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Florida's original route numbering scheme for state highways was simple.  New routes were assigned the next available number in sequential order.  This was chaotic at best and with Florida's growth in the middle of the 20th Century just beginning, the state Legislature recognized that a new system was needed to better serve the public and commerce.  The Legislature authorized the State Road Department (now the Florida Department of Transportation) to renumber all state roads in 1941.  This effort came to be known among road enthusiasts as the "Great Renumbering."

FDOT historian Ray Harris adds, "This was passed in 1941; however, due to the war, materials for signs, etc., were not available.  Therefore, it was 1945 before the State Road Department acted on it."

This site is a catalog of the changes ultimately made to the highway numbers in 1946.  The information is taken directly from a report received from the Florida Department of Transportation issued by the State Road Department on June 11, 1943 with some notes added later.  The document is titled NEW STATE HIGHWAY NUMBERS and lists the general description of the route, the new highway number, the old number or numbers being replaced, and the counties through which the route was to run.

The "Great Renumbering" left room for growth.  Many primary route numbers (those with one or two digits) were left unused at the time this document was produced.  Those include:  8, 28, 32, 34, 36, 38, 56, 58, 86, 88, 91, 93, 96, and 98.

Under the new plan, the X00 routes were to be diagonal in nature.  The Great Renumbering covered 100, 200, 500, and 600.  Routes 300, 400, 700, 800, and 900 were not included.  All but 900 are in use today.

The secondary routes (those with three digits but not the X00 routes) were also included in the document.  Plenty of room for growth was left between assigned numbers, especially between 701 and 999.

Click here to see the text of the law authorizing the renumbering of state roads.

Many of the numbers cataloged on this site have since been reused on other state roads which may not have existed in the 1940's.  Florida's growth was tremendous in the last half of the 20th Century and many, many new state roads have been built since that time.

The state highway system underwent significant changes in the 1980's.  Many former state highways were turned over to the various counties for maintenance.  Some of the routes listed on this site as part of the "Great Renumbering" are now county roads and are no longer part of the state road network.   (The state Department of Transportation encourages counties to number their county roads according to the state grid, though some do not follow that practice.)

This site does not attempt to cover roads existing today, although most of the routes described here still do exist.  This is a historical look at the way the grid-type numbering system was to be implemented by the State Roads Department in the 1940's.

For more information about the original pre-1946 numbering plan, visit Blue Diamond Roads (maintained by RV Droz.)

For more information about the current state highway system, visit SPUI's site (maintained by Dan Moraseski.)

The content on this site is taken directly from documents obtained from the Florida Department of Transportation.  Please note, this site is not affiliated with the Florida Department of Transportation or with the State of Florida.

To contact the webmaster (Bryan Bethea), send email to nwfloridahighways@yahoo.com.