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Today in Interstate History

Interstate 80 near Lincoln, Nebraska. Photo courtesy of the Federal Highway Administration, Public Roads Magazine.

October 19, 1974

A "Golden Link" ceremony was held near the city of Sidney, Nebraska, to commemorate the completion of the Cornhusker State's 455-mile-long portion of I-80. The link, a six-inch-wide strip of brass spanning both sections of the highway, was intended to evoke the 1869 Golden Spike ceremony in Utah marking the completion of the nation's transcontinental railroad. At the ceremony in Sidney, Governor J.J. Exon proclaimed, "It is the end of a long, long trail for dedicated people who worked on the I-80 project in Nebraska." He also pointed out, "It is another first for Nebraska as the first state to complete its mainline Interstate system."