It is hard to imagine the united states without the interstate Highway system. Many peoples lives depend on it entirely and everyones lives are affected by it in one way or another. For some Interstate Highways are just the roads they take for an occasional trip but for others the interstate is used for their daily commute. The first idea sparked for the IHS was in 1923 by General John J. Pershing.
John J. Pershing was the Cheif of staff for the U.S. army at the time. His Idea for the IHS was the first time that a plan for an express highway system was brought to congress. Nothing was done by congress to further the idea sparked by General Pershing until later years. in 1939 interest was renewed in an express highway system. The Beuro of public roads wanted to develop interregional highways. Interest in 1939 led congress to investigate the need for this super highway system. Things that congress would look into would be the number of highways needed, routs they should follow, and construction costs. After the investigations done by congress they came to the conclusion that there was a need for the IHS which led to the federeal aid Highway act of 1944.
The federal aid Highway act of 1944 a bust because of world warII. All tax funds that would have been put towards the development of the IHS was put towards the country's millitary needs. In 1956 the construction for the IHS finally began. President Eisenhower was a great supporter of the IHS and he thought it would be very bennificial to our country. Some say that the development and beginning of the IHS was Eisenhowers greatest accomplishment for the two terms that he served as president.
Eisenhower put the Federal Highway act into action in 1956, this was also known as the national interstate and deffence highways. Eisenhower sighned the act on June 29. The whole IHS project would cost close to 30 billion dollars. This still would be a ton of money for a project now days but to put it in to prospective, 30 billion dollars back then would equal about 450 billion dollars. 25 billion dollars of the project was planed to be payed for by the trust fund that Eisenhower had set up to pay for the project. 25 billion dollars would equal out to be 90% of the project and the remaining 10% of the IHS would be payed for by the raise on taxes that would be put on fuel, cars, and trucks.
 interstate highway system |
| Modern day interstate |
Eisenhower was a great fan of the Interstate Highway System for multiple reasons. He took part in the Historic Lincoln Highway which was a convoy of Millitary motor vehicles from the capital to San Fransisco. This was not an easy task because the roads were not always in good condition, vehicles were getting stuck and bridges were not capable of the use of these vehicles. Eisenhower knew that if these super highways were built it would make traveling across the country so much eaiser. he also knew that it would help the economy out. in several ways.
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| Early Suburb |
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| Interstate exit |
Suburbs emerged from the development of the IHS. Without the interstate suburbs just wouldnt make any since. During this time our nation was going through a process referred to as Urban Sprawl. This was the dissintergration of metropolitan areas. Residential areas and suburbs began to arrive in outlying metropolitan areas. Suburbs were very popular because of the amount of space and land you could have at such a significantly less price than it was to live in the city and with the new interstate highways the commute to the city were most jobs were was not bad at all. It only made since that people would move to suburbs.
Land developers and builders not only were making a ton of money by building these popular suburbs but as suburbs began to grow they saw a great money making opperitunity. The only downside to living in a suburb was the commute to work and to shop so why not bring job opperitunities and the retail market to the suburbs. Developers began to comercialize the suburbs but in a much different way than it is in the city. Commercial centers were huge buildings and large parking lots to accomidate the high volume of automobiles that would travel to one place. We might compare this to parkway city mall. The comercial centers didnt have any special or impressive architactual attributes, they were just blande boreing buildings.
The IHS was not first designed for daily commuting from the suburbs to the city, it just made it possible. During the time that the IHS was being developed the cold war was going on and the threat of Nuclear war had many people worried. There was a need to evacuate highly populated areas of people in a relatively quick mannor. This was a deffence mechanism to hopefully save lives in the event the the United States was under attack by nuclear weapons.
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| President Eisenhower University Of Michigan- I found more information about the development of the interstate Highway system on this site than any of my other sources. I could have done my whole project on tis source if i had to but i needed other sources to cross refference with.
Wisconsin History- This site was my second best source, i found many specific details about the IHS here that i did not find anywhere else.
ASCE- This source was very usefull in finding specifics on EIsenhower and the federal Highway acts
Federal Highway Asociation- I found many specifics on the amount of money spent on the project on this site and the specifics on the roads that were made and how the roads were decided to go to each city. THis was also a very good primary source.
DOT- The department of transportation was very usfull for finding out littile details about the highway system, it was
also a usefull primary source
National Atlas- very usefull for crossrefferencing facts, many useful pictures that i did not but should have used in my project.
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