Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
ia's odd, fractionally numbered county routes.
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Scratch a roadgeek, and you'll find a maphead; virtually all their stories begin with a
road atlas, scrutinized for long hours during one of the endless driving vacations of child-
hood. Mark grew up carefully tallying the traffic signals on Highway 99 between Seattle
andhisgrandparents'houseinPortlandeverysummerandstillhasavoluminouscollection
of old gas station maps. John inherited his family's navigator position at the tender age of
nine, when a road atlas got thrown at him in the backseat after Mom misread the map once
too often. For years, a buff like Mark or John would study the highways with the sad con-
viction that he was the only person in the world so fascinated with cloverleafs and control
“roads scholars” were surprised to discover thousands of like-minded enthusiasts all over
theworld.“Great,”Mark'sdaughterlikestotellhim.“Allfiftypeoplethatareinterestedin
highways can now find each other.”
Even better, the Internet gave roadgeeks a place to “publish” their work. Photography is
a huge part of roadgeek travel; when test-driving a new car, the dedicated buff will always
check to see how a camera would fit up front, the better to take dashboard photos of every
mileage sign and junction of their future expeditions. Buffs might feel a little silly keeping
thousands of these snapshots in shoe boxes under their bed, but on the Web, they can be
sharedwiththepublic:apermanentrecordoftheirjourneys,evenifnooneeverlooksatit.
Every roadgeek website includes pages of these nearly identical photos, an endless stream
of green rectangles and “Exit Only” arrows and the taillights of semitrucks. These aren't
rare findings, like a bird-watcher's photos; after all, millions of motorists see the exact
same views every year. But central to the roadgeek urge is the certainty that these journeys
must be documented—collected, even. Roadgeeks often boast of how many routes they've
of systematic travel.
Andmaybetheverybanalityofthesedriver's-eyeslideshowsistheirrealvalue.Though
therestofusmaytakeitforgranted,theU.S.InterstateHighwaySystemisoneofthemost
remarkable engineering feats ever conceived. Its origins date back to 1919, when a young
armyofficernamedDwightD.Eisenhower,missinghisfamilyinCalifornia,agreedtojoin
a cross-country convoy
of military vehicles heading for the West Coast. Part of the com-
pany'smissionwastofindoutifthesetrucksandstaffcars—whichhadjustwonagrueling
trench war in Europe, mind you—were even
capable
of surviving the trip. In 1919, driv-
ing from sea to shining sea wasn't the leisurely five-day tour we know today. Paved roads
largelydisappearedoutsidemajorAmericancities,sotheconvoyhadtocontendwithmud,
dust, ruts, unstable bridges, and even quicksand. Their “successful” entry into San Fran-
cisco came sixty-two days after starting out (an average speed of six miles per hour!), and
