Highway 73 is a highway stretching from Geismar, Louisiana, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge is the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is located in East Baton Rouge Parish and is the second-largest city in the state.Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, and research center of the American South...

. Hwy. 73 was built as a bypass to the backbends of River Road. It was soon after bypassed itself in a more complete way with U.S. Route 61

U.S. Route 61

U.S. Route 61 is the official designation for a United States highway that runs from New Orleans, Louisiana, to the city of Wyoming, Minnesota. The highway generally follows the course of the Mississippi River, and is designated the Great River Road for much of its route. As of 2004, the highway's...

 (Airline Highway

Airline Highway

Airline Highway is a divided highway in the U.S. state of Louisiana, built in the 1930s and 1940s to bypass the older Jefferson Highway. It carries U.S. Highway 61 from New Orleans northwest to Baton Rouge, and U.S. Highway 190 from Baton Rouge west over the Mississippi River on the Huey P. Long...

).

Route description

From LA 75 (River Road), 73 travels North North East as an undivided two-lane road through the Dutchtown area before hitting I-10

Interstate 10 in Louisiana

Interstate 10, a major transcontinental Interstate Highway in the Southern U.S., runs across the southern part of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It passes through Lake Charles, Lafayette and Baton Rouge before dipping south of Lake Pontchartrain to serve the New Orleans area and then passing through...

 and US 61. From US 61 it turns north through Prarieville, Louisiana and turns northwest to cross Bayou Manchac

Bayou Manchac

Bayou Manchac is an bayou in southeast Louisiana. This bayou was once a very important waterway linking the Mississippi River to the Amite River.-Exploration:...

. At one time, this portion of the highway was called Hope Villa Road. For most of its length in East Baton Rouge Parish, LA 73 is known as Jefferson Highway

Jefferson Highway

The Jefferson Highway was an automobile highway stretching through the central United States from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Jefferson Highway was replaced with the new numbered US Highway system in the late 1920s...

. At Tiger Bend Road it becomes a four-lane with turning lane for about a mile and before becoming concurrent with Airline Highway for another mile. After leaving Airline Highway it takes a generally northwesterly path until it becomes Government Street at the entrance to MidCity. As Government it proceeds due west to a junction with LA 991 (River Road).

History

The route of LA 73 was once part the Jefferson Highway

Jefferson Highway

The Jefferson Highway was an automobile highway stretching through the central United States from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Jefferson Highway was replaced with the new numbered US Highway system in the late 1920s...

 auto trail, designated in 1916, which became the original Louisiana Highway 1 in 1921. US 61 followed the section between Prarieville and the Mississippi River from 1926 until 1933 when the Airline Highway was opened between Prarieville and the Bonnet Carré Spillway

Bonnet Carré Spillway

The Bonnet Carré Spillway is a flood control operation in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Located in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana - about west of New Orleans - it allows floodwaters from the Mississippi River to flow into Lake Pontchartrain and thence into the Gulf of Mexico...

. US 61 remained on the section between Praireville and Baton Rouge until 1941, when Airline Highway was extended into Baton Rouge.