Broader Ribbons Across the Land

In 1919 there was no paved road across America. An Army convoy proved it, grinding from Washington to San Francisco in 62 days. Thirty-seven years later, an officer who rode with it signed a law to build 41,000 miles of divided, limited-access highway, paid as it went from a trust fund filled by the gas tax. Today a quarter of all American driving happens on it.

1. 7 July 1919 · Washington

   The convoy rolls out

   At the Zero Milestone on the Ellipse, south of the White House, with Secretary of War Newton Baker on hand, the Army's first transcontinental motor convoy sets out: 24 officers, 258 enlisted men and about 80 trucks, cars, motorcycles and a tractor. The mission is to find out whether an army can cross the continent by road. Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Tank Corps officer, joins as an observer at Frederick, Maryland, that night.

2. 21 August 1919 · Utah

   Stuck on the salt

   Past Salt Lake City the road becomes a desert trail of alkali dust two feet deep. On the Great Salt Lake Desert a detour breaks through the crust and nearly every vehicle is mired. The whole command, regardless of rank, digs and hauls from 2 p.m. until after midnight. Water and gasoline run short. In Utah and Nevada the men spend 42 hours in all rescuing the convoy from the quicksand.

   

3. 6 September 1919 · San Francisco

   3,251 miles

   Sixty-two days out of Washington, the convoy rolls into the Presidio. It has averaged 6 miles an hour and 58 miles a day. More than half the trip ran over dirt roads, wheel paths and desert sand. The men rebuilt 88 broken bridges and culverts along the way. Eisenhower writes in his report that the trip showed strong sentiment for better highways.

   Lt. Col. Eisenhower, report of 3 November 1919From the standpoint of promoting this sentiment, the trip was an undoubted success.
4. 1939 · Bureau of Public Roads

   Toll Roads and Free Roads

   Congress has asked the Bureau of Public Roads whether six toll superhighways could pay for themselves. Chief Thomas H. MacDonald and Herbert Fairbank answer no. Their report recommends a toll-free interregional network instead, the first outline of the Interstate System. In 1944 Congress authorizes a 40,000-mile National System of Interstate Highways, and in 1947 the first 37,700 miles MacDonald recommended are approved. What it lacks is money to build them.

5. 1945 · Germany

   The autobahn

   As Supreme Allied Commander, General Eisenhower sees how Germany's autobahns let the enemy shift forces fast, and how quickly his own armies move once they fight their way into Germany onto the same roads. The convoy had taught him what bad roads cost. Germany shows him what great ones can do. He later wrote that "Germany had made me see the wisdom of broader ribbons across the land."

6. 12 July 1954 · Lake George, New York

   A grand plan

   President Eisenhower is called away by a death in the family, so Vice President Nixon reads his speech to the nation's governors. It calls for a $50 billion, 10-year highway program and surprises the room. Eisenhower then hands the job of paying for it to Gen. Lucius D. Clay, with Frank Turner of the Bureau of Public Roads as his executive secretary.

   Eisenhower's message to the governors, read by Vice President NixonOur highway network is inadequate locally, and obsolete as a national system.
7. 29 June 1956 · Walter Reed Army Medical Center

   Signed in a hospital room

   After a defeat in 1955, Congress tries again. The House renames the network the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways and creates a Highway Trust Fund, filled by a gas tax raised from two cents to three. The Senate passes the final bill 89 to 1. Eisenhower, recovering from surgery, signs it with no ceremony: 41,000 miles, $25 billion over 13 years, 90 percent federal.

   Secretary of Commerce Sinclair WeeksThe greatest public works program in the history of the world.
8. 2 August 1956 · Missouri

   The first contracts

   Missouri moves first. Its highway commission awards a contract for 13.3 miles of U.S. 66, now I-44, in Laclede County, and Washington confirms it is the first Interstate contract under the new act. On 13 August crews start work on U.S. 40, now I-70, in St. Charles County, the first actual construction. Kansas claims the first finished project when its new paving west of Topeka opens on 14 November.

9. 14 October 1992 · Glenwood Canyon, Colorado

   The last link

   Federal Highway Administrator Thomas Larson opens 12.5 miles of I-70 through Glenwood Canyon, completing the highway from Baltimore to Cove Fort, Utah. It took 12 years, 40 bridges and viaducts, three tunnels and 15 miles of retaining walls, threaded between the Colorado River, a railroad and canyon walls. Builders hailed it as the final link of the original Interstate System. It won the ASCE Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement award for 1993.