high up on the highway

[GeneD]

I've just come from the US, where I was delighted finally to visit the city of St Louis. I had passed over it so many times high up on the interstate highway that connects more fashionable places on the east and west coasts, and I had always promised to myself I'd stop one day.
It's from a Belarusian exercise book.

What does "high up" mean there? Is it something like "going up/down the street"? Why the word "high" then?

 

[emsr2d2]

It sounds to me as if there is an interstate highway which is elevated and actually crosses above the city of St Louis. The speaker has driven across that "high" interstate road many times and has looked down on St Louis but now he has actually managed to visit the city itself.

 

[GoesStation]

It sounds to me as if there is an interstate highway which is elevated and actually crosses above the city of St Louis. The speaker has driven across that "high" interstate road many times and has looked down on St Louis but now he has actually managed to visit the city itself.

This is correct. You can see some bits of the city, particularly its famous Gateway Arch, but you don't actually see a city when driving through it on an interstate highway. These are freeways/autoroutes/motorways, and were modeled on the German autobahns which President Eisenhower admired when he led the Allied invasion of Germany.

 

[Tarheel]

You can make a promise to yourself or you can promise yourself something.

 

[GeneD]

You can make a promise to yourself or you can promise yourself something.

I've promised my old computer to Jane. That's an example from http://www.freecollocation.com/search?word=promise. Is it due to "myself/yourself/etc" that you don't use "to"? Or is it a peculiarity of the dictionary? Or is it an AmE feature?

 

[GeneD]

It sounds to me as if there is an interstate highway which is elevated and actually crosses above the city of St Louis. The speaker has driven across that "high" interstate road many times and has looked down on St Louis but now he has actually managed to visit the city itself.

So this "high up" could be omitted without making the sentence ungrammatical: I had passed over it so many times on the interstate highway... ​Do I understand it correctly?

 

[Tarheel]

I've promised my old computer to Jane. That's an example from http://www.freecollocation.com/search?word=promise. Is it due to "myself/yourself/etc" that you don't use "to"? Or is it a peculiarity of the dictionary? Or is it an AmE feature?

I am pretty sure the British use it too.

I promised myself I would lose weight.
I promised myself I would go on a diet.
I promised myself I would get in shape.

There are other possibilities.

 

[Tarheel]

So this "high up" could be omitted without making the sentence ungrammatical: I had passed over it so many times on the interstate highway... ​Do I understand it correctly?

Yes, you don't need "high up" if you phrase it that way. (The interstate was built so that it crosses over the streets of the city. You can drive through the city without going into the city.)

 

[Barb_D]

I believe it's being used as a metaphor for flying over the city.

There is even a phrase "fly-over city" that refers to "all those unimportant cities between the coasts."

The phrasing "high up on the interstate highway that connects more fashionable places on the east and west coasts" supports this interpretation.

 

[Rover_KE]

I am pretty sure the British use it too.

We do indeed.
Indeed we do.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I believe it's being used as a metaphor for flying over the city.

Yesterday when I saw it, I also thought of 'flying over', but was it possible to fly on the highway as it reads 'high up on the interstate highway'?

 

[Tarheel]

Yesterday when I saw it, I also thought of 'flying over', but was it possible to fly on the highway as it reads 'high up on the interstate highway'?

It wasn't. And it isn't. It (an interstate) is a limited access highway. It either goes over or under the roads that are inside a city.

 

[GeneD]

but was it possible to fly on the highway?

In Russian, it's quite natural to put it this way: "to fly on the highway". We often say so. Using this metaphor, the speaker normally emphasises the fact that the car was (or is) moving fast. I guess the phrase "fly-over city", mentioned by Barb D, could have a similar meaning: a city isn't worth slowing down the car (Speed up! We have more important things to do. I'm not sure if the latter sounds natural for English natives though ).

And after emsr's explanation in post #2, I immediately and without any difficulty accepted the description. Because we could definitely express that idea exactly the same way if we happened to describe the situation. But I can't be sure if it's natural for English speakers to say this way since it's me who asked the original question.

 

[Tarheel]

You might say a person "flew down the highway" to mean he was going really fast.

 

[SoothingDave]

Yes, you can "fly" on the highway to mean you are driving really fast.

However, understand that the "flyover" area of the USA is a reference to people who fly in airplanes between "important" cities on the east and west coasts. Its origin is pejorative.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyover_country

 

[Barb_D]

It wasn't. And it isn't. It (an interstate) is a limited access highway. It either goes over or under the roads that are inside a city.

The point of a metaphor is that is stands for something in general; it doesn't have to comport in every detail.

I'm actually quite convinced that the author was referring literally to "up" and metaphorically to "interstate," referring to St. Louis's role in "flyover country" as he traveled to and from the "importance cities" on the coasts.