Book Description

In 1956, after much planning and compromise, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act, creating the interstate highway system, a project which transformed America forever. As our Country entered the 20th century, good roads, even paved roads, weren't common. Plans for a national system of expressways were developed in 1944 by the National Highway Committee. Congress designated the 40,000 mile national system of interstate highways in 1944, but funding would not be authorized until 1952, when President Harry Truman signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1952, offering a token down payment of $25 million for the interstates. However, it would be up to the next President, President Dwight David Eisenhower, to lead the campaign for the Nation's interstate system. President Eisenhower made it a keystone of his domestic agenda when he was elected to office in 1953. He envisaged a new, tax-based financing plan with the Federal Government bearing the largest share of construction costs. Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act without fanfare, in a hospital room at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where he was recovering from illness. Today, Americans continue to reap the benefits of that legislation. The wide, relatively straight roadways in the interstate highway system were designed to be faster and safer than the two-lane roads that preceded them. In fact, the interstate system is the safest road system in America.