California SR 18 to US 91 in Riverside-Colton-San Bernardino, CA region (1950s)

[M3100]

I have an undated Auto Club book of maps, somewhat like a TripTik book, that I think is from the early 1950s.  It pre-dates interstate highways.

One map in the book that might have "overlooked an update" shows what should have been US 91 as California SR 18 instead.  The route that is shown as US 91 on other maps is Magnolia Ave. and Main Street in Riverside, then a jog on Russell Street, then north on La Cadena Drive to Colton Ave.  The route then multiplexes east a short way on Colton Ave. to Mt. Vernon Ave., and continues north from there through San Bernardino. I can't tell where California SR 18 jogs east to Sierra Way (its current route), possibly 3rd Street or Highland Ave.  This same map shows Cajon Blvd. heading northwest from San Bernardino as US 66 / US 395 multiplexed, with no US 91 shield.

The other maps in the book all show US 91 for the route it traversed.  Was US 91 a "more recent designation" for this route, compared to other US highways in the area (60, 70, 99, 66 and 395)?

[Max Rockatansky]

18 was there well before US 91:

https://www.gribblenation.org/2019/05/california-state-route-18-rim-of-world.html?m=1

[M3100]

Max - Thanks for the update, and the photo study of traveling the route. So that explains the history; that one map editor overlooked the signage change for the route he/she maintained.

For that matter, I recall traveling the mountainous section back many years ago, and being amazed at the "freeway-like overpass" where the exit for Crestline is located.

[Max Rockatansky]

If anything I always found it a little strange that it took US 91 to be extended and for some reason US 395 wildly expanded all the way to San Diego.  If anything I kind of view US 91 as the highway should have ended in San Diego.  It's interesting to note how many corridors like CA 18, CA 7, CA 95, CA 44, CA 3 and CA 195 ended up being consumed by US Routes. 

[mrsman]

If anything I always found it a little strange that it took US 91 to be extended and for some reason US 395 wildly expanded all the way to San Diego.  If anything I kind of view US 91 as the highway should have ended in San Diego.  It's interesting to note how many corridors like CA 18, CA 7, CA 95, CA 44, CA 3 and CA 195 ended up being consumed by US Routes.

A lot of the history in that regard may have to do with the planning of the US highway system.  It was always designed as a national highway system over roads that were built and maintained by states.  Necessarily, the US routes would subsume state routes, especially as the US system would grow.  Overall, it is more likely for the US routes to take over state routes than to build new routes in new areas, because the state routes already proved to be important highway corridors.

WIth regard to the 3 us routes over the Cajon Pass (66,91,395), on the north side they range in importance in that order: 66 being most important as the connection from the Midwest and would head to L.A., 91 reaching long distances to Las Vegas and Salt Lake and beyond, and then 395 which was a very mountainous corridor and not necessarily a major travel corridor in the same respect.  With regard to western termini for these routes, L.A. being the most important went rightfully to 66.  With regards to routing to Long Beach or San Diego, one can easily surmise that AASHTO planners would beleive that Long Beach and its port would be a more important destination than San Diego and decided to route 91 in that direction.

[skluth]

If anything I always found it a little strange that it took US 91 to be extended and for some reason US 395 wildly expanded all the way to San Diego.  If anything I kind of view US 91 as the highway should have ended in San Diego.  It's interesting to note how many corridors like CA 18, CA 7, CA 95, CA 44, CA 3 and CA 195 ended up being consumed by US Routes.

A lot of the history in that regard may have to do with the planning of the US highway system.  It was always designed as a national highway system over roads that were built and maintained by states.  Necessarily, the US routes would subsume state routes, especially as the US system would grow.  Overall, it is more likely for the US routes to take over state routes than to build new routes in new areas, because the state routes already proved to be important highway corridors.

WIth regard to the 3 us routes over the Cajon Pass (66,91,395), on the north side they range in importance in that order: 66 being most important as the connection from the Midwest and would head to L.A., 91 reaching long distances to Las Vegas and Salt Lake and beyond, and then 395 which was a very mountainous corridor and not necessarily a major travel corridor in the same respect.  With regard to western termini for these routes, L.A. being the most important went rightfully to 66.  With regards to routing to Long Beach or San Diego, one can easily surmise that AASHTO planners would beleive that Long Beach and its port would be a more important destination than San Diego and decided to route 91 in that direction.

It's also only in the post-WWII era that San Diego became the huge city it now is. Long Beach and San Diego were fairly close in population before WWII.

[dbz77]

If anything I always found it a little strange that it took US 91 to be extended and for some reason US 395 wildly expanded all the way to San Diego.  If anything I kind of view US 91 as the highway should have ended in San Diego.  It's interesting to note how many corridors like CA 18, CA 7, CA 95, CA 44, CA 3 and CA 195 ended up being consumed by US Routes.

I never understood extending the 91 to Long Beach, as it had a perfect terminus in Barstow with the 66, which went to Los Angeles.

As for 395 subsuming 7, in 1933, the proposal to extend 395 down the eastern Sierra was still pending, so the legislature defined the eastern Sierra corridor as SR 7 as a placeholder pending AASHTOs decision, which was made in 1934.

[Max Rockatansky]

If anything I always found it a little strange that it took US 91 to be extended and for some reason US 395 wildly expanded all the way to San Diego.  If anything I kind of view US 91 as the highway should have ended in San Diego.  It's interesting to note how many corridors like CA 18, CA 7, CA 95, CA 44, CA 3 and CA 195 ended up being consumed by US Routes.

I never understood extending the 91 to Long Beach, as it had a perfect terminus in Barstow with the 66, which went to Los Angeles.

As for 395 subsuming 7, in 1933, the proposal to extend 395 down the eastern Sierra was still pending, so the legislature defined the eastern Sierra corridor as SR 7 as a placeholder pending AASHTOs decision, which was made in 1934.

What I find strange is why suddenly jut off on CA 95 instead of staying on CA 7 all the way south?  Having US 395 ending in Long Beach instead of the sudden weird turn in US 6 would have made more sense.  I still contend something was up with the weird CA 740 designation which was partially consumed by US 395.  CA 440 was a place holder for CA 44 in anticipation of US 299...but that's my whole US 70 Pines to Palms theory coming back to the surface. 

From the perspective of US 395 using CA 7 and CA 11 to Long Beach having US 91 end in San Diego would have made even more sense.  Plus having US 395 routed further south on CA 7 would have played into the hands of the whole El Camino Sierra crowd which STILL promotes it as a tourist route.  Not to mention it would have stayed on Legislative Route 23 longer.

As for US 6 maybe pushing it for the Piute Pass Highway would have gotten that route over the Sierras actually built?  That or push for Tioga Pass and have it end at US 99.  That said, everything I've ever read about LRN 40 west of Benton to US 395 in that era sounds kind of hellish by our modern conventions.  It wasn't much better than a wagon track. 

[sparker]

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Two observations:  US 395 was always intended to remain either in remote areas or well outside metro areas, and San Bernardino/Riverside were outflung individual cities in the '30's; there was a lot of open area between L.A. and those cities, with only a few highways and the railroads (including the interurban Pacific Electric) connecting them.  The uninterrupted infill characterizing the region today was most likely unanticipated.  So threading the decidedly "inland" US 395 through there was probably a no-brainer back then; finally hitting the coast (or close to it) in the "backwater" San Diego of 1935 just added to the motif of an inland N-S connector where there had been none previously.  Second, both pre- and post-war Long Beach marketed itself as a coastal resort city not unlike Atlantic City on the East Coast.  Extending a US highway there in 1947, particularly one that multiplexed with US 66 for several dozen miles, was likely to encourage travelers to head directly there rather than dally in L.A. along the way, since the latter already was served by six trunk U.S. routes and -- despite the throughputting presence of an "alternate" US highway (101, of course), Long Beach felt it deserved it own more or less direct service and pressed for such after the war.   They had been the terminus of US 6 for nine years by that time -- but that route took such a convoluted path to reach Long Beach that it was all but irrelevant.  At least US 91 "peeled off" US 66 well before it hit L.A.! 

[mrsman]

Bringing in all of the above, while US 6 did end in Long Beach, you are right that it is a convoluted routing.  US 6 in its national path certainly goes through much of the country and even hits some major cities like Denver, southern parts of Chicago, and Cleveland.  But if you were headed to Los Angeles from those places, you almost certainly would drop down at some point to US 66 and enter that way.  The routing through the mountains is just too long along US 6.  Within CA its more of a N-S route rather than E-W.  Sierra Hwy and hence to the Sepulveda Pass.  Obviously most coming from Denver or further east would follow the 66 routing through the Cajon Pass and from there the routes branch out with the 91 routing heading to Long Beach.  This is the more valuable connection to bring in tourists/settlers from the East and Midwest.