I-238 is hilarious, but not the only ridiculous thing about interstates in the east SF bay. I-238 actually curves right (south-east) and continues into State HWY 238, which runs for about a mile alongside State HWY 185, until it curves into it and ABSORBS State HWY 185, while the path (keyword being State HWY) 238 looks like it would take, and what you would reasonably assume would be 185 (since 238 took over the path of Mission Blvd), is... somehow, State HWY 92 and turns into a bridge....
My 3 year old has recently become obsesed with all the 'big roads' that we drive on an their names and numbers, thanks for making this video so I can keep up the illusion that dad knows about everything!
Man, the raw passion of little kids is awesome. When mine was that young they were obsessed with road signs. We managed to find a deck of cards with the various signs, which was fun - they ended up all over the house of course 😄
My Dad’s a truck driver. It amazed me that he could plan a cross-country road trip without even looking at a map. That sneak had a cheat code the whole time!
Truck drivers are a different breed I swear. My dad drove both trucks and buses, stopped like 15 years ago, but he to this day knows routes from one city to another off the top of his head, even bypass routes to avoid tolls and whatnot, it's nuts...
Same here. I'm tempted to show my dad this to tell him they're leaking the truckers secrets. Really though, I remember my dad teaching me all this as a kid, so this video was very much a well welcomed nostalgia trip.
"I already cut so many from the script, you wouldn't believe it..." Grey, you made a 21-minute video explaining why one particular detail didn't make it into a 9-minute video and gave you sleepless nights for the better part of a year. We believe it.
My dad explained all of this to me when I was learning to drive, and it gave me enough of a basic understanding of Kansas City's geography that if I could only get to a highway I always knew where I was. We used I-70 every day.
I'm so lucky to be living in Australia. All I need to remember is that if I dive in any direction long enough I run the risk of dying in the middle of nowhere.
or driving into the sea I live on a smallish island, and when I was younger and allowed to go out with friends alone, I'd say 'well it's not like we can get TOO lost, eventually we'll hit the sea'
I love how Grey consistently makes videos about topics I didn't even know were topics before and manages to make the most seemingly "boring" fact into something whimsical and entertaining! :3
Cgp grey is type of person that when gets annoyed by something not making sense instead of giving up makes a youtube video to educate us all. He's an educational Angel
I think the 805 in San Diego legitimizes the “05 in our hearts” part. It’s an interstate minor, so it has three digits; it starts in an even number, so it diverges from and reconnects to a major; but that major is the 5, so its last two digits have to be “05.”
Where exactly do Interstates pick up and drop off their definite article? The CA state line east/west and northern border of SLO, Kern and San Bernardino Counties? The top of Cajon Pass? Barstow? I get it that there are major routes though LA numbered 10, 110 and 101 so that without the "the" it'd sound like you were speaking binary but surely that's not necessary even beyond the outer suburbs?
I drove truck for about 7 years. I learned this code early on by myself without anyone showing me. I memorized where each highway was and how many miles were in each state I also drove in Canada, and memorized those, too. It's been so many years ago I just remember some of it but remember all the interstate numbers and where they are. I miss those days.
I love that you mentioned I-99! I was at the ribbon-cutting for it, where Congressman Bud Shuster (who was the powerful chair of the House Transportation Committee), told the story of why it was 99. I-99 bisected his district at the time and was his pet project. He said that he wanted to give it a double-digit number to make it sound more important, and he grew up in Pittsburgh where there was a trolly (or something like that) with the number 99. He said the US DoT pushed back and wanted to use the 3 digit system you described (since it was intrastate), but he ended the story by saying something like, "Well, you see who won that one."
Ew… I wished I didn’t Google him… He made up the claim that communists hated the civil rights movement, backed the claim by saying they did it to “embarrass us” (…while admitting he was recruited by the CIA in college), and then slipped his words in his own book and forgot he claimed he was in the military. He opposed airbags in cars… Both he and his son Bill also seem to REALLY love lobbyists… Ew…… But also that’s neat to know you witnessed the joke behind a tidbit of this video, I hope my comment isn’t hostile towards your neat story…
As a twin cities resident, I can say with authority that: Yes the E & W designations are there to keep the peace between the fragile egos of the state's largest city, Minneapolis, and the state capital, St. Paul. However, since the exit numbers on 35E remain consistent with the rest of I35s numbers, while 35Ws exits start at 1 and end around 20, its clear that 35W is the bypass.
As someone from Minneapolis who was annoyed simply that 35W was considered the "exit" off I-35 from the South whereas 35E was the continuation, 35W (Minneapolis) and 35E (Saint Paul) were definitely named to not be bypasses. The rivalry is real!
For those wondering about the word Grey used twice that most US folks won't know.... Definition of anorak 1: a usually pullover hooded jacket long enough to cover the hips 2(British, informal) : a person who is extremely enthusiastic about and interested in something that other people find boring
I hadn't realised that this wasn't a universal concept. Anoraks (the clothing) are typically waterproof and therefore became a sort of unofficial uniform for those who enjoy peculiar outdoor hobbies that involve sitting out in the elements for long periods of time.
There was supposed to be a Midtown Manhattan expressway at 31st street and a sound crossing to Westerly Rhode Island. Also bizarrely a part of the LIE in queens I believe from the Clearveiw to Queens Blvd. is technically not designated as an interstate highway 🤪 rather NY495. But thankfully they don't show that to avoid confusion.
Well, it's locally pronounced as SOO, from what my U.P. dwelling sister tells me. But I know that if they were being true to French it would be closer to "sew" since it is the French word used for waterfalls (indicating water "jumping") Same origin as somersault.
If someone has asked me yesterday "Hey, would you care to learn about the American interstates?", I would've probably said no, but CGP Grey always seems to be able to take any subject and make it interesting and intriguing.
The original reason they were created is even more fun - to allow faster mobilization during the cold war. No, I'm not joking. It's to drive tanks around.
@@MrNicoJac Correct me if I'm wrong, but I had also heard somewhere that, at regular intervals, stretches of the Interstates have to be long and straight enough to be used as runways, in case the Air Force needed to rapidly deploy aircraft to a given location.
@@MrNicoJac yep, Eisenhower saw the potential in them during ww2, he was also involved on a cross country mission when he was younger that went miserably and when he came into office, that was on his agenda.
@@subsidizer292 Sorry, but that's a myth. Aircraft need a long, smooth stretch of ground to safely land and take off. The curvy, bumpy nature of a highway will more than likely damage the landing gear of any plane trying to use it for combat operations. Sure, it's an option for a desperate pilot in an emergency, but let's be realistic. By the time every airfield and airport in the US is damaged beyond use in a theoretical war, would there still be aircraft flying around? Very unlikely, IMO.
5:50 - I-90 in New York has a “complete set” of auxiliary interstates, there is an I-190 through I-990 in the state. Also, I-238 was numbered as such because, at the time, I-80 in California also had a “complete set” of auxiliary Interstates and they didn’t want to cause confusion by duplicating numbers within the state, so it was just numbered after the original highway, CA-238.
I learned the numbering system in high school in the early 80's when we studied US history. It was also explained in the drivers test study booklet they handed out at DMV. The LIE was just NY 495 when I was a kid. They turned it into an interstate so NY could get more federal funds.
IINM there is still a sign with the old NY495 designation on it, maybe coming off the Clearview or Cross Island, not sure, but it's the old white 'pushbutton'-looking shape with 495 inside it...Not been up there in a while but I could have sworn I saw it sometime in the 00's or early 10's.
It still connects to other interstates, just not I-95. Originally though, it was supposed to connect to I-95. It would have crossed Manhattan on the unbuilt Mid-Manhattan Expressway, and continue through the Lincoln Tunnel, reaching I-95 in New Jersey. Either way, its construction quality (minus the potholes) certainly is enough to make the general public think of it as an "interstate", and thus it makes sense for it to be one.
But lots of highway sections got turned into interstate all over the place. Greensboro NC had like 4 interstates running through it. And where they all converge, there's like half a dozen highways all coming in with the interstate roads. They just meet and most of the highway numbers just go away and it's all interstates.
As someone who lives in the DFW area in Texas, I can confirm the I35 split being called “I35 west and I35 east” is because both cities would rather burn to the ground than be considered “the bypass city” of the other one… You could get lost for days in the lore of the Fort Worth and Dallas rivalry
Same with the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Back in the day, Minneapolis and St. Paul would use their police agencies to kidnap each others census takers to stop one city from growing larger than the other.
The worst thing is the fact that highways have like six different names with different cardinal directions in DFW. My GPS app would literally say, "Turn right on I-35 East South North Stemmons Freeway." Wut...
During the course of the video, the time slowly shifts from dusk to night, to dawn to day, and at the end back to dusk. This implies Grey dragged this person all across the country in a single day.
Interesting fact about I-70 (in Maryland): Its eastern end stops exactly at the Baltimore city limits after there was considerable push back against highways being built in the city, so it does not meet up with I-95. It in fact stops at a parking lot on Maryland Route 122. Near this, there is an oddly placed sign that lists the distance to Columbus, OH (420 miles), St. Louis, MO (845 miles), Denver, CO (1700 miles) and lastly, the western terminus of I-70, Cove Fort, UT (2200 miles). It was placed there in 2004 to test a new font for highway signage (the font is called Clearview) and the engineers didn't want to put actual important information on it, so that's why it lists unrelated cities. Cove Fort isn't even a town, it's an actual fort built in 1867 by the Mormons as a resting stop of travelers and is now a historic site.
Finland (to most people) is known to have the best drivers in the world with the best driving schools. So my brain glitched when you said you don't have a license. Out of curiosity, how old do you need to be to get a license in Finland?
Fellow Long Islander here. As soon as you explained the even number rule, I was trying to figure out how the LIE got 495 moniker. Fantastic video and I will always remember this when driving on that pothole riddled hell scape.
The "5" or "0" are the indicators of a long-haul interstate, so in that context, I-5 is perfectly logical, except when a spur route makes a route "105" or "205" etc. Great video!
6:44 I-238 in California has this number because (a) when it was built, all of the I-80 spur/loop minor numbers in California were already taken, so they had to find another number; and (b) I-238 connects to State Route 238, so it's sort of like a continuation. But it's still an annoying anomaly in the system.
It’s more reminiscent of how the UK does things, where A roads (which could be thought of as equivalents to state highways) that are built to motorway standards aren’t officially called motorways, but A roads with (M) at the end, i.e. A1(M). So Interstate 238 can be thought of as California State Route 238 (Interstate).
As a kid the nearest interstate was always over an hour drive to get to so learning the numbering system was rarely needed. Especially because the road went south to Syracuse and then you follow signs for Buffalo or Albany/Boston to pick a direction on the thruway. We still would have to drive to it for drivers Ed (or school of mom when drivers ed was dropped) to practice getting on and off the highway and only road you can legally go over 60mph on near us. Now I'm in CT and GPS is a livesaver when i have to get to any random location in New England, and also to just not miss an exit.
I-238 is on the road bed of a California highway. When this important connecting highway was incorporated into the Interstate system it kept the same number. The original CA-238 was longer. Only the part between I-580 and I-880 was converted into an Interstate. The rest remains as CA-238. Yes every state has its own system of highways with it'd own system of numbering.
I had a cousin who was obsessed with the highway system. His mom took him to stretches of highway as they opened up, and he had “keys” to cities all over the country. One of his favorite things to do was ask highway engineers about roads that didn’t exist.
This is why I love driving in America. It’s so simple. I drove from Detroit to Miami recently, and the instructions consisted of, get on 75. Stay on 75. Congratulations, you’re in Miami
Absolutely! I live in downtown Phoenix my mom lives in Southern California she’s about 3 minutes off of the 10 freeway I’m just over 300 miles down the 10 in a near straight line and 2 minutes off of the freeway
My driving class was taught about this exact subject. Our instructor (a teacher from a local school volunteering his time) saw that people were getting ridiculously lost while driving in Maryland, so he spent one class session covering how to navigate by interstate signs alone. It wasn't part of the curriculum... just him showing even more how underpaid teachers really are.
@@impulsivestargaming1791 my ex-girlfriend who is a teacher. Saying they are underpaid is criminally overgeneral, especially if you consider professors who are some of the highest paid individuals in the nation. Teachers getting full benefits and a modest salary for 9 months of work when they don't have to select the curriculum and essentially follow a lesson plan does in no way seem unfair. I am aware there are exceptions but this is a publicly accepted viewpoint that is just plain bs. Like many publicly accepted viewpoints, you score points by repeating it but if anyone actually did critical analysis it would fall apart in 5 seconds
Considering the bypasses and belts on I-5 are numbered "#05" (I-405, I-205, etc.) I feel like it's reasonable to say that I-5 does technically have a leading zero, even if they don't say it has one officially.
The 5 does have a leading zero! It only becomes visible in the 105, 405, and 605 in LA and the 805 in San Diego. Unfortunately, the 605 doesn't loop and the 105 doesn't extend that last mile to actually reach the 5.
@@ASalfity ignore my last reply i misunderstood. i-5 goes north and south. i-105 is just a connector highway, so it doesn't have to strictly follow the rule
I was always told that odd numbers go north-south and even numbers go east-west. This made sense until I was about 15 and learned about beltways. I had been befuddled about it until now. Thanks CGP! 🤜🤛
@@georgejones3526 The reason for I-26's directional designation is that it runs nearly perpendicular to the Atlantic coast, so from the perspective of the shoreline, it IS perfectly east-west. It's also worth noting that the segment north of Asheville, NC was not part of the original plan, thus eliminating some of the directional confusion.
I would gladly watch an hour-long video of Grey just naming all the exceptions. Or even just listen, there's no graphics needed. I just want to hear all the rage at the nonsense in the highway system. (I'm a traffic engineer)
Hell, I'm sure people in his community would donate the animations of just drawing them in amorphous blobs that are "cities" like they already are in this video.
@@thomasvlaskampiii6850 It'll be like that time Grey read classic horror stories! Except instead of being scary, it'll be reassuring that there's a coherent system in place!
5:29 New York has Interstates 190-990 for the nine unique spurs. I-190 and I-290 - Buffalo I-390, I-490, and I-590 - Rochester I-690 - Syracuse I-790 - Utica I-890 - Schenectady I-990 - Amherst, near Buffalo
The moment the interstate system's magnitude finally clicked for me was driving with a friend in Arizona and as we passed over I40, he looked and said, "We get on that and turn left at the last exit, we'll be at my house in North Carolina."
I'm from Southern California, but went to college in South Dakota. One of my favourite moments every summer was, after driving 9-10 hours to Salt Lake City, I get on the I-15 & the GPS says "continue straight for 958 miles". (Well, actually I think it said "continue straight for 600-something miles" because there was a place in Las Vegas where it would say to "continue straight to stay on I-15 S", but I don't remember the statement, only the total distance)
For me it was being on vacation in north carolina and recognizing " US 441" when my GPS mentioned it. It's the same road I take to work every day in Florida.
Even though I’m not American, I once had a moment like this. I live in a much smaller country in Europe, and we have a system of two lane roads, built around the mid of the 20th century, and that connected all the important urban centres, called national roads. They’re essentially much smaller versions of your interstates. Anyway, once I was going back to my (temporary student) house after a star-gazing weekend organised by my university’s astronomy club, and during the trip I noticed we’d just entered National 2, the largest of the National Roads (spanning around 750km, and uniting the northern and southernmost cities in my country). I casually mentioned that we were just two streets away from my parents house, and that’s when the realisation of how long that road is really hit me. For context, we were around 300-400 km away from my parents’ at that point.
@@Setheli216 Long ago, I took a trip from San Diego all the way to Portland, and the surreal feeling of hearing a GPS tell you that your next stop was in "Over a thousand miles" was amazing. Fun trip.
@@Igneusflama When I hear "US 441" I think of "American Girl" by Tom Petty. "Well, it was kind of cold that night She stood alone on her balcony Yeah, she could hear the cars roll by Out on 441 Like waves crashin' on the beach"
Fun fact: Part of the planning for these interstates was done by General Pershing in the 1920s. The Bureau of Public Roads asked the Army which routes would be best needed for public defense purposes. It’s why you’ll find that they connect military bases pretty easily.
@Nick V They are, but they throw in a little extra so we can all use them in the mean time. Another interesting thing about our highways you won't easily find published? Ever notice how sometimes there's a stretch of highway that's just really long, straight, and well maintained? I bet it happens to be near a military air field. Many stretches of highway are strategic defense assets to be used as runways if our primary airfield runways get bombed.
@Nick V as someone else said, if mainland invasion were to necessitate martial law, the interstate highway system would, as needed, be closed to civilian traffic (or at least most civilian uses) and some alternative road signs put up for DOD purposes.
I-238 has an interesting history, the number comes from the designation the route originally had, CA238 (which still exists to the south of this). When this section was updated, they wanted it to be bannered as an interstate, but there was a problem, there were no available minor numbers for I-80. 480 was still in use for the later removed embarcadero freeway, and 180 existed elsewhere in the state as a state highway. California won't double issue numbers unless the roadways are/were connected. So they ended up petitioning to use the interstate banner with the state highway number.
when I learned about how long these roads were, i loved the idea that "the same I-15 road in my town goes to Disneyland" and "i am homesick, but at least I know that I-80 would take me to mama."
That's how I feel, too. Specifically about I-15. My family lives in SoCal, and we live in Salt Lake City, so a trip to visit family is just as easy as "get on I-15 and head south." Same for when we head to Vegas or to Disneyland. Sure I usually get turned around once I actually get off of I-15, but at least 95% of the trip is already done.
I live within a few miles of 1-5 and it was always frustrating because our other routes are way out of order, I-405 being in the center but all the other being in the most random parts and not in any sense able order. Then we got the Pacific coast hwy on top of that and people who do not live in the state get so lost.
Honorable mention is I-19 in Tucson, AZ. Its the only interstate marked in kilometers in an attempt to synchronize with metric system and the rest of the world.
There are many road signs in other states, usually near large research facilities that give distances in miles and kilometers. We have several here in TN. But NC has some too, and in VA near the laboratories near DC.
I am 100% here for Grey digging up "obscure" systems of organization in this manner. Can do something similar with naming convention of "avenue", "street", "road", "boulevard", etc
German Autobahns have a similar system. Even numbers are west-east and odd numbers north-south. The higher the number, the more insignificant (shorter) that Autobahn
I believe the concept of the interstate system was based off of the Autobahn directly, something about WWII and the ability to easily move troops across the country. That's what I remember from 10th grade anyway, but you know reliable history is
@@timlecount8690 Also Ike had to move a lot pre war, due to being an officer that constantly was sent to another post and he LOATHED the old system without interconnecting highways across the whole continent. The Interstate project is a bit of a combination of both this loathing and his experiences in Europe.
You skipped the mile markers! They're the biggest help when navigating cross-country. Knowing California is only 98 miles away when driving west-bound 80 through Nevada is the most comforting thing.
Fun fact about I-87 in NC: Even though it’s a medium interstate, it’s only 12 miles long and connects to the much longer (and larger) minor interstate I-540, which is 27 miles long. And to make things even weirder I-540 is actually a loop that is completed by NC-540. Soon, you’ll be able to drive along one 60 mile loop all called “540” but it’s secretly two roads, both of which are longer than the one of the real interstates it connects to.
i87 continues up in New England, doesn't it? i87 up to i84. I take that route to bypass the George Washington Bridge when I go from PA to NE. I stick to the northeast as a truck driver, so I don't know many roads other than a few up here.
As a Marylander I have always wondered why we have so many 95's and why traveling to DC or Philadelphia there were other branches of I-95 like ours. Thank you for this.
Of course, the best part is that 295 is mostly not an interstate. Everything north of the SE/SW freeway in DC (i.e. I-695, though it's only actually been signed as such for a few years) is a DC and MD state highway.
@@shayan_idk Yes, that's what I said. The portion of the road from the 695 interchange down to its southern interchange with the Beltway is an interstate. The rest is not.
This is very confusing for people who aren't from DC. Also 295 and 495 and considered bypasses to 95 but 95 just turns into 395 then 695 then just ends in the middle of DC.
In Cincinnati, there’s I-471, which is a spur that terminates in the middle of Highland Heights, so even the leading odd-even number rule is inconsistent.
I don’t think I ever laughed so hard when you said that “maybe the L.I.E really is a lie”. As a Long-Islander I really enjoy making fun of my own “island”
I remember driving on I-215 in Nevada and just sputtering with indignation when what should have been a "loop" dumped us onto a ordinary highway, with *traffic lights* for Pete's sake. My wife didn't see what the problem was. But then there's still a place on I-70 where the road just stops being an Interstate for a while, so I guess there are bigger problems in the world.
At least there’s a ramp that puts you on the 95 right there, I think it was easier to end the 215 and build a connecting ramp than rebuilding that whole section of the 95. I understand your frustration though
The I-70 one I can accept, because it at least has a story behind it. (Federal DOT didn't want to build a ramp, state DOT didn't want to build a ramp, neither one budged, they just made it a regular intersection.) I can just treat that as a geographical oddity, like a weird enclave.
Where? In southern Utah I-70 turns (or turned) back into a US highway for a while. It may have been built through by now; I drove through back in 1984 and there were a bunch of huge, partially completed, bridges and ramps alongside the highway. From the looks of them they had been in progress for decades.
When it comes to interstate 76, filling the massive void in between segments is probably easier than it looks as it could run through Southern Nebraska via Nebraska City and Beatrice in through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana then rejoining 76 in Ohio
Little late to the party but something that I think is absolutely awful is that the I69 is also called the I59 (or just the 69 and the 59) in northern Houston
Shoutout to I-35, where it's basically one continuous city from San Antonio to Austin (technically even further north to Georgetown) at this point with all the suburbs in between developed out and probably one of the few places in the country you can be stuck in traffic for 120 miles if you catch it at just the right time. Also one of the only places where the toll road isn't actually any faster than the actual road despite the speed limit being 85mph thanks to being built so far out of the way due to people wanting to make money on selling the land (so the story goes).
The Long Island Expressway actually was planned to meet up with the 95, but cancelled plans divided I-495 into the interstate and State Route 495, aka the Lincoln Tunnel. There were also plans to extend the 495 east back into Connecticut to connect it back to the 95.
There's also an I-405 in Portland that might as well not exist, at least for geographical purposes. It's about two miles long, and bypasses downtown Portland by running directly behind it, cutting it off from the rest of the west side of the city. It does reconnect with I-5, though, with both ends of the cutoff being within sight of each other....
Also if you live around 405 you probably have a phone number with the area code 425. This is probably a coincidence but feels like it should be related somehow.
President Eisenhower traveled coast to coast on roads before the interstate. He was concerned about the length of time and difficulty of travel. With the threat of national security, Eisenhower realized there was a dire need to move military equipment from coast to coast more expediently. That was the original intention of the interstate. Commerce and ease of travel for citizens was a second benefit. Where geography and probably other considerations would allow, he wanted 1 out of every 5 miles to be straight. That allowed for numerous possible editors to be used as runways in case all Air Force bases were destroyed.
One tidbit omitted from this video: higher interstate numbers are in the east and north and lower numbers in the west and south to contrast with the US highway numbering system, which has higher numbers in the west and south and lower numbers in the east and north. (US 1, the lowest numbered US route, runs, like I-95, from Maine to Florida, terminating however in Key West.) This, like the omission of I-50 and I-60, was done to reduce the potential for number confusion between Interstate and US routes.
Here in Quebec they made it even simpler imo. Odd number indicate north/south bound Even number indicate east/west bound Lowest number are close to the US/Ontario border (South-West) 2 digit: freeway connecting major urban area 400 and up are auxiliary freeway, they connect to other freeway or major arterial roads. The second and third digit indicate which highway it connect to Eg: the 440 & 660 highway deviate traffic away from the 40 Speed limit is 70kmh in dense urban area (people drive 100anyway) and 100kmh outside of urban area. 100/200/300 are roads that connect less densely populated cities/town Speed limit is 90kmh, 70 when close to urban area and 50kmh in towns Exit number are based on distance. Lower exit in South/West of the highway.
Another Florida fact: The letters for A1A don't stand for anything. That's the state highway that runs along the Atlantic beaches, and it was renamed from State Route 1 solely to avoid confusion with US-1.
When I heard you explain I-69, all I could think of was this one event where they had to change I-420 to I-419 to get people to stop stealing the signs Edit: Thanks for those who corrected me in the replies. It was actually some mile markers that I mistook for highway signs
A 420-mile marker in Colorado also kept getting stolen to the point where, instead of replacing it with yet another 420-mile marker, they ended up putting a 419.99-mile marker.
I-69 runs from Houston all the way up north to Lansing before taking a sharp right turn and going off towards Canada. I'm sure somewhere, along all those miles of signs, after all these years, surely at least one person has stolen one of those signs. Also as another side note, they diverted the original path of I-69 around Lansing, but the old path is still designated as Business 69, if you want a more professional sign to pilfer
After watching this I had read about the Brazilian highway system. In Brazil they classify highways as, 0xx radial (from the capital), 1xx vertical, 2xx horizontal, 3xx diagonal nw-se and 4xx conecting highway.
Having been a geography and map nerd since I was old enough to read I just sort of assumed everyone knew the interstate numbering pattern, but I have learned that is not the case. There are also quite a few exceptions all over the country. There are 2 in my area. I-71 runs mostly N/S with a bit of an E/W diagonal, but the rule it breaks is that it is mostly East of I-75. The other is I-670 in Central Ohio; it is a spur, as it only connects to I-70 at the west terminus, so it should start with an odd number. It is strange that it doesn't because I don't think there are any odd numbered 3 digit routes in Ohio. Lots of 2s, 4s and 6s, so it probably would have been less confusing to start it with an odd number. I-675 in SW Ohio is another odd one because it is a diagonal that connects to both I-75 (S terminus) and I-70 (N terminus).
I'm not sure it would help in Geoguessr that much. I remember that time I found a sign (surprisingly rare in America apparently) and it was I-90. I got excited, tried to find it, somehow succeeded and then later realised that it's the longest road in the US and that finding it on the map did absolutely nothing to me
At least now I know why I could find an interstate number for example I-675, locate it on a map and still end with less than 1000 points due to it being a completely different I-675.
@@dorithegreat6155 I haven't played geoguessr much myself, but from hours of watching others playing, I have seen quite a few instances of people finding the exact spot using among other things this info.
@@dorithegreat6155 All about finding supplementary info! Knowing area codes for phone numbers, shapes of state highway signs, names of cities, license plate colors, and exit numbers (although only relevant after knowing the state) among other things goes a long way for helping narrow down or pinpoint your location.
@@TheKeksadler being european, that seems like way too much effort to me. Over here you just need to identify language and find some roadsigns. America doesn't even seem to have roadsigns. How the hell do you know where you're driving, I have no clue. USA is like the worst place that you can get on geoguessr
I just looked it up, and it's as I expected. I-495 in New York was originally supposed to connect across Manhattan, and there were plans for a bridge or tunnel to connect the eastern end back to I-95 in either Connecticut or Rhode Island. Whether those were original to the design or not I don't know.
Grey, it will please you to know that I-90 in NY has a complete set of spurs from 190 to 990! Their geographic location makes little sense as the 190 and the 990 are both in Buffalo, but the set is complete 😊
@@RyanNellis Uh... the 190 starts in buffalo where the 90 branches off from the Buffalo Exit and the Erie PA exit and ends at the QEW In Lewiston taking you through Grand Island and Niagara falls
@@trancex777 I guess I'm confused because you could take the 90 up to the 290, then take the 290 to the 190, then get BACK ON the 90 to head back down towards Erie. Just a big loop. So wouldn't that mean it allows you to "get back" instead of being forced to Canada no matter what direction you take? I might be overthinking the whole thing but now I'm fascinated by it all.
@@RyanNellis it's a straight line I work in Buffalo but live in niagara county I take the 990 to 290 to the 90 to 190 m-f I've been tempted to just take the 190 from the falls to Buffalo but not as fast and 190 only connects to the 90 in Buffalo and 290 in Tonawanda near grand island
I really liked this video as I had many questions regarding interstates. My biggest question was the fact that there were interstates that didn't even cross a state, so I kept worndering why they were called that. You answered basically all of my questions and I thank you a lot!
Dude, that is seriously one of your best videos! For years, before smart phones and Waze, I was the family navigator with my collection of maps. I knew some of these facts but learned a whole lot more from the video. I live in Maryland, and now I'm going to hope for a 995 in the future.
I love how you made this both informative and entertaining. I remember my dad telling me when I was a kid about the even highways being east-west and odd are north-south, but didn’t know (or remember) all of the other intricacies of the system.
“I-35W” in Texas is actually I-235, but is signed I-35W “for the convenience of the traveling public.” At least that’s the way it was when I worked in the Road Inventory Section of the Planning Survey Division of the pre-DOT Texas Highway Department while attending the University of Texas in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s. There was a rush project to computer code all segments of the state’s highways, and the system did not allow for letters - only the digits 0 through 9, so no “E” or “W”. “I-35E” is officially really just plain ol’ I-35, as evidenced by the continuous milepost markers.
35E & 35W are holdovers from the initial numbering of the Interstate system, when there were several other suffixed route numbers for splits serving larger regions and longer spurs. These suffixed route numbers generally came into being as compromises because certain regions wanted "mainline" interstate numbers and not the three-digit auxiliary numbers. There was a concerted effort to eliminate the suffixed interstates I believe in the 1970s-this led to things like what was I-80N becoming I-84 in the western US. The I-35 E/W split in Dallas/Fort Worth and its counterpart in Minneapolis/St. Paul were the only vestiges of that system remaining (likely because neither city wanted to see their 35 "demoted" to an auxiliary interstate) until the I-69 mess was introduced in Texas in the last decade. If I-35W were really designated I-235, they'd change the signs-there's no convenience factor using 35W on signs as opposed to 235. I would believe that 235 could be/could have been an internal TxDOT designation for the reason you state though. It also makes sense that one of the 35 branches maintain milepost and exit number continuity for overall cataloging purposes...I think MN chose 35E for their split also.
Part of why I watch with morbid curiosity, wondering when/how responsible parties will someday designate highway ID (and maybe milepost exit numbering) for the NJ Turnpike. South end of road does not have an Interstate designation, middle section is I-95 has inner & outer roadways (easier to deal with), north end splits to Eastern & Western spurs (I-95), and a branch-off (the Newark Bay Extension) picks up I-78 designation but has exit numbers coordinated with Turnpike scheme (not I-78 exits up to that point)
I was unnecessarily pumped when he started with I-90, which is the interstate I grew up with and the one I currently live next to. Anyplace along that route is an honorary "home" in my book.
I love I-238 because it's 8 - 5 so 23 and they both have an 8 for the leading zero so 238, and since it connects back to a road it's evenly numbered, technically making it a BYPASS (Which is wrong and right at the same time.) I love how much sense it makes while also being so confusing. That's now my favorite Spur.
Judging by the comments, it's actually UNDERexplained because every resident of every state can casually list dozens more exceptions and notational theory fo justify their highway numbering system
so glad you covered the LIE specifically. when you started talking about even numbers indicating bypasses my mind went right to my home long island expressway which doesn’t connect to 95 anywhere!
They probably wanted to, but new york was one of the few cities that fought against tearing down half the city to make room for highways going straight thru, so the plans for doing so where eventually abandoned
As an utter non-New Yorker, part of me still appreciates that the highway planners were like "Screw it, ignore the numbering convention and also just end the highway somewhere in Midtown, those Long Islanders will figure it out!"
I would hope that someday they figure out some sort of bridge/corridor to connect to I-95 that bypassed the city. I say corridor because then you could also put some rail in it to reduce the car load.
Another strange exception. I-290 in Central Massachusetts. It runs from Auburn, MA - Hudson, MA, primarily connecting the Cities of Worcester, MA and Marlborough, MA. While it does spur off from I-90 in Auburn, it does not reconnect to I-90 at all, instead linking up with I-495 which itself is a beltway around Boston from I-95.
7:14 I can actually explain this one for Minnesota. Back in the earliest days of the system, having highways that were labeled by direction were actually the norm rather than the outlier. In most places this has been entirely phased out. but not up here. Mostly because the highway people couldn't actually decide which was the main route and which was the bypass, and so they basically said "screw it" and just kept the directional tags. They figured it didn't really matter since it unifies out of the cities anyways. I imagine the other one in Texas would be tthe same.
I love seeing the connections between Grey's old videos and his new ones. Cross country roadtrip? Time to do a video about the interstate system! And don't forget some tumbles and the blue Tesla for flavor
Interstate 41 in Wisconsin was recently dedicated (and also missing from Greys map) by simply upgrading the status of an existing US Highway. By sheer luck and coincidence, this route happens to also be US Highway 41.
@@billdodson207 When people say "US highway" they usually mean US route. It's not so much a road, as a path along many roads. So it may stretch across the entire country, and it's only referred to as 41 in certain areas. Otherwise local areas will have their own names for their sections of the road.
The system was designed for a total of 50 highways and it's grown so much bigger than that, because the US is massive, every time bending the rules a bit more to accommodate. It's not nearly as solid as the original inception. But it remains useful if you're a bit lost and you want to make sure you're going in a sensible cardinal direction.
and very few people remember that it is technically the "INterstate DEFENSE and Highway System". It wasnt built for the civilians, it was built learning from WW2 and the trouble armies had getting around quickly.
@@ZakhadWOW ngl trains are faster and more efficent is transporting heavy loads such as military personel and equipment then a bunch of trucks around the country, especially during eisenhower's presidency
Had to learn all of this a while back for a roadside rescue dispatch job, and it's honestly amazing how many little ways highways and interstates are designed to help you figure out where you are and where you're going. While we had the option to have the customer pull up GPS coordinates as a last resort if they had a smartphone, we almost never had to use it--most of the time, we could use a mixture of mile markers, exits, and landmarks to nail an exact location to send a tow to in minutes.
If you're interested in some of the behind-the-scenes of this video, I talked about them here: th-cam.com/video/f4_bqGqb4LQ/w-d-xo.html
Hi
What?? There’s a podcast where I can listen to Grey talk for even more time? Why hasn’t anyone told me??
I-238 is hilarious, but not the only ridiculous thing about interstates in the east SF bay. I-238 actually curves right (south-east) and continues into State HWY 238, which runs for about a mile alongside State HWY 185, until it curves into it and ABSORBS State HWY 185, while the path (keyword being State HWY) 238 looks like it would take, and what you would reasonably assume would be 185 (since 238 took over the path of Mission Blvd), is... somehow, State HWY 92 and turns into a bridge....
You are such a Tesla fanboy
I love it!
Was hoping you may do a video of current ev.nts
My 3 year old has recently become obsesed with all the 'big roads' that we drive on an their names and numbers, thanks for making this video so I can keep up the illusion that dad knows about everything!
illusion? you mean fact. ; )
so your kid's interstated in them?
That's so cool ! I love how kids get obsessingly passionate with anything that gets their curiosity rolling.
Kudos for great dadding on your part :D
@@eris4734 Their interest in interstates can't be overstated.
Man, the raw passion of little kids is awesome. When mine was that young they were obsessed with road signs. We managed to find a deck of cards with the various signs, which was fun - they ended up all over the house of course 😄
My Dad’s a truck driver. It amazed me that he could plan a cross-country road trip without even looking at a map. That sneak had a cheat code the whole time!
Up, up, down, down, beltway, beltway, start.
Truck drivers are a different breed I swear. My dad drove both trucks and buses, stopped like 15 years ago, but he to this day knows routes from one city to another off the top of his head, even bypass routes to avoid tolls and whatnot, it's nuts...
"You get used to it, I don't even see the code. All I see is bypass, beltway, north/south."
Same here. I'm tempted to show my dad this to tell him they're leaking the truckers secrets. Really though, I remember my dad teaching me all this as a kid, so this video was very much a well welcomed nostalgia trip.
@@PocketBrain ah yes the NES code you know NES stands for National Eisenhower System right
"I already cut so many from the script, you wouldn't believe it..."
Grey, you made a 21-minute video explaining why one particular detail didn't make it into a 9-minute video and gave you sleepless nights for the better part of a year. We believe it.
Release the "Interstate's Forgotten Code" CGP Grey extended cut now!
Hell I'd take a library of videos containing all the intricacies
That was the Tiffany incident, no?
we also need them
Waiting for the part two
My dad explained all of this to me when I was learning to drive, and it gave me enough of a basic understanding of Kansas City's geography that if I could only get to a highway I always knew where I was. We used I-70 every day.
Your dad’s a g 😎 if i ever have kids i’m teaching them this
It also hekps because a lot of folks not from Kansas or Missouri don't know there are two cities, Conjoined twins if you will, named Kansas City.
The 35E/35W finally makes sense! This was fun
No, it shouldn't. Argh! :)
when he told me there is a 35C i about lost it
Not as fun as that I-69 three-way.
Nice.
@@dbropx3547 that was I-69C, no?
Found the texan
I'm so lucky to be living in Australia. All I need to remember is that if I dive in any direction long enough I run the risk of dying in the middle of nowhere.
or driving into the sea
I live on a smallish island, and when I was younger and allowed to go out with friends alone, I'd say 'well it's not like we can get TOO lost, eventually we'll hit the sea'
If you live in the UK, just drive in a direction and you'll soon reach the ocean
@@cartler *angry Gibraltar noises*
Hahahaha!!! 😆😆 Funniest comment ever.
🤣
I love how Grey consistently makes videos about topics I didn't even know were topics before and manages to make the most seemingly "boring" fact into something whimsical and entertaining! :3
Its so nice when he uploads :)
America am I right?
I love the recurring charicters of the various departments of goverment! Like the DOT figure here
:3
@@lambchu6459 why you type that
I like how the DOT or department of transportation just sits in the back of the car with them.
As a truck driver (if that happened) it would be a nightmare 🤪😆
Cgp grey is type of person that when gets annoyed by something not making sense instead of giving up makes a youtube video to educate us all. He's an educational Angel
It's so we can share his annoyance and misery
And winds down a rabbit hole that gives us the history of Tiffany 🤣
indeed
I'm just amazed that you mentioned Kansas City twice in the same video.
kansas/missouri mfs when someone remembers they exist
Look Ma, we're famous!
I’m honestly surprised he mentioned wentzville too
Lmao right
As a Missourian, I am also honored we we mentioned multiple times.
I think the 805 in San Diego legitimizes the “05 in our hearts” part. It’s an interstate minor, so it has three digits; it starts in an even number, so it diverges from and reconnects to a major; but that major is the 5, so its last two digits have to be “05.”
Fellow San Diegan here. Thank you for pointing this out!
Don't forget I-405 east of Seattle.
Where exactly do Interstates pick up and drop off their definite article? The CA state line east/west and northern border of SLO, Kern and San Bernardino Counties? The top of Cajon Pass? Barstow? I get it that there are major routes though LA numbered 10, 110 and 101 so that without the "the" it'd sound like you were speaking binary but surely that's not necessary even beyond the outer suburbs?
@@denelson83 no, the 405 is in Southern California! oh wait, duplicates, damn duplicates!
@@ByzantineDarkwraith easy mistake to make -- "the 405" is in LA, but just "405" bypasses seattle
I drove truck for about 7 years. I learned this code early on by myself without anyone showing me. I memorized where each highway was and how many miles were in each state I also drove in Canada, and memorized those, too. It's been so many years ago I just remember some of it but remember all the interstate numbers and where they are. I miss those days.
@@gokulkrishm51 Everything you hear about the US is a lie manufactured by Israelis.
I used to memorize routes too. With GPS now days, nobody remembers any of that stuff. 😄
@@xxxYYZxxx I use my memory, as well as the GPS. It's easier, to use both.
This one-time at band camp
Naw you don't miss the days you miss the truck stop babes!
As a Pennsylvanian I appreciate the shout out to I-99.
An interstate system only Nami could navigate
When Logic is half assed...
In totality it's nonsense.
Basically what america is.
As a west suburban Chicagoan, same for I-88!
:0
As I am from Texas... hearing I-10 was so nice
Aswell as I-45
I love that you mentioned I-99! I was at the ribbon-cutting for it, where Congressman Bud Shuster (who was the powerful chair of the House Transportation Committee), told the story of why it was 99. I-99 bisected his district at the time and was his pet project. He said that he wanted to give it a double-digit number to make it sound more important, and he grew up in Pittsburgh where there was a trolly (or something like that) with the number 99. He said the US DoT pushed back and wanted to use the 3 digit system you described (since it was intrastate), but he ended the story by saying something like, "Well, you see who won that one."
Wow. That's a dumber reason than I expected. Impressive.
Ugh, and he's proud of breaking it, too. :(
basically everything wrong with our government in a nut shell. smdh.
To the crybabies above me.. it literally doesn't matter. It's a number. Stop pretending to care lmao
Ew… I wished I didn’t Google him…
He made up the claim that communists hated the civil rights movement, backed the claim by saying they did it to “embarrass us” (…while admitting he was recruited by the CIA in college), and then slipped his words in his own book and forgot he claimed he was in the military. He opposed airbags in cars…
Both he and his son Bill also seem to REALLY love lobbyists…
Ew……
But also that’s neat to know you witnessed the joke behind a tidbit of this video, I hope my comment isn’t hostile towards your neat story…
As a twin cities resident, I can say with authority that: Yes the E & W designations are there to keep the peace between the fragile egos of the state's largest city, Minneapolis, and the state capital, St. Paul. However, since the exit numbers on 35E remain consistent with the rest of I35s numbers, while 35Ws exits start at 1 and end around 20, its clear that 35W is the bypass.
Can confirm from a Dfw resident perspective
They should just amalgamate and have done with it.
I wondered for a long time why they did the E-W thing. What a silly reason, but it makes a little sense.
Ah yes, a fellow minneSKOTAn
The narrator just blew off the rest of the interstate highways that run through the Twin Cities. What about I494 , I694 or I94?
As someone from Minneapolis who was annoyed simply that 35W was considered the "exit" off I-35 from the South whereas 35E was the continuation, 35W (Minneapolis) and 35E (Saint Paul) were definitely named to not be bypasses. The rivalry is real!
I will move to Texas just to lobby for I-69U to be built. The nicest highway in the country.
nice
We have an I-69 in Michigan too. It starts out as N-S, but then switches to E-W. Weird expressway
@@dereko soo.... it gets erect? or goes limp?
@@MrKcspot Depends on how you go down on it
nice
For those wondering about the word Grey used twice that most US folks won't know....
Definition of anorak
1: a usually pullover hooded jacket long enough to cover the hips
2(British, informal) : a person who is extremely enthusiastic about and interested in something that other people find boring
I am by all means an anorak. Highways, rocketry history, competitive engineering (VEX Robotics), really specific bits of history, and nuclear weapons.
e.g. trainspotting, birdwatchers
I love that someone can be an Anorak for Anoraks.
Presumably from the clothing people had to wear for birdwatching, planespotting, trainspotting...
I hadn't realised that this wasn't a universal concept. Anoraks (the clothing) are typically waterproof and therefore became a sort of unofficial uniform for those who enjoy peculiar outdoor hobbies that involve sitting out in the elements for long periods of time.
0:09 Props to you for using the actual constellations there. Attention to detail!
As a native New Yorker, highway enthusiast, and questioner of why the L.I.E doesn't connect back to 95, I'm so happy you made this video.
It originally started at I-95 in NJ but was decommissioned to NJ 495 once there was no hope of a route through Manhattan.
@@DWNY358 ah the upper-mid-and-lower Manhattan Expressways…..
There was supposed to be a Midtown Manhattan expressway at 31st street and a sound crossing to Westerly Rhode Island. Also bizarrely a part of the LIE in queens I believe from the Clearveiw to Queens Blvd. is technically not designated as an interstate highway 🤪 rather NY495. But thankfully they don't show that to avoid confusion.
you mean the lie?
So the L.I.E being a LIE is actually TRUTH ... 🤔
I’m more impressed with the pronunciation of Sault Ste. Marie. Not many people, let alone, locals get that right.
Well, it's locally pronounced as SOO, from what my U.P. dwelling sister tells me. But I know that if they were being true to French it would be closer to "sew" since it is the French word used for waterfalls (indicating water "jumping") Same origin as somersault.
@@ZakhadWOW Absolutely pronounced as "soo".
Anyone who had history class and learned about Indians knows how to pronounce that lmao
@@ZakhadWOW Yup, it's pronounced "so" (/so/) in French. It's also cognate with "sauté".
Yea but he mispronounced Hialeah
If someone has asked me yesterday "Hey, would you care to learn about the American interstates?", I would've probably said no, but CGP Grey always seems to be able to take any subject and make it interesting and intriguing.
The original reason they were created is even more fun - to allow faster mobilization during the cold war.
No, I'm not joking. It's to drive tanks around.
@@MrNicoJac Correct me if I'm wrong, but I had also heard somewhere that, at regular intervals, stretches of the Interstates have to be long and straight enough to be used as runways, in case the Air Force needed to rapidly deploy aircraft to a given location.
@@MrNicoJac yep, Eisenhower saw the potential in them during ww2, he was also involved on a cross country mission when he was younger that went miserably and when he came into office, that was on his agenda.
@@subsidizer292 Sorry, but that's a myth. Aircraft need a long, smooth stretch of ground to safely land and take off. The curvy, bumpy nature of a highway will more than likely damage the landing gear of any plane trying to use it for combat operations. Sure, it's an option for a desperate pilot in an emergency, but let's be realistic. By the time every airfield and airport in the US is damaged beyond use in a theoretical war, would there still be aircraft flying around? Very unlikely, IMO.
5:50 - I-90 in New York has a “complete set” of auxiliary interstates, there is an I-190 through I-990 in the state.
Also, I-238 was numbered as such because, at the time, I-80 in California also had a “complete set” of auxiliary Interstates and they didn’t want to cause confusion by duplicating numbers within the state, so it was just numbered after the original highway, CA-238.
I learned the numbering system in high school in the early 80's when we studied US history. It was also explained in the drivers test study booklet they handed out at DMV. The LIE was just NY 495 when I was a kid. They turned it into an interstate so NY could get more federal funds.
IINM there is still a sign with the old NY495 designation on it, maybe coming off the Clearview or Cross Island, not sure, but it's the old white 'pushbutton'-looking shape with 495 inside it...Not been up there in a while but I could have sworn I saw it sometime in the 00's or early 10's.
@@slevinchannel7589 You're a pedophile? Pretty sure that's illegal bro.
The advantages of having one of the largest number of Representatives in Congress.
It still connects to other interstates, just not I-95. Originally though, it was supposed to connect to I-95. It would have crossed Manhattan on the unbuilt Mid-Manhattan Expressway, and continue through the Lincoln Tunnel, reaching I-95 in New Jersey. Either way, its construction quality (minus the potholes) certainly is enough to make the general public think of it as an "interstate", and thus it makes sense for it to be one.
But lots of highway sections got turned into interstate all over the place.
Greensboro NC had like 4 interstates running through it. And where they all converge, there's like half a dozen highways all coming in with the interstate roads.
They just meet and most of the highway numbers just go away and it's all interstates.
Grey's animation quality is getting awesome!! Props to him and his team!
h e l l o
hi
oooo let's get this 100 likes
@@trashbug4843 ok
yay this comment's growing fast
As someone who lives in the DFW area in Texas, I can confirm the I35 split being called “I35 west and I35 east” is because both cities would rather burn to the ground than be considered “the bypass city” of the other one…
You could get lost for days in the lore of the Fort Worth and Dallas rivalry
Just google “Why is Fort Worth called Panther City?” for a decent chapter in that lore.
And then there's Denton, where we have all 3 of the 35s... Not confusing whatsoever
Fort Worth. Fort Worth is the bypass city
Same with the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Back in the day, Minneapolis and St. Paul would use their police agencies to kidnap each others census takers to stop one city from growing larger than the other.
The worst thing is the fact that highways have like six different names with different cardinal directions in DFW. My GPS app would literally say, "Turn right on I-35 East South North Stemmons Freeway." Wut...
During the course of the video, the time slowly shifts from dusk to night, to dawn to day, and at the end back to dusk.
This implies Grey dragged this person all across the country in a single day.
This seems overly complicated. Here in Australia, we simplify matters by just not having roads at all :P
Who cares if it’s over complicated, this is America 🇺🇸
Use the southern cross and you’ll be right mate
Then how do I get to Gas Town or Bullet Farm?
We have road!
Just the one.
Goes all the way around 😁
here in australia we use a map not a secret code with like a dozen inconsistencies
Interesting fact about I-70 (in Maryland):
Its eastern end stops exactly at the Baltimore city limits after there was considerable push back against highways being built in the city, so it does not meet up with I-95. It in fact stops at a parking lot on Maryland Route 122.
Near this, there is an oddly placed sign that lists the distance to Columbus, OH (420 miles), St. Louis, MO (845 miles), Denver, CO (1700 miles) and lastly, the western terminus of I-70, Cove Fort, UT (2200 miles). It was placed there in 2004 to test a new font for highway signage (the font is called Clearview) and the engineers didn't want to put actual important information on it, so that's why it lists unrelated cities. Cove Fort isn't even a town, it's an actual fort built in 1867 by the Mormons as a resting stop of travelers and is now a historic site.
I pass that sign regularly on my way to BWI airport!
Wow!
Intresting facts!
Is the new font in use???
There's also free apples at cove fort if you go during the right time of year.
also interesting that i270 has an even lead number but doesnt re-connect to I70 like he said it should, it just ends at I495
This is kind of upsetting, but not nearly as upsetting as Breezewood, PA.
I'm from Finland and I don't have a driver's license. But here I am, watching a video about the US road system. Damn you CGP Grey!
Finland (to most people) is known to have the best drivers in the world with the best driving schools. So my brain glitched when you said you don't have a license. Out of curiosity, how old do you need to be to get a license in Finland?
I’m sure you’re still a better driver than most of the people using these roads.
I just bought a beautiful necklace from Rovaniemi !
Fellow Long Islander here. As soon as you explained the even number rule, I was trying to figure out how the LIE got 495 moniker. Fantastic video and I will always remember this when driving on that pothole riddled hell scape.
The "5" or "0" are the indicators of a long-haul interstate, so in that context, I-5 is perfectly logical, except when a spur route makes a route "105" or "205" etc. Great video!
Yeah literally that’s what 5’s spurs are!! X05.
Now they just need to fix I-5's roads
It's called a trunk.
Fun and informative. I think you can be confident that I-5 has a leading Zero since the spur(s) for it are 205 and 405.
Well they couldn't exactly have been 25 and 45, now could they
and 505 in winters
Almost commented this, glad to see it was already here
And 605 from Long Beach to Azusa.
Don't forget 805 in San Diego
6:44 I-238 in California has this number because (a) when it was built, all of the I-80 spur/loop minor numbers in California were already taken, so they had to find another number; and (b) I-238 connects to State Route 238, so it's sort of like a continuation. But it's still an annoying anomaly in the system.
Wasn't I-238 actually part of CA 238 that got converted to an interstate and they just kept the number?
@@sexagesimalian yea
It’s more reminiscent of how the UK does things, where A roads (which could be thought of as equivalents to state highways) that are built to motorway standards aren’t officially called motorways, but A roads with (M) at the end, i.e. A1(M). So Interstate 238 can be thought of as California State Route 238 (Interstate).
880 breaks the rules too because it doesn't reconnect with 80... and it's the same with 280 and 680
@@ZPS_STG With the Bay Area interstates, I assumed that minor interstates can connect with each other in order to have that even number
I was taught these when I was a kid but I bet a lot of people still don't know them... Until now... Thanks Grey
That Pinterstate emote rocks
I-PI
As a kid the nearest interstate was always over an hour drive to get to so learning the numbering system was rarely needed. Especially because the road went south to Syracuse and then you follow signs for Buffalo or Albany/Boston to pick a direction on the thruway. We still would have to drive to it for drivers Ed (or school of mom when drivers ed was dropped) to practice getting on and off the highway and only road you can legally go over 60mph on near us.
Now I'm in CT and GPS is a livesaver when i have to get to any random location in New England, and also to just not miss an exit.
@@mavrick45 can't wait for e^ipi joke
Is I-π a north-south or east-west highway? We should look at the last digit to find out!
I-238 is on the road bed of a California highway. When this important connecting highway was incorporated into the Interstate system it kept the same number. The original CA-238 was longer. Only the part between I-580 and I-880 was converted into an Interstate. The rest remains as CA-238.
Yes every state has its own system of highways with it'd own system of numbering.
I had a cousin who was obsessed with the highway system. His mom took him to stretches of highway as they opened up, and he had “keys” to cities all over the country. One of his favorite things to do was ask highway engineers about roads that didn’t exist.
Why would he ask about highways that didn’t exist yet?
Do the responses vary?
@@fishHater Because he thought it was a fun joke. Little kids have a silly sense of humor.
@@bensoncheung2801 I expect they did, but this was decades ago, when the interstates were still being built.
@@rabidsamfan makes sense
This is why I love driving in America. It’s so simple. I drove from Detroit to Miami recently, and the instructions consisted of, get on 75. Stay on 75. Congratulations, you’re in Miami
and 75 likes
Absolutely! I live in downtown Phoenix my mom lives in Southern California she’s about 3 minutes off of the 10 freeway I’m just over 300 miles down the 10 in a near straight line and 2 minutes off of the freeway
darn someone ruined it
That's probably the second easiest trip to plan...
Try san Diego to granny's neck, west Virginia..
Three-seventy-five likes
My driving class was taught about this exact subject. Our instructor (a teacher from a local school volunteering his time) saw that people were getting ridiculously lost while driving in Maryland, so he spent one class session covering how to navigate by interstate signs alone. It wasn't part of the curriculum... just him showing even more how underpaid teachers really are.
nice that he's teaching some life skills even if you might not need it one day... wait what im kidding... it's america...
@@PrograError it's definitely useful knowledge even if you have Google maps
They're paid just fine
@@TickleMyResearch Who told you, teachers, in America are paid fairly I want to see your source.
@@impulsivestargaming1791 my ex-girlfriend who is a teacher. Saying they are underpaid is criminally overgeneral, especially if you consider professors who are some of the highest paid individuals in the nation. Teachers getting full benefits and a modest salary for 9 months of work when they don't have to select the curriculum and essentially follow a lesson plan does in no way seem unfair. I am aware there are exceptions but this is a publicly accepted viewpoint that is just plain bs. Like many publicly accepted viewpoints, you score points by repeating it but if anyone actually did critical analysis it would fall apart in 5 seconds
You need to make a video showing how freeways work when you cross the borders such as taking I15 to Canada or going into Mexico.
Considering the bypasses and belts on I-5 are numbered "#05" (I-405, I-205, etc.) I feel like it's reasonable to say that I-5 does technically have a leading zero, even if they don't say it has one officially.
Being technically correct is the best kind of correct. Says who? Says Congress (in a previous Grey video)
405 is in la so it's just 405. as an Angelino I will die on this hill.
@@nick4506 Seattle has 405 as well.
@@staticvoidmain ok I concede that one has an I.
The 5 does have a leading zero! It only becomes visible in the 105, 405, and 605 in LA and the 805 in San Diego. Unfortunately, the 605 doesn't loop and the 105 doesn't extend that last mile to actually reach the 5.
Uhm, doesn't the I-105 go east and west?
@@ASalfity ignore my last reply i misunderstood.
i-5 goes north and south. i-105 is just a connector highway, so it doesn't have to strictly follow the rule
Also, as you can see from this comment, people in California say "The" before highway numbers. Nobody says "the 95" on the east coast.
and 205 and 405 in Portland, and 405 again in Seattle...
If Grey had grow up in Cali instead of NY, it would have been mandatory for him to explain why certain people always preface their intx with a “the”.
In my state, a very useful intrastate-interstate minor is I-17, which just runs north/south between Phoenix and Flagstaff, Arizona.
I was always told that odd numbers go north-south and even numbers go east-west. This made sense until I was about 15 and learned about beltways. I had been befuddled about it until now. Thanks CGP! 🤜🤛
Look up I-26. It annoys the hell out of me.
@@georgejones3526 The reason for I-26's directional designation is that it runs nearly perpendicular to the Atlantic coast, so from the perspective of the shoreline, it IS perfectly east-west. It's also worth noting that the segment north of Asheville, NC was not part of the original plan, thus eliminating some of the directional confusion.
I would gladly watch an hour-long video of Grey just naming all the exceptions. Or even just listen, there's no graphics needed. I just want to hear all the rage at the nonsense in the highway system. (I'm a traffic engineer)
Hell, I'm sure people in his community would donate the animations of just drawing them in amorphous blobs that are "cities" like they already are in this video.
I’m not a traffic engineer and I would probably listen to that.
Nevermind the exceptions. Read the whole rule book! I'll gladly sit here and listen for a few weeks straight
I'm an aspiring civil engineering major and I'd listen to that too
@@thomasvlaskampiii6850 It'll be like that time Grey read classic horror stories! Except instead of being scary, it'll be reassuring that there's a coherent system in place!
I like how DoT was along for the ride the whole way. The personification of depts is amusing.
5:29
New York has Interstates 190-990 for the nine unique spurs.
I-190 and I-290 - Buffalo
I-390, I-490, and I-590 - Rochester
I-690 - Syracuse
I-790 - Utica
I-890 - Schenectady
I-990 - Amherst, near Buffalo
The moment the interstate system's magnitude finally clicked for me was driving with a friend in Arizona and as we passed over I40, he looked and said, "We get on that and turn left at the last exit, we'll be at my house in North Carolina."
I'm from Southern California, but went to college in South Dakota. One of my favourite moments every summer was, after driving 9-10 hours to Salt Lake City, I get on the I-15 & the GPS says "continue straight for 958 miles".
(Well, actually I think it said "continue straight for 600-something miles" because there was a place in Las Vegas where it would say to "continue straight to stay on I-15 S", but I don't remember the statement, only the total distance)
For me it was being on vacation in north carolina and recognizing " US 441" when my GPS mentioned it. It's the same road I take to work every day in Florida.
Even though I’m not American, I once had a moment like this. I live in a much smaller country in Europe, and we have a system of two lane roads, built around the mid of the 20th century, and that connected all the important urban centres, called national roads. They’re essentially much smaller versions of your interstates.
Anyway, once I was going back to my (temporary student) house after a star-gazing weekend organised by my university’s astronomy club, and during the trip I noticed we’d just entered National 2, the largest of the National Roads (spanning around 750km, and uniting the northern and southernmost cities in my country). I casually mentioned that we were just two streets away from my parents house, and that’s when the realisation of how long that road is really hit me. For context, we were around 300-400 km away from my parents’ at that point.
@@Setheli216 Long ago, I took a trip from San Diego all the way to Portland, and the surreal feeling of hearing a GPS tell you that your next stop was in "Over a thousand miles" was amazing. Fun trip.
@@Igneusflama When I hear "US 441" I think of "American Girl" by Tom Petty.
"Well, it was kind of cold that night
She stood alone on her balcony
Yeah, she could hear the cars roll by
Out on 441
Like waves crashin' on the beach"
Fun fact: Part of the planning for these interstates was done by General Pershing in the 1920s. The Bureau of Public Roads asked the Army which routes would be best needed for public defense purposes. It’s why you’ll find that they connect military bases pretty easily.
Cool! Thanks for the interesting factoid!
@Nick V under martial law they will be.
@Nick V They are, but they throw in a little extra so we can all use them in the mean time. Another interesting thing about our highways you won't easily find published? Ever notice how sometimes there's a stretch of highway that's just really long, straight, and well maintained? I bet it happens to be near a military air field. Many stretches of highway are strategic defense assets to be used as runways if our primary airfield runways get bombed.
@Nick V as someone else said, if mainland invasion were to necessitate martial law, the interstate highway system would, as needed, be closed to civilian traffic (or at least most civilian uses) and some alternative road signs put up for DOD purposes.
@@charlesmckinley29 martial
I-238 has an interesting history, the number comes from the designation the route originally had, CA238 (which still exists to the south of this). When this section was updated, they wanted it to be bannered as an interstate, but there was a problem, there were no available minor numbers for I-80. 480 was still in use for the later removed embarcadero freeway, and 180 existed elsewhere in the state as a state highway. California won't double issue numbers unless the roadways are/were connected. So they ended up petitioning to use the interstate banner with the state highway number.
You know, this knowledge may actually be very helpful for geoguessr...
My old man used to say that the interstate was an amazing accomplishment. You could drive non-stop from coast to coast and not see a damn thing.
That's sort of the idea. It's for speed and convenience not for sight-seeing.
I bet he saw plenty in the rest areas
aside from when it cuts right through the middle of cities right?
20 years draggin waggons, I can confirm!
@@BluePieNinjaTV rarely ever. Only time you really get screwed is going through DC. Which sucks.
I am an immigrant and for a whole year I was obsessed with this topic. I would tell anyone who would listen. I even applied to work for DOT 🙈
I love it!
Please tell me you got the job
@@Animefreak242 well since my degree is in Communication, I wasn't too hopeful. 😂
@@jynxie17 DOT need PR people.
when I learned about how long these roads were, i loved the idea that "the same I-15 road in my town goes to Disneyland" and "i am homesick, but at least I know that I-80 would take me to mama."
That's how I feel, too. Specifically about I-15.
My family lives in SoCal, and we live in Salt Lake City, so a trip to visit family is just as easy as "get on I-15 and head south." Same for when we head to Vegas or to Disneyland.
Sure I usually get turned around once I actually get off of I-15, but at least 95% of the trip is already done.
I live in Texas and have family in Michigan. So it's always funny seeing I-69 from my hometown magically appear again on the way up.
same, I-95 I-10 takes me to my best friend
I live within a few miles of 1-5 and it was always frustrating because our other routes are way out of order, I-405 being in the center but all the other being in the most random parts and not in any sense able order. Then we got the Pacific coast hwy on top of that and people who do not live in the state get so lost.
Honorable mention is I-19 in Tucson, AZ. Its the only interstate marked in kilometers in an attempt to synchronize with metric system and the rest of the world.
That crazy Arizona! Using their own Interstate numbering, measuring in metric, and ignoring Daylight Saving. They make their own rules!
This factoid needs to be known
There are many road signs in other states, usually near large research facilities that give distances in miles and kilometers. We have several here in TN. But NC has some too, and in VA near the laboratories near DC.
I-17 and I-8 are also marked in Kilometers and Miles and also parts of I-75 in Michigan
@@peggybarthel633 Sounds more like the only sane state.
I am 100% here for Grey digging up "obscure" systems of organization in this manner.
Can do something similar with naming convention of "avenue", "street", "road", "boulevard", etc
The only one I think I know is that if it's called a "Drive," then it's a dead-end street.
@@MoeBabaloosh I think court means there is a cul-du-sac
@@MoeBabaloosh I live on a drive that is most decidedly not a dead end.
Id like to see a follow up with the route system.
I think that one is left up to your local area, like city, town, and village (which in Georgia are considered by the state to be interchangeable).
German Autobahns have a similar system. Even numbers are west-east and odd numbers north-south. The higher the number, the more insignificant (shorter) that Autobahn
I believe the concept of the interstate system was based off of the Autobahn directly, something about WWII and the ability to easily move troops across the country. That's what I remember from 10th grade anyway, but you know reliable history is
@@cleetuscuts89 Yes the Allies really liked the system and brought it back with them. Thank you Eisenhower!
@@timlecount8690 Also Ike had to move a lot pre war, due to being an officer that constantly was sent to another post and he LOATHED the old system without interconnecting highways across the whole continent. The Interstate project is a bit of a combination of both this loathing and his experiences in Europe.
@@Ugly_German_Truths yeah I believe it took him nearly 2 weeks to cross the country which he absolutely hated. Now it’s only a couple of days.
Look up the International E-road network, which the Autobahn is part of.
You skipped the mile markers! They're the biggest help when navigating cross-country. Knowing California is only 98 miles away when driving west-bound 80 through Nevada is the most comforting thing.
Fun fact about I-87 in NC: Even though it’s a medium interstate, it’s only 12 miles long and connects to the much longer (and larger) minor interstate I-540, which is 27 miles long.
And to make things even weirder I-540 is actually a loop that is completed by NC-540. Soon, you’ll be able to drive along one 60 mile loop all called “540” but it’s secretly two roads, both of which are longer than the one of the real interstates it connects to.
i87 continues up in New England, doesn't it? i87 up to i84. I take that route to bypass the George Washington Bridge when I go from PA to NE.
I stick to the northeast as a truck driver, so I don't know many roads other than a few up here.
And NC-540 is a toll road, while I-540 isn’t. So at a certain point it looks like you can keep going, but you shouldn’t if you don’t want to pay.
I can verify being a north carolinian.
I’m building it right now!! I-540
@@Ryan_Carder separate roads
“I already cut so much from the script you wouldn’t believe it” Grey, my dear, we expect nothing less of you 😂
He's just teasing the 30 minute video in which he explains his reasonings for each omission.
after watching the tiffany torture video i think we can all believe it
As a Marylander I have always wondered why we have so many 95's and why traveling to DC or Philadelphia there were other branches of I-95 like ours. Thank you for this.
I love I-95. Driving through North Carolina at 80 mph feels great lmao
Of course, the best part is that 295 is mostly not an interstate. Everything north of the SE/SW freeway in DC (i.e. I-695, though it's only actually been signed as such for a few years) is a DC and MD state highway.
@@SSGranor i295 is an interstate, its just not the one ur thinking of.
the parkway between dc and bmore is indeed a state highway
@@shayan_idk Yes, that's what I said. The portion of the road from the 695 interchange down to its southern interchange with the Beltway is an interstate. The rest is not.
This is very confusing for people who aren't from DC. Also 295 and 495 and considered bypasses to 95 but 95 just turns into 395 then 695 then just ends in the middle of DC.
In Cincinnati, there’s I-471, which is a spur that terminates in the middle of Highland Heights, so even the leading odd-even number rule is inconsistent.
swag like ohio
As a Marylander, thank you for spelling out how this mess was supposed to work. Would've been nice to have learned this in school.
ikr, I feel like they should have taught this in our state's schools at the very least
we had a chance with 200, could have been 995...
@@mapsking379 yeah, not even driver's ed tried to explain this stuff to me when I took it and this was back when "nighttime minutes" was the norm...
I don’t think I ever laughed so hard when you said that “maybe the L.I.E really is a lie”. As a Long-Islander I really enjoy making fun of my own “island”
Did they restore the Interstate designation to the entire length of the LIE? Most of it? Last I recall, it'd become NY 495.
I was so happy when he dedicated a whole segment of the video to us Long Islanders 🥰
I thought it was Portal reference. You know, the pie is a lie.
Why doesn't I-495 (Long Island Expressway) even connect to its parent I-95?
@@samseddmedia It would have, via the Mid-Manhattan Expwy.
I remember driving on I-215 in Nevada and just sputtering with indignation when what should have been a "loop" dumped us onto a ordinary highway, with *traffic lights* for Pete's sake. My wife didn't see what the problem was. But then there's still a place on I-70 where the road just stops being an Interstate for a while, so I guess there are bigger problems in the world.
Oh yes, Breezewood, Pennsylvania!
At least there’s a ramp that puts you on the 95 right there, I think it was easier to end the 215 and build a connecting ramp than rebuilding that whole section of the 95. I understand your frustration though
The I-70 one I can accept, because it at least has a story behind it. (Federal DOT didn't want to build a ramp, state DOT didn't want to build a ramp, neither one budged, they just made it a regular intersection.) I can just treat that as a geographical oddity, like a weird enclave.
Where? In southern Utah I-70 turns (or turned) back into a US highway for a while. It may have been built through by now; I drove through back in 1984 and there were a bunch of huge, partially completed, bridges and ramps alongside the highway. From the looks of them they had been in progress for decades.
When it comes to interstate 76, filling the massive void in between segments is probably easier than it looks as it could run through Southern Nebraska via Nebraska City and Beatrice in through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana then rejoining 76 in Ohio
I think you’re right about I-5 having the invisible zero as Portland has an I-205 & I-405 and Seattle has its own I-405.
There's another I-205 in California.
When I lived in Calif. back in the 60s and 70s, I-405 ran from southern Orange county to San Diego.
@@glennruscher4007 now it runs from southern Orange County to the San Fernando valley.
San Diego has the 805
@@TeeBar420 that’s kind of a weird one being that it refers to both the 8 and the 5
I now want a video where Grey discusses every interstate, as well as every minor exception. Maybe even a whole podcast, I don't know.
Please! I'd love something like this.
YES I want this
Hello Interstate
Yes
"You sonuvabitch, I'm in!" - Some Rick and Morty character, I dunno
Little late to the party but something that I think is absolutely awful is that the I69 is also called the I59 (or just the 69 and the 59) in northern Houston
Shoutout to I-35, where it's basically one continuous city from San Antonio to Austin (technically even further north to Georgetown) at this point with all the suburbs in between developed out and probably one of the few places in the country you can be stuck in traffic for 120 miles if you catch it at just the right time. Also one of the only places where the toll road isn't actually any faster than the actual road despite the speed limit being 85mph thanks to being built so far out of the way due to people wanting to make money on selling the land (so the story goes).
yeah but Austin was included weird things were bound to happen
ugh, always getting stuck in Waco...
which is why we need alternate modes like walking, biking, busses, and trains to alleviate congestion and make everything better for everyone
It's almost out to Jarrell now... and from there, a hop-skip-jump to Killeen/Belton/Temple... and another to Waco.
@@rylencason4420 Technically 80 miles from city center/city center, but more like 45 miles from outskirt-outskirt. Still a bitch to drive.
The Long Island Expressway actually was planned to meet up with the 95, but cancelled plans divided I-495 into the interstate and State Route 495, aka the Lincoln Tunnel. There were also plans to extend the 495 east back into Connecticut to connect it back to the 95.
You’ll be happy to know in Seattle, 405 diverts around Seattle and reconnects later, so yes. i-5 is really I-05
There’s also an I-405 in Los Angeles that diverts to the Westside and reconnects to the I-5 in Irvine
Wait till he has to explain how US 101 is a two digit number per the highway system
There's also an I-405 in Portland that might as well not exist, at least for geographical purposes. It's about two miles long, and bypasses downtown Portland by running directly behind it, cutting it off from the rest of the west side of the city. It does reconnect with I-5, though, with both ends of the cutoff being within sight of each other....
Also if you live around 405 you probably have a phone number with the area code 425. This is probably a coincidence but feels like it should be related somehow.
@@Calber11 I got my 425 area code. actually live right in the middle of i-405. Literally passes through the middle of my town.
President Eisenhower traveled coast to coast on roads before the interstate. He was concerned about the length of time and difficulty of travel. With the threat of national security, Eisenhower realized there was a dire need to move military equipment from coast to coast more expediently. That was the original intention of the interstate. Commerce and ease of travel for citizens was a second benefit. Where geography and probably other considerations would allow, he wanted 1 out of every 5 miles to be straight. That allowed for numerous possible editors to be used as runways in case all Air Force bases were destroyed.
One tidbit omitted from this video: higher interstate numbers are in the east and north and lower numbers in the west and south to contrast with the US highway numbering system, which has higher numbers in the west and south and lower numbers in the east and north. (US 1, the lowest numbered US route, runs, like I-95, from Maine to Florida, terminating however in Key West.) This, like the omission of I-50 and I-60, was done to reduce the potential for number confusion between Interstate and US routes.
Makes sense. I was wondering why Highway 99, which runs almost completely parallel with I-5, was numbered that way.
then there's california SR1 which is about as far west as you can go in the contiguous US
Here in Quebec they made it even simpler imo.
Odd number indicate north/south bound
Even number indicate east/west bound
Lowest number are close to the US/Ontario border (South-West)
2 digit: freeway connecting major urban area
400 and up are auxiliary freeway, they connect to other freeway or major arterial roads.
The second and third digit indicate which highway it connect to
Eg: the 440 & 660 highway deviate traffic away from the 40
Speed limit is 70kmh in dense urban area (people drive 100anyway) and 100kmh outside of urban area.
100/200/300 are roads that connect less densely populated cities/town
Speed limit is 90kmh, 70 when close to urban area and 50kmh in towns
Exit number are based on distance. Lower exit in South/West of the highway.
Sucks if you're in Kansas or Nebraska though. They're pretty... Middle of the road
Another Florida fact: The letters for A1A don't stand for anything. That's the state highway that runs along the Atlantic beaches, and it was renamed from State Route 1 solely to avoid confusion with US-1.
When I heard you explain I-69, all I could think of was this one event where they had to change I-420 to I-419 to get people to stop stealing the signs
Edit: Thanks for those who corrected me in the replies. It was actually some mile markers that I mistook for highway signs
A 420-mile marker in Colorado also kept getting stolen to the point where, instead of replacing it with yet another 420-mile marker, they ended up putting a 419.99-mile marker.
@@willch.2259 okay, that’s funny
I-69 runs from Houston all the way up north to Lansing before taking a sharp right turn and going off towards Canada. I'm sure somewhere, along all those miles of signs, after all these years, surely at least one person has stolen one of those signs.
Also as another side note, they diverted the original path of I-69 around Lansing, but the old path is still designated as Business 69, if you want a more professional sign to pilfer
@@Jawsfanz just north of Lansing, I-69 changes from I-69 North/South to I-69 East/West
I 69 is in Indiana right?
After watching this I had read about the Brazilian highway system. In Brazil they classify highways as, 0xx radial (from the capital), 1xx vertical, 2xx horizontal, 3xx diagonal nw-se and 4xx conecting highway.
Were the radial numbers changed after the capital was moved? Or only put in place after?
That's similar to England + Scotland
Is there… ne-sw?
@@adjoint_functor pair numbers if they're going nw-se, odd for ne-sw.
Having been a geography and map nerd since I was old enough to read I just sort of assumed everyone knew the interstate numbering pattern, but I have learned that is not the case. There are also quite a few exceptions all over the country. There are 2 in my area. I-71 runs mostly N/S with a bit of an E/W diagonal, but the rule it breaks is that it is mostly East of I-75. The other is I-670 in Central Ohio; it is a spur, as it only connects to I-70 at the west terminus, so it should start with an odd number. It is strange that it doesn't because I don't think there are any odd numbered 3 digit routes in Ohio. Lots of 2s, 4s and 6s, so it probably would have been less confusing to start it with an odd number. I-675 in SW Ohio is another odd one because it is a diagonal that connects to both I-75 (S terminus) and I-70 (N terminus).
For the ancient times without GPS... OR for a perfect score in Geoguessr!
I'm not sure it would help in Geoguessr that much. I remember that time I found a sign (surprisingly rare in America apparently) and it was I-90. I got excited, tried to find it, somehow succeeded and then later realised that it's the longest road in the US and that finding it on the map did absolutely nothing to me
At least now I know why I could find an interstate number for example I-675, locate it on a map and still end with less than 1000 points due to it being a completely different I-675.
@@dorithegreat6155 I haven't played geoguessr much myself, but from hours of watching others playing, I have seen quite a few instances of people finding the exact spot using among other things this info.
@@dorithegreat6155 All about finding supplementary info! Knowing area codes for phone numbers, shapes of state highway signs, names of cities, license plate colors, and exit numbers (although only relevant after knowing the state) among other things goes a long way for helping narrow down or pinpoint your location.
@@TheKeksadler being european, that seems like way too much effort to me. Over here you just need to identify language and find some roadsigns. America doesn't even seem to have roadsigns. How the hell do you know where you're driving, I have no clue. USA is like the worst place that you can get on geoguessr
I just looked it up, and it's as I expected. I-495 in New York was originally supposed to connect across Manhattan, and there were plans for a bridge or tunnel to connect the eastern end back to I-95 in either Connecticut or Rhode Island. Whether those were original to the design or not I don't know.
Yep the NIMBYs in Connecticut didn't want it
ya connecting LI to anyone north is a big issue between the sound being so deep and the other dots and locals not wanting to see it
Grey, it will please you to know that I-90 in NY has a complete set of spurs from 190 to 990! Their geographic location makes little sense as the 190 and the 990 are both in Buffalo, but the set is complete 😊
As a Buffalonian, I was confused about the 190 part. Doesn't it loop back around in Cheektowaga even though it's number indicates it would not?
@@RyanNellis Uh... the 190 starts in buffalo where the 90 branches off from the Buffalo Exit and the Erie PA exit and ends at the QEW In Lewiston taking you through Grand Island and Niagara falls
@@trancex777 I guess I'm confused because you could take the 90 up to the 290, then take the 290 to the 190, then get BACK ON the 90 to head back down towards Erie. Just a big loop. So wouldn't that mean it allows you to "get back" instead of being forced to Canada no matter what direction you take? I might be overthinking the whole thing but now I'm fascinated by it all.
@@RyanNellis it's a straight line I work in Buffalo but live in niagara county I take the 990 to 290 to the 90 to 190 m-f I've been tempted to just take the 190 from the falls to Buffalo but not as fast and 190 only connects to the 90 in Buffalo and 290 in Tonawanda near grand island
One spur should just be a jump off the Niagara Falls.
I really liked this video as I had many questions regarding interstates. My biggest question was the fact that there were interstates that didn't even cross a state, so I kept worndering why they were called that. You answered basically all of my questions and I thank you a lot!
Dude, that is seriously one of your best videos! For years, before smart phones and Waze, I was the family navigator with my collection of maps. I knew some of these facts but learned a whole lot more from the video.
I live in Maryland, and now I'm going to hope for a 995 in the future.
I love how you made this both informative and entertaining. I remember my dad telling me when I was a kid about the even highways being east-west and odd are north-south, but didn’t know (or remember) all of the other intricacies of the system.
“I-35W” in Texas is actually I-235, but is signed I-35W “for the convenience of the traveling public.” At least that’s the way it was when I worked in the Road Inventory Section of the Planning Survey Division of the pre-DOT Texas Highway Department while attending the University of Texas in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s. There was a rush project to computer code all segments of the state’s highways, and the system did not allow for letters - only the digits 0 through 9, so no “E” or “W”. “I-35E” is officially really just plain ol’ I-35, as evidenced by the continuous milepost markers.
That’s fascinating
I always travel from Dallas to Austin and back, and roads are still confusing to me
35E & 35W are holdovers from the initial numbering of the Interstate system, when there were several other suffixed route numbers for splits serving larger regions and longer spurs. These suffixed route numbers generally came into being as compromises because certain regions wanted "mainline" interstate numbers and not the three-digit auxiliary numbers. There was a concerted effort to eliminate the suffixed interstates I believe in the 1970s-this led to things like what was I-80N becoming I-84 in the western US. The I-35 E/W split in Dallas/Fort Worth and its counterpart in Minneapolis/St. Paul were the only vestiges of that system remaining (likely because neither city wanted to see their 35 "demoted" to an auxiliary interstate) until the I-69 mess was introduced in Texas in the last decade.
If I-35W were really designated I-235, they'd change the signs-there's no convenience factor using 35W on signs as opposed to 235. I would believe that 235 could be/could have been an internal TxDOT designation for the reason you state though. It also makes sense that one of the 35 branches maintain milepost and exit number continuity for overall cataloging purposes...I think MN chose 35E for their split also.
Dallas resident here, nothing has changed since then
Part of why I watch with morbid curiosity, wondering when/how responsible parties will someday designate highway ID (and maybe milepost exit numbering) for the NJ Turnpike. South end of road does not have an Interstate designation, middle section is I-95 has inner & outer roadways (easier to deal with), north end splits to Eastern & Western spurs (I-95), and a branch-off (the Newark Bay Extension) picks up I-78 designation but has exit numbers coordinated with Turnpike scheme (not I-78 exits up to that point)
Thank you for acknowledging 80 starts/ends in Teaneck, NJ. I have heard too many people say it starts/ends in NYC
You can say "has a terminus". (just saying)
@@balam314 true. I was a little hyped to be this early to a video. Words are hard when you are early to a legends video.
I was unnecessarily pumped when he started with I-90, which is the interstate I grew up with and the one I currently live next to. Anyplace along that route is an honorary "home" in my book.
@@rmdodsonbills I grew up a mile away from I-90. I loved interstates so much...I was I-90 for Halloween once
I love I-238 because it's 8 - 5 so 23 and they both have an 8 for the leading zero so 238, and since it connects back to a road it's evenly numbered, technically making it a BYPASS (Which is wrong and right at the same time.) I love how much sense it makes while also being so confusing. That's now my favorite Spur.
Finally, CGPGrey is back! Something mildly interesting completely over explained! This is what the people want!
Judging by the comments, it's actually UNDERexplained because every resident of every state can casually list dozens more exceptions and notational theory fo justify their highway numbering system
I’m patiently waiting for the 20 minute companion video that has all the minute details that didn’t make the final cut of the original video
so glad you covered the LIE specifically. when you started talking about even numbers indicating bypasses my mind went right to my home long island expressway which doesn’t connect to 95 anywhere!
They probably wanted to, but new york was one of the few cities that fought against tearing down half the city to make room for highways going straight thru, so the plans for doing so where eventually abandoned
As an utter non-New Yorker, part of me still appreciates that the highway planners were like "Screw it, ignore the numbering convention and also just end the highway somewhere in Midtown, those Long Islanders will figure it out!"
@@argh523 annoying to highway enthusiasts, but so much better for city life and culture!
I was thinking the exact same!
I would hope that someday they figure out some sort of bridge/corridor to connect to I-95 that bypassed the city.
I say corridor because then you could also put some rail in it to reduce the car load.
Thanks for saving the lives of my ragtag tribe when the apocalypse hits 👍
Yes
Another strange exception. I-290 in Central Massachusetts. It runs from Auburn, MA - Hudson, MA, primarily connecting the Cities of Worcester, MA and Marlborough, MA. While it does spur off from I-90 in Auburn, it does not reconnect to I-90 at all, instead linking up with I-495 which itself is a beltway around Boston from I-95.
291 does that too
7:14
I can actually explain this one for Minnesota. Back in the earliest days of the system, having highways that were labeled by direction were actually the norm rather than the outlier. In most places this has been entirely phased out. but not up here. Mostly because the highway people couldn't actually decide which was the main route and which was the bypass, and so they basically said "screw it" and just kept the directional tags. They figured it didn't really matter since it unifies out of the cities anyways.
I imagine the other one in Texas would be tthe same.
From Minnesota myself and I like to retain the idea that St Paul and Minneapolis are and will always be stubborn brothers
Pretty lame till I see the aliens...
@@DormantGolem I'm from the Twin Cities. I can confirm we have a friendly rivalry.
PS (St. Paul > Minneapolis)
I-84 in Oregon/etc was originally I-80N, but the "other" I-80 was not 80S...
So basically what he said then
I love seeing the connections between Grey's old videos and his new ones. Cross country roadtrip? Time to do a video about the interstate system!
And don't forget some tumbles and the blue Tesla for flavor
I had to rewind and pause at that image to study it, lots of subtle detail!
And of course congress playing on the swings during their infinite recess as ever.
Glad to see the return of Bailey Blue, even just for a cameo.
Interstate 41 in Wisconsin was recently dedicated (and also missing from Greys map) by simply upgrading the status of an existing US Highway. By sheer luck and coincidence, this route happens to also be US Highway 41.
Still unclear about US Highway system - there's a US 41 in south Florida also
@@billdodson207 US-41 routes from Copper Harbor, MI to Miami, FL.
@@billdodson207 When people say "US highway" they usually mean US route. It's not so much a road, as a path along many roads.
So it may stretch across the entire country, and it's only referred to as 41 in certain areas.
Otherwise local areas will have their own names for their sections of the road.
@@billdodson207 it’s the same highway. It stretches all the way from the UP to Miami
Ha, I just assumed that was always an interstate. Apparently it was upgraded in 2015 so that was just before I came to Wisconsin.
The nice I-69. Clever script. Love it. Growing up in Queens & LI resident myself, I was itching to see the I-95 and 495 mentioned.
The system was designed for a total of 50 highways and it's grown so much bigger than that, because the US is massive, every time bending the rules a bit more to accommodate.
It's not nearly as solid as the original inception. But it remains useful if you're a bit lost and you want to make sure you're going in a sensible cardinal direction.
I wonder if we could just expand into using the thousands place.
@@Appletank8 or maybe just alpha decimal, then you have a whole lot more options with still only 2 to 3 characters on the panels
and very few people remember that it is technically the "INterstate DEFENSE and Highway System". It wasnt built for the civilians, it was built learning from WW2 and the trouble armies had getting around quickly.
It's a bit of a show that any smoothly thought out ordering system tends to break into insanity the more real life complexity it has to deal with.
@@ZakhadWOW ngl trains are faster and more efficent is transporting heavy loads such as military personel and equipment then a bunch of trucks around the country, especially during eisenhower's presidency
The sfx and colouring in this is amazing! oh, and the music. The team did a great job making this feel so whimsical
Had to learn all of this a while back for a roadside rescue dispatch job, and it's honestly amazing how many little ways highways and interstates are designed to help you figure out where you are and where you're going. While we had the option to have the customer pull up GPS coordinates as a last resort if they had a smartphone, we almost never had to use it--most of the time, we could use a mixture of mile markers, exits, and landmarks to nail an exact location to send a tow to in minutes.
Love how he waited to say the moral of the story until the last five seconds