US 75 Downtown Before And After The Pierce Elevated

[JLWM8609]

US 75 was routed through downtown along Calhoun St. and Jefferson St. When the Gulf Freeway and the North Freeway were built and the Pierce Elevated was still under construction, there was a gap between the two segments of I-45. Traffic on I-45 would have to take US 75 through downtown to get to the other side of I-45. After the Pierce Elevated was built, did US 75 continue to be signed and routed along downtown streets, or was it re-routed to run concurrent with I-45 on the Pierce Elevated until it was decommissioned in the late 80s?

[Purpledevil]

56 minutes ago, JLWM8609 said:

US 75 was routed through downtown along Calhoun St. and Jefferson St. When the Gulf Freeway and the North Freeway were built and the Pierce Elevated was still under construction, there was a gap between the two segments of I-45. Traffic on I-45 would have to take US 75 through downtown to get to the other side of I-45. After the Pierce Elevated was built, did US 75 continue to be signed and routed along downtown streets, or was it re-routed to run concurrent with I-45 on the Pierce Elevated until it was decommissioned in the late 80s?

According to my ancient but always reliable Humble Oil map, 45 stopped just south of the present day North Loop. It was then designated as U.S. 75, sans the I-45 designation, then jogged slightly west to Airline Drive and then continued on south to N. Main. From there, U.S. 75 proceeded down N. Main to Houston Ave. and then turned south down Houston Ave. to Washington and then turned east into downtown. South on Bagby to Pease, which curved into what appears to be a brief 4-6 lane road until Scott St., at which point it reappears on the map as I-45.

 

I can tell you with near certainty, that there was no Interstate 45/U.S. 75 signage left on Houston Ave., N. Main, Airline, or Bagby when I was growing up in the 70's.

Edit to add: I-45 had the dual U.S. 75 designation until at least the late 1980's. Much like the present day 69/59 set up. U.S. 75 always ran the length of present day I-45 since I have been around.

[JLWM8609]

2 hours ago, Purpledevil said:

According to my ancient but always reliable Humble Oil map, 45 stopped just south of the present day North Loop. It was then designated as U.S. 75, sans the I-45 designation, then jogged slightly west to Airline Drive and then continued on south to N. Main. From there, U.S. 75 proceeded down N. Main to Houston Ave. and then turned south down Houston Ave. to Washington and then turned east into downtown. South on Bagby to Pease, which curved into what appears to be a brief 4-6 lane road until Scott St., at which point it reappears on the map as I-45.

 

I can tell you with near certainty, that there was no Interstate 45/U.S. 75 signage left on Houston Ave., N. Main, Airline, or Bagby when I was growing up in the 70's.

Edit to add: I-45 had the dual U.S. 75 designation until at least the late 1980's. Much like the present day 69/59 set up. U.S. 75 always ran the length of present day I-45 since I have been around.

 

There's a US 75 sign left downtown. It somehow managed to survive the decommissioning and street reconstruction.

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7488068,-95.367842,3a,40.3y,316.67h,80.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sd3IXccPpGU__JS0jB0Z1Sw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[mollusk]

3 hours ago, JLWM8609 said:

 

There's a US 75 sign left downtown. It somehow managed to survive the decommissioning and street reconstruction.

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7488068,-95.367842,3a,40.3y,316.67h,80.91t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sd3IXccPpGU__JS0jB0Z1Sw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

shhhhhh... what an easter egg.

[gnu]

There used to be US75  signs on the feeder at Broad/Myrtle (And it looks like at least one is still there)

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7076238,-95.3045268,3a,75y,261.5h,87.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5b98lA7A35jMMHtPW1JEcw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

They used to be on both sides of the freeway but I only see them here on google maps.

Also somewhere it that area (maybe the same intersection), they replaced a set of them on one corner at some point in the late 90s (i think) and incorrectly put State Highway 75 Shields up.

[JLWM8609]

1 hour ago, gnu said:

There used to be US75  signs on the feeder at Broad/Myrtle (And it looks like at least one is still there)

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7076238,-95.3045268,3a,75y,261.5h,87.5t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5b98lA7A35jMMHtPW1JEcw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

They used to be on both sides of the freeway but I only see them here on google maps.

Also somewhere it that area (maybe the same intersection), they replaced a set of them on one corner at some point in the late 90s (i think) and incorrectly put State Highway 75 Shields up.

When US 75 was decomissioned south of Dallas, portions of US 75 that didn't run concurrent with I-45 were redesignated State Highway 75. State Highway 75 runs from Streetman to Conroe. I guess someone at TxDOT thought "hmm, guess we'd better change this sign to SH 75 like we did in Conroe" not realizing that US 75 was decomissioned and not redesignated south of Conroe. 

 

If you want another blast from the past, there's still an old Loop 137 sign left from the days when Kelly Rd. was the North Loop. The Loop 137 designation was cancelled in 1980, yet TxDOT even transferred the sign to a new pole within the last few years!

[ArchFan]

I have memories of driving from west Houston to Galveston in the late 50s or early 60s.  We would take either Memorial or Hwy 90 (now I-10) inbound.  If using the Hwy 90 route, we would take Washington Avenue to downtown, then navigate past the then-new Humble (ExxonMobil) Bldg, then hook up with I-45 on the SE edge of downtown.  That always seemed to take forever.  Humble had a rather cool, antique-y service station on the block just west of the Humble Bldg.  

 

I also recall driving to Dallas during the time that I-45 was replacing US 75, segment by segment.  AIR, the last segment was often referred to as "The Death Strip", due to being somewhat hilly with basically no shoulders and lots of slow-moving vehicles people dared to try passing.  I think that was somewhere between Centerville and Streetman.  The latter town was interesting to visit, in that it had once been a prosperous cotton town with a number of banks and businesses, all gone by then.  Mostly just a few foundations left to their buildings.

[JLWM8609]

2 hours ago, ArchFan said:

 

I also recall driving to Dallas during the time that I-45 was replacing US 75, segment by segment.  AIR, the last segment was often referred to as "The Death Strip", due to being somewhat hilly with basically no shoulders and lots of slow-moving vehicles people dared to try passing.  I think that was somewhere between Centerville and Streetman.  The latter town was interesting to visit, in that it had once been a prosperous cotton town with a number of banks and businesses, all gone by then.  Mostly just a few foundations left to their buildings.

The death strip was between Centerville and Buffalo. My dad grew up in Leon Co. and knew all about it. I've driven on it and it is hilly and curvy. I can only imagine what it was like with heavy traffic. From texasfreeway.com:

[JLWM8609]

Page 2 of the article

[FilioScotia]

Here's a link to the best history of Houston's freeway systems ever written, with hundreds of historic photos showing how it was created and developed into the nightmare it is today. In the chapters on the Loops, there's even an amazing photograph of the ammonia cloud enveloping the West Loop interchange on the SW Fwy on May 11, 1976. You can spend hours sifting through this incredible E-Book.

 

http://houstonfreeways.com/

[Firebird65]

19 hours ago, FilioScotia said:

Here's a link to the best history of Houston's freeway systems ever written, with hundreds of historic photos showing how it was created and developed into the nightmare it is today. In the chapters on the Loops, there's even an amazing photograph of the ammonia cloud enveloping the West Loop interchange on the SW Fwy on May 11, 1976. You can spend hours sifting through this incredible E-Book.

 

http://houstonfreeways.com/

 

 

Yeah, that's a great book. Read it a few times. Looking through the book's pics and the website's maps one winter day made me wonder what life was like on the northside in the days before the North Freeway was built. Eventually, I started to research and did my own book (of sorts). Actually, I'm expanding on it even as I write this. I just keep finding more stuff. LOL!