US 3 "turns into" MA 3. US 6 never turns into MA 6.


Get a photo old enough and this style appears new! Photo courtesy Michael Summa and taken in 1982, sign dates to the 1960's-70's.


One still left from an old era, but a different style than in Michael's photo, on Rockdale Ave. SB in New Bedford between the two sides of 6.


WB and then facing north at a CT-style shield. Distances on Mass. LGS's only appear on older signs such as this.


Skipping the MA 138 duplex (see big link below), the MA 79/138 SB frontage road is also US 6 EB here. The left exit is a U-turn underneath the freeway, and then US 6 turns left onto President St. in 1/4 mile. "Davol St." is very misleading - that's the name of the frontage roads, and they certainly don't exit themselves.


WB through Fall River. The third sign is cheating - it's a BGS-style ad posted far above a railroad trestle, but it's an old BGS, and the font looks correct. The first sign could use some help. How about "NO PARKING THIS SIDE DURING DECLARED EMERGENCIES"? Why leave it to the public to determine where the hydrants are?


Old button copy, but maybe with replaced shields, MA 240 SB. MA 240 is a strange homunculus of a route, with a ghost cloverleaf at I-195 suggesting that it may have been intended as an eastern New Bedford bypass from MA 140. That's just a conjecture, but it explains the number and the ramp configuration.


MA 28 SB/US 6 EB (left signs) and Depot Rd. NB (right signs). See the 28 page, linked at bottom, for more.


The Bourne Bridge in all its majesty.


As you can see, the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges were constructed at the same time, when the Army Corps of Engineers took over the Cape Cod Canal and set forth to widen and straighten it. The Canal was initially built in 1914, and the original Bourne and Sagamore Bridges date from 1911 and 1912, respectively (they had to be constructed before the trench was dug). Before then, Cape Cod was part of the mainland, roughly defined by the Manomet River flowing through Bourne and Scusset River through Sagamore; a trace of these original rivers is left in the naming of Old Bridge Road in Sagamore. In 1935, once the new bridges opened, the old drawbridges ¼-mile away were demolished. What you are about to witness is the incompleteness of this demolition:


The approach from the "mainland" side of Bourne to the old bridge. It's very obvious how Perry Ave. (then MA 28) continued into this.


Structural remnants of the old bridge: two bridge piers and the old abutment. Hi, Shawn! The lower level, where there was once a railroad, has been converted to a walking trail.


The southern approach is much harder to spot, and hasn't been maintained nearly as well (though I don't really believe the northern approach is being maintained per se). The first shot is staring straight down the Cape side of Perry Ave. in Bourne, and the second shows that the grading remains intact under all these trees.


Besides the name of Perry Ave., these are the only other clues you get that this was once part of a bridge approach. There's still some pavement buried under all the leaves no one cares to pick up, and you can look straight across to the northern side and see the old abutment there.


The old Sagamore Bridge is pretty much entirely gone - you can see the road on the north side, but there's nothing structural left nor even one ounce of abandoned pavement. On the south side, there's nothing immediately apparent, but that's just because someone built a house atop the old abutment! Hi, SPUI! The railroad tracks remain on this side of the canal.


Now, US 6 runs along the northern side of the canal, but US 6 WB used to run on this side instead, hence the second sign. No, I have no clue why 6 EB and 6 WB were on opposite sides of the river on two-way roads. Because of this split, though, the directions that weren't US 6 were BY-PASS US 6, as the first picture (EB on the southern road) shows.


Still EB on the southern road, this is a nice old 3 shield that dates from the BY-PASS days. At least it's still accurate.


Two more 1982 Michael Summa photos, first on MA 6A and then using Stott's Crossing in N. Truro to get back to US 6. Thanks to Emi Melissa Briet for ID'ing the intersection.

Onto MA 138 and 138/US 6

Follow US 6 into Rhode Island
Onto MA 79
Onto MA 28
To MA 25
Onto MA 3
The Bourne and Sagamore Bridges on Steve Anderson's bostonroads.com
The Mid-Cape Highway (US 6 on Cape Cod) on bostonroads.com
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