Interstate West history

In 1913, the Lincoln Highway, one of the earliest transcontinental highways for automobiles, was dedicated.

In December 1917, the first convoy took three weeks to drive from Toledo, Ohio, to Baltimore.

In 1919, a young Army Lieutenant Colonel named Dwight D. Eisenhower took part in the Motor Transport Corps convoy that drove 3,251 miles (5,232 km) between Washington D.C. and Oakland California.

In 1921, the Federal Highway Act increased funding for federal roads to $75 million per year.

Created by the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1925, this system was established in response to the confusion created by the 250 or so named highways that then existed, such as the Lincoln Highway and the National Old Trails Road.

Planning for what is now known as the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly called "The Interstate System," began in the late 1930's.

During the same decade, the number of railway passenger cars decreased from 37,359 to 25,746. “Since 1936 [railroad] passenger operations had made a net profit only during the war when the government had curtailed automobile travel.”

The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1938 called on the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR), the predecessor of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), to study the feasibility of a toll-financed system of three east-west and three north-south superhighways.

When this stretch opened on October 1, 1940, the Pennsylvania Turnpike gave motorists their first real chance to experience what someday would be known as an “interstate.”

In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed a National Interregional Highway Committee, headed by Commissioner of Public Roads Thomas H. MacDonald, to evaluate the need for a national expressway system.

The committee's January 1944 report, Interregional Highways, supported a system of 33,900 miles, plus an additional 5,000 miles of auxiliary urban routes.

Furthermore, the State of Utah was not interested and in 1945 refused to designate the connection between the Colorado State line and United States 91 in the vicinity of Provo or Spanish Fork.

On August 2, 1947, Commissioner MacDonald and Federal Works Administrator Philip B. Fleming announced selection of the first 37,700 miles.

After he became United States President in January 1953, Eisenhower appointed General Lucius D. Clay to investigate an interstate highway system.

Following the mid-term election in November 1954, the Democrats gained control.

Of course, some roads were incorporated into “an interstate system” long before 1956.

On October 18, 1957, Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks announced the segments designated with the expanded Interstate mileage.

The commission approved the Cove Fort terminus by resolution on January 20, 1958, with the resolution describing the routing as:

In August 1960 the Federal Highway Administrator approved the addition of H-1, H-2 and H-3 on the Island of Oahu.

provided for the apportionment from the Highway Trust Fund to Hawaii of $12.375 million of Interstate funds for F.Y. 1962; and

A design contract for the 1.6-mile tunnel was signed on February 23, 1966, by Governor Love, with Federal Highway Administrator Rex Whitton and Chief Engineer Turner among those in attendance.

Crane, Stuart R., Federal Financing for Toll Projects Incorporated in the Interstate Highway System, Ph.D. Thesis, Indiana University, 1967.

Actually, the Nation's first Secretary of Transportation, Alan S. Boyd, had transmitted the initial National Highway Needs Report to Congress on January 31, 1968.

The tunnel was initially called the Straight Creek Tunnel but in September 1969, Governor John Love proposed to rename it after the former President, who had died on April 4, 1969.

In June 1970, Federal Highway Administrator Frank Turner described the section of I-70 as an example of how a highway can enhance the environment.

On November 9, 1972, after Colorado's voters agreed to amend the State constitution to guarantee equal rights for women, Bonnema made her first stroll into the tunnel.

The first bore of the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel opened on March 8, 1973.

17, 1974, became the first to complete all of its interstate highway system.

Construction work began on the 18th, with "hole-thru" on August 17, 1978.

The second bore, which cost $144.9 million, opened on December 21, 1979.

Because they were disconnected from I-70, the two segments (I-170 and I-70 between I-170 and I-95) were combined and renumbered I-595 as an I-95 spur in 1982.

Patton, Phil, Open Road: A Celebration of the American Highway, Simon and Schuster, 1986.

Taylor, Nick, "Roads That Bind Us: Interstate Highways, a Guide to Rediscovering America," Travel Holiday, August 1990.

The final estimate, submitted in January 1991, indicated a total cost to complete the system of approximately $128.9 billion, of which the Federal share was $114.3 billion.

On a day in June 1992, the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel counted its 100 millionth vehicle.

The National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 -- in Section 332(a)(2) designated 4 high priority corridors as future Interstate routes when the Secretary determines that they meet Interstate design standards and connect to an existing Interstate route.

In actuality, it ended up costing $114 billion (in 2006 dollars $425 billion) and took 35 years to complete.

13, 2017, at https://www.lincolnhighwayassoc.org/info/.“Interstate Highway System.” Wikipedia.