Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site tilt.FUN Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!tilt!chenr From: chenr@tilt.FUN (The 1200 baud hacker) Newsgroups: net.flame Subject: Re: the on-ramp Grand-Prix Message-ID: <177@tilt.FUN> Date: Wed, 10-Oct-84 18:33:08 EDT Article-I.D.: tilt.177 Posted: Wed Oct 10 18:33:08 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 11-Oct-84 07:24:16 EDT Organization: Princeton Univ. EECS Lines: 45 >HUMOR TIME: The funniest piece of road is I-95 as it approaches >Route 495 north of Washington. 495 (the Capital Beltway) is >a circular road around D.C. ARRGGGGHHHH. Humor? The man wants humor, eh? Well, Ron, how about I-495 around the Cabin John Bridge? For those of you lucky enough not to have seen this thing, it's a bridge over the Potomac River connecting the Maryland and Virginia sections of I-495. What makes driving on this thing such a fun time is the a**hole designer who f*cked up 495 throughout that entire area. 495 is a 4-lane highway, count'em, 4 lanes, on both sides of the bridge. The bridge is 3 lanes wide. We won't mention the two-lane highway that merges into one lane that merges into 495 just before the bridge on the Virginia side. We also won't mention the on and off-ramps ON THE BRIDGE ITSELF. Oh, and I did I forget to mention the fact that it's the only major bridge in that area? The next crossing point north of the bridge is a ferry 40 miles away. The next bridge south is this little one-lane laugh of a bridge, called, appropriately enough, Chain Bridge. If you don't want that one, your only choice is to go into D.C. If the Russians want to ruin the economy of the D.C. metropolitan are, all they have to do is blow that bridge. BOOM!! Instant recession. Half of South-western MD commutes into Northern VA and vica-versa. Of course, what makes driving on that bridge real fun besides the hundreds of cars merging together as 6 lanes (on the Virginia side, 4 on the MD side) become 3, the people trying to get onto the bridge from one of the on-ramps, and the people pretending to be Mario Andretti, is having to deal with all the steel plates, potholes, and holes. Don't laugh, one afternoon, a 5 x 5 foot section dropped out of the middle of the bridge. The moronic twit who's responsible for all this is also responsible for the "8 million ways to get to I-270", but we won't talk about that... 495, the worlds slowest road to nowhere... -- The preceding message was brought to you by -- Ray Chen princeton!tilt!chenr