In the Tom Root Aerial Photographs collection of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center are several images of the State Route 2 Bypass under construction. (Before this, Route 2 went through Sandusky.) The picture above was taken by photographer and pilot Tom Root on July 3, 1961. In the bottom right portion of the picture, you can see the on and off ramps being built. The large white rectangular object north of the ramps is the quarry just off State Route 250.
In this photo, taken September 1, 1963, the new highway was completed from the Route 250 exit to the Route 101 Exit. The highway is a distinct white line through the gray of the land around it. You can see the city of Sandusky in the upper left hand portion of the picture, and the coal docks jutting out into the bay.
This image was taken on June 27, 1964.
The railroad yards appear dark in this view, located close to the Ford plant (now Ventra Sandusky.) The State Route 2 highway can be seen along the bottom edge of the picture.
By 1968, when Mr. Root took this picture, the Thomas A. Edison Bridge was open, and a large portion of the State Route 2 Bypass was complete. Some sections of the highway were not completed until years later.
In the view above, the heavily wooded area on the bottom left hand part of the picture is the southernmost part of the Village of Bay View. You can see State Route 2 as it winds through Erie County, and heads out over the Sandusky Bay, enabling a swift connection between Ottawa and Erie County.
Governor James A. Rhodes cut the ribbon when the Thomas A. Edison Bridge was officially dedicated on December 17, 1965, though some of the exits were still under construction at that time.
Known fondly by locals as “the bypass,” the renovation of State Route 2 in the 1960s (and beyond) greatly assisted North Coast tourists to to travel quickly to the lake, Cedar Point, and on to Toledo and Cleveland, without a lot of stop signs and speed reductions through populated areas that they had encountered on old Route 2.