Old Spanish Trail (auto trail)
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| Southern Borderland Trunckline The Highway of the Southern Borderlands |
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| West end: | San Diego, California |
| East end: | St. Augustine, Florida |
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| Auto Trails | |
The Old Spanish Trail (the OST) was an auto trail that once spanned the United States with a full 3,000 miles (4,800 km) of roadway from ocean to ocean. It crossed eight states and 67 counties along the southern border of the United States. Work on the auto highway began in 1915 at a meeting held in Battle House, Mobile, Alabama, and, by the 1920s, the trail linked St. Augustine, Florida, to San Diego, California, with its center and headquarters in San Antonio, Texas. The cities in between boasted a shared heritage of Spanish missions, forts and Spanish colonization.
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[edit] Future
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Much of that trail still exists, and preparations have already begun for a decade-long Centennial Celebration to begin in 2019 and end with a 2029 motorcade grand finale from St. Augustine to San Diego. The present-day, all-volunteer Old Spanish Trail Centennial Celebration Association OST100 is collecting oral histories, travel logs and news articles related to the Old Spanish Trail in order to conserve the roadways, businesses and historic sites of the original Old Spanish Trail auto highway both physically and in the memory of the American people.
The current work of revitalization, historic preservation, public/private partnerships, restoration, and road enhancements, follows the lead of the original founders of the OST, who involved greatly diverse interests in building and beautifying the original roadway.
[edit] History Details
The archives of the Old Spanish Trail Association are now held in Special Collections, Louis j. Blume Library St. Mary's University. Smaller archives are held at the Saint Augustine Historical Society, The University of Jacksonville, and other archives along the original route.
[edit] Route
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The OST largely follows what became, in 1927, U.S. Highway 90 in the east and U.S. Highway 80 in the west
[edit] Texas Route
In eastern Texas the Old Spanish Trail can still be seen in many places. The trail runs alongside Interstate 10 through Orange and Vidor; when the trail reaches the Neches River, it merges with Interstate 10 crossing the Purple Heart Bridge, then detours through Downtown Beaumont. While in downtown the trail meets College Street and goes directly east from there to Liberty.
The trail enters Houston on Navigation and turns down Main Street, exiting the city as U.S. 90 ALT. On the way, it passes Rice University and by the Astrodome.
