Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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Indeed, the original maps don't even show Raleigh, which appears to be the only state capital east of the Mississippi to suffer that indignity. (Jefferson City and Pierre were also left off.)
The pre-Interstate highway network (see this 1926 map) influenced the Interstate system. I-95 follows US 1 except between Petersburg VA and Jacksonville, where it follows variants of US 17. Two ideas why: (1) as mentioned above, access to Fayetteville, Charleston and Savannah may have been deemed important by DOD; and (2) of the three routes headed south from Petersburg [15, 1, and 17-1], maybe 1 didn't have as much traffic as the others.
I bet if you overlaid railroads of that time over the old road maps, you would see the railroads and highways parallel one another. Fayetteville at that time was just Camp Bragg (doesn't get big until WWII), but it was still used as an inland port (Cape Fear River). Same thing goes for the ports of Charleston and Savannah.
I-95 ultimately followed US-301, rather than US-1. Why? At the time, these were the cities deemed by the state to be "major cities", west to east: Asheville, Shelby, Hickory, Gastonia, Statesville, Charlotte, Concord, Salisbury, Winston-Salem, Lexington, Albemarle, Thomasville, High Point, Greensboro, Reidsville, Burlington, Durham, Fayetteville, Raleigh, Goldsboro, Wilmington, Wilson, Rocky Mount, Kinston, Greenville, New Bern, Elizabeth City.
Early highway planners would have looked at this map and seen that US-1 went through Raleigh, whereas US-301 touched Fayetteville, Wilson, and Rocky Mount. The US-301 route also split the difference between Goldsboro and Raleigh, which seemed equally important.
I-95 ultimately followed US-301, rather than US-1. Why?
Read the thread. Proximity to Ft Bragg, Seymour Johnson, Cherry Point, and Camp Lejeune was one reason. Politics was another. The fact that 301 always carried more people between the northeast and Florida was a third.
Read the thread. Proximity to Ft Bragg, Seymour Johnson, Cherry Point, and Camp Lejeune was one reason. Politics was another. The fact that 301 always carried more people between the northeast and Florida was a third.
The Interstate highway system was partly built to facilitate the movement of military vehicles - makes sense that the bases in NC would get some sort of priority (Eisenhower recognized that the Autobahn in Germany played a major role in being able to move troops around)
I don't think Raleigh is isolated, especially not these days. Raleigh will eventually have another interstate, I-87, connecting it to I-95 North in Rocky Mount and the Northeast, as well as the Hampton Roads metro in Virginia. Raleigh already has access to I-95 South via I-40 to Benson. It would've been out of the way if I-95 itself went through Raleigh. Raleigh will also have the added bonus of having I-42 nearby, linking it to the Crystal Coast. If anything, Raleigh is practically a hub.
Another possibility, and I hope it happens, is that NCDOT could upgrade US-1 to interstate standards between I-540 and I-85 in Henderson and designate that as a spur of I-85, such as I-685. I-87 connects east Raleigh to I-95, but does nothing for north Raleigh.
I'm surprised Raleigh hasn't been pushing for US-1 to become an interstate. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
People have interests in trains, planes and more... you are the first person i met who lives and breathes highways ( nothing wrong with that, just peculiar).NC has the most highways i bet... more than any state i bet... or will soon have more. Without looking it up im betting this, lets see what folks will find. Im interested to know.
People have interests in trains, planes and more... you are the first person i met who lives and breathes highways ( nothing wrong with that, just peculiar).NC has the most highways i bet... more than any state i bet... or will soon have more. Without looking it up im betting this, lets see what folks will find. Im interested to know.
Umm.......Texas? California? Any state bigger than us?
But in terms of state-maintained roads, NC is 2nd because there are no "county roads" in NC. Unless a municipality is responsible for maintenance of a road or street in this state, NCDOT is.
In terms of mileage for sure but what about actual roadways designated interstates.
why does that matter for your hypothesis? You claim that NC is paving over the state with roads. That would mean that North Carolina would have significantly more mileage (total and/or interstate) than other states similar in size. That isn't true.
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