Richmond Highway, Also Known as: U.S. Route 1

Route 1, begun in 1926 and running 2,377 miles from Fort Kent, Maine, to Key West, Florida, is the easternmost U.S. national highway and connects such cities as Miami, Richmond, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, and Portland.

Prior to 1926, our roads were numbered haphazardly and most interstates changed designations at the state border. You could be traveling on one numbered route in Maine and be on the same road by the time you reached Maryland, but you would have been on a half dozen differently named streets.

But the Joint Board of Interstate Highways settled on Route 1 for the entire extension and began to have the states through which it traversed add the designation along with whatever local nomenclature had become commonplace. So you have Route 1 signs along the Pulanski Skyway in New Jersey, along the Overseas Highway in Florida and along our neighborhood route.

By 1950, with the construction of the Interstate Highway System, Interstate 95 (I-95) became the major north-south highway, though it is shorter (1,925 miles) and has yet to be completed (expected in 2018). But that multilane interstate simply became the bypass road of choice for those traveling non-stop, north to south, across 15 states. If you actually wanted to stop off to see any of the states you were traversing, you were much better served by switching to Route 1, which, because it is made up of so many localized chunks, has retained each state’s character along its home stretch.

In Virginia Route 1 is known as Jefferson Davis Highway and in our neck of the woods we know it as Richmond Highway. For us, it is the central artery of our community and the go-to location for goods and services. Most of us use the road to commute or shop daily or cross it to visit friends and relatives. It is home to every conceivable business, residence, and organization from a classic Krispy Kreme shop to the latest Starbucks and Gold’s Gym, from pawn shops and eating dives to Staples office supplies, and from county government offices to hotels, single homes, and apartment complexes.

The route has had many lives and news stories told about each, it also continues to be a focal point for Fairfax County redevelopment. Among its intricacies, Richmond Highway has had an erratic development history and continues to have such a mix of land use that property valuations for plots of land that are next to each other are intriguingly inconsistent.

4th of July – 5 Things I Love About America – MangoZeen

I was born in the USA. Bruce Springsteen sings the line in his hit BORN IN THE USA about fifty times. The Thai go-go girls at Tahitian Queen 1 dance to that song every day. None of them join in the chorus, but the ex-pats on the bar stools chant every word of the refrain to their teary compatriots so far from the Land of the Free.

“Born in the USA.”

While there is a lot I like about the USA, this song is not one of them. I mean Bruce keeps going on and on like he has amnesia or an early care of Alzheimer’s Disease or that people are so stupid that he had to sing 400 times so they got what he was saying.

Anyway here are the five things I love about the USA.

1.) Road trips.

Several years back a friend and I were discussing why he liked his Ferrari. He said it was for the freedom. At the time we were sitting in bumper to bumper traffic on the Verrazano Bridge. The open road is for fast cars and just cruising.

Route 100 in Vermont. Route 25 to 113 in Maine. Route 1 beyond Ellsworth Maine and south of Homestead FLA. The PCH anyway there isn’t a city. Las Vegas-Grand Canyon-Monument Valley-Arches-Capitol Reef-Bryce Canyon-Zion Canyon-Vegas. The Jones Beach Parkway. Anyplace in Montana. In fact I like these trips because they remind me of being free.

In Montana the speed limit used to be ‘WHATEVER IS REASONABLE AND PROPER’.

I was zooming on Interstate 90 outside of Billings at 110mph. Passed a semi-trailer and spotted a state trooper. Two choices. Put on the brakes or else keep up to speed. I chose the latter, because the former was an admission of guilt.

Montana recently changed that speed limit due to a class action suit by motorists with shitty cars who said the speed limit was prejudiced against them.

Freedom of expression challenged by those too slow to care.

It’s unAmerican, but then what isn’t these days?

Not #2

2.) Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

I was once asked for my philosophy of life.

The question stumped me.

Zen, Nihilism, Materialism?

Not a chance.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Especially the latter.

Fun fun fun.

3.) Baseball.

Baseball has been the great American pastime since before the Civil War. The game is played all around the world no matter what the teabags (Brits) think about it. Baseball isn’t half as boring as Cricket although I appreciate the bravery of the infielders’ barehanding the hard-hit ball.

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