Thursday, December 3, 2020

Elyria Bypass Opens – November 23, 1960

Sixty years ago last month, the Elyria Bypass officially opened.

As the article below (which ran in the Journal on November 23, 1960) notes, “The Northeast Bypass, connecting Rt. 57 to Cleveland St. (Rt. 20) and skirting the business sector, was officially opened at 11:30 a.m. today.”

I didn’t know it was called the Northeast Bypass. Maybe the name just didn’t stick (just as nobody thinks of State Route 2 though our area as the Northwest Freeway, one of the proposed names for it).

Anyway, the Journal article written by Ray Flack humorously relates how he and a friend got a sneak preview of the Bypass on the day before, sneaking on at the Gulf Road intersection and going for a joy ride. It’s a fun read.


(I wrote about the July 1963 completion of the extension of the bypass from Rt. 20 down to Rt. 10 back here.)
****
And for those of you (like Alan) that are interested in UFOs, there’s a story on the page above about “a white glow in eastern skies over much of the Midwest.” The short article says that it was identified by the Detroit Weather Bureau as "a shower of tin foil dropped by planes in a test of radar reception.”
Uh-huh. 

4 comments:

-Alan D Hopewell said...

That's funny, laddie; that article was the first thing I read! (I don't buy that explanation, either.)

Aaron said...

I remember there were signs on it in the 80's that said something like "signals are set for 48 MPH" to encourage people to go slower.

Anonymous said...

Used to love to beat "when lights are flashing be prepared to stop", I believe it was the Chestnut Ridge light.

Anonymous said...

Yes they had it setup to where the lights would change to red when there was nobody around in any lane.....Talk about waisting precious fuel.