The first portion of the expressway was built by the Works Progress Administration in 1941 – during World War II – to serve the Wright Aeronautical plant in Lockland. Known then as the Wright Highway, it was initially planned to run from Paddock Road (State Route 4) in Carthage north to Cincinnati-Dayton Road (then U.S. Route 25) near Maud, but was only built — almost completely along the old canal — between Galbraith Road and Glendale-Milford Road (then State Route 126. A short extension was built south to Towne Street in Elmwood Place in the late 1940s.