WASHINGTON, March 2, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2: ROAD SIGNS
Profile America -- Wednesday, March 2nd. Most new cars offer navigation systems to help owners reach their destinations -- but we still depend on the signs along the highways. Though we take them for granted, they weren't always there. By the 1920s, the number of cars was growing rapidly, but driving was a nightmare. There were no standard signs on the nation's more than 3 million miles of roads, and many had no signs at all. On this date 86 years ago, state and federal officials met to solve the problem. They came up with standard signs and numbers -- highways running north and south had odd numbers and those going east and west were given even numbers. Today, there are more than 4 million miles of roads in the U.S., about 47,000 of them in the Interstate Highway System. Profile America is in its 14th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Sources: Chase's Calendar of Events 2011, p. 154
Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, p. 710
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2011, t. 1087, 1088
Profile America is produced by the Public Information Office of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on a monthly CD or on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).
SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau
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