You are too old if you remember.......

[kkt]

In the S.F. Bay Area:

I-480 signs

Missing movements from CA-92 westbound to US-101 southbound and US-101 northbound to CA-92 eastbound

Missing movements from (what was then) CA-238 westbound to CA-17 southbound and CA-17 northbound to CA-238 eastbound

Market Street before it was dug up for the BART/Muni tunnel

The Pacheco Pass highway as 2-lane road most of the way

US-101 south of San Jose as blood alley, 4 lane undivided with many stoplights and left turns for fruitstands

The unauthorized homemade sculpture garden on tideflats west of I-80 just north of the Bay Bridge

The original Dumbarton Bridge - 2 narrow lanes, drawbridge, truss which limited tall or wide vehicles.  The original S.F. bay bridge crossing!

And elsewhere --

In Seattle, no connection from I-90 to I-5.  And now that we've got it, it's consistently so backed up you're better off on surface streets.

No speed limit in Nevada outside of towns

[roadman]

also, in the early 90s, they got rid of two huge oil storage tanks - one of which said Bostongas and one of which was painted with rainbow stripes - from just beside the south end of the Artery.

One of those tanks is still there.  Traffic reporters used to refer to that spot as the gas tanks; now they just say the gas tank.[/quote]

IIRC, they demolished the tank with the stripes and then had the other tank repainted with identical stripes.

[agentsteel53]

US-101 south of San Jose as blood alley, 4 lane undivided with many stoplights and left turns for fruitstands

dang, and here I thought the section through Prunedale or so was bad now.  it still has some remarkably narrow lanes... I'd estimate 10 feet at most in places.

[PHLBOS]

@PHLBOS - Regarding the I-95 route assemblies along the elevated Central Artery, I have an official MassDPW photo of one.  I also have an official photo of one of the original BGS panels on the Somerville section of I-93 that has an I-95 shield.  You've now given me a project to dig through my archives and find them (then figure out a way to post them to the group).

I've seen (photos & in person) & remember the original early 70s BGS' panels w/I-95 shields as well as the older BGS at the southbound Charlestown exit ramp; the latter remained until the mid-to-late 80s.

The ones along the Artery (with directional cardinals) are the ones I'm interested in seeing.  I only remember one or two MDC-spec'd TO SOUTH 95 composite signs along the approach ramps from Storrow Drive and maybe one along the southbound Artery near or at the Haymarket Square exit.

[roadman65]

New York City I remember the old West Side Elevated that was in the median of West Street/ 11 and 12 Avenues before it was torn down and it became an expressway for those streets as it is now.

Nearby Newark, NJ had many streets made of cobblestone including the South Street Railroad Bridge that was only modernized in the mid 90's to have a standard concrete deck.

Incidentally, the old West Side Elevated was indeed cobblestone as well.  Never rode it except for a small piece above 57th Street and it rattled your entire body as the ride was not that smooth, so I wonder how someone could drive the full length of it with that experience on you and your car.

[NE2]

I also have an official photo of one of the original BGS panels on the Somerville section of I-93 that has an I-95 shield.

This one? http://www.flickr.com/photos/41203461@N00/8528411015/

[Mr_Northside]

BP bought SOHIO back in the late 1960s.  They changed the brand in the late 1980s/early 1990s.  The Ohio Turnpike service plazas used to be all SOHIO stations at one time.

Damn.  I almost forgot about that.  It was one of the noticable things when visiting my aunt/uncle in Akron. Here in PA we had Boron stations, which turned into Sohio when in Ohio.
-------

With an upcoming trip to Ocean City MD, I'll note I feel real old when I think about the early trips (that my memory isn't perfect on since I was pretty young):
Using MD-2 thru Glen Burnie since there was no I-97 (and it looked shorter on MD-3)
Traffic signals on US-50 on both sides of the Bay Bridge (where it's now freeway)
Traffic backups due to the old drawbridge on the other side of Kent Island
Driving across the 2 lane bridge over the Choptank (north of Cambridge), which is now fishing piers.
Being stuck in a backup due to the 2-lane drawbridge over the Nanticoke @ Vienna.

There is still plenty that can be improved for a more efficient trip across Delmarva, but it really used to be a lot worse.

It hasn't been as long, but I also remembered all the signs MD had promoting the Sideling Hill visitors center when it opened heading west on I-70.  I seem to recall that it was mostly a logo, and were spaced at 10 mile increments from, like, 50 miles out (at least), and my family and I had no idea what they were for until a more informative sign closer to I-68. (We were gonna use I-68 anyway, so we checked it out.)

[PHLBOS]

A couple other Bay State entries:

-When Bell Circle in Revere was just a circle with no 4-lane cut-through.

-LGS' for 1A North (at the Wonderland Circle/rotary) actually listed MARBLEHEAD as a destination.

Example (note: the 10 mileage is a guess + or - 1)

-----1A---->
LYNN              5
MARBLEHEAD  10 

Those LGS' were gone by the mid-70s.

Two for Philadelphia:

-The old circle that served the terminal buildings (current Terminals B & C)

-Referring to Northeast Philadelphia Airport as North Philadelphia Airport (its original name); my boss does this all the time.

Across the river into Camden/Pennsauken, NJ:

-The Camden County Airport (not sure of the actual name) that existed near/at the Airport Circle (US 30/130/NJ 38/70) interchange.

[roadman65]

Maryland

I too remember US 50/ 301 when there were stoplights on both sides of the Bay Bridge and was arterial.  Yes, I got stuck in the Drawbridge crowd plenty of times!  Also, you cannot forget the US 301 & MD 213 traffic signal either.

Florida
When Cocoa Beach, FL had overhead gantries at the FL A1A/ FL 520 intersection.

There was a toll plaza just east of FL 520 on TOLL FL 528. I saw its removal and the toll was increased at the FL 417 mainline toll plaza which consolidated the two plazas into one that now has been split again with the new Dallas Boulevard Mainline Plaza being built.

I remember when the Orange County Sheriff's Office Community Center near Sea World was a tourist attraction called Stars Hall of Fame.

I remember seeing the original Sunshine Skyway structures even though one of them was destroyed at the time due to the Summit Lauren disaster that killed 45 people driving SB across the Bay at that location.

New Jersey

When many intersections had side mounted signals.
When Mercury Vapor street lights were the norm.
When Left Turn Signals were in the same assembly as the through movement's heads. 
   (The red light never went out as it had to stop all, left, or right and straight, it never   had all three turns at the same moment)
When US 22's viaduct in Newark was one four lane undivided structure along with a traffic circle at its eastern terminus with US 1 & 9.
When there was no cut through at the Bayway Circle on US 1 & 9 in Elizabeth.
When NJ 27 was a two way Cherry Street and no pair with Chilton Street for its present
    day Southbound)

[agentsteel53]

-LGS' for 1A North (at the Wonderland Circle/rotary) actually listed MARBLEHEAD as a destination.

Example (note: the 10 mileage is a guess + or - 1)
-----1A---->
LYNN                5
MARBLEHEAD  10 

I'd imagine Salem be the more logical choice here, as it is on 1A.  I'm not sure why they would list Marblehead, as it is basically a peninsula that through traffic is not using... what is the rationale for it?  was it a big tourist destination in the 60s?

[PHLBOS]

-LGS' for 1A North (at the Wonderland Circle/rotary) actually listed MARBLEHEAD as a destination.

Example (note: the 10 mileage is a guess + or - 1)
-----1A---->
LYNN                5
MARBLEHEAD  10 

I'd imagine Salem be the more logical choice here, as it is on 1A.  I'm not sure why they would list Marblehead, as it is basically a peninsula that through traffic is not using... what is the rationale for it?  was it a big tourist destination in the 60s?

Marblehead's always been a tourist destination of sorts.  It's also a big sailing town.  The only likely reason why such Marblehead was placed on those old (60s-era green paddles w/cut corners) LGS' may have been due to the sizable development of the Clifton section that took place shortly after railroad service was dropped in 1957.  Either that or somebody at the DPW made an error.  These LGS' were the only ones that listed Marblehead as a 1A destination.  The old 60s-era LGS for 1A North at Bell Circle (gone since the '77 reconstruction) listed Swampscott (underneath Lynn) as a destination; which is indeed more correct/accurate than the current Lynn/Salem listings on LGS' north of the circle since MA 1A indeed goes through Swampscott.

It's worth noting that there was a MDC-spec'd ground-mounted BGS that listed both Swampscott & Marblehead as a destination for MA 16 East (originally MA 1A North) at the intersection of the Revere Beach Parkway & MA 145 (Winthrop Ave.), southwest of Bell Circle.  The BGS featured no route number listings and faced the MA 145 traffic and remained there into the 90s.

[deathtopumpkins]

I've noticed that all along the north shore the destinations listed with 1A (and indeed many other routes) vary wildly from sign to sign, so I don't think of that as being erroneous in any way.

[lepidopteran]

Florida

-- Continuous skip lines, where a black line completely connected the two white lines it was between (or black/yellow on a 2-lane road in a passing zone)  Now there seems to be a gap between each black-white pair of lines. 

-- Driving through central Florida, and getting bombarded by advertising from: Cypress Gardens, Sunken Gardens, Jungleland Zoo, Stars Hall of Fame, Homosassa Springs, Planet Ocean, Ocean World, Circus World, Mystery Fun House, Six Gun Territory, and other tourist attractions that just vanished over the years, or more likely couldn't stack up against the Orlando triumvirate of: the mouse, the globe, and the orca (Shamu).
http://www.lostparks.com/thelist.html has a more complete list.
Please note that old standbys like Weeki Wachee, Citrus Tower, and Silver Springs are still around!

-- Certain parts of extant tourist attractions, such as the "world's longest escalator"  at Busch Gardens, River Country at WDW, "If You Had Wings"  sponsored by Eastern Airlines at the Magic Kingdom, etc.

-- When Silver Springs was advertised as "six miles east of Ocala"  (it's now only one mile, as the city grew eastward)

-- You don't think of animal-land theme parks like Busch Gardens and Sea World as having roller coasters.  (There are 12 coasters between them!)

-- You boast that you went to "both Disney World and EPCOT Center".  This is because, until the latter opened in 1982, the title "Disney World"  pretty much meant the theme park with the castle, i.e., the Magic Kingdom, a term that seemed to only really be used back then by the park employees Cast Members.  And the word "Center"  was removed from EPCOT a while back.

-- Many more acres of orange trees starting north of Orlando (from before they were wiped out by a series of frosts in the 1980s)

-- Cape Canaveral was called Cape Kennedy – the whole cape, including its residential areas; not to be confused with the spacecraft launch facility known as Kennedy Space Center.

-- After reaching the north end of the FL Turnpike, you expect to see "four balls bouncing against each other" .  This was a business sign which consisted of two double-ended "lollipops"  mounted by their centers on a common axis, and constantly rotating in opposite directions.   Hard to describe, the visual effect is two balls simultaneously colliding at the top and bottom of a circle, then switching places.  IIRC, this sign was at the Wildwood exit of I-75 on the NB side.  (this last one may be a bit more obscure)

[kkt]

Florida
-- Cape Canaveral was called Cape Kennedy – the whole cape, including its residential areas; not to be confused with the spacecraft launch facility known as Kennedy Space Center.

And if you're really old, you remember before the Cape was called Cape Kennedy.

[1995hoo]

....

-- You boast that you went to "both Disney World and EPCOT Center".  This is because, until the latter opened in 1982, the title "Disney World"  pretty much meant the theme park with the castle, i.e., the Magic Kingdom, a term that seemed to only really be used back then by the park employees Cast Members.  And the word "Center"  was removed from EPCOT a while back.

....

Indeed Disney now writes it as "Epcot" because they've dropped the acronym's original meaning (sensibly, I suppose, given what it became).

[NE2]

Indeed Disney now writes it as "Epcot" because they've dropped the acronym's original meaning (sensibly, I suppose, given what it became).

Yet the road is still known as Epcot Center Drive (and the main road to the Magic Kingdom is World Drive). The only signs are street sign blades at one of the onramps: https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=28.376383,-81.537684&spn=0.007297,0.014173&gl=us&t=m&z=17&layer=c&cbll=28.376511,-81.537558&panoid=zgkSBLFC9lcMwSiXXwV2wg&cbp=12,351.54,,0,-5.85

[OracleUsr]

Epcot and MGM Studios were my two favorite Orlando parks.  Loved the biosphere ride at the EC and the Star Wars ride at MGM

[theline]

Florida
-- Cape Canaveral was called Cape Kennedy – the whole cape, including its residential areas; not to be confused with the spacecraft launch facility known as Kennedy Space Center.

And if you're really old, you remember before the Cape was called Cape Kennedy.

Thanks kkt for the bolding on "really." That made me feel extra old. Yes, I can remember Cape Canaveral before it was Cape Kennedy. I recall Alan Shepard's first sub-orbital flight from the cape, watching it huddled around a tiny TV with the other 4th graders. TVs were hardly classroom staples then, but our teacher brought in her portable model.

[allniter89]

In Philadelphia I 95 ended south of the International airport and you drove PA 291, a surface street to the airport. I dont remember where I 95 began again north of there, north of center city?

[Alps]

Florida
-- Cape Canaveral was called Cape Kennedy – the whole cape, including its residential areas; not to be confused with the spacecraft launch facility known as Kennedy Space Center.

And if you're really old, you remember before the Cape was called Cape Kennedy.

Thanks kkt for the bolding on "really." That made me feel extra old. Yes, I can remember Cape Canaveral before it was Cape Kennedy. I recall Alan Shepard's first sub-orbital flight from the cape, watching it huddled around a tiny TV with the other 4th graders. TVs were hardly classroom staples then, but our teacher brought in her portable model.

Wait, what? It was Cape Canaveral to me when I was growing up in the 80s.

[kkt]

Florida
-- Cape Canaveral was called Cape Kennedy – the whole cape, including its residential areas; not to be confused with the spacecraft launch facility known as Kennedy Space Center.

And if you're really old, you remember before the Cape was called Cape Kennedy.

Thanks kkt for the bolding on "really." That made me feel extra old. Yes, I can remember Cape Canaveral before it was Cape Kennedy. I recall Alan Shepard's first sub-orbital flight from the cape, watching it huddled around a tiny TV with the other 4th graders. TVs were hardly classroom staples then, but our teacher brought in her portable model.

Wait, what? It was Cape Canaveral to me when I was growing up in the 80s.

It had changed back by then.  Wiki Cape Canaveral.

[cpzilliacus]

In Philadelphia I 95 ended south of the International airport and you drove PA 291, a surface street to the airport. I dont remember where I 95 began again north of there, north of center city?

I remember that in about 1977 - there was a huge cleared area where the interchange for I-95 and I-476 would later be built.

[roadman65]

Speaking of Philadelphia area, I remember when I-95 north of Chester and the present day interchange with I-476 ended at US 13!  It had an at grade intersection and when I-95 got completed north of there not only did the intersection vanish, but the connection between the two routes.

In New Jersey, the same happened when I-295 ended at grade with a local street just south of NJ 33.  When I-295 was later completed to the current Exit 60, the intersection removed and replaced with an overpass, but no interchange there.

Steve, you might want to ask around or check, but when the first section of I-80 opened west of Denville, NJ, I do distinctly remembering the freeways end just east of its crossing of NJ 53.  Yet today there are no ramps leading between I-80 EB and US 46, nor any WB US 46 to I-80 WB there today!  I was wondering what happened there, and why NJDOT would eliminate an interchange that would have maybe prove useful?  The only thing I could think of was that they added the current interchange with US 46 west of Denville (where the two routes properly cross) for a better connection.

Away from roads, I also remember when the computer keypad allowed a period and a comma to be made using the shift keys.  Now those arrows are introduced with the left one opposite the comma, and the right one against the period.  Also, take a look at the Dick Van Dyke reruns and see how a typewriter was used then to make  documents as the computer was only a theory for personal use at the time of original broadcast.  That show aired from 60 to 66 incidentally.

[bugo]

I remember when I-49 was incomplete and US 62-71 exited off the freeway at AR 264 and headed east on AR 264.  At this time, what is now signed as US 71B was signed AR 471 and 62/71/471 were co-signed to about the point where the current I-49 freeway crosses US 71B between Bentonville and Rogers.  471 just disappeared at this point.

[elsmere241]

In Philadelphia I 95 ended south of the International airport and you drove PA 291, a surface street to the airport. I dont remember where I 95 began again north of there, north of center city?

By 1983 right around Enterprise Avenue.  Going south on I-95 you'd approach the half-completed (as in ending mid-air) Girard Point Bridge and then be diverted off to a temporary road that took you to what was then PA 291.