Okay, we know why the 270 is called the 270. Because I said that Californians use the the before freeway names. But is it really all Californians? Or is it just a SoCal phenomena? That is, does NoCal use the the?
Do a Google search for
"the 5" "the 10" "the 101," which are major SoCal freeways, and you get 31,900 hits. Likewise do a search for major NoCal freeways,
"the 80" "the 880" "the 680," and you only get 44 hits. So it seems that the the is a SoCal thing only.
Here's what Wikipedia says about California
freeway nomenclature:
Northern California
Northern Californians will typically say "80", "101 (one oh one)" to refer to freeways. Some long-time San Francisco Bay Area residents and many traffic report broadcasts still refer to such highways by name and not number designation: "the Bayshore", for 101, or "the Nimitz" for I-880, which was named for Admiral Chester Nimitz, a prominent World War II hero with strong local ties). California State Route 1 is simply referred to as "One" (ie "take One down the coast").
Southern California
In Southern California, freeways are called either by name or by route number, but with the addition of the article "the", such as "the 405" or "the 605" (as contrasted with typical Northern California usage, which omits the article). A typical example would be "Take the Ventura west, get off at Sepulveda, and make a left to get to Ventura", meaning drive west along Highway 101 (Ventura freeway), exit at the Sepulveda Blvd offramp, make a left turn and continue until you reach Ventura Blvd. Similarly, California State Route 1, is called "PCH" (for Pacific Coast Highway) in Southern California, sometimes pronounced as "peach" but much more often as "the PCH".
And finally, check out this debate on the use of the the on
Ask MetaFilter.
Interesting stuff.
