Minnesota Transportation History (Minnesota Department of Transportation): Get Started

• 1905 - The Legislature creates the State Highway Commission to build roads and bridges.
• 1917 - The State Highway Commission is abolished. The Legislature creates the Department of Highways
• 1920s - The Highway Commissioner won a state constitutional amendment allocating gas taxes solely to build and maintain roads & A constitutional amendment is adopted to create a system of 70 trunk highways.
• 1921 - The Legislature gives the Highway Department a mandate to acquire right of way; locate, construct, improve and maintain trunk highways; let necessary contracts; buy needed material and equipment; and expend necessary funds.
• 1944 - The Federal Aid Highway Act authorized funding for postwar programs to improve secondary rural and urban roads.
• 1945 - The Highway Department creates the State Aid Division to work with Minnesota's cities and counties.
• 1956 - Congress enacted laws that set up funding for the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. Minnesota voters approved a constitutional amendment to distribute state road user funds. The percentages established were 62% state, 29% county and 9% municipal.
• 1969 - The Legislature established the Department of Public Safety. The Highway Patrol and Drivers License Bureau transfer from the Highway Department to Public Safety.
• 1976 - The Minnesota Department of Transportation was created and assumed the activities of the Departments of Aeronautics and Highways, plus transportation-related sections of the State Planning Agency and the Public Service Department.
• Today - In addition to roads and bridges, MnDOT develops and implements policies, plans and programs for aeronautics, freight and passenger carriers, ports and waterways, public transit, alternative transportation (bicycling), and railroads.

A Brief History of MnDOT. 

Transportation Dictionary 

Transportation Research Thesaurus

Glossary of Transit Terminology 

Airline Handbook Glossary

Glossary of Shipping Terms 

Terminology On Combined Transport - UK

State DOT Search Engine (Google)

Glossary of Bridge Terms

Search Library Catalog

Primary Sources
A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or work of art. Primary sources include historical and legal documents, eyewitness accounts, results of experiments, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, audio and video recordings, speeches, and art objects. Interviews, surveys, fieldwork, and Internet communications via email, blogs, listservs, and newsgroups are also primary sources.

Secondary Sources
Secondary sources describe, discuss, interpret, analyze, evaluate, summarize or otherwise process primary sources. Examples of secondary source materials include newspaper articles, book or movie reviews, and scholarly journal content that discuss someone else's original research. 

Map of opening dates of Interstate highway segements in Minnesota  

Historic Minnesota highway maps published from 1919 to 2009

Highway Construction Project Logs
*Searching the Construction Project Logs
Select the county you wish to search to find the route number that you want and select the control section . A control section is a numbering system MnDOT uses to keep track of segments of roads. Once you open a particular control section project log, you'll see a graphical representation of the history of that road segment and sub-segments including when it was built and when certain maintenance activities were performed.

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