Fading Ghost of a Past Route

Fading remnant of direction to St. Charles, Mo. on destination sign in St. Louis County
Photo courtesy of David Herman (taken March 2006)

This destination sign for the southbound ramp from Interstate 270 onto Missouri 180 looks unbalanced. If you look closely, you can see why. At the point, Natural Bridge Road goes west toward St. Charles. At one time, the route was Missouri 115, traveling across an old, narrow, two-lane bridge and ending in downtown St. Charles. The bridge was torn down a few years ago. It was not replaced, which meant that you could no longer reach St. Charles directly from this point. Thus, the entry for St. Charles was removed. This sign uses the older-style button reflectors, so you can see a remnant of the former entry on the sign. It shows that St. Charles was four miles from here. Missouri 115 now ends several miles southeast of this point, where it intersects Interstate 70.