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U.S. Route 42

highway in the United States

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ409596
Source-derived summary

U.S. Route 42 (US 42) is an east–west United States highway that runs southwest–northeast for 350 miles (560 km) from Louisville, Kentucky to Cleveland, Ohio. The route has several names including Pearl Road from Cleveland to Medina in Northeast Ohio, Reading Road in Cincinnati, Cincinnati and Lebanon Pike in southwestern Ohio and Brownsboro Road in Louisville. Traveling northeast, the highway ends in downtown Cleveland and traveling southwest ends in Louisville.

Interstate 71 (I-71) fully supplanted US 42 as an interurban highway in the early 1960s, relegating US 42 to its current role as an ordinary town-to-town surface road. Additionally, I-71 passes through Columbus, whereas US 42 bypasses Columbus. It remains intact as a route; no part of it has ever been diverted to any Interstate highway. It is not the "parent" of any US route with a related number.

In spite of its even number, US 42 is posted north–south in Ohio.

Route description

Kentucky

U.S. Route 42 starts in Louisville, Kentucky, heading northeast through Prospect on the Oldham County and Jefferson County line. From here US 42 is a two lane road passing through the northern Kentucky hills paralleling between Interstate 71 and the Ohio River.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “U.S. Route 42” is highway in the United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Route, highway and United, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current 197-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1926. For this dossier, Route, highway and United is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “highway in the United States” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q409596. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “U.S. Route 42”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow U.S. Route 42 primary sources, U.S. Route 42 archive and Route research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “U.S. Route 42”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from U.S. Route 42” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.