Stephen Schwartz: 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.

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...

Finally, here is a Federal Highway Administration discussing—without referencing early ICBM transport vehicles specifically—how the final vertical clearance standard was arrived at: www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructu...

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.

It was the actual reason. Those were the largest vehicles on the road at the time, and the military insisted that their ability to move across the country quickly—for national security reasons—took precedence. The 16-foot clearance applied to all rural roads, but only a single route in urban areas.

What was the design constraint that required the missiles + transporters to be taller than 13'-14' trailers? Could states use ramps to avoid the 16' requirement? We could always bypass bridges by going up and over on the ramps. Just had to coordinate police traffic control. Tunnels, though…

It is kinda wild how the DoD expects the world to conform to them, though. Like building the mech army around an Abrams tank that's too heavy for sooooo many bridges around the world.

First and second generation ICBMs were not very accurate—their Circular Error Probable, a measure of accuracy, was calculated in miles—which in turn meant they required extremely large warheads to guarantee destruction of their targets. Very heavy warheads necessitated larger missiles (more fuel).

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.

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