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Just like you, dear reader, we at Jalopnik live for the love of cars, motorcycles, and aircraft. The racetracks, the roar of multi-cylinder machines, the speed, and the smell of burnt clutches and melting rubber are more stimulating than a double shot of espresso. Okay, maybe not espresso, we love that stuff, but you get the point, right? Heck, we've even got a bucket list of roads we'd love to drive. With this passion, comes the love for speed, and that speed turns the scenery into a blurry streak and bends time between corners. Some of us prefer to lift off the gas and trade the track for a quiet backroad, finding joy in the journey itself. This one is for the love of open roads and, very specifically, some of the oldest U.S. thoroughfares that are still in use today. These are paths that once carried Native Americans, post riders, colonists, stagecoaches, and, later, cars. But America's road system was carved, argued over, and paved 1 mile at a time until it became the sprawling network that we drive on today. Muddy wagon trails eventually became the blueprint for modern roads, and every era added its own layer of history. The U.S. road system now manages nearly 8 billion vehicle miles a day. Some of the oldest roads have been widened, paved, rerouted, and renamed. They run through bustling towns and sleepy suburbs, quietly reminding us that the foundations of American travel were laid centuries ago. Here's a tip of the hat to some of the oldest roads in America that are still open to everyday traffic, each one being a living time capsule for modern wheels.
