The phantom interstate, and other tales from the highway

Here's a surefire way to avoid those awkward silences at a cocktail party—drop in a few of these Did You Know's? and watch the conversation rev back up:

• I-95 through New Jersey is actually an optical illusion. The town of Hopewell, N.J.. stopped I-95 construction in the 1970s. Today, the New Jersey Turnpike carries the I-95 Interstate System shields even though about 20 miles of its planned route between Trenton and New York City do not officially exist.
• Construction of the U.S. Interstate Highway System was the largest earth-moving project in the history of the world – nearly 42 billion cubic yards of earth were moved.
• Alaska is the only U.S. state without a single mile of interstate; by comparison, Hawaii has 55 miles of interstate.
• Up until World War I, the state of Alabama used to require each of its citizens to work 10 days a year maintaining the state's highways. Of course, wealthy fat-cats finagled a way to pay an extra tax instead of doing the labor—then as now, some things never change.

June, 2004

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