Interstate Highway System: 50th Anniversary

Steve Melito writes "This week, CR4: The Engineer's Place for Discussion and News, celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System, "a giant nationwide engineering project" that transformed a nation. In 1994, the American Society of Civil Engineers described the Eisenhower Interstate Highway System as "one of the Seven Wonders of the United States". In 2006, this network of roads includes 46,000 miles of highway; 55,000 bridges; 82 tunnels, and 14,000 interchanges. According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), excavation for the interstate system has moved enough material to bury the State of Connecticut knee-deep in dirt. The amount of Portland cement could build more than 80 Hoover dams, or lay six sidewalks to the moon. The lumber used would consume all of the trees in 500 square miles of forest. The structural steel could build 170 skyscrapers the size of the Empire State Building, and meet nearly half of the annual requirements of the American auto industry. Check back with CR4 all week as we cover the 'Roots of the Road,' 'the Politics of Passage,' 'Adventures in Civil Engineering,' and 'The Road Ahead.'" One of the things that's interesting about why Eisenhower pushed for the highway system was that he saw the Autobahn system in Germany during the occupation post-WWII and knew that that was one of the things that the United States needed to develop.

Comments

Al Gore, Eisenhower, etc.. FYI

[Joe U]

During Eisenhower's term of office, he took the initiative in creating the Interstate highway system.

That doesn't mean he invented it, nor does it mean he poured cement or drove a steamroller.

So lay off the Al Gore on the Internet comment.

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This might be offopic though. Oh well, I've seen it used as an example, it seems fitting to post it here.

Re:No, no it wasn't

[Danga]

People in sensible countries just take a walk down the street to a local shop, or at most, hop on a bus or train to the city centre, market, or supermarket for a couple of bags of food.

Yeah, this works in your smallass countries that have decent mass transit EVERYWHERE but there are some places people live in the US where their nearest neighbor is miles away, let alone a grocery store which might be 20-30 miles away. I agree that stockpiling food is not the best idea and a lot of people in the US do it when it is not necessary but some people have no other choice. I love fresh fruit and vegetables, but meat is something that I have never had a problem throwing in the freezer and thawing the day I needed it. I am sure freshly baked bread is nice as well but my wheat bread that is not freshly baked at the grocery store I by it from is healthy too and since I live by myself it is nice that it lasts more than just a few days (usually 1-2 weeks) so I can finish eating it all.

Another thing is you really pissed me off when you said "People in sensible countries". Fuck you man, you aren't any better than my country or anyone elses so shove that pretentious talk up your foreign ass. I hope you don't visit the US again anytime soon and if you do stay away from Chicago because if you go spouting off like that around here you will get your shit kicked in no time, asshole.