Interstate Highway System: Romancing the journey or just driving the miles (slideshow)

November 9, 9:14 AMSalt Lake City Cross Country Travel ExaminerLindsay Godfree

Previous Next

6 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Salt Lake City Cross Country Travel Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Interstate 84 in Oregon toward Mt Hood

What could be more symbolic of America than the open road? The image of a black ribbon stretching toward the unknown beyond the horizon, calls forth visions of romantic waywardness and infinite grandeur. Not so glamorous is the official name of the vast roadway connection called the  Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways , so named by Pres. Bush.

Imagine what daily life would be like without our connections by Highway. The distribution of virtually all goods and services involves Interstate Highways and trucking at some point. Residents of American cities commonly use urban Interstates to travel to their places of work. And about one-third of the total number of miles driven in the country, are on the roads of the Interstate system.

As of 2006, the Interstate System totaled 46,876 miles (75,440 km), making it both the largest highway system in the world and the largest government construction or engineering project in history. It was only an amazing pipe dream to unite the country until the first 8 mile stretch of Interstate opened in Topeka, Kansas on November 14, 1956. Taking 27 years to complete the last link to the system, Interstate 105 in Los Angeles, was finished in 1993.

Easy numbering system rules:

1. Highways running north-south are odd numbered while highways running east-west are even numbered.
2. The lowest numbers are in the west and in the south.
3. Mile markers on the highways start at the west and rise going east; or start at the south and rise going north.
4. Three digit Interstate Highway numbers represent beltways or loops, attached to a primary Interstate Highway (represented by the last two numbers of the beltway's number).
5. Washington D.C.'s beltway is numbered 495, because its parent highway is I-95.

Free on-line printable map of the Interstate Highway System.

You will also enjoy reading: How about a job as a truck driver?  and 101 Travel Tips  for Driving