The Bon

Washington Boulevard was the main thoroughfare through Ogden as I was growing up. I say through, because Washington Boulevard was also Highway 89. Highway 89 was virtually the ‘freeway’ of its day. That is to say, it was a thoroughfare that offered the most direct and least encumbered means of traversing Utah via automobile. While it was a far cry from the Freeway I15 of today; it provided a reasonably ‘free’ means of byway amongst the cities and communities of that bygone era. Highway 89 continued through Ogden and soon became the “Mountain Highway” as it lay at the base of the Wasatch Mountains throughout the length of Davis County (joining with other thoroughfares in Farmington). Inasmuch as our travels required us to frequent Ogden from Davis County communities (Layton, Clearfield, Sunset); we travel the ‘main streets’ of these communities until intersecting Riverdale Road near Roy and then follow this route until it intersected the Ogden Streets we’d need to follow. (Wall Ave if we were going to Grandpa & Grandma Fords. Washington Boulevard if we were going to Grandpa & Grandma Davis’s.) During the winters, we’d have to traverse a relatively steep hill on 32^nd street as we left Washington Boulevard for Grammercy Ave. I always worried if our car could make the hill with snow and ice covering the hill. Riverdale Road was the primary means of traversing the railroads, weber river and hills separating the Davis County communities from Ogden. Hence, I was rather familiar with its features. Of particular note is the significant bridge the spanned over the railways and Weber River. I remember looking down on these features frequently as we sped over them and eventually up the hill as we approached Roy. While there were certainly stoplights that paused movement along these ‘main streets’ as they encounter community downtowns; such ‘highways’ were by far the most convenient, least intrusive means of traveling amongst and between such communities. Of course, the I15 freeway eliminated street stoplights and brought unfettered travel throughout Utah. In fact, I remember when the freeway was being erected! My friend, David Bailey, would take the beginnings of the freeways from our homes in Sunset to Clearfield High School on his Yamaha 250 occasionally.