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Grids in which one numbered street extends far longer than its peers

Started by KCRoadFan, August 04, 2024, 01:10:37 AM

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KCRoadFan

I've been in Pittsburgh the last few days, and one thing I've noticed about that city is that Fifth Avenue - which starts out as one of the east-west numbered avenues, from First to Seventh, in the downtown area near "the Point", extends all the way east across the city to Schenley Park, near Pitt, long after all of the other numbered avenues that parallel it (aside from Second Avenue) have ended.

The other example I can think of regarding such a phenomenon - one or two numbers in a grid of numbered streets continuing on long past the point where their parallel numbered streets either end or change names - is in St. Paul, Minnesota, where the numbered streets downtown, which parallel the Mississippi River and run northeast to southwest, are absorbed by the curve of Kellogg Boulevard with the rectilinear street grid centered on Summit Avenue largely taking over west of there - all, that is, except for West Seventh, which continues on, cutting southwest through the street grid until becoming the MN 5 freeway near MSP Airport. The addresses along West Seventh, following the distance down the road from Wabasha Street downtown, don't match up with those on the east-west or north-south cross-streets that it encounters.

Anyway, that got me thinking: what cities or towns do you know of with one numbered street that starts among a series of them but goes on for a long distance after its parallel numerical peers have ended?


RZF

Fifth St in Oxnard, CA goes from the Pacific Ocean all the way to Pleasant Valley Rd in Camarillo (12.2 miles long). It's also part of California Highway 34 from CA 1 to Pleasant Valley Rd. Its numbered-street counterparts all start and end within the center portion of Oxnard.

DandyDan

First Street in DeKalb, Illinois keeps its name going north and south of the city beyond city limits. The other numbered streets peter out northbound by the south end of the IL 23 commercial corridor and southbound by Fairview Drive.
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Max Rockatansky

#3
1st Street in Fresno extends pretty much north/south through the entire city.  None of the other numbered streets get anywhere close to that size.

Worth noting, the numbered streets in Fresno are from a 19th century addition to the city.  The original plot of the city is centered around Broadway and has a slanted orientation.

TheStranger

3rd Street in San Francisco - the portion south of King Street was originally part of a different grid (the Potrero Hill/Dogpatch grid of state-named streets like Alabama and Mississippi), as Kentucky Street. (This results in the interesting phenomenon where the numbered streets that cut through the Mission/Potrero Hill/Dogpatch neighborhoods end up crossing 3rd!)

19th Avenue also in the city (Route 1), which continues past the end of the Sunset/Richmond numbered avenues grid around Ocean Avenue, for an additional mile south to Junipero Serra.

An example that is wild due to how it played out:  East 14th Street in Oakland/San Leandro was originally part of one unified name and corridor, including a segment of Route 185 (former Route 17).  Due to the negative reputatation of that street in Oakland, that city renamed their portion of East 14th as "International Boulevard" in 1996.  San Leandro however chose not to rename their segment.  As the "East number" grid ends around 54th Avenue, the end result is a numbered street now fully disconnected from its grid (in terms of name) while existing fully outside of it in another city!

In Broadmoor/Daly City, 87th Street continues west of where the "eighties streets" grid ends.

San Jose's North First Street continues all the way to the formerly independent town of Alviso, several miles after the rest of the North portion of San Jose's grid that began in downtown ends.
Chris Sampang

Dirt Roads

File this in the "How did this happen?" category.

Huntington, West Virginia used to have a number of long streets that went well past the grid.  After a bunch of changes, only one truly remains:  Fifth Street East (former US-52), which is now known as Fifth Street Road all the way down to the south side of Lavalette (about 5 miles south of the grid).  This is now WV-527 north of the interchange with I-64, and WV-152 south of there.  Fifth Street East does not cross the former C&O mainline, so all traffic gets diverted over to the undepass for Eighth Street East (which we will revisit in a moment).

This and two others had exits along I-64:

  • 16th Street East (WV-10) was renamed Hal Greer Boulevard all the way from its beginning at Steel of West Virginia to the interchange with I-64.  It continues as 16th Street Road until just north of Salt Rock, the entirety way south of the grid.
  • 29th Street East (US-60) got rerouted onto 31st Street East when the bridge over the former C&O mainline tracks was replaced.  Originally, 29th Street East extended way to the east up to the Guyandotte River in Barboursville.  Nowadays, all of the addresses have been changed to "US Route 60", and "29th Street East" only exists on the East End north of the railroad (within the grid).  Last time I looked, Exit 15 is still posted as the "29th Street East" exit, even though it is nowhere near there now.

The other one is Eighth Street East, which turns into McCoy Road and runs along the west side of Ritter Park.  But after the passing the Huntington Museum of Art, the road turns back into "Eighth Street East" and continues as plain ole' Eighth Street until it meets up with Fifth Street East just north of Lavalette.  For some odd reason, a number of residents of McCoy Road have always refused to use that street name and list their address as XXX Eighth Street.  So maybe that should be a disqualifier here.

Roadwarriors79

N 1st Ave in the Tucson area. It's a main road from Grant Rd to Ina Rd. It starts up again in Oro Valley, from Oracle Rd (SR 77) to Tangerine Rd.

LilianaUwU

Not really a grid, but 55e Avenue in the Dorval neighborhood of Montréal goes all the way to the Dorval Airport runways, while the other Avenues stay south of A-20.

12e Avenue in Sherbrooke continues much further north than the other avenues, it is QC 216 and the name stretches as far north as Chemin Duplessis. 13e Avenue also goes further north as part of a one-way pair making QC 216, but it doesn't go as far as 12e Avenue.
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michravera

Quote from: DandyDan on August 04, 2024, 05:43:25 AMFirst Street in DeKalb, Illinois keeps its name going north and south of the city beyond city limits. The other numbered streets peter out northbound by the south end of the IL 23 commercial corridor and southbound by Fairview Drive.
Sacramento's 14th and 47th Avenues extend far further east (and follow the grid) much more than any of the others.
San Francisco's 3rd Street makes a 45 degree turn, but continues WAY out southwest.

lepidopteran

Columbus, OH has some examples.

For the north-south grid, downtown Columbus has streets numbered 3rd to 11th, of varying lengths and with some gaps.  Most end south of I-670, but 4th Street continues north for about 2-1/2 miles.  While 3rd St. arguably does the same, it changes its name to Summit St. once out of downtown. Note that 4th is one-way NB and 3rd/Summit is SB, both of which are signed for US-23 (which, at Hudson St., moves onto 2-way High St. and continues north beyond there).

For the east-west grid, starting north of downtown you have 1st Avenue to 19th Ave., centered on High St. and often staggered.  Most avenues only go a short distance in one or both directions, typically ended by the Olentangy River to the west or the Big 4 railroad (New York Central) to the east.  But 5th Ave. goes a long distance in both directions.  What's more, it joins another numbered avenue grid in position, in East Columbus.  3rd. and 17th Avenues also go longer than average.

bzakharin

In Philadelphia there's 2nd Street which is the only numbered street to leave Philadelphia but (sort of) keep the name. It continues north into Elkins Park as "New 2nd Street" all the way to route 73. There is also 69th Street which is perhaps more puzzling. There is a relatively short segment of it in Upper Darby not in any way connected with the 69th Street in Philadelphia. Sometimes I think it only exists for the benefit of continuity of the Market Frankford subway line whose stops are almost all numbered streets, and 69th Street Terminal is its final stop, one of two outside Philadelphia. However, it does look like 69th Street becomes Church Lane south of there, and that street (much of which is US 13) does eventually enter Philadelphia and merge into 70th street making me think that whole stretch could have been 69th Street at some point, perhaps before US 13 came along.

JayhawkCO

In Denver, 6th Avenue is the only one that goes all the way through the metro, assuming you count the "6th Avenue Freeway" as 6th Avenue.

Rothman

Broadway coming out of NYC to the north all the way to NY 117 north of Sleepy Hollow.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

ET21

The Chicago area has a few numbered streets that go far west of its paralleled neighbors, however they are segmented multiple times due to railroads, highways, and other developments

Some notable ones I know off the top of my head is 75th, 95th, 111th, and 127th streets. 75th, 95th, and 111th start at or near the Lake Michigan shoreline with 127th more deeper into the urban core. 75th and 95th end in Naperville IL, 111th turns into Rance/Harvey Rd as it heads into Oswego IL, and 127th ends at Ridge Rd in Plainfield IL.

I would say as the most continuous with the least amount of segments, the winner would probably be 75th Street.
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Bitmapped

From Huntington, WV's grid, 5th Street continues about 8 miles south past the end of the grid on WV 152 at 5th Street Road. 8th Street also continues about 6 miles south of town, eventually ending at 5th Street Road.

TheHighwayMan3561

In the southern MSP suburbs, 78th St (mostly former TH 5, though that route still runs on 78th St for a brief stretch in Eden Prairie) runs from the west side of Chanhassen to the doorstep of the Mall of America in Bloomington with a few  brief interruptions where modern freeway construction/realignment took place.

Flint1979

2nd, 3rd and 14th Streets in Detroit are a lot longer than the other numbered streets. 2nd and 3rd both end at Merrill Plaisance which is a little north of McNichols (Six Mile Road) 14th Street makes it as far north as Puritan Avenue which would 5 1/2 Mile in the Mile road grid. All the other numbered streets either end at Grand Blvd. or south of Grand Blvd.

SeriesE

In Los Angeles, either 3rd Street or 6th Street. The named 3rd Street is longer, but 6th Street is physically longer to the east though the name ends at the city limit.

The other numbered streets are discontinuous.

catch22

Quote from: Flint1979 on August 05, 2024, 11:45:01 PM2nd, 3rd and 14th Streets in Detroit are a lot longer than the other numbered streets. 2nd and 3rd both end at Merrill Plaisance which is a little north of McNichols (Six Mile Road) 14th Street makes it as far north as Puritan Avenue which would 5 1/2 Mile in the Mile road grid. All the other numbered streets either end at Grand Blvd. or south of Grand Blvd.

Once upon a time, 12th Street ended at McNichols but is now Rosa Parks Blvd.

Flint1979

Quote from: catch22 on August 06, 2024, 08:03:02 AM
Quote from: Flint1979 on August 05, 2024, 11:45:01 PM2nd, 3rd and 14th Streets in Detroit are a lot longer than the other numbered streets. 2nd and 3rd both end at Merrill Plaisance which is a little north of McNichols (Six Mile Road) 14th Street makes it as far north as Puritan Avenue which would 5 1/2 Mile in the Mile road grid. All the other numbered streets either end at Grand Blvd. or south of Grand Blvd.

Once upon a time, 12th Street ended at McNichols but is now Rosa Parks Blvd.
Yep, that's the reason I left it out but that one went up that far too., still does but not as 12th Street of course. 12th and Clairmont is where the riots started in 67.

Dirt Roads

Miami is famous for its huge numbered grid, many streets of which extend well beyond Miami proper.  But one street that stands out is SW 192nd Avenue, which stretches beyond Florida City down to the Everglades Alligator Farm.  SW 192nd Ave changes names to Tower Road for a goodly distance in Redland, and also briefly changes name to SW 18th Avenue whilst in the Homestead grid.  192nd Avenue is also replaced with a diagonal SW 164th Road that parallels the Everglade Trail.  The northernmost point is still way south of downtown Miami at SW 136th Street.  It's a full 17 miles straightline from there to the Everglades Alligator Farm.

Unfortunately, SW 192nd Avenue is discontinuous in several places, including the large canal alongside (Bonus!) SW 192nd Street. 

roadman65

Plainfield, NJ has West Seventh Street extend further west than its peers. Also Front and Second Streets extend into neighboring Scotch Plains which Third and Seventh both end at Terril Road while Fourth and Fifth don't even make it out of Downtown Plainfield.
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Sheryl Crowe

Dirt Roads

Quote from: roadman65 on August 06, 2024, 03:36:04 PMPlainfield, NJ has West Seventh Street extend further west than its peers. Also Front and Second Streets extend into neighboring Scotch Plains which Third and Seventh both end at Terril Road while Fourth and Fifth don't even make it out of Downtown Plainfield.

Next door, the town of Dunellen is slightly over one mile squared.  Two of its numbered streets venture out of town a short distance:  Second Street runs southwest a few blocks into Middlesex, and First Street runs northeast a few blocks into Plainfield. 

But more interestingly, there's the odd Second Street Park in Plainfield that is named after a street in Dunellen that doesn't leave its hometown.  The entrance to Second Street Park is actually opposite Third Street in Dunellen (and there are homes directly across from Second Street).  Because the city limits run down the middle of Jefferson Avenue, if you drive to the park you can stay in Plainfield but leaving the park you are technically on the Dunellen side of the line.

apeman33

In Garden City, KS, 3rd and 8th streets are the ones that run the furthest, although each are interrupted by railroad tracks.

8th would be the longest uninterrupted stretch. 3rd would be but the reconstruction of one intersection a decade or so ago causes it to turn to a stop at 4th and then resume north of Kansas. Prior to that, 3rd and 4th had their own intersections at Kansas.

Including the county system, 3rd runs uninterrupted from Kansas Ave. to the Scott County line.

In Dodge City, 6th and 14th are the only ones that continue north of U.S. 50 while 2nd and 14th are the only ones that continue south of the Arkansas River. So 14th is the longest one overall, going from the south city limit to the north. It's the only numbered street that does so and it's also the only one that isn't interrupted at least once.

Henry

Correct me if I'm wrong, but here in Seattle, I'd say that 1st Avenue South (including the freeway section) and 15th Avenue NE are the longest continuous extending numbered streets to the south and north of the city, respectively.
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