The Interstate Highway System

Prior to 1956, the highway

system was a disordered set of

roads that were primarily used

to connect neighboring towns

in America. In order to travel,

Americans were forced to take

indirect routes through small

towns in order to reach their

destination. This was not

economical nor was it time efficient. The highway system radically changed after World War II

when the Interstate Highway Act passed under the Eisenhower administration. Eisenhower

recognized the inefficiency of the American roads and he believed that a uniform highway

system which linked together major cities would remedy this problem. The fear of Communism

and the new theat of nuclear attack made the idea of mass evacuation from cities a concern of

the government. These new threats allowed the new highway system to actually serve as a

defense mechanism in case that urban cities were bombed.

In 1956, the fifty billion dollar Interstate

Highway Act was passed and this bill

became the largest public works project

ever under taken in the world. Forty

thousand miles of roadway were laid

down as part of this civil defense system.

The new interstates dramatically affected

travel throughout the United States

because cross country travel was no longer interrupted by towns and cities, but instead it was

designed to avoid interruptions. The result was a uniform system of highways that linked the

entire country and it altered American traveling because no longer were people forced to meet

America by traveling through its towns, but instead as a result of the new Interstate Highway

System, they were encouraged to travel passively around America by avoiding diversions such as

cities.

This obsession with an efficient highway system was not distinctly American. Eisenhower

witnessed the efficiency of the German autobahn while fighting in World War II. The autobahn

was constructed under Hitler while he was Chancellor and it had duel lanes, limited accesses,

and allowed travel up to one hundred miles an hour. Eisenhower modeled the American

Highway System after the paradigm of German precision and efficiency he saw displayed in their

autobahns.

To cover the cost of the Interstate Highway

System, the Highway Revenue Act was passed in

1956. This Act raised gasoline prices by three

cents a gallon in order to help finance the new

highway system. Americans accepted this due to

their love for the automobile and the freedom

that accompanied it. These roadways provided an

endless amount of opportunities and freedom.

Americas took to the open road as a chance to seize adventure. The new uniform highway

system epitomized America's post World War II mentality of expansion and these ideas which

were borrowed from abroad were then brought back home and incorporated into the

infrastructure of the United States.

The Interstate Highway System altered the fundamental frame of mind of America because it

introduced a sterile uniformity in the way we travel America. No longer were travelers forced to

confront regional differences in America and actually meet the country as they were previously

forced to do. Instead, the Interstate Highways travelers were given the efficient option of avoiding

regional differences and instead allowed themselves to be consumed in the monotony of the new

system. The result was the exchange of the culture of America for a new consumer efficiency.

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Literature

Introduction

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