- published: 14 Nov 2012
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Texas state highways are a network of highways owned and maintained by the U.S. state of Texas. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is the state agency responsible for the day-to-day operations and maintenance of the system. In addition to the nationally-numbered Interstate highways and U.S. highways, the highway system consists of a main network of state highways, loops, spurs, and beltways that provide local access to the Interstate Highways, U.S. Highways, and state highways. The system also includes a large network of farm to market roads that connect rural areas of the state with urban areas and the rest of the state highway system. The state also owns and maintains some park and recreational roads that are located near and within state and national parks as well as recreational areas. All state highways, regardless of classification, are paved roads. The Old San Antonio Road, also known as the El Camino Real, is the oldest highway in the United States, first being blazed in 1691. The length of the highways varies from I-10's 878.6 miles (1,414.0 km) inside the state borders, to Spur 220, at just 0.05 miles (0.080 km) long.
Texas (i/ˈtɛksəs/) (Alibamu: Teksi ) is the second most populous and the second most extensive of the 50 United States, and the most extensive state of the 48 contiguous United States. The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in East Texas. Located in the South Central United States, Texas shares an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south, and borders the US states of New Mexico to the west, Oklahoma to the north, Arkansas to the northeast, and Louisiana to the east. Texas has an area of 268,820 square miles (696,200 km2), and a growing population of 25.7 million residents.
During the Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas: La Provincia de Texas. Antonio Margil de Jesús was known to be the first person to use the name in a letter to the Viceroy of Mexico in July 20, 1716. The name was not popularly used in daily speech but often appeared in legal documents until the end of the 1800s.
State highway, state road or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road or provincial route) can refer to one of three related concepts, two of them related to a state or provincial government in a country that is divided into states (including the Australia, India, Mexico, and the United States) or provinces (including Canada and China):
Depending on the state, state highway may be used for one meaning and state road or state route for the other. A third meaning, used in some countries such as New Zealand, uses the word "state" in its sense of a nation. By this meaning a state highway is a road maintained and numbered by the national government rather than local authorities.
The usage of the terms "state highway", "state route", etc. may vary from country to country or even from state to state.
Australia's State Route System is a system of urban and inter-regional routes that are not covered by the National Route System, or the National Highway System. These routes are marked with a blue shield. Sometimes a state route may be formed when a former national route is decommissioned.