In the New Orleans area, US 90 originally crossed the Mississippi River
via the Jackson Avenue/Gretna ferry, then continued up Jackson to rejoin
its current routing at Claiborne Avenue. US 51 and US 61 came in together
on today's US 90 (Claiborne), and ended at Jackson (the junction with old
US 90). The photo below was taken looking northwest on Jackson:
Google Maps Street View, 2008
That was the original US 90, which continued to the right
on Claiborne. To the left on Claiborne was the south beginning of US 51-61
(and later US 65 as well). The photo below is looking northeast on Claiborne:
Google Maps Street View, 2008
That was the original south end of US 51-61. Straight ahead
was eastbound US 90, and westbound was to the right on Jackson. US 65 was
added to the US 51-61 routing in 1936, so it shared that endpoint for a
few years.
The Huey Long Bridge was opened to traffic in 1935, and that's
when US 90 assumed its present routing west of downtown. But at the time,
traffic was still using Canal Street as the connection between Claiborne
and Broad Street. In 1940, the Airline Highway was extended such that it
connected with Tulane Avenue. So that's when US 51-61-65 were rerouted such
that they came into the city via Tulane, then turned northeast on Broad,
ending at Canal (US 90):
Google Maps Street View, 2008
That's looking northeast on Broad, where US 51-61-65 ended
at US 90 (eastbound was straight ahead; westbound was to the right on Canal).
The photo below is looking the opposite direction:
Google Maps Street View, 2008
That was (and still is) westbound US 90. But whereas today
US 90 continues straight ahead, until about 1970 it turned left on Canal,
and straight ahead was the south beginning of US 51-61-65.
That perspective also shows what may have been an historic
south endpoint of US 11. First, a little background: originally US 90 crossed
the Pearl River near the Louisiana town of the same name, and then followed
today's US 11 southwest into New Orleans. So at the time, US 11 ended at
its junction with US 90 near Pearl River (actually closer to Nicholson MS).
It was 1937 when US 90 was rerouted to cross the Pearl via its current alignment
at Pearlington. That's when US 11 was extended southwest from Nicholson,
along the former US 90. US 11 joined US 90 east of NOLA, and the two routes
were co-signed into downtown. It's hard to say specifically where US 11
signage would've ended, but for now we'll speculate it was at the corner
of Canal and Broad. US 11 was truncated to its current south terminus in
the eastern city limits in 1941; you can view photos from there on my main
US 11 page.
In 1951 LADoTD removed several highway concurrencies, and
that's when US
51 and US
65 were truncated out of New Orleans (click on those links to get more
info). US 61 continued to end at Broad and Canal for another 20 years or
so, until US 90 was changed to follow Tulane (instead of Canal) between
Claiborne and Broad. At that time, about four blocks of US 61 became US
90, so US 61 was truncated to its current terminus on Tulane at Broad (you
can view photos from there on my main
US 61 page).