The Sentinel from Carlisle, Pennsylvania • 5

Local News Sunday January 16, 2011 A5 1-81: Troubled Highway eo nignwoy A dlopihg istony Interstate highway begins with a vision The Sentinel at www.cumberlink.com Tfoybl The Pennsylvania Turnpike, opened to traffic in 1940, served as a prototype for the 'great national highway' that evolved into the Interstate Sys-. tern. Pennsylvania Turnpike The Pennsylvania Turnpike opened to traffic on Oct. 1, 1940, and was a prototype for the interstate highway. The most popular exhibit at the New York World's Fair in 1939 and 1940 was Futurama in the General Motors building.

It looked 20 years into the future. Fourteen-lang highways crossed the 7-acre site as thousands of model cars moved at three prescribed speeds up to 100 mph, while observers in towers provided eleo-tronic signals to help motorists shift lanes or enter and leave the highway. Vehicle spacing was controlled by radio beams at the front and back of each car. Thomas H. MacDonald, chief of the U.S.

Bureau of Public Roads since 1919, called Futurama a collection of "bizarre ideas." He favored concepts supported by highway traffic data. MacDonald and his top aide, Herbert S. Fairbank, prepared "Toll Road and Free Roads" as well as "Interregional Highways" in 1944, two reports that became the foundation of the interstate system. Fairbanks said at the time, "To those who doubt on grounds of financial feasibility whether we can afford the modernization of our the nation was popular. One of the most publicized, the Transcontinen -tal Stream-Lined Super Highway, stretched 4,000 miles from Plymouth Rock oh the Atlantic Ocean to a point just south of San Francisco.

The straight road was to have four lanes for automobiles, four lanes for trucks and buses, and room for emergency parking and landscaping. The right-of-way would be 450 feet wide and widening to 3,000 feet every 10 or 20 miles to accommodate leasing sites for recreation centers, hotels, restaurants and gas stations. Detailed traffic surveys demonstrated there was too little transcontinental traffic to justify the scheme put forth by manufacturer T.E. Steiner. Around the same time, several congressmen proposed construction of a limited network of toll superhighways.

The best-known proposal was introduced as a bill by Sen. Robert J. Bulkley, D-Ohio, in 1938 with the support of President Franklin D.Roosevelt. The bill called for creation of a U.S. Highway Corp.

to build three tolled transcontinental and seven north-south superhighways. Congress in 1938 asked the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads to study the concept. The resulting 1939 Toll Roads and Free Roads report rejected the idea of a limited toll network and advocated a toll-free express highway network highway system, who say in effect: 'Yes, this all sounds very attractive; we recognize the need, but can we accomplish the ambitious ends It might be answered that a better question would be: 'Dare we The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 authorized a National System of Interstate Highways, but it did not authorize a program or funding. "Now it becomes a challenge to the states, counties and cities which must originate the specific projects and get the program ready for construction after the war ends," President Franklin D.

Roosevelt said. MacDonald is credited with taking the nation from dirt roads to the interstate era. When he died in April 1957, The Washington Post said, "Everyone who drives a car or truck, for business or for pleasure, across the face of America stands indebted to this quiet, forceful public servant who earned the title, 'The father of all good roads in the United Davis, of the National Highways Association, livedlong enough to see the first interstate routes designated in 1947. The map included many of the routes shown on his 1912 map. Source: The Federal Highway Administration's Eisenhower Interstate Highway System website.

BY JIM HOOK CENTRAL PA. REPORTING PROJECT frontdoorcumberlink.com Like many grand ideas, a nationwide highway system had been envisioned by many people. "Let us then bind the Republic together with a perfect system of roads and canals. Let us conquer space," South Carolina Rep. John C.

Calhoun told Congress in 1816. He proposed that a national bank award a bonus to the federal government for constructing roads and canals in each state. Congress passed the Bonus Bill, but President James Madison considered it to be unconstitutional and vetoed it on his last day in office. In 1895, Gen. Roy Stone, head of the nation's first federal road agency, proposed a simple "a great national called perhaps The Great Road of America, which should first join together the States along the Atlantic seaboard; then strike across the country on a cen-tral line, say from Washington to San Francisco, joining there another line which connects the States of the Pacific Stone's U.S.

Office of Road Inquiry was part of the Department of Agriculture. "It is often easier to do great things than small ones of the same kind," said Stone, a Civil War hero, "and what the government undertakes in this regard should be something big enough to excite the imagination and stir the pride and patriotism of the country something that will put us in respect of roads as far ahead of other nations as we have been be -hindthemheretofore." In 1912, the National Highways Association published a map of a network of highways that couldbe built, owned and maintained by the federal government. 'A revolutionary idea' Charles Henry Davis, founder of the association and a wealthy Massachusetts road equipment manufacturer, said that "the untiiinking'' might consider it "a revolutionary idea," but "nothing was ever accomplished without a tjeginning being made somewhere." Congress took up the vision a few years later with several bills drafted proposing interstate highway networks. By thel930s, the idea of asin-gle massive superhighway crossing Eisenhower moves forward with 1 954 Highway Act TV LISTINGS cumberiink.com ing a mass transit survey for Washington, D.C. Jim Hook can be reached at 717-262-4759 have an average of just over one man per $3,000 car driving into the central area and taking all the space required to park the car," Eisenhower told officials conduct EFFECTIVE N0W1 LowB(3-OTMTPca SBnonsi wnig Tin Green Hon 30 (PG13) 130, 4:15, 7:10, 9:45 Tron Legacy 3D (PG) 4:30, 7:00, 9:30 Yogi Bear 3P(PG) 12:25, 2:20 FAIR GAME RATED PG-13 ACTIONBIOGRAPHYTHRILLER JAN.

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Nixon instead delivered his speech at the governors' annual conference on July 12, 1954, at Lake George, N.Y. With the governors' support, thepresident named apecial panel to srady thefcblem. The panel recoftihiended that a Federal Highway Corporation issue $25 billion in bonds for building the $27 billion road system and that a temporary excise gas tax repay the borrowing within three decades. The states did not want to be forced to increase their taxes to pay for a national priority. Neither house in Con- gress supported the scheme.

Eisenhower tried again with his State of the Union speech in January 1956. The Bureau of Public Roads mapped a "General Location of National System of Interstate Highways," and opponents started to come around. Eisenhower called for the federal government to pay 90 percent of the cost of the highways. Congress agreed to finance a Highway Trust Fund with revenue from the federal gasoline tax. Both the House and Senate overwhelmingly passed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 on June 25, 1956, and held to the 9010 federal-state funding ratio.

The dollar amount that the states would pay for the initial interstate system would be equal to their 40 percent share established under the 1954 Highway Act. The system was to be built "as nearly as practicable" over the next 13 years. Recovering from an intestinal ailment at Walter Reed Army Hospital, Eisenhower signed the legislation without ceremony on June 29, 1956. The act included uniform design standards, wage rates for federal construction proj -ects and the OK for the fed -eral government to purchase rights of way. It also allowed two-lane highways to be part of the interstate system.

Later legislation required a minimum of four lanes. Eisenhower in 1959 objected to the expense of building highways through cities but was resigned to their necessity for the whole program, according to Eisenhower biographer Stephen E. Ambrose. "It was very wasteful to BY JIM HOOK CENTRAL PA. REPORTING PROJECT frontdoorcumberlink.com Securing legislation for an interstate highway system was a top priority for a newly elected President Dwight D.

Eisenhower in 1952. 'T "As a young officer in 1919, he rode in a military truck convoy that sputtered across the nation's inadequate road system from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco in 62 days. As commander of the Allied forces in Europe in 1944, he experienced the smooth and swift German autobahns. In his memoir, "At Ease," Eisenhower wrote: "The old convoy had started me thinking about good, two-lane highways, but Germany had made me see the wisdom of broader ribbons across the land." The Korean War delayed Eisenhower's plans for a year. Congress authorized $175 million for an interstate system in the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1954.

Eisenhower wanted more. He was preparing to ask state governors for support of his "Grand The Fighter (R) 12:00, 2:30, 4:55,7:30,9:55 Dave feels right at home here. That's because Carlisle is his home. Trust is proud to welcome Dave Gority to the Investment Trust Services Team in Cumberland County. With more than 38 years experience serving Carlisle, Dave understands a -apfas.

uhot tivae aim wm ii hi icinacc crri tri icr and superior service. States scramble to be the first Invite Dave to review your retirement or estate plan now to make sure you're on the right track. He's located nearby at our Ritner Highway office. Or you might find him volunteering at several great community organizations. To connect with Dave Gority about your personal goals, call (717) 243-3503.

miles were tolled. The drive from New York to Los Angeles was two days shorter in 1970 than in 1956. The trip took about 62 hours on the interstate system, a reduction of 17 hours. Rhode Island was the first state to open all of its interstate mileage, 70.8 miles, in June 1975. Among the states with lots of miles, Nebraska was the first to open all 481.5 miles of its interstate system (November 1976).

Ninety-seven percent of the system was open by 1986, the 30th anniversary of the interstate system. A section at 1-95 at the Pennsylvania Turnpike was among the last of the original projects to be completed. Congress with the National Highway System Designation Act of 1995 began identifying "future interstates." Listed among the 12 future interstates is 1-99, also known as the Bud Shuster Highway in the Appalachian Thruway Corridor from Business U.S. 220 in Bedford to the vicinity of Corning, N.Y. Jim Hook can be reached at 717-262-4759 and jhook publicojnnioTrnews.com.

BY JIM HOOK CENTRAL PA. REPORTING PROJECT frontdoorcumberlink.com The nation's interstate highway system was to be constructed in 13 years. However, the system is constantly expanding, so it's doubtful that it will ever be "completed." Two states claim to have built the first sections of the nation's interstate system. Kansas began a construction project on U.S. 40 (I-70) west of Topeka before the enabling legislation.

The state awarded the final paving contract under the new legislation. A sign claims: "This is the first project in the United States completed under provisions of the new Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956." The first project to go to construction with interstate construction funds was also on U.S. 40, later designated the 1-70 Mark Twain Expressway. Missouri officials erected a sign west of St. Louis, stating, "This is the first project in the United States on which actual construction was started under provi- sions of the new Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956." Half of the interstate system, or 21,185 miles, was open by the end of 1965.

To that point, the states had invested $24.7 billion in interstate projects. Congress authorized another 1,500 miles in 1968, when 65 percent of the interstate was completed. The Associated Press reported for the 10th anniversary of the highway system that a person could drive 1,328 miles from New Hampshire to Wisconsin without hitting a traffic signal. "Total excavation willmove enough dirt and rock to blanket Connecticut knee-deep," the AP story continued. "Sand, gravel and crushed stone for the construction would build a mound 50 feet wide and 9 feet high completely around the world.

The concrete would build six sidewalks to the moon; the tar and asphalt would build driveways for 35 million homes." By 1970, the nation had spent $38 billion for nearly 30,000 miles of multi-lane highways, and the interstate system was 70 percent complete. Just 2,300 I Dave Gority VP, Investment Trust Services Relationship Manager Ritner Highway 1901 Ritner Hwy. 960-1400 TRUST fmtrustonline.com.