How Highway 16 Shaped Travel Across Michigan Decades Ago

For those of you who have taken an interest in Michigan’s history, it may surprise you to find out that there is a ghost highway in Michigan that is no longer recognized, but at one time was the original highway that linked the east side of the state to the west side of the state.

US Highway 16, or M-16, which is more commonly referred to as Grand River Avenue today, was the first highway in Michigan to be designated with a number before the creation of the United States numbering highway system in 1926.

Get our free mobile app

The goal of the highway was to connect some of the major Cities starting in Detroit and ending in Muskegon. The highway would travel through Detroit, Lansing, Brighton, Grand Rapids, and end in Muskegon.

For a long time, US-16 was the route that people would take, but as time went on and the interstate highway system evolved, US-16 and its older roads were avoided to take the newly built freeways.

It ultimately came to an end when the gap in the freeway was filled around Lansing, according to the Wikipedia page. After that, US 16 was officially decommissioned as a designated highway and was redesignated as I-96 east of Grand Rapids and I-196 west of that.

It's crazy when you consider the number of highways we have today, that at one time, this was the most convenient way to travel from east to west in Michigan. It gives you a larger appreciation for I-94, but it's a cool part of Michigan's history nevertheless.