When was US Route 80 extended to Point Loma?

[Max Rockatansky]

Borrowing from my post on Gribblenation:

"One of the last great mysteries of the US Route System in California is highlighted by the cover of the November/December 1958 California Highways & Public Works (photo 1).  Said cover depicts the end of Legislative Route Number 12 at Cabrillo National Monument at Point Loma in the city of San Diego.  Intriguingly the cover photo insert (photo 2) notes Point Loma to also be the endpoint of US Route 80. 

From the beginning of the US Route System during November 1926 the western terminus of US Route 80 was in San Diego via Legislative Route Number 12.  Initially US Route 80 would have ended in downtown San Diego via 4th Street at US Route 101 at Broadway.  The terminus of US Route 80 at the major north/south aligned US Route 101 would seemingly make logical sense. 

During 1933 an extension of Legislative Route Number 12 was added to the State Highway System west of US Route 101 and Legislative Route Number 2 to Point Loma.  This extension of Legislative Route Number 12 was completed to Point Loma by July 1934 and was featured in the August 1934 California Highways & Public Works (photos 3 & 4).  Notably the August 1934 California Highways & Public Works makes no reference to US Route 80 being extended to Point Loma. 

At no point does any official map by the Division of Highways feature US Route 80 being extended to Point Loma via Legislative Route Number 12.  That said, US Route 80 does on occasion appear signed to Point Loma on some commercial maps such as the 1940 edition Gousha Map of California which can be viewed on usends.com.  Notably US Route 80 would have been realigned out of downtown San Diego in 1954 to directly reach US Route 101 via a new east/west freeway alignment. 

The State of California requested US Route 80 be truncated to the Arizona State Line during 1966 (photos 5-7).  The Division of Highways request to the AASHO notes a duplication of US Route 80 with Interstate 8 east of Interstate 5 to the Arizona State Line.  Interestingly the submission by the Division of Highways does feature US Route 80 ending west of Interstate 5 at Point Loma via what had been redefined legislatively as California State Route 209 in 1964. 

At this point there seems to be clear evidence that US Route 80 did end at Point Loma.  The question at hand is when was the extension of US Route 80 to Point Loma made?  Based off my own research I can find no reference to US Route 80 at Point Loma in the AASHO Database other than the 1966 citation above.  We ask of the community for your insight on this matter.  If you have photos of US Route 80 at Point Loma or are of aware of any citations of when it was extended from downtown San Diego, please share with us."

Photos 1-7 can be found at the link below:

https://www.facebook.com/72868503020/posts/pfbid0zWuvgjs7ANhHygdPt3a3QKe4fgBBBmLrSWkgy1sEyh2FJ8kyJyJdStrPUSJEq81el/?d=n

[bing101]

Some of this of US-80 became subsequently I-8 later on.

[Max Rockatansky]

I checked every California file in the AASHTO database pre-1966.  Strangely the western terminus of US 80 is only every vaguely defined as "San Diego."   USGS maps didn't reveal any results either.  About the only thing I can think to do is to manually search all the CHPWs for any reference to "80"  between 1928-1966 to see if Point Loma shows up somewhere I didn't find when I searched "Loma."

[bing101]

I checked every California file in the AASHTO database pre-1966.  Strangely the western terminus of US 80 is only every vaguely defined as "San Diego."   USGS maps didn't reveal any results either.  About the only thing I can think to do is to manually search all the CHPWs for any reference to "80"  between 1928-1966 to see if Point Loma shows up somewhere I didn't find when I searched "Loma."

Was Point Loma a the western end originally a local road?
I seen old stories showing how US-101 was the original western end for US-80 before I-8 took over the California portion of US-80.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_80_in_California

[Mapmikey]

The extension was pushed by San Diego interests in Oct 1931 - see pgs. 39-40 here - http://libraryarchives.metro.net/DPGTL/Californiahighways/chpw_1931_nov.pdf

A photo of the new US 101 interchange with Rosecrans from late 1943 shows no US 80 signage, see pg. 4 - http://libraryarchives.metro.net/DPGTL/Californiahighways/chpw_1943_novdec.pdf
This is circumstantial as the Gousha map shows Barnett as US 80's path off 101 heading for Pt. Loma.

Note the 1937 and late 1940s San Diego County maps do not show US 80 west of US 101.

This document - https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/dsdhrb_20180611_policyagenda.pdf (search "route 80") talks about endpoints and does not mentino Pt. Loma, though does include that same Gousha map.

Of course, that 1966 map also showed US 80 using CA 94, so that may not be the most carefully laid out graphic...

I am officially skeptical this was a thing.

[Max Rockatansky]

My thought is the only logical time an extension to Point Loma could have happened was post 1954 when US 80 was directly connected west from La Mesa via Camino Del Rio.  During the decades the DOH was shifting a lot of US Routes to freeways, but usually they asked for older alignments as business routes.  The DOH certainly didn't ask to swap the terminus of US 80, even if it was just out downtown to US 101.  The whole situation is weird and I didn't expect to ever see one much less two references in DOH documents. 

[Max Rockatansky]

The July 1940 CHPW (page 607) references Point Loma as the western terminus of Legislative Route 12 but not US 80:

https://archive.org/details/california193940highwacalirich/page/n607/mode/2up?q=Loma&view=theater

An article on the Montgomery Freeway in the Jan/Feb 1951 CHPW (Page 540) doesn't show a sign route on LRN 12 to Point Loma:

https://archive.org/details/californiahighwa195051calirich/page/n539/mode/2up

The JUL/AUG 1955 CHPW (page 672) does refer to Rosecrans/LRN 12 between Lytton and Pacific Highway as US 80:

https://archive.org/details/californiahighwa195455calirich/page/n671/mode/2up?q=80

The May/June 1961 CHPW (page 660) takes about the US 80 construction ending at US 101 but is vague if it continues to Point Loma:

https://archive.org/details/cavol3940liforniahigh6061wa00calirich/page/n659/mode/2up?q=Cabrillo&view=theater

The Sep/Oct 1961 CHPW (page 862) references to US 101 being the terminus of I-8 but not US 80:

https://archive.org/details/cavol3940liforniahigh6061wa00calirich/page/n861/mode/2up?q=80&view=theater

Really all the above is the best I think is possible to find in the CHPWs and AASHTO database.  The narrative seems to leave the post-1954 window open for Point Loma.  What I don't get is why there would be only one small overt CHPW reference given Point Loma-Tybee Island would have been pretty notable ending at water at both terminus points.

[The Ghostbuster]

For all of US 80's western terminuses in the San Diego area, check this page at usends.com: https://www.usends.com/san-diego.html.

[Max Rockatansky]

For all of US 80's western terminuses in the San Diego area, check this page at usends.com: https://www.usends.com/san-diego.html.

That's the thing, all the above is new info from the CHPW and AASHTO database.  All usends had on Point Loma was a 1940 Gousha map (which I mentioned also above).  Suffice to say that there is a much richer narrative about end points that has emerged since the AASHTO database has come to light.  US 80 is the only endpoint in California that still doesn't have somewhat full narrative (US 66 in Los Angeles kind of does now).

[Max Rockatansky]

Put this to blog format:

https://www.gribblenation.org/2022/07/us-route-80-to-point-loma.html

[Mapmikey]

A different place to research what happened is through Gousha itself.

The 1939 Gousha map of San Diego can be found here - socalregion.com/highways/historic-us-395/ - does not show US 80 west of US 101.

Gousha archives do exist, but evidently only in hard copy at the Newberry Library in Chicago.  this link suggests there could be documentation on why US 80 was added or later removed - I can't find another Gousha San Diego map in the early 1940s to see when US 80 was taken off.

I am still searching and yet to locate any other map of any kind to show US 80 west of US 101.