The Struggle for the Interstate

This article describes how, only six decades elapsed from the time the Good Roads Movement began to pull America out of the mud (1892) and the year the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways was launched (1956). Only four decades separate the revival of the federal role in road-building - the Federal-Aid Road Act of 1916 – and the interstate era. But those decades saw the growth of the federal involvement in road-building, which lead to the greatest public works project in the American history. They also saw economic boom, bust, and three wars, all of which had their own effect on the nascent federal highway system. But they predated Eisenhower’s signature which in 1956 kick-started the interstate system’s construction and this article describes how it happened.

• Corporate Authors:

  Faircount LLC

  701 North West Shore Boulevard
  Tampa, FL  United States  33609

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Kuennen, Tom
• Publication Date: 2006

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Photos;
• Pagination: pp 40-48
• Monograph Title: Interstate 50. 50 Years of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Anniversaries; Assets; Federal aid highways; Federal government; Interstate highways; National defense; Public works
• Identifier Terms: Eisenhower, Dwight David; Interstate Highway System
• Subject Areas: Finance; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Pavements; Planning and Forecasting; I20: Design and Planning of Transport Infrastructure; I21: Planning of Transport Infrastructure; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01029396
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 21 2006 2:34PM