US 99 in the Blaine area

[Max Rockatansky]

Put something together for the history of US 99 in Blaine:

https://www.gribblenation.org/2025/10/former-us-route-99-in-blaine-washington.html?m=1

The intro summary:

"From 1926-1969 the northern terminus of US Route 99 was located in the city of Blaine, Washington at the Canadian border.  When US Route 99 was first designated it followed the existing Pacific Highway alignment through the city and terminated at so-called Pacific Highway Border Crossing.  The mainline of US Route 99 would shift to the Peace Arch Border Crossing in 1940 following the completion of King George Highway by British Columbia.

Following the relocation of mainline US Route 99 to the Peace Arch Border Crossing it followed Peace Portal Drive completely through Blaine.  The original Pacific Highway alignment continued to follow D Street and 12th Street as US Route 99 Alternate.  Mainline US Route 99 would be shifted onto a multiplex of Interstate 5 in 1965 following the completion of the freeway from Dakota Creek to the Peace Arch."

[ErmineNotyours]

Pre-freeway view of the Peace Arch from an undated Blaine Chamber of Commerce pamphlet.

[pderocco]

Pre-freeway view of the Peace Arch from an undated Blaine Chamber of Commerce pamphlet.

The Canadian side has hardly changed. The US side now has a viaduct for northbound traffic. I don't recall if that's what it was like when I last used that crossing in the late '90s.

[The Ghostbuster]

All that is left of US 99 in Blaine is WA 548. It would be nice if there was Historic US 99 signage in Blaine, like the Washington Historic US 99 sign featured on the US 99 US Ends page: https://www.usends.com/99.html.

[pderocco]

All that is left of US 99 in Blaine is WA 548. It would be nice if there was Historic US 99 signage in Blaine, like the Washington Historic US 99 sign featured on the US 99 US Ends page: https://www.usends.com/99.html.

There are a ton of nice stretches of the former US-99 that could use some historic route signage. But Blaine would be particularly good because I expect lots of people coming off BC-99 into the US are unaware of the connection between BC-99 and US-99. (Not to mention, 97, 95, and 93.)

[Max Rockatansky]

To my knowledge, there is no group in Washington that is interested in US 99 preservation.  California has at least two that I can think of. 

[pderocco]

To my knowledge, there is no group in Washington that is interested in US 99 preservation.  California has at least two that I can think of. 

TravelMapping lists one section in Federal Way, but I can't find any signage in GSV. The only signed historic routes I've seen in Washington are for the old US-10, and even there, there are lots of unsigned sections, like the Vantage Highway.

Solano County CA has gotten tons of Historic US-40 signs posted, by adding "in memory of" or "sponsored by" banners to them. That's the only place I've seen that done. I'd like to see that practice spread. If they can get people to sponsor litter cleanup, they should be able to get people to sponsor historic signage, which is a lot cheaper.

[Bruce]

TravelMapping lists one section in Federal Way, but I can't find any signage in GSV. The only signed historic routes I've seen in Washington are for the old US-10, and even there, there are lots of unsigned sections, like the Vantage Highway.

Federal Way has a few signs, including this fun combo:



As for getting more, it's a matter of finding a politician that is willing to make it their pet project. This was the case for the Historic US 10 signage in Ritzville and around parts of Adams County. I'd love to be involved in a local US 99 preservation group, but the group would need to take care to avoid some political landmines.

(Perhaps we should have a Historic US 99 in Washington thread that combines all of these in one place?)

[Max Rockatansky]

^^^

I'm kind of working on something like that for our US 99 page on GN.  When I did California I released the blogs by area.  I found it was easier to get super detailed about specific places (especially alignments) on smaller geographic scales.

To my knowledge, there is no group in Washington that is interested in US 99 preservation.  California has at least two that I can think of. 

TravelMapping lists one section in Federal Way, but I can't find any signage in GSV. The only signed historic routes I've seen in Washington are for the old US-10, and even there, there are lots of unsigned sections, like the Vantage Highway.

Solano County CA has gotten tons of Historic US-40 signs posted, by adding "in memory of" or "sponsored by" banners to them. That's the only place I've seen that done. I'd like to see that practice spread. If they can get people to sponsor litter cleanup, they should be able to get people to sponsor historic signage, which is a lot cheaper.

Part of the appeal to doing blogs like this is that US 99 in much of Washington is fairly uncharted in the hobby.  US 99A in Blaine is something I don't think anyone else has hit on before?  Always is exciting and fun for me to make brand new discoveries with name brand highways.  At least it gives me some faith that the mainstream part of the hobby isn't fully data mined. 

[Alex]

Part of the appeal to doing blogs like this is that US 99 in much of Washington is fairly uncharted in the hobby.  US 99A in Blaine is something I don't think anyone else has hit on before?  Always is exciting and fun for me to make brand new discoveries with name brand highways.  At least it gives me some faith that the mainstream part of the hobby isn't fully data mined. 

I reference it on some of the captions on the Interstate 5 Washington pages. Usually when I take the time to write or update captions, I use the USGS Topo maps and the associated archive to place old alignments and former routes. As you also showed on your blog post, U.S. 99 Alternative was well referenced on the quads.

My wife and I drove to Vancouver, BC from Bellingham a week ago today. We didn't have as long of a queue as you did heading into Canada, but as compared to when we went, it was nice to see the blue skies at the I-5/BC 99 end point in your photos of both directions.

[Max Rockatansky]

Part of the appeal to doing blogs like this is that US 99 in much of Washington is fairly uncharted in the hobby.  US 99A in Blaine is something I don't think anyone else has hit on before?  Always is exciting and fun for me to make brand new discoveries with name brand highways.  At least it gives me some faith that the mainstream part of the hobby isn't fully data mined. 

I reference it on some of the captions on the Interstate 5 Washington pages. Usually when I take the time to write or update captions, I use the USGS Topo maps and the associated archive to place old alignments and former routes. As you also showed on your blog post, U.S. 99 Alternative was well referenced on the quads.

My wife and I drove to Vancouver, BC from Bellingham a week ago today. We didn't have as long of a queue as you did heading into Canada, but as compared to when we went, it was nice to see the blue skies at the I-5/BC 99 end point in your photos of both directions.

I saw some of that trip on Facebook. Looks as though you got quite a lot knocked out.  I'm still looking to get to the San Juan Islands myself. 

What is strange to me is that the US 99A in Blaine never had any AASHTO documents.  That means for a time US 99 had three active border crossing terminus locations counting the two in Blaine and the one north of Bellingham.