Route 128

Cultural  

1. Used as a synonym for high technology (see high-tech) (see also high-tech); this term refers to a highway encircling the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts, which is known for the concentration of electronics and computer firms located along it. (Compare Silicon Valley.)

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Example Sentences

Drawing on earlier research by UC Berkeley’s AnnaLee Saxenian, Gilson compared Silicon Valley to the tech corridor along Route 128 outside of Boston.

From Slate • Jan. 6, 2023

Route 128, a beltway around Boston, was home to so many universities and pioneering computer firms that it soon became known as America’s Technology Highway.

From The New Yorker • Oct. 15, 2018

I met Chow earlier this year at TripAdvisor’s headquarters in Needham, Massachusetts, which are nestled into the side of the Route 128 highway, next to a Coca-Cola bottling plant.

From The Guardian • Aug. 17, 2018

Route 128 bus - just the beginning of her daily commute, a 90-minute trek into Philadelphia.

From Washington Times • Mar. 10, 2018

When I was a boy growing up in Boston, Route 128, the industrial belt around Boston, led the world in scientific creativity and imagination.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond