In Memorium...U.S. 99

 I gather us all here today to pay our respects to a very dear and beloved U.S. Highway that is no longer with us...

By request, we have made this a closed casket service because how in the world could we fool you into thinking we could fit over a thousand miles of U.S. 99 in a coffin?

U.S. 99 began at the Mexican border in Calexico, California, thereby orginating in the low desert. In fact, 99 had over 140 miles in the desert from Calexico to Beaumont. It then headed into Redlands and San Bernardino before traveling west with U.S. 60 and 70 toward Los Angeles, serving the metro area's satellite towns.

From there, 99 headed north through more L.A. burbs before it became the Ridge Route, a steep and curvy mountain road, and a dangerous one at that. 

After coming down from the mountains into Kern County and the San Joaquin Valley, 99 transformed once again...from desert to urban to mountain to agricultural. This agricultural stretch would travel to important California towns such as Bakersfield, Fresno, Merced, Modesto, Stockton, and Sacramento. North of Sacramento, the agricultural region continued as the Sacramento Valley. Also, 99 was split into 99E and 99W. 99W was the less populated road while 99E went through towns such as Yuba City, Marysville, and Chico before rejoining with 99W in Red Bluff. 

From Red Bluff, 99 began a gradual climb toward more mountains, and by the time it passed through Redding, the mountains were just beyond the town. 99 wound through the rugged landscape and through towns such as Dunsmuir, Weed, and Yreka before another steep climb up the Siskiyou Mountains to the Oregon border and then wind back down into Ashland.

While California provided a myriad of landscapes for 99, Oregon was more consistently rugged for almost 200 miles, traveling through Medford, Grant's Pass, and Roseburg before finally straightening into the Willamette Valley, a greener version of the San Joaquin Valey due to more rain. 

Incidentally, in Grant's Pass, an offshoot of 99, U.S. 199, still exists and travels 80 miles to U.S. 101 just north of Crescent City,California.

After servicing Eugene and Springfield at the valley's southern end, 99 once again split into an E and W, each servicing different valley towns. 99E went through Albany and Salem before enting the southern Portland burbs, while 99W passed through Corvallis and McMinnville before rejoining 99E in Portland to cross the Columbia River to Washington.

In Washington, U.S. 99 traveled along the northern banks of the Columbia before entering inland Washington, going through Vancouver, Kelso, Longview, Centralia, and Olympia before entering the Puget Sound region. Much of the southern portion of 99 was heavily forested and crossed many rivers and creeks. After Tacoma, 99 passed through many towns on the western side of Puget Sound before entering Seattle. From Seattle, 99 continued north into Everett, Bellingham, Mt. Vernon and Blaine before heading to the Canadian border.

Today, U.S. 99 no longer exists, being decomissioned in California in 1964, in Oregon in 1966, and in Washington in 1968, though Interstate 5 was not completed in many areas before the 1970s. 

In California, U.S. 99 was replaced by CA 99 from 25 miles south of Bakersfield to Red Bluff, a total of 450 miles. It was slowly developed into a freeway over time. In fact, I remember as far back as 1995 that the town of Livingston still had a traffic light.

In Oregon, there are many parts to OR 99 that are discontinuous in the southern part of the state, though I 5 is considered to join them. From Eugene, the route is more solid  and splits into OR 99W and OR 99E from Junction City to the Portland area.

In Washington, WA 99 only exists officially from Fife (jsut east of Tacoma) north to Everett. Up until a few years ago, WA 99 traveled on an old  structure known as the Alaskan Way Viaduct, but that has since been torn down and replaced with a long tunnel running under Seattle.

Of course, in all three states, there are several "business routes" that serve as the historic route, though many are unsigned as such.

Let us bow our head as I read from the Book of Roads..."Thou Shalt erect Historic Route signs for geeks like Moore who will hound the state transportation departments until they bend to his will, so sayeth Saint 66."