Infuriating Infrastructure

The Interstate Highway System, officially known as the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, was so named because the President signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Its intent was to make travel safer with efficient routes, eliminate traffic jams, and speedy, safe transcontinental travel. Idealistic ideas for mid-century travel. The all-freeway system was designed with nationally unified standards for construction and signage. The money for the Interstate System was handled in a Highway Trust Fund that paid for 90 percent of highway construction costs with the states required to pay the remaining 10 percent. The eventual payments, however, were through higher taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel. Something Eisenhower wanted to avoid.

Generally patterned after the Autobahn system in Germany, General Eisenhower noted their efficient use during World War II. The original intent was to speed around cities, not through them, for quick transportation of military equipment in the event of a conventional or nuclear war. Local politicians and individual state movers and shakers, however, began slicing through inner cities disregarding any historical significance in the name of progress. In this regard, this 1960 illustration predicted things fairly accurately. Never mind the Disney mono-rail.