End of US highway 20 (west segment)
(not to be confused with the separate eastern segment of US 20)
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Mileage: in 1989 AASHTO listed a figure of 861 miles for US 20[w]... however, that included the mileage of US 20's associated business route. According to the state subtotals on AASHTO's 1989 spreadsheet, the actual end-to-end total of mainline US 20[w] at the time was 857 miles. That closely matches our own 2020 measurement, which yielded 856.8 miles.
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US 20 does not exist within Yellowstone National Park, and although the route is implied to run through Yellowstone, the Park divides US 20 into two separate segments. The east segment was among the original 1926 routes, but the west segment was not commissioned until 1940.
Originally US 99E followed the route of the minivan and the pickup visible in the distance: it came in from the right on Salem Avenue, then ahead on Main a block or two, then left on either 1st or 2nd Avenue. Westbound US 20 came in from the right via Santiam Highway (the road in the foreground), then would have gone ahead one block on Main, ending at the next intersection (Salem), at its junction with US 99E (that intersection has now been reconfigured into a roundabout). But that endpoint was very short-lived: in the early 1940s, US 20 was extended past Albany, through Corvallis and on to its current western terminus at Newport. The Oregon DoT must have done that extension without AASHO's approval, because AASHO did not address it until their 1943 meeting, and it appears to have already been in effect:
As of 2022, the last westbound US 20 trailblazer was 16 miles from the route's terminus...
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...and the final reference to US 20 was about 7.5 miles from the endpoint:
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That traffic signal is at the Coast Highway, or US 101; the Pacific Ocean is about a half-mile straight ahead. On the left side of that intersection is a simple US 101 sign...
...and on the right is a mileage sign along with a scenic route marker...
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...which unfortunately replaced an "End US 20" assembly when it was installed. Below is a historic photo showing the west beginning of US 20 from the perspective of northbound US 101:
I am not sure of the date on that photo, but it may have been taken shortly after US 20 had been extended to Newport. These next photos are from roughly the same perspective; the cars coming from the right are at the west end of US 20, as we look north on US 101...
The "Begin" signs were tacked on about a week before that 2002 photo was taken. "Begin" signs are not common anywhere in the country, and these may be the only ones in Oregon. In late 2016, an even better improvement was made: drivers taking that turn to the east were treated to a really cool new sign:
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US Ends .com supports posting information like that at the endpoints of cross-country routes. However, the "3365 miles" figure is unfortunately incorrect. By our calculations US 20 (as routed in 2016) is quite a bit less than 3300 miles, so the mileage on that sign is significantly overstated (more on this blog post).
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The source of the error on the sign comes from a misinterpretation of the 1989 AASHTO route log. According to that source, the mileage of mainline US 20 at the time was 3237 miles. The only way to arrive at a figure of 3365 miles is to include the mileage for all US 20 Business and Alternate routes (which obviously results in an overstatement of US 20's actual cross-country mileage).
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Also, a lot has changed since 1989 (for example, US 20 now has a freeway alignment across most of Iowa). As of 2020, US 20's total length was closer to 3220 miles. But apparently MassDoT assumed that ODoT's figure was correct, rather than verifying it. Nevertheless, the idea behind these twin signs is a good one. Formerly the first standard confirming assembly was about six blocks further ahead...
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Research and/or photo credits: Ben Bonson, George Bourey; Wayne Brunelle; Nancy Cooper; Chris Elbert; Dan Moraseski; Jeff Morrison; Robert Mortell; Dale Sanderson; Michael Summa; TopHatGuy; Joe Zelinski
Page originally created 2000;
last updated May 13, 2024.
last updated May 13, 2024.