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The Interstate Highway SystemIn 1919, a convoy of army trucks was sent on a journey across the United States, from Washington to San Francisco, to test the efficiency of the roadway system in case of an emergency. It took 62 days for the convoy to cross the nation, underlining the needs for better road
- infrastructures. The origins of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of
Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate System, can be traced back to 1941 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed a National Interregional Highway Committee to evaluate the need and potential for a national highway system. A system of 33,900 miles of rural routes, plus an additional 5,000 miles of auxiliary urban routes was recommended. Funding for the system was first authorized in 1952, but the construction of such a massive public and freely accessible infrastructure was beyond the means of the state and federal governments. The first highway segments were thus toll roads. It was under President Eisenhower that the question of how to fund the Interstate System was resolved with the enactment of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which in addition provided design standards for the system. Construction then proceeded rapidly and by 1991 the system was considered officially
- completed. As of 2010, the Interstate system totaled more than 47,100 miles.
https://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch3en/conc3en/map_interstatesystem.html