US Highway Map (1926)

1926 US Highway Map

Between the end of the Great War in 1918, into Prohibition, and then the Depression, the United States went through some of the greatest changes and challenges any civilization had to face. The author had a friend who, in 2003 was nearing his 100th birthday (sadly he died four months shy of that event), told a group that as a Riverside (California) Polytechnic High School student in 1920, a car came to town. Everything stopped. The schools let out early. Businesses shut down. Church bells rang. Riverside had a visitor who came from a long distance. The newspaper interviewed the driver and the occupants, all of whom looked very tired from the long journey in the open vehicle. It was a four hour trip (and you know they all had to relieve themselves). They were given the VIP treatment even though no one knew who they were or what they were doing. It was announced that they started out from Los Angeles about 10:00 AM and probably broke all kinds of records to make 60 mile trip to Riverside by 2:00 PM. Today, when there is no traffic, most people can easily drive from Los Angeles to Riverside in less than an hour.

A typical 1923 Los Angeles commuter...

Before World War II, most people did not own a personal vehicle. But the US Government knew that someday people would own their own cars. At first, there were marked routes across the country: They had names like the Lincoln Highway, the Old Trails Highway, El Camino Real, and others. The names were interesting but hardly practical. In 1925, a Congressional committee made up standards for a US Interstate Highway System. This was a voluntary project--each state would have its own standards. Some states would only have paved US numbered highways while others were satisfied with graded dirt roads (why would anyone want to be out driving during a torrential rainstorm, anyway?)

Looking at the map above (which is huge if you click it), you can see that certain highways we remember in history were not yet mapped. San Bernardino only had Route 66. It's not marked here, but Route 99 between Los Angeles and Indio was an east-west highway. Between Los Angeles and San Bernardino (on Route 66 and Colton on Route 99) the two highway ran parallel, about 1-5 miles apart. The two roads met in Downtown Los Angeles.

1926 California License Plate

60, 70, 95, and 395 would not be created for years. 91 began from Barstow.

All of this would change within a decade of the creation of the system...

1933 map of San Diego. The only numbered routes were US 80 and US 101.

An Explanation of the California Highway System

In California there are basically four different kinds of highways:
Interstate highways--abbreviated I-XX
US highways--abbreviated US XX
State highways--abbreviated SR--XX
County roads--abbreviated  CR--XX

Interstate Highways

The Interstate System was developed as a Congressional act in 1956. Putting it simply, its a system of escape routes to use in the case of imminent danger. The term "Interstate" is a little misleading... The roads don't necessarily connect one state with another. There are Interstate highways planned for every jurisdiction of the United States. It has very simple numbering...
PRIMARY--One or two digits. Generally odd numbers go north and south. Even numbers go east and west. The north-south Interstates start small in the south and gradually get larger going north. The east-west Interstates start small in the west and gradually get larger going east. Presently, the westernmost Interstate in the continental U.S. is I-5. The easternmost is I-97. There is an I-99 that is out of order (and a few other numbers too), but they all conform to the standards. The southernmost Interstate in the continental U.S. is I-4. The northernmost is I-96. There is room for more numbers.
SECONDARY--Three digits. Odd numbers are spurs. They go in but they don't come back. They may even connect one Interstate with another. Example: I-505 in California is a "jug handle" spur connecting I-5 to I-80, diverting traffic from Sacramento. Even numbers are bypasses or loops. The go around and come back to the primary. The second two digits denote the primary Interstate. Example: I-405 in California is a bypass of I-5 that goes around the middle of Los Angeles. There are exceptions to these rules: One of the shortest Interstates is I-238 in California. There is no I-38. It's a spur/connector, not a loop or bypass. The number is an extension of SR-238. Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) has its own rules on numbering and the numbers 180, 380, 580, 780, and 980 had all been used. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) would not allow an I-1180, so the state highway was extended.
BUSINESS LOOP: A road of any kind which goes around an Interstate highway. Signage is green.
BUSINESS SPUR: A road of any kind which connects an Interstate highway with a particular point with no point of return, except to turn around. Signage is green.

US Highways

At one time this was known as the US Interstate Numbering System. When the Interstate Defense Highway System started the Interstate part was dropped. And like the newer Interstate highways, the older system wasn't necessarily a system of roads that went from state to state. It only covered the 48 conterminous states. Remember that Alaska and Hawaii weren't states yet. These roads were not and are not Federally funded. They are different in different states. There are rules set up by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), which are often ignored.

Here is a fairly simple explanation of how the numbers work:
PRIMARY ROADS: One or two digits. East-west routes are even. North-south routes are odd. They start small in the east and the north and gradually get larger in the west and the south. Supposedly, they ran out of numbers and after US 99 they needed one more north-south highway, so US 101 was charted. It has no secondary roads connected with it. There are a couple of other primary roads with three digits which absolutely no logical reason for existence: US 400 and US 412.
SECONDARY ROADS: Three digits. They can generally do whatever their respective jurisdictional highway authorities want them to do and go almost anywhere. For the most part, they were all spurs of one kind or another. No formula here. And the "daughter roads" didn't necessarily meet their "mother roads" at any point. Take US 395: Nowhere does it even come near to US 95. Anymore discussion would just add confusion.
BANNERED ROADS: These are roads which work from the main road.
-BYPASS: It goes around. Sometimes the main route is marked "Bypass," which is a freeway. The former surface street route is marked "Business."
-BUSINESS: It goes through (and allows for large commercial vehicles).
-CITY: It goes through (and does not allow for large commercial vehicles).
-SCENIC: Usually a narrow road with a slow speed limit to see something the highway people think is pretty.
-SPUR: It goes somewhere but it doesn't come back.
-ALTERNATE: Gives a second opinion as to where you are going.
-TRUCK: A bypass route with enough space for large commercial vehicles.

State Highways

MAIN ROADS: The numbering varies. Signage is green.
BANNERED ROUTES: Roads that work from the main road:
-BUSINESS: Usually the old highway.
-TEMPORARY: This is now the route since the main route is under construction.
-AUXILIARY ROUTES: Shown by letters that follow the numbers.
--S: Supplemental
--U: Unrelinquished (the state considers this the main highway, even though a freeway goes around it)

County Roads

Most county roads in California are surface streets. San Diego County probably has the most extensive system. It had the green mileage numbers long before the Interstates had them. (Remember, California didn't even get those until about 2008!)

As far as the numbering goes, most have a letter followed by one or two numerical digits. This is the state system other counties have their own way of doing things with their own signs. I used to think these blue and gold shields were only found in California (state colors, you know) but they are fairly standard in other states.

California Peculiarities

Before California had green mileage markers like the other states, it had these Postmile signs. The three digits at the top are the number of the highway (this is I-10). Next is the county: This is Riverside County. Then there was the location. Miles would be counted from west to east and south to north but their occurrence was not uniformed. Which is why certain isolated parts of the state would have speedometer odometer checks: signs stating MILE 1, MILE 2, MILE 3, and so forth. With the green mileage signs, the odometer checks are not necessary. The miles were counted from county line to county line, then start over again.

You don't see signs like this in California. The state only has six US highways (6, 50, 95, 97, 101, and 395). So a little extra care is given to signage.

Types of Superhighways in California

Freeway: Control access highway which is paid for with taxes.

Toll Road:  Control access highway which is privately funded (aided by motorists' tolls) but patrolled by public law enforcement personnel. California makes a distinction between freeways and toll roads.

Expressway: Control access highway with intersections. Most freeways started out this way.

This is what the original signs on US 466 looked like in California. They had these made for all 48 states.

And yes, ladies and gentlemen, the actual deathsite of James Dean is now an official memorial.

An Introduction...

Most people know all about Route 66, the highway that brought the world to the states of Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California between 1926 and 1985. But did you know the Mother Road had Daughter Roads?

Probably the best known Daughter Road of US 66 is US 666, which outlasted the Mother Road by 19 years. (The term for this kind of highway is an Orphan Road.) This north-south highway went from the international border at Douglas, Arizona (across from Agua Prieta, Sonora) to Cortez, Colorado. 666 met and merged with 66 at Gallup, New Mexico (actually it was the terminus of the road from 1926-1938 and 1992-2003.

There were rumors that Route 666 went blank in 2003 due to superstitions about a passage found in the Bible (Revelation 13:18). Nonsense! The reason why the number was withdrawn was because the 666 had outlived its usefulness. If a historical group wants to do something special for Route 666 they can do what I am trying to do with Route 466.

Here is a list of the Daughter Roads of US 66:
* US 166 - near Joplin, Missouri, to South Haven, Kansas - (1926-present)
* US 266 - Warner, Oklahoma, to Henryetta, Oklahoma - (1926-present)
US 366 [A] - Amarillo, Texas, to El Paso, Texas  - (1926-1932)
US 366 [B] - Willard, New Mexico, to Moriarty, New Mexico - (1932-1938) [to Albuquerque after that]
US 466 [A] - Bernardo (?), New Mexico, to Los Lunas, New Mexico - (proposed in 1925, never signed)
US 466 [B] - Kingman, Arizona, to Morro Bay, California - (1935-1964) [gradually shortening after that time)
US 566 - Hondo, New Mexico, to San Antonio, New Mexico - (1926-1932) [replaced by US 380]
US 666 - Douglas, Arizona, to Cortez, Colorado - (1926-2003) [actual designation was shorter after 1992]
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* Indicates a currently valid Orphan Road

US 466 had two versions. The first section was proposed in 1925, but when the Congressional committees got together to figure where the roads would actually go, they discovered that the road between a place they called Bernardo (which I haven't seen in any maps, it was at the junction of US Routes 60 and 85) and Los Lunas would be coextensive with US 85. So the highway was never signed. Now we will guide you on this road, even though it was never really US 466 (but it's the thought that counts, right?)

The second version was posted from 1935 to 1971, although after 1964, it was just a tagalong highway through the states of Arizona and Nevada (with US 93 between Kingman and Las Vegas and with US 91 between Las Vegas and Barstow). The major cities it went through were Kingman, Las Vegas, Barstow, Bakersfield, and Morro Bay. It only met US 66 at Kingman, although both 66 and 466 went to Barstow... the two roads did not converge there... The junction of Routes 91 and 466 was about three miles northeast of the junction of Routes 66 and 91. Today, though, the freeway that is marked California 58 (the road that replaced 466) has been routed almost six miles southwest of Barstow.

Eventually, it's hoped the original US 466 will be taken over by an extension of Interstate 40 to Morro Bay. For some of the old US highways, freeways were the end of the road, for US 466, it could be a new beginning. There is so much history on the road.

In my case, I have a personal interest in Route 466: It was on this highway that my dad and his parents arrived in Bakersfield in 1935. They left Northeastern Oklahoma to a new life in California. Dad's life at that time was much like the Joads in John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, although the family only had three people. No matter how many people there were in a group, it was always tough when there were no resources. As a motorist who has made numerous cross country trips, with modern conveniences and enough money to get me through, I can appreciate those 20th century pioneers.

I dedicate this site to the memory of my dad.