Interstate 59

I am a interstate highway in the southern United States. My southern end is near Slidell, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans, at an intersection with Interstate 10 and Interstate 12. My northern end is at Lookout Mountain, Georgia at an intersection with Interstate 24, near Chattanooga.From Slidell, I travel northeast, passing very close to Pearl River before crossing both the west and east branches of the Pearl River. At the East Pearl River, I leave the Saint Tammany Parish and enter Pearl River County, Mississippi.I continue to parallel U.S. 11 through mainly rural areas, going through or bypassing Picayune, Hattiesburg, Laurel and Meridian.Near Laurel, I feature two sharp curves with posted speed limits of 40 miles per hour (60 km/h), one of the slowest on the interstate system. After more than 20 years of trying, the Mississippi Department of Transportation is currently in the midst of a $36 million project to straighten out my dreaded curve.At Meridian, Interstate 20 joins I-59 and the two highways continue together for 145 miles to the Alabama border and beyond to Birmingham.At 4:00 p.m. on August 27, 2005, for the first time in my history, my southbound lanes were temporarily redirected northward to accommodate evacuation for Hurricane Katrina. This was a previously agreed to joint plan by the states of Mississippi and Louisiana called Contraflow lane reversal. The program began at the Mississippi-Louisiana state border and continued 21 miles (33 km) north to Poplarville.Interstate 20 and myself are conjoined for much of our route through this state, passing northeastward through Tuscaloosa before finally parting ways in eastern Birmingham.In Birmingham, many wrecks and accidents occur near the interchange of I-20/59 and Interstate 65. On two occasions, 18-wheelers crashed and burned fiercely enough to melt the support beams of overpasses. Because of the frequent and severe wrecks, this interchange is nicknamed "Malfunction Junction".From Birmingham, I-59 continues northeastward near Gadsden and Fort Payne before entering Georgia.I have a very short trek through the Peach State, having only three exits before coming to an end at Interstate 24 several miles west of Chattanooga, Tennessee near Lookout Mountain.My Lenths Divided By StatesLouisiana - 11 Miles
Mississippi - 171 Miles
Alabama - 241 Miles
Georgia - 21 MilesMajor Cities Along My PathNew Orleans, Louisiana (via Interstate 10)
Slidell, Louisiana
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Laurel, Mississippi
Meridian, Mississippi
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Birmingham, Alabama
Gadsden, Alabama
Fort Payne, Alabama
Chattanooga, Tennessee (via Interstate 24)