A bit of a ride

[Pterodactyl_imp]

Yes, ES, it is called 'Bell's Line of Road'. I also find it a very strange name. There's certainly no speech convention that I'm aware of that would give rise to it.

A cursory Internet search doesn't help, other than to discover it was originally an Aboriginal route and was then called Bell's Line. Why it wasn't called 'Bell's Line Rd' is likely to remain a mystery to me unless one of my NSW based colleagues can shed further light on it.

When surveyors marked routes, both rail and road, it was common to call them a "line". Thus that was Bell's line. Line on a map I guess. Some others I have heard include, for instance, the "Old line". Not generally used as road names though.

Cheers

 

[emptysea]

Thanks, Pter. I kind of figured that out, but it's good to have it confirmed. The word "of" is the part that I can't figure out. The best comment I found about the name said "well, it was 1823 so who knows?" LOL. It's just quirky, I guess, and G*d knows I like quirky.

 

[the Ferret]

It is unusual how roads get their names. Here in SW Ohio a lot of the roads led between towns and the roads took on those names, for instance Bethel-New Richmond Road runs between the town of Bethel, Ohio and the town on New Richmond, Ohio. Laurel-Lindale between the communities of Laurel and the community of Lindale neither of which exist anymore BTW.

When I went up and visited a friend in Wisconsin a lot of the roads seemed to be named after letters M...R...W...and then after running thru the alphabet they started doubling up WW..RR.. and I thought that really strange but who knows? I was going to go to another town in Wisc to see a train station but didn't know the address so I plugged First Street into the GPS figuring that would be in the heart of town, but it wasn't, first street was actually about 15 miles out of town.

 

[CA200_imp]

If you gave names to the roads up here we would all have learn to read and write:beerchug:
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[the Ferret]

:rofl: Well, that explains a lot. Thanks CA

 

[emptysea]

So, there's a long and fairly interesting history of how Wisconsin's county trunk highways came to be alphabetized and the reasons for some of the particular letters chosen. I've been thinking about writing up a post about it, but I wanted to do a little research on it first.

Two years ago, I was on a ride (a "Solstice Ride" for those who have read about my rides before) and at one point, we stopped because we were lost. We couldn't get signals on our phones so we referenced my brother-in-law's map. He asks to no one in particular "What road are we on?" and I looked up and replied honestly "We're at the intersection of F and U, which certainly seems appropriate"

Just in case you don't trust the veracity of my tale...

 

[Cormanus]

EmptySea, that's brilliant. I love it.

 

[the Ferret]

Love to hear the explanation for their road naming system ES

 

[Elipten_imp]

Oh lord I just bust a gut, and am still laughing. That is now on my bucket list to ride to. Just priceless!


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