Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/03/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Henning Wulff wrote: > > At 9:19 PM -0500 3/9/03, Marc James Small wrote: > >At 05:49 PM 3/9/03 -0800, Martin Howard wrote: > >> > >>I think these are both German inventions, with the advent of the first > >>Autobahn. The separation of traffic flows via a median, an overtake > >>lane (a concept lost on most US drivers), and on and off ramps are all > >>Autobahn firsts, AFAIK, although in the US, the concept was extended > >>upon (particularly through spaghetti interchanges) when the Interstate > >>system was built. > > > >Martin > > > >The Pennsylvania Turnpike was the first divided-lane high-speed road ever > >built, dating from a decade before the Autobahns were conceived. This road > >came equipped was all of the attributes you discuss. By the time the first > >Autobahn was constructed, there were probably 25,000 miles of such roads in > >the US. > > > >Marc > > > >msmall@infi.net FAX: +276/343-7315 > >Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir! > > The Autobahn in Germany got its start with the establishment of an > organization in 1926 called HaFraBa for 'Hamburg - Frankfurt - Basel' > who's purpose was to build a road for high speed traffic between > those cities. The inspiration came largely from the earlier (1924) > Autostrada from Milano to the Lombardy lakes. The Italians built a > number of high speed roads with few curves and no level crossings, > but at that time not divided. The German Autobahnen as constructed in > the early thirties were divided as well, and had travel plus passing > lanes and interchanges that foreshadowed the spaghetti interchanges. > For some strange reason the Italians didn't combine Autostradas and > spaghetti as readily :-). > Marco Polo brought back the spaghetti interchanges from China... They had long been tooling around their highways in their rocket propelled cars for several dynasties but needed a method to get off the road. Also needed was a way to get ON the road. He also brought back Chinese cooking but the Italians didn't go for take out. They said "mama mia that's funniest spaghetti sauce I've ever seen!" Don't forget this was before clam sauce even they weren't very tolerant to other shades of red. "It's sweet and sour sauce, sucker!" the Chinese were unable and unwilling to explain. He also brought back the Polo Shirt (with the little polo player on it). The royalties from both made him comfortable in his retirement so he bought a biggest Winabago you could get those days. Not a wise buy as there was only one road and it wasn't anywhere near his house. And it didn't have a spaghetti interchange. Polo also brought back Polo. A game requiring expensive horses (a Polo Pony with a little Polo Pony logo on them so you could tell them from some other type of Pony) and near billionaire old money players completely indifferent to their own mortality. ...with amazing inner ears. And of course water polo a game where everyone needs to wear nose plugs and drown each other in shallow chlorinated water. Forget the net. Mark Rabiner Portland, Oregon USA http://www.rabinergroup.com Email: mark@rabinergroup.com Fax: 503-221-0308 e *® salsa degli spaghetti pi** divertente io abbia mai seens - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html