A high-speed highway with few stops or exits, designed to move traffic quickly between distant locations.
Compound word combining 'express' (meaning fast, from Latin 'expressus' meaning pressed out/squeezed out) and 'way' (Old English 'weg'). The term emerged in early 20th-century America with highway development.
The Interstate Highway System, created in 1956, was designed partly for military strategy—the government wanted expressways that could move troops and equipment across the country in case of nuclear war. Every exit number still encodes the road number!
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