Wendover Cut-off

Along the cut-off during the 1922 wet season

The Lincoln Highway was the first transcontinental auto route completed across the Great Salt Lake Desert. However after some controversy, the route across western Utah was later succeeded by the Victory Highway. The original alignment of the Lincoln Highway was about 40 miles (64 km) south of the Victory Highway and present-day I-80, and is now partially inaccessible because it lies inside the Dugway Proving Ground. The original route west of Dugway was part of the Pony Express Trail, used between 1860 and 1861 by the Pony Express. Early Lincoln Highway guides advised that travelers whose vehicles became disabled near Fish Springs could set fire to tumbleweed, as it could be seen by rescuers up to 20 miles (32 km) away.[17] The original alignment was then routed through various ranches and mining towns such as Callao, Gold Hill, and Ibapah to Ely, and not through Wendover. The "Goodyear Cutoff" was partially constructed in 1919 as a more direct route between Gold Hill and Dugway.[18]

In December 1919, the Utah State Legislature approved the newly constructed single-lane Victory Highway as part of the state's highway system.[19][20] The Victory Highway was a 3,271-mile-long (5,264 km) interstate highway linking New York City to San Francisco, named in honor of those who served during World War I. The road was constructed after $30 thousand (equivalent to $600,000 in 2021)[21] was approved by the legislature, and another $10 thousand (equivalent to $200,000 in 2021)[21] was approved by the Salt Lake City Council in September 1914.[22] Heavy equipment from the nearby Utah-Salduro Company, a potash company,[14] were used during the construction of the single-lane roadway.[20] Tooele County had originally proposed a new gravel road along the salt flats to replace the single-lane highway in 1921; however this was met with resistance from county residents, citing the lack of need.[23]

Secretary of Agriculture Henry C. Wallace approved construction of the current two-lane Wendover Cut-Off in 1923,[24] and the Western Pacific Railroad provided a discounted freight rate to bring in the construction materials to construct the cut-off.[25] Sodium chloride was used as a binder in the road which was under construction by October 1924,[26] and the $380,000 (equivalent to $4.7 million in 2021)[21] road was opened by Secretary of Agriculture William M. Jardine and Bureau of Public Roads commissioner Thomas MacDonald on June 13, 1925.[27] The cost of the road was part of an estimated $1.07 billion (equivalent to $13.3 billion in 2021)[21] 57,063-mile-long (91,834 km) road network across the contiguous United States. The opening ceremony of the highway was held in Salduro.[24] The Engineering News-Record called the road "a remarkable piece of construction."[25]

The Lincoln Highway Association lobbied the U.S. Government to get the Lincoln Highway route to Ely added to the United States Numbered Highway System after the passage of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921,[28] however the Wendover Cut-off along the Victory Highway was selected instead.[29] The Victory Highway Association called the cut-off the "shortest and most feasible route across the Great Salt Lake Desert".[30] The US-40 designation was applied to the Wendover Cut-off on October 20, 1926, the same day the Lincoln Highway Association conceded and approved the routing of the Lincoln Highway along the cut-off, abandoning their southerly route to Ely.[19] The US-50 designation had been applied to the cut-off by 1939,[31] and by 1957 the US-50 designation had given way to US-50 Alt.[32]

In 1959, radiation clouds crossed the cut-off,[33] spreading radiation between Knolls and Wendover from nuclear tests being conducted at the nearby Dugway Proving Ground. Estimates by the Deseret News put the exposure at 215.5 curies (7.97 TBq); by comparison the Three Mile Island accident only released 15 curies (0.56 TBq) of radiation.[34]

During the construction of I-80, the cut-off was identified as a frontage road for the new controlled-access highway. 160 thousand dollars (equivalent to $1.1 million in 2021)[21] was spent to repave the cut-off during construction of I-80.[35] The US-40 designation was deleted by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), in concurrence with UDOT, on August 18, 1974,[36] and the US-50 Alt designation was deleted by AASHTO, also in concurrence with UDOT, on August 27, 1976,[37] in effect turning the cut-off over to Tooele County as a county road.[8]