I just noticed, while playing with Google Maps, that Interstate 80 is designated the “Christopher Columbus Highway”. Since when? I’ll admit I’m not the most attentive person, but this is news to me. Is this asshole really the best choice to name one of our most important roads after?
Well, Christopher Columbus TRANSCONTINENTAL Highway was already taken by the 10.
Only in a New Jersey is I-80 known as the Christopher Columbus highway, presumably by order of the state DOT or legislature.
On the other hand I-10 is known as the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway, at least in California. I can’t tell if there are signs with that elsewhere.
ETA: It looks like Google Maps also calls I-80 that in Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.
Well, you gotta admit, it just cuts right through those injun lands…
New Jersey - I-80 Express, Christopher Columbus Highway
Pennsylvania - Christopher Columbus Highway
Ohio - Ohio Turnpike
Indiana - Indiana Toll Road
Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska - Christopher Columbus Highway
Wyoming - Lincoln Highway
Utah (eastern) - Lincoln Highway
Utah (western) Christopher Columbus Highway
Nevada - Christopher Columbus Highway
California - Alan S. Hart Freeway, Dwight D Eisenhower Highway, Lincoln Highway
So, it looks like it has a lot of names but there’s certainly some affinity for Christopher Columbus.
I’m loth to criticize our googly overlords, but that’s wrong WRT Nebraska. Speaking both as a resident (and a commuter that drives on about 10 miles of it each way, each workday), and as someone who can read Wikipedia:
[Quote=Wikipedia]
Designated sections
The entirety of the Interstate Highway System was named the “Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways” in 1990, and the first signage in Nebraska was posted in 1993. Several sections of I-80 in Nebraska have special designations. The I-80 intersection with US-34 has been designated a “Purple Heart Memorial Highway”, and South 108th Street bridge over I-80 in Omaha has been designated the “Purple Heart Bridge”, both in honor of all recipients of the Purple Heart. A section of I-80 in Nebraska is also designated as a Blue Star Memorial Highway.
[/quote]
From Interstate 80 in Nebraska - Wikipedia
It seems to me that Google is improperly carrying forward a designation from another state.
Google maps identifies I-80, even when it is 80/90, as Chistopher Columbus Highway all the way through Ohio and Indiana: it may not show up on the basic map view as the road label, but when a marker is placed on the road, the Columbus name shows up in the info almost every time.
Yeah, I’m beginning to think it’s mostly a Google Maps artifact with no basis in reality.
Except for New Jersey, which also has no basis in reality.
Columbus may have been one of the first Europeans to come to the New World and steal land from the locals. But he didn’t conquer two continents by himself. He never even set foot in what’s now the continental United States. If we’re going to declare Columbus is ineligible to have a road named after him then so is pretty much every other figure in American history.
The Lincoln Highway is US 40 from Chicago. It’s just coterminous with I-80 in places.
If there are any signs put up, I hope that they’re paid for by the Christopher Columbus Fan Club, because otherwise it would be a colossal, criminal (or should be) waste of tax payer money.
I know there’s a sign on I-10 in Santa Monica, I don’t know about the Jacksonville end.
I have heard rumors that “New Jersey” does indeed exist, but as far as I know, it is only hearsay.
Did Vespucci ever set foot on American (Brazil or Argentina) soil?
I believe the highway is named for the movie director, actually.
I thought it was named for the holiday, since people do a lot of driving on holidays.
Actually, the Lincoln Highway is US 30. But you’re right that it’s coterminous with I-80.
It’s not that straightforward. Wikipedia:
I’ve seen this before. Once the entirety of US Route 62 was marked as “Brownfield Highway,” which is what it’s called in part of Texas.
Not in California, it’s not. I live two blocks from it.
Yes and no. According to this map, it looks like the “Lincoln Highway” designation has Multiple Personality Disorder in several states, including California, where it appears to be both I-80 and US50.