U.S. Route 50
In-game article clicks load inline without leaving the challenge.
U.S. Route 50 or U.S. Highway 50 (US50) is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching 3,019 miles (4,859km) from Interstate 80 (I-80) in West Sacramento, California, to Maryland Route 528 (MD 528) in Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlantic Ocean. Until 1972, when it was replaced by Interstate Highways west of the Sacramento area, it extended (by way of Stockton, the Altamont Pass, and the Bay Bridge) to San Francisco, near the Pacific Ocean. The Interstates were constructed later and are mostly separate from this route. It generally serves a corridor south of I-70 and north of I-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, US50 heads 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 there, US50 continues through Maryland as a high-speed partially limited access road. It crosses the Chesapeake Bay on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and then continues on Maryland’s eastern shore to Ocean City.
Signs at each end give the length as 3,073 miles (4,946km), but the current distance is slightly less due to realignments since that figure was calculated. US50 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.
US50 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 US50 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 US6 in the 1950s. US50 was extended west from Sacramento to San Francisco in the 1930s, replacing US48; this was reversed in 1964 when I-580 replaced much of the route between the two cities. In addition, US50 was extended east from Annapolis to Ocean City prior in 1949, replacing a portion of US213. US50 had two split configurations into US50N and US50S, one in Kansas and another in Ohio and West Virginia; both of these instances have been removed.
Route description
| mi | km | |
|---|---|---|
| CA | 109 | 175 |
| NV | 409 | 658 |
| UT | 335 | 539 |
| CO | 468 | 753 |
| KS | 448 | 721 |
| MO | 264 | 425 |
| IL | 166 | 267 |
| IN | 171 | 275 |
| OH | 209 | 336 |
| WV | 196 | 315 |
| VA | 86 | 138 |
| DC | 8 | 13 |
| MD | 150 | 240 |
| Total | 3,019 | 4,859 |
Western U.S.
US50 begins as a major freeway at its junction with Interstate 80 in West Sacramento and continues into Sacramento. The portion of US50 west of and including its interchange with California's State Highway 99 in Sacramento is also designated, but not signed as, Interstate 305. The signage along this portion of the highway indicates Business Loop I-80 and a portion of the way (2 miles/3.33km) as California State Highway 99. From Sacramento, the highway heads eastward as the William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. Memorial Highway, continuing as a freeway to the Gold Country foothills, then following the American River up the Sierra Nevada as a conventional highway, until cresting the Sierras at Echo Summit and descending to Lake Tahoe, where the highway enters Nevada. In Nevada, the highway crosses a series of north–south running mountain ranges that break up the Nevada desert which are called Basin and Range. East of Carson City, the road enters the heart of the Great Basin, passing by few communities and minimal services, giving it the name "Loneliest Road in America" until reaching Utah.
In Utah, US50 also passes through desolate, remote areas with few inhabitants. After crossing the Confusion Range via Kings Canyon and the House Range, the road traverses the north shore of the endorheic Sevier Lake. In Holden, US50 shortly overlaps Interstate 15 to cross the Pavant Range. The road begins a much longer overlap with Interstate 70 in Salina crossing the Wasatch Plateau and San Rafael Swell into Colorado. US50 leaves I-70 upon entering the state and heads southeast through Grand Junction and into the southern part of Colorado. Once there, the road climbs to its highest elevation of 11,312 feet (3,448m) over the Rocky Mountains and in Monarch Pass where it crosses the Continental Divide. After descending from the Rockies, US50 passes by Royal Gorge near Cañon City and serves Pueblo. The route then joins U.S. Route 400 in Granada and follows the Arkansas River into Kansas.
Midwestern U.S.
Upon entering Kansas, US50, concurrent with US400, runs along the Arkansas River to Dodge City where US50 splits from US400 and takes a more northerly course. US50 continues to traverse the farmlands and small towns of the Great Plains mostly as a straight two-lane road until Emporia where it joins Interstate 35 and splits onto Interstate 435 to bypass the center of the Kansas City Area. In Missouri, US50 leaves I-435 for Interstate 470 splitting at Lee's Summit. US50 runs as a four-lane divided highway across the Western Plain to Sedalia where it continues as a two-lane road until reaching California, MO about 20 miles west of Jefferson City. The road continues as a four-lane divided highway into Jefferson City where it joins US63 just south of the Missouri River Bridge. It continues 12 miles east of Jefferson City to the Osage River where US63 splits off to the south. It then continues as a two-lane road as it traverses the northern sections of the Ozark Highlands east to Union where it begins an overlap with Interstate 44 which goes through Pacific. The routes separate in Sunset Hills where US50 migrates southeast bypassing St Louis by joining Interstate 255 to cross Mississippi River into Illinois.
In that state, US50 switches to Interstate 64 before splitting onto its own alignment in eastern O'Fallon. It heads east through Trenton, Breese, Carlyle crossing the Kaskaskia River, Salem, Flora and Lawrenceville to the Wabash River along a corridor between Interstates 64 and 70. US50 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 around Belpre, and crosses the newer Blennerhassett Island Bridge (previously crossing the Parkersburg-Belpre Bridge) into greater Parkersburg, West Virginia.
Mid-Atlantic states
The portion of US50 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, US50 has been upgraded as part of the four-lane divided Corridor D. US50 is a curving two-lane mountain road, east of Clarksburg through Grafton, a bit of Maryland, and Romney to Winchester. This portion of the road is so curvy that locals claim "you can meet yourself coming." The land flattens out after the route crosses the Blue Ridge Mountain east of Winchester, and it follows the old Little River Turnpike from Aldie to Fairfax City and the newer Arlington Boulevard to Rosslyn, where it crosses the Washington, D.C. line on the west shore of the Potomac River and joins Interstate 66 on the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge.
Within the District, US50 immediately exits the freeway onto Constitution Avenue along the north side of the National Mall and south of the White House. After turning north on 6th Street Northwest, 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 from the south at Bowie. The freeway continues beyond Annapolis as the Blue Star Memorial Highway which crosses the Chesapeake Bay on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and continues to Queenstown. There the Blue Star Memorial Highway continues northeast as US301, while US50 turns south, passing through Easton to Cambridge, and then east through Salisbury to Ocean City on the four-lane divided Ocean Gateway. US50 ends near the Atlantic Ocean shore at Baltimore Avenue (Maryland Route 378 northbound); its westbound beginning is one block to the west, at Philadelphia Avenue (Maryland Route 528 southbound).
History
Before the creation of the Interstate Highway System after World War II, US50 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, US50 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. It followed the historic Northwestern Turnpike across West Virginia, and portions of other historic roads. Major auto trails followed, including the Midland Trail in part of Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and parts of Utah and Colorado. The National Old Trails Road (Old Santa Fe Trail) was designated in Kansas and eastern Colorado, and the Lincoln Highway was constructed in Nevada. In most states that had numbered their state highways, US50 followed only one or two numbers across the state.
One major controversy related to the preliminary route of US50. The through route had been assigned to the Old Santa 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 US50 to use. The final numbering plan, approved in November 1926, left a gap in US50 between Ely, Nevada and Thistle, Utah. Finally, rather than ending US50 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 US50 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 US50 was moved to it within a few years. Another straightening was made in 1976, when US50 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 US50. Among other things, the group has unsuccessfully pushed for an extension of Interstate 70 west along US50 to California.
The north–south split in Kansas was eliminated in the late 1950s, with the south route—which was to be US250—becoming part of US50, and most of US50N 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 US50 went back to its original southern route; that U.S. Route 50N is now Ohio State Route 550 and part of West Virginia Route 16.
At its west end, US50 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. US50 was officially cut back to Sacramento in the 1964 renumbering, replaced by Interstate 580, but remained on maps and signs for several more years. US50 was extended east from Annapolis to Ocean City, Maryland in 1949, three years prior to the opening of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in 1952; this extension replaced Maryland Route 404 between Annapolis and Wye Mills and U.S. Route 213 between Wye Mills and Ocean City. Prior to the bridge opening, US50 used a ferry across the Chesapeake Bay between Sandy Point and Matapeake and followed present-day Maryland Route 8 between Matapeake and Stevensville before continuing east.
Major intersections
California
I-5 in Sacramento
Nevada
I-580/US395 in Carson City. The highways travel concurrently through the city.
US95 in Fallon. The highways travel concurrently through the city.
US93 in Ely. The highways travel concurrently to Majors Place.
US6 in Ely. The highways travel concurrently to Delta, Utah.
Utah
I-15 north-northeast of Holden. The highways travel concurrently to Scipio.
US89 in Salina. The highways travel concurrently through the city.
I-70/US89 in Salina. I-70/US50 travels concurrently to south-southwest of Mack, Colorado.
US6/US191 west of Green River. US6/US50 travels concurrently to Grand Junction, Colorado. US50/US191 travels concurrently to west-southwest of Thompson Springs.
Colorado
I-70 in Grand Junction
US285 in Poncha Springs. The highways travel concurrently through the town.
I-25/US85/US87 in Pueblo. The highways travel concurrently through the city.
US287 south of Wiley. The highways travel concurrently to Lamar.
US287/US385 in Lamar. US50/US385 travels concurrently to Granada.
US385/US400 in Granada. US50/US400 travels concurrently to west of Dodge City, Kansas.
Kansas
US83 north-northwest of Garden City. The highways travel concurrently to Garden City.
US56/US283 in Dodge City. US50/US56 travels concurrently to Kinsley. US50/US283 travels concurrently to west-southwest of Wright.
US183 in Kinsley
I-135/US81 in Newton. The highways travel concurrently through the city.
I-35 east of Emporia. The highways travel concurrently to Lenexa.
US75 south-southeast of Olivet
US59 in Ottawa. The highways travel concurrently to northeast of Ottawa.
US56 in Gardner. The highways travel concurrently to Lenexa.
US169 in Olathe. The highways travel concurrently to Lenexa.
I-35/I-435/US56/US169 in Lenexa. I-435/US50 travels concurrently to Kansas City, Missouri.
Missouri
I-49/I-435/I-470/US71 in Kansas City. I-470/US50 travel concurrently to Lee's Summit.
US54/US63 in Jefferson City. US50/US63 travels concurrently to north of Westphalia.
I-44 south-southwest of Villa Ridge. The highways travel concurrently to the Sunset Hills–Kirkwood city line.
I-270 in Sunset Hills
I-44/US61/US67 on the Sunset Hills–Kirkwood city line. US50/US61/US67 travels concurrently to Mehlville.
I-255 in Mehlville. The highways travel concurrently to Caseyville, Illinois.
Illinois
I-64/I-255 in Caseyville. I-64/US50 travels concurrently to O'Fallon.
US51 in Sandoval. The highways travel concurrently through the village.
US45 northwest of Flora. The highways travel concurrently to east of Flora.
Indiana
US41/US150 in Vincennes. US41/US50 travels concurrently through the city. US50/US150 travels concurrently to Shoals.
I-69 east of Washington
US231 in Loogootee. The highways travel concurrently through the city.
US31 in Seymour
US421 in Versailles. The highways travel concurrently through the town.
Ohio
US27/US42/US52/US127 in Cincinnati
I-71/I-75 in Cincinnati. I-71/US50 travels concurrently through the city.
I-471 in Cincinnati
US52 in Cincinnati
US68 in Fayetteville
US23/US35 in Scioto Township. US23/US50 travels concurrently through the township. US35/US50 travels concurrently to Schrader.
US33 in Athens. The highways travel concurrently to Athens Township.
West Virginia
I-77 east of Parkersburg
US19 in Clarksburg
I-79 in Clarksburg
US250 west-southwest of Pruntytown. The highways travel concurrently to Pruntytown.
Maryland
West Virginia
US220 southeast of New Creek. The highways travel concurrently to Junction.
Virginia
US11/US17/US522 in Winchester. US11/US50 travels concurrently through the city. US17/US50 travels concurrently to Paris. US50/US522 travels concurrently to southeast of Winchester.
I-81 in Winchester
US29 in Fairfax. The highways travel concurrently through the city.
I-495 on the Annandale–Merrifield–West Falls Church line
District of Columbia
I-66 in Washington, D.C. The highways travel concurrently through the city, to the Foggy Bottom neighborhood.
US1 in Washington, in the National Mall. The highways travel concurrently to Mount Vernon Square.
I-395 in Washington, in Mount Vernon Square
Maryland
I-95/I-495 in Lanham. The unsigned I-595 is entirely concurrent with US50 from here to Annapolis.
US301 in Bowie. The highways travel concurrently to southwest of Queenstown.
US13 in Salisbury. The highways travel concurrently around the northeastern corner of the city.
MD 528 in Ocean City
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
- Special routes of U.S. Route 50
Notes
External links
- Kansas Highway Maps: May 7, 2016, at theWayback Machine, December 19, 2010, at theWayback Machine, KDOT