End of US highway 96[I]
View a map showing this route.
Photo credits: Steven Nelson
| Approx. time period | North terminus | South terminus |
|---|---|---|
| 1926-1934 | Rosenberg, TX | Brownsville, TX |
| 1934-1939 | Rosenberg, TX | Laredo, TX |
Today's US 96 is actually the second route to carry that number; you can read about it on this page. The original US 96 was there in the beginning (1926). Despite its east-west number, it ran north-south... which ironically is also the case with modern US 96! Personally, I think it's a little easier to swallow the number for US 96[I]: you could construe the road to be running east-west along the Gulf Coast shoreline (even though that shoreline is north-south in Texas). But there is no excuse for the current US 96.
The north terminus of US 96[I] was in Rosenberg TX. It followed what is now US 59 up to where that becomes a bypass around the town. From there, traffic continued northeast on the same alignment (via what is now TX Spur 529) to its terminus at Alt. US 90. The photo below is looking northeast on 529:
Google Maps
Street View, 2008
That was formerly the north end of US 96[I]. Below we're looking west on US 90A:
Nelson,
Mar. 2004
US 96[I] began to the left, where you can see the road behind the sign assembly.
The south end of US 96 was originally in Brownsville TX. I have lots of photos from Brownsville - but, because the history of US routes there is so complicated, I have a separate page for Brownsville termini.
In 1934, the US 96 designation was changed - such that, from Alice, it went to Laredo instead of Pharr (the original route of US 96 between Alice and Pharr became part of a newly-commissioned southern segment of US 281). At that point US 96's east-west number made a little more sense (although I don't know which directions were used to sign the highway). So - from then until its decommissioning in 1939 - the other end of US 96 was in Laredo. More info regarding that terminus can be found on this page.