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US Highway 16 was one of the principal pre-Interstate roads in the state of Michigan. Much of the original roadway is now called Grand River Avenue, and runs across the Lower Peninsula from Detroit northwest to near Grand Rapids. It was largely built along a trail used by Indigenous peoples and later by the first European settlers in the area. As a wagon trail, it was called the Grand River Road. In Detroit, Grand River is one of five major avenues (along with Woodward, Michigan, Gratiot, and Jefferson) planned by Judge Augustus Woodward in 1805 that extended from Downtown Detroit in different directions; Grand River Avenue extends to the northwest. In the middle of the 19th century, the trail was expanded into a plank road that became one of the first state trunkline highways in the early 20th century, designated M-16. (Full article...)