Historic US highway endpoint in Corpus Christi, TX
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1927-1960s
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US 181 has served Corpus from the start, as commissioned in 1926. The US 77 designation was extended south from Dallas in the mid-1930s, and for about 10 years it was overlapped with 181 from Sinton to a common terminus in Corpus. US 77-181 crossed over from Portland and came into Corpus on Water Street:
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c. 1942, Humble Oil (linked to source)
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That map shows the endpoint on Water at William Street. However, the 1940 TXDoT map suggests that the US route designations actually ended at Peoples Street, where the junction with state routes 9 and 44 was located. We will begin by looking north on Water; US 77-181 may have begun straight ahead from here at the intersection with Williams:
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Ivy/Nitzman, Aug. 2019
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Two blocks ahead, Water angles slightly to the left, and the next block is Peoples, which is another possible historic south beginning of US 77-181:
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Karner, Dec. 2014
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This next shot was looking the opposite direction (south on Water), where the US highways may have ended at Peoples. Or it is possible that the routes continued three blocks further ahead, ending at William.
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Taylor, Oct. 2007
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One more perspective -- here we are looking west on Peoples:
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Taylor, Oct. 2007
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To the right on Water was possibly the beginning of US 77-181. Not surprisingly, many changes have taken place in Corpus since the 1930s. In 1945 US 77 was rerouted such that it bypassed town to the west. US 181 traffic began using the Harbor Bridge during the 1950s, and its terminus was changed after I-37 was built.
Research and/or photo credits: Brent Ivy; Martin Karner; Alex Nitzman; Mike Roberson; Dale Sanderson; Stephen Taylor
Page originally created 2004;
last updated Aug. 31, 2019.
last updated Aug. 31, 2019.
