Interstate 10

Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost major interstate highway in the American Interstate Highway System. It stretches from the Pacific Ocean at State Route 1 (SR 1) (Pacific Coast Highway) in Santa Monica, California, to I-95 in Jacksonville, Florida. This freeway is part of the originally planned Interstate Highway network that was laid out in 1956, and its last section was completed in 1990. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate Highway in the United States, following I-90, I-80, and I-40. About one-third of its length is within the state of Texas, where the freeway spans the state at its widest breadth.

Route description

California

Between its west terminus in Santa Monica, California, and the major East Los Angeles Interchange, I-10 is known as the Santa Monica Freeway. The Santa Monica Freeway is also called the Rosa Parks Freeway for the segment beginning at I-405 (the San Diego Freeway), and ending at I-110/SR 110 (the Harbor Freeway). The segment between the East Los Angeles Interchange and the city of San Bernardino, 63 miles (101 km) long, is called the San Bernardino Freeway. Other names exist for I-10. For example, a sign near the western terminus of the highway in Santa Monica proclaims this highway the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway.

Interstate 10 in Texas

Interstate 10 (I-10) is the major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. In the U.S. state of Texas, it runs east from Anthony, at the border with New Mexico, through El Paso, San Antonio and Houston to the border with Louisiana in Orange, Texas. At just over 880 miles (1,420 km), the Texas segment of I-10, maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation, is the longest continuous untolled freeway in North America that is operated by a single authority, a title formerly held by Ontario Highway 401. It is also the longest stretch of highway with a single designation within a single state. Mile marker 880 and its corresponding exit number in Orange, Texas are the highest numbered mile marker and exit on any freeway in North America. After widening was completed in 2008, a portion of the highway between Houston and East Texas is now also believed to be the widest in the world, at 26 lanes. There is a wider section in China on the G4 Beijing–Hong Kong–Macau Expressway, however that section is a toll plaza approach.

Interstate 10 in Florida

The 362 miles (583 km) of Interstate 10 in Florida is the eastern most section of the east–west 2,460.34 miles (3,959.53 km) Interstate 10 (I-10) in the Southern United States. It is also the eastern end of the Interstate Highway known as the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway, one of three coast to coast interstates, along with I-80 and I-90. The highway runs east from the Alabama border, traveling through the Panhandle of Florida, serving the major cities of Pensacola, Tallahassee, Lake City, and ending at Jacksonville, and carries the hidden Florida Department of Transportation designation of State Road 8 (SR 8).

Route description

The interstate runs roughly parallel to U.S. Route 90 (US 90) but is a more direct route, bypassing the central cores of the cities. The interstate also runs through some of the least populated areas of the state.

The western terminus of I-10 is the Florida–Alabama state line at the Perdido River, just west of Pensacola, in Escambia County. Exit 7A, SR 297 (southbound), gives access to the Pensacola Naval Air Station and the National Museum of Naval Aviation. At exit 12, I-10 serves as the northern terminus of I-110, a spur route to central Pensacola.