Historic US Highway endpoints in Baton Rouge/Port Allen, LA
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1927-1951
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In the early days, US 71 followed its present route south from Alexandria LA only as far as Lebeau. From there it followed what are now state highways through Melville and Fordoche to Rosedale; then east via today's LA 76 to the Mississippi River at Port Allen. Meanwhile, US 190 went west from Slidell LA only as far as Baton Rouge. There was a ferry that connected the two towns, but originally neither route crossed the river:
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c. 1927, Rand McNally
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US 71 came into Port Allen on Court Street, which back then led to the Baton Rouge ferry landing. Today it dead-ends at the levee, but the area east of there is now an attractive riverside park, and one can walk up the historic right-of-way:
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"Urban Prairie Schooner", June 2008
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That was looking west along the historic beginning of US 71. Turning the opposite direction, the view includes the historic marker pictured here:
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"Urban Prairie Schooner", June 2008
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It was about 1935 when the US 190 designation was extended westward from Baton Rouge -- it used the ferry to get to this point, and then continued into Texas -- that is the situation described on the sign shown above. The gazebo beyond there is situated on the old right-of-way; it is shown in this photo:
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"Urban Prairie Schooner", June 2008
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The old road went straight ahead through there to the ferry landing. Today it leads to a nice view of Baton Rouge across the river:
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"Urban Prairie Schooner", June 2008
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That was the original south end of US 71. The Louisiana State Capitol is visible at far left; the two tall buildings near the center of that photo are also shown in this next shot, which shows the original west beginning of US 190, straight across the river:
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"Urban Prairie Schooner", June 2008
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That would have been the view coming off the ferry on the Baton Rouge side, looking east on North Street, so that was the original west beginning of US 190. This shot is looking the opposite direction:
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"Urban Prairie Schooner", June 2008
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That was looking at the west end of North St, and the historic west end of US 190, at the old ferry landing. At far left part of the I-10 bridge over the river is visible (that opened to traffic in 1968, and that was the same year the ferry ceased operations). This 1939 map shows that US 190 had been extended west across the river, overlapped with US 71. The crossing was still accomplished via ferry, but notice the bridge to the north under construction:
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c. 1939, Rand McNally
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That bridge opened in 1940, and US 190 traffic was redirected to use it (officially the Huey Long Bridge, but now referred to locally as "the Old Bridge"). US 71 was redirected to use the bridge too, but the designation ended at the first interchange, where it junctioned US 61-65. This 1950 map was quite explicit about that...
c. 1950, LADoTD
...but in case there are any doubts, LADoTD also spelled it out in their 1950 route log's description of US 71:
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This is a more recent photo heading east on US 190 and showing where US 71 ended historically (US 65 has since been truncated, so US 61 is the only intersecting route now):
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Buchanan/Nitzman, Oct. 2003
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That arrangement lasted for only about a decade; in 1951 US 71 was truncated to its current terminus at Krotz Springs. More info can be found on the following pages:
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Research and/or photo credits: David Backlin; Carter Buchanan; Alex Nitzman; Dale Sanderson; "Urban Prairie Schooner"
Page originally created 2006;
last updated Feb. 4, 2022.
last updated Feb. 4, 2022.
