Approaching A Half Century Of The Interstate Highway System

"While Americans were taken with the automobile by the 1950s, and freeways were under construction in urban areas around the country, a much-discussed interstate network was not funded until Congress passed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956. Eisenhower eagerly signed it that year on June 29 in Walter Reed Hospital, where he was recovering from surgery after a bout of ileitis.

The act, which envisioned a 41,000-mile network of smooth, wide, fast and intersection-free superhighways from San Francisco to New York City, promised to reimburse states for 90 percent of the cost of building the new thoroughfares. It set off a highway building boom that produced nearly 47,000 miles of interstate highways as of 2004."

"'It was no less than the rearrangement of the ways people live their lives,' said Owen Gutfreund, director of the urban studies program at Barnard College in New York and author of "20th Century Sprawl: Highways and the Reshaping of the American Landscape."

"New communities have been born, communities have grown, central cities have died."

"'Commerce is the biggest impact the interstate system had,' said Dan McNichol, author of 'The Roads That Built America'. 'Mostly trucking, but also where businesses and shopping centers are located -- near the interstate. The system is central to shipping and receiving, and growing even more so.'"

"The interstate boom brought with it an economic boom, particularly for the highway construction, oil and automotive industries. But it also benefited the tourism industry and helped drive the growth of fast-food outlets, national motel chains and business districts built around off-ramps -- even in the middle of nowhere."