Most emasculated route?

[NE2]

Mike speculates at the end of http://www.vahighways.com/scannex/route-log/sc002.htm that SC 2 may have had the largest reduction in length. At its peak, it was about 288 miles, while it's now 3.9, only 1.4% of its former glory.

VA 13 went from about 193 to 24, which is 12%.

TX 1 doesn't count; in 1939 it appears to have remained, but it was actually renumbered from the short 1B.

Can anyone think of others that might qualify? It has to have been the same route from beginning to end (with a potential wholesale renumbering thrown in there, such as if the number conflicted with an Interstate).

[hotdogPi]

My first thought was U.S. Route 91.

[Max Rockatansky]

AZ 73 came to mind for some reason, the current route is only about 47 miles long whereas the original alignment ran from Eager through the San Carlos Reservation to US 180 (i). AZ 73 actually even carried US 60T when the alignment through Salt River Canyon was being built and it can be seen on the 1935 state highway map:





Today its hard even to find any old alignments of AZ 73 on Google Maps. 

[MNHighwayMan]

Not sure if this is what you mean, but for Minnesota, MN-100 used to form a ~60-70 mile circle around the Twin Cities. Today it remains as a 16-mile freeway through a number of western suburbs.

[Brian556]

The Hardy Toll Road, because it's signs are purple

[AsphaltPlanet]

Ontario Highway 2, formerly the main street of southern Ontario.  From 834.6km to 4.4km.

[bzakharin]

NJ 42 has been truncated and realigned to 14 miles where it was the entirety of the Black Horse Pike, from Camden to Atlantic City at something like 60 miles. Of course the road is mostly still there as NJ 168, US 322, and US 40, though 42 and 168 are no longer continuous as NJ 42 is routed onto the freeway and getting to 168 requires going on local streets.

Similarly, NJ 24 was moved to a 10-mile freeway (though it was planned to be longer), while pieces of the original 60 or so miles from Easton to Newark were re-designated as US 22, NJ 57, and NJ 124. But half of the route has been completely decommissioned and is maintained by the counties now.

[TheStranger]

California examples:

Route 24 used to connect Berkeley with US 395 near Reno at its furthest extent, but is now a mere 13 miles long between Oakland and Walnut Creek (with its most recent cutback occurring ca. 1991 when the Concord north-south freeway was finally signed as Route 242 officially).  Other portions of the route are now Route 70, Route 99, and Route 160.

Today's Route 71 is 15 miles long passing through the Chino area, but used to extend a mile or two further north (towards historic US 66) and significantly further south (originally in San Diego in the early 1930s, then after US 395 was commissioned, to Ribbonwood about 40 miles east of Temecula into the early 1970s)

Route 60 and Route 66 are severely truncated portions of what were once much longer US routes in the state.

[Max Rockatansky]

California examples:

Route 24 used to connect Berkeley with US 395 near Reno at its furthest extent, but is now a mere 13 miles long between Oakland and Walnut Creek (with its most recent cutback occurring ca. 1991 when the Concord north-south freeway was finally signed as Route 242 officially).  Other portions of the route are now Route 70, Route 99, and Route 160.

Today's Route 71 is 15 miles long passing through the Chino area, but used to extend a mile or two further north (towards historic US 66) and significantly further south (originally in San Diego in the early 1930s, then after US 395 was commissioned, to Ribbonwood about 40 miles east of Temecula into the early 1970s)

Route 60 and Route 66 are severely truncated portions of what were once much longer US routes in the state.

Some others that come to mind would be 91, 17, and 178.  In the case of 178 I don't understand why 58 got the priority west of Bakersfield.

[TheStranger]

California examples:

Route 24 used to connect Berkeley with US 395 near Reno at its furthest extent, but is now a mere 13 miles long between Oakland and Walnut Creek (with its most recent cutback occurring ca. 1991 when the Concord north-south freeway was finally signed as Route 242 officially).  Other portions of the route are now Route 70, Route 99, and Route 160.

Today's Route 71 is 15 miles long passing through the Chino area, but used to extend a mile or two further north (towards historic US 66) and significantly further south (originally in San Diego in the early 1930s, then after US 395 was commissioned, to Ribbonwood about 40 miles east of Temecula into the early 1970s)

Route 60 and Route 66 are severely truncated portions of what were once much longer US routes in the state.

Some others that come to mind would be 91, 17, and 178.  In the case of 178 I don't understand why 58 got the priority west of Bakersfield.

My guess:

Re: 178 - It's really interesting that the whole thing took after the pre-1964 LRN of 58 (along with the portion of US 466 that was covered by that legislative route number) when I'm not sure any other post-1964 route did that.  It certainly doesn't fit the semi-geographic number assignment of that time (i.e. 236, 237, 238 all replacing portions of another route that actually fits this thread, Route 9).

[vdeane]

Ontario Highway 2, formerly the main street of southern Ontario.  From 834.6km to 4.4km.

I'm aware of the not quite a km long section between the 1000 Islands parkway and ON 401; where's the rest of it?

[AsphaltPlanet]

Ontario Highway 2, formerly the main street of southern Ontario.  From 834.6km to 4.4km.

I'm aware of the not quite a km long section between the 1000 Islands parkway and ON 401; where's the rest of it?

Cosigned with the still existing portion of Highway 49.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

WIS 30, which used to go from Milwaukee to the Illinois border south of Platteville. US 61 and US 18 absorbed the western portion between the Illinois line and Madison and I-94 ate the portion from Madison to Milwaukee, leaving WIS 30 as a two-mile connector between 39/90 and downtown Madison today.

Ballpark guess is 180 miles, to 2 miles -> 1.1% of its original extent,

[Max Rockatansky]

California examples:

Route 24 used to connect Berkeley with US 395 near Reno at its furthest extent, but is now a mere 13 miles long between Oakland and Walnut Creek (with its most recent cutback occurring ca. 1991 when the Concord north-south freeway was finally signed as Route 242 officially).  Other portions of the route are now Route 70, Route 99, and Route 160.

Today's Route 71 is 15 miles long passing through the Chino area, but used to extend a mile or two further north (towards historic US 66) and significantly further south (originally in San Diego in the early 1930s, then after US 395 was commissioned, to Ribbonwood about 40 miles east of Temecula into the early 1970s)

Route 60 and Route 66 are severely truncated portions of what were once much longer US routes in the state.

Some others that come to mind would be 91, 17, and 178.  In the case of 178 I don't understand why 58 got the priority west of Bakersfield.

My guess:

Re: 178 - It's really interesting that the whole thing took after the pre-1964 LRN of 58 (along with the portion of US 466 that was covered by that legislative route number) when I'm not sure any other post-1964 route did that.  It certainly doesn't fit the semi-geographic number assignment of that time (i.e. 236, 237, 238 all replacing portions of another route that actually fits this thread, Route 9).

Well I think a lot of it had to do with SSR 178 being pulled north off of Pozo Road.  Really that actually made for a decent roadway with only the Old Salinas River Bridge as the only major hazard between Bakersfield and Santa Margarita.  Seems like the swap to 58 was more meant to emphasize they route as a "major" one.  The thing that I found odd about it is that 58 had to take a multiplex of 99 to get west of Bakersfield while 178 is a direct shot.  Really the Westside Parkway will actually make 58 align better west of Bakersfield but it certainly isn't a major state highway west to US 101.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

IIRC there is one US route which, while still extant, doesn't keep any of its original routing.

Edit: It is US 601. Though much longer now, it originally ran from Florence to Cheraw SC along what is now US 52.

[Scott5114]

OK 14 was once nearly a border-to-border route, extending from Frederick in far SW Oklahoma to the Kansas line. Now, thanks to US highways taking over most of its route, it's only 27 miles long.

[jemacedo9]

PA 60 only has ~ 10 miles left of it's full ~70 miles; after the Beaver Valley Expwy changed to I-376 (and the northern piece changed to PA 760).

The two PA 29s were once connected as well, before the middle piece changed to US then PA 309 - though there is some re-routing in Luzerne County.

[epzik8]

Maryland Route 3 was once continuous from Baltimore to Cobb Island in Charles County, then U.S. 301 and the Nice Bridge arrived and Route 3 was reduced to the Cobb Island stub, giving it its first emasculation. Then the Cobb Island stub became Route 257 and MD-3, around the time of the 1952 opening of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, was restored from U.S. Route 50 at Bowie to southwest Baltimore city. And then came Interstate 97 between Baltimore and Annapolis. It replaced Route 3 from Millersville on, leaving only the Crofton segment. A bizarre survivor through this was MD-3 Business through Glen Burnie.

[JasonOfORoads]

When originally defined in 1932, Oregon Route 11 traversed the entire state of Oregon from the Washington border near Walla Walla to New Pine Creek at the California border, spanning around 400 miles. Then US-395 was extended down to San Diego in 1935 along most of its corridor. Today, it's about 34 miles long, more than a 90% reduction. Oregon Route 201 had a similar, though shorter, reduction when US-95 was extended along most of its would-be corridor around 1940.

[SectorZ]

One that should be emasculated: MA 128

[Takumi]

VA 162?

[GaryV]

M-17.  It used to cross the state as one of Michigan's original routes; now it just goes between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.

Since the original routes were numbered starting at 10 starting with the longest routes, many of the low-numbered originals were replaced by US routes.  That's what happened with most of M-17 - it became part of US-12.  But some of it east of Ann Arbor continued toward Detroit as US-12 followed Michigan Ave instead.  And most of that remnant was truncated back in later years.

[thenetwork]

US-223 in Ohio used to run off of US-23 at Monroe St. (Current SR-51) all the way into downtown Toledo, then head Northeast on Summit St. (Current SR-65) to I-280 at the Craig Bridge.

Today it's just a short mile-long multiplex with US-23 from Monroe St. Up to the Michigan Line.

[Revive 755]

For a state route in Illinois:  Probably either IL 5 (mostly replaced by I-88) or IL 7 (east end truncated and a good amount replaced by US 6).  See http://www.n9jig.com/1-20.html.

[hbelkins]

Kentucky's entry into this category would probably be KY 35. Prior to 1950, it ran from US 42 at Warsaw to the Tennessee state line south of Albany. When US 127 made its entry into Kentucky, it took over all of KY 35's route from the current intersection of the two routes south. Now all that's left of KY 35 runs between US 127 and US 42, intersecting I-71 and passing by Kentucky Speedway.

For West Virginia, I'd nominate WV 4. At one time it ran from the Kentucky state line at Kenova to the Virginia state line between Romney and Winchester. Much of it was concurrent with other routes, including US 60 from the Kentucky line to Charleston and US 50 in that aforementioned stretch. Now it's primarily a standalone route from Clendenin (US 119) to south of Buckhannon (WV 20).