travel by car Houston to new york

[luis a de santos]

I am planning a photo road trip from Houston to New york.
I would love to hear any suggestions for any places that are a "must" to stop along the way.
I am mostly interested in architectural and city scapes as well as man made structures.

Thanks in advance Luis

[J. Gilbert Plantinga]

Gas stations

[Richard Wasserman]

Without knowing if you have a route in mind I suggest Chicago–some of the best architecture anywhere.

[SAShruby]

Tornado Valley, look for some good active weather. Won't be dissapointed. I have this one on a long term list to spend two weeks chasing tornados, with LF camera of course...

[Nathan Potter]

If you're architecturally inclined I'd hit the Mount Pleasant Shaker village just south of Lexington Kentucky. You can't do interior shots but there is a rich tapestry outside in numerous classic shaker styles.

Nate Potter, Austin TX.

[Robert Fisher]

take the back roads (and I mean back roads) through Louisiana to Jackson, MS - lots of old stores, gas stations, small churches, etc - a time warp and great material if that interests you - these structures are all disappearing

have fun!

Robert Fisher, Kingwood

[rdenney]

Architecture and city scapes as well as man-made structures...

There are a thousand routes. Interesting cities that could be on the way include Houston, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Memphis (each of these four have impressive bridges over the Mississippi River), Mobile, Nashville, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham, Savannah, Charleston SC, Richmond, Washington, Baltimore, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and New York. Each of these cities is right on one of the major routes and each has its own collection of interesting architecture and cityscapes. There are also a few major industrial areas if "man-made structures" includes such, including Pasadena (a suburb of Houston), Beaumont TX, Lake Charles LA, southern Alabama, and the sourthern end of New Jersey between Wilmington and Philadelphia.

The major routes include:

I10, I65, I85, I95, NJ Turnpike.
I10, I59, I20/59, I59, I75, I81, I78 (this is the fastest route)
US59, I20, then hook up with one of the above two routes
US59, I30, I40, and the hook up with the I81 route
I10, I95, if you want to see the Atlantic Ocean before turning north

You'll have to look on a map to see which cities fall on those routes. All of the above cities fall on at least one of those.

In general, the large-scale works of man along this route include large river and sea-coast waterway bridges, railroads, petrochemical plants, harbors, modern cities (until you get to about Baltimore, where the cities start to show more decay), and freeways. Oh, and some mighty big churches, too.

If the scale of the works of man that interest you are much smaller, then the list of potentials is just too large.

If you want nature, those routes include everything from rain forest and coastal swamps to mountains (the eastern kind--up to a maximum of about 6000 feet, but a lot of them), coastal farmland, steep forests, and everything in between. The only thing you won't see is permafrost. There's just too much to narrow it down.

If you are into history, nearly all of the major Civil War battles were fought within easy striking distance of one of those routes, and the Revolutionary War is also well-represented along the route. Some sites, like Yorktown, VA, were both.

You would really have to want to see Chicago to go through it between Houston and New York, but it would also add St. Louis, Toledo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and a lot of empty farmland. The route would be US59, I30, I55, I57, I80, I76 until it runs into one of the routes above.

That should at least give you some ideas for Googling and map study. What you ask would be similar to: I'm driving from London to Istanbul. What are the interesting sites along the way?

Rick "who grew up in Houston, lives in northern Virginia, and has driven every one of these routes" Denney

[cdholden]

Without knowing if you have a route in mind I suggest Chicago–some of the best architecture anywhere.

... and if you should find yourself in Chicago, drive 100 miles north to Milwaukee. They have a lot of pretty churches. Not just on the inside, but older structures, with intricate detail on the outside too.
Any major city or any little hole in the wall town will have things of interest. You just have to look around.

[luis a de santos]

Thanks everybody

Luis

[lenser]

If you are inclined, I found a website for my state (Missouri) that I think has all the states accessible. I just googled 'ghost towns, Missouri' and came up with it. It gives pretty specific directions (no GPS, though) and tells what remains at the towns so you can kind of figure out whther the detour might be worthwhile.

It defines ghost towns as anything with a population under 200 on down to zero and gives a brief history. Can't find my link right now, but Google should get you there.