24. The Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965
In 1961 over one-third of people living in the Appalachian region, which crossed 13 states, lived beneath the poverty line. The regions which included West Virginia, parts of Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia were among the most poverty-stricken in the United States. The Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965, part of Johnson’s Great Society, led to the creation of a commission to oversee the completion of the Appalachian Development Highway System (ADHS), another initiative started by Kennedy. The cost of construction in the mountains had to then limit the highways throughout the region, which in turn limited economic development.
The ADHS, as yet still not complete, was begun that year, and authorized a system of highway corridors designed to stimulate economic development. Over 3,000 miles of highways were designed to ease commerce throughout the region. The system comprises state highways, US highways, and Interstate highways and consists of more than two dozen corridors. In a study completed in 2019, when just under 2,800 miles of the system were complete and open to traffic, a study found that the ADHS had generated $54 billion in economic development over the cost of construction and maintenance of the system.