Forgotten Lands, Places and Transit

Much like the Interstate Highway System , there exist in the United States some head-scratching US Highways and alignments that make you question how and, more importantly, why, these routes continue to exist.  The US Highway System predates the Interstate Highway System by about 30 years, and as such, there were some routes that were eliminated, consolidated, or supplanted by the new Interstate System. The website US Ends tracks the changes and eliminations in US Highways quite well, and we use them a lot for research when discussing US Highways.  AASHTO even went as far to enact policy to remove all US Highways that are less than 300 miles in length unless they exist in more than one state. Interestingly, there exist numerous routes, some on this list and some outside of it, that just enter a second state so that the policy above would not apply. Wherever there is a loophole, it will be exploited I suppose. However, some routes fit neither of these criteria, and nonetheles...

US Route 66 was one of the original US Highways , being designated in 1926 along with the rest of the original routes. But before its designation, there was a tremendous controversy over its numbering, as there were over numerous highways early on in the system's creation. Because of this, you almost got your kicks on Route 60. Missouri Highway Map, c.1926 showing the proposed US-60 through the state. Like with any government project as vast and complex as the US Highway System, it is the product of numerous compromises and debates over numberings, routings, alignments, costs, and numerous other whims of those in Congress who ultimately approved the system. In the early 1920's, the named Auto Trails were giving way to a network of then-modern highways to connect the nation through automobiles as the railroads had done decades earlier. 1926 Illinois State Highway Map , showing US-66 as IL-4 still. By 1928 , US-66 was added to the map. The numbered system would have the longes...

Bagdad, CA is another Route 66 ghost town  in San Bernardino County, CA. A product of the railroad, it would ultimately be superseded by Interstate 40, when 66 no longer functioned as a through route. However, this is not a tale of a town destroyed by a freeway or re-alignment, as this town peaked long before I-40 was built, the bypass was just another nail in the coffin. Like many nearby towns, it got its start in 1883 when the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway was built between Needles and Barstow, CA. During this time, it served as a stop for mining workers north and south of the area. Even at its peak, only a few hundred people called the town home. Towns built by the railroad usually were platted in 10 mile increments to allow steam engines to take on water, supplied by about 20 tank cars a day to replenish tanks in the area, which otherwise is completely dry being in the middle of the Mojave Desert.  The town is actually the US record holder for consecutive ...

Save 15 Miles or More Off Your Railroad Mileage By Switching to Nuclear! If you think the words "nuclear" and "railroad" shouldn't exist in the same sentence, you're probably not the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway in the early 1960's. When we think of nuclear bombs, we typically associate them as weapons, since the vast majority are used in military circles, but with the nuclear age came the potential to use these weapons not as deterrence or the annihilation of humanity, but rather construction projects.  Just one year removed from the Cuban Missile Crisis , in 1963 the AT&SF wanted to harbor this technology to re-align their railroad near Ludlow, CA , as well as Route 66 and the brand new Interstate 40 , and save about 15 miles off of the mainline right-of-way. Map of the proposed nuclear blasting and re-alignments. Public domain image via Atomic Skies The idea was to straighten the Santa Fe mainline between Needles and Barstow, as well as...

The Territories of Puerto Rico, Alaska and Hawaii were included in the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 , with the latter two, Alaska and Hawaii preparing to become US states, which they would become in 1959.  As such, a question arose as to whether the US Route system could be expanded into these new future-states as well. While a US Highway that entered another state, or was over 300 miles in length would be impossible in Hawaii, it would be easily possible in the vastness that is Alaska, and thus a push was made to give the Alaska Highway the US-97 designation. US Highway 97 has been mostly the same since it was first designated 1934, running from Weed, CA in the south where it started at US-99, now Interstate 5, to the Canadian Border north of Oroville, WA.  But in trying to connect the future State of Alaska to the Lower 48 in a more concise way, the idea of a northerly extension to US-97 gained serious traction, to the point where signs were actually created for t...

Like many of the original State Bond Issue (SBI) Routes in Illinois, Illinois Route 126 has existed in a couple different places, and runs an entirely different alignment than its original routing. Today, it exists as a 17 mile , mostly two lane road from Interstate 55 near Bolingbrook to Illinois Route 71 in Yorkville. What makes the 126 number an especially interesting case is how much the highway's history is tied to both Illinois Route 66, which it replaced, and US Highway 66 , which replaced it in two different spots, only for 126 to replace it again  after US-66's decommissioning. IL-126 first came into existence as a road from Springfield to Litchfield. The last sentence was tricky, but the highway replaced both SBI 66 in Illinois, and the Mother Road. Today we're going to explore this interesting quirk in Illinois' State Highway system. US 66 sign just outside Plainfield, IL in the early 1940's, when the road moved from Joliet Road to the present-day IL-126 ...

I will start today's blog by stating that I am not a fan of the Chicago-Kansas City Expressway . Or, more specifically, I am not a fan of "Route 110" in either Missouri or Illinois, mostly because it has been functionally obsolete since the day it was first legislated into existence 11 years ago on May 27th, 2010. How is it that a highway designated that recently considered forgotten? Probably because nobody knew what to make of it even when it was originally designed. Even in this article explaining the Chicago-Kansas City route, or CKC, the number 110 doesn't come up once. Today I'm going to explain why I'm not a fan of this road, why it exists, and what I think would help tremendously in making the road a somewhat legitimate part of Illinois' highway system. Wikipedia Commons Map of IL/MO-110 , or the Chicago-Kansas City Expressway, or the *shudders* CKC. Let's start with the actual route itself. Shouldn't a Chicago to Kansas City Expressway b...

US Highway 789 was a proposal for a border-to-border highway running from Nogales, AZ at the Mexican border, to Sweet Grass, MT at the Canadian border. It was dubbed the " Canada-to-Mexico Highway ". It was rejected by AASHTO , given that much of the route would use already existing US Highways (not that that's ever stopped them since). Nonetheless, each state (Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana) was interested in a continuous route, and so each created or proposed a Route 789 in their state highway system during the early 1950's. Colorado's 789, sharing pavement with US-160 and the formerly numbered US-666 (now 491 ). Image:   Jim Lindsay In Arizona, AZ-789 was designated in 1956 . Over time, given the duplicative nature of the numbering, each state except for Wyoming chose to remove the 789 designation from their systems.  US 310 in Wyoming, along with WY-789, which was once proposed to be its own US Route. Image:  Jonathan Winkler via AARoads...