page_title: U.S. Route 80
section_title: Louisiana
hierarchical_section_title: U.S. Route 80 / History / Louisiana
caption_attribution_description: 07094041
context_page_description: U.S. Route 80 or U.S. Highway 80 is a major east-west United States Numbered Highway in the Southern United States, much of which was once part of the early auto trail known as the Dixie Overland Highway. As the "0" in the route number indicates, it was originally a cross-country route, from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. Its original western terminus was at Historic US 101 in San Diego, California. However, the entire segment west of Dallas, Texas, has been decommissioned in favor of various Interstate Highways and state highways. Currently, the highway's western terminus is at an interchange with Interstate 30 on the Dallas–Mesquite, Texas city line. The highway's eastern terminus is in Tybee Island, Georgia near the interchange of I-516 and US 17 in Savannah, at the intersection of State Route 26, Butler Avenue, Inlet Avenue, and Tybrisa Street, near the Atlantic Ocean. Between Jonesville, Texas and Kewanee, Mississippi, US 80 runs parallel to or concurrently with Interstate 20. US 80 also currently runs through Dallas, Texas; Shreveport, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; Montgomery, Alabama; Columbus, Georgia; Macon, Georgia; and Savannah, Georgia.
context_section_description: 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.
caption: Old Vicksburg Bridge across the Mississippi River
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