Transportation
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Tijeras Canyon is a major mountain pass east of Albuquerque that cuts through the Sandia-Manzano Mountains, separating the Sandias from the lower Manzanitas. Long used as a natural corridor, it carries drainage west to Tijeras Arroyo and on to the Rio Grande. Its transportation history is especially important: historic U.S. Route 66 ran through the pass, and in 1937 it was rerouted here from the Santa Fe approach. A major highway project begun in 1950 created New Mexico’s first four-lane divided stretch of Route 66, completed in 1951. The canyon also holds evidence of Pueblo occupation, an abandoned railway scheme, and enduring place-name history.
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Tijeras, New Mexico · United States
