List of highways numbered 50

Highway 50 is a historic transcontinental highway across the United States. It extends from the Atlantic coast at Ocean City, Maryland to Sacramento, California. It is known as "the Loneliest Highway" (this designation may have been given by Life Magazine in 1986 or by a 1980's National Geographic article). In Nevada, it largely follows the Pony Express trail and the Lincoln Highway. Time Magazine dubbed it "the Backbone of America".

Selected cities and points of interest traversed, East to West, include:

Ocean City, Maryland; Salisbury, Maryland; Easton, Maryland; Annapolis, Maryland; Washington, District of Columbia; Washington-Dulles International Airport; Winchester, Virginia; Parkersburg, West Virginia; Chillicothe, Ohio; Cincinnati, Ohio; Bedford, Indiana; Vincennes, Indiana; Odin, Illinois; Lebanon, Illinois, from which trolleys ran to downtown St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Jefferson City, Missouri; Hutchison, Kansas; Dodge City, Kansas; Pueblo, Colorado; Gunnison, Colorado; Montrose, Colorado; Grand Junction, Colorado, after which it is Interstate 70 until past Green River, Utah; Hinkley, Utah; Ely, Nevada; Eureka, Nevada, a well-preserved ghost town that proclaims itself the "Loneliest Town on the Loneliest Highway in America"; Fallon, Nevada, after which it is Interstate 80 for parts, It is named the California Emigrant Trail as it approaches Carson City, Nevada. South Lake Tahoe, California; Placerville, California; Sacramento, CA.

History

Highway 50 is a U.S. route that was officially spliced together at some date to be researched and reported, but probably it is an early route put together from mostly existing roadways, mapped together in the first half of the 20th century. It follows portions of the Emigrant Trail overwhich California-bound gold-miners and settlers passed, the historic Lincoln Highway, and parts of the historic Pony Express route that also ran to Sacramento, California, from Missouri, albeit from St. Joseph a short ways to the north of Highway 50. During 2005 and 2006, Highway 50 is featured as one of several historic routes against which the populist America On The Move program plots participants' progress based on self-reported pedometer counts. Source/Link: http://maps.google.com A book of interest (not sourced for this article): "Traveling America's Lonelisest Road, A Geologic and Natural History Tour through Nevada along U. S. Highway 50", by J.Tingley and K. Pizarro.