The American Interstate Freeway System turns 50 years old (on paper) in 2006. It was one of the best things the Federal government has ever done.
This article on the subject has a historical point I want to knit-pick over:
Although some historians claim that Eisenhower’s motivations were military in nature, the nation’s civilian population reaped the rewards.
Before Congress officially renamed the system in Eisenhower’s honor, the word “Defense” was in the official title of the system. Even though, to this day, the Interstate system can be closed to civilian traffic and limited to emergency and military traffic with the stroke of a Presidential pen, I do not believe that national defense was a motivation in building the Interstate System, or a significant political tool to get Federal politicians of the mid-1950s to agree to the project.
Remember, this was 1956. Everyone was worried about the Russians dropping a nuke on us, and the Cold War was in full swing. So anything called “Defense” was bound to earn some sympathy points. Those who advocated for the system used National Defense as a bullet point, but just about anyone at the time who was intellectually honest knew that it was just a self-induced delusion to accomplish what public authorities wanted to do anyway for motivations other than Defense: Build better roads for widespread domestic utilization.
The reason there was any political opposition at all to various Interstate Highway bills that were bandied about Congress, starting in 1954, is that big city politicans were upset that urban cores were excluded from the System’s original plans.
The original plan was this: Many major cities would be surrounded by circular beltways, and the trans-city routes would begin and end at the beltways, and not penetrate inside. For example, in St. Louis, this would have meant that I-255/270 would exist, but Interstates 44, 55, 64, 70 and 170 would not have existed. Urban traffic would have been expected to use urban boulevards and arterials.
But that plan had no prayer of getting past Congress, especially the House, and all of its representatives from urban districts.
After several revisions, a plan with more urban routes and construction (and by deduction, more Davis-Bacon work for skilled trade unions) made it through Congress, and President Eisenhower signed it into law.
As the concrete started pouring, though, Eisenhower reportedly cast regrets that he allowed a bill that meant that freeways were overrunning many old urban neighborhoods. In that, he was well ahead of his time in the realm of all citizens, and way ahead of his time in the arena of elected politicians.
