Established in 1914 by the Automobile Club of Savannah, the
Dixie Overland Highway auto trail was the first major route connecting
San Diego, California and
Savannah, Georgia. The Dixie Overland Highway Association debated on a definitive western end point for the highway in southern California. California politicians Stanley Hufflund and
Ed Fletcher convinced the association in an August 1918 meeting to choose San Diego over
Los Angeles. Fletcher was responsible for a grassroots campaign years earlier that resulted in the construction of the
Plank Road across the
Algodones Dunes in 1915. The Plank Road was the final link in the main highway to San Diego. The association agreed to make San Diego the Dixie Overland Highway's western terminus in 1919 and elected Fletcher as the association's president. The highway now followed most of what would become US 80, except between
Sweetwater, Texas and
El Paso. Other sections of future US 80 were designated as parts of the
Lee Highway and the
Old Spanish Trail. In April 1925, the
Secretary of Agriculture established the Joint Board on Interstate Highways under the United States Bureau of Public Roads. The board began planning what would become the
United States Numbered Highway System. One of the planned highways was US 80 between Savannah and San Diego. The board's highway system proposal was submitted by the Secretary of Agriculture to the newly formed
American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO), which made changes and revisions to the route before adopting the finalized system. and its eastern terminus in Savannah at
US 17. When first commissioned, the highway was approximately . Tourism and travel had sharply declined on the entire route since the 1930s. In 1949, the Association was divided into three divisions: The western division, in
Tucson, Arizona; the central, in
Colorado City, Texas; and the eastern, in
Ruston, Louisiana. The U.S. Highway 80 Association resolved to offer membership to businesses along the route, print promotional booklets and strip maps, and pay for billboard ads to attract tourists to drive US 80 from coast to coast. The Association hoped it would also induce travelers on
U.S. Route 66 to consider US 80 instead. Throughout the 1950s, US 80 grew to become a popular highway that often competed with US 66. At one point, more cars were recorded entering California on US 80 than on US 66. This renaissance was short-lived, however, with the creation of the Interstate and Defense Highway System in 1957. Four Interstates were slated to replace US 80 as a major highway:
Interstate 8 between San Diego and
Yuma, Arizona;
Interstate 10 between Tucson and
Pecos, Texas;
Interstate 20 between Pecos and
Meridian, Mississippi; and
Interstate 16 between
Macon, Georgia and
Savannah. Between 1964 and 1991, US 80 was slowly removed in increments between
Dallas and San Diego. It was considered obsolete to the western states, which favored the new Interstate highways. As such, US 80 is no longer an active U.S. Highway in California, Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas. For a time known as the "Broadway of America", US 80's history is second only to US 66 in American highway folklore, as several significant historical events have occurred on or near US 80.
Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed on
LA 154, just south of US 80 near
Gibsland, Louisiana. Coincidentally, Clyde Barrow was buried with his brother just off former US 80 in Dallas.
Lee Harvey Oswald was captured at the Texas Theatre on Jefferson Street in
Oak Cliff, which at the time was a business spur of US 80. Further east on old US 80 (now AZ 80) near the New Mexico and Arizona state line stands a monument marking the place where the
Apache warrior
Geronimo surrendered to the
United States Army in 1886. In
Tombstone, the
O.K. Corral, site of the
infamous gunfight, is on the south side of Fremont Street, an old alignment of US 80. US 80 was the route taken by the 1965
Selma to Montgomery marches in Alabama during the American
Civil Rights Movement. Prior to the successful march, the
Edmund Pettus Bridge on US 80 in
Selma was the site of the infamous Bloody Sunday event, where marchers were beaten and wounded by local law enforcement and armed vigilantes. In downtown Dallas, President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dealey Plaza just blocks from Commerce Street, which was part of US 80 and Business US 80.
California US 80 originally had its western terminus in San Diego. It was gradually decommissioned between 1964 and 1974 as
I-8, through
San Diego and
Imperial counties, was completed. Most former sections of US 80 in San Diego County are no longer part of the state highway system, with only small segments serving as extensions of
CA 79 and
CA 94. The southernmost section of the Cabrillo Freeway in San Diego is another exception, now designated as
CA 163. The freeway between downtown and Washington Street served as part of US 80 from the late 1940s up until the mid-1950s. In Tucson there are over 281 extant historic motels and structures along the original US 80 alignment, especially on the Miracle Mile and Benson Highway segments. Part of former US 80 through Tucson was added to the National Register of Historic Places in December 2017 as the
Miracle Mile Historic District. On September 21, 2018, the Arizona Transportation Board designated the old alignment of US 80 as a state Historic Road connecting with the designation in California. The alignment was nominated by the
Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation. US 80 entered New Mexico on present day NM 80 passing through
Rodeo before heading north to join the route of I-10 at
Road Forks. Between Road Forks and the Texas border, US 80 was often the subject of major realignment. •
Business Interstate 10-C (Bus. I-10-C) through
Sierra Blanca (originally
Loop 416 and
Business U.S. Highway 80, Bus. US 80), bypassed 1965 •
Bus. I-10-D through
Van Horn (originally
Loop 51 and
Bus. US 80), bypassed 1975 •
Bus. I-20-B through
Pecos and
Barstow, part of US 80 until its 1991 truncation •
Spur 57 through
Pyote and
Wickett, part of US 80 until its 1991 truncation •
Bus. I-20-D through
Monahans, part of US 80 until its 1991 truncation •
Bus. I-20-E through
Odessa and
Midland, part of US 80 until its 1991 truncation •
Spur 268 and
SH 158 through downtown
Midland (originally
Bus. US 80), bypassed in 1953 •
Business Interstate 20-F through
Stanton (originally
Loop 214), part of US 80 until its 1991 truncation •
Bus. I-20-G through
Big Spring (originally
Loop 402 and
Bus. US 80), bypassed 1965 •
Bus. I-20-H through
Westbrook (originally
Loop 333), bypassed 1958 •
Bus. I-20-J through
Colorado City (originally
Loop 377 and
Bus. US 80), bypassed 1963 •
Bus. I-20-K through
Loraine (originally
Loop 316), bypassed 1957 •
Bus. I-20-L through
Roscoe (originally
Loop 237), bypassed 1959 •
Loop 170 past
Sweetwater Municipal Airport, bypassed 1946 •
Bus. I-20-M through
Sweetwater (originally
Loop 432 and
Bus. US 80), bypassed 1966 •
Bus. I-20-N through
Trent (originally
Loop 319), bypassed 1957 •
Bus. I-20-P through
Merkel (originally
Loop 39), bypassed 1959 •
Bus. I-20-Q through
Tye (originally
Loop 320), bypassed 1957 •
Bus. I-20-R through
Abilene (originally
Loop 355 and
Bus. US 80), bypassed 1961 •
Farm to Market Road 18 (FM 18) east of
Abilene, bypassed 1951 •
Bus. I-20-T through
Baird (originally
Loop 425), bypassed 1966 •
FM 2945 west of
Cisco, bypassed 1964 •
SH 206,
SH 6 and
SH 112 through
Cisco and
Eastland, part of US 80 until its 1991 truncation •
Farm to Market Road 3363 (FM 3363) through
Olden, bypassed 1976 •
Loop 254 through
Ranger, part of US 80 until its 1991 truncation •
Spur 312 and
US 180 through
Weatherford, part of US 80 until its 1991 truncation In Fort Worth, I-20 breaks off the old US 80 route at
I-30's junction with I-20, which is also I-30's western terminus. Just east of the junction, I-30 leaves the pre-1991 route of US 80, now
Spur 580. Old US 80 travels due east on Spur 580 to
US 377 (
Camp Bowie Boulevard), where it heads northeast to the junction with I-30. At I-30, US 377 and former US 80 join the
freeway into downtown Fort Worth; the old route—along Camp Bowie Boulevard and Lancaster Avenue—was once
Bus. US 80. The old route along Camp Bowie Boulevard in Fort Worth turned onto Lancaster Avenue to follow it to SH 180 under the Interstate 35W and Interstate 30 freeways, where the highway begins and follows SH 180 on Lancaster Avenue in Fort Worth, Division Street in Arlington, Main Street in Grand Prairie and Davis Street in Dallas. Just east of downtown Fort Worth, US 80 split from I-30 onto present
SH 180 until 1991. Approaching downtown
Dallas, the older route of US 80 used Fort Worth Avenue and Commerce Street, designated
Loop 260 and
Bus. US 80 in 1952. (US 80 had bypassed that route by 1939, but it was
SH 1 until 1952.) The later US 80 continued east on Davis Street, turning north at
Zang Boulevard (
Loop 354 until 1991), shifting to a route via SH 180 to
I-35E after 1961. Through and east of downtown, the route before it was rerouted onto present I-30 used Commerce Street, Parry Avenue, Haskell Avenue, Grand Avenue and
Samuell Boulevard. (This was not assigned a number or a business route designation when it was bypassed.) In eastern Dallas, the old route merges with the present
freeway at Town East Boulevard, shortly after present US 80 begins at the split from I-30. US 80 eastbound, that ran from Fort Worth Avenue to Zang Boulevard near Oak Cliff along SH 180 in Dallas, made a left turn onto Zang Boulevard to follow it onto the Jefferson Viaduct and Market Street to make a right onto Commerce Street. Westbound US 80 turned off of Elm Street to go onto Houston Street to follow it, the Houston Street Viaduct and Zang Boulevard all the way to Davis Street (SH 180), where it turned right to follow it from there to Camp Bowie Boulevard in Fort Worth. In downtown Dallas, US 80 followed Commerce Street eastbound and Elm Street westbound. On Commerce Street in Dallas, US 80 goes onto Second Avenue to follow it to Main Street where it makes a left turn onto Main Street and a left onto First Avenue to head onto Robert B Cullum Boulevard to merge onto eastbound I-30/US 67 to follow that all the way to present US 80. Westbound US 80 breaks away from westbound I-30/US 67 to head onto First Avenue to make a left on Exposition Avenue to head onto Elm Street where it goes left to follow it into downtown Dallas.
FM 688 is the old alignment through
Forney, bypassed in 1959 by the present freeway. Most of this route was a spur of
FM 740 until 1960.
Louisiana US 80 was routed along the existing
Dixie Overland Highway throughout Louisiana. Since 1921, this
auto trail had also carried the designations of
State Route 1 west of
Shreveport and
State Route 4 from Shreveport eastward. These routes remained co-signed with US 80 until the
1955 Louisiana Highway renumbering. The few significant changes to the alignment of US 80 over the years have resulted from the addition or replacement of bridges along the route, improvements that were largely carried out during the 1930s and the mid-1950s. The biggest project involved the construction of the first
Vicksburg Bridge across the
Mississippi River in 1930. This was followed by new bridges across the
Red River at Shreveport–
Bossier City (
Long–Allen Bridge, 1933) and the
Ouachita River in
Monroe (
P.M. Atkins Bridge, 1936). In both cases, new alignments carried traffic eastward from the bridges, bypassing the original routes through Bossier City and downtown Monroe. Minor relocation of the highway has also resulted from overpasses replacing several at-grade railroad crossings, as US 80 parallels what is now the
Kansas City Southern Railway throughout the state. The opening of
I-20 parallel to US 80 occurred in stages between 1960 and 1977. This gradually transformed US 80 from being the major highway across northern Louisiana to serving local traffic along the I-20 corridor. However, the highway has remained physically independent from I-20 with one exception. In 1980, the closing of the old Vicksburg Bridge to vehicular traffic resulted in US 80 being shifted onto the newer I-20
Vicksburg Bridge to cross the Mississippi River.
Alabama What is now US 80 in Alabama was previously designated as
Alabama State Road 26 (SR 26) between 1924 and 1928. During the 1928 Alabama State Route renumbering, pre-1928 SR 26 was replaced by
Alabama State Route 8 (SR 8). Today, SR 8 is still the internal designation for US 80 throughout the state, except for the section bypassing
Selma (which is part of
SR 14 and
SR 41) and the westernmost section in the western part of the state, concurrent with
US 11 (designated as SR 7). The segments of SR 8 not part of US 80 are an unsigned spur between SR 8's western terminus at
I-20 and the
US 80 Business route through Selma. The current routing of US 80 between
Cuba and
Livingston was originally designated as
SR 162. US 80 generally followed the route of present-day SR 28 and US 11 between Cuba and Livingston. In 1955, US 80 was moved onto this newer highway, which was more direct and bypassed
Coatopa, Livingston and
York. The transition of US 80 and SR 8 to the new highway effectively retired the SR 162 designation. Despite the Dixie Overland Highway no longer being an active highway, the state of Alabama still legally recognizes the entire length of US 80 through the state under this name. on March 25, 1965. In 1965, the
Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, then part of US 80, was the site of the infamous Bloody Sunday event. The
Alabama National Guard, Selma and
Dallas County law enforcement as well as armed non-law enforcement individuals brutally beat and trampled Civil Rights protesters with police batons, horses and barbed wire bats, bringing a pre-mature end to an attempted march to
Montgomery. The brutality was captured on national television, sparking nationwide outrage regarding the abuse suffered by the protesters. Following Bloody Sunday, the 1965
Selma to Montgomery marches followed US 80 between the two cities. In 1996, this route was designated by the National Park Service as the Selma to Montgomery National Voting Rights Trail. An interpretive center is located along the route in Lowndes County and the various sites used as campgrounds are marked along the route. Today, the old section of US 80 through Selma, including the Edmund Pettus Bridge, is signed as US 80 Business. ==Major intersections==