NORTHERN SUBURBS
Map from the late 1920s showing Minnesota's US Highway connections through the Upper Midwest
Between 1850 and the mid 1920s, as a node of a rail network, Anoka held a distinct advantage over areas of the northern suburbs not ajacent to rail lines. However, that would all change upon investment in a statewide highway system. The emerging highway system established a far more egalitarian travel landscape (for those who could afford automobiles). A network of smooth traversable roads jetted out from the Twin Cities into soon-to-be suburbs and beyond. The Minnesota highway system was just one piece of an emerging transportation network that would forever change the landscape and geography of commerce and industry in the US.
1908 Model T, one of the first affordable personal automobiles
In 1908, Henry Ford, among a handful manufacturers, released the first relatively low-cost automobile. Private automobile ownership was now accessible for a major segment of the population.
The map below of Blaine in 1914 illistrates the character of the transportation network in the northern suburbs at the beginning of the auto era. Notice the hodgepodge network of inefficiently connected roads and sparse development
The resulting rise in private automobile ownership pressured the Federal Government to assume a role in road development and planning. As early as 1916, states could access federal funds for road improvements via the Federal-Aid Highway Program. The financial strain of WWI limited the use of the program. Minnesota would not begin development of a cohesive highway system until 1921
Full page add promoting one of the first proposals for a state highway system. This proposal aimed to amend the state constitution to provide for the guaranteed development and maintenance of designated state highways/roads. (It did not pass.) Appeared in the Minneapolis Tribune Feburary 1, 1917
