Highways that you think are named for one, but actually named for something else

[roadman65]

Airline Highway in Louisiana, that is US 61 from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, you would think is named cause of the New Orleans Airport that lies on the route, but it is not!  The roadway was named because it was a replacement to the nearby Jefferson Highway, that is a winding road because of its close proximity to the mighty Mississippi River as this one is built much different.  Unlike its predecessor, the new Airline Highway is more straight!  It is the airline highway by design not so much that MSO is located along it.

[bugo]

Is the Muskogee Turnpike named after the Indian tribe, the city, or the county?

[1995hoo]

I knew a fellow who was not from Virginia who saw the sign for "Lee Jackson Memorial Highway" and wanted to know who "Lee Jackson" was. 

[roadman]

I knew a fellow who was not from Virginia who saw the sign for "Lee Jackson Memorial Highway" and wanted to know who "Lee Jackson" was. 

Many people from Boston are still asking the question "Who the h*!!" is Leonard Zakim?" (I-93 Zakim Bridge).

Leonard Zakim was reportedly a local (Boston area) civil rights activist.  So far, his only claim to fame appears to be having had a bridge named after him.

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

Airline Highway in Louisiana, that is US 61 from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, you would think is named cause of the New Orleans Airport that lies on the route, but it is not!  The roadway was named because it was a replacement to the nearby Jefferson Highway, that is a winding road because of its close proximity to the mighty Mississippi River as this one is built much different.  Unlike its predecessor, the new Airline Highway is more straight!  It is the airline highway by design not so much that MSO is located along it.

Also, MSY and BTR were established as airports after Airline Highway was complete through those respective areas. The name "Airline" or "Air line" is a quaint 1930's expression for a straight line between two points, as an aircraft would travel.

I have heard in the past that Huey Long wanted a road between NO and BR that would have no curves whatsoever. Given the limitations of the regional topography and the fact that Airline Highway does bend at various points, I assume this is either a myth or a failed political promise of some sort.

Of course, I have always associated the name "Airline Highway" with sleazy motels and burned out suburbia, but different strokes for different folks, I guess.

[1995hoo]

I knew a fellow who was not from Virginia who saw the sign for "Lee Jackson Memorial Highway" and wanted to know who "Lee Jackson" was. 

Many people from Boston are still asking the question "Who the h*!!" is Leonard Zakim?" (I-93 Zakim Bridge).

Leonard Zakim was reportedly a local (Boston area) civil rights activist.  So far, his only claim to fame appears to be having had a bridge named after him.

Yeah, but at least he was a single real person, even if obscure. If you see the name and assume "bridge is named for a Leonard Zakim," you're correct even if you have no idea who he was. Same thing with the high school I attended: Most of us figured out that W.T. Woodson was a person, but we didn't know who he was (turned out to be a former superintendent of the school system).

But "Lee Jackson Memorial Highway" is different and I wouldn't have thought clarification would be needed given how well-known the historical figures are.....well, to most people, anyway. The name "Lee," in particular, is pretty ubiquitous around here....

[roadman65]

I see people have not get it.  It is about a local state or whatever road that has a name that people (roadgeeks or non road geeks) think is named for one person or thing, but is not.  I know that are plenty of them around on a local level. 

Also if a place could be named after a city, county, or person than its probably the last one.  Just like Washington, DC is named after  George Washington also means that roads leading to Washington called Washington Boulevard in Baltimore are named after the person.  In Florida the Osceola Parkway is named after Osceola, a famous Seminole Indian, even though the name was chosen because its in Osceola County.

[BrianP]

I used to think that Admiral Wilson Blvd in Camden NJ was named for Woodrow Wilson.  Well it's not.  I still chuckle over that one. 

[roadman65]

I used to think that Admiral Wilson Blvd in Camden NJ was named for Woodrow Wilson.  Well it's not.  I still chuckle over that one. 

The one's that get me are the Jackson street's that are not named after the President. 

[Ian]

The Outerbridge Crossing between New Jersey and Staten Island, NY is actually named after the first PANYNJ chairman, Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge, which is contrary to what many believe that it's named after the most remote bridge from New York City.

[Pete from Boston]

The Holland Tunnel has nothing to do with the first European country to own its location, but rather its engineer who didn't live to see its completion.

[1995hoo]

The Holland Tunnel has nothing to do with the first European country to own its location, but rather its engineer who didn't live to see its completion.

Quick edit there. 

[1995hoo]

I see people have not get it.  It is about a local state or whatever road that has a name that people (roadgeeks or non road geeks) think is named for one person or thing, but is not.  I know that are plenty of them around on a local level. 

....

I think the "Lee Jackson" example qualified for that because this fellow thought it was named for a person named "Lee Jackson," rather than for two famous generals (Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson).

I'm pretty sure the guy I knew wasn't the only person confused by it because we used to have a state holiday on the third Monday in January called Lee-Jackson-King Day. (Lee-Jackson Day had existed for years and when the feds decided to have a King holiday Virginia added him to the existing day.) When you see it written, the hyphens make it fairly clear, but there were a surprising number of out-of-staters who would move here, hear the name but not see it written, and say, "I've heard of Martin Luther King, but who is Lee Jackson King?"  So if they can get confused by that, I'm sure the same people also got confused by "Lee Jackson Memorial Highway."


BTW, I've heard people complain about Virginia State Secondary Route 651 in Fairfax County on the ground that its name is "offensive" because it's named "Guinea Road." The name has nothing to do with Italians; rather, apparently once upon a time you paid one guinea to use a predecessor road there and the name stuck even long after its meaning was forgotten. I find that story a bit implausible because one guinea was a lot of money for most people back 200+ years ago.

[Pete from Boston]

The Holland Tunnel has nothing to do with the first European country to own its location, but rather its engineer who didn't live to see its completion.

Quick edit there. 

I conceded having been scooped on the Outerbridge Crossing, which is practically the answer for which this question is made.  I learned the truth about its name as a kid and thought someone was pulling my leg ("Eugenius" -- I mean, come on!).  It's as believable as a lie story I once told while bored at a party, that Main St. is actually named for somebody.

[bugo]

BTW, I've heard people complain about Virginia State Secondary Route 651 in Fairfax County on the ground that its name is "offensive" because it's named "Guinea Road." The name has nothing to do with Italians; rather, apparently once upon a time you paid one guinea to use a predecessor road there and the name stuck even long after its meaning was forgotten. I find that story a bit implausible because one guinea was a lot of money for most people back 200+ years ago.

If a white person really gets offended by being called a "guinea" then they need to grow a fucking skin and a set of balls.  That's like being offended by the term "honky tonk" or being offended by Ritz crackers.  I'm part German and part Irish, and I wouldn't be the least bit offended if somebody called me a Kraut or a Mick.

[empirestate]

The Outerbridge Crossing between New Jersey and Staten Island, NY is actually named after the first PANYNJ chairman, Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge, which is contrary to what many believe that it's named after the most remote bridge from New York City.

Not the only such example in the city:

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=7929.0 

[NE2]

In Florida the Osceola Parkway is named after Osceola, a famous Seminole Indian, even though the name was chosen because its in Osceola County.

So it was named after the person, except it was named after the county, which was named after the person, except what

[OracleUsr]

In Winston Salem, Hawthorne Road isn't named after Nathaniel Hawthorne, but a former mayor of W-S named Hawthorne.

Same with the famed Hawthorne Curve that used to be near the same interchange on what was then I-40.

[ChoralScholar]

In Little Rock, President Clinton Ave. is not actually named for Bill Clinton, who was President of the United States, but for George Clinton, who was the President of Funk.

It's really not, but I just wanted to play along.

[NE2]

The Lincoln Tunnel was not named for the Lincoln Highway.

[SteveG1988]

how about anything named kennedy where the first name is not seen?

Ted? John? Robert? Jr?

[Alps]

The Lincoln Tunnel was not named for the Lincoln Highway.

Despite it carrying the Lincoln once it opened. Also: The Washington Bridge is named for the same person as the George Washington Bridge it helps feed into, but not directly - it's actually named after Washington Heights.

[NE2]

The Lincoln Tunnel was not named for the Lincoln Highway.

Despite it carrying the Lincoln once it opened.

Wrong tunnel. The Lincoln Highway used the Holland Tunnel; the Lincoln Tunnel was not built until the 1930s.

[sp_redelectric]

The Sunset Highway in northwestern Oregon is not named because it "goes into the Sunset" (to the Oregon Coast) but rather the Sunset Division or the 41st Infantry Division of the U.S. Army.  However, playing on the "going into the Sunset" theme, there is/was a "Sunrise Highway" proposal of a highway that would upgrade/replace Oregon 224 between Clackamas and Boring and connect with U.S. 26 eastward.

[NE2]

The Sunset Highway in northwestern Oregon is not named because it "goes into the Sunset" (to the Oregon Coast) but rather the Sunset Division or the 41st Infantry Division of the U.S. Army.

Partly true.

January 17, 1946.
Sunset Highway.
Cannon Beach — Portland Section.
The highway renamed as a tribute to the Sunset Division of the U.S. Army and because this highway leads into the setting sun.

http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/GEOMETRONICS/row_eng/historyhighwaysoregon/hsho.pdf