Oldest freeway signs you can find in your city

[TheStranger]

Two weeks ago, a 1970s sign gantry at the US 50/Route 16 junction near my residence in Sacramento was removed.

The oldest though date back to the 1960s in downtown, guide signs likely for US 40 that ultimately lead to either what was the West Sacramento Freeway (the Tower Bridge Gateway) or the current North Sacramento Freeway/Route 160:

[agentsteel53]

can you get me a good head-on shot of that US-40 Reno/Sacramento gantry?  That gantry dates back to I think 1960 on the dot.  The last time I was there was at night so my shot looks like crap.

[Ian]

Also on the New Jersey Turnpike are the all button copy signs at exit 7A:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Iansignal/NewJerseyTrafficSignalsAndRoadSigns#5343891597076737106

Ian

[TheStranger]

agentsteel53 - from Google Street View:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=16th+%26+Q,+95814&sll=38.549851,-121.393727&sspn=0.011025,0.018818&ie=UTF8&ll=38.570909,-121.488329&spn=0.002756,0.004705&z=18&iwloc=A&layer=c&cbll=38.570987,-121.4883&panoid=lE3-KRtEt0j3vOWKA--hvQ&cbp=12,17.63,,0,-2.9

[BigMattFromTexas]

when Houston Harte Expressway was built it replaced all the old signs

[agentsteel53]

agentsteel53 - from Google Street View:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=16th+%26+Q,+95814&sll=38.549851,-121.393727&sspn=0.011025,0.018818&ie=UTF8&ll=38.570909,-121.488329&spn=0.002756,0.004705&z=18&iwloc=A&layer=c&cbll=38.570987,-121.4883&panoid=lE3-KRtEt0j3vOWKA--hvQ&cbp=12,17.63,,0,-2.9

nice!  can you get us a good high-resolution photo?

[TheStranger]

nice!  can you get us a good high-resolution photo?

I'll see if I can get one after work today...it's not too far from the office.

[Hellfighter]

[Alex]

A photo of the aforementioned 9th Avenue button copy bridge identification sign on Interstate 10 in northwest Florida:

[froggie]

I'd like to offer what's probably the contender for oldest sign in D.C.  Although I haven't confirmed this yet, the far left sign panel likely dates back to the original construction of the Southeast Freeway in the late 1960s:

[Alps]

I'd like to offer what's probably the contender for oldest sign in D.C.  Although I haven't confirmed this yet, the far left sign panel likely dates back to the original construction of the Southeast Freeway in the late 1960s:

I would have thought the one on I-66.  http://www.alpsroads.net/roads/dc/i-66/we.jpg

[VCB02FromRoblox]

Here's another old I-66 one. What I'm really focused on is the old electronic sign and the gantry.
They may be very very old or am I just exaggerating?

[ET21]

[PHLBOS]

Exit tab aside, the main BGS survived the mid-1980s overhaul of the I-76/Schuylkill Expressway.  BGS is still there today.

One of the old (original?) I-95 ramp BGS' in Northeast Philly.

[Mapmikey]

My bet that the oldest freeway signs in Baltimore are on MD 295:

SB approaching MD 648 - http://goo.gl/maps/c57uN
Here it is SB at MD 648 - http://goo.gl/maps/pAfbY


Mapmikey

[VCB02FromRoblox]

My bet that the oldest freeway signs in Baltimore are on MD 295:

SB approaching MD 648 - http://goo.gl/maps/c57uN
Here it is SB at MD 648 - http://goo.gl/maps/pAfbY


Mapmikey

I heard those route shields were hand-painted!

[Brandon]

The other direction is Clearview now, and I think this side might be very short for this world.

[Eth]

There's virtually nothing left in Atlanta from the 20th century, but even here you can occasionally find something, like this sign on westbound I-20. Originally brown, when you pass by it you can still make out that it originally read "EXIT 25" before being updated to 60 during the 1999-2000 exit renumbering. Being in Series E(M) rather than D, it's likely that this sign dates back at least to the 1980s.

[vtk]

OH 315 has a few surviving signs near OH 161 that might date to original construction (early 80s I think).

On EB I-70 just after the eastern I-71 interchange, there's a post-interchange distance sign (to Zanesville and Wheeling) that appears to date from the early 80s at the latest (background is not reflective) and I think ODOT forgot it's there because there are no similar post-interchange distance signs to my knowlege anywhere else inside of I-270.

[bugo]

There are two button copy signs on SB Cincinnati Street pointing to US 64 and OK 51.  The 64 shields are button copy.  One of the 51 shields is a meat cleaver, while the other is a circle.  There are also some ancient signs pointing to I-244 from the SB Tisdale Parkway.

Don't have any pictures, but these signs are visible on Google Street View.

5 years later, I have pics:

[Charles2]

I don't have pictures, but there are still button copy signs on both I-65 and I-20/59 in Birmingham that date back to around 1973 or '74.

[sdmichael]

The oldest sign I am aware of in Los Angeles, on a freeway, is from 1959. It faces southbound 5 just north of I-10 near Main Street.

[Pete from Boston]

[1995hoo]

Here's another old I-66 one. What I'm really focused on is the old electronic sign and the gantry.
They may be very very old or am I just exaggerating?

I believe that has been replaced with a new one that lights up. Much easier to read.

I-66 between that exit and I-495 opened just before Christmas in 1982, so the sign in your picture likely dated to then.

[PurdueBill]

In Akron, this beauty was finally replaced with Clearview (yuck) last year after somehow it escaped the 2003 mass replacement of old button copy on I-76 from the Central Interchange westward to Barberton.


There are still a few lingering signs on the Innerbelt (OH 59) that haven't been replaced, as the replacement seems to have sputtered out a few signs short...everything from the Bartges St. sign through the Cascade Parking signs on Steve's OH 59 page is still there; you can see there some Clearview which had started to appear on the road and then suddenly stopped.  The button copy above and below that on the page is sadly now gone.  Some of those, especially the Cedar/Exchange signs, are really starting to show their age but are still most welcome to stay.