Interstate 8 is an Interstate Highway in the southwestern United States. It runs from the southern edge of Mission Bay at Sunset Cliffs Boulevard in San Diego, California, almost at the Pacific Ocean, to the junction with I-10, just southeast of Casa Grande, Arizona. In California, the freeway travels through the San Diego metropolitan area as the Ocean Beach Freeway and the Mission Valley Freeway before traversing the Cuyamaca Mountains. In Arizona, I-8 continues through the city of Yuma across the Sonoran Desert. The highway was built starting in the 1960s, and was completed by the 1970s.
About Interstate 8 in brief
Interstate 8 is an Interstate Highway in the southwestern United States. It runs from the southern edge of Mission Bay at Sunset Cliffs Boulevard in San Diego, California, almost at the Pacific Ocean, to the junction with I-10, just southeast of Casa Grande, Arizona. In California, the freeway travels through the San Diego metropolitan area as the Ocean Beach Freeway and the Mission Valley Freeway before traversing the Cuyamaca Mountains and providing access through the Imperial Valley. In Arizona, I-8 continues through the city of Yuma across the Sonoran Desert. The freeway from the eastern junction with California State Route 98 to the eastern end is designated as part of the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail auto tour route. The route was completed in 1975 through California, and by 1977 through Arizona, though the bridge over the Colorado River was not completed until 1978. Since then the freeway through San Diego has been widened due to increasing congestion, and another portion in Imperial County had to be rebuilt following damage by the remnants of Hurricane Kathleen. In Ko-Pahonah Gorge for westbound traffic, the road descends 3,000 feet in 11 miles. In Calexico, the median is over 1.5 miles wide. This portion of the road is sometimes known for high winds that have made driving through the canyons difficult, sometimes resulting in driving in difficult conditions.
The road passes a U.S. border patrol interior checkpoint that was constructed in 1995 near Buckman Springs Road turn off just east of the summit. However, this resulted in smugglers driving the wrong way on I- 8 at high speeds in order to avoid the checkpoint, causing several crashes, even after concrete barriers were installed. The first route over the Cuyamac Mountain was dedicated in 1912, and a plank road served as the first road across the Imperial Valley to Yuma; east of there, the Gila Trail continued east to Gila Bend. These were later replaced by U. S. Route 80 across California and part of Arizona, and Arizona State Route 84 between Gila Bend and Casa Grande. The US 80 freeway through San Diego was largely complete by the time it was renumbered as I-7 in the 1964 state highway renumbering. The I-8 is part of the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country’s economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration. It is also known as the California-Arizona-Mexico Highway. It has been called the most scenic highway in the United States, with many scenic overlooks and overlooks along its route. It was named after the Juan Bautista de Anza, who is believed to have been the first European to visit the area in the 18th century. The highway was built starting in the 1960s, and was completed by the 1970s.
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This page is based on the article Interstate 8 published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 07, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
