Did you ever wonder about the history of our Interstate Highway System?

By David McClelland

The first National Road in the United States was built for horses & buggies in 1815 and ran from Maryland to St. Louis. It facilitated immigration to the central United States. Unfortunately, the Road eventually fell into disrepair.

If you are over 60, you may remember the construction of the Interstate Highway System in the 1950's. Do you also remember its history and why is was constructed at that time?

Most of us know that President Eisenhower was our President when the project began, but probably not many know that the idea began to form when he was a young Army officer in the summer of 1919, just after WWI. Young "Ike" was attached to a truck convoy of 81 vehicles, primarily trucks, that made its way from Washington, D.C. to San Francisco, California to conduct a road test to see how difficult it would be to move an entire army across the North American continent. The convoy arrived at its destination 62 days and 3,251 miles later. They had traveled only 53 miles each day. That trip made a lasting impression in the young officer and motivated him to try to find a way to build better and longer lasting roads in this country.

The Interstate Highway System was authorized by the Federal Highway Act of 1956 while Dwight Eisenhower was our 34th president and was signed at his urging. The Act provided that the highway would be limited access, have a minimum of two lanes, 12 feet in width in each direction, a 10-foot wide, right paved shoulder and design speeds of 50 – 70 miles per hour.

The first link of the Interstate opened on November 14, 1956 and was an eight-mile stretch in Topeka, Kansas. The last link was completed in Los Angeles in 1993.

The entire Interstate Highway system cost $129 billion ($425 billion in 2006 dollars) and was a cooperative federal-state construction project that took 37 years to complete. It now comprises 46,876 miles (75,440 km) of limited access, divided highway which allows us to make trips in less time whether they are to the job and back home or for a family vacation. Federal funds are provided annually and each state maintains its own miles of the Interstate System. Michigan has 1,241 miles of the Interstate Highways.

The actual name of the entire System is "The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways." The red, white and blue Interstate Highway Shield was designed by Richard Oliver of Texas and was approved by the American Association of State Highway Officials in 1957. It is trademarked. The system has now been extended to include Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico.

Only five state capitals are not served by the System. They are Juneau, Alaska; Dover, Delaware; Jefferson City, Missouri; Carson City, Nevada; and Pierre, South Dakota. It is just a matter of time before these capitals are connected. The completion of I-580 will connect Carson City, Nevada to the System very soon. It is a legend, but not true that one mile of the Interstate out of every five must be straight enough so that a plane can land on it. The highest elevation in the system is on I-70 in the Eisenhower Tunnel in Colorado at 11,192 feet above sea level. The lowest point is on I-8 in El Centro, California, which is 52 feet below sea level. The Interstate system travels over a dozen suspension bridges, including where I-75 runs over the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan and where I-80 runs over the Golden Gate Bridge in California.

Today, we pretty much take our Interstate Highway System for granted. We make great use of it whenever we need or desire to travel. Now, you know how it came into existence and who was behind its initial construction.