Interstate  Highway System Celebrates  Fifty Years

Senator Albert Gore Interstate Highway Bill co-sponsor

The United States Army’s first transcontinental convoy traversed the country in 1919.  As an observer, Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower accompanied the troops on their 62-day trip from Washington , D.C. , to San Francisco .  The travelers encountered all kinds of adverse conditions:  the roads were slippery with ice, sodden with mud, and drifted over by dust and sand, and inadequate wooden bridges collapsed beneath the weight of their trucks.  In contrast to the United States ' undeveloped string of roads, Eisenhower was later impressed by the efficiency of the Germany ’s autobahn, which he experienced while commanding Allied forces during World War II.       

General Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected President of the United States in 1952.  As a result of those earlier experiences, President Eisenhower committed himself to the development of a transcontinental system of highways.  It was not until the end of the Korean conflict in 1953 that he could focus his attention on that goal, however.  After much debate and negotiation and several preliminary pieces of legislation, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 was passed and signed into law on June 29, 1956.  Since Senator Albert Gore, Sr., (TN) and Representative George H. Fallon (MD) co-authored that legislation, it is sometimes called the Gore-Fallon Act.

Because of his central role in the creation of the interstate highway system, the papers of Senator Gore, housed here in the Gore Center, include much primary source material on that subject, including background material, constituent mail, and documents related to the creation of the legislation itself. 

Dr. Anthony Badger, Paul Mellon Professor of History, Cambridge University, and Master of Clare College, is currently writing a biography of Albert Gore, Sr.  Dr. Badger will be giving a public lecture at MTSU in November 2006  to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Interstate Highway system by examining the important contributions of the late Senator Gore.  Watch for more information regarding this lecture!

For more information on the history of the interstate highway system, visit the national commemorative web site sponsored by the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials at http://interstate50th.org/index.shtml.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation has also created a commemorative web site, http://www.tninterstate50.com/default.htm.

Bibliography: 

Gutfreund, Owen.  Twentieth Century Sprawl:  Highways and the Reshaping of the American Landscape, Oxford University Press, 2004.  [Features a section on Smyrna , TN. ]

Lewis, Tom.  Divided Highways:  Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life.  NY:  Penguin Books, 1999 [c1997].

Longley, Kyle.  Senator Albert Gore, Sr., Tennessee Maverick.  Baton Rouge :  Louisiana State University Press, 2004.

 Rose, Mark H.  Interstate:  Express Highway Politics, 1939-1989, revised edition. Knoxville :  University of Tennessee Press, 1990. 

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