U.S. Route 6 - Route Description

Route Description

From 1936 until 1964, US 6 was the longest highway in the country. In 1964, however, the state of California renumbered its highways, and most of US 6 within California was transferred to other highways. This dropped the highway's length below that of U.S. Route 20. When it was designated in 1926, it only ran east of Erie, Pennsylvania, and roughly fit into the overall grid (though the diagonal routing of U.S. Route 20 through Erie places it north of US 6). However, subsequent extensions, largely replacing the former U.S. Route 32 and U.S. Route 38 (which were in sequence), have taken it south of U.S. Route 30 near Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Route 40 near Denver, Colorado (past the end of US 38), U.S. Route 50 at Ely, Nevada, and even U.S. Route 70 near Los Angeles, California, due to its north–south alignment in that state.

Since it was pieced together from other routes, US 6 does not serve a major transcontinental corridor, as other highways like U.S. Route 40 do. George R. Stewart, author of U.S. 40: Cross Section of the United States of America, initially considered US 6, but realized that "Route 6 runs uncertainly from nowhere to nowhere, scarcely to be followed from one end to the other, except by some devoted eccentric". In the famous "beat" novel On the Road by Jack Kerouac, protagonist Sal Paradise actually considers hitchhiking on US 6 to Nevada, but is told by a driver that "there's no traffic passes through 6" and that he'd be better off going via Pittsburgh (the Pennsylvania Turnpike).