Citation

Watkins R. Transp. Res. Circular 2007; (E-C116): 1-6.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, U.S. National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper briefly reviews the history of the Interstate Highway System from conception to birth. The concept started in the backwash of World War I, in July 1919, when an army company departed from Washington, D.C., in a cross-country automobile caravan to evaluate army transportation by automobile. It came to birth with President Eisenhower's original Highway Project of 1956 which became feasible by culvert and drainage know-how, by earth-handling know-how, and by many ancillary know-hows.