Then and now: Echo Summit always a key link

Echo Summit has always been a main connector to South Lake Tahoe. It used to be accessed via Johnson Pass Road, which connected to what is now called the Old Meyers Grade.

Here's a recent aerial view of Highway 50 in the Echo Summit area. The white X marks where photos #2, #3, and #4 were taken nearly 100 years ago on Johnson Pass Road connecting with Old Meyers Grade. That route still exists. Photo/Google Earth

An aerial view of Highway 50 in the Echo Summit area. The white X marks where the next three photos were taken nearly 100 years ago on Johnson Pass Road, Photo/Google Earth

Old Echo Summit Road in 1918. Photo/Lake Tahoe Historical Society

Early days of the summit. Photo/Lake Tahoe Historical Socieety

Early days of the summit. Photo/Lake Tahoe Historical Society

In the 1930s and 1940s, the construction of Highway 50 over Echo Summit as we know it today was under way.

A 1919 Cadillac makes it over the summit. Photo/Lake Tahoe Historical Society

The Highway 50 Association advertised it as “All-Year High-Gear Highway 50” in 1949 as seen here
in the Stanford Daily.

Four-wheel drive was not an options in the 1930s. Photo/Lake Tahoe Historical Society

With today’s technology, a simple mouse click produces a live webcam view of Highway 50 traffic over Echo Summit. Photo/Caltrans

— Bill Kingman