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Interesting Highway Facts

By Miller Langhorne
  1. Florida's 719 miles of toll roads are the most of any state.
  2. Florida's longest stretch of highway is US1 running 545 miles from Key West to the Georgia border.
  3. The Interstate highway system, which was started during President Eisenhower's administration, lets individual states set the speed limits for the Interstate highway segments within their borders. 
  4. Direction determines the highway number. East/West highways are even numbered, North/South are odd numbers.
  5. The Interstate sign shield design is trademarked (Registration #835,635) and can't be used for commercial purposes. 
  6. The only gravity hill in Florida is Spook Hill in Lake Wales. A gravity hill has a surrounding landscape that makes it appear that something, like a car, is rolling uphill.
  7. The round white signs you see along the roadways are part of the Florida Memorial Marker Program. They can be requested by the family of someone killed in a highway accident and are inscribed with “Drive Safely, in Memory” followed by the deceased's name. 
  8. The Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys is actually a bit short of being a full seven miles long. If you haven't rode it, you may have seen it in several big screen movies including True Lies and Licence to Kill.
  9. I-95 is the nation's longest north-south Interstate. It stretches 1,920 miles and passes through 15 states from Maine to Florida.
  10. On a multi-lane highway, the lane near the median is called the passing or fast lane. In theory, this lane should only be used for passing. Don't you wish everyone knew this?