What Interstate has the Largest Change in Landscape and Culture on it's Route?

[ethanhopkin14]

I would say sticking to the 0s and 5s, except for a few long intermediate routes (I-94 comes to mind), what interstate traverses the biggest change in landscape and also culture?  You could probably say the culture thing to all the long interstates, but some of them don't change landscape as much as culture.

I am speaking route as a whole, not end to end.  You could say I-95 starting in downtown Miami but ending in northern Maine is drastic, but I am talking about so much more than that. 

My vote is Interstate 10.  It starts out in the east in the Florida Panhandle, goes through the deep forest of the deep south, but at the same time not being the Bible Belt interstate.  No, I-10 goes just south of the bible belt, hugging the gulf coast, so a mix of beach culture plus southern living is along it's route.  Then it travels through French America, first Alabama, Mississippi, then through southern Louisiana, going through New Orleans and traveling Bayou Country.  It crosses a few swamps before it crosses into Texas.  It follows the gulf coast topography for a bit longer until it reaches the Texas Hill Country, then mesas, then mountains.  By the time it leaves Texas, goes through New Mexico and then into Arizona, it has traveled across one desert and is now in another, meanwhile being within eye shot of desert mountains; a very far cry from it's southern coastal beginnings.  Across dessert California, it lands in Los Angeles, which is....well, Los Angeles. 

I would love to hear your ideas on this subject.

[bwana39]

I cannot imagine a different one. The other transcontinental ones don't even compare.

[fillup420]

I think we could narrow this down to within states. For example, I-40 in NC starts from the west as a treacherous mountain highway, only to end as a flat and straight route through the coastal plain. There is also a wide variety of Piedmont in between those points.

[SkyPesos]

I thought we done this topic before, or at least a similar one, with the change in landscape part.

[kphoger]

I thought we done this topic before, or at least a similar one, with the change in landscape part.

I think he's asking for something specific, though.  Not just the greatest variance along a route–such as desert to swamp–but the greatest number of unique landscapes and cultures along its route.

[Max Rockatansky]

I-80 by far.  I-80 has three of the biggest Metro Areas on the Country (the Bay Area, Chicagoland and the Tri-State area) that all have massively different personalities.  I-80 also has the Great Plains, Rockies, Salt Lake Valley, the rural mountains of Nevada, the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Central Valley of California as further cultural divides. 

I-10 has a crap ton of desert from Coachella Valley through to Central Texas.  Desert folk really aren't all that greatly different from one state or desert biome (I say that living/working in them for most of my adult life) from one another. 

[SEWIGuy]

I-35.  From deep south Texas to Duluth. 

[webny99]

Landscape shifts are much more dramatic going east/west than they are going north/south.

but

Culture shifts are much more dramatic going north/south than they are going east/west.

[thspfc]

80 and 90

[Max Rockatansky]

Landscape shifts are much more dramatic going east/west than they are going north/south.

but

Culture shifts are much more dramatic going north/south than they are going east/west.

They aren't as different as you might think due to retirees and Snow Bird culture.  Florida might as well be New York Junior come the winter months.

[hotdogPi]

They aren't as different as you might think due to retirees and Snow Bird culture.  Florida might as well be New York Junior come the winter months.

Except the Miami area, where there's a huge Cuban population.

[OCGuy81]

I-55 from Chicago and a liberal/urban culture to deep southern Louisiana is a pretty big culture shift.

Landscape, however, not so much.

[TXtoNJ]

I-35.  From deep south Texas to Duluth. 

Once you get past Dallas it's all fairly similar Plains culture.

[capt.ron]

I-10, then I-40, then I-80 for east / west.
I-5 has quite a lot of variance as well. From the US/MX border to the vast metros of San Diego, then the Inland Empire / LA, then the vast Central Valley of California, then on to the next big metropolis (Bay area) and then back to some more farmland and then on to the mountainous terrain of northern CA and the vast greenery (with tall mountains flanking the freeway) of OR and WA, and then on to Canada.

[webny99]

They aren't as different as you might think due to retirees and Snow Bird culture.  Florida might as well be New York Junior come the winter months.

Except the Miami area, where there's a huge Cuban population.

Also considering the entire width of the country, such as Upper Midwest vs. Mississippi/Louisiana, and SoCal vs. Pacific Northwest

[kphoger]

I-35.  From deep south Texas to Duluth. 

Once you get past Dallas it's all fairly similar Plains culture.

Yeah, I don't notice a whole lot of landscape and culture variety along I-35.  And I've pretty familiar with it all the way from Laredo to Minneapolis.  South of San Antonio, it's flat scrubland with ranching culture.  North from San Antonio to, oh, somewhere between Dallas and the Oklahoma line, it's pretty uniform in terms of both landscape and culture:  a lot of towns plus some mid-sized cities, with occasional stretches of tree- and grassland.  Through Oklahoma and all the way up to Minnesota, it's most farmland with some ranching thrown in here and there especially toward the southern end, and every town along the way is basically "generic Midwest".  About the only unique landscape is the Flint Hills of Kansas.  Minneapolis is a lot like Des Moines, which in turn is a lot like Kansas City.

[SEWIGuy]

I-35.  From deep south Texas to Duluth. 

Once you get past Dallas it's all fairly similar Plains culture.

Yeah, I don't notice a whole lot of landscape and culture variety along I-35.  And I've pretty familiar with it all the way from Laredo to Minneapolis.  South of San Antonio, it's flat scrubland with ranching culture.  North from San Antonio to, oh, somewhere between Dallas and the Oklahoma line, it's pretty uniform in terms of both landscape and culture:  a lot of towns plus some mid-sized cities, with occasional stretches of tree- and grassland.  Through Oklahoma and all the way up to Minnesota, it's most farmland with some ranching thrown in here and there especially toward the southern end, and every town along the way is basically "generic Midwest".  About the only unique landscape is the Flint Hills of Kansas.  Minneapolis is a lot like Des Moines, which in turn is a lot like Kansas City.

I was thinking culture more than landscape.

[ethanhopkin14]

I-10, then I-40, then I-80 for east / west.
I-5 has quite a lot of variance as well. From the US/MX border to the vast metros of San Diego, then the Inland Empire / LA, then the vast Central Valley of California, then on to the next big metropolis (Bay area) and then back to some more farmland and then on to the mountainous terrain of northern CA and the vast greenery (with tall mountains flanking the freeway) of OR and WA, and then on to Canada.

My only rebuttal for I-5 is the Pacific Northwest is so isolated from the rest of the country that going north to south is agreeably different, but not in the same way as going north to south from Mississippi to Pennsylvania as an example.  Ye, there is nothing similar being in Seattle to being in San Diego, but it's (in my opinion) a smaller scale than any other trip north to south.  Yes life is different in both cities, but there is a lot of California influence that moves up I-5 north to Seattle. 

[ethanhopkin14]

I would also say I-70 may be at the top of my list.   To start (east) in Baltimore, just north of our nation's capital, running south of the Mason-Dixon line, then crossing north of the line, crossing the Appalachians, and traversing some beautiful landscape through tunnels.  Then passing through the Midwest with the good natures people of the Midwest of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois then crossing the Mississippi into St. Louis, the famous "Gateway to the West".  Then crossing more farmlands of Missouri, then the flatness of Kansas and Colorado, then I-70 crosses the Rockies.  Like crossing the Appalachians before, it crosses mountains and goes through tunnels, but these are on steroids.  It passes ski resort land and culture.  Then you are dumped out into the mid dessert region of Utah.  You are just north of Arches National Park and traveling through a state known for being "everyone's land".  It terminates into I-15 just north of the Grand Canyon and within a few hours of Las Vegas, and sin city itself. 

[kphoger]

I-35.  From deep south Texas to Duluth. 

Once you get past Dallas it's all fairly similar Plains culture.

Yeah, I don't notice a whole lot of landscape and culture variety along I-35.  And I've pretty familiar with it all the way from Laredo to Minneapolis.  South of San Antonio, it's flat scrubland with ranching culture.  North from San Antonio to, oh, somewhere between Dallas and the Oklahoma line, it's pretty uniform in terms of both landscape and culture:  a lot of towns plus some mid-sized cities, with occasional stretches of tree- and grassland.  Through Oklahoma and all the way up to Minnesota, it's most farmland with some ranching thrown in here and there especially toward the southern end, and every town along the way is basically "generic Midwest".  About the only unique landscape is the Flint Hills of Kansas.  Minneapolis is a lot like Des Moines, which in turn is a lot like Kansas City.

I was thinking culture more than landscape.

To me, there are the following cultural zones:

1.  Minnesota and northern Iowa.  These people think Taco Bell is spicy, put ketchup on scrambled eggs, go ice fishing, and say "you betcha" a lot.

2.  Southern Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma.  These are Midwestern farmers and ranchers, or their friends and family.  They like college basketball, think they have no accent, love their pickup trucks but roll their eyes at ones with oversized tires, and joke about their weather.

3.  Texas north of San Antonio.  These people like shopping and fishing, look with envy at pickup trucks with oversized tires, couldn't live without pork but don't really care for porkchops, and don't know how to drive on ice.

4.  Texas south of San Antonio.  There aren't very many of these people.  They are a combination of rugged ranchers and rugged oil workers, and Mexican immigrants or their descendants.  They eat burritos for breakfast and beef for supper, live in a world halfway between the US and Mexico, and dislike having to stop at the I-35 checkpoint when they haven't even crossed the border in twelve years.

[hbelkins]

I-64, I-75, and I-81 come quickly to my mind. I-64 goes from the midwest to the east coast, clips a bit of the south, and traverses the heart of Appalachia. I-75 gets Florida, the south, Appalachia, the industrial midwest, and the upper midwest. I-81 gives you the south, Appalachia, the eastern seaboard, and skirts the northeast (depending on how you count the Scranton/WB area and upstate New York).

[Scott5114]

I-35.  From deep south Texas to Duluth. 

Once you get past Dallas it's all fairly similar Plains culture.

It's not the most jarring shift out there, but Oklahoma City, Kansas City, and Minneapolis are all pretty different.

[JayhawkCO]

I think a case could be made for I-15 too.  San Diego->Inland Empire->Desert Towns->Vegas->Utah->Rockies->Western Edge of Great Plains.

Chris

[ethanhopkin14]

I-64, I-75, and I-81 come quickly to my mind. I-64 goes from the midwest to the east coast, clips a bit of the south, and traverses the heart of Appalachia. I-75 gets Florida, the south, Appalachia, the industrial midwest, and the upper midwest. I-81 gives you the south, Appalachia, the eastern seaboard, and skirts the northeast (depending on how you count the Scranton/WB area and upstate New York).

I always thought I-81 was an interesting bird.  Known as the Eastern Seaboard inland bypass, it connects Canada with New York. 

It begins in Tennessee. 

[Roadgeekteen]

I-175 (Florida) 

Seriously, I wonder what the answer is for 3dis?