End of historic US highway 399
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Approx. time
period
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North Terminus
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South Terminus
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1934-1964
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Bakersfield, CA
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Ventura, CA
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(about 50 k)
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: Chris
Elbert; Cameron
Kaiser
US 399 wasn't among the original routes of 1926, but it was
commissioned shortly thereafter. Back then, of course, there was no
US 101 freeway through Ventura, and there wasn't a CA 33 freeway
either. Instead, US 101 traffic was most likely routed along Main
Street, and US 399 probably used Ventura Avenue. Below we're looking
west on Main, which would've been northbound US 101:
Elbert, Mar. 2005
US 399 would've begun to the right, via northbound Ventura.
Apparently the original north terminus of US 399 was a few miles
south of Bakersfield. It was routed along Taft Highway (now CA 119),
and it ended at original US 99 (Golden State Highway, or Union
Avenue) near Greenfield. The shot below is looking south on old US
99:
Elbert, Mar. 2005
Below is a closeup of the signage at left:
Elbert, Mar. 2005
US 399 would've begun to the right on Taft. Later the US 399 designation was
extended the opposite direction from that photo (north) along with US 99, ending
at its junction with US 466. That route is also extinct now, and the road it
used to run along through Bakersfield (Edison Highway) has changed quite a bit,
too. The photo below is looking north on Union:
Kaiser, Feb. 2007
That was northbound US 99/399. US 466 came across the photo from the right,
and US 399 ended at the junction, which would've been right about where the
overpass at far right is located. US 99 and US 466 continued to the left on
today's CA 204 (Golden State Avenue).
Finally, there may have been a short period during which US 399 still existed
after US 99 had been rerouted onto what is now the CA 99 freeway. If so, the
north end of US 399 would've been at exit 18, near Pumpkin Center. The photo
below is looking east on Taft Hwy. at that interchange:
Elbert, Mar. 2005
That would've been the final north terminus of US 399; as you can
see, it's now the endpoint of CA 119.
Page created 05 April 2005; last updated 05 November 2007.
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