The Interstate Highway system started on June 29, 1956(that’s my birthday :), when Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. It cost about 25 billion dollars for the construction. There were over 41,000 miles of highways put in over about 20 years.
Dwight supported the Act because in 1919 he was in the U.S. army’s first Transcontinental Motor Convoy and it was the first road across America. The convoy was very publicly known because people wanted to show how much they needed these roads.
Dwight thought that the highways would be good because if we ever got attacked then we would be able to quickly transport troops and stuff all over the country. He also said that it would connect communities and make commutes shorter faster.
The highways were also good for car manufacturers because they would have a lot more business now that there was more need for a car. In 1921, they started to get a list from the army of which roads would be necessary if they were ever attacked and needed to go somewhere quickly.
Missouri, Kansas, and Pennsylvania are considered to be the first states to have an Interstate Highway system.
I think that this was a very good idea to invent the highway system. Without it we would still have just gravel and dirt roads and we wouldn’t be able to travel as far. The highway system allows us to travel in the mountains and bridges and that allow us to travel over rivers and seas and stuff like that. It was a very good idea.
source 1) http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/nhs/
source 2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System
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