Don\u2019t you hate misleading headlines? I’m not really revealing a secret because it hides in plain sight. The information was publicly available as long as one knew where to search for it. I\u2019m talking about a so-called “secret” Interstate highway route recently outed by the District Department of Transportation in Washington, DC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a number of secret Interstates. Actually, more properly transportation officials call them “unsigned” Interstates. Lists of them exist all over the place. I guess if I wanted to get even more technical I should call them unsigned Auxiliary Interstates because they all have 3-digit designations. I\u2019m not a road geek so please forgive my lack of precision. I know this actually matters to some of the 12MC audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lots of sites on the Intertubes insist that there are 21 secret interstate routes without bothering to list them, repeating the mantra verbatim as if it\u2019s fact. The version of the list on Wikipedia includes 14 of them<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most comprehensive list I found (meaning it requiring the least amount of effort using a search engine) is AARoads\u2019 Interstate Guide<\/a>. This site lists 22. However it includes four roads in Alaska and three in Puerto Rico, not all necessarily built to Interstate standards although they are part of the Interstate Highway system. Yes, I know, let\u2019s try to not get too hung up on Interstates in a state that\u2019s not connected to any other state or to a territory that\u2019s not even a state. Similar issues exist for Hawaii and the District of Columbia. Let’s not take “interstate” too literally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nDistrict of Columbia Interstate 695<\/h2>\n\n\n\n