I-80

About I-80

Also known as Christopher Columbus Highway, Bayshore Freeway, Eastshore Freeway.

From San Francisco, CA (US 101) to Teaneck, NJ (I-95)

Interstate 80 is a transcontinental east-west freeway running about 2,899 miles from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. It is the second-longest Interstate in the country, crossing eleven states as it spans the width of the nation. From the Bay Area it climbs the Sierra Nevada, crosses the Great Basin and the Rocky Mountains, traverses the Great Plains and the Midwest, and finishes in the densely settled corridor west of New York City.

The western portion is defined by dramatic terrain. The route crests the Sierra Nevada near Donner Summit, descends into Nevada along the Truckee River, and then runs across the wide desert basins of the Great Basin. In Utah it crosses the Bonneville Salt Flats west of the Great Salt Lake, including one of the longest gaps between exits anywhere on the Interstate system.

Across the eastern two-thirds the highway follows broad agricultural and industrial corridors, passing through Cheyenne, the Nebraska plains, Omaha, Des Moines, and the manufacturing belt of the Great Lakes states. Through much of the West it parallels the historic path of the Lincoln Highway and the transcontinental railroad, tracing one of the oldest cross-country travel corridors.

Interstate 80 carries heavy long-haul freight along its entire length and serves as a primary route between the West Coast and the East. It passes near or through many of the largest cities in the interior, linking the Pacific coast to the New York region.

State-by-state mileage

State	Miles
California	199.2
Nevada	410.7
Utah	196.3
Wyoming	402.8
Nebraska	455.3
Iowa	306.0
Illinois	163.5
Indiana	151.6
Ohio	237.5
Pennsylvania	311.1
New Jersey	68.5
Total	2,902.5

History

Interstate 80 was among the routes designated in 1956 under the new federal Interstate program, and it was built in numerous segments over the following decades. The Sierra Nevada crossing and the Great Basin sections presented major engineering challenges that shaped the timing of construction.

By incorporating and replacing older highways such as the Lincoln Highway and U.S. routes across the West, the corridor was assembled into a continuous coast-to-coast freeway, with the western states completing some of the final difficult mountain and desert links.

Major cities and places

Notable features

• Donner Summit
• Bonneville Salt Flats
• MacArthur Maze interchange

Did you know

• It is the second-longest Interstate in the United States.
• The route crests the Sierra Nevada at Donner Summit, about 7,240 feet above sea level.
• It crosses the Bonneville Salt Flats in western Utah, where one of the longest gaps between Interstate exits is located.
• Across the West it closely parallels the historic Lincoln Highway.
• Its eastern terminus is at I-95 in Teaneck, New Jersey, near New York City.