The Bankhead National Highway Association was formed in 1916 to create a transcontinental highway from Washington, D.C. to San Diego, California, and when completed in 1920 it became the second transcontinental highway in the U.S. Also known as the Bankhead Highway, it connected towns across the South Carolina Upstate, crossing into South Carolina near Blacksburg and passing through Gaffney, Spartanburg, Greer, Greenville, and Anderson. John Hollis Bankhead (1842-1920), a U.S. Senator from Alabama and advocate of the Good Roads Movement, sponsored the Federal Road Aid Act of 1916, which authorized $75 million for road improvement and was the first federal highway funding law. In Greer, the National Highway followed what is now Poinsett Street. Later, the Super Highway, now Wade Hampton Boulevard, and Interstate 85 replaced it as the main route from Charlotte to Atlanta.