Okay, lately I have been researching interstates(I’m a “road geek”) and some things I have never found answers for, like why are there two I-76’s and why are 81 and 85 diagonal or closer to being east-west rather than north south? I know they run through the mountains, but they could’ve been made east-west.
apparently someone else is interested in the two I-76’s: http://www.ihoz.com/I76.html
Or how you can drive a stretch of Interstate in the East Bay Area of California that is both 80 East and 580 West, while you are actually driving north. If you head south on the same sretch, the east-wests are reversed. It’s between the Bay Bridge and Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
I understand why this is, but it looked really weird the first time I saw the signs.
Here in the heartland, the road planners were about to name the eastern part of the loop around St. Louis I-270, when they realized that it would intersect with itself, leaving drivers the option of taking I-270 east, west, or south (and when the extension finally gets built, north). Logic prevailed for once and the road is neatly divided into I-270 and I-255.
When the loop was originally built 30-odd years ago, the bureaucrats believed that the numbers only worked until the road intersected with the main interstate. The so the loop was called I-270 until it reached I-70, then became I-244 until it crossed I-44, then became I-255. It’s a good thing I-64 hadn’t been built here yet.
OK, more interstate trivia than you probably wanted to know:
[ul]
[li]There are also two I-84, on opposite sides of the country.[/li][li]I-295 has 7 different incarnations: in Maine, Massachusetts/Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey/Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Florida[/li][li]In central Virgina, I-81 and I-77 run concurrent for about 6 miles. On that stretch, signs say you’re on I-77 North and I-81 South or I-77 South and I-81 North.[/li][li]I-238 in California does not meet I-38, because there is no I-38. All other 3-digit interstates are numbered based on a connecting 2-digit interstate.[/li][li]The shortest interstate is I-395 in Maryland. It’s 0.72 miles long, and runs from I-95 to Russell St. in Baltimore, near Camden Yards.[/li][li]Alaska, not Hawaii, is the only US state without an interstate, even though you can drive from Alaska to the lower 48, but you can’t from Hawaii.[/li][/ul]
Even more than you wanted to know about 3-digit Interstates. :D:D
Oh, foo. Let’s try that again:
3-digit Interstates
Even more interstate trivia: I-81 also runs concurrent with I-64 in west-central Va., from Staunton to around Lexington. And I-64 runs concurrent with I-77 in sections of West Virginia.
http://www.aaroads.com/high-priority/corr05.html
This is about Interstates 73 and 74. they will actually juction twice and the southerly juction will cause them both to end at Myrtle Beach, SC. This is the wierdest. I think the all the good interstate planners died and were replaced by less competent people.
Umm, that’s embellishing Al Gore style: there is too a CA route 38 - it goes from San Bernadino up into the mountains…however it is true that route 238 (in the SanFran area) does not intersect 38…but that is the case for numerous CA highways…e.g. route 118, 128, 136, etc.
Doh, I just realized what an idiot I am…you were talking about interstate 238, not CA highway 238…sorry bout that…I’ll just go back to my underground cave now.
S
I-94 here in the Minneapolis/St.Paul area does strange things too. East of us it runs into Wisconson and west of us into the Dakotas. And around the Twin Cities, it splits into your standard beltway with 694 to the north and 494 to the south. All very normal.
But coming into St.Paul from Wisconson, I-94 continues west past the 694/494 beltway to link St. Paul to Minneapolis. And then at Minneapolis, it doesn’t keep going west until it rejoins the beltway- a stretch called I-394 does that, deadending into 494. Meanwhile, I-94 takes a right angle turn and goes straight north through Minneapolis until it deadends into 694. Or rather, the stretch of pavement that you’ve been driving north on gives you the choice of either getting on 694 east or west, or else continuing north on MN highway 252.
So neither I-94 (as driven west/north through Minneapolis) nor I-394 are the freeway that goes west into the Dakotas. Instead, you drive to the northwest corner of the beltway, where a new I-94 decides to exist again to take you west.
Look at maps of big cities. A lot of Interstates do this. But you know what I find the strangest? Where I-95 goes into NJ and disappears then mysteriously reappears near Newark. The X-Files? I hear they are planning on finishing it along US 1 to Newark though.
I’m just guessing here, but I think that I-238 was California Route 238 in its past life. It probably got the Interstate Highway designation when the Federal government coughed up some money to improve it.
Originally, all the 1 and 2-digit Interstates were planned to be in ascending order from west to east (odd numbers) and south to north (even numbers). But additional Interstates were added that crossed the existing ones so there are about a dozen or so places where odd or even Interstates cross. For example, I-89 crosses I-91 in Vermont and the southern section of it is east of I-91. Similarly, part of I-24 in TN, KY and IL is north of I-40. But there’s only one place where an entire highway violates the rule. Trivia question: Anyone know where it is? And why is it that way?
We discussed this in this thread
dtilque,
I know where it is and why, but since I started this thread I won’t answer.
I will challenge the readers of this thread to find any other situation like this among Interstate Highways in the US.
In Los Angeles County, you can take I-605 (the San Gabriel River Valley Freeway, a name that has never caught on) to I-105 (the Glenn Anderson or Century Freeway, take your pick) to I-710 (the Long Beach Freeway). 605+105=710
Can you pull off that feat anywhere else in the US? In Lansing, MI, you can do it if you throw in a US Highway: I-69 to US-27 to I-96.
I feel this heading to MPIMS
Another tidbit.
There is both a I-190 spur in Chicago (going to O’Hare) and in Buffalo (going to the falls).
EVERYTHING ends in Myrtle Beach. Taste, sanity, intellect…