U.S. Route 287
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| Image:US 287.svg | |||||||||||||
| U.S. Route 287 | |||||||||||||
| Image:US 287 map.png | |||||||||||||
| Length: | 1791[1] mi (2882ΒΌ km) | ||||||||||||
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| Formed: | 1935 | ||||||||||||
| South end: | Image:US 69.svgImage:US 96.svgImage:Texas 87.svg US 69/US 96/TX 87 in Port Arthur, TX | ||||||||||||
| Major junctions: | Image:I-45.svg I-45 at Corsicana, TX Image:I-35E.svg I-35E at Waxahachie, TX Image:I-20.svg I-20 at Arlington, TX Image:I-35W.svg I-35W at Fort Worth, TX | ||||||||||||
| North end: | Image:US 89.svg US 89 in Choteau, MT | ||||||||||||
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U.S. Route 287 is a north-south United States highway. It serves as the major truck route between the Texas cities of Fort Worth and Amarillo. The highway is broken into two segments by Yellowstone National Park, where an unnumbered park road serves as a connector.
The highway's northern terminus is in Choteau, Montana, 100 miles (161 km) south of the Canadian border, at an intersection with U.S. Highway 89. Its southern terminus (as well as those of US 69 and US 96) is in Port Arthur, Texas at an intersection with State Highway 87, five miles (8 km) up the Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico.
Contents |
[edit] Route description
[edit] Montana
[edit] Wyoming
[edit] Colorado
| Major cities |
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[edit] Oklahoma
35 miles, 56 km, across the panhandle, at Boise City.
[edit] Texas
US 287 crosses into Texas at Kerrick and continues southeast through to Stratford, where it takes a more southerly turn. In Dumas, US 287 merges with it's "parent route", US 87, and continues its south/southwesterly path as a co-signed route to Amarillo.
After passing through the heart of downtown Amarillo, US 87 splits off to the south to merge with I-27, and US 287 merges with I-40 and continues co-signed with the interstate until just west of Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, where it veers to the southwest toward Claude. US 287 follows this south-southwesterly path until Vernon, where it merges with (and is briefly co-signed with) US highways 70 and 183. After US 70 and US 183 leave the route at Oklaunion and veer to the northeast, US 287 resumes its south-southeasterly track all the way to Wichita Falls. On the northwest side of the city US 287 merges with I-44, US 82, and (briefly) US 277. After leaving Wichita Falls, US 82/287 continues as a co-signed route until Henrietta, where US 82 leaves the route. After merging with US 81 in Bowie, US 287/81 continues southwest to Fort Worth, where it merges with I-35W on the north side of town.
Here, US 81 hits its terminus, but US 287 continues as an unsigned, concurrent route with I-35W through to the north end of downtown Fort Worth before splitting off to the southeast and once again picking up its own signage. This stretch of US 287, which runs from downtown to the southeast side of the city, is also known as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freeway. In southeast Fort Worth, US 287 intersects with, and is briefly co-signed with, I-820 (which then dumps into I-20) before veering to the southeast yet again, where it passes through the extreme western side of Arlington, and then on in to Mansfield and Midlothian.
After intersecting with I-35E just north of Waxahachie, US 287 continues to the southeast, where it merges with I-45 in Ennis and follows the interstate to Corsicana where it then leaves the route and makes another sharp turn to the east. The highway continues southeastward to Palestine, where it merges with Texas State Highway 19. US 287/SH 19 continues as a co-signed route until Crockett, where US 287 leaves SH 19 and continues its southeasterly track toward the Texas Gulf Coast.
In Woodville, US 287 merges with US 69 and takes on a more due-southerly route to Lumberton, where a co-signed US 69/287 also merges with US 96. The highway then continues to the southeast through Beaumont and on to Port Arthur, where the route terminates at an intersection with Texas State Highway 87.
[edit] History
When US 287 was first commissioned in 1939, it extended only from the south entrance of Yellowstone National Park to Denver, Colorado. The route was extended southward to the Gulf Coast at Port Arthur, Texas in 1940, and northward into Montana to U.S. 89 at Choteau, Montana in 1965. North of Choteau, U.S. 89 continues north into Alberta as Provincial Highway 2 through that province's major cities of Calgary and Edmonton, connecting with a Canadian link to the Alaska Highway in the latter city.
Included in the route of US 287 is former U.S. Route 370, which was commissioned in 1926 and connected Amarillo to Bowie, overlapping US 70 between Vernon and Wichita Falls.
The Canada to Gulf Highway Association, which later became the U.S. Highway 287 Association, was active from the 1910s until the 1970s to promote the highway as a popular tourist route with scores of members from businesses and organizations in cities all along the route.
[edit] See also
[edit] Related routes
[edit] References
- ^ Droz, Robert V. U.S. Highways : From US 1 to (US 830). URL accessed 18 May 2006.
[edit] External links
| Browse numbered routes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| < Image:US 283.svg US-283 | OK | SH-325 Image:Oklahoma State Highway 325.svg > | ||
| < Image:US 285.svg US 285 | CO | SH 291 Image:Colorado 291.svg > | ||
| < Image:MT-287.svg MT 287 | MT | US 310 Image:US 310.svg > | ||
