U.S. Route 50 - History

History

For more details, see the state-specific articles linked in the route description above.

Before the creation of the Interstate Highway System, US 50 was a major east–west route. Numbered highways in the United States follow a pattern of odd numbers for north–south routes and even numbers for east–west routes, hence the designation of "50" for this route. In the preliminary report, approved by the Joint Board on Interstate Highways in late 1925, US 50 ran from Wadsworth, Nevada to Annapolis, Maryland, passing through Pueblo, Colorado, Kansas City, Missouri, Tipton, Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. The route did not directly replace any auto trail, instead combining portions of many into one continuous route. Major auto trails followed, included the Lincoln Highway in Nevada, the Midland Trail in parts of Utah and Colorado and again in Missouri, Illinois, and part of Indiana, and the National Old Trails Road (Old Santa Fe Trail) in eastern Colorado and Kansas. It also followed the historic Northwestern Turnpike across West Virginia. In most states that had numbered their state highways, US 50 followed only one or two numbers across the state.

One major controversy erupted in relation to the preliminary route of US 50. The through route had been assigned to the Old Sante Fe Trail, while the spur U.S. Route 250 followed the competing New Santa Fe Trail to the south. As a compromise, the Joint Board on Interstate Highways approved a split configuration — U.S. Route 50N and U.S. Route 50S — in January. Another problem was in western Utah, where no improved road existed for US 50 to use. The final numbering plan, approved in November 1926, left a gap in US 50 between Ely, Nevada and Thistle, Utah. Finally, rather than ending US 50 at Wadsworth, where the Lincoln and Victory Highways merged, it was sent over the Lincoln Highway's Pioneer Branch, past the south side of Lake Tahoe, to Sacramento, California.

The gap in Utah was soon bypassed by taking US 50 to the north, crossing the Great Salt Lake Desert with U.S. Route 40 to Salt Lake City, and using long portions of U.S. Route 93 in Nevada and U.S. Route 89 in Utah. U.S. Route 6 was marked along the direct, but still partially unimproved, route in 1937; it was finally paved in 1952, and US 50 was moved to it within a few years. Another straightening was made in 1976, when US 50 in central Utah was moved south onto the new extension of Interstate 70 at the request of the National Highway 50 Federation, a group dedicated to promoting US 50. Among other things, the group has unsuccessfully pushed for an extension of Interstate 70 west along US 50 to California.

The north–south split in Kansas was eliminated in the late 1950s, with the south route — which was to be US 250 — becoming part of US 50, and most of US 50N becoming part of a new U.S. Route 56. Another split was located between Athens, Ohio and Ellenboro, West Virginia from the late 1920s to the mid-1930s, when US 50 went back to its original south route; that U.S. Route 50N is now Ohio State Route 550 and part of West Virginia Route 16.

At its west end, US 50 was extended south from Sacramento along U.S. Route 99 to Stockton and west to the San Francisco Bay Area, replacing U.S. Route 48, by the early 1930s. US 50 was officially cut back to Sacramento in the 1964 renumbering, replaced by Interstate 580, but remained on maps and signs for several more years. US 50 was extended east from Annapolis to Ocean City, Maryland several years prior to the opening of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in 1952; this extension replaced much of U.S. Route 213.