Thursday, April 8, 2010

Unaswered Riddle 3:

Why are there Interstate highways in Hawaii?

13 comments:

Shiloh Strang said...

Hmmm... I'm going to ask my auntie who is from Hawaii to help with this one!

~Shiloh

Daniel Ahrens said...

perhaps they think "interstate" means a highway that's in a state :). Nah I doubt it, it's probably just wishful thinking.

Daniel

Shiloh Strang said...

Wow! I must admit… this one is actually HARD!!! (Well, being that I’m not a genius… I probably should have known that!)

But I still have two reasons…

The first is a technical reason:
The word “interstate” has two definitions. One is an adjective and the other is a noun. The noun definition basically means: “A major highway between cities”. So that says that one of the causes (for the naming of the highway) may have been because of the connections the road has between cities. Not for the adjective “part” that means: “Connecting between two or more states”.

The second is a personal reason:
The explanation for putting the “interstate” before the highway was so keep it simple (being that everyone already called it an interstate highway). In other words, just to keep the confusion down and avoiding the possibly of having to come up with another word! :)
Oh, one more thing… now I may be “way off the map” here ;) but Hawaii was the last state to become part of all the 50. Maybe they had interstate highways in all the other states… so just kept it the same with Hawaii!

Okay time to close! (And I highly doubt everyone read this!)

~Bethany

(Just as a thought Kathrina, wouldn’t this work with Alaska too?)

P.S. Daniel, do you mean INNER state instead of INTER state? Just wondering…

Daniel Ahrens said...

actually it was supposed to be a joke :)

Johan said...

I have no clue, but we have Interstate 5, and it goes from Alaska through Canada, the continental U.S., and into Mexico; so wouldn't it be an "Inter-Nation" highway?

Shiloh Strang said...

Ok-- Everyone! Here's the real answer. Many Thanks to my Hawaiian Auntie :)

---
On the island of Oahu are the Interstates H1, H2, and H3 which connect important military facilities on the island. The Interstate Highways that were created to help protect and defend the United States of America were also to be used for commerce and travel. Any highway built under the auspices of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 and funded by the federal government is called an interstate highway, even if it doesn't cross state lines. In fact, there are many local routes that lie entirely within a single state funded by the Act.
---

~Shiloh

Bisceglia Family said...

Thank you, thank you, everyone! And Shiloh, tell your aunt that I'm more educated because of her. :) That was fun to learn!
~Kathrina

Daniel Ahrens said...

Siloh: Very interesting, I knew there was a good reason other than just weird people in Hawaii :).

Kathrina: you should send in our answers to that magazine sometime :) just a thought.

Daniel

Bisceglia Family said...

Daniel: That would certainly be hilarious!
See you soon ~ Kathrina

Daniel Ahrens said...

they probably got a dozen such letters, but who cares! :)

yeah we'll see you in a couple of days!

Daniel

Johan said...

Kind of random, but I saw a car with Hawaii license plates today in Portland OR. Maybe there is a highway that we don't know about. ;-)

Shiloh Strang said...

Johan: Aloha!
That’s funny… kinda makes me wonder how that car got here… and _why_!

Mahala for the info!!
~Bethany

Daniel Ahrens said...

well I'm not really sure how these people did it, but I once saw a trailer in Wyoming that had a Hawaii license plate, and they had brought the license plates from Hawaii and bought the trailer when they got here.

Daniel