What's the "real" name of…?

[Rothman]

Q: US 202 called in most places

A: Route/I- (insert number of concurrent road, or name of local road)

I grew up near Route 202.  Never heard I-202?  Is that a Pennsylvania thing?

[PHLBOS]

Q: US 202 called in most places

A: Route/I- (insert number of concurrent road, or name of local road)

I grew up near Route 202.  Never heard I-202?  Is that a Pennsylvania thing?

Not in PA.  202 doesn't run parallel with any Interstate in the Keystone State.

[Rothman]

Q: US 202 called in most places

A: Route/I- (insert number of concurrent road, or name of local road)

I grew up near Route 202.  Never heard I-202?  Is that a Pennsylvania thing?

Not in PA.  202 doesn't run parallel with any Interstate in the Keystone State.

Re-read his post and I think I understand what he was trying to say.

[PHLBOS]

Q: US 202 called in most places

A: Route/I- (insert number of concurrent road, or name of local road)

I grew up near Route 202.  Never heard I-202?  Is that a Pennsylvania thing?

Not in PA.  202 doesn't run parallel with any Interstate in the Keystone State.

Re-read his post and I think I understand what he was trying to say.

The I- portion of his post is what I think is throwing people off.

On the subject of route concurrencies w/202, there's a stretch that has a concurrency w/US 322 between Concordville & West Chester; I have never heard anybody call that stretch just 322.

JP's comment may be more appropriate for US 202 in Delaware; although most of those concurrencies (w/I-95 & DE 141) date back to 1984.

[Rothman]

Q: US 202 called in most places

A: Route/I- (insert number of concurrent road, or name of local road)

I grew up near Route 202.  Never heard I-202?  Is that a Pennsylvania thing?

Not in PA.  202 doesn't run parallel with any Interstate in the Keystone State.

Re-read his post and I think I understand what he was trying to say.

The I- portion of his post is what I think is throwing people off.

On the subject of route concurrencies w/202, there's a stretch that has a concurrency w/US 322 between Concordville & West Chester; I have never heard anybody call that stretch just 322.

JP's comment may be more appropriate for US 202 in Delaware; although most of those concurrencies (w/I-95 & DE 141) date back to 1984.

Makes me wonder if this is true for a lot of routes when they go through an urban area.  I'm betting that US 202 gets called "Beech Street" quite often in Holyoke, MA, for example.

[jp the roadgeek]

I was referring to most of 202.  More specifically, the DE area (with DE 141 and I-95) and the stretch from the end of the Lambertville/New Hope bridge expressway to the split with MA 10 Westfield.  Between East Amwell Township, NJ and Westfield, it has duplexes with:

NJ 31, US 206, CR 512, CR 525, CR 510, CR 511, ALT CR 511, NJ 23, CR 507, NY 59, US 9W, US 6 (twice), US 9, NY 35, NY 118, NY 22, I-84, US 7 (twice), CT 67, CT 4, US 44, CT/MA 10, CT 189, MA 57, US 20.

In NH and ME, it's also duplexed with many routes, including NH/ME 9 (twice), I-393, US 4, NH/ME 11 and ME 4.  In other words, it's duplexed with another route for most of its length.  PA is the only state where there isn't a significant duplex (brief US 322 and US 30 are about it).

[Rothman]

Meh.  Having grown up in western MA, the US 202 / MA 10 duplex goes either way in terms of what people call it (Route 202 or Route 10 being common).

[PHLBOS]

PA is the only state where there isn't a significant duplex (brief US 322 and US 30 are about it).

Huh?  Where does 202 multiplex w/US 30?  202 crosses/interchanges w/30 just outside of Frazer but that's about it.  Note: US 30 east of 202 runs along Lancaster Ave.

[roadman65]

US 202 is concurrent with PA 263 in Bucks County.

[PHLBOS]

US 202 is concurrent with PA 263 in Bucks County.

Very true; that concurrency runs for roughly 2 miles.

[epzik8]

I've got some more non-road ones. The "real" name of the BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport is the BWI Airport. The "real" name of RFK Stadium is District of Columbia Stadium or D.C. Stadium.

[sparker]

In my cumulative 20 years of living in the Bay Area, I've never heard anyone refer to CA 82 as anything but "El Camino" (almost always dropping the "Real") -- its literal signed name for all but a few blocks of The Alameda at its south end and Mission Street at its north.  And -- tellingly -- although it was US 101 for 40 years (until the '64 renumbering), nobody but nobody has, in my recollection, referred to it as "Old 101" -- even the longtime natives who still refer to Sunnyvale-Saratoga Road as "Highway 9" (again, correct pre-1964).   

[SidS1045]

Q: I-93 in MA from Canton to Braintree, and I-95 from Canton to Peabody?

A: Route 128.

Actual answer: the Yankee Division Highway (which runs beyond Peabody, to Gloucester)

Nope.  I'm kind of surprised roadman didn't call you on this one.

Long before it was called the Yankee Division Highway...back when it first opened as a continuous limited-access highway between the Lynnfield-Wakefield border and MA 9 in Wellesley in 1951...it was officially called the Circumferential Highway (and I'm sure you realize, from seeing that name, why it never stuck).

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Duluth/Superior:

Q: "The Bridge"

A: I-535.

I had a lifelong resident of Superior tell me he never knew the Blatnik Bridge had a number (two of them, actually) until I mentioned it.

[CtrlAltDel]

Q: US Cellular Field
A: New Comiskey Park

Now, alas, it's:

Q: Guaranteed Rate Field
A: The Cell

[PHLBOS]

Q: I-93 in MA from Canton to Braintree, and I-95 from Canton to Peabody?

A: Route 128.

Actual answer: the Yankee Division Highway (which runs beyond Peabody, to Gloucester)

Nope.  I'm kind of surprised roadman didn't call you on this one.

Long before it was called the Yankee Division Highway...back when it first opened as a continuous limited-access highway between the Lynnfield-Wakefield border and MA 9 in Wellesley in 1951...it was officially called the Circumferential Highway (and I'm sure you realize, from seeing that name, why it never stuck).

Actually, 128 was called the Circumferential Highway before the Freeway portions of the Yankee Division Highway were even built when 128 consisted of a network of streets.

The first section of the new Circumferential Highway, in no way the freeway that it is now, was the piece from Route 9 in Wellesley around the south side of Boston to Route 3 (now Route 53) in Hingham.

The freeway, prior to its full completion, was officially named the Yankee Division Highway circa 1948 (either Roadman mentioned such to me or Steve Anderson wrote about it in his BostonRoads site); but, as with everything else, it may have taken a while for maps to include the name in its listings. 

[empirestate]

Q: I-93 in MA from Canton to Braintree, and I-95 from Canton to Peabody?

A: Route 128.

Actual answer: the Yankee Division Highway (which runs beyond Peabody, to Gloucester)

Nope.  I'm kind of surprised roadman didn't call you on this one.

Long before it was called the Yankee Division Highway...back when it first opened as a continuous limited-access highway between the Lynnfield-Wakefield border and MA 9 in Wellesley in 1951...it was officially called the Circumferential Highway (and I'm sure you realize, from seeing that name, why it never stuck).

Actually, 128 was called the Circumferential Highway before the Freeway portions of the Yankee Division Highway were even built when 128 consisted of a network of streets.

The first section of the new Circumferential Highway, in no way the freeway that it is now, was the piece from Route 9 in Wellesley around the south side of Boston to Route 3 (now Route 53) in Hingham.

The freeway, prior to its full completion, was officially named the Yankee Division Highway circa 1948 (either Roadman mentioned such to me or Steve Anderson wrote about it in his BostonRoads site); but, as with everything else, it may have taken a while for maps to include the name in its listings. 

All that aside, I've never heard it called anything but "route 128". Did people in the olden days actually say "Yankee Division Highway" or "Circumferential Highway" in colloquial speech?

[PHLBOS]

All that aside, I've never heard it called anything but "route 128". Did people in the olden days actually say "Yankee Division Highway" or "Circumferential Highway" in colloquial speech?

To the best of my knowledge, no; the names only appeared on road maps and on small, white supplemental median signs (at least for Yankee Division Highway).

[empirestate]

All that aside, I've never heard it called anything but "route 128". Did people in the olden days actually say "Yankee Division Highway" or "Circumferential Highway" in colloquial speech?

To the best of my knowledge, no; the names only appeared on road maps and on small, white supplemental median signs (at least for Yankee Division Highway).

Then spooky's right; the "real" answer would be Route 128.

[1995hoo]

The Capital Beltway was, in the planning stages, called the "Circumferential Highway." Obviously they thought better of it, though there was some disagreement over "Capital" versus "Capitol."

I like the British term "Orbital Motorway."

[Rothman]

Duluth/Superior:

Q: "The Bridge"

A: I-535.

I had a lifelong resident of Superior tell me he never knew the Blatnik Bridge had a number (two of them, actually) until I mentioned it.

Yep.  Lived there for some time and it was "The Blatnik" or "The Bong Bridge" for the US 2 one.  Only heard people refer to US 53 as the way south to Madison.

[PHLBOS]

All that aside, I've never heard it called anything but "route 128". Did people in the olden days actually say "Yankee Division Highway" or "Circumferential Highway" in colloquial speech?

To the best of my knowledge, no; the names only appeared on road maps and on small, white supplemental median signs (at least for Yankee Division Highway).

Then spooky's right; the "real" answer would be Route 128.

Keep in mind that Route 128 existed years prior to the construction of the highway.  Massachusetts' state maps used to have a tabulation of interchange numbers for its highways and listed the following underneath Route 128 heading (bold emphasis added):

The Following Exit Numbers for New Route #128 have been established and signs bearing those numbers and posted along this route at each exit.

Interestingly, the above-note carried over through the 1973-74 edition; well after the highway was fully constructed and corridors of the pre-highway 128 were decommissioned and/or renumbered (ex. MA 228).

[SidS1045]

The Arcadia Publishing book "Building Route 128" (https://www.amazon.com/Building-Route-128-Images-America/dp/0738511633), part of the "Images of America" series, has a great collection of photos of what MA 128 was originally, as PHLBOS alluded to: a collection of local roads which, in an tortured sort of way, described a circle around Boston through its suburbs, often directly through city and town centers.  In Stoneham, for example, 128 consisted of:

Elm Street between the Stoneham-Wakefield town line and Main Street
Main Street between Elm Street and Montvale Avenue (currently MA 28)
Montvale Avenue between Main Street and the Stoneham-Woburn town line

[empirestate]

The Arcadia Publishing book "Building Route 128" (https://www.amazon.com/Building-Route-128-Images-America/dp/0738511633), part of the "Images of America" series, has a great collection of photos of what MA 128 was originally, as PHLBOS alluded to: a collection of local roads which, in an tortured sort of way, described a circle around Boston through its suburbs, often directly through city and town centers.  In Stoneham, for example, 128 consisted of:

Elm Street between the Stoneham-Wakefield town line and Main Street
Main Street between Elm Street and Montvale Avenue (currently MA 28)
Montvale Avenue between Main Street and the Stoneham-Woburn town line

It's probably similar to what the colored Belt Route system around Pittsburgh is today.

[Bruce]

Q: Aurora Bridge

A: George Washington Memorial Bridge

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Q: I-90 floating bridges

A: Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Bridge and Homer M. Hadley Memorial Bridge

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Q: SR 520 Floating Bridge / Evergreen Point Floating Bridge

A: Governor Albert D. Rosellini Bridge