Before I make any road trip, I trace the route along the aerial images on Google Maps or Bing Maps to see if I can find any old alignments. Even though I’ve visited US 40 in western Indiana more than once and thought I knew it well, I’m glad I still traced the route this [...]
Posts Tagged as ‘abandoned roads’
17 August 2009
Nature always wins
When I was a boy, I saw a TV movie about a group of people who had survived World War III by going underground. A few years after the nuclear holocaust they emerged to see if the land was habitable. They got into a car they found, started it up, and drove it down [...]
22 June 2009
Where Lincoln first entered Illinois
I just love to find an old brick road. This one used to be US 50 as it entered Illinois after crossing the Wabash River from Vincennes, Indiana.
Notice how the fellow who owns that house parks his cars on the old highway? A roadgeek’s dream!
You may have noticed that there’s no bridge in that photo. [...]
28 May 2009
This post is brought to you by the letter S
I have this writer/artist friend who tries to get my engineering-school-educated roadgeek goat by saying things like, “Bridges are named after people who stir the soul, the poets and the artists! That’s why you never see bridges named after engineers!” In response, I usually make pshh noises and say things like, “Seeing his design built [...]
11 May 2009
Abandoned 1930s National Road pavement
The automobile created demand for good roads in the early 20th century. Dirt and gravel were upgraded to brick, cement, and asphalt. Hills were leveled, valleys were filled, and curves were straightened.
Not quite two miles past the Wilson bridge west of Hagerstown, MD, lies this example of state-of-the-art roadbuilding circa 1930. A straightened and widened [...]
