U.S. Interstate highway system launched 56 years ago

U.S. Interstate highway system launched 56 years ago

With the promise of connecting Americans by multi-lane , non-congested highways, and inspired by Germanys use of autobahns for troop movement during World War II, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956. It was called the greatest public works program in the history of the world.

The new law poured $33 billion (about $265 billion in 2012 dollars) into overhauling the countrys roadways that created an economic boom, particularly for the U.S. auto industry.

Before the act, U.S. highways were narrow, meandering, stop-and-start affairs that went through big cities and small towns. After the act, interstate travel was defined by the massive, multi-laned, high-speed funnels we know today. When we get these thruways across the whole country, as we will and must, wrote John Steinbeck in his 1962 book, Travels With Charley, it will be possible to drive from New York to California without seeing a single thing.

Small towns that were bypassed by the highways withered and died. New towns flourished around exits. Fast food and motel franchises sprung up and replaced small businesses. And, of course, trucks supplanted trains for shipping goods cross-country. This was not foreseen by the interstate systems designers, and old forms of traffic congestion gave way to new.

More than any single action by the government since the end of the war, this one would change the face of America, said Eisenhower in 1963.