Judge J. G. Thweatt -- Brinkley AR
N 34° 53.238 W 091° 11.647
15S E 665025 N 3862032
A Gray granite memorial to Judge JG Thweatt in downtown Brinkley AR preserves the communities memory of the man who worked to bring an early national highway through town, now known as the US 70.
Waymark Code: WMNWYG
Location: Arkansas, United States
Date Posted: 05/15/2015
Views: 2
In the 1910s-1920s, the early years of the motor highway movement in the US, so-called "Good Roads" supporters worked closely with cities and government leaders to draw highways to their towns. Most of these early highways were named, not numbered. In 1928 the US Government decided to assign numbers to these early highways, and so this branch of the grandly-named "Broadway of America" became simply the US 70. (Another branch of the Broadway of America became US 80.)
However, some of those early names were never fully erased by the Federal Highway Administration's decree, and remnants or local usages of these old transcontinental highway names are common in the communities they passed through. For example, The Lincoln Highway through the NE/WY, the Bankhead Highway from DC to CA, the Dixie Highway from MI to FL, The Lee Highway From NY to CA (via the Southern US), The King's Highway from TX to MN, and the Glacier to Gulf Highway from MT to TX.
Monuments to the men and women who worked hard during the early years of the Good Roads Movement to make sure a transcontinental highway came through their hometown abound along these old byways.
Getting a branch of a transcontinental highway was a big deal in the early days of motoring -- and it was not an easy task, since many Americans in the 1920s (urban and rural) could not afford cars, and could not see the future of the automobile. They did not want to see their taxes raised to support paved roads that they would never use, or that they believed would be very lightly used.
In Brinkley, a monument to Judge Thweatt, this area's Good Roads booster, stands in the city park along Cypress Street -- AKA US 70 AKA "The Broadway of America." The memorial reads as follows:
"In Memory Of
JUDGE J. G. THWEATT
Who pioneered the project of good roads through Brinkley and Devalls Bluff
Born in Yalobusha County Miss.
1852
Died at Devalls Bluff Ark
1937
BROADWAY OF AMERICA
[engraved truss bridge over a river]
Erected by
JUDGE C. F. GREENLEE
His associate in locating the Broadway of America through Brinkley – No. 70"
Website with more information on either the memorial or the person(s) it is dedicated to: [Web Link]
Location: City Park
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