in downtown Council Bluffs at an intersection with Broadway, which carried No. 6, better known as the Lincoln Highway. No. 8 headed south and east out of town and into the Loess Hills until Glenwood. Between Hillsdale and Hastings, the highway overlapped No. 4. It then turned south so it could pass through Emerson and downtown Red Oak. There was a short overlap of No. 18 after which the highway briefly turned south and then east. No. 8 entered Corning from the northwest and exited to the southeast. From Corning to Creston, No. 8 followed the current path of US 34. East of Creston, it curved toward Afton, where it intersected No. 16. From No. 16 to Chariton, No. 8 largely followed the current routing of US 34. The road passed through downtown Chariton and then to the southeast. From Albia to Ottumwa, it followed a curvy road located north of the present highway. Through Ottumwa, the road followed the southern bank of the Des Moines River and then crossed into downtown at sharp bend in the river. It passed through Agency, Batavia, and Fairfield. At Mount Pleasant, it met No. 40. From Mount Pleasant, No. 8 headed to the southeast through New London and Danville then turned sharply east at Middletown. The route ended at Burlington. U.S. Highway origins In the mid-1920s, automobile associations continued to sponsor their named routes—of which there were 64 in Iowa—on top of the route numbers given by the state highway commission. This was more confusing than helpful to the casual traveler, so in 1924, the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO, later AASHTO) called for a national system of interstate highways. Of the proposed by AASHO, nearly were allocated to Iowa. Support for the system was nearly unanimous among state highway officials across the country and the new national routings and route numbers were assigned in 1925. The Iowa State Highway Commission chose to renumber a few highways so important routes did not have conflicting route numbers. U.S. Highway 34 was designated along the entirety of Primary Road No. 8, which was the Blue Grass Route. Once the U.S. Highway System was established, the automobile association-sponsored roads gradually disappeared. Originally, US 34's national western end was the corner of Main Street and Broadway in Council Bluffs, the same as Primary Road No. 8. Just a few blocks away was the national western