LA 30 from Downtown Baton Rouge to the LSU campus serves as a small link in the Great River Road, which is designated as a National Scenic Byway. History Pre-1955 route numbering The Louisiana Highway Commission and the state's first system of numbered highways were created in 1921. At that time, the main road traveling from Downtown Baton Rouge through what would soon become the new campus of Louisiana State University was Highland Road, which was designated as part of State Route 63. Over the next few decades, the state highway department would gradually replace this and other points of access to LSU with newer and wider thoroughfares. In 1937, the first section of Nicholson Drive was completed, running parallel to Highland Road from South Boulevard to LSU's Tiger Stadium. This new road was not incorporated into Route 63 but was instead designated as Route C-1458. The southern end of Nicholson Drive initially connected with the older Highland Road via South Stadium and South Campus Drives, but a smoother connection known as Nicholson Drive Extension was opened by the late 1940s. The remainder of Route 63 likewise followed older, parallel roadways to the modern LA 30 until reaching Ascension Parish, where it proceeded to a very different terminus. South of LSU, Route 63 turned southwest from Highland Road onto Gardere Lane (now LA 327 Spur) to the Mississippi River. It then followed the current routes of LA 327 and LA 75 to Geismar, generally following the river levee but cutting across some of its sharper bends. The pre-1955 State Route 1 continued the route downriver from Geismar toward Darrow and also branched northeast from the river toward Prairieville. This terminus was once a major junction, as Route 1 (known as the Jefferson Highway) carried through traffic between New Orleans and Baton Rouge as part of US 61 until the Airline Highway was opened in 1933. 1955 renumbering The Louisiana Department of Highways, the successor to the Louisiana Highway Commission, renumbered the state highway system in 1955. LA 30 was designated to replace the former Route 63, whose number was reused for an unrelated route to the northeast. Small extensions to the route were also made at either end. LA 30 now took advantage of the Nicholson Drive alignment that the old Route 63 had never incorporated. Initially, it also extended further into Downtown Baton Rouge and intersected US 61 Bus.