US 60-61-62 converge in Sikeston, MO

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^ date reposted to this blog
Dec. 28, 2016: originally posted to my old blog
May 27, 2020: last updated

Currently Sikeston is the only place where three consecutive US route numbers intersect -- US 60, US 61, and US 62:



The overpass shown there carries modern US 60. Historically the three routes converged a couple miles straight ahead, at the intersection of Main Street and Malone Avenue, or what is now the junction of Business 60 - US 61 - US 62:


Google Maps Street View, 2013

Today Bus. 60 shares pavement with US 61-62, but historically the three mainline US routes have never overlapped, only intersected. However: historically US 23, US 24, and US 25 had a junction in Toledo...


c. 1956, Gousha

...and there was a brief period during which all three routes did share the same pavement. This was on a two-mile stretch of Detroit Avenue, between Cherry Street and Telegraph Road. That arrangement was documented on this map:

c. 1939, USGS

Not shown on that 1956 map above is Reynolds Road, which is a bit further west, but for a time it carried Bypass 23-24-25. Jim Lindsay drove that road in 1959 and recalls that it was signed with non-standard elongated shields. There are no known photos, but this illustration is an attempt to recreate how those shields looked:



I can't say I'm a huge fan, but I will award some points for a creative solution to an unusual situation. As far as the mainline routes, their triple-overlap was already gone by the 1950s. And then in 1974 the US 25 designation was removed from both Ohio and Michigan.

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