US 34 is an elevated highway that connects to the Great River Bridge and Iowa 99 passed beneath along Bluff Road.

To the east of the highway lies a park and municipal marina, both of which abut the Mississippi River.

North of Burlington, the highway followed the base of the tree-lined bluffs to the west; it served as a divider to the farm fields occupying the river bottoms to the east.

[2][3] Near the Des Moines–Louisa county line, the bluffs recede to the west as the highway approached Oakville.

[2][3] Iowa 99 first appeared on the June 1932 state highway map along its familiar routing between Burlington and Wapello.