Once Upon A Time In Amarillo, I-40 Went UNDER I-27. True Story.

As it is today, we live in a world of Photoshop and other photo doctoring programs. And sometimes we see a photo and think to ourselves, “is this real?”. That’s exactly what happened earlier today when I came across this head scratcher in a Facebook group called AMARILLO HISTORY AND MEMORIES. 

The post in question is an aerial photograph of the interchange downtown with the caption: “I bet some of you didn’t know that I-40 used to go UNDER I-27 ”

Hmmm…..Are you certain? 

And it appears that I wasn’t the only one who was questioning the post and it’s cheeky statement. In fact, there’s quite a few heated arguments in the comment section  about it being real or fake. Check the thread out for yourself here. Now, Let’s break this down a bit.

Guess Where I-40 Used To Go

The photo in question is of highways I-40 and I-27. Back in 1959, Texas approved I-40 to replace the historic Route 66. Building this interstate became the way to get to Barstow, California if you were headed west and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma if you were headed east out of Texas.

Real or Fake?

In the photo, you can see the two interstates crisscrossing with each other, and the claim is that “I-40 used to go UNDER I-27”. Now, when you look at the photo, it can be a bit tough to tell whether or not one is under the other…and there’s plenty of others who are squinting in confusion at the screen like I am. 

One person commented “This pic is not correct. Where are the railroad tracks?” (Yeah...where are they?!)

Another person challenged the photo as a whole commenting, “I am not seeing any landmarks to indicate this is Amarillo at all-please show me”. Oh. They circled it. Okay I see it now.

It’s Real. And I’ll Prove It

I will concede that, after a little frantic Googling on my end after trawling the comments, I have to concede that this is the real deal, folks. It looks like some time in 1999, TDOT approved a project that would replace three of the bridges located along the I-40/I-27 exchange in order to make way for a direct connection between the interstates as opposed to running underneath or above one another. And that dang direct connection is recent enough (it finally permanently opened sometime in 2018). 

So yes, the photo is 100% real. We can stop bickering about it now.

It sure was a nice exercise in why we shouldn’t trust our own memories. What tricky little brains, we have.