Thursday 21st August 1986

The final section of the 2,900 mile (4,666 km) coast-to-coast Interstate 80 (San Francisco, California, to New York City) was dedicated on the western edge of Salt Lake City, Utah, making I-80 the world’s first contiguous freeway to span from the Atlantic to Pacific ocean and, at the time, the longest contiguous freeway in the world. The section spanned from Redwood Road to just west of the Salt Lake City International Airport. At the dedication it was noted that coincidentally this was only 50 miles (80 km) from Promontory Summit, where a similar feat was accomplished 120 years prior, with the laying of the golden spike of the United States’ First Transcontinental Railroad.