highway that runs from Minturn, Colorado, to Independence Township, Michigan. In Michigan, it is also known as Telegraph Road and runs for 79.828 miles (128.471 km) as a major north–south state trunkline highway from the Ohio state line through Metro Detroit. The highway runs through three counties in southeastern Michigan, Monroe, Wayne and Oakland, as it parallels the Lake Erie shoreline and bypasses Metro Detroit on the west. Telegraph Road connects several suburbs together and passes through the western edge of Detroit before it terminates northwest of Clarkston at an interchange with Interstate 75 (I-75).

The northern part of the highway follows a section of an old Indian trail called the Saginaw Trail that connected Detroit with points further north. The southern sections in the Downriver area south to Monroe parallel telegraph lines from the mid-19th century. These lines gave the road its name. Later this road was added to the state highway system in the early 20th century. It was upgraded and extended during the 1920s to serve as a western bypass of Detroit. The US 24 designation was applied to the highway on November 11, 1926, when the United States Numbered Highway System was inaugurated. Since that time, an alternate route, Alternate US Highway 24 (Alt. US 24) was designated between the state line and the Gibraltar area; this highway later became part of I-75. In the 1970s, the northernmost section gained the US 10 designation when that highway was rerouted. That overlap was eliminated in 1986, and US 24 was extended north to Clarkston to replace a segment of US 10. At the same time, a business loop in Pontiac was redesignated for US 24 in addition to its connector routes it has.