Guess Again

[vtk]

Often, we roadgeeks look at a map and can make a pretty confident guess at the history of something.  It's fun.

But sometimes we jump to the wrong conclusions.

I've seen on this forum someone suggesting that OH 142 once reached Plain City, and was truncated to I-70. I can see how this would appear to be the case, but it's wrong.  OH 142 is as long as it's ever been.  In fact, it was extended from its former eastern terminus to meet I-70 – because West Jefferson wasn't happy with ODOT's plans to serve it with only one interchange (OH 29) on the new Interstate, according to an elderly WJ resident I once spoke with. (They got their second interchange with help from the Battelle Institute, a defense contractor with a facility on the road which then became part of OH 142.)

So what are some other examples where a present-day map tends to give roadgeeks false clues about the past?

[bassoon1986]

I seem to remember discussions on here a while back whether Jefferson St. in Grand Prairie, TX was the original US 80. Now TX 180 is Main St. which parallels it just to the north but it is not a straight shot like Jefferson.

[hbelkins]

I always thought VA/WV 311 was an extension, or former routing of, US 311, but I was wrong.

[vdeane]

When I was little I thought the NY x04 routes were related to each other just like the I-x90 routes were.  At the time I didn't know of the existence of US 4 or NY 304 (though I was partially right: NY 104 is old US 104, and NY 404 is old 104; 204 and 304 are unrelated).

I also thought I-790 was a north-south road.  It's L shaped, and every other I-x90 in NY with a leading odd digit was north-south, so I thought I-790 was too.

[US 41]

Out of curiosity, did SR 79 in Kentucky use to be US 79?

[NE2]

Out of curiosity, did SR 79 in Kentucky use to be US 79?

No.

[Brian556]

Quote from bassoon 1986:

I seem to remember discussions on here a while back whether Jefferson St. in Grand Prairie, TX was the original US 80. Now TX 180 is Main St. which parallels it just to the north but it is not a straight shot like Jefferson.

In Grand Prairie, Jefferson was never US 80. It appears to have been built to relieve traffic on US 80 (now SH 180).

There are some places where older alignments deviated from Main St.
Small St/Davis St might have been one of them. (I'm not sure)
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7435875,-96.997549,1529m/data=!3m1!1e3

Another one is here, where there is old concrete pavement leaving the current alignment, heading straight into some old buildings. It is unusual to see an old alignment with building (esp old ones) built right on top of it in a downtown area.
https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7436357,-97.011633,191m/data=!3m1!1e3

[vtk]

Out of curiosity, did SR 79 in Kentucky use to be US 79?

Shouldn't US 79 be somewhere west of the Mississippi?

[mcdonaat]

Out of curiosity, did SR 79 in Kentucky use to be US 79?

Shouldn't US 79 be somewhere west of the Mississippi?

US 79 might cross the river, but I'm not too sure. All I know of it is Minden and Shreveport. And Arkansas, I think.

Nexus 7

[empirestate]

When I was little I thought the NY x04 routes were related to each other just like the I-x90 routes were.  At the time I didn't know of the existence of US 4 or NY 304 (though I was partially right: NY 104 is old US 104, and NY 404 is old 104; 204 and 304 are unrelated).

I also thought I-790 was a north-south road.  It's L shaped, and every other I-x90 in NY with a leading odd digit was north-south, so I thought I-790 was too.

I thought that Mt. Read Boulevard in Rochester had been part of old NY 47, and that it was constructed as part of an early version of the Outer Loop plan. Actually, I'm not sure I've ever been disproven about this, but I've come to accept that I'm probably mistaken. Still, I fairly distinctly remember seeing Outer Loop connection somewhere...

[roadman65]

Some may think that Old Post Road in Edison, NJ is an old alignment of US 1 because it closely parallels it, but NJ 27 (the Lincoln Highway) is.  Old Post Road really is an old alignment of NJ CR 514.

In fact in reality the King George Post Road in Raritan Center nearby was once connected and part of the same post road. 

[NE2]

Old Post Road really is an old alignment of NJ CR 514.

Guess again.
http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/MIDDLESEX_COUNTY/MiddlesexCounty_1947.jpg
http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/MIDDLESEX_COUNTY/MiddlesexCo1954.gif

In fact in actual reality Old Post Road was the very first main road in that direction, and current CR 514 was the 19th century Woodbridge Turnpike (NJ 27 was the Essex and Middlesex Turnpike).

[agentsteel53]

Out of curiosity, did SR 79 in Kentucky use to be US 79?

Shouldn't US 79 be somewhere west of the Mississippi?

it used to end at US-81 in Austin.  now it ends at I-35 at Round Rock, which is just north of Austin.  it fit the grid locally all the way until crossing US-77 and continuing on a hard diagonal northeast, crossing the Mississippi at Memphis and continuing into Kentucky.

speaking of state route numbers that would fit US route extensions: UT-24 was never old US-24.

[pianocello]

Likewise, MN-65 was never part of US-65*.

*Dale Sanderson's page on USends says that US-65 may have gone as far north as McGregor or Swan River for a year in the 30s, but MN-65 today continues farther north than that.

[hbelkins]

Out of curiosity, did SR 79 in Kentucky use to be US 79?

No.

Not only that, but US 79 and KY 79, to my knowledge, never touched. Until recently, US 79 ended at old US 68 (now Business 68) east of downtown Russellville. KY 79 ends at old US 431 (now some four-digit route) north of downtown.

[texaskdog]

Likewise, MN-65 was never part of US-65*.

*Dale Sanderson's page on USends says that US-65 may have gone as far north as McGregor or Swan River for a year in the 30s, but MN-65 today continues farther north than that.

I have the map that has it ending in Swan River

[froggie]

Minnesota designated US 65 up to Swan River in 1934, but retracted it in 1935.  Hard to say if it was actually signed.  Regardless, the part of MN 65 from I-35W into downtown Minneapolis definitely WAS part of US 65, and the remainder of MN 65 north was a state-extension.

[Charles2]

US 79 begins near Austin, TX.  It's just that it travels in a NE-SW trajectory, so it ends up travelling through Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, making it way out of the grid pattern...kind of similar to US 11, whose route goes west of every odd numbered route through US 49.