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U.S. Route 31

U.S. Numbered 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 revisionSep 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ409352 ↗
Source-derived summary

U.S. Route 31 or U.S. Highway 31 (US 31) is a major north–south U.S. highway connecting southern Alabama to northern Michigan. Its southern terminus is at an intersection with US 90/US 98 in Spanish Fort, Alabama. Its northern terminus is at an interchange with Interstate 75 (I-75) south of Mackinaw City, Michigan.

US 31 once crossed the Straits of Mackinac by car ferry to intersect US 2 north of St. Ignace, Michigan, in the Upper Peninsula and then formerly reached Mackinaw City along the southern approaches of the Mackinac Bridge (which has been taken over by I-75). It also formerly entered downtown Mobile, Alabama, via a long bridge over Mobile Bay.

The southern segment of US 31 connects the cities of Mobile, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Decatur in Alabama, and Nashville in Tennessee. The northern segment of US 31 connects Louisville in Kentucky, and Indianapolis in Indiana. From Nashville to Louisville, US 31 is signed U.S. Route 31W and U.S. Route 31E. From the Mobile Bay area in Alabama to Indianapolis, US 31 travels parallel to Interstate 65 (I-65).

Route description

Alabama

US 31 begins in Spanish Fort, Alabama, at a junction with US 90 and 98.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “U.S. Route 31” is u.S. Numbered Highway in the United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Route, Numbered and Highway, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 196-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, Numbered and Highway is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “u.S. Numbered 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 Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q409352. VIAF identifies the subject as 315529546. The Library of Congress control number is sh2004009636. Authority coordinates are 32.967, -86.748. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. 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 31”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow U.S. Route 31 primary sources, U.S. Route 31 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 31”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “U.S. Route 31” 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.