"How diverse can a road get in 25 miles? Let's find out."

Northern terminus: Washington County, at U.S. Highway 41 in Richfield

Southern terminus: Milwaukee County, at U.S. Highway 18 (Wells Street) along 6th Street in downtown Milwaukee

Mileage: about 25 miles

Counties along the way: Washington, Waukesha, Milwaukee

Sample towns along the way: Richfield, Germantown, Menomonee Falls, Milwaukee

Bypass alternates at: Milwaukee, but it kinda defeats the purpose

Quickie Summary: State “Trunk” Highway 145 is about every kind of road one can possibly be in Wisconsin. It's a two-lane road winding past farm fields, a multi-lane suburban sprawl connector, a six-lane freeway heading into a major city, a boulevard in city neighborhoods, a city street cutting through areas that have seen better days and some that are renewing, a new boulevard built to replace a torn-down freeway, and a downtown throughfare serving major attractions, including major arenas and museums... all within 25 miles.

The Drive (North to South): Highway 145 follows U.S. 45's former path from Richfield into Milwaukee. Starting at the U.S. 41/45 interchange in Washington County (now known as the "where Cabela's is" place, if you need a compass to help with your State Trunk Tour trips, well, I'm pretty sure they'll have some available), Highway 145 meanders through the countryside for its first few miles. Open spaces and farms adorn either side, but on certain hill crests the distant - but not for long - skyline of downtown Milwaukee beckons.

After the brief start in the town of Richfield, Highway 145 enters Germantown (pop. 20,100), rated by Money Magazine in July 2007 as the 30th most appealing city, town or village to live in the United States. Much of Germantown is newer, developing city but it retains history in a downtown area that began as the settlement of Dheinsville in 1842. Much of the historic museums, including Wisconsin's largest bell collection, reside in the Dheinsville Historic District along Highway 145, which serves as Germantown's original "downtown" area approaching Holy Hill Road. Stop in Jerry's Old Towne Tavern and karaoke if you have the courage. The Germanic tradition of Germantown is reflected in some of the cross-street names like Freistadt Road.

	It's not super clear in this picture, but downtown Milwaukee is visible while you're still in Germantown. The downtown skyline is about 12 miles away as the crow flies. Left of those buildings, some of the high-rise lakefront condos running along Milwaukee's East Side can also be seen. Click on the picture for a larger view; trust us, it's out there.
Highway 145, looking northbound into Germantown and Washington County. You're awfully close to the big city, but you'd never know it on this stretch.	.

From Germantown, Highway 145 darts down growing suburban streets and crosses the corner of Waukesha County in Menomonee Falls (pop. 32,647), Wisconsin's largest "village" (they haven't gotten around to applying for city status yet.) "The Falls", as locals call it, serves as corporate headquarters for the Kohl's Corporation, Cousins Subs, and even Strong Funds before Eliot Spitzer got his hands on them. It's also home to a major Harley-Davidson engine plant. Highway 145 grazes Menomonee Falls' northeast corner and briefly meets up with Highway 100 before heading down the Waukesha-Milwaukee county line on a new alignment designed to accommodate the growth from new suburban-style office buildings that are sprouting up in this area.

From there, Highway 145 hooks up with U.S. 41/45 and enters Milwaukee (pop. 578,887), Wisconsin's largest city and 22nd largest in the United States. This route hits a cross-section of the city and includes some of its best - and worst - parts.

The twin office buildings amidst a sprawling complex of restaurants, hotels and parkland are part of the Park Place development, where A.O. Smith moved their corporate headquarters and a number of emerging companies have set up shop. A suburban-like office complex set in the City of Milwaukee, Park Place was originally designed in 1980s and after a period that saw little growth, has recently expanded like donuts on a jelly injector. Dretzka Park, which lies to the north of the complex, covers a huge area of real estate and serves as a great place to relax or play golf - and that includes frisbee golf, since Dretzka has one of the better courses for that growing activity.

The exchange Highway 145 has with U.S. 41/45 and Good Hope Road is called the Granville Interchange, named after the Town of Granville, which no longer exists. Granville was the last holdout from the City of Milwaukee's aggressive annexation campaign in the 1950s. Highway 145 stays a six-lane freeway for about four miles past the complex around Park Place. During that run, especially around 91st Street, you get a pretty cool view of Milwaukee's downtown in the distance. The angle from the northwest, which this road comes into downtown on, makes for a good vantage point.

	Highway 145 was upgraded in northwestern Milwaukee as a freeway in 1966. The original plan was for the freeway to extend (as U.S. 41) all the way downtown. It was stopped at Hampton Avenue, pending other construction projects, and has been blending into Fond du Lac Avenue ever since. Consequently, it's more lightly traveled than other Milwaukee area freeways.
Once over the 91st Street interchange, downtown Milwaukee shows up on the horizon. You're headed straight toward it for the rest of the way.

Shortly after the 76th Street/Grantosa exit, Highway 145 merges back onto Fond du Lac Avenue, the same street it was back in Germantown. It remains a boulevard past the site of Capitol Court, one of the first indoor malls in Milwaukee - and, for that matter, the country - to open up. Capitol Court dated back to 1956; changing demographics and shopping habits changed the development and today it's an area called Midtown Center, a series of big-box stores with some "main street" designs for smaller retailers. This is a busy area of the city, and traffic can be heavy as you approach 51st Street and Highway 190 (Capitol Drive). Highway 145 continues southeast through denser neighborhoods. This is an area that has seen better times, as evidenced by the condition of some of the surrounding buildings. There are some great old architectural pieces along the way, though. Some were banks built in the late 1800s, others were grand old houses - some of which are still kept in great condition.

Highway 145 as Fond du Lac Avenue is a boulevard for several miles, past Midtown Center and Highway 190 (Capitol Drive). It then goes through some of the city's densest and oldest neighborhoods.

**PASTY ALERT**
This area features a lot of cellphone stores, wig shops and taverns where a random venture may be too much of an adventure, but a must-stop for fans of the Cornish delicacy known as a pasty need to check out Reynolds Pasty Shop (3525 W. Burleigh Street, 414-444-4490). Established in 1956 and still going strong, Reynolds packs in the beef, potatoes, carrots and spices in a delicate, flaky crust and does a brisk business with customers from all over the city. It's primarily a carry-out business, perfect for road trips, and pasties are designed to eat with one hand - also perfect for road trips. There's a small triangular block bounded by 36th Street, Burleigh Street and Fond du Lac Avenue (Highway 145), and Reynolds is clearly visible from Fond du Lac Avenue. You can park on the street or in the municipal lot in the triangle. A regular pasty costs $3.79 and they have a variety of side fixins, including gravy and cheese.

As you approach 20th Street and North Avenue (one of the many five- and six-point intersections on this stretch), Fond du Lac Avenue widens again into a boulevard and downtown beckons. Barbecue and deli lovers, however, take note: you have two outstanding choices within blocks. First, a quick jog eastward (left) onto North Avenue to 17th Street will bring you to Jake's Deli, a Milwaukee institution that is open for lunch only and draws fans of corned beef, pastrami and matzoh ball soup for hundreds of miles. Just a bit further down at the light with Walnut Street, you can duck eastward (left) briefly to Speed Queen BBQ (Walnut & 12th, 414-265-2900), which has some of the best pork, ribs, beef and turkey in the Midwest.

Continuing down Highway 145, you reach an interchange with I-43, which provides connections a-plenty. However, downtown lies straight ahead. Just past the interstate, the street becomes McKinley Boulevard and offers another terrific view of downtown Milwaukee. To the right is the old Pabst Brewery complex, which cranked of millions of barrels of beer annually until it was shuttered in 1996. Plans are underway to redevlop the land into a complex of shops, restaurants, offices and condos. To the left is one of the Leinenkugel breweries and, further east, the old Schlitz Brewery is just north of McKinley on 3rd Street, aka Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Yes, if there was ever an epicenter for past and present breweries, this is it. Today, the Schlitz complex is a business park that includes the world headquarters of Manpower, Inc.

	Redone as part of the mammoth Marquette Interchange project finished in 2008, you can see some artistic touches as you go under I-43 on the way into downtown Milwaukee. The Pabst Brewery complex is visible to the right.
A panorama of downtown greets you on Highway 145, which descends via McKinley Boulevard before turning south onto 6th Street. The tallest building is the U.S. Bank Tower, a 42-story office building in the distance that has remained Milwaukee's tallest office building since 1973.

Sports and Entertainment Venues Abound
Highway 145 turns south onto 6th Street, going past the Bradley Center, home to the NBA Milwaukee Bucks, the American Hockey League Milwaukee Admirals, soccer with the Milwaukee Wave, a new Arena Football II Team, the Milwaukee Iron, and countless concerts and shows. On the next block south, the Milwaukee Theatre originally opened in 1909. The building had fallen into disrepair by the late 90s; a renovation completed in 2003 refurbished the facility and it now boasts a 4,100-seat theatre and, architecturally, a half-domed rotunda lobby ringed by three levels of walkways. Today it hosts a variety of shows. Next door to the Milwaukee Theatre along Kilbourn Avenue is the U.S. Cellular Arena, a 12,700-seat facility that opened in 1950. The original home for the Milwaukee Bucks when they started play in 1968, the Arena now hosts the UW-Milwaukee Panthers basketball team, the CIFL (Continental Indoor Football League) Milwaukee Bonecrushers and various concerts and shows. It was also the site of the only Beatles concert in Wisconsin, when the Fab Four played here on September 4, 1964. On the next block east, Major Goolsby's is one of the better known sports bars in the country, while on that same block (along Kilbourn Avenue, between 3rd & 4th Streets, 2-3 blocks east of Highway 145), Major League Baseball's American League came into being in what was the Republican Hotel back in 1900. Today, the city's major newspaper, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, operates here.

Heading south on 6th Street, the final stretch of Highway 145. The skywalk ahead connects MATC (the Milwaukee Area Technical College) and parking facilities with the Bradley Center.

Highway 145 ends at Wells Street, which is also U.S. Highway 18. The newly-christened Frontier Airlines Center, the city's primary convention center, is to your left; Wells actually continues under it as a two-block long tunnel on its way to the lakefront. The Milwaukee Public Museum is one block to the right along Wells Street. The Museum contains an IMAX Theater and a series of permanent exhibits: natural history and the Streets of Old Milwaukee are prominently displayed, along with a popular butterfly exhibit. The Museum hosted the famous "Body Worlds" exhibit last year and will host the traveling Titanic exhibit - featuring actual items recovered from the ship - until May 25th.

JUUUST BEYOND THE END...
Although Highway 145 ends at Wells Street, you can continue south on 6th Street to the Harley-Davidson Museum. The epicenter of everything that rocks on two wheels, the museum opened in 2008 and showcases the past, present and future of motorcycles. Harley's history is traced to its 1903 beginning, the restaurant Motor is a great place for lunch, dinner or evening beverages, and the gift shop has more Harley stuff than previously thought humanly possible.

The Harley-Davidson Museum is located in east end of the Menomonee Valley, which is bisected east-west by Canal Street. Following Canal Street west, away from the H-D Museum, brings you past a power plant and to Potawatomi Bingo Casino, one of the largest casinos in the Midwest and a mecca for Milwaukee gamblers.

One final recommendation, at the southern end of the 6th Street Viaduct, is the Iron Horse Hotel. Opened in 2008, the Iron Horse has rapidly become a popular boutique hotel in Milwaukee, catering to Harley riders, business people, and more recently actors and musicians...it's become the hip place to stay, drink and eat - their new restaurant, Smyth, opened on May 1st. The Iron Horse is located 1/2 mile south of the Harley-Davidson Museum at a large roundabout; you can't miss it!

The southern end of Highway 145 at U.S. 18 (Wells Street) is in close proximity of everything in downtown Milwaukee. Check it all out! We're happy to help with suggestions.

CONNECTIONS
West Terminus:
Can connect immediately to: U.S. 41, U.S. 45
Can connect nearby to: Highway 60, about 3 miles north; Highway 167, about 1 mile south

East Terminus:
Can connect immediately to: U.S. 18
Can connect nearby to: Highway 32, about 1 mile east; U.S. 41, about 1/2 mile southwest; Highway 57, about 2 miles northwest; Highway 59, about 2 miles south

Upcoming events in places along Highway 145:
Custom Bike Show at the Harley-Davidson Museum, Milwaukee, September 5, 2010
Gallery Night in the Historic Third Ward, Milwaukee, October 15-16, 2010
Gallery Night in the Historic Third Ward, Milwaukee, January 21-22, 2011

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NEW! Interactive Highway 145 map. Click around and get details by scrolling in! The route's been highlighted for you.

Highway 145 ends at 6th & Wells. More attractions follow nearby! Click around and get details.

Best Western
Inn Towne Hotel
710 N. Old World Third Street
Milwaukee, WI 53203
(414) 224-8400
Link to hotel and reservations