How Does Hawaii Have Interstate Highways?

Reader Jane writes: "How is it that Hawaii, which obviously borders no other states, has interstate highways?"

While we'd like to believe Hawaii's Interstate system was created for the sole purpose of annoying the late George Carlin, the name is actually a misnomer. Not all Interstates physically go from one state to another; the name merely implies that the roads receive federal funding. Hawaii's major highways became Interstates as part of The Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and National Defense Highways, designed to protect the U.S. from a Soviet invasion by making it easier to get supplies from one military base to another.

Image Credit: MPD01605.