To NORTHEAST!
May 14-16 2023
PART 5
US 20 in Auburn, Mass. It's hard to see, but those Interstate shields use button copy.
Another major city! I-290 takes us through Worcester.
I-290 actually runs a little east of downtown.
I-290 continues in Worcester.
The ramp going overhead forms I-190.
As I-290 crosses Lake Quinsigamond, you can see the MA 9 bridge in the distance.
They make a big deal of I-290 ending. The freeway narrows and becomes MA 85C.
I-290 ends at I-495, a far outer bypass of Boston that grazes a couple smaller central cities.
The conclusion of I-290.
I-495 forms a 122-mile semicircle around Boston.
As I-495 crosses the Merrimack River, this is a view of Lowell, hometown of Paul Tsongas. I'm sure Tsongas was a nice guy, but I was more of a Tom Harkin man.
Keek! Ruan! I-495 approaches its end at I-95, but it doesn't have a direct exit to I-95 south.
Massachusetts has this "NOTICE" business every time an Interstate ends.
Another state? Naw, it can't be! As we enter New Hampshire, I-95 forms the New Hampshire Turnpike. This toll road opened in 1950, and it lets New Hampshire make money from travelers between Massachusetts and Maine who are in New Hampshire for only 16 miles. Another state like that is Delaware, where the Delaware Turnpike and Delaware Memorial Bridge require tolls for the brief distance in that state. Those little states are rakin' it in!
New Hampshire uses the Old Man of the Mountain as its state route shield - making it one of few states that uses something that no longer exists as its shield. That's if you don't count states that use a round shield, as records and bubble gum bubbles aren't as common as they used to be.
They have a highway guide sign for a liquor store!
Oddly, the main destination on I-95 here is "Maine points."
All Maine points? Even someone's toilet?
Here's where things really start to rule! On I-95 in Portsmouth, the Piscataqua River Bridge comes into view!
The 4,503-foot-long Piscataqua River Bridge opened in 1972 and carries I-95 to Maine!
Looking down the Piscataqua River at the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, which carries Byp US 1. This 2018 span consists of the thick columns you see at center and replaces an old bridge of the same name that was open from 1940-2016. Like the current bridge, the old bridge was a double decker, with a road on top and rail below. The towers in the background at center right are for the World War I Memorial Bridge, a 2013 bridge carrying US 1. That replaced a bridge that was in use from 1923-2012 and is the only one of the bridges here allowing pedestrians. In 2012-13, pedestrians and cyclists had to use a shuttle to cross the river.
The Piscataqua River Bridge enjoys a 135-foot vertical clearance over the river.
Finally! Maine! The only other time I had been to Maine was briefly during my 1991 trip, but it dominated several days of my 2023 trip.