Indian trails and plank roads In 1701, the first transportation routes through what became the state of Michigan were the lakes, rivers and Indian trails. One of these, the
Saginaw Trail, followed what is now Woodward Avenue from the Detroit area north to
Saginaw, where it connected with the
Mackinaw Trail north to the
Straits of Mackinac. The Town of Detroit created
rights-of-way for the principal streets of the city in 1805. This street plan was devised by Augustus Woodward and others following a devastating fire in Detroit, The wide avenues, in emulation of the street plan for
Washington, DC, were intended to make Detroit look like the "Paris of the West". Woodward named the street for himself, responding whimsically to the resulting criticism: "Not so. The avenue is named Woodward because it runs wood-ward, toward the woods." and the initial roadway to connect Detroit north to Pontiac along the Saginaw Trail was started in 1817; this was a
corduroy road built by laying down logs and filling in the gaps with clay or sand. The territorial legislature authorized a survey of the roadway to Pontiac on December 7, 1818, and the route was approved by Governor
Lewis Cass on December 15, 1819, the first to be done in the future state. The
Michigan Legislature authorized the construction of a private
plank road with
tolls to connect Detroit with Pontiac in 1848. By the next year, and oak planks were laid along the road between the two communities. Tolls were for vehicles and for a herd of cattle. Tolls along some segments of Woodward Avenue remained in place as late as 1908. The first automobile in Detroit was driven by Charles Brady King along Woodward Avenue on March 3, 1896, a few weeks before Henry Ford drove his first car in the city. In 1909, the first mile (1.6 km) of
concrete roadway in the country was paved between 6 and 7 Mile roads at a cost of $14,000 (equivalent to $ in ). The full length was paved in 1916. and Woodward Avenue was assigned the
M-10 designation. The same year, two auto trail designations were applied to the avenue. The
Theodore Roosevelt International Highway was created in February 1919, running from Detroit northward along Woodward Avenue. Later that year, the
Dixie Highway was extended through Detroit to the Straits of Mackinac, following the route of the old Saginaw Trail northward along Woodward Avenue. Since 1924, the second oldest
Thanksgiving Day parade in the United States. In 1925, the intersection between Woodward Avenue and State Street was busier than
Times Square. On November 11, 1926, the
United States Numbered Highway System was approved by the
American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO); the M-10 designation along Woodward was replaced with
US 10, a moniker that ran from Detroit to
Seattle, Washington. Legal disputes over a plan to widen Woodward Avenue dating back to 1874 were resolved in 1932. Permission was needed from a majority of the landowners along Woodward Avenue to finalize the deal. pledged not to shave his face until he had the necessary permissions in hand. This resolution allowed Woodward to be widened from . Several buildings were removed to clear the wider street path, and
St. John's Episcopal Church was moved to avoid demolition. On September 6, 1997, Birmingham renamed the bypass to Woodward Avenue, with the previous alignment of Woodward signed as Old Woodward Avenue. In October 1969, AASHO approved a realignment of US 10 in the Detroit area; the next year the designation was rerouted to follow the Lodge Freeway (what is now
M-10) and the portion of Jefferson Avenue between the Lodge Freeway and Randolph Street (then
US 25, now
M-3). The M-1 designation was applied to the section of Woodward Avenue from Jefferson Avenue in downtown Detroit to Square Lake Road along the southern border of Pontiac. In the early 1980s, M-1 was truncated in downtown Detroit, as the Woodward Mall was designated in the area around Cadillac Square. At the end of 2000, MDOT proposed several highway transfers in Detroit. Some of these involved transferring city streets in the
Campus Martius Park area under the department's jurisdiction to city control; another part of the proposal involved MDOT assuming control over a section of Woodward Avenue from Adams Avenue south to Grand River Avenue. These transfers were completed the following year. In 2004, the southern terminus was moved north three blocks to Adams Avenue. A massive address renumbering project ensued along Woodward Avenue in 1997, creating a consistent numbering system from downtown Detroit to Pontiac. Previously, each city along the route had its own address system. In June 2017, the southernmost block of Woodward Avenue south of Larned Street closed to automobiles to create a temporary pedestrian plaza. This closure was made permanent the following November.
Streetcars and other public transportation On August 27, 1863, the
Detroit City Railway Company (DCRC) established streetcar service along Woodward from Jefferson to Adams avenues. The company was formed by investors from
Syracuse, New York, earlier that year. Later, on September 18, 1886, a separate electrified line, the Highland Park Railway, was added that ran along Woodward Avenue through Highland Park. In mid-December 1893, the main streetcar line was electrified by the DCRC. In 1901, the various lines throughout the city were consolidated as the
Detroit United Railway. Detroit took control of the Detroit Unified Railway on May 15, 1922; afterwards, the streetcar system became the city's
Department of Street Railways. Early proposals included a
station under Woodward Avenue next to
Detroit City Hall. In 1926, a four-line system encompassing of lines was proposed at a cost of $280 million (equivalent to $ in ). By 1929, plans were scaled back further in the face of tough local economic conditions; the plan submitted to voters included one line of that interconnected with the city's streetcar system by way of two streetcar tunnels. The bond proposal failed by a 2.5:1 margin that year, killing any proposal for a city subway system in Detroit. On April 8, 1956, a parade was held when the last streetcars stopped running along Woodward Avenue and in Detroit; the remaining cars were sent to
Mexico City. Suggestions to unify the two plans were made in late 2008, and the Detroit City Council approved the sale of $125 million in bonds on April 11, 2011, for the longer system. Through various approvals in 2011, and subsequent changes including a
bus rapid transit system with a dedicated Woodward Avenue bus lane, private investors who supported the shorter three-mile line to New Center continued developing that project. On July 28, 2014, construction started for a streetcar line to stretch from downtown Detroit to Grand Boulevard in New Center. The line was to have 20 different stations serving 12 stops, with most of the stations curbside on either side of Woodward Avenue going uptown or downtown. The line will have center road stations at the north and south ends of the system. Named
QLine in 2016, the system opened in May 2017. The last car of Detroit's previous streetcar system was numbered 286, so the planners numbered the cars for the new line 287–292 to pick up where the old number series had left off. ==Major intersections==