🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1994Apr13.162801.11279@ccc.amdahl.com> csc80@cd.amdahl.com (Carol C. Kankelborg) writes:

> On a different note, being from the East Coast (PA), I've noticed
> that different parts of the country call their highways and turnpikes
> different things. 

> Turnpike - toll highway in Pennsylvania, Ohio too, I think.

Don't forget the Mass. Turnpike.  The usage is fairly common
throughout the northeast and mid-Atlantic states and down as far
as Kentucky and Tennessee, I believe.  It is a reference to the
early American toll barriers which involved a rotating "pike" or
log barricade to control passage.

> Thruway??- I can't remember what a toll highway in NY is called.

As far as I know, the designation "Thruway" is reserved
exclusively for the Thomas E. Dewey Thruway, which runs from NY
to Buffalo via Albany, Syracuse, and Rochester and which was
given the designation of I-90 as the Interstate system was being
assembled.  Most of it is supported by toll, which is used to
cover all maintenance costs by the quasi-independent NY State
Thruway Authority, except for a short stretch through the Buffalo
area which is under state maintenance and typically shows it by
claiming hubcaps and small cars in its renowned potholes.  The
part from Albany to Buffalo roughly parallels US routes 5 and 20,
which in turn trace approximately the route of the old Erie
Canal, affectionately known as "Clinton's Ditch" after the famous
governor who was responsible for seeing it commissioned, most of
which has long since been filled in, although some stretches and
some of the old locks remain in service.

> Parkway  - as in "Garden State" (NJ)
> Highway  - Any limited access road.
> Freeway  - I've only seen this in CA
> Expressway - In CA, a semi-limited access road with fewer traffic lights
>              intended to get you from A to B faster.  

As a child of the Syracuse metropolitan area, we usually called
most limited access roads freeway, though other designations were
always in common use for particular roads.  Some of the earliest
limited access roads, such as the Scajaquada (forgive me
Buffalonians, it's been over twelve years since I was there and
I'm sure I've screwed up the spelling), one of the first round of
modern cross-town arterials which evolved into the freeway
networks of today, are known explicitly as by the name Expressway.

The designation highway is in common use in the civil engineering
parlance, and is not reserved to application to limited access
roads.  It's an old, and originally specifically descriptive,
term for a built-up roadway, constructed of a sequence of special
purpose courses of materials that ensured adequate drainage and
elevation above the surrounding terrain to keep the road surface
high and dry.  It serves to distinguish the more elaborate,
usually through routes from the local "surface roads", which
phrase has also survived in a somewhat modified meaning.  Also,
if you read some older engineering books (the usage survives but
is more rare in the modern ones) you will find references to
procedures and techniques intended to ensure the "highest" road
surfaces, implying the best quality.

> Interstate - A highway crossing many state borders.  (Also
>              interesting, in Philadelphia, I-95 is called
>              "I-95", in Florida, it's simply "95".

This is, of course, an artifact of the federal Interstate highway
project, ostensibly to provide for the internal mobility of our
armed forces, at least initially.

=Mark
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Mark E. Slagle                                 PO Box 61059
slagle@lmsc.lockheed.com                       Sunnyvale, CA   94088
408-756-0895                                   USA