History of main rd west out of Chattanooga, TN

[Brian556]

I got this old map at an Antique store. It is undated. I find it very interesting that it shows SR 27 to be a paved road, while it shows US 41 as unimproved. To me this suggests that maybe SR 27 was the primary road between Chattanooga and Jasper. It is really a much more indirect route than US 41. I'm thinking that US 41 might have been just being constructed athe time of the map publication.Can aybody else collaborate or chime in on this based on maps in their collection or that they have seen?

[froggie]

To me this suggests that maybe SR 27 was the primary road between Chattanooga and Jasper.

That is correct.  US 41 was originally routed along TN 27 as noted in the official 1929 state map.  By 1938, US 41 (and 64 and 72) were along the TN 2 routing and the road was paved by then.  This suggests that your map is no earlier than 1930 and no later than 1937.

[Brian556]

Thanks, Froggie.
Do you know of any TN maps from this time frame online?

One more question: Do you know when SR 27 moved to it's current alignment, and the old alignment ( Jasper-Whitewell) was renumbered SR 28 TEMP? (Later, SR 28 was moved to a new alignment, and the old road was removed from state maintenance.)

--Brian

[froggie]

Do you know of any TN maps from this time frame online?

Couldn't say.  I own both the 1929 and 1938 maps...the dates I posted came from that.

One more question: Do you know when SR 27 moved to it's current alignment, and the old alignment ( Jasper-Whitewell) was renumbered SR 28 TEMP? (Later, SR 28 was moved to a new alignment, and the old road was removed from state maintenance.)

Based on the 1980s TN maps I have, 27 and 28 swapped sometime between 1982 and 1985.  The new alignment for 28 was built sometime between 1989 and 1993.

[mightyace]

Interesting, the highway that is now US 70-S is labeled as US 270 in that map.

I just check usends.com and according to there, this version of US 270 only lasted from 1926 - 1929.

http://www.usends.com/70-79/270_I/270_I.html

[Brian556]

Quote from froggie:

That is correct.  US 41 was originally routed along TN 27 as noted in the official 1929 state map.  By 1938, US 41 (and 64 and 72) were along the TN 2 routing and the road was paved by then.  This suggests that your map is no earlier than 1930 and no later than 1937.

I found a website that tells you how to date these maps.
http://www.waml.org/datecode.html#midwst
The date code on this map is P70510(front)
According to the website:

Midwest Map Company
The following information was suppied by Angie Cope, Cartographic Materials Catalog Librarian, American Geographical Society Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries

1926-34: Date may be determined from the first digit following the first letter of the code.  There are usually 2 codes:  one on the cover, and one on the map inside.  Use the later date if they don't agree.

Examples:
R0529 (cover), Q08CE (inside) = 1930
2P8818 (cover), O716C (inside) = 1928

Based on this, the date of this map is 1927.

[froggie]

Based on this, the date of this map is 1927.

Either their US 41 routing is in error, or it can't be 1927.  Reason being what I mentioned earlier:  US 41 specifically used the TN 27 corridor and not the TN 2 corridor per the 1929 state official map.

[Brian556]

I would trust an official state map more than a privatly-made one. I found several errors on the Texas map from the same time period from the same mapmaker.  Since 41 is shown with the "unimproved" line type, and there is no "proposed" or "under construction" line type on this map, maybe it was proposed or under construction.

[Alps]

I would trust an official state map more than a privatly-made one. I found several errors on the Texas map from the same time period from the same mapmaker.  Since 41 is shown with the "unimproved" line type, and there is no "proposed" or "under construction" line type on this map, maybe it was proposed or under construction.

Depends on the state and the private maker. AAA maps are generally quite accurate, and some states don'tt invest enough in their own mapping, or worse yet, just contract out to the same guys who sell to the private mapmakers. That said, I try to carry around state maps as much as possible - I have roughly ten "holes" left in my collection, I'd estimate.

[Brian556]

Just got this map off ebay. It's a HM Gousha, and according to the date code, it's 1927.
It shows the "main road" between Jasper and Chattanooga being the SR 27 corridor, but it also shows SR 2 where US 41/64/72 run today.
Another fact about this route is that the Tennessee River bridge on SR 2 (US 41/64/72) wasn't built until 1928.
I wonder if the "out of the way" routing was due to the lack of a bridge at this location?

[Brian556]

Did SR 2 ever follow what is now SR 134/ GA SR 299 between Haletown (Guild) and Tiftonia?

The reason for this question is that I noticed that the old alignment that used a ferry to cross the TN River (before the 1928 bridge was built) continued due east, and there was a crossroad intersection at which a hard left would have had to have been made, followed by another right, to join the current SR 2 / US 41/64/72 that runs along the river to Chattanooga

Go to http://www.historicaerials.com/, type in "Jasper, Tn, click the "1936 Topo" tab,navigate east to this location to see what I am talking about.

[Brian556]

Just caught on to something interesting concerning this topic.

I was doing research for a map I'm making of the Jasper-Kimball-South Pittsburg area.

In the process, I caught on to the fact that the maps from this time period show that SR 2 did not appear to follow the same alignment that it does today between Chattanooga and Jasper.

These maps show the alignment to appear to use the following roads; starting at Chattanooga and going west:
US 41/64/72, crosses Tenn River at Kelly's Ferry (at SW corner of Raccoon MTN), runs along N side of river on Mullins Cove Rd, SR 27, E Valley Rd, tying back in to the current alignment at SR 28 on the east side of Jasper. Just before it ties back in to the current route west of SR 28, there is a nice old concrete bridge that appears to be of state construction.
https://maps.google.com/?ll=35.074508,-85.615211&spn=0.000035,0.024784&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=35.074511,-85.615318&panoid=MNtm1sAd4_pDSOH3MoV2vw&cbp=12,70.97,,0,0

These of course are state maps, and don't show that much detail, but those are the roads that it logically would have used.





Also, there is an old Autotrail map on ebay that shows SR 7 Monteagle-Kimball-Jasper-Whitwell-Chattanooga; and an SR 20 Jasper-Whiteside-Chattanooga:


Does anybody have maps/information that would agree with these early numbers?

[Brian556]

Got copies of some maps from the Chattanooga Library.


1925


1928

Also, I couldn't help but notice on the 1928 map that is shows SR 2/US 11 being re-routed south on the east side of Chattanooga. Can anybody confirm which road(s) it used?