Today it's odd to think of the road between Watsontown and Mcewensville (from the canal path parking area, go to main street & head east. At the gas station, turn left across the railroad tracks and follow the road to the right to Mcewensville) as a "highway", but in 1912, it was indeed thought of as such. Watsontown Brick is located right between this road and current day 405, so it's no surprise that Watsontown Brick was used to build the road, one of the first of it's kind to be built in Pennsylania.
The Danville Morning News
(Danville, Pennsylvania)
7 Aug 1912, Wed • Page 1
According to George Wesner in History in McEwensville (1976):
The brick road leading from McEwensville to Watsontown was one of the first of its kind to be built in Pennsylvania. Construction was begun at McEwensville in 1912 and completed the following year. . .
It was built by the construction firm Fiss and Christiana of Shamokin, Pennsylvania. In grading, the ground was moved by horse-drawn dump wagons which were loaded by manual labor. While some local people were employed most of the laborers were Italian immigrants. Very few could speak English. They were quartered in a labor camp which was located in a ravine on the farm of Isiah Elliot, now owned by Samuel Raup. All the materials, sand, gravel, brick and cement were hauled by teams and horses. The only mechanical equipment used was a steam roller. . .
On an occasion when a period of bad weather had caused the operation to run behind schedule, the contractors, in an effort to catch up, requested that they work on Sunday. . . .