End of historic US highway 366 [II]

Note: since I don't have access to a comprehensive collection of historical road atlases, much of the info below is based on the research of Robert Droz; click here to view his site. Photo credits: me

US 366 [II] was commissioned in 1932. It had previously been signed as US 470, but that year US 70 was rerouted, such that US 470 no longer connected to it. Because of that, the number "470" was no longer appropriate, so the designation was changed to US 366 (that number had just become available because the newly-rerouted US 70 swallowed up the original US 366). The east/south end was in Willard NM (you can view photos from there on this page), and the west/north end was in Albuquerque (view photos here). But in the late 1930's, US 66 was realigned along a more direct route through New Mexico, taking over what had been US 366 between Albuquerque and Moriarty. That left only a 30-mile segment of US 366 between Moriarty and Willard. Below we're looking west on historic US 66 in Moriarty (now officially NM hwy. 333):

me, June 2006

From 1932-1938, US 366 came from the left (via what is now NM hwy. 41) and then continued straight ahead on NM 333. But when US 66 was rerouted along today's NM 333, the north beginning of US 366 was to the left. The view in the photo below is northbound on NM 41 at NM 333:

me, June 2006

At first US 366 turned left here to serve Albuquerque. But later that segment became part of US 66, so the trucks in the foreground are at what then became the north end of US 366. The signage in the foreground is misleading: if you really want I-40, you should simply continue ahead to interchange 196. To the left and right is actually Business 40, but poor signage is nothing unusual in New Mexico.

This remaining segment of US 366 was presumably deemed too short to be a US route; at any rate, it only survived for about one more year before it was completely decommissioned.