Roadgeek reading: "The Big Roads"

[Alex]

We were afforded the opportunity to preview Earl Swift's new book, The Big Roads and ask the author questions about his new book and background with roads.

I have posted the Q & A on the blog.

[Kniwt]

Just got my copy this afternoon. The text looks great from first read, but oy, that map inside the covers, "The Modern Interstate System," is full o' fail.
- There's a mysterious "I-67" running from St. Louis to the Quad Cities, presumably along US 67.
- I-43 north of Milwaukee is missing.
- I-94 seems to be missing between Benton Harbor and Gary/Hammond.
- In an omission that some might hail, I-99 is missing in its entirety.
- Looks like no 3di's are included on purpose, but there's a mystery line connecting I-5 to San Francisco that could be I-505 but goes to the wrong destination.
- The I-15 segment in Arizona is misrouted on the map, crossing directly from Nevada into Utah.
- In Kansas, I-135 gets an unlabeled line, as does the non-interstate part of the turnpike.
- Yikes! I-69 appears to be completely missing, both in its old and new forms.

Perhaps he subcontracted the cartography to Rand McNally.

[J N Winkler]

- In Kansas, I-135 gets an unlabeled line, as does the non-interstate part of the turnpike.

There isn't actually any part of the Turnpike now that is not Interstate.  It is I-35 from Oklahoma to Emporia, I-335 from Emporia to South Topeka, I-470 from South Topeka to East Topeka, and I-70 from East Topeka to its terminus at the 18th Street Expressway (now US 69).  I can't speak for the early days because the only Turnpike signing plan I have predates Interstate signing in general, but when the I-335 designation was created in 1987 to allow a 65 MPH speed limit on that portion of the Turnpike, it was the only bit of Turnpike left that was off-Interstate.

[PAHighways]

I got a free copy in exchange for writing a review on my site's blog, but have had hardly any time to read.

I did get past the part where the author says he began his trip in southern Pennsylvania on the Lincoln Highway, and "stuck to the old road into Pittsburgh, crawling from one stoplight to the next..."  That about sums up a trip down 30!

[yanksfan6129]

I've very much enjoyed it so far, and would recommend it, especially for those interested in the historical aspect of roads.

[Kniwt]

Agreed. I'm up to page 108 now (actually reading it while on a roadtrip!), and the content is excellent. Even for those of us who have read most of the works cited in the extensive endnotes, there's almost certainly something new for everyone.

Oh, but to add to the map errata: The Indiana Toll Road magically goes across southern Michigan instead.

[1995hoo]

I'm planning to download the Kindle edition of this book once I finish the book I'm reading now. I gather from all of your comments that I won't be missing much as to the map in the front if it proves illegible, but are there many other figures or illustrations that might be compromised in the e-book format?

[yanksfan6129]

There aren't many illustrations in the book at all; just a few token photos in the middle of the book. The point of the book isn't the locating of the system itself, I would say it's more about how it came into being in the first place.

[1995hoo]

Thanks. I figured there might be some photos or the like interspersed throughout the book (sort of like Zachary Schrag's book on the history of the DC Metrorail system) and those don't always translate well to the Kindle. Based on your comment I won't worry about it and I'll stick to the electronic format.

[NE2]

Got it from the library. Page 92 mentions a 1924 BPR map of federal aid highways; is this available online?

One minor error so far (p. 78): it was the Western Pacific Railroad, not the Union Pacific.

[NE2]

Question: p. 150 says that Kansas City "started work on a belt around its middle, fed by arterial highways" ca. 1950. Which part was this? MODOT maps from that era are bad about showing freeways.

[Kniwt]

Also, the photo of San Jose in the photo section is of I-880 and Stevens Creek Blvd., not I-280, which is just a wee bit to the south out of the photo's range.

[J N Winkler]

Question: p. 150 says that Kansas City "started work on a belt around its middle, fed by arterial highways" ca. 1950. Which part was this? MODOT maps from that era are bad about showing freeways.

It was the downtown ring.  The 1951 thoroughfare plan for Kansas City (Expressways [in] Greater Kansas City) has what amounts to functional plans for the proposed freeway network, including the downtown ring substantially as it was eventually built.  The West Freeway (including the I-35 downtown viaduct) had already been built by the time the plan was compiled, however.

[NE2]

There are various other random errors, such as US 13 going to the DE/NJ line (p. 106). But so far it's a good solid read.

[mapman]

Question:  The picture on the cover of the book -- isn't that the bridge along I-405 that was partially torn down this past weekend?

[1995hoo]

I'm 44% of the way through. Good read. I've noticed some poor editing that might have something to do with the conversion to Kindle format (biggest one: every time a middle initial is used, there's an apostrophe before it–for example, Dwight'D. Eisenhower). While in general typos annoy me, I'm still enjoying the book.


Edited to fix a typo (how appropriate given my final sentence....)

[Brandon]

I'm 44% of the way through. Good read. I've noticed some poor editing that might have something to do with the conversion to Kindle format (biggest one: every time a middle initial is, there's an apostrophe before it–for example, Dwight'D. Eisenhower). While in general typos annoy me, I'm still enjoying the book.

Agreed that that's a Kindle error.  It doesn't show up in the print book.  It is a good read, and he puts a lot of emphasis on MacDonald and Turner (rightfully so).

[Fleetwood Mac Attack]

There are various other random errors, such as US 13 going to the DE/NJ line (p. 106). But so far it's a good solid read.

Just picked up the book a few days ago, and while it's been a great read so far, I got a pretty good LOL from this page. In addition to US 13 not actually going to the NJ state line (I guess he means PA), arguably its smoothest link to travel in Delaware is on the route he describes - between Dover and the state line (well, at least between Dover and Bear - 40+ miles). Perhaps he drove this stretch of road before the parallel DE-1 was completed between Christiana and Dover. I recall this stretch of US 13 being TERRIBLE when I was much younger heading to the beach; nowadays I believe it's quite quiet for the stretch that parallels DE-1. At the north end it goes through New Castle/Wilmington, which is pretty built-up, and south of Dover, US 13 passes through literally every small town you can imagine (no by-passes really), with speed traps in all of them.

[1995hoo]

I finished the book this weekend. I found the historical stuff prior to the beginning of construction on the Interstates, as well as the discussion of some of the disagreements about what form the system should take, to be very interesting. The portion about the freeway revolts didn't seem quite as good to me because it focused so much on Baltimore to the exclusion of almost everywhere else, including Boston and DC; I also would have liked to have seen a bit more about I-95 in New Jersey. BUT, on the other hand, the material about Joe Wiles in Baltimore reminded me a bit of one of my favorite college courses from back in the early 1990s, "The History of the Civil Rights Movement" taught by Julian Bond. Mr. Bond often talked about seemingly-obscure local individuals in his lectures as a way of making a point about broader aspects of the civil rights movement as a whole (I guess using them as metaphors might be the way to put it?), and I know to some degree that's what Earl Swift was doing in the Baltimore portion of the book.

One of the things that struck me as I was reading was how urban planners–not just highway planners–considered waterfront property to be undesirable and as a prime place to plop a road. The book talks about the Inner Harbor in Baltimore as a prime example. Robert Moses in New York destroyed a lot of waterfront real estate in favor of either housing projects or (mostly-unbuilt) freeways. It seems insane in retrospect.

Regarding the comment by Fleetwood Mac Attack above–I recall the part you mentioned and I interpreted "New Jersey state line" as meaning where you get onto I-295 to go over the bridge. As you note, the part of US-13 through New Castle is horrible, and that's the segment that immediately popped into my mind when I read that part.

On the whole, I enjoyed it, especially the stuff about the earliest years of the American highway system up through the 1920s and how the whole federal—state deal came to be.

[PAHighways]

I finally finished The Big Roads at the end of last month, and wrote a review of it for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt which I posted to my website's blog.

Most of the material was things I had read about before, but I was surprised to hear about the man from my mother's hometown of McKeesport, Pennsylvania, who had developed a fuel from water and a mix of other ingredients.  I asked her if she knew of the name or the family, but she was not familiar with either.

[Fleetwood Mac Attack]

Just finished last night - very interesting read, especially for some would call a "nerdy" topic.

Another nitpicky criticism - in the last chapter, the author mentions I-95 in Philadelphia being shut down for 2 days in August 2008 and refers to I-95 as the East Coast's major thruway. I realize that he's trying to make a point, but TECHNICALLY, I-95 in Philadelphia is much less of the "East Coast Thruway" than the NJ Turnpike on the other side of the river. Sure, I-95 in Philly sees a decent amount of traffic - Philly is one of the biggest cities in the U.S. - but a heavy portion of the "through" traffic between D.C./Baltimore and the Northeast actually goes around Philly.

[SP Cook]

I downloaded it to my Kindle.  Nice book, marred by Mr. Swift's obvious desire to make negative comments about Ike.