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Streets ending with “trail” seem to be increasing in the Pacific Northwest. I would guess this has to do with wooded areas increasingly becoming more populated.
The main street is still called Calle Principal in some old Spanish cities like Monterey CA and Las Cruces NM. Also in Monterey, the famous Cannery Row.
French Quarter streets are signposted as "Rue Bourbon", with no mention of Street.
In and around Lexington KY, streets that eventually lead to another city are callled, for example, Nicholasville Pike.
But New Orleans also has “boulevards” correct?
That’s a French word. Not surprisingly it has an interesting way of elevating a road. At the risk of sounding Franco-centric, I’d daresay every road, terrace, street, circle, parkway, paseo, way, calle, camino and rue would rather be a boulevard.
In Cookeville TN, 12th Street becomes "Gainesboro Grade" as it leaves town and heads towards the little town of Gainesboro in the next county. Around here when people refer to "the grade" when giving directions, they mean the highway to Gainesboro. "Head out the grade and turn right at the 2nd Dollar General" for example.
Trace must be an older word for a very primitive road. When Tennessee was still part of North Carolina, the NC legislature ordered that a "trace" (Avery's Trace) be built through Cherokee territory over the Cumberland Plateau to connect Clinch Mountain (Knoxville) to French Lick (Nashville). Most of the trace was too rough for wagons. The word "trace" is still used in some neighborhoods in the area, usually in pretty swank neighborhoods with large homes that I guess want to seem historic even though they're not.
Lots of streets named "trail" particularly in thickly wooded neighborhoods with meandering streets. And even one street that must've been named by a developer who used to live in a German speaking country: Russell Strausse. The city eventually made the developer add "road" which I think is sad.
That’s a French word. Not surprisingly it has an interesting way of elevating a road. At the risk of sounding Franco-centric, I’d daresay every road, terrace, street, circle, parkway, paseo, way, calle, camino and rue would rather be a boulevard.
Well, boulevard is actually an English word as well (though obviously with a French origin), and it's one of the more common road designations in the U.S. from Hawthorne Boulevard in Southern California all the way to Melnea Cass Boulevard in Boston. It does imply a certain grandiose nature, and I suspect most 'boulevard' designations are found in larger urban areas for significant thoroughfares. However I also suspect none of them in the U.S. quite measure up to Paris's "Grands Boulevards".
Another and even more common designation in the U.S. with a French origin is "avenue". Interestingly, much like 'boulevard', it's much more commonly used in the U.S. than in Commonwealth countries. Perhaps a result of the Franco-American alliance of the founding years?
Mukilteo Speedway, Mukilteo, WA (north Seattle suburbs). Just a regular 4-lane road, not a limited-access highway
Reminds me of Buffalo Speedway in Houston, also a 4-lane road for the most part.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag
A portion of Bellaire Blvd in Houston got renamed “Dai Lo Saigon”, where Dai Lo is the equivalent to Blvd/Street. That area obviously has a high concentration of Vietnamese
Officially it's still Bellaire Blvd, though, i.e. you can't exactly use "Dai Lo Saigon" as mailing address AFAIK.
And it has a high concentration of Vietnamese business, but the Vietnamese population are pretty much scattered all around SW Houston along with parts of Fort Bend County, along with parts of SE Houston anyway...
Well, boulevard is actually an English word as well (though obviously with a French origin), and it's one of the more common road designations in the U.S. from Hawthorne Boulevard in Southern California all the way to Melnea Cass Boulevard in Boston. It does imply a certain grandiose nature, and I suspect most 'boulevard' designations are found in larger urban areas for significant thoroughfares. However I also suspect none of them in the U.S. quite measure up to Paris's "Grands Boulevards".
Another and even more common designation in the U.S. with a French origin is "avenue". Interestingly, much like 'boulevard', it's much more commonly used in the U.S. than in Commonwealth countries. Perhaps a result of the Franco-American alliance of the founding years?
Probably the single most famous example of a "boulevard" is the Champs-Elysees in Paris. Ironically, though, the thoroughfare that most typifies a boulevard is actually an Avenue.
As for odd street suffixes, Columbia, Maryland has several Mews. It also has some Rows and a few Garths, plus quite a few streets that don't have any suffix at all.
Austin has "Barton Skyway" which at one point was supposed to be a bridge crossing over Barton Creek. It was never built, and as a result it is just a small disjointed road that dead-ends into each side of the Barton Creek Greenbelt.
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