Route information | |
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Maintained by Louisiana DOTD | |
Length | 115.6 mi[1] (186.0 km) |
Existed | 1925 (planned); 1927 (first section opened); 1953 (last section opened)–present |
Component highways | US 61 from New Orleans to Baton Rouge US 190 from Baton Rouge to near Krotz Springs |
Major junctions | |
Southeast end | US 61 in New Orleans |
Northwest end | US 190 east of Krotz Springs |
Location | |
Country | United States |
State | Louisiana |
Parishes | Orleans, Jefferson, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, St. James, Ascension, East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupee |
Highway system | |
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Airline Highway is a divided highway in the U.S. state of Louisiana, built in stages between 1925 and 1953 to bypass the older Jefferson Highway. It runs 115.6 miles (186.0 km),[1] carrying U.S. Highway 61 from New Orleans northwest to Baton Rouge and U.S. Highway 190 from Baton Rouge west over the Mississippi River on the Huey P. Long Bridge. US 190 continues west towards Opelousas on an extension built at roughly the same time.
The highway was named "Airline" because it runs relatively straight on a new alignment, rather than alongside the winding Mississippi River. (Compare with the similar term air-line railroad.) The name later became even more fitting, as both Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport were built along the highway. Airline Highway also runs close to the site of the old Baton Rouge airfield (near the intersection of Airline and Florida Boulevard, now a park and government office complex), which brings it within blocks of the similarly named Airport Avenue and Airway Drive.