Route 66's ranking among US Highways
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How Long Was Route 66?
Route 66 was part of the original U.S. Highway System in 1926. It ran from Chicago to Los Angeles. Like most U.S. Highways of that time, it was assembled from a string of local state highways. These had been built following the practices of that time, and had many curves, a meandering course, with right-angle turns following county survey lines. It also included dirt-surfaced segments. The original length of Route 66 in 1926 was 2.448 miles.
>> Learn more: How Long Is Route 66?
Over the years, the highway was straightened out (for safety and cost reasons: fewer accidents, and a shorter roadway is cheaper to maintain) and realigned. Even though it was extended to Santa Monica (1930-1964) in California, it was shortened to 2,238 miles by 1960. And then, as its western and eastern termini were moved over the next 25 years, it became even shorter.
The Length of Route 66 over the years
Finally, the highway was shortened when its western and eastern termini were moved eastwards and westwards respectively starting in 1964. Read more about Where does Route 66 start and end. See the first and last complete alignments in the images below. The Sanders, AZ, to Scotland, MO, alignment measured 965 miles:
1926-1927
East: Cicero, IL
West: Los Angeles, CA
US 66. Cicero, IL to Los Angeles, CA (1926 - 1927)
1979-1985
East: Scotland, MO
West: Sanders, AZ
US 66. Scotland, MO to Sanders, AZ (1979 - 1985)
>> Learn more: Why was Route 66 decommissioned?
America's Longest U.S. Highways
The top four longest highways are transcontinental. Two of them, U.S. 20 and U.S. 30, reach from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. The others end before reaching the western coast. The first north-south highway is Route 1. The Great Lakes cut Route 2 into two sections: Eastern and Western.
The Top 10 U.S. Highways, by Length, Nowadays
- U.S. Route 20 (3,365 miles), from Boston, MA, to Newport, OR.
- U.S. Route 6 (3,207 miles), from Provincetown, MA, to Bishop, CA.
- U.S. Route 30 (3,073 miles), from Atlantic City, NJ, to Astoria, OR.
- U.S. Route 50 (3,017 miles), from Ocean City, MD, to Sacramento, CA.
- U.S. Route 60 (2,670 miles), from Brenda, AZ, to Virginia Beach, VA.
- U.S. Route 2 (2,571 miles), from Everett, WA, to Houlton, ME.
- U.S. Route 12 (2,484 miles), from Aberdeen, WA, to Detroit, MI.
- U.S. Route 70 (2,385 miles), from Globe, AZ, to Atlantic, NC.
- U.S. Route 1 (2,369 miles), from Fort Kent, ME, to Key West, FL.
- U.S. Route 64 (2,326 miles), from Teec Nos Pos, AZ, to Nags Head, NC.
A Changing List of Highways
The current longest highway is U.S. Hwy. 20. It has occupied the first place since 1964 when U.S. Route 6 was shortened, and the Bishop-Long Beach segment was delisted as a U.S. Highway. Route 6 had been the longest highway from 1931 until then. Now, Route 6 is the second longest.
Among the Interstate highways, the longest is I-90 (3,099 miles), from Seattle, WA, to Boston, MA.
The Two Longest U.S. Highways - Maximum lengths
US Route 20. At its maximum length (1940 - present)
US Route 6. At its maximum length (1931 - 1964)
Fun Facts
U.S. Route 20, in its original alignment, was not a coast-to-coast highway. It ended on the eastern entrance to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The western section, from Yellowstone's western entrance to the Pacific, was added in 1940.
U.S. Route 20 has a gap in Yellowstone National Park. The roadway crosses the park, but it isn't signed, as the National Park Service does not allow U.S. Routes to be signed within its parks' boundaries.
U.S. 20 and 30 don't follow the U.S. Route numbering rules in Oregon (where numbers increase from north to south) because US 30 was aligned in 1926 as a coast-to-coast highway, while only US 20 was extended across the state in 1940, and aligned further south.
U.S. 10, which is now much shorter, originally ran from Seattle, OR, to Manitowoc, WI. Here, it has a ferry segment! It continued on the eastern side of Lake Michigan, from Ludington, MI, to Detroit, MI. Starting in 1969, west of Fargo, ND, the highway was decertified as it was replaced by I-90 and I-94. Now it only measures 713 mi. But at one time, it was 2,139 miles long. Placing it close to the top 10
U.S. 80, which was an original 1926 highway, ran across the continent from Tybee Island, GA, to San Diego, CA, with 2.726 miles. It was open year-round, and it was advertised as an "All Weather Highway", as it ran across the snow-free southern and Southwestern states. Now it is shorter, ending in Dallas, TX, with a length of 1,035 mi. At one time it was the fourth longest U.S. Highway.
The longest U.S. Highway, current or past, was U.S. Route 6
Route 6, which originally ran all way the from Provincetown, on the tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, to Long Beach, California, was the longest U.S. highway, much longer than Route 20, it measured 3652 miles until it was decertified in its southern segment southwest of Bishop, California, and clipped back to its current 3,207 miles.
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Banner image: Hackberry General Store, Hackberry, Arizona by Perla Eichenblat
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