When I’ve driven in the Eastern US, I’ve noticed that bridges across the interstate have signs on them with the name of the road that the bridge carries. So you drive under a bridge that will be labeled ‘Old ferry Rd’ or some such.
Is this the case all over the US, as a generally accepted policy?
I think it’s a good thing to do - it adds a bit of local colour to long drives. Possibly could help route finding / directions as well.
We don’t do this in the UK - I drove 200 miles today up the M6 / M74 and must have passed under 100+ bridges, none of which were named. You do see rivers named sometimes, when the road travels over them.
It is not universal. Almost every place I’ve ever been in the US will have an indication of the highway number on an overpass, if the over-passing road has one, be it a US highway number or a state highway number or just a state road number, but not every place will actually put street names on those overpasses.
For example, in eastern Charlotte, NC, Independence Blvd. (US 74) has a lot of overpasses. Where Matthews-Mint Hill Rd passes over, it is has a sign on it that says “NC 51” because it is a North Carolina state highway. It does not have a sign that says “Matthews-Mint Hill Rd.”
The signs aren’t just for decoration, they’re used for landmarks for driving. Portland has lots of bridges and they all have signs on them saying what road you’re passing under. It’s easy to see you’re almost to Lombard once you’ve passed the failing street pedestrian bridge.
Bridges (and even overpasses) are also handy things for politicans to name, with ribbon-cuttings and all that. Often the general public ignores the formal name and continues to use the descriptive name (e.g., Matthew-Mint Hill Road.)
Either way, though, it’s a lot easier for the public and emergency crews to know there’s an accident at “Old Ferry Rd.” than at “mile marker 21.”
Bridges over named rivers, creeks, etc. usually have some name sign at you begin crossing.
Once I drove out to one of the barrier islands on the ocean side of Maryland. The signs there, instead of having some named straits, said, “Atlantic Ocean”. :D:D
It’s a relatively new development. Back about 30 years ago, it was rare to see this sort of sign. But as they rebuild the roads, they started adding them.
My favorite is on the Hutchinson River Parkway. One of the signs says “New England Thurway” [sic].
The place I can think of where I’ve seen this is the Décarie Expressway (Autoroute 15) in Montreal, where each overpass is named with the name of the street it carries (Vézina, Isabella, Queen Mary… the best is Rue des Jockeys, right next to the Hippodrome.)
ETA: I’ve just had a quick look, and it appears they do the same thing on the non-tunnel portions of the Ville-Marie (Aut. 720) and on the La Fontaine (Aut. 25).
Yes, it’s pretty common in Ohio and the neighbouring states, but the roads often have unadventurous names like “County Road 300 E” (meaning the road that runs north-south on a line 3 miles east of the centre of the county).