Interstate highways reinvented America

Fifty years ago, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was recovering from intestinal surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center when aides brought a pile of bills to sign.
One that he signed, with neither a ceremony nor a comment, was an ordinary-sounding measure called the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Press secretary James Haggerty told reporters that Eisenhower "was highly pleased."
With that simple act, Eisenhower completed enactment of one of the most far-reaching laws in U.S. history, formally creating the interstate highway system and providing that Washington would pay 90 percent of the cost.
Texans played a major role in launching the system, the state has been a prime beneficiary, and the anniversary is being marked this summer at two major conferences -- the first Texas Transportation Forum in Austin in June and next month's ninth annual Transportation Summit in Irving.
System changed America
Initially sold as a way to strengthen national defense, the multilane, limited-access system transformed American life.
It made this a mainly suburban nation, spurred both urban and rural development, cut travel times for business and for pleasure, and saved thousands of lives.
Texas has more of the 47,000 interstate miles than any other state. Experts say the system has contributed nearly $3 trillion to the Texas economy, created more than 1.5 million non-farm jobs and spurred population growth and greater productivity at lower cost.
The Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A & amp;M estimates the interstate system has saved millions of hours in travel time and billions of dollars in congestion costs. And if you doubt it, just imagine daily life in the 21st century without interstate highways.
Eisenhower's personal interest
Eisenhower's interest in transcontinental travel began in 1919 as a young lieutenant colonel on a military convoy that took 62 days from Washington to San Francisco.
As supreme allied commander in Europe at the end of World War II, Gen. Eisenhower saw how high-speed German autobahns allowed military units and supplies to move quickly to the battlefront.
When he became president in 1953, a nationwide system of high-speed highways had been under study for 14 years. Members of Congress first suggested toll roads, and some states began to build their own, starting with the Pennsylvania Turnpike in 1940.
But the Bureau of Public Roads favored a toll-free express highway system. A 1944 bill authorized an interstate system but no funds or federal commitment to build it.
Eisenhower made it a priority, but it took three years to accomplish. Financing was a major roadblock until Rep. Hale Boggs, D-La., devised a Highway Trust Fund, financed by increasing the federal gas tax and other user fees.
Another key player in the final bill was Sen. Albert Gore, D-Tenn., father of the future vice president.
Initial funds were allocated almost immediately. Cost of the original 41,000-mile system was projected at $35 billion. Like many government projects, that proved low. In 1991, the government estimated the cost of the system, expanded to nearly 47,000 miles, was $128.9 billion -- $114.3 billion in federal funds.
Appropriately, the system was renamed the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways.
Eisenhower is mainly remembered as the conquering hero of World War II who ended the Korean War and warned of "the military-industrial complex."
But he believed his greatest long-term contribution was the interstate highway system, predicting in his 1963 memoirs that "more than any single action by the government since the end of the war, this one would change the face of America."
And it did!
Carl P. Leubsdorf is Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.