Historic US 80 East - The Old Spanish Trail - Gila Bend to Buckeye/Goodyear, AZ

When the US Highway system was laid out, it's idea was to connected as many cities as possible, big and small, and allow people to travel freely via automobile. While some routes were brand new, others were 'recycled' auto routes. Because of this, and the time in which they were planned, some of the planners made interesting choices in routes. Take US 80 for example. Its route was always to go east from Georgia to California. It's route was pretty straight, running from San Diego, CA to Savannah, GA. That is, other than its excursion North through Phoenix.
US 80 entered Arizona from the West at Yuma, crossing the Colorado River on the Ocean to Ocean Highway Bridge built in 1915. This bridge, as it's name suggests, was part an important transcontinental route. The Ocean to Ocean Highway was, at one point, supposed to run though Yuma. Plans changed however and it ended up being routed further north, with only a small sliver running through Arizona. That later became US 91 and ultimately I-15. Many confuse the name of the bridge with the actual auto trail, thinking the route was actually called the Ocean to Ocean Highway. Instead, this route became the Old Spanish Trail auto trail connecting St. Augustine, FL with San Diego, CA.
After entering Yuma from the North (due to the curvature of the Colorado River), the later alignment of the Old Spanish Trail and US 80 would curve east out of town, paralleling the Gila River to the south by about 5 miles. This parallel route with the river continued to Gila Bend, named for the 90° bend in the river just north of town. Gila Bend was a railroad town at the time, and welcomed travelers as the first major stop past Yuma on US 80. Just East of town, the road followed the bend north to reach Phoenix, even crossing the route near the Gillespie Dam. Originally as a concrete skit of the dam, this road was constantly closed for overflow from the bridge and could cause travelers to become stranded. Because of this, the bridge just south of the dam was constructed between 1926 and 1927. This allowed an all-weather access road from Phoenix to Yuma.
The highway ran through the downtown strip of Phoenix, at the time much less bustling than it is today. It ran through Tempe, Mesa, and Apache Junction as well, ultimately coming to Florence Junction. US 80 would turn South at this junction, to head through the town of Florence and ultimately end up in Tucson. Continuing straight was US 180, which would take you through the towns of Globe and Safford, AZ, meeting with US 80 again in Lordsburg, NM before heading Northeast one last time to Caballo, NM to end at US 85. (This route mostly became US 60 and 70).
For travelers wanting to head from San Diego to points further east of Phoenix or vice-versa, they originally had no choice but to head north through Phoenix first. This caused a major detour that wasted time. As such, Arizona began planning a short-cut route to head from Gila Bend directly to Tucson via Casa Grande. This became the Phoenix Bypass Route and was signed as SR 84. Travelers taking this route saved a whopping 60+ miles bypassing Phoenix, and became more heavily traveled than US 80 itself.
The section of US 80 we are traveling today was mostly bypassed in in 1956 by a newer 2-lane alignment that now makes up half of the SR 85 Expressway. This allowed for faster, safer travel and bypassed the narrow and old Gillespie Dam Bridge. In 1993, the bridge's namesake was breached and failed, with it's ruins visible from the bridge. Between SR 85 and 75th Ave in Phoenix, old US 80 is modern Maricopa County Route (MC) 85. East of Phoenix, in Gold Canyon, US 80 is now US 60 to Florence Jct and SR 79 from Florence Jct to Tucson. We will cover all of US 80 soon, but in the meantime please enjoy this awesome segment.
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[@richardhall916]

Fun back road to explore

[@RWtheCarGuy2024]

This was also known as AZ-89 also at one point and some parts

[@ForgottenHwy]

US 80 and 89 were co-routed from Van Buren and Grand Ave in downtown Phoenix to the point where 6th Ave crosses I-10 in Tucson. West of downtown Phoenix, US 80 was signed alone.

[@ForgottenHwy]

AZ 89 was never signed past Wickenburg, only US 89 was.