US route endpoints in
New Orleans

It has not been a simple matter to determine where US routes historically ended in New Orleans.  Several maps are shown below, but as you will see, most of them do not conclusively answer the question.  This is because most do not differentiate US routes from other arterials, and/or because it is impossible to see where one designation ends when it is overlapped with another.  What would be really helpful are more historic photographs from the intersections in question, with posted highway shields visible.

It is unfortunate that the photo is not more clear, but we know it was looking southwest on Broad approaching Canal, and we know it shows two US routes plus one LA state route all turning left (southeast) on Canal.  We know from the 1939 USGS map (below) that both US 90 and LA 2 made that movement, but the photo shows that another US route also did that, and US 11 would have been the only possibility.  So the question is: if US 11 turned from Broad onto Canal, where did it terminate?  Keep that question in mind as we proceed.  

​All of the 1935-1937 changes described above were shown on the following map (although the US 11 shield has been cropped out).  Cartography was by Gousha, but this map was used for the 1939 official state publication for tourism:

The USGS topo map from that same year (1939) shows something interesting: four US routes on Carrollton Avenue.  US 51-61-65 were all shown to end at Canal, but US 90 continued riverbound on Canal to Broad, where it then resumed heading downriver while also picking up US 11:

That map suggests that US 51-61-65 ended in Jefferson Parish, but we know from the maps above that those designations actually continued into the city with US 90.  My understanding is later that same year (1940), the Airline - Tulane connection was completed.  That alignment was shown on this 1947 map:

However, the NOLA inset from the same year (1947) of LADoTD's official highway map is the earliest I have seen that is detailed enough to clearly illustrate the endpoints, and it showed a slightly different arrangement.  It seems evident from this map that US 51, 61, and 65 shared a common endpoint at Tulane and Claiborne, while US 11 appears to terminate on Canal at Claiborne.  That was a short-lived situation though; the 1949 issue was the last to show it:

...but did US 11-51-61-65 end at that junction?  It is possible, but it is equally possible (again based on the 1940 photo above) that all five routes continued south on Canal, with US 11-51-61-65 ending at Claiborne.  Two different 1950s editions of USGS topo maps continued to show the same arrangement as the 1939 topo (described previously).  But it is highly doubtful those maps were correct, partly because I have not seen that arrangement corroborated on any other map, and additionally because in 1951 LADoTD removed several unnecessary highway overlaps, and as a result US 11, US 51, and US 65 were all truncated out of New Orleans.  That left only US 61 and US 90, as shown on the LADoTD 1953 map, as well as this 1956 commercial map:

As we have seen on the maps above, originally US 90 traffic was directed to use Canal as the connection between Claiborne and Broad, but at some point things were changed such that Tulane was used as the connector (instead of Canal).  Orleans Parish maps indicate that it was 1956-57 when this change was implemented, but LADoTD inset maps suggest it was more like the mid-1960s.  Regardless, whenever the change took place, the four blocks straight ahead (which had been US 61) became US 90, so US 61 was truncated to its current terminus on Tulane at Broad.  However, some maps were slow to catch up: it should be noted that several editions of USGS topos (from 1963-1989) showed US 61 ending on Tulane at Claiborne, with US 90 still using Canal.  My only explanation is that was simply an error: all other contemporary maps show that highway traffic was originally routed along Canal, and then later along Tulane, but never both at the same time.  Photos from the Broad/Tulane endpoint can be viewed on the main US 61 page.

Research and/or image credits: Martin Karner; Dale Sanderson; "Urban Prairie Schooner"