1 The Interstate Highway System as an Agent for Cultural Expression and Transformation The Federal-Aid Highway Act, officially signed into law on June 29, 1956, set in motion the largest public works program in United States history. Its goal was to construct the longest and most modern system of highways that the world had ever seen. The National System of Interstate and Defense Highways did just that and much more. The Interstates brought the nation closer than ever before, and yet, at the same time, divided it in many ways. Its story is one of modern engineering marvels but also of deep changes in American culture. Americans today would find their lifestyle impossible, and their culture entirely misplaced, without it. First, the federal government became increasingly concerned with national defense and stimulating economic growth in the early to mid-twentieth century. The federal government attempted to satisfy both defense and economic needs by funding national road and highway construction. The Interstate system embodies the permanent entanglement of these interests that invariably lead into the next three elements. Second, car culture influenced the creation of the Interstate system immensely, and the Interstates then effectively transformed it into a keystone of modern American culture. Third, although suburbia was born before the Interstate system, it was always dependent on highways or urban expressways, car culture, and the economic interests of the federal government. The Interstates then provided a conduit for suburbia to expand as never before. The fourth, and final element of modern American culture discussed in this project, is civil activism, specifically during the 1960s and 1970s. Urban pollution, the destruction of urban neighborhoods and historic landmarks, the demise of the center city, and urban sprawl were all blamed on the Interstate system. Not 2 only were the Interstates the subject of much protest and debate, but they provided citizens the ability to assemble en masse in virtually any city of their choosing to protest things such as the Vietnam War and civil rights. Without understanding the Interstate system as the underlying common denominator, these core elements of modern American culture appear disconnected and ambiguous. This project explains why the Interstate system was created and how it transformed American culture. Federal Involvement in Defense and Economic Interests Since the 1890s, organized citizen groups involved in the Good Roads movement, like the League of American Wheelmen, had urged the federal government to get involved in improving roads. 1 The movement began with bicycle enthusiasts who wanted good roads, especially in more rural areas, for a more enjoyable cycling experience. Colonel Albert Augustus Pope, who was a member of the League of American Wheelmen and personally funded their Good Roads magazine, was the original advocate for the Good Roads movement. 2 Congress responded to his demands by creating the Office of Road Inquiry in 1893. The movement soon became especially popular with farmers and small communities, but also with automobile owners and anyone who saw the economic benefits of better roads. In 1916, President Wilson signed the first Federal-Aid Road Act which helped bring the movement to the forefront of national politics. It was the first federal law that funded highway construction and it replaced the Office of Road Inquiry with the Bureau of Public Roads. At this point, both citizens and government started to understand 1 Richard F. Weingroff, “The Man Who Loved Roads,” Public Roads 65, No. 6, (May/June 2002). Last modified April 7, 2011. http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/02may/08.cfm. 2 Richard DeLuca, The League of American Wheelmen and Hartford’s Albert Pope Champion the Good Roads Movement. http://connecticuthistory.org/the-league-of-american-wheelmen-and-the-good-roads-movement-how-popes- bicycles-led-to-good-roads/. 3 the beneficial effects of good roads on the economy almost immediately, but the connection between good roads and defense wasn’t officially illustrated until 1922 with the “Pershing Map.” Thomas MacDonald, along with General Pershing and the U.S. Army, produced this map to chart the routes that would be most crucial to national defense in a time of war. 3 Thomas Harris MacDonald was appointed Chief of the new bureau in 1919, upon recommendation from the American Association of State Highway Officials. 4 MacDonald was one of the first major political supporters of the Good Roads movement, and remained the most influential person in the nation, in terms of highway building, for over thirty years until the Eisenhower Administration. The Good Roads movement helped bridge the gap between government involvement in road building, car culture, and civil activism. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Major Dwight D. Eisenhower wanted nothing more than to fight for his country. He specially applied for overseas deployment numerous times, and every time top ranking officers turned down his requests to join battalions serving in Europe on the basis that they felt he possessed “special qualities as an instructor.” 5 Consequently, Eisenhower spent the duration of the war on the home front training recruits in the newly formed Tank Corps out of Camp Colt, Pennsylvania. 6 He both rued and lamented the fact that “the war to end all wars” had come and gone and he was denied his dream of participating in active combat. At one 3 Richard Weingroff, “Milestones For U.S. Highway Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration,” Public Roads 59, no. 4 (Spring 1996), last modified April 8, 2011, https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/96spring/p96sp44.cfm. 4 Richard Weingroff, “Firing Thomas H. MacDonald - Twice,” History of FHWA, last modified October 16, 2013, https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/firing.cfm. 5 Dwight D. Eisenhower, At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1967), 133. 6 Eisenhower, At Ease: 137-138, 133. 4 point, he even considered leaving the army but ultimately decided to stay. 7 Always eager to learn and participate, the adventurous young officer, less than five years graduated from West Point, volunteered as one of two specially requested tank officers to act as observers for the one small tank in a transcontinental convoy. 8 On July 7, 1919, the “motor truck train” embarked from the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. en route to San Francisco. Just over seven hours later and forty-six miles from their original departure point, the convoy suffered its first breakdowns and made camp in Frederick, Maryland, where Eisenhower joined them. 9 Their journey concluded after sixty-two days of transcontinental travel at a snail’s pace; the convoy averaged only 58.1 miles per day and just over six miles per hour. 10 By no means did the convoy set any speed records, but it did set a world’s record for “the total continuous distance traveled of 3,251 miles,” and it was also “the first motor convoy to cross the American Continent.” 11 The accomplishment is even more astounding given that over seventeen-hundred miles of the journey were “made over dirt roads, wheel paths, mountain trails, desert sands and alkali flats.” 12 If nothing else, the experience convinced Eisenhower that the nation was in dire need of better roads. Both the military vehicles and the roads on which they traveled hardly stood up to the test. The convoy headed west via the Lincoln Highway, which remained so underdeveloped in some areas that Emily Post once described it as, “an imaginary line like 7 Eisenhower, At Ease: 155-156. 8 Eisenhower, At Ease: 157. 9 Richard F. Weingroff, “The Man Who Changed America, Part I,” Public Roads (March/April 2003), last modified April 7, 2011, http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/03mar/05.cfm. 10 William C. Greany, “Principal Facts Concerning the First Transcontinental Army Motor Transport Expedition, Washington to San Francisco July 7 to September 6, 1919,” Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, 6. http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/online_documents/1919_convoy/principal_facts.pdf. 11 Greany, “Principal Facts,” 1. 12 Greany, “Principal Facts,” 8. 5 the equator! Once you get beyond the Mississippi the roads are trails of mud and sand.” 13 Eisenhower recounts that the convoy had been on schedule until it reached Nebraska, at which point the roads became so poor that they delayed the convoy by four days. 14 Adding to the difficulty, some drivers feigned experience when, in actuality, they were barely familiar with a Ford Model T. 15 Although some vehicles performed better than others, and mechanical issues were not a major hindrance to their progress, the deplorable condition of the roads meant that the convoy could not have proceeded any faster, even if the equipment were up to the task. The most troublesome delays, reportedly numbering over two-hundred, were caused by “road accidents” or, “mishaps due entirely to the unfavorable and at times appalling travel conditions that were encountered.” 16 Every challenge and problem faced by the convoy provided officers and observers valuable knowledge and insight about the value of good roads and highways. The transcontinental motor convoy offered the military the chance to test and compare the performance and reliability of their vehicles. Specifically, their ability to transport troops and materiel across vast expanses of land in the event of a national emergency. It also offered the American public a glimpse at the equipment that had helped win them the war, as well as the opportunity “to understand the vast importance and urgent necessity of motor transport and good roads in the cause of national defense.” 17 13 Drake Hokanson, The Lincoln Highway: Main Street Across America (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1999), 4, accessed March 25, 2014, http://books.google.com/books?id=y0Fz8raz2LsC&lpg=PR2&ots=ZsWvMmWwpw&dq=an%20imaginary %20line%2C%20like%20the%20equator%20lincoln%20highway&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false.