The highway was built in sections beginning in 1928 during the
American colonial period. It followed much of the route of the old
Manila Railroad line from
Manila to
Dagupan. It was designated
Highway 3 or
Route 3 in early U.S. military records. It also reached south up to Manila through the present-day alignment of
Rizal Avenue (Route 3A); the highway's section from
Caloocan to
Valenzuela (formerly Polo) was once part of Rizal Avenue Extension. However, Highway 3 had different alignments: in Valenzuela, it used a route still existing today in barangay
Malanday; in
Bulacan, it went along the
Maharlika Highway and Pulilan Regional Road from
Guiguinto to
Calumpit via
Pulilan; in
San Fernando and
Angeles,
Pampanga, it is known as the Old Manila North Road; and in
Paniqui,
Tarlac, it followed Paniqui Poblacion Road. New alignments were eventually developed, forming the present-day Manila North Road, which, by the 1950s, extended to
Aparri in
Cagayan, incorporating the former Cagayan–Ilocos Norte Road. On June 17, 1961, the section of the Manila North Road from Caloocan to
Urdaneta, alongside the western road that leads to
Lingayen, was renamed MacArthur Highway in honor of the Liberator of the Philippines during
World War II, General
Douglas MacArthur. It was subsequently rehabilitated after the eruption, with the construction of the new
Bamban Bridge from 1996 to 1998. ==Intersections==