That Left Turn in Albuquerque, 1938-2019
Above/featured: Image still from “Bully for Bugs” (originally, Warner Bros. Pictures, 1952).
Something is burrowing through the desert when a creature pops up through a hole in the dirt. A grey rabbit stands, brushing himself off and looking at his surroundings. Realizing he’s not where he should be, he checks his map and says aloud with mild irritation:
I knew I should’ve taken that left turn at Albuquerque.
That Bugs Bunny statement is a frequently used gag in a number of Warner Brothers cartoons. But in all seriousness, it is a very specific geographical reference. What does Bugs mean by “that left turn?” Is it a real thing?
Let’s go to New Mexico in the American Southwest, to Albuquerque, whose modern development has been shaped by the car and high-speed roads. The city’s history is tied with the creation of the American highway and one of the most well-known: US route 66.
After the 1937 realignment of highway US route-66, Albuquerque’s Central Avenue became the east-west “Mother Road” through the city. Driving west on Central Avenue towards the city’s Old Town district, the road bends slightly right and northwest to run parallel with the Rio Grande river. The road eventually comes up to a junction, and drivers are faced with choices at the intersection of what are now Central Avenue and Rio Grande Boulevard.
• Turn right, and drivers are headed away from US-66, northbound towards Santa Fe.
• Jig slightly left, and drivers continue westbound on US-66 towards Arizona and beyond to the highway’s western terminus in Los Angeles, California.
John Deeth also wrote about the “left turn” in August 2011.
The evolution of “that left toin”
The 20th-century has seen rapid urban expansion across Albuquerque, spreading into areas once covered in desert scrub. Drivers tracing old US-66 and heading west on Central Avenue now have the option of remaining straight ahead (west) on Central Avenue, turning right (north) onto Rio Grande Boulevard SW, or turning “hard” left (south) onto Rio Grande Boulevard NW for local neighbourhood access. That third option did not show up until the 1950s. In the following 1938, 1940s, 1954, and 2019 maps, the intersection of Central Ave. and Rio Grande Boulevard is marked with a black asterisk; north is at the top of each map.
USGS 1938 map: the post-1937 alignment of US-66 occurred after map printing (source).
USGS 1938 map: zoom into section around the Old Town; black asterisk for Central Avenue & Rio Grande Boulevard (source).
1940s driving map: black asterisk for Central Avenue & Rio Grande Boulevard (source).
USGS 1954 map: black asterisk for Central Avenue & Rio Grande Boulevard (source).
Google Maps 2019: black asterisk for Central Avenue & Rio Grande Boulevard; westbound to Arizona and California, and eastbound to Texas.
The intersection
That’s how we came to visit and photograph this ordinary looking intersection in Albuquerque during our time spent in the American Southwest.
And in the picture below, we remained on Central Avenue, crossing Rio Grande Boulevard and dreaming of US-66 to Santa Monica.
Westbound, on Central Avenue (US-66) at Rio Grande Boulevard – 7 Oct 2018.
This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-cDo. Last edit: 10 Oct 2023. Thanks to AB for making this memorable trip possible.
Fotoeins Fotografie 
8 Responses to “That Left Turn in Albuquerque, 1938-2019”
[…] I spent many hours in childhood watching Warner Brothers Cartoons. One theme was a lost Bugs Bunny with a specific catchphrase, and the rest of the cartoon dealt with circumstance and consequence. It turns out if you happened to be driving west through Albuquerque on US route 66, there was a left-turn you had to make to remain on the highway towards Arizona and California. I wrote about “that left toin” here. […]
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[…] Albuquerque, Brooklyn […]
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So many times, I’ve watched that Bugs Bunny cartoon where he pops out of the ground and then meets Yosemite Sam (as a middle eastern sheik). I just used (this morning) the phrase ” I knew I shoulda taken that left toin at Albakoikee” and the younger guy I was talking to asked me what the heck I meant by that. Tried to explain it to him with not much luck, so turned to my good friend, Dr. Google. I was led to this page and viola!! So happy to learn about the origin of the phrase. As I think back on many of those amazing Warner Brothers cartoons, It’s interesting to contemplate the origins of many of the sayings and interactions, even IF some of them are not so politically correct these days. Some of my favorite sayings are from characters like Bugs Bunny and Foghorn Leghorn. Pure comedic GOLD!! : ) Looks like I took the right turn for this expedition!!! Thanks much for the history lesson.
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Hi, David. It’s a lot of fun to see that there’s a direct reference to real life. As time passes, I imagine fewer people will recognize the cartoon or gag about Bugs Bunny ending up in an unknown location because he missed “that left toin in Albakoikee.” Thanks again for your comment and for stopping by.
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I’ve either lived in Albuquerque or visited Albuquerque my entire life, and I never thought about where Bugs made his wrong turn. You are correct. I make that turn often, but from now on I will always think about Bugs.
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Hi, Nancy; thanks for your comment and for passing by!
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Hi HL, I’m glad to finally be able to actually see how this hectic intersection got its pun. I’m surprised that Albuquerque, NM doesn’t put a picture of Buggs Bunny on both sides of that sign? The one that you are on is westbound and there is a sign for a u-turn which is the lane left of yours and a left-turn, the one you are in. That’s funny, but I could see why and how it got that reputation from the folks at Warner Brothers. Do you happen to have a picture of the other way around that intersection, the one where your heading eastbound from Los Angeles to Albuquerque? I would like to see that one, because that’s the direction the director Chuck Jones frequently went from to see operas at the Santa Fe Opera from Los Angeles. He took the old 66 route to the new 66 route. That was the supposed missed turn, according to a statement listing about the quote in 1945. And I am wondering now how that Opera House in Santa Fe used to look like and if it’s still around today; because, I would also like to see it too, if somebody has some photographs of it?
Finally, with a name like Albuquerque and how it spells it’s no wonder the name alone became a magnet for humorous philosophers, no pun intended!
Daniel, longtime Buggs Bunny follower. And to all I say, “What’s up Doc?” to every Looney Tune follower.
P.S. Hey, depending on which direction you are heading from if east bound then a Buggs Bunny sign should be of Buggs as a Matador with a sign that reads “El Paso, TX” and then further down in El Paso, another sign that’s heads into Ciudad Juarez, MX where the “Plaza de Toros Alberto Balderas” is located at. Heading West bound a picture of Buggs Bunny dress like Figaro would be another nice gesture to consider. Hey, I’m all in for getting a petition for Albuquerque to consider this addition to include in their near future attraction of its infamous intersection which could be titled: “Getaway to the Stars Road trip!”
DM
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Thanks for your comment, Dan, and for stopping by. Unfortunately, I don’t have additional all-round images of “that intersection” in Albuquerque. In hindsight, that would’ve been the thing to do, but that hadn’t entered my thinking at the time. Perhaps, we’re left with the next best thing with Street View on Google Maps.
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