# Road Signs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-signs/409632
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 27, 2007, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-signs/409632 "2007-06-27T12:45:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2007, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-signs/409632/21 "2007-06-27T22:08:35Z")
[QUOTE=Madd Maxx]
There is a similiar long distance sign on I-70 W leaving Baltimore. It has four cities and distances listed.
**Columbus 420**
St.Louis 845
Denver 1700
Cove Fort 2200
[/QUOTE]
We laughed like loons the first time we saw that sign…
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### Author:  [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2007, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-signs/409632/22 "2007-06-27T22:19:57Z")
I was amazed at how many signs in Los Angeles proper listed Sacramento as their direction. Not Burbank, not San Fernando, not Santa Clarita. Sacramento, 400+ miles away.
I mean, 80 goes straight from San Francisco to Sac, but our signs say Oakland, Berkeley, Vallejo, Davis, etc.
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### Author:  [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2007, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-signs/409632/23 "2007-06-27T23:09:06Z")
[QUOTE=Troy McClure SF]
I was amazed at how many signs in Los Angeles proper listed Sacramento as their direction. Not Burbank, not San Fernando, not Santa Clarita. Sacramento, 400+ miles away.
I mean, 80 goes straight from San Francisco to Sac, but our signs say Oakland, Berkeley, Vallejo, Davis, etc.
[/QUOTE]
😕
Where? I can’t think of any off the top of my head, much less many.
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### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2007, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-signs/409632/24 "2007-06-27T23:09:27Z")
[QUOTE=Troy McClure SF]
I was amazed at how many signs in Los Angeles proper listed Sacramento as their direction. Not Burbank, not San Fernando, not Santa Clarita. Sacramento, 400+ miles away.
I mean, 80 goes straight from San Francisco to Sac, but our signs say Oakland, Berkeley, Vallejo, Davis, etc.
[/QUOTE]
Which reminds me, near the western beginning of I-80 in San Francisco, there was a distance sign that included Fort Lee, NJ (the interstate’s eastern terminus) which is some 3000+ miles away. Is it still there or has some humorless Caltrans bureaucrat had it removed?
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### Author:  [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2007, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-signs/409632/25 "2007-06-28T00:11:35Z")
Not official road signs, but I’ve driven by billboards in Texas that advertise for Carlsbad Caverns. They instruct you to “take the next exit, turn around, and drive 678 miles to Carlsbad.”
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### Author:  [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2007, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-signs/409632/26 "2007-06-28T00:24:58Z")
[QUOTE=Paintcharge]
Leaving Wilmington NC there is a sign for Bakersfield CA at the other end of I 40.
[/QUOTE]
Huh. As far as I can tell, I 40 only goes as far as Barstow, 136 miles short of Bakersfield. The rest of the distance is handled by a state highway, CA 58. Ah, no, neither Bakersfield nor Barstow are what I would call primary tourist destinations, but that’s off the point here.
Leaving LA, there are a few signs on I 5 (or is it I 405?) that say the next major destination of the highway is Sacramento, and for that stretch of road through miles and miles of miles and miles, that’s true enough.
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2007, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-signs/409632/27 "2007-06-28T03:03:41Z")
I think the longest distance between two control cities would be between San Antoinio, TX and El Paso, TX.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2007, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-signs/409632/28 "2007-06-28T04:50:21Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Socks]
…I’ve heard of signs in Eastern Ohio that give New York as a control city. What are signs like that you’ve seen?
[/QUOTE]
Yes, I’ve often seen a sign on I-80 near Youngstown, Ohio, just west of the Penna. border, which refers to NYC being 500-some miles away.
Reminds me of the signpost in _M_A_S_H\*\*, set in South Korea of course, with directional arrows and distances to various major U.S. cities.
I think the street departments of Nome, Alaska and Key West, Fla., for instance, ought to mutually arrange to have signs indicating the distance to each other.
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### Author:  [@Madd\_Maxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madd_Maxx)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2007, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-signs/409632/29 "2007-06-28T13:10:37Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Socks]
The sign had a longhorn on it.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, I know. I work 3 minutes from there. I see it almost daily. [See](http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=texas,+MD,+USA&sll=39.470324,-76.640368&sspn=0.047109,0.079823&ie=UTF8&z=13&om=1) for yourself.
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### Author:  [@Madd\_Maxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madd_Maxx)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2007, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-signs/409632/30 "2007-06-28T13:17:45Z")
[QUOTE=FairyChatMom]
And just north of California, MD is Hollywood, MD. And I’m just a little north of that. 😃
[/QUOTE]
I grew up in Waldorf. I know that area pretty well.
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### Author:  [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2007, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-signs/409632/31 "2007-06-28T15:14:21Z")
[QUOTE=Edward The Head]
There’s one in Gettysburg, PA that has the mileage for Gettysburg, SD I think. The sign is really small and in the middle of the city so I don’t remember what it said exactly.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, that’s on Chambersburg Street a block or so west of the square. On the east side, there’s one for a place in France, if you’re up for a nice refreshing swim.
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### Author:  [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2007, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/road-signs/409632/32 "2007-06-28T15:59:48Z")
[QUOTE=Hypno-Toad]
I’m looking out my window at US 41 right now. But I’m a little closer to the southern end of the road. FYI it’s also called the Tamiami Trail since it goes "_Ta Miami."_
[/QUOTE]
😃😛😉
Actually, it was originally called Tamiami Trail down here because (regardless of later US designation as highway 41) it went from TAmpa to MIAMI, connecting Florida’s then biggest cities. Completed in 1928, much of it required use of the “walking dredge” described [here.](http://www.floridastateparks.org/collier-seminole/docs/baycity.pdf) (warning PDF)
Why a dredge? Because in southern Florida the only way to build a road was to dig a canal and pile the dirt up next to it. We also create “waterfront property” (as opposed to the default “underwater property”) by digging a lake, piling the dirt around it, and building homes on the pile.
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