July 29, 1956. Congress Creates the Interstate Highway System
It took 35 years to complete the original design of the Interstate Highway System adopted by Congress in 1956, with many changes and modifications to the project absorbed during that time. Many myths regarding the nation’s premier transportation network also emerged during construction and ongoing maintenance of the project.
It was not based on Hitler’s Autobahn as admired by Eisenhower, although Eisenhower was aware of the need to improve America’s highway infrastructure for both daily use and national defense. It was however based on a design prepared by Charles E. Wilson, written while he was still head of General Motors, the nation’s leading producer of automobiles. At the time construction began Wilson was Secretary of Defense.
Whole industries grew out of the Interstate Highway System, some of which were inconceivable when the project began. Prior to the interstates, cross-country road trips required prior planning to ensure there was adequate fuel, food, and lodging facilities available along the route. Travelers by road typically ate in diners or small local restaurants in towns along the way and stayed either with friends or in motor courts.
The interstate, with its many exchanges, gave birth to the fast-food industry, allowing travelers to find familiar food menus at even the most rural exchanges. Stations which dispensed fuel but provided minimal services replaced the formerly ubiquitous small-town service station, itself a replacement for the village blacksmith of an earlier age. National motel chains began to jockey for the best interchanges entering and leaving mid-size and large cities. The American Shopping Mall owes its birth and growth to the interstate highway system as well. Try to think of a major mall, not in proximity to an interstate highway, or a major feeder road connected to the main interstate artery.
The interstates made longer commutes more palatable (at least in the beginning) and along with housing benefits available to Korean War and World War II veterans helped fuel the growth of and flight to the suburbs. In nearly all cities mass transit systems suffered, bus lines were eliminated, trolleys and interurban railways vanished into history, and reliance on the automobile reigned supreme. Few government actions have had a larger impact on daily American life than that of July 29, 1956.