How The Interstate Highway System Changed Business

Fortune Magazine examines how the Interstate Highway System reshaped the Fortune 500 and the economy.

1 minute read

January 16, 2004, 1:00 PM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"On June 29, 1956, ... President Dwight D. Eisenhower... signed the bill for a $25 billion National System of Interstate and Defense Highways... But in the process of laying 42,793 miles of limited-access pavement, the Interstate builders changed America in ways few could have imagined in 1939 or even 1956... The Interstate system was sold as a savior for both rural America and declining urban cores; instead it speeded the trend toward suburbanization at the expense of both city and country... For American businesses, the Interstates literally and figuratively transformed the landscape in which they operated."

Thanks to The Practice of New Urbanism Listserv

Monday, January 26, 2004 in Fortune

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

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