Busy freeways that you saw built and cannot believe that they did not once exist

[roadman65]

I remember when I-80 in New Jersey was being constructed how US 46 was the main corridor through its path.

I also remember when I-287 was incomplete between North Maple Avenue in Basking Ridge and NJ 10 in Parsippany, where US 202 was the main route.

In both of these cases, I now cannot picture either road not being there.  I could not see US 46 being a major long haul route or even US 202 through the streets of Morristown as being part of a major highway corridor either.

I can still see US 22, where independent of I-78 between Clinton and Newark, as a major long haul though before I-78 completed.  However, I think that is cause US 22 is far enough away from its companion interstate (and also 40 miles of independence from its big sister) that makes that one most believable.  Plus commuting on it frequently and even sitting in the back seat on it as kid, helped with that as well. 

Do many of you out there find it hard to believe that a freeway that you saw built either recently or in the distant past, never existed?

[Alps]

US 202 worked fine instead of I-287 because that was before all of the development came out to the beltway corridor.
How about the idea that US 1 was the main highway linking Boston to DC through NY, Philly, and Baltimore?

[roadman65]

I cannot imagine that US 1 was main then, even though I know it was.  That was way before my time.

You are quite correct about the developments along the I-287 corridor, specifically in Morris County being built up after that freeway opened.  US 202 did not have the traffic that of course Route 287 does now, but it did get some congestion in Morristown along the one way Market Street into the Green.  This was when some Somerset development already started and north of North Maple Avenue was incomplete and many got crammed into the two lane streets of Morristown.  Plus the light leading into the Green for NB US 202 is part of the same signal on the SB side and has all those movements which require a long wait.

Yeah, I remember those days it was the through route, but since so much happened since then that is most likely why it seems like it is impossible.

Route 80, as you know, also got developed after its built as well.  Plus Western Morris and part of Sussex building bedroom communities post I-80 made more commuter traffic as well.

[Sonic99]

Basically the entire loop system in the Phoenix metro area. I can remember what it used to be like to go from my house in Mesa to my aunt's house in far north Phoenix when I was a kid. One way to go. US 60 to I-10 to I-17 north. Now you've got all these loop freeways that can take you around the outskirts at 80mph the whole way. What used to be an hour drive or more now takes 20 minutes. The entire Phoenix system has been a godsend to the area. I just wish I had today's camera technology at my disposal then so I could have documented the expansion.

[vdeane]

ON 416.  Hard to imagine trips to Ottawa without it!

[bzakharin]

I'm a relative newcomer to thee US, so very few freeways were built or completed on my watch in my area, and none seem indispensable as of now. The completion of I-295 in the Trenton area is probably the most important, though I don't know how indispensable that portion is. The others, like the Brigantine connector and the 133 freeway feel like we could easily do without them, though, of course, that may change. I guess the completion of the Route 24 freeway, which haven't used for the first time until 20 years after it was done, was a big deal. Similarly, I lived far enough away from I-287 during its completion not to care, but can't imagine it ever not being there.

[jeffandnicole]

I ride in a carpool with 2 others that commuted via 295-130-206 prior to the 295 missing link being built.  The nearly daily congestion on that stretch during the morning rush shows how busy it is. 

That, combined with the relatively new Hamilton Train Station, has also helped Burlington County become a suburban home for long distance commuters to New York City, well over 60 miles away.

[cpzilliacus]

How about the idea that US 1 was the main highway linking Boston to DC through NY, Philly, and Baltimore?

Fortunately, it was not just U.S. 1.

Between Baltimore and Farnhurst, Delaware, U.S. 40 connected drivers to U.S. 13 and (prior to 1951 and the opening of the Delaware Memorial Bridge) a ferry that crossed the Delaware River to Penns Grove, N.J., N.J. 48 and U.S. 130.  From the opening of the bridge and the NJTP, U.S. 40 was the preferred route from Baltimore to North Jersey.

[xcellntbuy]

ON 416.  Hard to imagine trips to Ottawa without it!

I remember traveling south on ON 16 from Ottawa to the McDonald-Cartier Freeway (ON 401) in 1981.  A two-lane road of absolute nothingness.

[roadman65]

How about the idea that US 1 was the main highway linking Boston to DC through NY, Philly, and Baltimore?

Fortunately, it was not just U.S. 1.

Between Baltimore and Farnhurst, Delaware, U.S. 40 connected drivers to U.S. 13 and (prior to 1951 and the opening of the Delaware Memorial Bridge) a ferry that crossed the Delaware River to Penns Grove, N.J., N.J. 48 and U.S. 130.  From the opening of the bridge and the NJTP, U.S. 40 was the preferred route from Baltimore to North Jersey.

My dad told me that he used US 130 down to the old Pennsville- New Castle Ferry to go from Newark, NJ to Wilmington, DE instead of using US 1.

I imagine that US 130 was the route from US 40 northward as you say.  Also US 13 on the west bank into Philly.

[TheStranger]

The 880/Cypress Freeway replacement between 980 and the MacArthur Maze.  I have no memory of the original except for it having collapsed in the Loma Prieta quake, but can't imagine how much worse the Maze would be today (not that it is all that great) without the bypass along West Grand.

105 in its entirety.

I wasn't around for the construction of 101 (Bayshore Freeway) and 280 in the Peninsula but before then, El Camino Real and the surface Bayshore Highway were THE SF-SJ corridors, and Junipero Serra Boulevard was much more important regionally.

[Jardine]

The Missouri River portion of the Interstate 480 bridge from Council Bluffs Iowa to Omaha Nebraska was built prior to the rest of I-480.  For several years all the west bound traffic came off the bridge via a weird curvy off ramp structure and onto Dodge Street.  To my young eyes at the time, it was hard to imagine how the truncated main span was going to continue anywhere as buildings and train tracks seemed to be an impenetrable barrier to ever complete the bridge.  I have clear memories of watching the 480 bridge being built as we frequently went to Omaha via the old Aksarben Bridge. That bridge I now realize was functionally obsolete, and very likely overloaded by the increasing numbers of trucks crossing it.  I remember the coffer dams holding back the Missouri for the enormous piers for the new bridge, and the staggeringly big I-beams that were lifted up by giant cranes to carry the new span. 

I was very sorry to see the Playland Park rollercoaster destroyed to make room for the east approach.  I never rode that rollercoaster as my parents were really cautious.  The only bit left of the Aksarben Bridge is a scary looking pier in the river.  Hard to imagine the metro area still functioning with that old bridge still there and/or without the new (as of mid 60s, LOL) 480 bridge.

The Interstate bridge handled the awful flood of 2011 without a it of trouble.  The river may have been out of control, but it could not threaten that bridge. 

I have seen a few pictures of the old Aksarben Bridge.  I'm sure if it was still there today and scheduled for demolition there would be quite a cry to save it.  As it was, I don't recall any sentiment other than relief when it was dynamited.

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

I cannot see how Baton Rouge would function today without the freeway system (I-10, I-12, I-110). As it is, the freeway system is barely able to accommodate the traffic it currently carries. I imagine the major surface routes alone would have been adequate back when the metro region was contained largely within East Baton Rouge Parish, prior to 1980 or so.

The intercity surface highways that parallel Interstates in Louisiana would be wildly inadequate for today's traffic loads, with the possible exception of Airline Highway/US 61.

Of course, the Westbank of greater New Orleans (West Jefferson, Algiers, Belle Chasse) would be impossible without the Crescent City Connection/GNO Bridge, and the Northshore (Mandeville/Covington, Slidell) would be impossible without the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway and the Twin Span bridges.

[hobsini2]

I remember the dark days of traveling from Bolingbrook to Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg before I-355 was built and Route 53 was just a 2 lane road north of Royce Rd. The traffic on 355 plus the traffic on 53 between Bolingbrook and Addison was so bad that it took an hour to go 18 miles.

[sdmichael]

I watched the 210 being built between SR-57 and I-215. Parts of old State 30 went through open land and wasn't that busy a two lane road. Now that same area is filled with houses, a very busy freeway, and doesn't even seem the same at all.

[ap70621]

While I am not old enough to have seen the Garden State Parkway built, I cannot imagine going down the shore only using US 9.

[roadman]

I remember traveling with my parents on US 46 between the northern end of the New Jersey Turnpike and the George Washington Bridge, and using the direct freeway connections from the Turnpike to the GWB after they first opened.

[thenetwork]

It wasn't until the mid-to-late 70s before Cleveland saw a true east-west freeway.  You had The Ohio Turnpike and I-90 (free portion) east of downtown.

The west side of I-90 was missing huge gaps for what seemed forever. And I-480 wasn't officially complete until the late 80s.  What took less than ten-minutes when the "missing link" near Parma was completed, took upwards of nearly an hour on the paralleling Brookpark Road (SR-17) on a Friday afternoon.  Chalk that choke point up to an over-abundance of poorly timed lights.

[elsmere241]

I-476 in Pennsylvania (the Blue Route part).  Before then, PA 320 was constantly jammed.

[Dr Frankenstein]

ON 416.  Hard to imagine trips to Ottawa without it!

I remember traveling south on ON 16 from Ottawa to the McDonald-Cartier Freeway (ON 401) in 1981.  A two-lane road of absolute nothingness.

It still is a freeway of absolute nothingness. I frequently take CR 44 instead, it's just as boring (except in towns like Kemptville).

[vdeane]

Aside from the frustration with trying to take sign photos at the time, my favorite trip up ON 416 was that time it was obscured by tick fog.  And my favorite trip up ON 417 was in a dark night.  I'm noticing a pattern here.

[NE2]

that time it was obscured by tick fog.

Damn. And I thought the lovebugs in Florida were bad.

[Takumi]

VA 288. My dad worked on the section just north of VA 76, and I distinctly remember walking across the just-cleared alignment for it once.

[cpzilliacus]

I am old enough to remember metropolitan Washington in the days before the Capital Beltway was built.  Getting from our home in Silver Spring, Montgomery County, Maryland to my aunt and uncle's place in the Lake Barcroft area of Fairfax County, Virginia meant a trip through the District of Columbia, usually crossing by way of the Key or Chain Bridges. 

Traffic in those days through D.C. was bad, with poorly-timed signals and a street network that could not handle the through traffic (especially the trucks).

When it opened in 1964, most of the Capital Beltway in Fairfax County (between Springfield and the American Legion Bridge [called the Cabin John Bridge back then]) was two lanes each way, and pretty empty.

[hbelkins]

I-64 in Louisville between I-264 (Watterson Expressway) and Spaghetti Junction. I remember as a kid having to go up to I-71 and then into downtown when my dad went to the shop where his artificial leg was serviced.

Also I-64 between Lexington and Frankfort, the last part of I-64 built in Kentucky.

I also remember when I-275 and I-471 were built in the northern part of the state.