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Template:Infobox U.S. Route U.S. Route 50 is a major east-west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching just over 3,000 miles (4,800 km) from Ocean City, Maryland on the Atlantic Ocean to West Sacramento, California. Until it was replaced by Interstate Highways west of Sacramento, it extended to San Francisco, near the Pacific Ocean. The route mostly remains separate from Interstates. It generally serves a corridor south of Interstates 70 and 80 and north of Interstate 64. The route runs through mostly rural desert and mountains in the Western United States, with the section through Nevada known as the "Loneliest Road in America". In the Midwest, US 50 continues through mostly rural areas of farms as well as a few large cities including Kansas City, Missouri, St. Louis, Missouri, and Cincinnati, Ohio. The route continues into the Eastern United States, where it passes through the Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia before heading through Washington, D.C. From here, US 50 continues through Maryland as a high-speed road to Ocean City. Signs at each end give the length as 3,073 miles (4,946 km), but the actual distance is slightly less, due to realignments since the former figure was measured. US 50 passes through a total of 12 states (California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland) as well as the District of Columbia.

US 50 was created in 1926 as part of the original U.S. Highway system. The original route planned in 1925 ran from Wadsworth, Nevada east to Annapolis, Maryland along several auto trails including the Lincoln Highway, Midland Trail, and the National Old Trails Road. The final 1926 plan had US 50 running from Sacramento, California east to Annapolis with a gap in west Utah that was bridged by running the route north via Salt Lake City before rerouting it to U.S. Route 6 in the 1950s. US 50 was extended west from Sacramento to San Francisco in the 1930s, replacing U.S. Route 48; this was reversed in 1964 when Interstate 580 replaced much of the route between the two cities. In addition, US 50 was extended east from Annapolis to Ocean City prior to 1952, replacing a portion of U.S. Route 213. US 50 had two split configurations into U.S. Route 50N and U.S. Route 50S, one in Kansas and another in Ohio and West Virginia; both of these instances have been removed.

Route description

Western U.S.

US 50 begins at a junction with Interstate 80 in West Sacramento, California, and overlaps Interstate 80 Business along a freeway, across Interstate 5 and into downtown Sacramento. On the southeast corner of downtown, I-80 Business splits to the north, and California 99 heads south. The freeway continues straight with US 50, becoming a surface road in Placerville. The road continues east, gradually narrowing and rising, to the Nevada state line at South Lake Tahoe.

After entering Nevada, US 50 passes through Carson City, and soon enters an area of desert and mountains. This part of the road, with minimal services, has earned the name "Loneliest Road in America"; the few communities along the route include Fallon, Eureka, Ely and Austin. At Ely, US 6 enters from the southwest, and the two routes overlap east into Utah. The route of US 50 through that state is also sparsely populated, with Delta, Salina, and Green River breaking up the wilderness. US 50 and US 6 split at Delta, with US 50 continuing east to a short overlap with Interstate 15 and a much longer one with Interstate 70 beginning at Salina. US Hwy-6 enters the I-70/US 50 overlap at Green River, and the three routes continue together into Colorado.

US 50 leaves I-70 soon after entering Colorado, heading southeast through Grand Junction and into the southern part of the state, where it passes through Montrose and Gunnison. US 50 crosses the Continental Divide at Monarch Pass, elevation 11,312 feet (3,448 m), and the highest point on the road. After coming down from the pass into Salida, US 50 follows the Arkansas River past Cañon City, Pueblo, La Junta, and Lamar into Kansas.

Midwestern U.S.

US 50 runs through southwestern, central, and eastern Kansas, serving Garden City, Dodge City, Hutchinson, Emporia, and Olathe. US 400, which began in Colorado, splits at Dodge City to run across the state at a more southerly latitude. At Emporia, US 50 crosses the Kansas Turnpike and joins Interstate 35, splitting onto Interstate 435 to bypass the center of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area.

After entering Missouri, US 50 leaves I-435 for Interstate 470, splitting at Lee's Summit. US 50 is a four-lane divided highway until Sedalia, where it narrows to two lanes, much of which is being widened to 4 lanes, for most of the route through Jefferson City to Interstate 44 east of Union. It overlaps I-44 to Sunset Hills, where it follows Lindbergh Boulevard — an early bypass around St. Louis — and Interstate 255 across the Mississippi River on the Jefferson Barracks Bridge into Illinois.

In that state, US 50 switches to Interstate 64 before splitting onto its own alignment in eastern O'Fallon. It heads east through Salem, Flora and Lawrenceville to the Wabash River along a corridor between Interstates 64 and 70. US 50 enters Indiana at the Wabash River, bypassing Vincennes and Washington and passing through Bedford, Seymour, and Versailles. It meets the Ohio River at Aurora, and soon crosses into Ohio, running through downtown Cincinnati via Fort Washington Way (Interstate 71). The route crosses southern Ohio via Hillsboro, Chillicothe, and Athens, joining the four-lane divided Corridor D (State Route 32) west of Athens. It meets the Ohio River, from which it split at Cincinnati, at Belpre, and crosses the Blennerhassett Island Bridge (previously crossing the Parkersburg-Belpre Bridge) into Parkersburg, West Virginia.

Mid-Atlantic states

The portion of US 50 from Parkersburg, West Virginia to Winchester, Virginia follows the historic Northwestern Turnpike, which crosses the southern tip of Garrett County, Maryland. From Parkersburg to Interstate 79 east of Clarksburg, US 50 has been upgraded as part of the four-lane divided Corridor D. US 50 is a curving two-lane mountain road, east of Clarksburg through Grafton, a bit of Maryland, and Romney to Winchester. The land flattens out after it crosses the Shenandoah Mountains east of Winchester, and it follows the old Little River Turnpike from Aldie to Fairfax and the newer Arlington Boulevard to Rosslyn, where it crosses the District of Columbia line — on the west shore of the Potomac River — and joins Interstate 66 on the Roosevelt Bridge.

Within the District, US 50 immediately exits the freeway onto Constitution Avenue along the north side of the National Mall. After turning north, it exits the city to the northeast on New York Avenue. Upon crossing into Maryland, it passes the south end of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and becomes the John Hanson Highway, a freeway to Annapolis. The portion of this highway east of the Capital Beltway (I-95/I-495) is also designated, but not signed as, Interstate 595, and U.S. Route 301 joins at Bowie. The freeway continues beyond Annapolis as the Blue Star Memorial Highway, passing over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and ending at Queenstown. There the Blue Star Highway continues northeast with US 301, while US 50 turns south past Easton to Cambridge and east around Salisbury to Ocean City on the four-lane divided Ocean Gateway. US 50 ends at Baltimore Avenue (Maryland Route 528 northbound); its westbound beginning is one block to the west, at Philadelphia Avenue (MD 528 southbound).

History

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, 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.

See also

Related U.S. Routes

• U.S. Route 150
• U.S. Route 250
• U.S. Route 350
• U.S. Route 450
• U.S. Route 550
• U.S. Route 650

Bannered routes

• U.S. Route 50 Alternate in Nevada

References

1. Cite error: The named reference Google directions was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ Google Maps street maps, accessed July 2007
3. Report of Joint Board on Interstate Highways, October 30, 1925, Approved by the Secretary of Agriculture, November 18, 1925
4. Rand McNally Auto Road Atlas, 1926, accessed via the Broer Map Library
5. The following routes were used, mostly shown on the 1926 Rand McNally:
   • Nevada: 2
   • Utah: 8 (in the east half of the state; the west half was unnumbered)
   • Colorado: 6
   • Kansas: state highways were not numbered prior to the U.S. Highway system
   • Missouri: 12, shown on Missouri State Highway Commission, Route Map Showing Designated Routes and Numbers, Approved September 19, 1922
   • Illinois: 12
   • Indiana: 4 and 5; by 1926, a short piece was 41, but this was originally part of 5, shown on the description of the 1917 Indiana State Highway Map at the Indiana University Bloomington Libraries
   • Ohio: mostly 26; it had been Main Market Route V in the 1910s, shown on 1914, 1915, and 1917 Ohio Transportation Maps
   • West Virginia: 1
   • Virginia: 36; it had been 6 until the 1923 renumbering, shown in the route descriptions as defined by the General Assembly on January 31, 1918
   • Maryland: state highways were not numbered prior to the U.S. Highway system
6. Richard F. Weingroff, From Names to Numbers: The Origins of the U.S. Numbered Highway System
7. United States System of Highways, November 11, 1926
8. United States Numbered Highways, American Highways (AASHO), April 1927
9. Nevada Department of Highways, Road Map, 1932
10. Richard F. Weingroff, U.S. 6: The Grand Army of the Republic Highway
11. Nevada Department of Highways, 1954 Official Highway Map of Nevada, Prepared by Rand McNally & Company
12. Senate Committee on Public Works, Designating Highway US 50 as Part of the Interstate System, Nevada, 1970, p. 68: recommends that the road between Delta and Salina receive a single number
13. Utah Department of Transportation, Route 50 history, updated February 2006: includes correspondence between UDOT and AASHTO about the relocation
14. Rocky Mountain News, Highway to Heaven, November 1, 1992
15. Federal Highway Administration, Ask the Rambler: Why Does I-70 End in Cove Fort, Utah?
16. KDOT Historic State Maps, 1956 and 1957-1958
17. Ohio Transportation Maps, 1928 to 1935
18. Rand McNally & Company, 1933 maps of California
19. California Streets and Highways Code, 1963: "Route 50 is from Route 80 in Sacramento to the Nevada state line near Lake Tahoe via Placerville. (Repealed and added by Stats. 1963, Ch. 385.)"
20. Thomas Guide, San Francisco, 1967
21. Modesto Bee and News-Herald, Highway Projects Speed Along, July 19, 1967: "Route 205, which will be the north Tracy Bypass linking Route 580 (the present Route 50) to Interstate 5."
22. Denton Journal, Shore Roads Up for Bids, June 17, 1949

v t e United States Numbered Highway System
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 87 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 101 163 400 412 425
Mainline highways Divided routes Special routes
Routes in italics are no longer a part of the system. Highlighted routes are considered main routes of the system.

• U.S. Route 50
• U.S. Highway System
• Historic trails and roads in the United States