Freeways: The Names of Old
I realized recently that I am one of the last people I know to refer to I-84 as “The Banfield.” Even less common is calling I-405 “The Stadium Freeway.” And most obscure of all, a nomenclature I only heard from aging Old-Portland family friends: “The Baldock” for the stretch of I-5 going south out of downtown. Yet the Sunset Highway (versus Hwy. 26) still goes on strong.
Portlanders and west-coasters also seem to eschew the definite article before freeways (which are also never called “expressways”–how silly that sounds to my Pacific ear!): it’s “I-5″, never “The 5.” I-405 can be called “405″ but the 5 always needs its I.
What about you? Are you all numbers or do you find it warms your heart to recall a mid-century transportation chairman* with each directional reference?
* Thomas H. Banfield, Chairman, Oregon Transportation Commission, 1943-50
We used to refer to I-5 going north as the Minnesota Freeway. My family lived on Minnesota Avenue until we had to move to make room for the freeway. After usage of Minnesota Freeway kind of faded away it became “the Seattle freeway”. I can still remember when Hwy 99 was the only route to Seattle. Man I’m getting old!
I moved here from Chicago where using the names of highways (e.g. the Dan Ryan) was the standard. One thing I appreciate about the naming scheme over the (sole) use of numbers is that the names can denote a portion of a larger highway. I-5 is huge! so when we give portions of it regional names, our speech is more specific and more “homey.” I, for one, want more names for our highways (or freeways as I got used to calling them where we had tolls). What can we call that stretch of I-5 between Salem and Portland? Can we call that part of I-5 from downtown to Vancouver, “The Interstate?”
I have a hunch this could be confused with Interstate Ave., which runs just west of I-5 in that segment.
How about the “Gridlock Freeway” or “Vantuckian Way” or the “Tax Avoidance Turnpike”?
Don’t tell anyone, but I grew up in Orange County, California, and it was always The (whatever) especially The 5, The 55 and The 91.
Yeah, I’ve always associated people who put “The” where the “I” should be in freeway names with Southern California.
And therefore, of course, with my Portland smugness I always make a point of never saying “The” in connection with freeways. Not to mention that it sounds weird…
I lived in Phoenix for about eight months and the radio news would always report traffic using the “names” of the freeways rather than the numerical designations. Looking at my map, I had NO idea what they were talking about and felt really lost — and stuck in a traffic jam. Luckily Portland has far fewer “named” freeways (and traffic jams) so I was able to learn them relatively quickly. Although, it /was/ probably two years before I knew I-84 was the “Banfield”. I’d prefer that everyone use the numerical names like “84″, “26″, “205″, etc. rather than Banfield, Sunset, or whatever 205 is also known as. Just looked it up: “War Veterans Memorial Freeway”, oh of course.
It’s true that I-5 north to Vancouver has a nominal tag of the “Minnesota Freeway” and that it’s because that’s the name of the street it almost completely displaced.
Old maps I have have I-5 all the way to Salem marked out as the Baldock Freeway/Baldock Expressway (depends on the vintage there). I don’t know why the idea of calling it the Baldock fell out of favor, though it may have had something to do (on the official level anyway) with the fact that when it was completed, Mr. Baldock was Not Dead Yet™ (you know how they typically don’t name things like ships after people who are NDY™ … well that’s the way it used to be anyway).
An alternative name for the Stadium Freeway is the Foothills Freeway, because it runs right along the base of the West Hills, of course. I prefer the Stadium as a name; the Foothills Freeway sounds like it belongs in Los Angeles (no hatin’ on LA; just sounds more appropriate there).
And the section of I-5 that hugs the Willamette across from Downtown, from the Marquam Bridge to the Fremont Bridge, is actually nominally tagged the “Eastbank Freeway”.
And the “Sunset Highway”? Not as you might think named as such because it runs off toward the sunset (which it does) but after the US 41st Infantry Division – the Sunset Division, whose members were from the Northwest in the main. Fun fact for this one, its original name was the Wolf Creek Highway, after the Wolf Creek drainage in the Coast Range that it runs off toward. Trouble was, few people are/were aware there is a Wolf Creek off in the Coast Range, so that name never stuck.
I’ve never heard a Portlander refer to “The 5″ or “The 84″ &emdash; always with the “I” or just the number &emdash; but I have heard a couple of people saying “The 405″. One thing it’s got me thinking about is whether “the” depends on context. It seems more natural for me to say “get on 405, going south” but I could see myself saying “I live just on the other side of the 405 from here”. In the first case 405 is a road, in the second, it’s kind of an abstract obstacle.
Actually, I do occasionally, but it kind of depends who I’m talking to at the time. I know a good many people who don’t come from hereabouts and are either transplants or long-term visitors and my speech likes to borrow interesting forms from others’ ways of talking and play areund with it a bit sometimes.
I *am* a native Oregonian … but have only lived in Portland about 20 years, so that’s me for you. Came from the Salem area originally. FWIW.
I’m in the Banfield and Stadium Freeway camp, but never heard “The Baldock” used before. I do hear The Banfield used in traffic reports and whatnot, so other than Sunset Highway, that’s probably the most commonly referenced name I hear (and use). Golly, that almost elevates me to Native Oregonian status.
That’s right, it almost does.
However, and this isn’t widely known either, that freeway rest area just south of Charbonneau/Wilsonville is officially designated the Baldock Rest Area. Had a sign on the shelter in that place for many years.
I grew up in Portland in the ’50s and ’60s. I-5 between the Ross Island Bridge and Salem was called the “Baldock Freeway” or the “Salem Freeway.” From Tigard to Salem it was marked “US 99.” (When first opened, it was called the Portland-Salem Expressway). The I-5 marking was added in 1961 or 1962.
I-84 was called the Banfield Expressway; later “Banfield Freeway” caught on. Back in those days, it was “US 30.” Later, the I-80N designation was added. In 1980, it became I-84.
Real Pacific Northwesterners NEVER say “The 5″ or “The 84.” That is the mark of a California transplant.
“An alternative name for the Stadium Freeway is the Foothills Freeway, because it runs right along the base of the West Hills, of course. I prefer the Stadium as a name; the Foothills Freeway sounds like it belongs in Los Angeles (no hatin’ on LA; just sounds more appropriate there).”
There actually IS a Foothills Freeway in Southern California, running along the north end of the Los Angeles basin (the southern end of the San Gabriel Mountains). I believe it is officially signed as Interstate 210, and is still under construction the farther east you go on it.
Been a couple years since I’ve been down there, but I’m pretty sure it starts at I-5, runs east through Pasadena, crosses I-15 north of Ontario, and continues toward San Bernadino, but hasn’t been completed.