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--- transportation:transportation [2024/08/21 23:26] – [Highways] timb
+++ transportation:transportation [2025/08/10 22:23] (current) – [Highways] timb
@@ Line 359: / Line 359: @@
 https://practical.engineering/blog/2024/8/19/why-are-texas-interchanges-texas-so-tall
+== WWII, the autobahn, Ike, the Interstates, and one-mile-in-five ==
+July 25, 2024 - jwh1975
+Earlier this summer I was talking with a fellow veteran and the subject of “one-mile-in-five” on the Interstate highways came up.
+The vague gist is that before WWII, Germany designed its famous autobahn network with war in mind. Near WWII’s conclusion, Gen. Eisenhower was impressed with the autobahn and during his later Presidency ordered a copy of it made, the USA’s Interstate system, mostly for military reasons including for US Air Force bombers to use when their bases got taken out by Soviet ICBMs – and one mile of every five is straight and level for this reason.
+Like many Americans I have heard this before and in fact, the specific highway identified by my acquaintance (a certain stretch of I-80 in Nebraska) I have also previously heard as an example location.
+This is the type of thing that enough Americans have heard that it becomes accepted through cycles of repetition. To anybody who has driven the endless straightaways of I-15 in Utah or I-70 in Kansas it probably seems reasonable that bombers could land there, and there is usually somebody in earshot to interject “yes he’s right, I’ve heard that too”.
+“One-mile-in-five” and the military on the Interstates in general, has equal portions of real fact, misconstrued things, and outright error. Mostly in wwiiafterwwii I cover weapons and equipment; for readers who prefer that I will return to that in the future. Perhaps this will be of interest however.
+https://wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/2024/07/25/wwii-the-autobahn-ike-the-interstates-and-one-mile-in-five/
+===== Wisconsin =====
+== Alphabet Soup: Why Wisconsin’s County Highways Are Lettered, Not Numbered ==
+The State's Road-Naming System Has Been In Place For More Than 100 Years
+Jenny Peek - November 27, 2019
+If you’ve taken a drive on one of Wisconsin’s iconic scenic roads, chances are you’ve noticed a bit of alphabet soup.
+Signs with names like BB, CV, N and SS flank Wisconsin’s county roads, and Shelly from Marshall wanted to know why.
+She asked: “Why are Wisconsin’s county roads labeled with letters instead of numbers?”
+So WPR’s WHYsconsin reached out to Daniel Fedderly, executive director of the Wisconsin County Highway Association — a nonprofit organization that represents the state’s 72 county highway and public works departments — to find out.
+https://www.wpr.org/transportation/why-wisconsins-county-roads-are-lettered-not-numbered