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The United States Numbered Highway System is an integrated network of roads and highways numbered within a nationwide grid in the contiguous United States. As the designation and numbering of these highways were coordinated among the states, they are sometimes called Federal Highways, but the roadways were built and have always been maintained by state or local governments since their initial designation in 1926.
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66, also known as the Will Rogers Highway, the Main Street of America or the Mother Road, was one of the original highways in the U.S. Highway System. US 66 was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The highway, which became one of the most famous roads in the United States, originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before terminating in Santa Monica in Los Angeles County, California, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km). It was recognized in popular culture by both the hit song "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66" and the Route 66 television series, which aired on CBS from 1960 to 1964. In John Steinbeck's classic American novel, The Grapes of Wrath (1939), the road "Highway 66" symbolized escape and loss.
Interstate 44 (I-44) is a major Interstate Highway in the central United States. Although it is nominally an east–west road as it is even-numbered, it follows a more southwest–northeast alignment. Its western terminus is in Wichita Falls, Texas, at a concurrency with U.S. Route 277 (US 277), US 281, and U.S. Route 287 in Texas; its eastern terminus is at I-70 in St. Louis, Missouri. I-44 is one of five Interstates built to bypass U.S. Route 66; this highway covers the section between Oklahoma City and St. Louis. Virtually the entire length of I-44 east of Springfield, Missouri, was once US 66, which was upgraded from two to four lanes from 1949 to 1955. The section of I-44 west of Springfield was built farther south than US 66 in order to connect Missouri's section with the already completed Will Rogers Turnpike, which Oklahoma wished to carry their part of I-44.
U.S. Route 80 or U.S. Highway 80 (US 80) is a major east-west United States Numbered Highway in the Southern United States, much of which was once part of the early auto trail known as the Dixie Overland Highway. As the "0" in the route number indicates, it was originally a cross-country route, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. Its original western terminus was at Historic US 101 in San Diego, California. However, the entire segment west of Dallas, Texas, has been decommissioned in favor of various Interstate Highways and state highways. Currently, the highway's western terminus is at an interchange with Interstate 30 (I-30) on the Dallas–Mesquite, Texas city line. Its eastern terminus is in Tybee Island, Georgia near the Atlantic Ocean. Between Jonesville, Texas and Kewanee, Mississippi, US 80 runs parallel to or concurrently with Interstate 20. It also currently runs through Dallas, Texas; Shreveport, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; Montgomery, Alabama; Columbus, Georgia; Macon, Georgia; and Savannah, Georgia.
U.S. Route 75 is a major north–south U.S. Highway that extends 1,239 miles (1,994 km) in the central United States. The highway's northern terminus is in Noyes, Minnesota, at the Canadian border, where it once continued as Manitoba Highway 75 on the other side of the now-closed border crossing. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 30 (I-30) and I-45 in Dallas, where it is known as North Central Expressway.
U.S. Route 60 is a major east–west United States highway, traveling 2,655 miles from southwestern Arizona to the Atlantic Ocean coast in Virginia. The highway's eastern terminus is in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where it is known as Pacific Avenue, in the city's Oceanfront resort district at the intersection of 5th Street and Winston-Salem Avenue. Its original western terminus was in Springfield, Missouri; it was then extended to Los Angeles, California; but in 1964 it was truncated to end southwest of Brenda, Arizona at an interchange with Interstate 10 (I-10) after the US 60 highway designation was removed from California. Some US 60 signs can be seen at this interchange about 5 mi (8.0 km) southwest of Brenda. I-10 replaced US 60 from Beaumont, California to Arizona, and California State Route 60 (SR 60) replaced US 60 from Los Angeles to Beaumont.
A decommissioned highway is a highway that has been removed from service by being shut down, or has had its authorization as a national, provincial or state highway removed, the latter also referred to as downloading. Decommissioning can include the complete or partial demolition or abandonment of an old highway structure because the old roadway has lost its utility, but such is not always the norm. Where the old highway has continuing value, it likely remains as a local road offering access to properties denied access to the new road or for use by slow vehicles such as farm equipment and horse-drawn vehicles denied use of the newer highway.
Cyrus Stevens Avery (1871–1963) was known as the "Father of Route 66". He created the route while a member of the federal board appointed to create the Federal Highway System, then pushed for the establishment of the U.S. Highway 66 Association to pave and promote the highway.
U.S. Highway associations were organizations to promote business and tourism along specific highways. The earliest ones also worked on interconnecting various state highways to create longer, multi-state highways. Since 1990, new associations have formed for preservation of historic highways.
U.S. Route 66 is a part of a former United States Numbered Highway in the state of California that ran from the west in Santa Monica on the Pacific Ocean through Los Angeles and San Bernardino to Needles at the Arizona state line. It was truncated during the 1964 renumbering and its signage removed in 1974. The highway is now mostly replaced with several streets in Los Angeles, State Route 2 (SR 2), SR 110, SR 66, San Bernardino County Route 66 (CR 66), Interstate 15 (I-15), and I-40.
In the US State of Texas, Interstate 40 (I-40) runs west–east through the panhandle in the northwest part of the state. The only large city it passes through is Amarillo, where it meets the north end of I-27.
U.S. Route 66, the historic east–west US highway between Chicago, Illinois and Santa Monica, California, passed through one brief segment in the southeastern corner of Kansas. It entered the state south of Baxter Springs and continued north until it crossed the Brush Creek, from where it turned east and left the state in Galena. After the decertification of the highway in 1985, this road segment was numbered as US-69 (alternate) from Quapaw, Oklahoma north to Riverton, Kansas and as K-66 from Riverton east to Route 66 in Missouri.
U.S. Route 66 also known as the Will Rogers Highway, was a major United States Numbered Highway in the state of Arizona from November 11, 1926 to June 26, 1985. US 66 covered a total of 385.20 miles (619.92 km) through Arizona. The highway ran from west to east, starting in Needles, California, through Kingman and Seligman to the New Mexico state line. Nationally, US 66 ran from Santa Monica, California, to Chicago, Illinois. In its height of popularity, US 66 was one of the most popular highways in the state of Arizona, sometimes carrying over one million cars a year.
In road transportation in the United States, a special route is a road in a numbered highway system that diverts a specific segment of related traffic away from another road. They are featured in many highway systems; most are found in the Interstate Highway System, U.S. highway system, and several state highway systems. Each type of special route possesses generally defined characteristics and has a defined relationship with its parent route. Typically, special routes share a route number with a dominant route, often referred as the "parent" or "mainline", and are given either a descriptor which may be used either before or after the route name, such as Alternate or Business, or a letter suffix that is attached to the route number. For example, an alternate route of U.S. Route 1 may be called "Alternate U.S. Route 1", "U.S. Route 1 Alternate", or "U.S. Route 1A". Occasionally, a special route will have both a descriptor and a suffix, such as U.S. Route 1A Business.
Interstate 40 (I-40) is an east–west Interstate Highway that has a 359.11-mile (577.93 km) section in the US State of Arizona, connecting sections in California and New Mexico. The Interstate is also referred to as the Purple Heart Trail to honor those wounded in combat who have received the Purple Heart. It enters Arizona from the west at a crossing of the Colorado River southwest of Kingman. It travels eastward across the northern portion of the state, connecting the cities of Kingman, Ash Fork, Williams, Flagstaff, Winslow, and Holbrook. I-40 continues into New Mexico, heading to Albuquerque. The highway has major junctions with U.S. Route 93 (US 93)—the main highway connecting Phoenix and Las Vegas, Nevada—in Kingman and again approximately 22 miles (35 km) to the east and I-17—the freeway linking Phoenix to northern Arizona—in Flagstaff.
There have been 22 special routes of U.S. Route 66.
U.S. Route 80 (US 80) also known as the Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, the Broadway of America and the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway was a major transcontinental highway that existed in the U.S. state of Arizona from November 11, 1926, to October 6, 1989. At its peak, US 80 traveled from the California border in Yuma to the New Mexico state line near Lordsburg. US 80 was an important highway in the development of Arizona's car culture. Like its northern counterpart, US 66, the popularity of travel along US 80 helped lead to the establishment of many unique road side businesses and attractions, including many iconic motor hotels and restaurants. US 80 was a particularly long highway, reaching a length of almost 500 miles (800 km) within the state of Arizona alone for most of the route's existence.
Interstate business routes are roads connecting a central or commercial district of a city or town with an Interstate bypass. These roads typically follow along local streets often along a former U.S. route or state highway that had been replaced by an Interstate. Interstate business route reassurance markers are signed as either loops or spurs using a green shield shaped and numbered like the shield of the parent Interstate highway.
The Dixie Overland Highway was an auto trail across the southern United States. It was conceived in July 1914 by the Automobile Club of Savannah, which envisioned a practical all-year driving route from Georgia to California. It was originally developed as a cross-country route, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean making history as the first ever ocean to ocean highway route. In 1925, the federal Joint Board on Interstate Highways created U.S. Route 80, largely following the route of the Dixie Overland Highway.
U.S. Bicycle Route 66 (USBR 66) is a United States Bicycle Route that follows the former U.S. Route 66 (US 66) across the United States. The first section of the route, spanning 358 miles (576 km) between Baxter Springs, Kansas, and St. Louis, Missouri, was designated as USBR 66 in 2018. A second section was designated in 2021 between Santa Monica, California, and the Arizona state line near Needles, California. The rest of the route remains proposed but un-designated.
References
- ↑ Jon Sonderman; Jim Ross (2011). Route 66 in Oklahoma. p. 8. ISBN 9780738590516 . Retrieved 2012-08-20.