Cloverleaf Interchange - History

History

The first cloverleaf interchange patented in the US was by Arthur Hale, a civil engineer in Maryland, on February 29, 1916. Several cloverleafs were built in the late 1920s; however, it is unclear which was first.

A modified cloverleaf, with the adjacent ramps joined into a single two-way road, was planned in 1927 for the interchange between Lake Shore Drive (U.S. 41) and Irving Park Road (ILL 19) in Chicago, Illinois, but a diamond interchange was built instead.

The first cloverleaf interchange built in the United States was the Woodbridge Cloverleaf at Route 25 and Route 4 (now U.S. 1/9 and Route 35) in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. It opened in 1929, and has been replaced with a partial cloverleaf interchange. The original cloverleaf interchange was designed by the Rudolph and Delano building firm from Philadelphia, and was modeled after a plan from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The first cloverleaf west of the Mississippi River opened on August 20, 1931, at Watson Road and Lindbergh Boulevard near St. Louis, Missouri, as part of an upgrade of U.S. 66. This interchange, however, has since been replaced with a diamond interchange.

The cloverleaf was patented in Europe in Switzerland on October 15, 1928. The first cloverleaf in Europe opened in October 1935 at Slussen in central Stockholm, Sweden, followed in 1936 by Schkeuditzer Kreuz near Leipzig, Germany. This is now the interchange between the A 9 and A 14, and has a single flyover from the westbound A 14 to the southbound A 9. Kamener Kreuz was the first in continental Europe to open fully in 1937, at A 1 and A 2 near Dortmund Germany.

Read more about this topic:  Cloverleaf Interchange

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.
    John Dos Passos (1896–1970)

    Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.
    Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)

    What we call National-Socialism is the poisonous perversion of ideas which have a long history in German intellectual life.
    Thomas Mann (1875–1955)