An historic US highway endpoint near Willard NM

Highway	Approx. time period
US 470	1926-1932
US 366 [II]	1932-1939

Photo credits: me

During the early years of the US highway system, US 70 ran through New Mexico along what is now US 60. Just west of Willard, US 470 split off to serve Albuquerque, via what is now NM hwy. 41. The photo below is looking west on US 60, approaching that junction:

me, June 2006

That used to be westbound US 70, and US 470 split off to the right ahead. But in 1932, US 70 was rerouted, and this road became an extension of US 60. When that happened, the number "470" was no longer appropriate (since the highway no longer connected to US 70), so its designation was changed to US 366 (because of its connection to US 66 in Albuquerque). The photo below was taken just ahead, at the actual junction:

me, June 2006

From that perspective, the east beginning of US 470 (and later US 366) was to the right. The white car at the stop sign is at the former east end of US 470/US 366... or rather, an east end. I'll explain: below we're looking south on NM 41:

me, June 2006

From that perspective, it looked like NM 41 had a normal "T" intersection with US 60. But at the time of that photo it was actually a "Y" intersection - the two forks were more visible in the photo below, taken just ahead:

me, June 2006

Mainline US 60 is in the background, running just this side of (and parallel to) the elevated railroad bed. I don't know for certain, but I'm inclined to believe this junction was configured as a "Y" back when it was a US highway endpoint. If so, then US 470/366 had two east ends: one to the left and one to the right. However, probably sometime in 2007, this junction was reconfigured to a more standard "T" intersection.