Finding New Life on an Old Road

wired news ^ | Oct. 27, 2003 | Michelle Delio

[freepatriot32]

YORK -- Richard Weingroff really loves roads, as long as he doesn't have to travel too far on them.

Weingroff, information liaison specialist for the Federal Highway Administration and the FHA's unofficial historian, doesn't have anything against roads -- he just doesn't like to travel much. But when he does hit the road, he sticks to the new interstates and steers clear of the older secondary highways.

[Moose4]

Sounds like a trip I would love to take. Several times in my 20s, I just took a week off work, jumped in the car, and racked up 2000 miles in 8 days, wandering all over the Southeast just for the hell of it. The America that's off the Interstates and out of the cities is, I think, the best part of the whole country.

(And they'll be driving about a half-mile from my apartment, just off US 1 in the very un-scenic northeastern suburbs of Columbia, SC!)

}:-)4

[upchuck]

And driving smack through the middle of my town, Aiken, the prettiest town in SC.

[patton]

The temptation to chime in here is almost...overwhelming.

[expatpat]

Route 1 is indeed the ugliest major highway in the country.

[XRdsRev]

Unfortunately Route 1 in New Jersey is not a Colonial Road in most spots. Portions of Rt 1 in Trenton are very old but the main portion of the road was laid out in the early 1800s. In central NJ, the King's Highway (Rt 27) which runs a mile or two west of Route 1 is the much older road with great Colonial/Revolutionary War history. Ben Franklin, George Washington, Cornwallis etc. etc. would have traveled the King's Highway not the then non-existant Route 1.

[GreenLanternCorps]

The correct term is: "Road Geek"