Taking the Road to the End

You know, even if I did gripe about the cultural and environmental damage interstates can cause, they can be pretty fun to travel from end to end.  There is nothing like seeing a mighty multi-lane highway that has passed through many states come to a rather humble end at some traffic lights.  Take a look at Interstate 8 only a few miles from its western terminus:

And then when this huge conduit of southern California traffic is forced to stop, not only by a traffic light, but by the Pacific Ocean:

I-8 is a bit different to begin with.  In a few places it actually serves as part of the US-Mexico border (though the concrete traffic barriers have since been augmented with a rather tall fence) and part of its course runs beneath sea level out in the Imperial Desert.  I-70 ends in a rest stop in Maryland.  I-94 turns into a fork that can take one into a traffic light in Port Huron or out of the United States across the Blue Water Bridge.  I-95 gets swallowed up its predecessor, US 1, and turns into a Miami city street.  Rather ignoble ends for ribbons of concrete that otherwise are given a path by engineering that blasts mountains to bits and drains swamps to keep the path straight.  Then again, one would hardly build a monument for a road without character...