Jun 26, 1956: Congress approves Federal Highway Act

[Sherman A1]

On this day in 1956, the U.S. Congress approves the Federal Highway Act, which allocates more than $30 billion for the construction of some 41,000 miles of interstate highways; it will be the largest public construction project in U.S. history to that date.

Among the pressing questions involved in passing highway legislation were where exactly the highways should be built, and how much of the cost should be carried by the federal government versus the individual states. Several competing bills went through Congress before 1956, including plans spearheaded by the retired general and engineer Lucius D. Clay; Senator Albert Gore Sr.; and Rep. George H. Fallon, who called his program the "National System of Interstate and Defense Highways," thus linking the construction of highways with the preservation of a strong national defense.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-approves-federal-highway-act


Something that lead to significant social change in this country.........

[Luminous Animal]

1. Big mistake. Made the private automobile and the combustion engine a priority.

[Systematic Chaos]

2. Half a million miles of local and interstate rail would have been a lot smarter.

But at least the highway projects kept people employed and earning a good living back then. We fucked our environment for that prosperity, so it's a double-edged sword I guess....

[Sherman A1]

3. Environmental issues aside for a moment

and I don't discount them at all. Can you imagine this government project getting through Congress & the GOP today?

[Luminous Animal]

4. Of course I can imagine the military and a powerful industry buying off enough of Congress to

get something like this passed.

[Selatius]

5. I'm sure Congress at the time would've reconsidered if they saw how expensive gasoline became.

The United States of 2012 is built around the 1956 assumption that gasoline would remain cheap.

They should've passed the bill but with the provision that the United States also continued to fund and expand the heavy and light rail network of the country and that the routes that are chosen for interstates also be wide enough for possible bullet train route addition. Then, maybe the United States wouldn't be the wealthiest nation without a major mass transit network connecting its cities.

[HooptieWagon]

6. Gas is comparable in price...

when you account for inflation.

[RobertEarl]

7. Yep

That was, in the United states, Communism's finest days.

Those dirty commies got the pentagon to go along with a spending program which was not directly tied to bombs or planes or ships.

Brilliant move!

Now one can drive from one end of the country to the other free as a bird. Anyone, at any time can just set off traveling and never touch bare earth from Miami to Portland, nor pay any fee.

Yep roads are the largest communist program ever.