Misleading S. R. 2 Markers – March 24, 1969

When the new, limited access State Route 2 was being built just south of Lorain in the 1960s, there was a lot of confusion.

I’ve done a few posts in which it was noted that the highway's numbering hadn’t been resolved yet. Would it be I-90? State Route 2? State Route 254? For a while it appeared that the highway was going to be named the Northwest Freeway.

Then there was the issue of the fact that the new highway – whatever it was going to be called – was being built in stages. (This post dealt with when the highway finally extended past Baumhart Road to State Route 61 in Berlin Heights in 1975.)

And then there was the question of signage. Today’s blog post deals with the observation that in the early days of the highway, signs were sometimes more optimistic than accurate.

The photo and caption below appeared in the Lorain Journal on March 24, 1969.

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Speaking of signs, as I commute to work each day on Route 2 to Cleveland, I’m always a little amused when I see the large sign for “Lorain Ferry” when I approach the Route 611 exit. Besides the fact that you are well past Lorain when you reach that exit, what ferry is the sign referring to? 

I'm assuming that the sign is promoting the occasional special excursion Jet Express trips from Lorain to a Cleveland Browns game.  But if I was a tourist and saw that sign, I’d think it meant a ferry to the Islands, with regularly scheduled trips like those out of Port Clinton.