The original Interstate system plan

[NE2]

Why do we need a range of numbers for diagonal routes?

Because Brasil #1?

[PNWRoadgeek]

Why do we need a range of numbers for diagonal routes?

Because Brasil #1?

NE2, I heard you're the most knowledgeable person on this forum. Can you elaborate on why I-75 randomly ends west of Downtown Miami at seemingly no street at all?

[NE2]

Why do we need a range of numbers for diagonal routes?

Because Brasil #1?

NE2, I heard you're the most knowledgeable person on this forum. Can you elaborate on why I-75 randomly ends west of Downtown Miami at seemingly no street at all?

Florida wanted to build a connection at North Miami Beach but I ate the plans and they didn't have backups.

[PNWRoadgeek]

Why do we need a range of numbers for diagonal routes?

Because Brasil #1?

NE2, I heard you're the most knowledgeable person on this forum. Can you elaborate on why I-75 randomly ends west of Downtown Miami at seemingly no street at all?

Florida wanted to build a connection at North Miami Beach but I ate the plans and they didn't have backups.

Good choice NE2. I respect you for that.

[NE2]

Why do we need a range of numbers for diagonal routes?

Because Brasil #1?

This was a semiserious reply though. Brasil uses 3xx for diagonals (and 4xx for short connections).

[pderocco]

I think a poster here mentioned once that what probably would have helped is if a range of numbers was specifically set aside for diagonal routes. It also would have helped is having a consistent logic for numbers: i.e. is a route's number determined by its terminus, or its rough location within the country? US-11's numbering makes sense if you consider its northern terminus, but its southern terminus is well out of alignment. Then you have something like US-30 which makes sense for most of its length, but it's effectively flipped in Oregon, being north of US-20 instead of south. (Although this is due to US-20 originally ending near Yellowstone).

It would make numeric sense for NE/SW to be even.5 numbers and NW/SE odd.5 numbers.

Yeah, that'll happen.

The old US-91 and US-93 are an even better example of routes crossing that could have been renumbered so that they just had a concurrency without crossing. But it sure seems like US routes were laid out with less regularity than the Interstates were later. Part of that is simply the much larger number of them.

[kernals12]

Interesting to see I-24 connecting with I-57 at Cairo in this early map, rather than its eventual terminus a bit north of there.

May have saved the city. If you look at GSV in Cairo it's one of the most depressing places in the country.

Flooding absolutely dominates life in the Mississippi Valley and makes it pretty much impossible for major cities to exist

[SEWIGuy]

Interesting to see I-24 connecting with I-57 at Cairo in this early map, rather than its eventual terminus a bit north of there.

May have saved the city. If you look at GSV in Cairo it's one of the most depressing places in the country.

Flooding absolutely dominates life in the Mississippi Valley and makes it pretty much impossible for major cities to exist

St. Louis, Memphis, Quad Cities...

[Rothman]

Interesting to see I-24 connecting with I-57 at Cairo in this early map, rather than its eventual terminus a bit north of there.

May have saved the city. If you look at GSV in Cairo it's one of the most depressing places in the country.

Flooding absolutely dominates life in the Mississippi Valley and makes it pretty much impossible for major cities to exist

St. Louis, Memphis, Quad Cities...

Twin Cities...

[kernals12]

Interesting to see I-24 connecting with I-57 at Cairo in this early map, rather than its eventual terminus a bit north of there.

May have saved the city. If you look at GSV in Cairo it's one of the most depressing places in the country.

Flooding absolutely dominates life in the Mississippi Valley and makes it pretty much impossible for major cities to exist

St. Louis, Memphis, Quad Cities...

Sorry, I mean Mississippi Delta, which has a specific meaning and consists of the area visible on Satellites between St Louis and Baton Rouge

[Roadgeekteen]

Interesting to see I-24 connecting with I-57 at Cairo in this early map, rather than its eventual terminus a bit north of there.

May have saved the city. If you look at GSV in Cairo it's one of the most depressing places in the country.

Flooding absolutely dominates life in the Mississippi Valley and makes it pretty much impossible for major cities to exist

St. Louis, Memphis, Quad Cities...

Sorry, I mean Mississippi Delta, which has a specific meaning and consists of the area visible on Satellites between St Louis and Baton Rouge

Memphis is between St Louis and Baton Rouge

[SEWIGuy]

Interesting to see I-24 connecting with I-57 at Cairo in this early map, rather than its eventual terminus a bit north of there.

May have saved the city. If you look at GSV in Cairo it's one of the most depressing places in the country.

Flooding absolutely dominates life in the Mississippi Valley and makes it pretty much impossible for major cities to exist

St. Louis, Memphis, Quad Cities...

Sorry, I mean Mississippi Delta, which has a specific meaning and consists of the area visible on Satellites between St Louis and Baton Rouge

Memphis is between St Louis and Baton Rouge

He's inaccurate about the Mississippi Delta definition. It's actually the part of the state of Mississippi that borders the river.

[kernals12]

This isn't something I pulled out of my ass. Here's a well-known Youtube geography channel about it

[NE2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_River_Valley
K12 isn't completely wrong...

[Bickendan]

What I think is funny is how like I-43 is only about 200 miles or so west of I-75, even further I-75 is within 300 miles of I-39.

Well, I-75 is pretty diagonal. US-6 should have ended up somewhere around Seattle by the numbers, but it originally ended up a hundred miles or so from US-80. But imagine what it would be like if we didn't have any major diagonal routes.

US-6 originally did not leave the Northeast. Its original extent was roughly Pennsylvania to Cape Cod. It was gradually extended in a diagonal pattern, and eventually it reached Long Beach. I'm not sure if this was just a series of happy accidents, or if at some point it was decided to make US-6 become the longest numbered route in the country (since taken over by US-20).

It makes a little more sense when comparing it to some other US routes that are mainly diagonal, like US-52 and US-54. I believe US-62 is the super oddball that touches both Mexico and Canada despite being a west-east route.

I think a poster here mentioned once that what probably would have helped is if a range of numbers was specifically set aside for diagonal routes. It also would have helped is having a consistent logic for numbers: i.e. is a route's number determined by its terminus, or its rough location within the country? US-11's numbering makes sense if you consider its northern terminus, but its southern terminus is well out of alignment. Then you have something like US-30 which makes sense for most of its length, but it's effectively flipped in Oregon, being north of US-20 instead of south. (Although this is due to US-20 originally ending near Yellowstone).

US 20's extension west of Yellowstone is almost irrelevant to US 30's swap in Nampa and Caldwell, however -- it's always been north of US 26 (and 28 before that). US 20 just made it more pronounced by going south of US 26 west of Vale.

[english si]

Flooding absolutely dominates life in the Mississippi Valley and makes it pretty much impossible for major cities to exist

Cairo and Memphis have both held the title of the largest city in the world. So has downstream Alexandria.

I'm talking of the Nile, which the people naming the Mississippi cities were reminded of, hence Egyptian names in Illinois and Tennessee. That being the Nile that very famously flooded pretty much every year until 1970 when they stored the flood waters behind a dam...

[epzik8]

Pretty sure I-84 was supposed to go through northern Pennsylvania at one point, replacing US 6.

[Henry]

Pretty sure I-84 was supposed to go through northern Pennsylvania at one point, replacing US 6.

That was the original plan, until I-80 was realigned and replaced what was to be the eastern I-82.

[webny99]

Pretty sure I-84 was supposed to go through northern Pennsylvania at one point, replacing US 6.

That was the original plan, until I-80 was realigned and replaced what was to be the eastern I-82.

I'm actually glad things turned out that way. An interstate along the US 6 corridor would have been nice in some ways, but it would have ended up too close to NY's Southern Tier Expressway. Current I-76, I-80, I-86, and I-90 ended up being spread out appropriately across NY and PA, especially considering the lack of population centers in northern PA.

[cwf1701]

kind of wonder how they would have routed I-77 between cleveland and Detroit? and did anyone else see that I-94 was originally place where I-96 is at today in Michigan

[Roadgeekteen]

kind of wonder how they would have routed I-77 between cleveland and Detroit? and did anyone else see that I-94 was originally place where I-96 is at today in Michigan

Probably just among the Ohio Turnpike and I-75, which is probably why it was scraped. I guess they could have made OH-2 an interstate instead of piggybacking on the turnpike but the OTIC would have likely been mad.

[SEWIGuy]

and did anyone else see that I-94 was originally place where I-96 is at today in Michigan

Yeah that idea never made any sense. It was smart of them to change it to what it is now.

[Flint1979]

kind of wonder how they would have routed I-77 between cleveland and Detroit? and did anyone else see that I-94 was originally place where I-96 is at today in Michigan

Along I-90 and I-75. And yeah that was the original plan but it got altered to what it is today. I-92 was supposed to be the route between Detroit and Chicago taking over US-12's route that ultimately was changed to I-94 and I-96 took over US-16's route. I think it makes more sense the way they have it today.