 In 1924, the William Penn Highway was designated as PA 3 with the establishment of the first state route numbers in Pennsylvania.With the establishment of the U.S. Highway System in 1926, the route heading from Reading southwest to Lancaster was designated as US 222 while the route heading from Reading to Allentown along the William Penn Highway was designated as part of US 22, which ran concurrent with PA 3.In 1927, PA 41 was designated concurrent with US 222 between Lancaster and Reading and PA 42 ran north–south through downtown Reading.