The Dixie Highway was a United States automobile highway, first planned in 1914 to connect the US Midwest with the Southern United States. It was part of the National Auto Trail system, and grew out of an earlier Miami to Montreal highway. The final result is better understood as a network of connected paved roads, rather than one single highway. It was constructed and expanded from 1915 to 1927.
After the U.S. Highway System
What happened to the Dixie Highway after the U.S. Highway System came about? Much of the eastern route---and all the Carolina route---became U.S. Highway 25. Then the primary eastern route (Knoxville to Macon) was largely paralleled and in some sections replaced by Interstate 75, which runs from Miami, Florida, to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Large portions of the former US 25 in western Ohio ultimately ended up in 1963 (after Interstate 75's completion in that area) as County Road 25A. A four-lane portion runs between Cygnet and Toledo, through Bowling Green, as Ohio State Route 25. In Michigan, M-25 from Port Huron to Bay City incorporates the segment of old US 25 that Interstates 75 and 94 did not supplant as a through route. The eastern portion from Jacksonville, Florida south was largely replaced with U.S. Route 1.
The portion of the western route from Nashville, Tennessee north to Louisville, Kentucky is now U.S. Highway 31W. In most of the cities it traverses in Kentucky, it is still referred to as "Dixie Highway" or "Dixie Avenue". The western route generally follows the present-day route of U.S. Highway 31 from Louisville to Indianapolis. From Nashville to Indianapolis, the route parallels Interstate 65. Portions of this stretch were originally parts of the Louisville and Nashville Turnpike, which began construction in the 1830s.
Source: Wikipedia
