I-280

About I-280

Also known as Junipero Serra Freeway.

Interstate 280 is a three-digit auxiliary route of Interstate 80, with an even prefix digit marking it as a loop or bypass. The number is reused in three regions. In Northern California, Interstate 280 is a major route of about fifty-seven miles running up the San Francisco Peninsula from San Jose to San Francisco, just west of the larger Peninsula cities. Much of it is the Junipero Serra Freeway, long promoted as a scenic route and once dubbed the world's most beautiful freeway on a dedication sign.

In Iowa and Illinois, Interstate 280 forms the western and southern portions of a beltway around the Quad Cities, leaving Interstate 80 near Davenport, crossing the Mississippi River, and looping back to Interstate 80 near Colona, with a shared segment along Interstate 74. In New Jersey, Interstate 280 is a spur of about eighteen miles connecting Interstate 80 in Morris County east through Newark to Interstate 95, the New Jersey Turnpike, in the Kearny area.

Each instance serves as a metropolitan connector or partial loop, consistent with the even prefix digit.

History

The California route was built through the 1960s and 1970s up the Peninsula, with its scenic Junipero Serra Freeway segment becoming a well known corridor. The New Jersey route was built in the 1960s and completed in stages, with the segment west of Newark finished in 1973 and the eastern segment to the New Jersey Turnpike opening in 1980. The Quad Cities route forms the western and southern arc of that metropolitan beltway.

Major cities and places

Notable features

• Sgt. John F. Baker, Jr. Bridge over the Mississippi River in the Quad Cities

Did you know

• The California route runs up the San Francisco Peninsula as the Junipero Serra Freeway.
• A dedication sign once called the California route the world's most beautiful freeway.
• The Quad Cities route crosses the Mississippi River on the Sgt. John F. Baker, Jr. Bridge.
• The New Jersey route connects Interstate 80 through Newark to the New Jersey Turnpike.