Historic US Highway 60 - America's First Transcontinental Highway

US 60 was one of the original highways commissioned in 1926. At first it was slated to follow the route of US 66 from Los Angeles to Chicago which was due to the influence of Cyrus Avery, a powerful highway booster. However, several southern states wanted it to be a transcontinental highway, arguing that having US 60 follow the other routing would violate AASHO's numbering scheme. They won out and US 60 became one of the two major transcontinental highways that ended in Los Angeles. For over 40 years it was a key route for receiving goods from and delivering goods to the rest of the United States. Most of its functions have been taken over by I-10, but SR-60 still remains as an important highway which connects Los Angeles with the rapidly growing Inland Empire in California.

Original Routing

US 60 roughly followed what is now I-10 from US 101 east of downtown Los Angeles to the Arizona border. It separated from I-10 in San Dimas and followed roughly the route of its successor, SR-60 to Beaumont where it rejoined I-10. US 60 followed I-10 to east of Quartzsite where it now separates from I-10. From there through Superior, Arizona (home of World's Smallest Museum) to its terminus on the Atlantic coast in Virginia Beach, Virginia, US 60 currently differs very little from its 1926 routing with the exception of some portions being bypassed by new limited access highway, such as the Superstition Fwy. in Phoenix, Arizona. US 60 is almost completely intact outside of California. The only shortening was in Arizona where its western terminus was retracted from the California border to several miles east of Quartzsite at Exit 31 on I-10. Beyond this, US 60 remains largely the same to its terminus east of Newport News, Virginia.