This album is a collection of photos that we took while traveling from Indianapolis to Madison, Indiana on January 20-21, 2008. The route we took was along a road that used to be called the "Madison State Road" which was completed in 1824. Some of the pictures were taken while heading toward Madison on the 20th and some were taken while returning to Indianapolis on the 21st. All of the photos are geocoded and you can get their precise location by clicking through on them to Flickr, which also has organized the photos into a map of photo locations that you can reference for more details about where the photos were taken. The turn-by-turn directions can be found here, and a Google map here.
The town of Madison incorporated in 1809, seven years before Indiana achieved statehood (1816), and this riverside town grew quickly. Its position on the Ohio River made it an ideal entry point into the Indiana Territory. Indianapolis was incorporated in 1820. The Madison State Road opened in 1824, linking Madison, Indiana to Indianapolis, Indiana.
There are two main routes between Madison and Indianapolis. The Madison State Road opened in 1824, and traveled from Madison through Columbus and Franklin to Indianapolis. The Michigan Road was completed in 1834 which started in Madison and passed through Greensburg and Shelbyville on its way to Indianapolis before stretching further north to Lake Michigan at Michigan City, Indiana. The two roads never shared any common routing after they left Madison.
The northern terminus of the Madison State Road has always been at the intersection of Meridian Street and South Street, just 5 blocks south of Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis. This was originally a five-point intersection but in recent years the Eli Lilly Company bought many of the lots in the area and rerouted some of the streets. Meridian Street no longer continues south at this intersection. Southbound traffic is angled onto Madison Avenue, from which they can turn right back onto Meridian Street one block later.