Aquamarine101
Mike Smith
Los Angeles, CA, United States 
Member Since: Mar 19, 2009
Last Login: Dec 11, 2009
Profile Views: 360
Points: 29
Birthday: May 8, 1963
About Me:
Aquamarine (Lat. aqua marina, "water of the sea") is a gemstone-quality transparent variety of beryl, having a delicate blue or turquoise color, suggestive of the tint of seawater. It is closely related to the gem emerald. Colors vary, and in addition to blue, yellow beryl (heliodor), rose pink beryl (morganite), red beryl (formerly bixbite), and white beryl (goshenite) are also to be found.
U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101, is a north-south U.S. highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as El Camino Real (The Royal Road) where its route along the southern and central California coast approximates the old trail which linked the Spanish missions, pueblos and presidios. It merges at some points with California Route 1.
According to the AASHTO's numbering scheme for U.S. Highways, three-digit route numbers are generally subsidiaries of two-digit routes. However, the principal north-south routes were assigned numbers ending in 1. Rather than lose four available north-south numbers (93, 95, 97, and 99) or assign the primary west coast highway a "lesser" number, the AASHTO made an exception to its two-digit rule. Thus, U.S. 101 is treated as a primary, two-digit route with a "first digit" of 10, rather than a spur of U.S. 1. Thus U.S. Route 101, not U.S. 99, is the westernmost north-south route in the U.S. Highway system.
U.S. Route 101 was once the major north-south link along the Pacific coast. North of San Francisco, it has been replaced in importance by the highways of the Interstate Highway System, specifically Interstate 5, which is more modern in its physical design. Route 101 is still in use as a parallel freeway or highway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and is an alternative to the Interstate for most of its length. In 1964, California truncated its southern terminus in Los Angeles, as Interstate 5 replaced it. The old road is known as county road S-21 or Historic Route 101 in northern San Diego County.
The highway's "northern" terminus is in Olympia, Washington, though the northernmost point on the highway is in Port Angeles. The southern terminus of U.S. 101 is in Los Angeles, California at the East Los Angeles Interchange, the world's busiest freeway interchange.