The Press-Enterprise posted a fascinating historical article about U.S. 395, which goes 1,400 miles from Canada to Mexico through Washington, Oregon and California.
Route 66 obviously stays true to U.S. 66, the Mother Road. But we’re happy to occasionally give some bandwidth to other notable historic highways. From the article:
U.S. Route 66 is a much-documented highway many Americans fondly remember as the “mother road,” crossing east-west from Chicago to Los Angeles. U.S. Highway 395 may be less widely known — yet “it was the Route 66 of the West but it was the north-south version,” said Dick Fox, a Temecula historian.
“At its peak (use), it was called the Three Flags Highway,” Fox said, because 395, completed in the 1930s, linked Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.
“It went through every little burg and city, all the way up” to the Canadian border near Spokane, Wash., he said.
Travelers in parts of southern California may be able to follow old 395 better because of new signs that were recently installed.
U.S. 395 was the primary north-south highway in the region before Interstate 15 was built. Also, bypasses were built for U.S. 395 after World War II convoys had trouble getting through some towns.
Here’s a Wikipedia entry on U.S. 395. Here’s Cameron Kaiser’s excellent site about 395. AARoads has a good site, with lots of photos, too.
Sorry, I know it’s us all us emotional Route 66 roadies, but I can’t help being disappointed every time I hear a comparison and use of the name Route 66? While it might be a good story about another road, it most certainly is NOTHING like the Route 66 of the West! There is and always shall be ONLY 1 Route 66, nothing was like it before it, and will likely never be again. So please people, dare NOT to compare, because there really is no comparison and I’m sure your route deserves it’s own history without having to use another route’s name to get attention. Case in point, we don’t compare Route 66 to anything else and we don’t use any other route’s name to bring attention to it! She is a TRUE legend all her own – she IS the “Mother Road”. And she belongs to the people and the public, most certainly not some mentally twisted physco from the Netherlands! (sure hope that’s all over with?)
So Rock On 395, but do it on your own merits and not on Route 66’s…
I’ve been on most of 395 from Escondido north to US-50. It’s an incredibly beautiful journey through wondrous terrain, including splitting a gap between Mt Whitney to the west and Death Valley to the east. (For my wife’s birthday one year we were in snow on the base of Whitney one day and in 100+ temperatures in Death Valley the next. What an experience.)