Stephen Schwartz: Today in 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the consequential Federal Aid Highway Act, which created the 41,000-mile interstate highway system and was justified and promoted partly on the basis that it would enable the swift evacuation of US cities in the event of a Soviet nuclear attack.

Today in 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the consequential Federal Aid Highway Act, which created the 41,000-mile interstate highway system and was justified and promoted partly on the basis that it would enable the swift evacuation of US cities in the event of a Soviet nuclear attack.

There was no signing ceremony and there are no photographs of President Eisenhower signing this bill because at the time he was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center recovering from emergency abdominal surgery three weeks earlier to relieve severe stomach pains caused by ileitis.

President Eisenhower's Big Day June 29, 1956 - Interstate System - Highway History - Federal Highway Administrationwww.fhwa.dot.gov

“‘It has been determined as a matter of Federal policy ... that at least 70 million people would have to be evacuated from target areas in case of threatened or actual enemy attack. No urban area in the country today has highway facilities equal to this task.’ But such highways are coming.”

In fact, during its construction, and for years thereafter, the entire road network was officially referred to as the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.

Fun Fact: the minimum clearance required by law for interstate highway overpasses was determined by the height of ICBM transport vehicles like this one, seen here squeezing an (unarmed) Atlas ICBM under an overpass in Benson, Arizona, en route to the Atlantic Missile Range, on December 1, 1956.

On July 1, 1960, Rep. Gordon H. Scherer (R-Ohio), ranking Republican on the House Subcommittee on Roads, entered into the record a Cincinnati Enquirer article defending the costly highway effort and explaining a 16-foot clearance was driven by the need to move Atlas ICBMs from California to Florida:

See also this 2015 article, which suggests that 16 feet of clearance was indirectly related to the height of the Army’s massive M65 280-millimeter atomic cannon, which was operational overseas from 1955-62. (I have my doubts, but I suppose it’s possible.) www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/ma...

I-55 overpass closes to fit atomic cannonwww.arkansasonline.com When the Arkansas Department of Highway and Transportation Department closes an overpass on Interstate 55 in Mississippi County for a month beginning today, a contractor will be raising it high enough...

Was that the actual reason, or a justification to standardize overpass heights for all sorts of cargo? ("Oh, you want to let the godless commies vaporize American children just to save a few bucks?") I worked with oversize power plant equipment, and there were usually workarounds for transport.

Will federal judges understand stuff like this going forward ?

Indeed, Eisenhower used national security and military preparedness as a pretext to build the Interstate Highway System. The actual goal was to bolster the automotive industry, and to allow commercial development to occur in areas not served by navigable waterways or railroads.

I would further argue that the Interstate Highway system help expand federal authority to areas previously insulated from such influence. This helped accelerate the Civil Rights movement and end Jim Crow.

Also, at some point Federal Highways learned that the military was building all their equipment to meet the 12 (14?)-foot clearances in Europe. Big but quiet fight to move US to same standard. Those extra feet add enormously to construction costs. Military won the battle.

At some point, humanity is going to need to start mining asteroids just to continue funding the American military at the perpetually increasing funding rate to which it has grown accustomed.

That's neat!

That is certainly… suboptimal…

o.0

It looks like these big boys could've easily been dropped 2-3' with a longer trailer - wheels behind the missile, nose behind the truck. It would create issues with turn radius, so they might've been constrained by one single curve somewhere on a mountain highway out west. Like this:

Another great idea. The consistent and logical numbering system is excellent too.

Up there with the Louisiana Purchase among specific actions of government that shaped the physical environment of the US.

I can't imagine a law like this getting past cloture in today's Senate.

A great idea. The easily understood and consistent numbering system is awesome.

And they ran it through every black neighborhood they could

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