Texas State Highway 1

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For other highways in Texas numbered 1, see Farm to Market Road 1, Loop 1 (Mopac Expressway), NASA Road 1, Park Road 1, Ranch Road 1 and Spur 1.

State Highway 1
Highways in Texas
< SH OSR		SH 2 >

State Highway 1 (SH 1) was a state highway in the U.S. state of Texas. There has been no State Highway 1 since 1952 (when the remaining piece was renumbered Loop 260); the number "may only be assigned by the Executive Director [of the Texas Department of Transportation] or the Transportation Commission."^[1]

[edit] History

SH 1 was assigned in 1917 as one of the original 26 state highways. Known as the Texarkana, Dallas, Fort Worth and El Paso Highway, it crossed from Arkansas at Texarkana and ran west through Dallas, Fort Worth, Albany, Abilene, Big Spring and Van Horn to end in El Paso.^[2] By 1919, it had been extended northwest from El Paso to the New Mexico border.^[3] In February 1920,^[4] the whole of SH 1 was included in the transcontinental Bankhead Highway, a marked auto trail.^[5] In terms of today's Interstate Highways, this is Interstate Highway 10 from New Mexico to east of Van Horn, Interstate Highway 20 to west of Fort Worth, and Interstate Highway 30 to Texarkana. The only major difference was between east of Ranger and Weatherford, where SH 1 used what is now designated State Highway 16 and U.S. Highway 180.

In late 1926, the United States Numbered Highways were assigned. State Highway 1 kept its number, but was also assigned U.S. Highway 80 from New Mexico to Dallas and U.S. Highway 67 from Dallas to Texarkana.^[6]

By 1936, US 80 had been moved off SH 1 west of downtown Dallas. While SH 1 angled northeast on Fort Worth Avenue from Cockrell Hill, crossing the Trinity River on the Commerce Street Bridge, US 80 continued east on Davis Street, turning north on Zang Boulevard and over the Houston Street Viaduct. In downtown, US 80 turned east on Commerce Street (State Highway 15), and US 67, which had joined US 80 along Davis Street, turned east on Elm Street (SH 1).^[7] (Commerce Street and Elm Street later became a one-way pair.^[8]

In the 1939 general redescription, SH 1 was truncated to only this short piece west from downtown Dallas. It split from US 80 (Davis Street) and ran northeast on Fort Worth Avenue and Commerce Street. Upon entering downtown Dallas, it split into the one-way pair of Commerce and Elm Streets, ending at US 80 (Houston Street).^[1][9] In 1952, the route was renumbered to Loop 260 and signed as Business U.S. Highway 80. Loop 260 was decommissioned and turned over to the City of Dallas in 1991.^[10]

[edit] Branches

In the original 1917 definition, SH 1 had a split between Abilene and Palo Pinto (west of Mineral Wells). Another split was present between Sulphur Springs and Texarkana, and a branch ran from the northern route at Naples east to State Highway 8 at Douglassville.^[2] By 1919, the southern route between Sulphur Springs and Texarkana had become State Highway 1-A, and a new State Highway 1-C ran southeast from SH 1-A at Atlanta to the Louisiana state line. A road from Sulphur Springs northwest to State Highway 34 at Commerce was also a section of SH 1, and a branch was added from Texarkana north to the Red River (the Arkansas border). By 1922 the spur to Douglassville was State Highway 1-B, and the piece north from Texarkana was an extension of SH 1-A.^[3][11]

The southern route between Abilene and Palo Pinto was improved first.^[11] Thus it was designated as part of U.S. Highway 80 in 1926. The north route was designated U.S. Highway 80N (later U.S. Highway 80 Alternate) in 1932,^[12][13][14] and by 1933 it was State Highway 1-A.^[15] At the beginning of 1939, US 80 was rerouted onto the direct route between Ranger and Weatherford (formerly State Highway 89^[16]), and US 80 Alternate was extended east to Weatherford. The SH 1-A designation was removed in the 1939 general redescription, and US 80A was replaced in 1943 by State Highway 351 and U.S. Highway 180.^[17][18]

The other branches, located east of Dallas, were all renumbered by 1933:^[15]

• The branch of SH 1 from Sulphur Springs northwest to Commerce, and the piece of SH 1-A from Commerce east to Daingerfield, became part of State Highway 11. Those roads still carry SH 11.
• State Highway 1-A from Daingerfield to Hughes Springs became part of State Highway 49. From Hughes Springs east and north through Texarkana to the Red River, SH 1-A became State Highway 47. In the 1939 redescription, SH 11 (which had gone south from Daingerfield) was extended east from Daingerfield along former SH 1-A to the Red River, eliminating SH 47. (The short piece of SH 49 became a concurrency.) SH 11 was truncated to Linden in 1947, when the rest became part of U.S. Highway 59.^[19]
• State Highway 1-B and State Highway 1-C both became parts of State Highway 77, and both still carry that number.

[edit] References