U.S. Highway 30 | ||||
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Route information | ||||
Maintained by NDOR | ||||
Length: | 451.74 mi (727.01 km) | |||
Existed: | 1926 – present | |||
Tourist routes: |
Lincoln Highway Scenic & Historic Byway | |||
Major junctions | ||||
West end: | US 30 at Wyoming state line | |||
N-71 in Kimball US 385 in Sidney US 26 in Ogallala US 83 in North Platte US 281 in Grand Island US 81 in Columbus US 77 in Fremont US 75 in Blair |
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East end: | US 30 at Iowa state line | |||
Highway system | ||||
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U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs for 3,073 miles (4,946 km) from Astoria, Oregon to Atlantic City, New Jersey. Within the state of Nebraska it is a state highway that travels 451.74 miles (727.01 km) west to east across the state from the Wyoming state line west of Bushnell to the Missouri River in Blair on the Iowa state line. For much of its length it travels within the Platte River valley, adjacent or near the river between Brule and Fremont, a distance of just over 300 miles (480 km). This corridor was also highly traveled during Westward Expansion along the California and Oregon Trails, it was also used by the Pony Express and the Transcontinental Railroad. The landscape is dominated by vast agricultural fields within the fertile Platte River valley across the center of the state, while the western portion passes through higher plains and the eastern portion through the rolling hills adjacent to the Missouri River valley.
While US 30 has been mostly superseded by Interstate 80 for long-haul travel across the state, it has been a major thoroughfare across Nebraska since the early twentieth century, most notably as a central portion of the historic Lincoln Highway, an early transcontinental route from New York, New York to San Francisco, California that passed through Nebraska along the corridor that became US 30 once the route designations of the federal highway system were assigned in 1926. To showcase the historic importance of this early route across the state, the entire length of US 30 across Nebraska has been designated as the Lincoln Highway Scenic and Historic Byway, one of nine scenic byways designated by the Nebraska Department of Roads throughout the state.