Highways With Numbers
A true how-it-works story for kids 6-8.
Read along
Look out the window! See that sign shaped like a shield with a number on it? That's a highway name tag. Long ago, a young Army officer rode across the country in a truck. The roads were so bumpy, the trip took 62 days. That's longer than your whole summer vacation!
He grew up to be President Eisenhower. He said, let's build really good roads. People think of them as interstates. They stretch about 48,000 miles, enough to wrap around the Earth almost twice. Odd numbers usually run north and south. Even numbers run east and west.
No stoplights at all. You zoom on and off using ramps. Next time you pass a sign, check if the number is odd or even. Now you know which way it goes!
Quiz the back seat
On interstate highways, what do odd numbers usually mean?
Show the answer
The road runs north and south. That's right! Odd numbers mostly go north and south. Even numbers mostly go east and west. Now you can guess which way a highway runs just by looking at its number!
Fun facts
- In 1919, a young Army officer named Dwight Eisenhower crossed the U.S. in a truck convoy; the bad roads made the trip take 62 days.
- As President, Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which paid to build the Interstate Highway System.
- The Interstate system is about 48,000 miles long, enough to go around the Earth almost twice.
- Interstates with odd numbers mostly run north and south; even numbers mostly run east and west.
- Interstate highways have no traffic lights or crossings; cars get on and off using ramps.
For grown-ups
Written with AI from public sources, then checked claim by claim against the sources below before it was published; stories that don't pass stay off the app and this site. Narration is pre-recorded, and nothing you do on this page is tied to your kids.
Roads
Town and county names: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).