Here's some interstate highway trivia:
1) What four state capitals are not served by the interstate highway system?
2) What is the only interstate that splits in two separate freeways that keep the same number? (Bonus, what four major cities does it do this for?)
3) If I told you there was an Interstate 743, what three things could you tell me about it with no further information?
4) What is the only Interstate highway that goes down to two lanes (one in each direction)?
I can’t even guess without googlin’ but I’ll take a stab at 4). I think it’s probably 70 in Western Colorado which was the last piece of ‘freeway’ to be completed in the Interstate Highway System.
Nope. It's I-93 where it passes through Franconia Notch State Park in New Hampshire.
The last portion of I-70 was in the Glenwood Canyon, replacing US 40. It is four lanes, but it was certainly not simple to make it so and it's regarded as one of the engineering marvels of the world. Much of it has the eastbound lanes cantilevered over the river, while the westbound lanes are above it. Thus, going either direction, you can get an unobstructed view of the beautiful canyon. It's the most picturesque section of the entire Interstate highway system.
Question if so, was Ike still alive to see his dream come true?
Eisenhower passed away in early 1969. At the time of his death, the Interstate system was far from complete, but it wasn't expected to be complete by that point either. Construction was still going strong, though, and I'm sure some of the desired economic effects were already happening, so I think Ike probably did have a chance to be proud of his accomplishment.
More totally random trivia: Ike's brother, Milton Eisenhower, had been president of Penn State in the 50s. Dwight had a farm in Gettysburg with a herd of cattle, and via his brother had connections at Penn State, in particular Dr. Herman Purdy, who helped him with his farm. My dad was a Dairy Science student at Penn State from 1959-1963, and in the 62-63 school year was president of the Alpha Zeta (agricultural fraternity) chapter there. Ike came to town for a visit and was invited to stop by the Alpha Zeta house, where my dad initiated him into the fraternity.
"Shook", to the right of Ike, is my dad.
It's a north-south route. It's a short segment off of I-43. Can't think of a third. Learned this when researching for a novel.
And it's in the middle of the country east-west.
Interstates are even numbers for east-west and numbered south to north (I-10 goes from LA to Jacksonville, FL and I-90 from Seattle to Boston). For north-south Interstates, they have odd numbers and the numbers increase west to east (I-5 goes down the West coast and I-95 down the East coast).
Three-digit numbers start with an even number if it's a loop that returns to the original route (for example I-294 around Chicago), and an odd number if it's a spur (like I-794 to downtown Milwaukee).
As for the other two questions... The four state capitals not served by the Interstate system are Juneau, AK; Dover, DE; Jefferson City, MO; and Pierre, SD.
And the one that splits is I-35, which splits into 35E and 35W twice: 35W travels through Minneapolis, MN and Fort Worth, TX while 35E travels through St. Paul and Dallas.