Colfax Avenue is the main street that runs east-west through the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area in Colorado. As U.S. Highway 40, it was one of two principal highways serving Denver before the Interstate Highway System was constructed. In the local street system, it lies 15 blocks north of the zero meridian (Ellsworth Avenue, one block south of 1st Avenue), and would thus otherwise be known as 15th Avenue. The street was named for the 19th-century politician Schuyler Colfax. From west to east, it starts at Heritage Road in Golden as U.S. Highway 40 and the Business Route of I-70, and continues east through Lakewood and enters Denver at Sheridan Boulevard. U.S. Highway 287 is routed along Colfax Avenue as well, which continues east through Denver and Aurora. In the eastern outskirts of Aurora, Colfax Avenue meets I-70 and the two U.S.