Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 9
TRANSIT
n.
: a piece of surveying equipment used by mapmakers:
a theodolite with a reversible telescope
There are map people
whose joy is to lavish more attention on the sheets of
colored paper than on the colored land rolling by. I have listened to accounts by
such travelers in which every road number was remembered, every mileage re-
called.
—JOHN STEINBECK
I
t's a spectacularly beautiful day for a drive in the Pacific Northwest. Mount Rainier
looms above the blue waters of Commencement Bay so big and clear that it looks like a
special effect. Behind it tower summer banks of golden cumulus clouds straight out of a
MaxfieldParrishpainting.ButthetwomenI'mdrivingwithseemoblivioustonature'swon-
ders. They're interested in a different kind of scenery.
“That bridge we just crossed was built in 1928. It was widened ten years ago, but the
plaque there is still stamped with the original date,” says Mark Bozanich, who is behind the
wheel. He's a slow, thoughtful talker with a slightly scraggly white beard, the prerogative of
thewiseoldgeekinvirtuallyanyfield.“Andthatbridgewe'regoingundernowstillhasthe
old Milwaukee Railroad logo, did you see that?”
John Spafford, in the passenger seat, is a somewhat younger guy with frosted blond hair,
still clipped as short as it must have been during his eight-year career in army intelligence.
He's been explaining the snarled traffic caused by a state route that essentially dead-ends to
our southeast. “There's a missing link between Tacoma and the 167, the Valley Freeway. It
comesdownintoPuyallup,andnowyou'reconnectingwiththe512that'lltakeyousouthto
I-5, but there are plans to expand it all the way up to the port!” Visions of a six-lane limited-
access bypass from Tacoma all the way north to the Seattle suburbs dance in John's eyes.
Mark and John are self-confessed “roadgeeks,” as these amateur highway scholars prefer
ing off locomotive numbers in little notebooks, so have roadgeeks appointed themselves the
guardians of America's road network, from its mighty interstates to its tiniest country lanes.
They can tell the difference between a Westinghouse streetlight and a GE one and are the
only ones who notice when the lettering on interstate signage is switched over from High-
wayGothictothenewClearview font.(Hint:Lookforthecurvedtailonthelowercase“l”!)
They follow road construction projects with a regularity and fervor that others might re-
serve for a favorite soap opera or sports team. They know why there's one I-76 in southern
