A three-mile brick roadway at Elkhorn was once part of the Lincoln Highway, a paved, toll-free transcontinental route from New York City to San Francisco promoted by the Lincoln Highway Association, which private interests founded in 1913 as part of a national movement to improve the nation's still-developing highway system. This section, mapped in 1913 to connect Omaha and Elkhorn, was originally unpaved. In 1920, during a broader effort to improve the highway across the state, it was paved with concrete underlayment and brick surfacing to form two eight-foot lanes. In 1930, the official route of the Lincoln Highway, now U.S. 30, was moved to create a shorter route from a new Missouri River toll bridge at Blair to Fremont, bypassing this segment, which continued to serve local traffic. As a well-preserved example of early twentieth-century road construction, it reflects the Lincoln Highway's importance and its role in promoting today's modern highway system.