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N0KFQ > TODAY 26.06.16 17:14l 66 Lines 3097 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 97730_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jun 26
Path: IW8PGT<HB9CSR<IK2XDE<DB0RES<PI8CDR<GB7YEW<N9LYA<N0KFQ
Sent: 160626/1505Z 97730@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.65
1956
Congress approves Federal Highway Act
On this day in 1956, the U.S. Congress approves the Federal
Highway Act, which allocates more than $30 billion for the
construction of some 41,000 miles of interstate highways; it will
be the largest public construction project in U.S. history to
that date.
Among the pressing questions involved in passing highway
legislation were where exactly the highways should be built, and
how much of the cost should be carried by the federal government
versus the individual states. Several competing bills went
through Congress before 1956, including plans spearheaded by the
retired general and engineer Lucius D. Clay; Senator Albert Gore
Sr.; and Rep. George H. Fallon, who called his program the
"National System of Interstate and Defense Highways," thus
linking the construction of highways with the preservation of a
strong national defense.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower had first realized the value of a
national system of roads after participating in the U.S. Army's
first transcontinental motor convoy in 1919; during World War II,
he had admired Germany's autobahn network. In January 1956,
Eisenhower called in his State of the Union address (as he had in
1954) for a "modern, interstate highway system." Later that
month, Fallon introduced a revised version of his bill as the
Federal Highway Act of 1956. It provided for a 65,000-km national
system of interstate and defense highways to be built over 13
years, with the federal government paying for 90 percent, or
$24.8 billion. To raise funds for the project, Congress would
increase the gas tax from two to three cents per gallon and
impose a series of other highway user tax changes. On June 26,
1956, the Senate approved the final version of the bill by a vote
of 89 to 1; Senator Russell Long, who opposed the gas tax
increase, cast the single "no" vote. That same day, the House
approved the bill by a voice vote, and three days later,
Eisenhower signed it into law.
Highway construction began almost immediately, employing tens of
thousands of workers and billions of tons of gravel and asphalt.
The system fueled a surge in the interstate trucking industry,
which soon pushed aside the railroads to gain the lion's share of
the domestic shipping market. Interstate highway construction
also fostered the growth of roadside businesses such as
restaurants (often fast-food chains), hotels and amusement parks.
By the 1960s, an estimated one in seven Americans was employed
directly or indirectly by the automobile industry, and America
had become a nation of drivers.
Legislation has extended the Interstate Highway Revenue Act three
times, and it is remembered by many historians as Eisenhower's
greatest domestic achievement. On the other side of the coin,
critics of the system have pointed to its less positive effects,
including the loss of productive farmland and the demise of small
businesses and towns in more isolated parts of the country.
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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