There’s been a lot of talk about our deteriorating infrastructure lately. Obviously, it’a been neglected over the years and certainly needs to be upgraded and repaired. When a lot of people hear infrastructure, they think of the roads, and specifically the Interstate Highway System. It seems like interstate highways have been around for most of our lives, but the system only came into existence in 1956 as a result of the Federal Highway Act.
An inter-state highway system was first considered in the 1930s — President Roosevelt expressed interest in such a system as a way of providing jobs.
President Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 on June 29, 1956, while he was in the hospital recovering from an illness. Initially, the interstate highway system’s primary purpose was not to enhance casual driving over long distances but to provide for the efficient movement of military vehicles if and when necessary. At the time we were in the midst of the cold war, so that made some amount of sense. The original name was the “National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.” In October, 1990, President Bush signed legislation changing it to the “Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways.”
The longest interstate is I-90 (3,085.3 miles) from Seattle to Boston.
The shortest interstate is I-97 (17.6 miles) from Annapolis to Baltimore.
The state with the most Interstate mileage is Texas with 3,232.04 miles.
The state with the most Interstate routes is New York, with 29 routes.
The Interstate route that crosses the most states is I-95 — it crosses 16 states, from Florida to Maine.
The highest Interstate route number is I-990, north of Buffalo, New York.
The lowest Interstate route number is I-4, across Florida.
The only state without any Interstate routes is Alaska —Hawaii has three Interstates (H-1, H-2, and H-3.) — honestly, I don’t understand why there are interstate highways in Hawaii…..
East-west Interstate route numbers end in an even number — north-south routes end in an odd number.
Three-digit Interstate highway numbers represent beltways or loops, attached to a primary Interstate highway (represented by the last two numbers of the beltway’s number.) For example, Washington D.C.,s beltway is numbered 495, because its parent highway is I-95.
If the first digit of a three-digit Interstate number is odd, it is a spur into a city. If it is even, it goes through or around a city.
There are five state capitals not directly served by the Interstate systems — Juneau, Alaska, Dover, Delaware, Jefferson City, Missouri, Carson City, Nevada, and Pierre, South Dakota.
In modern history, France was the first Western nation to begin building a system of national highways — in 1716.
Something you may have heard, but it’s not true, is that one out of every five miles of the Interstate Highway System must be built straight and flat, so as to be useable by aircraft during times of war. It’s interesting to note that during World War II, the Germans used the Autobahns for just that purpose.
Anyhow, even though the system is getting old and needs some updates and repairs, it’s still going strong and it’s use still makes it possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.
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