Dwight D. Eisenhower Interstate Highway System
May 13, 2011 at 4:13 AM
September 26, 1999
Millennium Project
ASCE
1015 15th St.
Washington, D.C. 20005
Dwight D. Eisenhower Interstate Highway System
In 1919, a young Army Officer named Dwight Eisenhower conducted a test for
military readiness which included commanding a convoy of vehicles crossing the
country’s roads. It took 65 days to complete the mission. Later, after World War
II, Eisenhower marveled at Hitler’s Autobahn’s which seemed to survive every
attempted disruption from bombings, and were easily repaired. As President of
United States, the lessons learned became a primary focus of Eisenhower’s
administration, namely to connect every major city by a network of
superhighways. The threat of nuclear war was real, and the need for both civil
and military evacuation added urgency to the mission. Thus, today’s 42,000 mile
Interstate Highway system became a reality.
No one single achievement affected more people in the 20th century than the
completion of the National Interstate Highway System. Taken for granted and
barely applauded now, the fact is our Interstate Highway System is the most vital
element to the American way of life next to the automobile itself. Linking the cities
with superhighways did more much more than Eisenhower forecast. Indeed the
military and civilian population was provided with egress for an emergency, but
America’s growth developed on the Interstate Highways on an unprecedented
scale. Out of this achievement came a way of life which other countries simply
cannot duplicate.
Urban development could not occur without the existence of a highway system
which maintains strict control over access and upon which vehicles can travel 70
miles per hour. These were two of the criteria civil engineers used in its design.
The standards for the Interstate Highways were highly regulated - lanes were
required to be twelve feet wide, shoulders were ten feet wide, a minimum of
fourteen feet of clearance under each bridge was required, grades had to be less
than 3%, and the highway had to be designed for travel at 70 miles per hour.
Although prior federal or state highways allowed any road to be connected to the
highway, the Interstate Highways only allowed access from a limited number of
controlled interchanges. Thus, despite the fact that one's farmstead lies next to
an Interstate there was no way to enter the Interstate except through the few and
far-between interchanges. But who could predict the effect? Urban sprawl may
be cursed, but without the Interstate Highways, life as we know it, could not
occur.
Just like arteries in the human body, the Interstate Highway System acts like a
channel for the life force of America to flow. Students of history know the value
the Romans placed in their roads. Their achievements are legendary. The
Roman Empire was no greater than their roads, which were built to establish
dominance in a world order controlled from Rome. Few people equate the same
significance to the Interstate Highway System; yet in many ways, indeed it is the
same. For if commerce depended on existing federal highways or rail or air to
achieve growth in a competitive world market, then what a barrier would have
developed without the familiar red, white and blue Interstate signs to travel. We
owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the foresight and planning of the civil
engineers in the 50’s who made it possible.
Notwithstanding other achievements, can anyone rightfully claim more
significance that our own Interstate System to our present quality of life?
Paul Gogulski, P.E.
1400 Woodmore Rd.
Las Vegas, NV 89134
(843) 470-0459
ASCE #112313