Interstate 85 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Interstate 65

Exit 171 from I-65 takes motorists onto I-85 northbound out of the state. I-85 covers 80 miles as it leaves Montgomery and passes Auburn and Opelika on the way to Georgia. As I-85 crosses I-65, it becomes Day Street as it heads into downtown Montgomery.

Answer: Virginia

After covering 69 miles northeastward from the North Carolina state line, I-85 ends at I-95, near a shopping complex in Petersburg, Virginia. Petersburg is a short drive down I-95 from Richmond.

Answer: Tugaloo River

After leaving metropolitan Atlanta, I-85 is 70 miles per hour through northeastern Georgia. But as the freeway crosses from Hart County, Georgia, into Oconee County, South Carolina, the speed limit drops to 65 miles per hour. The Tugaloo River and the Seneca River both flow into Lake Hartwell. From there flows the Savannah River.

Answer: North Carolina

Roughly one-third of I-85's total length runs through North Carolina. The freeway enters the state in Cleveland County and exits at Warren County. Along the way, it passes through or around Charlotte, Greensboro and Durham--three of the state's largest cities.

Answer: The Citadel

Located in Charleston, South Carolina, The Citadel is over 200 miles from I-85's junction with I-26 at Spartanburg. Drivers can actually see portions of Georgia Tech's campus as the freeway, multiplexed with I-75, rolls through downtown Atlanta. Three exits from I-85 in northeast Charlotte lead drivers to UNC-Charlotte. And Clemson University is less than half an hour from I-85, up US 76.

Answer: Exit 35 - Glenwood Drive

The SPUI is a variation of the traditional diamond interchange that forces left-turn movements to and from the freeway to occur through a single point--the midpoint of the freeway overpass. This allows for more efficient traffic movement through the interchange. Brookshire Boulevard was the first interchange to undergo conversion from a traditional diamond to SPUI; Freedom Drive was converted from a very dangerous cloverleaf; and Little Rock Road, the first interchange in the city (as approached from the south), was converted from a traditional diamond. Glenwood Drive, a traditional diamond before and after construction, is also one of two unsignalized interchanges along I-85 within the city of Charlotte.

The half-diamond providing northbound exit from and southbound entry to the freeway at Tuckaseegee Road is the other.

Answer: I-185 only

I-185 crosses I-85 at Exit 42, the first exit for Greenville driving northbound on the freeway. Heading north, I-185 multiplexes with US 29 and goes into downtown Greenville as a free road. Heading south, toward I-385, I-185 is a toll road. The toll road forms a southern belt around the larger of the two cities in the Greenville-Spartanburg metroplex.

Answer: Sidney Lanier

West of the city of Gainesville, Georgia, at the north end of I-985, Lake Sidney Lanier was created in 1956, when the Buford Dam was completed to impound the Chattahoochie River. The popular lake, named after Macon-born Sidney Clopton Lanier, is used for recreation, power generation and as a drinking-water supply.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers manages the lake, which stretches across part of five counties

Answer: McAdenville

A mill town in central Gaston County, McAdenville celebrates the holidays in style every year. And I-85 can get very busy, particularly around Exits 22 and 23, which lead into town.

Answer: I-24

I-85 technically does not cross either I-40 or I-75. Instead, it multiplexes--that is, runs concurrently--with each of them. The I-75/I-85 multiplex carries traffic through downtown Atlanta. The I-40/I-85 multiplex carries traffic from Greensboro to Hillsborough, a distance of nearly 40 miles, in North Carolina. But it definitely doesn't cross I-24, which has its southern terminus in Chattanooga. I-20 crosses the I-75/I-85 multiplex in the shadows of Atlanta's big buildings. I-26 crosses I-85 at Spartanburg, South Carolina. And I-77 crosses I-85 in Charlotte.