Highways, bridges, tunnels named after specific women

[Pete from Boston]

A certain woman I share a cell phone plan with, among other things, mentioned to me today that on her recent long road trip she noticed how she found no roads and bridges are named for women.  I tried to counter, but only came up with Ella Grasso Blvd. and the Betsy Ross Bridge on the spot.  Since then I thought of the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge and the Hutchinson River Parkway.

What else is there?  I want to get a good grasp on this situation before I dare pursue this conversation further.

[NE2]

Melnea Cass, probably several for Rosa Parks, and a bunch of those bullshit names that nobody uses whether they're women, men, or entire ranks who held back the enemy tanks for a while.

Probably a lot of platted streets have women's names, but aren't named for specific women, such as Rosalind Avenue in Orlando.

[Grzrd]

Margaret Mitchell Drive in Atlanta, GA.
Pearl Nix Parkway in Gainesville, GA.

[oscar]

Are you going to exclude royals?  Lots of places out East are named for royal women, though I'm drawing a blank at the moment on roads and bridges.

In Hawaii, you have at least three major highways named for royal women, the Queen Liliuokalani Freeway (western two-thirds of Interstate H-1), the Queen Kaahumanu Highway (major HI 19 segment north of Kailua-Kona -- at least one lesser state highway carries the Kaahumanu name), and the (Princess) Likelike Highway (much of HI 63 north of Honolulu).  While the first hasn't quite caught on (even for Hawaiians, "Liliuokalani" is a bit of a tongue-twister, and Interstates are the only roads where locals use numbers rather than names), the others are names in common use.

[Pete from Boston]

Melnea Cass, probably several for Rosa Parks, and a bunch of those bullshit names that nobody uses whether they're women, men, or entire ranks who held back the enemy tanks for a while.

Probably a lot of platted streets have women's names, but aren't named for specific women, such as Rosalind Avenue in Orlando.

I'm thinking more of major highways and bridges, ideally names people use, named after specific women.

[NE2]

I'm thinking more of major highways and bridges, ideally names people use, named after specific women.

Applying those same criteria to men, you probably have a proportion about the same as those genders' importance in history books (if not their actual importance). Add that back in the day, bridges and new highways were generally named after current politicians or bureaucrats, which were overwhelmingly men, rather than historical figures, and it's clearly a reflection of other sources of imbalance.

In the Orlando area, the only major road names I can think of that have taken hold (not counting normal naming of existing section-line roads for adjacent landowners, such as Kirkman Road) are the GreeneWay (a pun on OOCEA chairman Jim Greene) and Osceola Parkway (named indirectly for an Indian chief through the county name).


Pocahontas Parkway. If you consider that named after a woman rather than a legendary figure.

[Fred Defender]

Melnea Cass, probably several for Rosa Parks, and a bunch of those bullshit names that nobody uses whether they're women, men, or entire ranks who held back the enemy tanks for a while.

Probably a lot of platted streets have women's names, but aren't named for specific women, such as Rosalind Avenue in Orlando.

I'm thinking more of major highways and bridges, ideally names people use, named after specific women.

Julia Tuttle Causeway?

[Takumi]

Clara Barton Parkway

[cjk374]

Martha Mitchell Expwy, Pine Bluff, AR.

[Thing 342]

Mary Ball Road (VA-3 on the Northern Neck)
Mary Inges Hwy (Part of KY-8)
Virginia Dare Trail (Part of NC-12)

[NE2]

Julia Tuttle Causeway?

And apparently Brickell Avenue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Brickell

But not Earhart Expressway in New Orleans.

[jp the roadgeek]

Ann Uccello St. in Hartford (I-84 Exit 50)

[1995hoo]

Queen's Stroll Place in DC (I suppose technically it's named after a woman's action in walking down the street, rather than after the woman herself)

Martha Street in Boise (OK, I don't know for sure for whom it's named) and the nearby Ann Morrison Park Drive

The QEW in Ontario

[jwolfer]

The Boulevard in seaside heights NJ is officially Anna o hankins blvd

I have no idea who she was

[GCrites]

There aren't that many roads built, named or re-named before the '60s that include both first and last names.

[jwolfer]

Some streets in downtown Jacksonville are named for the children of the guy, Isaiah d Hart (who laid out the grid and changed name from Cowford)

Laura st
Julia st
Ocean st is named for his son Ossian

[cpzilliacus]

Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue, N.E. (formerly Deane Avenue, N.E.) in the District of Columbia (has an interchange with D.C. 295).

[Duke87]

Ann Uccello St. in Hartford (I-84 Exit 50)

Formerly known simply as Ann Street. Probably originally named after the local baker's daughter or something equally mundane. Now craftily renamed after someone who apparently was mayor of Hartford a while back by appending her last name. But does anyone call it that? As far as I'm aware people still just call it Ann Street, so it fails the "name people actually use" test.

[empirestate]

Not the most major of bridges, but Rochester has the Frederick Douglass-Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge on I-490. I didn't live there long after it was completed, but I think the name gets some use (in much abbreviated form) because it's a) an improvement over the old name (Troup-Howell Bridge), and b) a relatively ungratuitous re-naming.

And I'm glad I wasn't the first to mention the QEW, though I am pretty surprised it took as long as it did.

[bulldog1979]

Michigan has several memorial highway names dedicated to women:

• I-194 in Battle Creek is the Sojourner Truth Downtown Parkway.
• Part of I-96 in Detroit has been named for Rosa Parks.
• All of M-125 and then US 24 northward to I-96 in Detroit is the Clara Barton Memorial Highway.
• Part of M-37 in Grand Traverse County has been named the Queen's Highway after the Cherry Queen from the National Cherry Festival.

[NE2]

memorial highway names

Don't count.

[txstateends]

Lubbock - Marsha Sharp Freeway

Dallas - Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge (Woodall Rodgers Freeway, west of I-35E); Margaret McDermott Bridge (I-30, west of downtown)

[dfwmapper]

Piestewa Freeway (AZ 51) in Phoenix was renamed in honor of Lori Piestewa, the first Native American woman to die in combat for the US military.

[PHLBOS]

I'm thinking more of major highways and bridges, ideally names people use, named after specific women.

While not a highway, the Rose Kennedy Greenway came about as a result of the Big Dig; it's the parkland where much of the old Central Artery once stood and now covers most of the O'Neill Tunnel.

[1995hoo]

There's a Victoria Road a few miles west of where I live. Given that the neighborhood where it's located is named Kings Park and has British-themed street names (examples: Parliament Drive, Thames Street), I think it's fair to presume the road is named for Queen Victoria.