Friday, December 1, 2023
Closed tomorrow
Friday, December 1, 2023
Closed tomorrow
Ribbons Across the Land
Eisenhower’s Push for the Interstates
Ike’s Dream
Plans to build a federally-funded national highway system gained momentum in Washington during the 1930s, but the Great Depression and World War II would prevent meaningful funding for the project until the 1950s. When President Dwight Eisenhower took office in 1953, highway improvements was one of the main items on his domestic agenda. “The nation badly needs new highways,” he wrote to Congress in 1955. “The good of our people, of our economy, and of our defense, requires that construction of these highways be undertaken at once.”
Advisory Committee on a National Highway Program
In September 1954, the President appointed an Advisory Committee on a National Highway Program headed by Lucius Clay, a retired four-star general. The Committee recommended an ambitious 10-year, $100 billion federal road program. The new highways would increase safety and alleviate traffic congestion. They would also make it easier to evacuate cities during atomic attacks, which was an important priority during the Cold War with the Soviet Union.
Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956
President Eisenhower won bipartisan support for his highway program. He signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 on June 29 at his bedside in Walter Reed Army Hospital while recovering from an illness. The Act established federal funding for a 41,000 mile Interstate Highway System to be built by each state.