U.S. Route 6

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Template:Cleanupus Template:Infobox U.S. Route Image:US 6 (CA).svg U.S. Route 6 is a largely east-west United States Highway that connects Bishop, California at U.S. Route 395 with Provincetown, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. From 1937 to 1964, it was the longest U.S. highway at 3,652 miles (5,877 km), extending south from Bishop to Long Beach, California. In 1964, it was decommissioned south of Bishop as part of a California state highway renumbering, leaving U.S. Route 20 the longest US highway. Since US 20 does not exist within Yellowstone National Park, US 6 is still the country's longest continuous US highway at 3,205 miles (5,158 km).

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States traversed

U.S. Route 6 traverses the following states:

Mileskmstate
118190Massachusetts
2540Rhode Island
116187Connecticut
78126New York
394634Pennsylvania
259417Ohio
149240Indiana
172277Illinois
320515Iowa
373600Nebraska
467752Colorado
373600Utah
305491Nevada
4166California
3205 5158Total
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Major cities on the route

Although it does not pass through either New York City or Chicago, it does pass through some of their outer suburbs.

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Route description

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California

Legal definition of Route 6

Though US 6 is a two-lane surface road in California, its full length is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System.

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Nevada

Though U.S. 6 is hundreds of miles long it only passes through 2 cities Tonopah, Nevada and Ely, Nevada. Many people feel the despite U.S. Route 50 through Nevada being called "The Loniest Road in America" the honor should go to U.S. 6

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Utah

In an oddity among U.S. highways, U.S. 6 enters and leaves Utah multiplexed with U.S. Route 50. However the two routes are different through the state. U.S. 50 is the shorter and more direct route. U.S. 6 is the older of the two and was originally signed U.S. 50. U.S. 6 forms an arched shape route. Most all U.S. 6 traffic changes higways at the apex of the arch, Spanish Fork, Utah.

The western half of the arch is the road less traveled, passing through the Great Basin Desert, Sevier Lake, and the historic Tintic mining district.

The eastern half of the arch is a very popular transportation corridor, paralleling the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad's transcontinental route. The 2 lane portion of the eastern half (from Spanish Fork to Green River, Utah has the highest number of fatal accidents per vehicles traveled ratio in Utah. For this reason the route is sometimes called "suicide 6". This half of U.S. 6 passes over Soldier Summit, Utah and the historic railroad hub of Helper, Utah. This half was supposed to be the route of Interstate 70 but the freeway was replanned to it's present route.

U.S. 6 in Utah passes through or by several Ghost Towns including Tintic, Utah, Thistle, Utah, Tucker, Utah, Soldier Summit, Utah, Colton, Utah, Woodside, Utah and Cisco, Utah. Most of these towns were either mining or railroad based.

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Colorado

Main Article: U.S. Route 6 in Colorado

US 6 is multiplexed with many different highways throughout Colorado; most of which is unsigned.

Image:Colorado 6 map.png
Counties

Cities

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Ohio

6 enters Ohio from Indiana in Williams County. It passes through Napoleon, Bowling Green, and Fremont, before turning northeast towards Sandusky Bay and Lake Erie. After passing through Sandusky, the route follows the southern shore of Lake Erie, passing through Huron, Vermilion, Lorain, and the western suburbs of Cleveland as Lake Road and Clifton Boulevard. In Cleveland, 6 follows Superior Avenue through Public Square and continues onto the East Side as Euclid Avenue and Chardon Road. 6 continues eastward and leaves Ohio in Ashtabula County, slightly north of the Pymatuning Resevoir.

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New York

Image:DSCF0167.JPG US 6 runs for 78.09 miles in New York state. It enters and exits the state close to Interstate 84 but separates in the interior of the state, taking a more southerly route.

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Route log

Orange County (45.93 miles)

US 6 enters New York state from Pennsylvania multiplexed with US 209. US 209 splits off after 0.9 miles while US 6 closely parallels I-84 for another 16.9 miles. US 6 then overlaps with NY 17M for 5.2 miles until it reaches NY 17. US 6 then travels along the NY 17 freeway for 12.8 miles until just before the junction with I-87. US 6 exits from NY 17 and crosses under I-87 but has no junction with it. It then travels through the Bear Mountain State Park for 10.1 miles with the last 3.0 miles multiplexed with the Palisades Interstate Parkway. The Palisades Interstate Parkway ends at a traffic circle with US 9W and US 202. US 6 is joined by US 202 at this point and crosses the Hudson River.

Image:Bear Mtn Bridge.jpg

Rockland County (0.25 miles)

US 6/US 202 cross the Hudson River on the Bear Mountain Bridge.

Westchester County (15.01 miles)

After traveling for 3.8 miles along the east bank of the Hudson River, US 6/US 202 has a short (0.7-mile) three-way overlap with US 9 heading into the city of Peekskill. US 202 separates from US 6 after another 0.8 miles. US 6 then goes through the town of Cortlandt and the rest of Westchester County (9.6 miles). US 6 has a junction with the Taconic State Parkway in this area.

Putnam County (16.90 miles)

US 6 heads northeast through Putnam County until reaching the town of Carmel (7.8 miles). It then turns and heads southeast for 5.2 miles and picks up US 202 again. US6/US 202 then head east, closely paralleling I-84 to the Connecticut state line (another 4.0 miles further). There is a junction with I-684 and I-84 shortly after US 202 joins US 6 in this area.

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Connecticut

US 6 is 116.3 miles in Connecticut. It begins in Danbury after crossing the New York state line, multiplexed with US 202. It runs for 3.8 miles in Danbury as a minor arterial road then climbs up on Interstate 84/US 7. The 4-way multiplex of I-84/US 7/US 6/US 202 continues for 3.3 miles after which US 7 and US 202 split off from I-84. US 6 follows I-84 for another 0.8 miles before returning to surface roads. US 6 then goes through the towns of Bethel and Newtown, and then overlaps with I-84 again for 6.4 miles between Newtown and Southbury. US 6 is a surface road again as it passes through Southbury, Woodbury, Watertown, and Thomaston. There is a 1.0 mile overlap with the CT 8 freeway in Thomaston. US 6 continues through the towns of Plymouth, Bristol and Farmington. In Farmington, US 6 again joins I-84 as it passes through West Hartford, Hartford, East Hartford, and Manchester (13.4-mile overlap). US 44 briefly joins I-84/US 6 (for 0.2 miles) as they cross the Connecticut River on the Bulkeley Bridge. After exiting I-84 in Manchester, US 6 is joined again by US 44 for 6.9 miles up to Bolton, where I-384 terminates. US 44 then follows a more northerly route while US 6 continues through Bolton, Andover, and Columbia. It then becomes a freeway in Columbia (at a junction with CT 66), passing through Coventry, Windham, Mansfield and Windham (again), ending at the eastern terminus of CT 66. This freeway portion is 5.3 miles long. US 6 then continues as a surface road to the towns of Chaplin, Hampton, Brooklyn, and Killingly. The unsigned portion of the Connecticut Turnpike then meets with US 6 shortly before crossing the Rhode Island state line.

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Rhode Island

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Massachusetts

US 6 runs approximately 118 miles in Massachusetts. It is a surface expressway or 4-lane road for approximately its first 54 miles from the Rhode Island line to the Cape Cod Canal, except for a section in New Bedford, where it runs along two one-way city streets. After crossing the canal via the Sagamore Bridge, it becomes a 4-lane freeway from Bourne to Dennis at the Exit 9A/B cloverleaf (Mile 78), then reduces to a Super-2 freeway with plastic stanchions posted on a small asphalt median. It remains like this until Orleans, where the freeway ends at a large rotary (Mile 90.6). Through Eastham and North Truro, US 6 is a 4-lane surface street. Through Wellfleet and southern Truro, US 6 is a former 3-lane road converted to 2 lanes with shoulders. In Provincetown, US 6 ends as it started in the state, as a surface expressway once again until it comes to an end at Route 6A at the Cape Cod National Seashore.

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US 6 Massachusetts Trivia

The freeway and Super-2 sections of US 6 on Cape Cod are known as the Mid-Cape Highway. The Super-2 section has a secondary, less-formal name of "Suicide Alley", due to the high number of fatalities from head-on collisions before the median improvements were constructed. (When the Super-2 stretch was first built, it was marked with passing zones like any other 2-lane highway. The small asphalt/stanchion median was built in stages beginning in 1989 and finishing in 1992.) The Mid-Cape Highway carries a speed limit of 55 on the standard freeway and 50 on the Super-2.

When US 6 was first routed through Provincetown in 1926, the highway was signed along the rather narrow Commercial Street. After the Provincetown US 6 bypass was built, congestion and the increasing size of automobiles forced the town to post most of Commercial Street (all but the easternmost mile which hits the Truro line) as one-way westbound. Route 6A, when signed, was placed along the paralleling Bradford Street instead. There was an alternate plan at the time to make Bradford one-way westbound and Commercial one-way eastbound (which would have made both roads Route 6A), but this was rejected, as the town decided instead to let incoming traffic through the heavy Commercial Street business district.

US 6 was briefly signed on current I-195 between Route 105 and Route 28, however, when I-195 was completed, and the I-195 designation took over that section of freeway, US 6 reverted back to its older route.

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History

US 6 was one of the first national arteries proposed in 1926 and went only as far west as the Hudson River in New York. It has since been extended westward, mostly at the expense of other routes including most of old U.S. Route 32 between Joliet, Illinois and Council Bluffs, Iowa and old U.S. Route 38 between Omaha, Nebraska and Denver, Colorado before 1937, after which it was extended to Southern California. In California it was a north-south highway, violating the convention that only east-west routes have even numbers.

While the route was intact as early as 1937, paving was not completed on the route until 1952, when the last 160 miles (257 km) of US 6, between Delta, Utah, and Ely, Nevada, received two lanes of fresh asphalt.

In 1964, California truncated US 6 at Bishop in favor of U.S. Route 395, California State Route 14, U.S. Route 99 (now Interstate 5), California State Route 11 (now Interstate 110 and California State Route 110), and California State Route 1 from north to south.

All of old and current US 6, at least as far west and south as the intersection with old US 99, is known as the Grand Army of the Republic Highway in honor of Union veterans of the American Civil War. Massachusetts became the first state to so designate the route, in 1937; a formal dedication took place in 1953 at the road's western terminus in Long Beach.

For almost 2 years starting in the spring of 1983 U.S. 6 was a discontinuous route due to a massive mudslide that destroyed the town of Thistle, Utah. During this time traffic was routed on 2 detours. One, via Salina, Utah, was over 200 miles long and took traffic almost 100 arial miles from the route of U.S. 6. The other, via Duschene, Utah was shorter and somewhat less drastic of a route change but impassable to large trucks due to steep grades on U.S. Highway 191. The night before the opening of the rebuilt highway, the highway stubs at either end of the mudslide were filled with tens of miles of truckers tired of the loss of revenue due to the long detours. The mudslide remains the most costly in the history of the United States.

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Related routes and spur routes

Interstate 195 supplants it as a through route between Providence and Cape Cod. Interstate 84 supplants it, in general, between Hartford and Scranton, and was planned to extend east to Providence. Interstate 80 is within 40 miles (64 km) of it between Cleveland and Lincoln. Interstate 76 supplants it between Sterling, Colorado and Denver. Interstate 70 supplants it between Denver and Green River, Utah.

Between Lake Station, Indiana and Lansing, Illinois, US 6 is co-signed with Interstate 80 and Interstate 94.

U.S. Route 106 (decommissioned) was an alternative in eastern Pennsylvania, and may have been proposed to go into New York. U.S. Route 206 is a spur largely in New Jersey. U.S. Route 138 is a child of US 38, which US 6 incorporated. An "Alternate U.S. Route 6" was designated on what is now Route 66 in Connecticut; U.S. Route 6N runs through Pennsylvania and Ohio as a shortcut to Lake Erie. U.S. Route 306 was not a designated highway, but an illustrated upside down US 306 sign was shown in a children's storybook by Leonard Kessler entitled, "Mr. Pine's Mixed-up Signs."

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Oddities

  • US 6 takes a semi-circular route through the Cape Cod Peninsula (dictated by topography). Someone leaving Provincetown, Mass. on 6 west will actually head east, then south, before finally turning west. Formerly, it took both sides along the Cape Cod canal (and was signed as "BYPASS 6"), but is now routed only on the north side (The south side is now signed "TO 6" from the Sagamore to the Bourne Bridge).
  • It is often reported to be a violation of the numbering system because it is wholly south of numerous other US routes with higher even numbers (8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 26). In fact, in north-central Ohio, part of it (from Cleveland, Ohio to Fremont, Ohio) lies to the north of U.S. Route 20, the lowest-numbered even U.S. Highway that intersects US 6. At this longitude, US 6 is the northernmost U.S. Highway, though US 2 was once signed through Canada ("TO US 2").
  • Until 1964, it crossed U.S. Route 66 twice (in Joliet and Los Angeles), and even crossed Interstate 10 (also in Los Angeles). The highway originally began in Long Beach, then diversed west into San Pedro then north along Figueroa Street through Downtown Los Angeles then shared several highways through Southern California, including the present-day Antelope Valley Freeway.
  • Between Ely, Nevada and Grand Junction, Colorado it was duplexed with U.S. Route 50 before Interstate 70 was completed in Utah. US 6 takes the older route through Price, Utah.
  • Its route through greater Los Angeles once had its southern terminus farther east than its entrance into California on the California-Nevada state line. Even today its current 'western' terminus in Bishop, California, lies farther east than its entrance into California from the Nevada state line. It is currently recognized and signed as a north-south route in California, but it was apparently east-west until it was truncated to U.S. Route 395.[1]
  • Although its general direction east of the California state line points it toward the San Francisco Bay Area, the steep Sierra Nevada made any extension toward any destination west of the Sierra Nevada (most likely along present-day California State Route 120 through Tioga Pass to Manteca) at least as far south as Bakersfield impractical due to winter closures, engineering costs or environmental degradation.
  • Taking US 6 all the way from New York to the West Coast is one of the early, unrealized goals of the narrator character (Sal Paradise) in the famous "beat" novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac.
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External links

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California


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