Skip to main content

All Things NC! Update Thoughts

This past week I have been working on an All Things NC! Update. I formally announced it today. There are a few things in the update that I am very happy about.

First, the opportunity to have memories of what I like to call my second home, Gaston County. One of the routes NC 274, I lived off of and my work was off of it so I was on it daily. But also in doing the updates top the pages for NC 161, 273, 274, and 275, I recalled all the times I saw the termini. Also, each of them had photos I took of my own when I lived there. I could remember a lot of it. Some like the ends for 161 and 275 I took in April of 2001 when I first moved there. It was really my first exploration of the county and it was the first trip that really allowed me to call the area home. Other photos were taken in the summer of 2001 and I just remember how the area was along the border. It was a nice surprise to get those photos in the mail.

Another Gaston County memory was the abandoned I-85 ramps near Eastridge Mall. These ramps were once part of a connector between Franklin Blvd. and I-85. It also was a temporary end of the highway around 1963. Now it serves as an access road and a bypass of heavy traffic around I-85 and Cox Road. I never got down to take photos (I also didn't have a digital camera then) and I was surprised to see that a lot of the paint on the old ramps are still there. Chris Curley took great shots as always.

Oriental, NC is another one of my favorite places. I really grew attached to the place in taking sailing lessons from a work colleague in 2004. I added five photos taken December 2004 the last time I was out there. I moved to NY in February-March 2005. The sunset bridge photo was the subject of my 2005 Christmas Cards. I showed Craig and his wife the page, and they both commented, "Looks awesome, but it needs more photos, when are you coming back down?"

I am very proud of the I-40 History Page. It really is the first detailed NC Road History page I have done. It has been on the drawing board for about three years. What I find the most amazing about the entire backstory is that, the state really has tried for 40 years to build interstates to Morehead City and Wilmington. Oddly, what I-40 became was never part of either the 1963, 1968, or 1970 proposals. Plus, I do wonder what the three spur proposals made in 1959 entailed. As always, there are new questions to ask. Why were the various proposals rejected in 1963 and 1970. Were there more made in 1968? Were there more made in other years? When and why did Gov. Hunt change I-40 to go to Wilmington? Was there really any consideration for I-40 going to Morehead City. And as some have suggested, are the upgrades to US 70 part of a compromise to Morehead when they lost out on I-40. However, the page is now out there, and who knows more leads can come from that.

I did not do two items to the update. The 4 US 70's of Selma/Smithfield I decided to hold since Brian LeBlanc is hoping to get photos next weekend. I also decided to not add some of the older postcards of the Central Highway because I'm not exactly sure what my plans for them are at this time.

So what is next: Virgina...cutouts and signs..Mike Roberson sent me some US 15 photos, I have some photos of my own, and i may extend US 29 to DC with some information onthe Lee Highway. Depends on how much information I can dig up.

Florida...Steve Williams has sent me some photos and I am trying to get some more before I introduce a page. Hopefully, the next roll of film will have more St. Augustine photos and I can tie that in with a gallery.

Comments

Enjoyed the I-40 history page.

Great work as always, Adam! :)

Popular posts from this blog

Old River Lock & Control Structure (Lettsworth, LA)

  The Old River Control Structure (ORCS) and its connecting satellite facilities combine to form one of the most impressive flood control complexes in North America. Located along the west bank of the Mississippi River near the confluence with the Red River and Atchafalaya River nearby, this structure system was fundamentally made possible by the Flood Control Act of 1928 that was passed by the United States Congress in the aftermath of the Great Mississippi River Flood of 1927 however a second, less obvious motivation influenced the construction here. The Mississippi River’s channel has gradually elongated and meandered in the area over the centuries, creating new oxbows and sandbars that made navigation of the river challenging and time-consuming through the steamboat era of the 1800s. This treacherous area of the river known as “Turnbull’s Bend” was where the mouth of the Red River was located that the upriver end of the bend and the Atchafalaya River, then effectively an outflow

Memphis & Arkansas Bridge (Memphis, TN)

  Like the expansion of the railroads the previous century, the modernization of the country’s highway infrastructure in the early and mid 20th Century required the construction of new landmark bridges along the lower Mississippi River (and nation-wide for that matter) that would facilitate the expected growth in overall traffic demand in ensuing decades. While this new movement had been anticipated to some extent in the Memphis area with the design of the Harahan Bridge, neither it nor its neighbor the older Frisco Bridge were capable of accommodating the sharp rise in the popularity and demand of the automobile as a mode of cross-river transportation during the Great Depression. As was the case 30 years prior, the solution in the 1940s was to construct a new bridge in the same general location as its predecessors, only this time the bridge would be the first built exclusively for vehicle traffic. This bridge, the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge, was completed in 1949 and was the third

California State Route 203 the proposed Minaret Summit Highway

California State Route 203 is an approximately nine-mile State Highway located near Mammoth Lakes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Mono County.  California State Route 203 as presently configured begins at US Route 395, passes through Mammoth Lakes and terminates at the Madera County line at Minaret Summit.  What is now California State Route 203 was added to the State Highway System in 1933 as Legislative Route Number 112.  The original Mammoth Lakes State Highway ended at Lake Mary near the site of Old Mammoth and was renumbered to California State Route 203 in 1964.  The modern alignment of the highway to Minaret Summit was adopted during 1967.   The corridor of Minaret Summit and Mammoth Pass have been subject to numerous proposed Trans-Sierra Highways.  The first corridor was proposed over Mammoth Pass following a Southern Pacific Railroad survey in 1901.  In 1931 a corridor between the Minarets Wilderness and High Sierra Peaks Wilderness was reserved by the Forest Service for po