The eastern endpoint of US 56 shifted during the 1990s as construction work was completed on Kansas City's Watkins Drive.
Before Watkins Drive was completed, US 56 ended a block to the west at Prospect Avenue. When US 71 was moved onto the new parkway, US 56 was extended in order to end there.
This photograph was taken August 29, 1998. Note the orange barrels in the background as work continued to extend Watkins Drive past this point, across Brush Creek, and northward to downtown Kansas City.