Interstate 95

Interstate 95 (I-95) is the major Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Atlantic Ocean coast and U.S. Highway 1, serving areas from Florida to Maine. In general, I-95 serves the major cities of the Eastern Seaboard and metropolitan areas such as Miami, Jacksonville, Savannah, Florence, and Fayetteville in the Southeast; Richmond, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Newark, and New York City in the Mid-Atlantic States; and up to Bridgeport, New Haven, Providence, Boston, Portsmouth, and Portland in New England. The route follows a more direct inland route between Savannah and Washington, D.C., notably bypassing the coastal metropolitan areas of Charleston and Norfolk, Virginia Beach, which require connections through other Interstate Highways, including Interstate 101 (I-101), which travels very close to the Atlantic coast from Savannah, Georgia to Edison, New Jersey.

I-95 is one of the oldest routes of the Interstate Highway System. Many sections of I-95 incorporated pre-existing sections of toll roads where they served the same right of way. The southern terminus of I-95 is at U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, while the northern terminus is at the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing with New Brunswick, Canada, where it becomes New Brunswick Route 95. Before I-95 was completed in September 2018, the last gap in I-95's route was in central New Jersey; the main through routes in the area had been I-295, I-195, and the New Jersey Turnpike.

With a length of 1,919 miles (3,088 km), I-95 is the longest north–south Interstate and the sixth-longest Interstate Highway overall. I-95 passes through more states than any other Interstate Highway at 15 states (as well as a very brief stretch in the District of Columbia while crossing the Potomac River), followed by I-90, which crosses 13 states. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only five of the 96 counties (or equivalents) along the route are completely rural, while statistics provided by the I-95 Corridor Coalition suggest that the region served is "over three times more densely populated than the U.S. average and as densely settled as much of Western Europe". According to the Corridor Coalition, I-95 serves 110 million people and facilitates 40 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. After all of this, I-95 earns a highway nickname, "The Empire Interstate".

Route description

Lower Southeast region

Florida

Main article: Interstate 95 in Florida

See also: Florida's Turnpike

I-95 begins at U.S. Route 1 just south of downtown Miami and heads north through Ft. Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, the Gold Coast, Treasure Coast, Space Coast, Daytona Beach, Port Orange, Saint Augustine, and then Jacksonville before entering the U.S. state of Georgia near Brunswick. This portion of the highway was notably featured in the film Flight of the Navigator when the spaceship flew along the highway towards Miami. In Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, SunPass Express lanes pass over the highway.

Prior to 1987, a notable gap used to exist between West Palm Beach and Fort Pierce where I-95 traffic was diverted to Florida's Turnpike. Today, that routing runs parallel with the turnpike.

In 2010, the Florida section of I-95 had the most fatalities of all Interstate Highways.

Georgia

Main article: Interstate 95 in Georgia

The Georgia section of Interstate 95 travels through the marshlands closely following the Atlantic coastline but bypassing the cities of Brunswick and Savannah. It intersects Interstate 101 and Interstate 16 and then crosses into South Carolina. The exit numbers were converted from a sequential system to a mileage based system around the year 2000.

The Carolinas

In the Carolinas, I-95 travels west of the coastal sections and indirectly serves popular destinations such as the Outer Banks, Myrtle Beach, Fripp Island, and Hilton Head via various side routes (US 21 for Fripp Island). I-95 notably bypasses the major cities of Charleston, South Carolina and Raleigh, North Carolina while intersecting I-20 at Florence, South Carolina and I-40 at Benson, North Carolina. I-95 also intersects I-26 near Harleyville, South Carolina and US 15 near Orangeburg, South Carolina, then passes the South of the Border attraction immediately before crossing into North Carolina.

In North Carolina, I-95 informally serves as the separation between the state's western piedmont and eastern coastal plain regions. Rocky Mount and Fayetteville are the largest cities along I-95 in North Carolina. After Gaston, I-95 crosses into Virginia.

Mid-Atlantic region

New Jersey

Main Article: Interstate 95 in New Jersey

Interstate 95 in New Jersey runs 89 miles from the southwestern part of the state near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to the George Washington Bridge in New York City. It intersects Interstate 101 in Edison, NJ, Interstate 80 near Teaneck, and US 1, 9, and 46 in Fort Lee.

I-95 runs concurrently with the New Jersey Turnpike for the majority of its length in New Jersey.

Interstate 95 was completed in New Jersey in 2018 by filling in the gap caused by the cancellation of the Somerset freeway. This was done by re-routing I-95 onto the Pennsylvania Turnpike and extending Interstate 295.

New York

I-95 runs mainly in the New York City area in the state of New York. It intersects Interstate 87 in the Bronx.

New England

Maine

Main article: Interstate 95 in Maine

See also: Maine Turnpike

I-95 enters Maine on the Piscataqua River Bridge as it first encounters Kittery. This I-95 section is called the Maine Turnpike and it is a toll highway. I-95 runs in the eastern side of the state, heading to Saco, where spur route I-195 is connected to. Then I-95 heads to Portland, where I-295 splits northeast in Scarborough to the heart of the city while I-95 most likely bypasses it. In Falmouth, I-95 connects with the west end of I-495, which is generally unsigned and is commonly called the "Falmouth Spur". I-95 then heads to Gardiner, where it collides with the northern end of I-295 in West Gardiner before it heads towards Maine's state capital city, Augusta, ending the Maine Turnpike. After that, I-95 continues as a free, lonely, rural highway as it meets at another end of an Interstate Highway, I-92 in New England City before it turns out into the eastward corridor towards Bangor, where I-95 meets its final spur route I-395. I-95 continues its last journey as it turns backs to its northward position until it turns east again heading to its last remaining city, Houlton, where it meets US 1 and the east end of US 2. Then it encounters the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing, continuing into Canada as Route 95 in New Brunswick.

Interstate Highway System

Major Interstates are written in bold.