Old alignments visible from Google Maps

[Max Rockatansky]

Surprised no one's mentioned one of the "granddaddies" of old alignments:  the Ridge Route, the original US 99 over the mountains between Castaic and Gorman, CA.  Very easily visible; starting in Castaic as an extension of a suburban street serving a local school, approximate coordinates 118 degrees 37 minutes 30 seconds west by 34 degrees 30 minutes 40 seconds north.  Easily followed north all the way to CA 138; that junction at approximately 118 degrees 44 minutes 0 degrees west by 34 degrees 45 minutes 54 seconds north.  Immediately north of Castaic this old alignment sits immediately east of the southbound lanes of I-5 during its reversed-alignment segment surmounting the hill north of Castaic.  As an added bonus, scrolling west will show the 2nd iteration of US 99 west of I-5 and terminating at Pyramid Lake dam (the lake inundated the segment north from there).

Isn't Ridge Route Alternate a service road for the dam now?  I drove about five miles of it in 2016 and ran the rest to the dam, there was a small gate that appeared to be for service vehicles and hikers. 

If you're referring to the later US 99 expressway iteration west of I-5 (aka "The Old Road"), then yes, that's precisely what it is; it terminates just below the dam at a gate.  The original 1-2-lane Ridge Route remains east of current I-5 for its entire length.

Ran the Old Ridge Route earlier in the same day, that one is definitely long gone for anything aside for mountain bikes or 4X4s:

IMG_2038 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Hard to believe US 99 really used to head right through Pyramid Lake dead ahead in the photo below:

IMG_2073 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

[jakeroot]

There are two brick roads that have been bypassed in WA, which have been maintained by converting them into parks:

Erickson/Bothell Road, near Bothell: https://goo.gl/wwYNQk (vintage 1914)

North Trunk Road, near Lynnwood: https://goo.gl/EG3Cye (vintage 1913).

Not brick: when US-2 was re-aligned to a Snohomish bypass, old US-2 was converted into a residential road. The old alignment (92 St SE), complete with stubs, is clear on Google Maps: https://goo.gl/ptLysK (vintage 1983)

An old road connecting WA-167 to West Valley Hwy near Sumner was bypassed in the late 80s when the freeway was built, and then mostly torn up. Not visible from the 167, but definitely on GMaps: https://goo.gl/262tce

[sparker]

Ran the Old Ridge Route earlier in the same day, that one is definitely long gone for anything aside for mountain bikes or 4X4s:

IMG_2038 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Hard to believe US 99 really used to head right through Pyramid Lake dead ahead in the photo below:

IMG_2073 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

The only time I personally traversed the old Ridge Route was about 20 years ago with a friend who had a 4WD Tracker -- and even that was touch & go as to whether we were going to bottom out on some portions where there were diagonal washouts across the roadbed.  Can't imagine anything's improved in two decades; doing a GSV the other day pretty much confirmed the fact that I'm too old for that short of shit!

Pyramid Dam is actually located in the upper reaches of the Piru Gorge, which empties out into the Santa Clara River valley at the town of Piru, along CA 126 between Fillmore and I-5.  Northbound, the 2nd generation US 99 expressway alignment, after surmounting Castaic Ridge (using the NB lanes of present I-5) descended into the gorge, along which it traveled north until it came out on the plateau south of Gorman, near the present CA 138 interchange.  Pyramid Lake was part of the California Aqueduct project; it's a reservoir serving Ventura County and the farmlands (primarily lemons and other citrus) adjacent to CA 126 from Piru west through Santa Paula and the western reaches of CA 118 near Saticoy (most of the CA commercial crop in heirloom & Meyer lemons hails from that area).  The I-5/CA 138 interchange area is a major 3-way dividing point for the Aqueduct itself; besides partitioning off the flow to Pyramid Lake, another branch tunnels through the mountains feeding Castaic Lake (the primary water supply for Santa Clarita and environs), while the remainder follows the northern flank of the San Gabriels through Palmdale, emptying out into Silverwood Lake south of Hesperia.   

[triplemultiplex]

as well as
a long stretch of road named "Old US 41" nearby the abandoned bridge. There's even a former routing of US 141/Michigan 28 there.

This is southeast of there:

This creek crossing, if I'm not mistaken:
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=46.56213,-88.33010&z=18&t=S
The parallel abandoned railroad is also a trip.

10 years since that photo and it looks like the tracks are still there.

[texaskdog]

These aerial images are a Godsend for historic 'old road' research!  Doing off and on research on historic routings of the Yellowstone Trail, I would be completely lost without them.

Mike

NETROnline...you can look at any year and use the slide function.

[GaryV]

as well as
a long stretch of road named "Old US 41" nearby the abandoned bridge. There's even a former routing of US 141/Michigan 28 there.

This is southeast of there:
//snipped//
This creek crossing, if I'm not mistaken:
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=46.56213,-88.33010&z=18&t=S
The parallel abandoned railroad is also a trip.
//snipped//
10 years since that photo and it looks like the tracks are still there.

When I drove on US-41 this Memorial Day, the old 102/141/28 north of US-41 was barricaded.

And that bridge may be able to be walked to from the roadside park following Tioga River/Creek.

My photos of Old US-102 from 12 years ago can be seen at
http://www.usends.com/102.html
and
http://www.usends.com/covington.html

[SSR_317]

Here in Indianapolis, the old alignments of increasing Reference Post (iRP) I-465 (the clockwise lanes, which run SB in this area) and SB Shadeland Avenue can both still be seen here. Before being rebuilt from 1999-2001, I-465 had a bifurcated median between Brookville Road (US 52 - then a partial interchange) and the Raymond Street grade separation. The ramp from decreasing Reference Post (dRP) I-465 to NB Shadeland Ave (former SR 100) was a left exit, and the median split was similar to that on the other side of town at Exit 25, the North Junction of I-465 & I-65

This area was a major traffic choke point for years, as it was one of the only spots where mainline I-465 had only two travel lanes. The reconstruction remedied that, and also eliminated the left exit. The old SB ramp from Shadeland to I-465 now is used as a two-way access road to the INDOT maintenance facility now located on a portion of the old right-of-way (at the point of the "Y" in what used to be the median of Shadeland). The rebuild also completed the Brookville Road interchange for all movements, eliminating the need to exit onto Shadeland to remain on EB US 52. In fact, after this interchange was renovated, US 52 was re-routed from using the south & west legs of I-465 to run along the east & north legs of the beltway, then along the "dogleg" (I-865) to reach I-65, on which it is also multiplexed until splitting off on its own near Lebanon in Boone County.

[inkyatari]

Here's my favorite.. the old road that goes into Old Faithful in Yellowstone... It's mostly a hiking trail now.

https://goo.gl/maps/VZbkiQqadF52

Then there's this old stretch of Fall River Road at Rocky Mountain NationalPark that, again,is a hiking trail..

https://goo.gl/maps/mCfAPofbW1n

[HPfromTN]

The original State Route 1, the precursor to US-70 between Waverly, TN and the TN River.  There was a ferry to take cars across to the west side.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/36.0395843,-87.930541/35.9972971,-87.9324529/35.9839411,-87.9439857/35.990956,-88.0003558/@36.007894,-87.9921857,6792m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!4m1!3e2

[Max Rockatansky]

Here's my favorite.. the old road that goes into Old Faithful in Yellowstone... It's mostly a hiking trail now.

https://goo.gl/maps/VZbkiQqadF52

Then there's this old stretch of Fall River Road at Rocky Mountain NationalPark that, again,is a hiking trail..

https://goo.gl/maps/mCfAPofbW1n

I'm surprised that I missed the closed section of the Fall River Road.  Might have to check that one out the next time I get out to Trail Ridge.

[texaskdog]

is it not just the hiking trail now?

[inkyatari]

Then there's this old stretch of Fall River Road at Rocky Mountain NationalPark that, again,is a hiking trail..

https://goo.gl/maps/mCfAPofbW1n

I'm surprised that I missed the closed section of the Fall River Road.  Might have to check that one out the next time I get out to Trail Ridge.

Here's a 360 pic someone took on the trail.  It's pretty obvious here that it used to be a road..

https://goo.gl/maps/k9LEPr4Vhe52

[inkyatari]

is it not just the hiking trail now?

All of Fall River Road from the east to the Alpine Visitor center is still a road.  West of that, it's now the Ute trail, hiking only.

I figured this out one time as I was looking through National Park map at the national archives website, and noticed a switchback was missing on the map.  Then I put two and two together, and sure enough, my suspicion proved correct.

[Bruce]

A short segment of WA 504 is visible near Hoffstadt Creek (link. Most of the old highway was destroyed during the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens and the subsequent rebuilding of the Spirit Lake Highway in the early 1990s.