Max's Roads Older Road Photos

[Max Rockatansky]

The premise of this thread is the same as the Best of Road Pictures Thread with the difference being some of my older road photos.  I kind of felt like that I was over posting in the aforementioned thread, hence why the creation of this one.  I have literally probably 50,000 photos sitting on my computer and flash drives, probably about half of that might be road related.  So with that in mind I'm going to go back through gradually and find some of the best Road Photos from previous years and add some additional commentary...but not to the extent of some of my road report threads.  I'm looking at a ten to twenty road photos a day limit here to salvage some sanity.

So with that in mind, I'm not going to re-post or remove pictures already active.  They can be found at the following threads:

Max's Pacific Southwest Roads

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=18621.0

-  Basically the idea with this thread is road trip reporting with current photographs in the Pacific Southwest Region.  I generally go way into full on detail about the roads themselves and the history or back story.  I tend to stick to non-freeway stuff or non-state maintained roadways more than anything else.

Max's Mountain State Roads

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=19025.msg2181099#msg2181099

-  Same concept as the Pacific Southwest thread, just in the Mountain State Region

The saga of the Colony Mill Road and Generals Highway

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=18518.0

-  This was kind of a proto-Max's Road thread detailing the history of the Park Roads for Sequoia National Park.  I'm fairly certain I decided to consolidate everything after this thread.

CA 140 and the Ferguson Landslide

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=18387.0

-  Same as situation as with the Colony Mill thread.  This one has pictures of the Ferguson Landslide repairs on CA 140 along with some others along the route.  I went into the backstory of the Yosemite Valley Railroad and CA 140.

Mineral King Road/Mountain Road 375/The once proposed CA 276

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=18432.msg2161218#msg2161218

-  Same story as the two threads above.  This has pictures of Mineral King Road and the back story on how it was meant to become CA 276 before Sequoia National Park annexed Mineral King.

Summer Mountain Trip

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=17644.msg2133663#msg2133663

-  Basically I kind of ended up doing road reports along with photographs in this thread as well.  There are some notable roadways like US 34/Trail Ridge, SD 87, US 212/Beartooth Highway, US 550, and the Pikes Peak Highway in this thread among several others.

Best of Road Pictures

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=6550.msg2187963#new

Already went into detail with this thread on the intro statement above.  My pictures are located on Replies; 319, 320, 322, 323, 324, 328 (really if you want an abridged version of the threads I mentioned above with photos only, these replies would function as that), 331, 332, 337, and 338.

So with all that in mind, I'll start by fixing the link for the Knife Edge Road pictures.  Basically this would be the original park road straddling a cliff face in Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado:




Mesa Top Ruins Road in Mesa Verde National Park:



US 160 is off in the distance about to be enveloped by the storm and Mesa Top Ruins Road in the foreground:



Two of my favorite pictures of Monument Valley along US 163.  This is where all the car magazines....or media outlet in general take their photos which would be right at mile marker 13:




A water fall running under a bridge on Paradise Road in Mount Rainier National Park in Washington:



Downtown Virginia City, MT which MT 287 runs through:



Old FL 50 from the Sumter County line approaching the Little Withlacoochee River in the Green Swamp, apparently there was a town called Riverland near here:



Old Nichols Road in Nichols, Florida.  Basically this would have been the road leading into the Phosphate Mine processing facility.  Strangely unlike most of mining towns in Bone Valley part of Nichols still exists as an inhabited place:

[Max Rockatansky]

I'm feeling up for ten more.

Let's start with the Old Tampa Highway just to the south of Osceola Polk Line Road and directly west of modern US 17/92.  Basically this road is the original alignment of US 17/92 and I believe it was a connect route for the Dixie Highway...I say that without referring to my notes.  Now the really odd thing is how the roadway stayed brick after all these years.  The Old Tampa Highway south of Osceola Polk Line Road is actually in a slight 45 degree dip which keeps it in Osceola County.  The Old Tampa Highway becomes Old Kissimmee Road and complete paved in Polk County.  For whatever reason Osceola County never paved the old brick section of the Old Tampa Highway and it kind of just stayed as is....which is really odd considering there are a lot of homes along side of it.  The concrete monoliths like this one can be found all over older road alignments entering Polk County...too bad there isn't classy levels of fanfare like that too often these days:







The Overseas Highway is something that you're going to see touched on a lot on this thread.  Most people don't realize that before US 1 was extended to Key West that there was another highway that reached Key West; State Road 4a.  State Road 4a was similar to US 1 in places but took a substantially different route to Key West in the Lower Keys.  Modern US 1 follows the Overseas Railroad alignment while FL 4a would often diverge towards the coastline.  From Stock Island FL 4a took MacDonald and Maloney Avenues to Boca Chica, Boca Chica Road south of the Naval Air Station on Boca Chica Key to Geiger Key, Geiger Road via Bridge to Sugarloaf Key, Old State Road 4a through Sugarloaf, Cudjoe, Summerland, and Middle Torch Keys to Little Torch, on Little Torch FL 4a swung north crossing to Big Pine Key on Watson Blvd, and finally onto No Name Key where you would have to take a Ferry to Lower Matecumbe Key.  From Lower Matecumbe Key the railroad and FL 4a swapped crossed over many times with 4a taking Card Sound Road while the railroad took the 18 Mile Stretch.  Florida 4a was completed in 1928 before it was updated to US 1 in 1938 as a consequence of Overseas Railroad alignment being bought out after the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane.  The Lower Keys route of 4a remained part of US 1 until the 1940s when it was realigned onto the railroad grade much like the Upper Keys had already been.

SOOOOooo....if you are wondering why there is four lanes of US 1 in Key Largo, it's because one alignment is Old Florida 4a while the other is the Overseas Railroad.  In these particular photos, this would be Old 4a and Old US 1 on Boca Chica Road on the Atlantic side of Boca Chica Key.  Part of the problem with the particular alignment was that the ocean ate away at the road deck which becomes more evident as the roadway completely disappears by photo three with the only evidence of there being one with the abandoned power lines:

[Max Rockatansky]

Edit:  For some reason the 9th photo is coming through jacked up on several of my recent posts, I'm not sure why?   

This is the Old Canyon Diablo bridge on a very early alignment of US 66 in Two Gun, Arizona.  There is a similar bridge to the west over Padre Canyon which is on private property.  I haven't found a way back to the bridge yet but I know Roamin Rich actually was able to get permission from the property owner to cross on one of his Youtube videos:

[Max Rockatansky]

You know what I hate?   When the weather forecast says ONE HUNDRED frigging percent chance of rain....and somehow it DOESN'T rain.  I could have gone out and done something in the morning....maybe gather some more road photos?...seriously how does that happen with that kind of forecast.  Anyways watching four football games and the NASCAR closer isn't keeping my interest, so here are ten more road photos to pass the time....

This would be the intersection of 2nd Street and Kinsley Avenue...literally an incarnation of Stanin on the Corner in Winslow, Arizona.  This would be the I-40 BL which just so happens to be the alignment of US 66:



The Packard Plant on Grand Avenue in Detroit where the factory bridge crosses.  I wouldn't personally take the gamble of running afoul of the new property owner, the security crew they hired clearly visible mucking up the photo.  Regardless, the factory probably has a crap ton of exposed asbestos among hazards such as sagging steel beams...don't take this as encouragement to go explore long abandoned places in Detroit.  Apparently the facade of the factory is now cleaned up I'm to understand.



This would be an unnamed road that once went to the town of Mannfield, FL....I believe it is part of the Florida Trail now.  Mannfield was the original county seat of Citrus County when it split from Hernando County in 1887.  The county seat was moved in I want to say 1893?...but the town lasted until the 1930s until it became part of Withlacoochee State Forest:



This is the Snake Bight Trail which was once a roadway to the village of Snake Bight on Florida Bay at the mouth of the Everglades.  Basically this was a 1.5 mile road running from the Ingraham Highway.  Apparently the road was built out of the dredge from nearby Ingraham Canal.   The road was probably built in the 1910s or 1920s but I don't know the exact date.  Originally the Overseas Railroad was proposed to run on a similar route as the Ingraham Highway to No Name Key but the route via Key Largo was apparently was much more cost effective.  Totally brutal terrain, the Old Ingraham highway is very visible north of here on Google Maps satellite view:




This would be the New and Old Navajo Bridges on US 89A over Marble Canyon at the foot of the Vermillion Clliffs in northern Arizona.  US 89A used to be mainline US 89 in the original 1926 alignment and would have had you using Lee's Ferry until Old Navajo Bridge was opened in 1929:




Speaking of US 89A, some addition road photos with the Vermillion Cliffs as the backdrop.  This is the road that takes you to AZ 67 and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon:




US 89 in Montana just south of Browning where the highway takes a eastward turn.  I'm looking back towards the Rockies that make up Glacier National Park...totally awesome backdrop with the storm in the mountains:

[jwolfer]

I like the pics..  The pictures of the brick roads in Polk County look much like the Old Brick Rd in Flagler and St Johns Counties... I posted pics in FL page... I enjoy your pictures btw... Keep posting them

LGMS428

[Max Rockatansky]

I like the pics..  The pictures of the brick roads in Polk County look much like the Old Brick Rd in Flagler and St Johns Counties... I posted pics in FL page... I enjoy your pictures btw... Keep posting them

LGMS428

Thanks, ironically I have some photos from County Route 13 north of Bunnell that I'm going to be posting up soon.  I always thought it was amusing how there was just a top layer of dirt just thrown on the bricks to solve the surfacing problem.    

Incidentally I was looking back at some of the really old stuff....good god has digital photo quality really picked up in the last five years.  I'll have to get really choosy with what I post, I'm not liking a lot of the color fade on stuff prior to 2010.

[jwolfer]

When Old St. Augustine Rd in Jacksonville was widened back jn the 1990s i remember seeing the old brick road unearthed in the constuction zone..

I helped my dad do a brick paving of his driveway.. That is a lot of work.. I cant imagine doing miles of brick pavement

LGMS428

[Max Rockatansky]

When Old St. Augustine Rd in Jacksonville was widened back jn the 1990s i remember seeing the old brick road unearthed in the constuction zone..

I helped my dad do a brick paving of his driveway.. That is a lot of work.. I cant imagine doing miles of brick pavement

LGMS428

Which is probably why in the instance of the Old Tampa Highway it was just worth while for Osceola County just to do asphalt patches on the bricks that broke up. 

Here are some of my photos of the 10-11 mile segment of County Route 13 north of Espanola that is still bricked....and actually an alignment of the Dixie Highway:





I'm fairly certain that there was a couple abandoned brick roadways in Yukon up around Jacksonville that I encountered.  Orlando has a crap ton of them still in use today like Briercliff which was part of FL 15.  Interestingly the realignment of 15 on Thorton and Brown is also bricked.  In fact there is a lot of roadways in downtown in general that are bricked, although I think it's mainly for looks.  I'm fairly certain Brick Road in Winter Garden was once part of FL 50 or the pre-1945 roads that eventually became it. 


Seven more photos while I'm at it...

US 89 looking south from Grey Mountain, AZ towards the San Francisco Peaks:



US 93 running around the rim of Flathead Lake as viewed from MT 28:



Perrine Bridge carrying US 93 over the Snake River Canyon in Idaho:



UT 279 on the Colorado River at the very bottom of the Canyon Lands near Moab:



UT 128 near the Dewey ghost town and at the Old Dewey Bridge over the Colorado River:

[jwolfer]

There is the old brick road in Tillie Fowler Regional Park.. Its part of the trail system..

It was a cruising spot for guysin the past .. One of the local tv reporters was arresreted a few years ago for soliciting fellatio from an undercover cop

LGMS428

[Max Rockatansky]

There is the old brick road in Tillie Fowler Regional Park.. Its part of the trail system..

It was a cruising spot for guysin the past .. One of the local tv reporters was arresreted a few years ago for soliciting fellatio from an undercover cop

LGMS428

That's the same road I'm talking about, it was part of an Army Base called Camp Johnston which was built in the 1910s.  Most of Tillie Fowler was part of a town callled Yukon which got shit canned out of existence in the 1960s because it was supposedly in the way of the flight pattern of the Navy Base across US 17.  Nowadays all that's really left of Yukon is all those abandoned roads and the businesses that were allowed to remain on 120th Street.  There was usually a lot of cops back in there when I was living in Jacksonville when I was scoping out the both Yukon and the Army Camp...kind of seemed in crappy condition for a park.  Just so happens I found some of my pictures:








Plus some others from Yukon itself, weird to think these were bustling modern neighborhood streets:






Hell might as well throw in the Ortega River Drawbridge also since it's basically around the block on FL 211.  If I remember correctly this was 1932-1950 US 17 and then US 17A into the late 50s?



Man those photos are starting to show their age...  Haven't been up that way in Jacksonville in a long time, I have family up there but they are on the other side of the city.

[jwolfer]

Thete are a few brick streets in Rivereside/Avondale

LGMS428

[jwolfer]

There are a few abandoned towns on Cape Canaveral from what I understand... Its amazing how people gave up their homes and land so easily. Now putting in a new streetlight gets howls of oposition for degradation of lifestyle

LGMS428

[ModernDayWarrior]

You have some of the coolest road pics I've ever seen. Thanks for sharing them!

[Max Rockatansky]

There are a few abandoned towns on Cape Canaveral from what I understand... Its amazing how people gave up their homes and land so easily. Now putting in a new streetlight gets howls of oposition for degradation of lifestyle

LGMS428

Yup; Shiloh, Wilson, Orsino, Allenhurst, and Clifton.  I actually have photos of all of them except Orsino since it is located in the middle of the Space Center proper.  Really the only one worth checking out that has ruins would be Shiloh and even then it's just a couple abandoned roads...no building foundations even.  I don't think anyone was standing in the way of the Space Race with the Soviets back in those days, especially since it didn't requite an impact study to do.  Basically most of those towns got declared within the danger range if a rocket exploded and eminent domain was declared. I'll pull some Shiloh stuff tonight, not exactly road stuff but nonetheless still interesting.  That's the funny thing about Florida though, there are tons of abandoned towns all over the place...several hundred in fact.  Bone Valley and the Everglades have company towns, you got the military eminent domain stuff on the Atlantic Coast, and the logging stuff or rail sidings on the Gulf side.  When I was living there about five years back I did a lot of work travel which allowed me to find a lot of roadside oddities.

You have some of the coolest road pics I've ever seen. Thanks for sharing them!

Thanks, I appreciate it.  I still think the modern camera equipment is accounting for a lot of that.  Some of my older photos just don't stack up to the newer versions...IMO at least.

[Max Rockatansky]

Speaking of the Kennedy Space Center abandonment; here is a couple photos....

This would have been Wilson or Wilson Corner.  This was the intersection of FL 402 and FL 3 which were eventually down graded to County routes and obviously the town is gone.  402 went west in the upper left while 3 headed north from the right:



And this would be pretty much all that you can kind in Shiloh, just a series of abandoned roads.  Not a single foundation to be found, really this most you'll find in any of the sites:

[Max Rockatansky]

UT 313 looking east towards Arches National Park and US 191:



WA 16 and the Tacoma Narrows Bridges:



WA 20 at Washington Pass and Liberty Bell Mountain.  I had to slog down the overlook road through the snow since it was closed down to take these:




WA 155 at Grand Coulee Dam:




The West Dixie Highway just south of Aripeka, Florida.  This section is still dirt and I don't think it ever carried US 19.  It seems like from most maps that US 19 multiplexed US 41 to what is now FL 52 until a fully paved road was built along the its modern alignment:

[jwolfer]

I have said Florida has a lot of similarities to out west.. The climate is different yes.

Florida was the frontier with Native American wars and sparsly settled until well into the 1800s. Before anyone gets their panties in a wad, i know St Augustine was founded in 1565, and like the Southwest Spanish colonial heritage eith many Spanish place names.

Florida is mostly suveyed with PLSS like much of the west, not using metes and bounds.

People move to Florida from all over and many times to start a new life.  And they will fail or move on, thus some of the abandoned towns.

So while not exactly like rhe west and with a lot more Southernness florida has much im common with the West

LGMS428

[Max Rockatansky]

I have said Florida has a lot of similarities to out west.. The climate is different yes.

Florida was the frontier with Native American wars and sparsly settled until well into the 1800s. Before anyone gets their panties in a wad, i know St Augustine was founded in 1565, and like the Southwest Spanish colonial heritage eith many Spanish place names.

Florida is mostly suveyed with PLSS like much of the west, not using metes and bounds.

People move to Florida from all over and many times to start a new life.  And they will fail or move on, thus some of the abandoned towns.

So while not exactly like rhe west and with a lot more Southernness florida has much im common with the West

LGMS428

That was part of the appeal for me when I took a transfer out to Florida.  The state has a huge back story that involves the French, Spanish, British, and the Americans from various points of time.  Really the state is infinitely different that might be presented in a tourist trap like Disney or South Beach.  Terrain wise it might not be the most engrossing but there is so much to go out and find and it's very easily accessible.

Some of the abandonment of town sites made sense with the 20th century and the progression in Automotive technology.  Bone Valley would be a good example of how when phosphate started in the 1880s a 20 mile journey wasn't easy and really necessitated the mines opening up towns.  Even in the early 20th century that need would have remained until the infrastructure started to resemble it's modern form after WWII.  Really Brewster was the last of the notable company towns out there in the mines; I'm to understand that most people moved to Bartow, Mulberry, and Bradley Junction. 

It's funny though to think that some people really tried to live in completely hostile terrain like the Everglades and Green Swamp.  Even stranger was that it took a huge push by the Federal Government to create/expand Everglades National Park and the Big Cypress Preserve just to push people out....it kind of happened on it's own in the Green Swamp.  I'll eventually get to some of the stuff on the Everglades Loop Road, funny to think that there was a time when people probably knew the Pinecrest out in the Glades rather than the one near Miami.

Before I get too ahead of myself here is ten more photos for the day.

AR 7 from way up high Hot Springs Mountain Tower, always loved the Art Deco theme in Hot Springs:



CA 1 west of Malibu:



Implied CA 89 through Lassen Volcanic National Park.  The third picture of the road wrapping around Lake Helen is one of my favorites:





Speaking of Florida and some of the old history; A Street in Cedar Key:



I-271 and I-80 crossing the Cuyahoga River at Boston Mills:



I-695 way off in the distance in Baltimore Harbor from Fort McHenry:



NV 172/Old US 93 on the Hoover Dam taken from the Pat Tillman Bridge/Current US 93/Future I-11:



US 30 overlooking Atlantic City:

[Max Rockatansky]

A couple more to close the day out....

I couldn't really find very many good "road" pictures of Skyline Drive in Shenandoah per se.  I'm fairly certain that US 340 is the road below in the first pic and...hell the second one was taken from Skyline Drive, so I guess it counts:




US 70 Business from the Hot Spring Mountain Tower:



US 97 and Mount Shasta on a perfectly clear day, this would be the same day in fact as the CA 89/Lassen pictures:



Some pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge US 101 (and despite what Caltrans says...implied CA 1) on a foggy day:

[Max Rockatansky]

Couple more....

I-90 at the Montana State Line:



Random tree growing on the Old Seven Mile Bridge in the Keys:



I-95 looking north towards downtown Jacksonville:



I-71 looking south towards downtown Cincinnati:



I-40 crossing the Mississippi River from Memphis into Arkansas on the Hernando De Soto Bridge:



US 98 entering the Bankhead Tunnel in Mobile, AL:



Abandoned wooden road bridge on Summerland Key which enters a small key to the north:



The original alignment looking west of FL4A and US 1 on Summerland Key:



I-71 overlooking Louisville:



FL 408 looking west towards downtown Orlando:



I-20 looking west towards downtown Shreveport....mind the boat in the road:

[noelbotevera]

Do you have dates for any of these photos? For the last one on your most recent photos most of the cars seem to date late 2000s/early 2010s....I'm not sure for the abandoned Florida roads, but it's clear you might've lived in Florida and it's been a bit since then.

[Max Rockatansky]

Do you have dates for any of these photos? For the last one on your most recent photos most of the cars seem to date late 2000s/early 2010s....I'm not sure for the abandoned Florida roads, but it's clear you might've lived in Florida and it's been a bit since then.

You're right, I was out in Florida for quite a number of years.  Generally most of the Florida stuff was 5-10 years back before I took a work transfer back out west.  I've actually lived in nine different states over the years; California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Connecticut, and of course Florida.  You can definitely tell there is a jump in digital camera technology with the newer stuff, especially in the pictures located in the threads I linked over on the first post.  Basically I'm working on cleaning up a lot of the older photos to make them more presentable.  The problem back then was that the generic cameras generally had a washed look and weren't the best at taking photos in motion.

[Max Rockatansky]

After being dragged around all day by the significant other....some more photos to cleanse the bad taste of consumerism out...

Arches Scenic Drive looking at the La Sal Mountains and the Courthouse Towers...with a crap ton of snow, I had to turn around since it was layer caked about 2 miles up the road:




The 1912 Bahia Honda Rail Bridge with the four lane replacement US 1 uses nowadays.  Note the slabbed road deck on the clearly intended rail width design:






US 41/Tamiami Trail with critters:



Blue Ridge Parkway at the French Board Overlook:



Roadway remains in the former company town of Bryant, FL.  This was a fairly recent abandonment in the Everglades.  The first pic is Bryant Avenue, the second I think Hanover Circle, and the third is Church Street:

[Max Rockatansky]

Some more old stuff.

I-295/Buckman Bridge over the St. Johns River:



Capital Reef National Park in the winter time:

-  Scenic Drive:




-  Unnamed road from Panoramic Point to Goosenecks Overlook:



-  UT 24:



County Route 905/Old US 1 from the Card Sound Bridge:



FL A1A and the Bridge of Lions in St Augustine:



Believe it or not this was the Ingraham Highway in the Everglades, there is actually abandoned road off in the distance:



Arthur Ravenel Bridge/US 17 in downtown Charleston:



NV 487 looking east towards the Snake Range and Great Basin National Park:

[Max Rockatansky]

More Overseas Highway Stuff...

US 1 Endpoint on Whitehead Street in Key West:



The old alignment of US 1 and FL 4a along the Atlantic side of Sugarloaf Key.  Basically this would have started a wood crossing from Geiger Road on Geiger Key to Sugarloaf, east along the shore to the first gate, over the abandoned bridge known locally as the "Jumping Bridge" since the channel is deep underneath, a turn north where Old US 1 crossed the remains of the wooden bridge pictured "the Burned Bridge," crossed over the railroad alignment at Mangrove Mama's, and then crossed on a wooden bridge to Cudjoe Key:









A couple pictures of Old US 1/FL 4a on Cudjoe Key before it was repaired and made into part of the Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail...which is for bikes:




Basically all the above is just the portions that can't be driven on Sugarloaf and Cudjoe.  A good portion of both Keys have segments of Old US 1/FL 4a that can still be driven on.