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The Interstate — How it all began

As we celebrate both the 75^th anniversary of Better Roads and the 50^th anniversary of the Interstate System in 2006, this edition focuses on perhaps the most important years in the history of highway and bridge construction the United States, the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System years. (Visit http://www.artba.org/50th/50th.htm, the website of the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, for more details on the Interstate’s 50th anniversary). 

The decade of the 1950’s, and the period after 1956 and into the mid-1960’s, was the most prolific in the history of U.S highway construction. With the post-WWII economic and population boom in full swing, and with the notion of an interstate system in mind, President Dwight D. Eisenhower set the wheels in motion for the most extensive road construction program ever attempted.

Although a national highway “system” was established in 1944, it was not until 1952 that it was specifically allocated funds, and then only a token $25 million. This amount was upped to $175 million in 1954 not nearly adequate enough to fund a true national road network.

Eisenhower’s vision of a national network of highways stems from two personal experiences. Through a cross-country military convoy in 1919 from Washington DC to San Francisco over dirt roads and un-bridged streams, young Colonel Eisenhower experienced first-hand the need for a road system during a 62-day expedition that  “tested” America’s early 20th century road system.

General Eisenhower, during World War II, saw the great mobility of Germany through an extensive autobahn system in that country. He set out to bring a better system to America where a nation dependent upon automobiles and trucks yearned to travel the country, bring goods to market efficiently, and to provide sorely needed military mobility.

Publicizing the need for highways

While GI’s returning from the war told stories of the great concrete bi-ways of Europe, it wasn’t until the early 1950’s that the ground swell to build an interstate system in the United States came into play. Such a vast program would have to be brought forth to the American public, and a relatively new vehicle to publicize this ambitious program called “television” was there for the taking. 

In an article in the February 1954 issue of Better Roads titled “Want Public to Back Your Road Aims? Try Television” William F. Steuber, Assistant Engineer, Wisconsin State Highway Commission, espouses television as “the hottest medium today in getting and holding the attention of the public”. Steuber encourages readers to buy TV advertising time to focus on “public attention on road matters”, and to “tell the highway story.” 

And what was the cost of television time in 1954 for local advertising for a quarter-hour to a half-hour? $60 to $600. (Compare this cost to the $2.5 million for a 30-second spot on the 2006 Super Bowl!). 

Television would become an important tool in the effort to get the Interstate Program off and running.

Eisenhower asks for gas tax retention

From the February 1954 issue…

In his state of the union address on January 9, 1954, President Eisenhower laid the groundwork for an expanded road program by asking for retention of the federal gas tax. “to protect the vital interest of every citizen in a safe and adequate highway system.”

The federal gas tax in 1954 was .2 cents per gallon.

Federal-Aid Bill…the embryonic stages of the
 Interstate Highway System

From the March 1954 issue…

”Hearings were concluded in the house of representatives in February on Representative J. Harry McGregor’s (R-OH) federal-aid highway bill. The bill, which apparently, has the approval of President Eisenhower, provides a total of $800,000,000 for major highway purposes for each of the fiscal year’s 1956 and 1957—or $225,000,000 more annually than at present”…totaling a record $1.932 billion over two years (Note: the recently enacted SAFTEA-LU provides $284 billion over a six-year period).

Further to this, “Most controversial provisions of the McGregor bill involve the interstate and secondary systems” with the “controversy in regards to a debate on funding to be based on either population of the states, or on a matching funds system. 

The bill passed in March, but the controversy about expanding the road effort nationwide sparked debate about building an interstate system.

The Interstate Movement Swells

From the July 1954 issue…

”Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks has announced that apportionments” for highway funding were released “6 months ahead of the time limit set by congress. This is the first step in the start of the new federal highway program for 1956 and 1957.”

One note of interest in an item appearing in this issue… it was announced that the 10-mile “Hollywood Freeway in Los Angeles County, CA has been completed and opened to traffic.”

President’s Program

It was reported in the August issue that the Eisenhower administration proposed a $50 billion, 10-year program to fund highways, an amount that would be in addition to the Federal-Aid bill funding.

Presented by Vice President Richard Nixon at the annual Governor’s Conference, the program consists of four major parts: 

“A master plan for a highway system…with fast and safe transcontinental travel, intercity communication…and elimination of metropolitan area congestion.”

“Financing based on self-liquidation of each project” with funding through tolls, increased gas taxes or increased federal funds.”

“A cooperative alliance between the federal government and the states, so the local governments will be the managers in their areas.”

“A program initiated by the federal government with state cooperation, for planning and construction of a modern interstate highway system,” a 40,000 mile national network. 

Eisenhower appointed “a cabinet committee to help formulate a comprehensive transportation policy for the nation.”

Note: Mr. C.M Nelson, editor of Better Roads starting with its first issue published in October 1931, passed away in September 1954. One of the nation’s road and bridge opinion leaders, Mr. Nelson died before he could realize the greatness of the interstate program, which he championed.

The President’s Message

With the death of C.M. Nelson, it was months before a new editor would be appointed. With so little detail about the Eisenhower plan, it was several months before Better Roads provided meaningful commentary. 

 In a March 1955 editorial, newly appointed editor Gerald C. Ward, somewhat skeptical about the program’s funding mechanisms, said about the Interstate Program… 

 “A dream—a wonderful dream. But probably just that. The problem of money will undoubtedly spoil this dream.…In the end, the solution of the highway problem lies in the hands of those who would benefit most from an adequate network of roads and streets—the users. If…(we) can convince the ordinary highway user that in the long run he will pay less for good highways than he does now for bad ones, the money will be there and the dream realized.”

Optimism for the new year

In December 1955, after months of ongoing debate about the Interstate Program, not IF it would happen, but WHEN and HOW it would be put in place, Editor Ward writes….

“The year 1955 should end for highway officials on an optimistic note. Never before has there been such a widespread recognition of need to bring the 40,000-mile interstate highway system up to adequate standards as quickly as possible. Never before has the importance of all highway systems—state, county and local—been brought so strongly to the attention of the public.”

June 29, 1956

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the bill that provides the United States with its most extensive highway program ever, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956! The bill provided the means to construct the interstate highway system, and created the Highway Trust Fund.

Changing Highway Picture

In the July 1956 issue of Better Roads, just days after the President signed the bill, editor Gerald Ward, in his monthly editorial, wrote the following: 

“An expanded national highway program is now a part of the law of the land. At all levels of government the highway picture will be changed. This is the time for cooperation.”

And the rest is history!

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