MOMENTOUS INTERCHANGES

[architect77]

Over the past 20 years Atlantans who know I'm from Raleigh-Durham NC have always made it a point to tell me they passed the "Raleigh Exit" when traveling towards the NorthEast. Even Michelle Stafford of the Young and the Restless commented once how beautiful this immediate area was. I don't know if it's the grading of the surrounding land or what, but this seems to be a graceful interchange that people remember. Here's my recent video of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnsTrVTyCDE&feature=youtu.be

[agentsteel53]

for me it's the 5-14 north of LA.  it usually means a waypoint for me either heading out, or coming home.

plus it is a huge beast of an interchange.

[Takumi]

Going to and coming from Richmond and points north, the I-95/VA 150/VA 895 interchange, for the same reasons Jake mentioned.

Going to Hampton Roads via Petersburg, the interchange in Suffolk where US 460 joins the bypass marks my "arrival" in the area. Going to the northern segments of Hampton Roads (Newport News/Hampton/Poquoson), the I-64/US 17 interchange pretty much serves the same purpose. The last three times I've been in that area I've stopped at a gas station at that exit.

[Pete from Boston]

It's not so much the interchange itself but heading south into NY on either 95 or the Hutch there's no turning point quite like Co-op City where they intersect.  It is an overwhelmingly large development, but a drop in the bucket compared to what it's the beginning of.

Otherwise, the tipping point in either direction between NY and Boston is, of course, the glorified highway junction called Hartford.

[agentsteel53]

the glorified highway junction called Hartford.

I would put Waterbury in the glorified highway junction category.  I always seem to run into traffic disproportionate to the importance of that town.

[kphoger]

When travelling home from anywhere north and east, I always mark our progress (calling relatives or whatever) at the Cassoday exit on the Turnpike; it's a family tradition, I guess because it's about 45 minutes from home.

Heading north to Minnesota, I always feel like I'm making progress when I pass by Exit 12 in Iowa (IA-2), but I really have no idea why.  Maybe it's just a memorable exit because I once texted my sister, who lives in West Des Moines, that we were entering Iowa.  She, who had no idea we were even travelling that week, asked exactly where we were.  She said to wave at her; not two minutes later, we passed by each other–she on her way to Kansas City and we on our way to Minnesota.  Anyway, that was right by Exit 12.

When we lived in the Chicago area and travelled between there and Branson, my wife always started getting a lead foot at around Strafford, MO, because she could feel us getting close.  Almost without fail, when I noticed the speedometer get above 80 mph, Strafford was coming up soon.  Now that we don't have as far of a drive, we mark our progress by her family's tradition of the Ozark—Nixa exit (MO-14); the Phillips 66 station there goes way back with them.  Heading back up to Chicago, it was always the refinery near the Des Plaines river bridge that made us feel like we were in the home stretch.

Driving south to Parras, Coahuila, for some reason I get less weary somewhere around this random intersection in the Mexican desert.  I guess it's because I know our turnoff at La Paila is less than a half hour away.  Driving back north again, the magic spot is the toll barrier at the beginning of the Kansas Turnpike.

[deathtopumpkins]

The split between US 1 and MA 99 when heading into Boston, because it means I can stop worrying about people pulling out from a dead stop right in front of me, and start driving even faster.

[realjd]

My most frequent road trip is to Key West. The Jewfish Creek bridge is always the big marker since it marks us crossing into the Keys. There are plenty of landmarks on that drive but that's the biggest.

[KEK Inc.]

US-101 and I-5 in Olympia.  It's sort of a half-way point for the trip between Seattle and Portland.  Even though it's not the geographical half-way point, it generally is time-wise due to traffic between Olympia and Seattle.

There's also a cool steel arc bridge near the intersection.

[hbelkins]

Breezewood.

[1995hoo]

When I was growing up, we went to Brooklyn by car all the time to visit our grandparents. On the way home I always felt that when we reached the College Park Interchange in Maryland (I-95 meets I-495) it was the end of the trip (even though we had to go around the western side of the Beltway to Virginia), probably because it was the end of being on I-95 and by comparison it was a short way home from there. Nowadays I go the other way around the Beltway if I go that way at all, but there's so much more traffic it never feels like the end of the trip now. Plus after all these years that route to New York is so familiar that none of it feels all that long unless there's heavy traffic.

My mother always said she felt like she'd knocked off a major part of the trip when she got off the Jersey Turnpike (either by reaching the southern end or by reaching Exit 10–we usually took the Outerbridge exit back then). She hated that road, found it mind-numbingly boring. Since our father usually drove, she didn't have the option to take I-295 instead.

When I was in college I usually took US-29 back and forth to Charlottesville. On northbound US-29, there's a sharp curve to the left just before the traffic light where US-29 Business leaves the road to serve Warrenton. Back then I thought of that as "the last curve" for some reason. I think it was because in those days the traffic picked up significantly once you passed Warrenton and the road no longer had the same rural feel to it. Nowadays there's considerably more traffic, especially more trucks, to the south of that point as well because the truck drivers use US-17 (multiplexed with 29 in that area) to bypass the DC area to the west. I think the other reason that curve no longer feels like a milestone to me is that I don't live in Charlottesville anymore, so it's not like I'm "coming home" after having been away for a few months if I make that drive (and nowadays I don't usually use Route 29 either because it's out of the way for where I live now).

Nowadays, when I'm driving north I feel like reaching Exit 24 on the New York Thruway is a milestone. Whenever we go that way we're heading to Montreal and beyond, so there's still a long way to go, but leaving the "Northeast Turnpike Complex" feels like a big moment in terms of getting somewhere on the trip; it also portends less of a rat-race on the rest of the drive (less traffic) and a much more scenic trip (I-87 through the Adirondacks is one of my favorite Interstate drives, especially during the winter when there are icicle formations all over the rocks on either side of the highway).

Coming from the South, to me the "landmark" point on I-95 comes when we hit the start of the reversible HOV carriageway in Virginia. That's about 20 miles south of home and it feels like we're back when we get there, even though all of I-95 from Petersburg up to DC is extremely familiar. (South of Petersburg less so only because in the 1990s most of my travel that way was onto I-85 going to and from Duke University.) I have not been down I-95 that way since the current roadwork to extend the reversible lanes kicked into high gear. Don't know whether my feeling will change once the extension is finished. They're adding another nine miles to it.

In Florida, it's either end of Alligator Alley. Used to be because that was when you had to slow down and show some semblance of recognizing that speed limits exist. Nowadays I think it's more just that I feel a "return to civilization" when you emerge from the Everglades.

[jeffandnicole]

Heading south thru NJ, I get that feeling when I hit I-95 in Delaware.  From that point south, it's basically all 95.

Coming north, I don't get that same feeling though!

[PHLBOS]

The split between US 1 and MA 99 60 interchange when heading into Boston, because it means I can stop worrying about people pulling out from a dead stop right in front of me, and start driving even faster.

FTFY. 

Between MA 99 & MA 60; US 1 South has entryways for both a small shopping plaza (featuring Brenner's Discount) and the Town Line Inn; not to mention the short and sharp exit ramps for the Lynn St. interchange (from both north & southbound driections).

[Henry]

Growing up in Chicago, the two splits of I-90/I-94 (Kennedy/Edens to the north and Dan Ryan/Skyway to the south) meant that I was about to close in on the downtown Loop area.

When I moved to L.A., anytime I passed the I-5/I-405 junction from the north/south (or I-15/I-10 if it was a return from the east), I knew I was almost home.

Now that I'm in Seattle, I use both 2di's three junctions with I-405 as a reminder of the same.

[Interstate Trav]

Coming From Los Angeles the 60, 10 jct in Beaumont.  I know then I'm just over  a half an hour from home. 

[TheStranger]

On road trips coming back from Southern California to the Bay Area, I usually think of 85/101 as the "we're less than an hour from home" mark.

[architect77]

Would love to see pictures of the above described interchanges. Here's mine:

[kj3400]

The Capital Beltway/I-295/MD 210 interchange. Every time I get off that bridge and go through that, I think 'I'm home'. Or, conversely going the other way, 'Crap, here comes VA.'

[deathtopumpkins]

The split between US 1 and MA 99 60 interchange when heading into Boston, because it means I can stop worrying about people pulling out from a dead stop right in front of me, and start driving even faster.

FTFY. 

Between MA 99 & MA 60; US 1 South has entryways for both a small shopping plaza (featuring Brenner's Discount) and the Town Line Inn; not to mention the short and sharp exit ramps for the Lynn St. interchange (from both north & southbound driections).

Maybe for you. For me it's the MA 99 interchange, not MA 60. Sure, there are some RIROs and a handful of businesses between MA 99 and MA 60, but MA 99 is by far the more momentous of the two for me, because it's where the FEEL of the road changes.

[vtk]

When traveling via Kentucky, a significant milestone is the 71/75 interchange in Cincinnati, with its ramps nearly clipping the corners of that DunnHumby building*, and of course the adjacent Brent Spence Bridge.  The fact that I'm about to leave / just re-entered my home state adds to the importance here.

*I am actually familiar enough with this building to name it because I pass through this interchange on nearly every work trip to Cincinnati.

[hobsini2]

When travelling home from anywhere north and east, I always mark our progress (calling relatives or whatever) at the Cassoday exit on the Turnpike; it's a family tradition, I guess because it's about 45 minutes from home.

Heading north to Minnesota, I always feel like I'm making progress when I pass by Exit 12 in Iowa (IA-2), but I really have no idea why.  Maybe it's just a memorable exit because I once texted my sister, who lives in West Des Moines, that we were entering Iowa.  She, who had no idea we were even travelling that week, asked exactly where we were.  She said to wave at her; not two minutes later, we passed by each other–she on her way to Kansas City and we on our way to Minnesota.  Anyway, that was right by Exit 12.

When we lived in the Chicago area and travelled between there and Branson, my wife always started getting a lead foot at around Strafford, MO, because she could feel us getting close.  Almost without fail, when I noticed the speedometer get above 80 mph, Strafford was coming up soon.  Now that we don't have as far of a drive, we mark our progress by her family's tradition of the Ozark—Nixa exit (MO-14); the Phillips 66 station there goes way back with them.  Heading back up to Chicago, it was always the refinery near the Des Plaines river bridge that made us feel like we were in the home stretch.

Driving south to Parras, Coahuila, for some reason I get less weary somewhere around this random intersection in the Mexican desert.  I guess it's because I know our turnoff at La Paila is less than a half hour away.  Driving back north again, the magic spot is the toll barrier at the beginning of the Kansas Turnpike.

KP, which refinery near the Des Plaines River? The one by Arsenal Rd south of Joliet or the Lemont ones which are visible from 55 or the Argo plant at 1st Ave?

[hobsini2]

For me, when I go north to my grandmother's in Oshkosh, it;s Wis 49 on US 41/Future I-41 just south of Fond du Lac probably because of the huge wind farm just northeast of the Horicon Marsh.
When I am coming home, it's the O'Hare Oasis.

Going to my other grandmother's in Princeton WI, it's the I-39/90/94 split at Wis 78 south of Portage aka "the Cascade".
Coming home, it's the Elgin Toll Plaza on I-90.

When my brother lived in Brooklyn NY, it was when I crossed the Delaware River on I-80.
Coming home, it was the 80/90/94 junction just east of Gary.

[pianocello]

Not an interchange, but mine is the I-80 bridge over the Mississippi River.

[elsmere241]

For me if I've been on a long road trip, I know I'm getting close to home when I see another Delaware license plate.

[kphoger]

KP, which refinery near the Des Plaines River? The one by Arsenal Rd south of Joliet or the Lemont ones which are visible from 55 or the Argo plant at 1st Ave?

Arsenal Road.