Roads and routes
The 10th NH Turnpike through Crawford Notch in the White Mountains, incorporated by the NH Legislature in December 1803, ran westward from the Bartlett / Hart’s Location town line for a distance of 20 miles. In today’s terminology, that would be from about Sawyer’s Rock to the intersection of the Cog Railway Base Station Road with Route 302. It cost a little over $35,000 to build and it was functioning by late 1806. The intent of the investors was to build a road ......snip.......
The remainder of this excellent article can be found at the website of White Mountain History. This is the LINK.
WHEN WAS RTE 302 DESIGNATED ROUTE 18?
From 1922 until 1935, much of what is now US 302 was a part of the New England road marking system. Route 18, from Portland, Maine, northwest to Littleton, New Hampshire , roughly 112 miles. From Littleton west to Montpelier in Vermont, US 302 and Route 18 took different paths. NE-18 took a more northerly route, along present-day New Hampshire Route 18 and Vermont Route 18 to St._Johnsbury,_Vermont likely paralleling Interstate_93 then along present-day U.S. Route 2 up to Montpelier. Current US 302 runs along a more southerly route using other former sections of New England Interstate Routes. From Littleton, it went along former Route 10 to Woodsville,_New_Hampshire then along former Route 25 to Montpelier. The entire Maine segment of US 302 was formerly designated State Route 18, a route that was established in 1926 until being deleted in 1935 by US 302.
ROOSEVELT TRAIL: The Theodore Roosevelt International Highway was a transcontinental North American highway, from the era of the auto trails, through the United States and Canada that ran from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon. Its length was about 4,060 miles. The eastern end of the Theodore Roosevelt International Highway and the part through Bartlett and Crawford Notch was designated US 302 in 1935, and is still known in Maine as the Roosevelt Trail.[3]
The highway was designated as a memorial following Theodore Roosevelt's death on January 6, 1919.[1] Michigan completed its section of the highway in the middle of 1926.[2] A 56-mile (90 km) portion of the highway over the Continental Divide through Marias Pass in northwestern Montana was not completed until 1930. Automobiles were carried over the pass in Great Northern Railway cars until the highway was finished.[4] Dedication ceremonies for the full route were held in Montana four months after the completion of the highway. The name fell into disuse after the 1930s with the 1926 designation of the United States Numbered Highway System that replaced much of its routing with numbered highway designations.[2]
Road Accident, Jul 1880
A DRUNKEN DRIVER AND A
TERRIBLE WAGON ACCIDENT ON MOUNT WASHINGTON.
Mountain Wagon Upset and Its Occupants Thrown on to the Rocks---One Lady Killed and Five Wounded. GLEN COVE, N. H., July 11 1880 The first accident by which any passengers were ever injured on the carriage road from Glen house to the summit of Mount Washington occurred this afternoon about a mile below the Half-way House. One of the six-horse mountain wagons, containing a party of nine persons, the last load of the excursionists from Michigan to make the descent of the mountain, was tipped over. One lady was killed and five others were injured.Soon after starting from the summit the passengers discovered that the driver had been drinking while waiting for the party to descend. They left this wagon a short distance from the summit, and walked to the Halfway House, four miles, below, where one of the employees of the carriage road company assured them that there was no bad place below, and that he thought it would be safe for them to resume their seats with the driver who was with them.Soon after passing the Halfway House, in driving around a curve too rapidly, the carriage was tipped over, throwing the occupants into the woods and on the rocks. Mrs. Ira Chichester, of Allegan, Michigan, was instantly killed, and her husband, who was sitting at her side, was slightly bruised. Of the other occupants, Mrs. M. L. Tomsley, of Kalamazoo, Mich., had her left arm broken and received a slight cut on the head; Miss Jessie Barnard, of Kalamazoo, was slightly injured on the head; Miss Ella E. Meller and Mrs. C. Ferguson, of Romeo, Mich., and Miss Emma Lamb, of Howell, Mich., were slightly injured. Miss Emma Blackman, of Kalamazoo, escaped without any injuries. The wounded were brought at once to the Glen House, and received every possible care and attention, there being three physicians in attendance. Lindsey, the driver, was probably fatally injured. He had been on the road for ten years, and was considered one of the safest and most reliable drivers on the mountain. Mrs. Vanderhoot, of Chicago, also received slight internal injuries.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia, PA 13 Jul 1880