The early 20th century development of the automobile brought major changes to road systems throughout the U.S. The 1916 Federal Aid Road Act, sponsored by Alabama Senator John H. Bankhead, supplied matching funds to states for road upgrades and required them to establish highway departments in order to receive federal disbursements; in Texas, this led to the creation of the Texas Highway Department in 1917. The Bankhead Highway, America’s second east-to-west transcontinental highway, was soon routed from Washington D.C. to San Diego. Its route through Texas included Texarkana, Dallas, Fort Worth, and El Paso, and it passed through Garland in Dallas County. In 1919, Texas Bankhead Highway Association Secretary Arthur P. Dyer noted that Garland was the only town on the Texas route that had voluntarily organized and gone to work without asking for outside help. Garland residents took advantage of the highway’s economic potential, and auto repair shops, restaurants, and service stations were built along Main Street, the highway’s route through town, which was soon paved and curbed. Although the Bankhead was officially designated Texas Highway 1 in 1917, it retained the official Bankhead name until 1926, when it became part of U.S. Highway 67. The old name remained attached to the Garland segment until the 1950s. Beginning in the 1950s, the road’s importance diminished as most drivers chose the wider, safer, and faster interstate system, but it remained significant in the history of Garland and many other Texas towns.