How many streets does it take to get to the center of a question
February 5, 2010 10:47 PM Subscribe
What is the largest street number? Streets, Avenues, Drives, whatever.
I found E 367th Street outside Cleveland!
Not looking for streets just named 801st street without the 800 streets before. And some places like to go mainly by 10s... which I think is totally cheating (sorry, certain plains states)! +1 integer patterns only.
I found E 367th Street outside Cleveland!
Not looking for streets just named 801st street without the 800 streets before. And some places like to go mainly by 10s... which I think is totally cheating (sorry, certain plains states)! +1 integer patterns only.
Infinity Drive, Dorchester, SC 29437
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:19 PM on February 5, 2010 [14 favorites]
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:19 PM on February 5, 2010 [14 favorites]
Here in WA, many of the counties have a numbered grid system which goes north and south from some central meridian in the county...for example, King County goes north and south from downtown Seattle. By the time you get to the southern extent of King county, you're at 384th. North is not so high. And kind county is the "tallest" county in western Washington, so that's likely the highest-numbered east-west road in the western half of the state.
But the counties are wider than they are tall. So as you get out towards the cascades, you find such roads as 496th Ave SE, since Seattle is at the western-most edge of the county (for our purposes, and aforementioned 496th is about as far east as numbered roads go.
I swear I've seen some 500-series roads, but cannot find any.
posted by maxwelton at 11:22 PM on February 5, 2010
But the counties are wider than they are tall. So as you get out towards the cascades, you find such roads as 496th Ave SE, since Seattle is at the western-most edge of the county (for our purposes, and aforementioned 496th is about as far east as numbered roads go.
I swear I've seen some 500-series roads, but cannot find any.
posted by maxwelton at 11:22 PM on February 5, 2010
But, yeah, we're not getting up to 3712th Ave SW or anything here on the westside.
posted by maxwelton at 11:23 PM on February 5, 2010
posted by maxwelton at 11:23 PM on February 5, 2010
A lot of streets in Utah are in a grid and numbered according to the distance from the LDS temple. I don't know how high they go, but I just now glanced at Google maps and saw some streets numbered up to around 13000.
posted by Widepath at 11:31 PM on February 5, 2010
posted by Widepath at 11:31 PM on February 5, 2010
You're going to find the highest numbered streets in the midwest and western U.S. and here's why:
Most rural counties are slowly changing to a "911 address" system where the county is laid out in a grid system that runs east-west and north-south. So, for example, here in rural Iowa, our rural roads often run A-Z west to east and then 1 (usually 100 actually) to ### south to north. Just north of our place is 300th Avenue, then 307th, then 330th etc... (there's no 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306 at the 307th and "S" Avenue intersection because the number is determined by approximation of where each increment would fall if there were a road).
When you take this E/W-N/S road grid identification system and combine it with a logical house numbering system, it makes specific locations much easier for police/fire/first responders to find quickly. For example, all of the house numbers in our neighborhood were just changed last year from a somewhat random 1 to 4 digit number (depending on where the house was located in the area) to a uniform 5 digit number that tracks the directional system mentioned above. In our case, we changed from 2775 My Street to 27755 My Street. (Other neighbors were not so lucky. One house changed from 1 Their Avenue to 38425 Their Avenue. Bummer.)
Because western/midwestern counties are more likely to be wider and taller than counties in the eastern part of the U.S., I suspect that you'll find it out west.
posted by webhund at 11:46 PM on February 5, 2010 [2 favorites]
Most rural counties are slowly changing to a "911 address" system where the county is laid out in a grid system that runs east-west and north-south. So, for example, here in rural Iowa, our rural roads often run A-Z west to east and then 1 (usually 100 actually) to ### south to north. Just north of our place is 300th Avenue, then 307th, then 330th etc... (there's no 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306 at the 307th and "S" Avenue intersection because the number is determined by approximation of where each increment would fall if there were a road).
When you take this E/W-N/S road grid identification system and combine it with a logical house numbering system, it makes specific locations much easier for police/fire/first responders to find quickly. For example, all of the house numbers in our neighborhood were just changed last year from a somewhat random 1 to 4 digit number (depending on where the house was located in the area) to a uniform 5 digit number that tracks the directional system mentioned above. In our case, we changed from 2775 My Street to 27755 My Street. (Other neighbors were not so lucky. One house changed from 1 Their Avenue to 38425 Their Avenue. Bummer.)
Because western/midwestern counties are more likely to be wider and taller than counties in the eastern part of the U.S., I suspect that you'll find it out west.
posted by webhund at 11:46 PM on February 5, 2010 [2 favorites]
I once lived at the intersection of 231st st. and 148th ave. in Rosedale, Queens, NYC. In the borough of Queens, the streets runs north-south; avenues run east-west. Sum of two grid-based street numbers is 379.
posted by doncoyote at 12:09 AM on February 6, 2010
posted by doncoyote at 12:09 AM on February 6, 2010
Apple's headquarters are famously located at 1 Infinite Loop.
Another interesting angle is considering the largest address number, for which a well-known contender is silicon valley's El Camino Real, which Eric Raymond claims has been known informally as El Camino Bignum.
posted by e.e. coli at 4:04 AM on February 6, 2010
Another interesting angle is considering the largest address number, for which a well-known contender is silicon valley's El Camino Real, which Eric Raymond claims has been known informally as El Camino Bignum.
posted by e.e. coli at 4:04 AM on February 6, 2010
Oh, and I lived on W. 218th St. in NYC, a place most Manhattanites don't even know exists.
posted by e.e. coli at 4:06 AM on February 6, 2010
posted by e.e. coli at 4:06 AM on February 6, 2010
I agree that the places that count by 10s or have a large number without (at least most of) the smaller ones in between don't count.
I've wondered about this question, and I had thought that New York (263rd Street) was the largest number, so I'm interested to see your 367th in Cleveland.
Widepath points out the Utah example, where there are streets numbered, say, 13000; but the numbers go 100, 200, 300, ... and I've heard that people just drop the last two zeroes, so would call 13000 "130th". Can any Utahns confirm this?
As for the largest house number: US 395 in parts of California only restarts its numbers at county lines, California counties are big, and they assign 1000 numbers per mile. (Presumably this is a guideline from urban areas that is overkill in rural areas.) US 395 runs 120 miles in Mono county. So the Topaz Lake RV Park, just before the Nevada line, has the address "120162 US Hwy 395 Topaz, CA 96133". 120162 is about nine times the population of the county.
posted by madcaptenor at 5:56 AM on February 6, 2010
I've wondered about this question, and I had thought that New York (263rd Street) was the largest number, so I'm interested to see your 367th in Cleveland.
Widepath points out the Utah example, where there are streets numbered, say, 13000; but the numbers go 100, 200, 300, ... and I've heard that people just drop the last two zeroes, so would call 13000 "130th". Can any Utahns confirm this?
As for the largest house number: US 395 in parts of California only restarts its numbers at county lines, California counties are big, and they assign 1000 numbers per mile. (Presumably this is a guideline from urban areas that is overkill in rural areas.) US 395 runs 120 miles in Mono county. So the Topaz Lake RV Park, just before the Nevada line, has the address "120162 US Hwy 395 Topaz, CA 96133". 120162 is about nine times the population of the county.
posted by madcaptenor at 5:56 AM on February 6, 2010
The Chicago grid system gets carried pretty far into the south suburbs. The old Lincoln Highway (the first interstate) is 212th Street as it goes thru some of the south suburbs. That is a full 212 city blocks south of the Madison Street meridian.
To me it depends on the layout of the blocks. City blocks are usually a rectangle and I assume the distance measure of a block is the long side of the rectangle, the streets delineating the blocks the long way and avenues the short way, where the the distance between two avenues equal the half distance between two streets.
That has seemed to me to be a common layout in years of roadtrips and I have always wondered if there was a set definition of terms or it grew organically as a hit or miss imitation of what city planners were accustomed to in other places.
posted by readery at 7:29 AM on February 6, 2010
To me it depends on the layout of the blocks. City blocks are usually a rectangle and I assume the distance measure of a block is the long side of the rectangle, the streets delineating the blocks the long way and avenues the short way, where the the distance between two avenues equal the half distance between two streets.
That has seemed to me to be a common layout in years of roadtrips and I have always wondered if there was a set definition of terms or it grew organically as a hit or miss imitation of what city planners were accustomed to in other places.
posted by readery at 7:29 AM on February 6, 2010
House numbering systems on Wikipedia that addresses the Utah and Wisconsin numbering plans
..which brought me to street hierarchy and all kinds of urban planning wonkery that could take up the rest of my day, but I have stuff to do. Good question!
posted by readery at 7:38 AM on February 6, 2010
..which brought me to street hierarchy and all kinds of urban planning wonkery that could take up the rest of my day, but I have stuff to do. Good question!
posted by readery at 7:38 AM on February 6, 2010
Widepath points out the Utah example, where there are streets numbered, say, 13000; but the numbers go 100, 200, 300, ... and I've heard that people just drop the last two zeroes, so would call 13000 "130th". Can any Utahns confirm this?
Yep. Except everything also has a direction since it's on a grid, so it would be something like 130th South. Salt Lake county has numbered the whole county on one grid, so it has the biggest numbers and shortens them most frequently. Most other places seem to number by city, so the numbers don't go so high and are often still referred to by their full number (i.e. 1200 N rather than 12th North).
In sum, Utah goes by hundreds, so our 14600 doesn't count.
(Note: since things are by hundred, addresses are easier to figure out. If you live at 206 N 900 W, the person lives between 200 N and 300 N on street 900 W, closer to 200 N. Except that you have to remember that 900 W actually runs N/S. See here for explanation.)
posted by BlooPen at 8:06 AM on February 6, 2010
Yep. Except everything also has a direction since it's on a grid, so it would be something like 130th South. Salt Lake county has numbered the whole county on one grid, so it has the biggest numbers and shortens them most frequently. Most other places seem to number by city, so the numbers don't go so high and are often still referred to by their full number (i.e. 1200 N rather than 12th North).
In sum, Utah goes by hundreds, so our 14600 doesn't count.
(Note: since things are by hundred, addresses are easier to figure out. If you live at 206 N 900 W, the person lives between 200 N and 300 N on street 900 W, closer to 200 N. Except that you have to remember that 900 W actually runs N/S. See here for explanation.)
posted by BlooPen at 8:06 AM on February 6, 2010
Yeah, 911 addressing has made a lot of huge addresses in empty lands of North Dakota and South Dakota -- here's the corner of 366th st and 373rd ave in ND, or the corner of 488th Ave and 267th St in SD. Miles count by tens, so ten miles is a hundred street numbers. Problem is, the railroads set up towns every ten to twenty miles, so as numbers count up you're eventually going to bump into another town's numbers and start counting down -- for example, if you drive from the southwest, the corner above is called 30th st and 59th ave. If you get way out in the middle of nowhere, they stopped naming streets altogether. Although, on preview, that Eau Claire address in the thousands is probably the winner.
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:33 AM on February 6, 2010
posted by AzraelBrown at 11:33 AM on February 6, 2010
What about farm to market, county or farm roads?
Out here there's FM 1171, off the top of my head.
posted by cmoj at 12:46 PM on February 6, 2010
Out here there's FM 1171, off the top of my head.
posted by cmoj at 12:46 PM on February 6, 2010
Got a friend who lives on 2350th Road in Kansas.
posted by slightly ridiculous at 2:56 PM on February 6, 2010
posted by slightly ridiculous at 2:56 PM on February 6, 2010
Well taking about 30 seconds punching random numbers into Google I found 10423 Main Street using the suffix 'Main St.' and prefacing it with large numbers. I'm sure there are others...
posted by Muirwylde at 10:35 PM on February 6, 2010
posted by Muirwylde at 10:35 PM on February 6, 2010
16034 VINE Ave, HARVEY, IL., 19265 N Main St Citronelle, Alabama, Burney Falls has a mother lode of addresses in the 37,000's.
posted by Muirwylde at 10:48 PM on February 6, 2010
posted by Muirwylde at 10:48 PM on February 6, 2010
Muirwylde, I think you're misunderstanding the question. The OP is asking about street numbers (the numbers of the streets themselves), not address numbers.
posted by amyms at 11:14 PM on February 6, 2010
posted by amyms at 11:14 PM on February 6, 2010
More six-figure addresses are on the Overseas Highway (US Route 1) in the Florida Keys. Numbers start at 1 in Key West and go up by 1000 per mile as you head towards the mainland; the highest number I could find is 107900, in Key Largo.
posted by madcaptenor at 12:14 PM on February 17, 2010
posted by madcaptenor at 12:14 PM on February 17, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by amyms at 11:14 PM on February 5, 2010