Most people relocating to the San Antonio metropolitan area generally do so because of the pleasant year-round temperature; the low cost of living; bluebonnets blooming every spring, or how it is often referred to by its own citizens as a big city with a small town attitude; a wonderful place to raise a family, with great schools and a southern “slow-paced gait.”
But while people find that the reason they chose to move here is confirmed once they arrive, perhaps one of the most important things about San Antonio most people wouldn’t otherwise know is the ease with which one can travel around the city. And since we don’t, as yet, have light rail or bike lanes (which we’re working on), the automobile is the mode of travel most San Antonians choose to get around. With a major network of interstate highways and local roads, 11,666 total centerline miles to be exact, it is often possible to travel at the height of the rush hour, say from the outskirts to downtown, in 20-25 minutes or less.
Three interstate highways bisect San Antonio. The first, I-10, which runs east to west along the southern tier of the U.S., from Jacksonville FL to Los Angeles CA, enters the city from Houston, 180 miles and Seguin, 40 miles to the east, runs along the south side of the city while skirting the downtown area and continues west to Boerne, 30 and El Paso, some 560 miles away.
I-35 travels south, starting in Duluth MN. It enters San Antonio on the northeast side of the city, coming to us most immediately from New Braunfels, 30 and Austin, 80 miles to the north, bisecting our midsection at the northern reaches of downtown and continues through the city on the near west side, where for about 6 miles, it shares roadway with I-10. It than continues on to Laredo, 150 miles to the south, hard against the border with Mexico.
And U.S. Hwy. 281, which also comes through the city from the north, having started its long journey at the U.S./Canadian border in North Dakota, splits San Antonio down the middle, running along perhaps the most picturesque, if not contentious, section of highway. Past Olmos Basin, Brackenridge Golf Course and the San Antonio Zoo, a few miles north of downtown, it picks up I-37. South of the city, the two highways split with I-37 heading to Corpus Christi and the gulf coast, 143 miles away, and 281 ending its own journey in Brownsville, in the Rio Grande Valley, 280 miles away.
But, while not shortchanging the importance of the Interstate highways to San Antonio auto travel, the two roadways that make San Antonio unique, and convenient, the “inner and outer loops,” John B. Connally Loop I-410 (410) and Charles W. Anderson Loop 1604 (1604), as their names imply loop the city, 410 about 8 miles outside downtown, and 1604, an additional 8 miles beyond. Connally was, of course, governor of Texas in the early to mid-60s and a friend of the city during its HemisFair 1968 building days, and Anderson, a former Bexar (pronounced Bear) County judge from 1939-64.
(Loop) 410, fully 49.49 miles in circumference, dates to 1959 when it was authorized by the Texas State Legislature to be built. Construction was started a year later and was completed in the early 70s. Today, 410 is really two connecting highways, with the north west section six lanes wide between I-35 and I-90 and the south side section, which travels through mostly rural areas, 4 lanes wide.
Arguably, roadways make cities, or sections of cities, drawing both residents and business to its newly opened landmasses. And such was the case with 410. Before it was built, San Antonio’s city limits didn’t extend much beyond Hildebrand Avenue. But with construction, a whole new area of the city became available, where the preponderance of city retail and housing now exists.
The first section of Loop 1604, between Highway 16 and 281, two lanes wide, was completed in 1963. The entire roadway, 69 miles in length, was generally completed by 1975, with basically the same ratio of lanes as Loop 410; four on the north side and two lanes on the south. However, with planned, and yes, unplanned growth over the last ten years measuring 100,000 cars a day, 1604 is going through its own expansion, opening new areas of the city, including Stone Oak and suburban Helotes on the north side, increasing to six lanes where it used to be two and four.
And if you’ve heard of time standing still, Hwy. 46, some of the most peaceful, pristine, picture-taking sixty-five miles in the metropolitan area, running between Hwy 16, west of Helotes and Hwy. 123 in Seguin, with stops in Boerne, Bulverde and New Braunfels, is here to prove you wrong. Dotted with mostly farms and ranches, and occasionally a planned-housing community, in what city-folk believe is country, this two-lane rural road has seen car counts rise in the last eight years to as much as 20,000 a day in some places, sometimes taking homeowners as much as five minutes to exit their driveways. In fact, it has been unofficially designated the next outer loop, even though it doesn’t actually circle the metro area, relegating Loop 1604 to “middle loop” status.
Finally, with Toyota’s choice of land in the southwest quadrant of San Antonio for its truck manufacturing facility, the expansion of SW Loop 410 and a whole new area of San Antonio, yet uncharted save for farms and ranches held by families for decades, can’t be far behind.
A metropolitan area on the grow!
