End of US highway 60

View a map showing this route.

Photo and/or research credits: Mike Ballard; Andy Field; Alan Hamilton; Jake; Cameron Kaiser; Karin and Martin Karner; Scott Maness; Alex Nitzman

Approx. time period East terminus West terminus
1926-1929 Newport News, VA Springfield, MO
1929-1931 Virginia Beach (VA Beach Blvd) Springfield, MO
1931-1932 Virginia Beach (Camp Pendleton) Amarillo, TX
1932-1933 Virginia Beach (Camp Pendleton) San Bernardino, CA
1933-1960 Virginia Beach (Camp Pendleton) Los Angeles, CA
1960-1964 Virginia Beach (Camp Pendleton) Pomona, CA
1964-1969 Virginia Beach (Rudee Inlet) Pomona, CA
1969-1974 Virginia Beach (Rudee Inlet) Ehrenberg, AZ
1974-present Virginia Beach (Rudee Inlet) Brenda Jct. AZ

An original 1926 route, the east end US 60 has always been in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. It's a pretty complicated story, so I've got a separate page dealing with the topic here.

The original west end of US 60 was in Springfield MO:

Maness

This is looking north on National Avenue; the intersection ahead is St. Louis Street. US 60 was routed up National with US 65. US 65 continued east (right) here, but the US 60 designation ended at St. Louis, which served as US 66 at the time. In 1930, when US 60 was extended west to Amarillo (you can view photos from there on this page), it turned west (left) here on St. Louis.

US 60 was extended west all the way to California in 1932: to San Bernardino initially, and then to Los Angeles the following year (you can get more info and view photos from there on this page).

US 60 served Los Angeles for over 30 years. During that time, it was essentially a coast-to-coast route, but California ended that when they began eliminating their US routes. Initially US 60 was truncated at Pomona in about 1960. If you have a map that shows exactly where, please let me know, but barring that, Jake and Mike suspect it was truncated to the point where it split off from I-10/US 70/US 99. The photo below is looking east on I-10:

Mapquest

US 60 followed what is now CA hwy. 71, so it would've begun to the right. The photo below was taken looking north on CA 71:

Field, May 2002

This was US 60, and it seems likely that route would've ended here, at this interchange. (By the way, that sign has since been replaced: the Orange Freeway ahead is no longer signed as I-210, but rather as CA 57.)

Then in 1969 California completely got rid of the US 60 designation in their state, so for a few years the west end was at the Arizona state line at Ehrenberg (across from Blythe). Here's an interesting photo from there:

Karners, Jan. 2012

That's looking west on what is now the north frontage road for I-10. But historically this road carried US 60, 70, and 95 (there used to be a c. 1927 bridge here, and on the far side of the Colorado River, it aligned with Hobsonway in Blythe). But by the time US 60 (and US 70) ended at the California line, I-10 had already been built, so the terminus was about halfway across the newer interstate bridge at left.

In 1974, US 60 was truncated still further, to its current terminus near Brenda AZ, at I-10's exit 31. This first photo shows the scene at today's west end of US 60:

Hamilton

There was no end sign - only markers indicating options at the I-10 interchange. But sometime after 2004, most of the signs at this junction were replaced - note the Clearview version of that same sign, shown below...

Kaiser, July 2008

...and what's that mounted on the lightpole in the distance? It's shown close-up below:

Kaiser, July 2008

That's a welcome addition. Originally, US 60 continued straight ahead, along the corridor now occupied by I-10. West of here, it was co-signed with US 70, roughly following today's I-10 all the way into L.A. Here's a view of the exit to US 60 as seen from eastbound I-10:

Karners, Jan. 2012

Traffic exits to the right, crosses the bridge visible in the background, and then continues roughly the same direction as this photo. The shot below is from the opposite direction (westbound I-10)...

Field, 2003

...before the green sign was replaced with a Clearview version. If you exit there, you're presented with this sign:

Field/Nitzman, Jan. 2005

The white car has just exited from the opposite direction (eastbound I-10) and crossed over the freeway. The signage in the distance is shown close-up below:

Field, 2003

Left goes across the overpass to the eastbound onramp. The road to the right curves and merges to join the historic alignment of US 60, which now only goes east from here. If you go that direction, you'll soon see this sign:

Field/Nitzman, Jan. 2005

That's the first confirming marker heading east at the beginning of US 60. Below is a close-up photo of the mileage sign visible in the distance:

Field/Nitzman, Jan. 2005

Brenda itself is about 4 miles in that direction. By making just a little bit better use of the space on that sign, they could've added one more destination: Virginia Beach - 2670 miles. That sign has since been replaced with a clearview version: the content is the same, except there's no reference to "Hope", and there's no space to add another control city.