In the 19th century, the National Road, including Main Street in Indiana, served as a state-of-the-art communications route that carried news of family and friends, national movements, and global events. During its heyday from 1830 to 1850, emigrant wagons, mail coaches, and people on foot moved letters, journals, books, fashions, opinions, stories, and rumors along the road day and night, giving many people their only glimpse beyond their county seat and shaping whether they felt content to stay or inspired to seek opportunities elsewhere. By 1837, mail traveled from Washington, D.C., to Indianapolis in 65 hours and reached St. Louis 29 hours later, with bugling mail coaches signaling quick exchanges at inns and stopping places. In the 1920s, the automobile revived the National Road as cars and trucks used new paved federal highways, and in 1926 the old road became US Route 40, a transcontinental route from Atlantic City, NJ, to San Francisco, CA. Gas stations, diners, and motels replaced earlier blacksmith shops and taverns as new sources of prosperity, and until the 1970s, US 40 remained one of the country's primary east-west routes. In 2002, the US Secretary of Transportation designated the Historic National Road from Maryland to Illinois an All-American Road, recognizing its significant role in the development of the United States, while Indiana continues to preserve its segment, structures, and landscapes along this corridor.