Interstate 74 is somewhat of a diagonal Interstate, running from Davenport, Iowa southeasterly to Cincinnati, Ohio. The highway spans the width of Illinois and the width of Indiana, with only slight forays into Iowa and Ohio. The farthest segment to the northwest runs north-south, from the highway's terminus at Interstate 80 south through Davenport, Iowa, across the Mississippi River to Moline, Illinois. This is in the Quad Cities, where the Mississippi River has bent to flow westward. Continuing south, Interstate 74 joins Interstate 280 east until a ricochet junction, where Interstate 74 turns to the south; meanwhile, Interstate 80 is coming from the north to turn easterly. Another southward segment of Interstate 74 takes it to Galesburg, where the highway turns east-southeasterly through Peoria, Bloomington, and Champaign-Urbana. That summarizes the rest of what Interstate 74 does in Illinois; crossing into Indiana near Danville, Illinois, Interstate 74 continues west past Crawfordsville to Indianapolis. At Indianapolis, Interstate 74 joins the beltway known as Interstate 465 around the south side of the city center. (While Interstate 65 and Interstate 70 are allowed into downtown Indianapolis, Interstate 69 and Interstate 74 are forced to follow the Interstate 465 beltway around town.) Interstate 74 splits from Interstate 465 on the southeast side of town, so it can continue southeasterly to Cincinnati, Ohio. The highway doesn't even make it twenty miles beyond the Ohio state line before it ends at Interstate 75, on the north side of Cincinnati.
My photo of an Interstate 74 marker comes from the interchange where US Route 136 meets its western end, at the western leg of Interstate 465. Interstate 465 is the beltway around Indianapolis, Indiana, and Interstate 74 joins the western and southern legs of Interstate 465 to pass around the city. That means the interchange connects the surface road to Interstate 465 and Interstate 74. This photo shows signage facing north at the next signal to the east of an interchange. I took this photo during an early phase of the second trip to the Gulf Coast, in October 2016. (I'll probably replace it with a better photo at some point.) Back to the nationwide main page. Back to the home page.