Life is a Highway, Part 2

January 03, 2010

According to the Interstate Highway System Wikipedia entry, Missouri, Kansas, and Pennsylvania all insist that the first tract of Interstate highway was laid on their land:

Missouri claims that the first three contracts under the new program were signed in Missouri on August 2, 1956. Kansas claims that it was the first to start paving after the act was signed…according to information liaison specialist, Richard Weingroff, the Pennsylvania Turnpike could also be considered one of the first Interstate Highways.

Every state wanted to be number one with this winning idea.

Regardless of where it all began, the Interstate Highway System now spans a total length of 46,876 miles (75,440 km) and is the largest highway system in the world and the largest public works project in history. Dwight D. Eisenhower (President from 1953-1961) signed the legislation authorizing the Interstate Highway Program in 1956. He later stated that:

More than any single action by the government since the end of the war, this one would change the face of America . . . Its impact on the American economy, the jobs it would produce in manufacturing and construction, the rural areas it would open up, was beyond calculation.

Ironically, Eisenhower was later deemed the “Do-Nothing President” in spite of both his role in the creation of the Interstate Highway System and his many international political accomplishments during World War II, along with ending the Korean War. Nonetheless, it would be impossible to deny the impact of the highway system. Continue reading…

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