The Interstate Highway System On June 29, 1956, President Dwight
Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. The bill
created a 41,000-mile “National System of Interstate and Defense
Highways” that would, according to Eisenhower, eliminate unsafe
roads, inefficient routes, traffic jams and all of the other
things that got in the way of “speedy, safe transcontinental
travel.” At the same time, highway advocates argued, “in case of
atomic attack on our key cities, the road net [would] permit
quick evacuation of target areas.” For all of these reasons, the
1956 law declared that the construction of an elaborate
expressway system was “essential to the national interest.” -
â€œThe Last Call of the Wildâ€ - A Nation of Drivers - The Birth
of the Interstate Highway System - The Federal-Aid Highway Act
of 1956 - The Highway Revolt â€œThe Last Call of the Wildâ€
Today, there are more than 250 million cars and trucks in the
United States, or almost one per person. At the end of the 19th
century, by contrast,