Interstate 95: The Highway That Lost Its Number

For about thirty five years, the most important highway on the East Coast of the United States did not connect to itself. Interstate 95 runs from Miami to the Canadian border. It is the spine of the eastern seaboard, the road that ties together Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston, and it is the busiest Interstate in the country. And if you were driving north on it in nineteen ninety, somewhere in New Jersey, the signs simply stopped saying Interstate 95. The road under your tires kept going. The pavement did not change. The lanes did not change. But the number changed, and Interstate 95 was suddenly somewhere else, and it was your problem to figure out where. Millions of drivers dealt with this for decades by memorising a workaround. And the gap was not caused by a mountain, or a river, or a canyon. It was caused by a toll road that did not want the competition. LOCATIONS FROM THIS VIDEO: The old gap — where I-95 became I-295 at US 1, Lawrence Township, NJ: 40.2828, -74.7028 Bristol interchange, Bucks County PA — the 2018 flyover ramps that closed the gap: 40.1194, -74.8447 Scudder Falls Bridge (now I-295, formerly I-95): 40.2836, -74.8489 Where I-95 resumed on the NJ Turnpike — Interchange 7A, Robbinsville, NJ: 40.2136, -74.5561 Somerset Freeway corridor that was never built — Hopewell Township to Piscataway, NJ