In northern New Hampshire, what is otherwise Interstate 93 narrows to a two-lane parkway called the Franconia Notch Parkway with a guardrail separating the lanes through Franconia Notch State Park. It was decided that I-93 should be discontinuous here so as not to disturb the Old Man of the Mountain with the construction of a full Interstate-grade highway. The Old Man of the Mountain is a rock formation which is one of New Hampshire's most revered symbols (it even makes the state highway marker and the state quarter).
Here is a map of the Old Man of the Mountain area.
Signage along the Parkway
Most signs designate the Franconia Notch Parkway as US 3/To I-93, like in this photo. Occasionally, I-93 shows up on the sign assemblies for continuity purposes, even though I-93 does not exist here, though under the US 3 shield, as pictured here and here. One erroneous sign (this one) even shows I-93 as fully existing.
However the times have changed. In time since I've been to Franconia Notch, New Hampshire has changed it's exit numbering from sequential to milage based. With this, seperate numbers for the Franconia Notch Parkway has been abolished and it is now numbered as if I-93 is continuous through here (go here for example)
Times have changed again, on May 2, 2003 the face of Old Man of the Mountain came crashing down.
Link
Granite Highways Franconia Notch Collection
This page created Tuesday, October 31, 2000/Last revised October 16, 2002
If you have comments about this page, e-mail Sandor Gulyas
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