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Old US 12:
Old U.S. 12 in
According to Kara ... runs from downtown
Detroit to
Chicago. It was replaced by
Interstate 94 in
1962, and the state of Michigan re-routed the U.S. 12 designation to the former route of
U.S. Highway 112.
It was an old highway that ran through the middle of the major towns and cities of Michigan between Detroit and Chicago. In most cases the road is still there, and is named either
Michigan Avenue,
Old U.S. 12 or the
Red Arrow Highway, named after the
32nd Infantry Division[2]. It is still possible to drive the highway from downtown Detroit all the way to The
Magnificent Mile in Chicago, with only a few places in which one is required to navigate around the interstate highway. The major break in Old U.S. 12 is in the middle of Michigan half way between the village of
Parma and the city of
Albion. It is at this point that I-94 cuts south to some degree and bisects the old highway, forcing a motorist to navigate north on smaller roads.
Prior to
1956, the Detroit-Ann Arbor segment of U.S. 12 was routed directly through Ann Arbor, through
Plymouth Township,
Livonia, and
Redford Township, into Detroit, along the Plymouth-Ann Arbor Road corridor to Plymouth Road's eastern terminus at
U.S. 16,
Grand River Avenue. U.S. 12 continued on Grand River Avenue, co-signed with U.S. 16, into downtown Detroit. Except for the co-signed Grand River Avenue segment, this route was designated as
M-14 when U.S. 12 was rerouted to the Detroit Industrial and Willow Run Expressways, which became I-94 in 1962.
The highway is considered an important historic road like
Route 66. Some of it had been the original Territorial Road of Michigan laid out in the early 1800s.