A brief history of the Interstate System

Five pentagrams

The interstate system began with the ideas of one man: General John Pershing. Pershing was the first person to be intrigued by a European system of interstate highways during his assignment as commander of American Forces in World War I. In 1919, he assigned Eisenhower to find out how fast troops could move all the way across the country in the event of a war. Eisenhower left Fort Meade outside of Washington, DC headed for the Presidio base in San Francisco armed with 81 vehicles. The only problem, however, was lack of road infrastructure.

Though they took the then-famous Lincoln Highway (now U.S. 30), many of the over 3,000 miles remained unpaved, and it took the convoy 62 days to arrive at their destination. They averaged just 50 miles per day, or approximately 3.5 miles per hour. The men had to repair many of the bridges and roads while traveling on them, for fear that the convoy would break the bridges or get stuck in the mud. Upon returning to Washington, Eisenhower reported his findings to Pershing, who proceeded to draft a plan for an 8,000-mile interstate system, released in 1922. This plan, however, was all but ignored by the White House and Congress, who firmly believed that railways were the transportation method of choice, partially because of a very powerful railroad lobby. Pershing remained committed to this system, however, and is highly regarded as an inspiration for Eisenhower's later plan.

Do you still like Ike? While Ike was commanding the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, he saw how efficiently and easily Germans could move their troops on their sophisticated Autobahns, and dreamed of replicating this new idea in America. His movement also used the Autobahns greatly to their advantage in Germany, allowing them to move much more efficiently than had been possible in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Eisenhower also postulated that the Germans had been able to stay in the war two years longer than would have been possible without swift
mobilization, using their Autobahns. Upon returning home, Eisenhower found himself a national hero, and won the election for the presidency in 1952. He set into motion immediately his plan for the interstate system.

Initialy, he was met with much resistance. Many people believed that private companies could do a better job of building roads, but Ike new better. He recruited Lucius Clay, one of his closest friends, to help sell the American public, as well as congressmen and politicians, on his idea for a national system. And, surprisingly, it worked.

In January 1956, Eisenhower used his State of the Union address to bring to light the problems with the existing system. Enormous public support came out of his speech and subsequent grassroots speeches to press the program, and finally persuaded Congress to pass the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. This plan committed the federal government to 90% of the construction costs involved in the new system, to be primarily paid for by motor fuel taxes . The rest of the costs and upkeep of the system was left to the state governments; this structure still exists today.

This also satisfied the requirements of the NATO alliance

From the outset of construction of the Interstate System, the DOD has monitored its progress closely, ensuring direct military input to all phases of construction. The National Defense Highway System was responsible for Are we seeing a pattern yet? building many of the first freeways. Its purpose was supposedly to allow for mass evacuation of cities in the event of a nuclear attack. The Interstate system was designed so that one mile in every five must be straight, usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

Though created for national defense mobility, evacuation and public transportation, the system can't seem to satisfy any of these objectives completely. No one would argue that, in the event of an emergency, defense vehicles would have a hard time finding a place to move on the freeway if they tried to surround a major city; in fact, they'd probably get stuck in gridlock along with the rest of us.

The best solution to that problem? Close it!