National Interstate and Defense Highways Act (1956)
Citation: An act to amend and supplement the Federal-Aid Road Act approved July 11, 1916, to authorize appropriations for continuing the construction of highways; to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 to provide additional revenue from the taxes on motor fuel, tires and trucks and buses; and for other purposes; June 29, 1956; Enrolled Acts and Resolutions of Congress, 1789-1996; General Records of the United States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives
This act authorized the building of highways throughout the nation, which would be the biggest public works project in the nation's history.
Popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 established an interstate highway system in the United States.
The movement behind the construction of a transcontinental superhighway started in the 1930s when President Franklin D. Roosevelt expressed interest in the construction of a network of toll superhighways that would provide more jobs for people in need of work during the Great Depression. The resulting legislation was the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1938, which directed the chief of the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) to study the feasibility of a six-route toll network.
With America on the verge of joining the war in Europe, the time for a massive highway program had not arrived. At the end of the war, however, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 funded highway improvements and established major new ground by authorizing and designating, in Section 7, the construction of 40,000 miles of a "National System of Interstate Highways."
When President Dwight D. Eisenhower took office in January 1953, the states had only completed 6,500 miles of the system improvements. Eisenhower had first realized the value of good highways in 1919, when he participated in the U.S. Army's first transcontinental motor convoy from Washington, DC, to San Francisco. Again, during World War II, Eisenhower saw the German advantage that resulted from their autobahn highway network, and he also noted the enhanced mobility of the Allies, on those same highways, when they fought their way into Germany. These experiences significantly shaped Eisenhower's views on highways and their role in national defense. During his State of the Union Address on January 7, 1954, Eisenhower made it clear that he was ready to turn his attention to the nation's highway problems. He considered it important to "protect the vital interest of every citizen in a safe and adequate highway system."
Between 1954 and 1956, there were several failed attempts to pass a national highway bill through Congress. The main controversy over the highway construction was the apportionment of the funding between the federal government and the states. Undaunted, the President renewed his call for a "modern, interstate highway system” in his 1956 State of the Union Address.
Within a few months, after considerable debate and amendment in Congress, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 emerged from the House-Senate conference committee. In the act, the interstate system was expanded to 41,000 miles. To construct the network, $25 billion was authorized for fiscal years 1957 through 1969. Eisenhower signed the bill into law on June 29th.
Because of the 1956 law, and the subsequent Highway Act of 1958, the pattern of community development in America was fundamentally altered and was henceforth based on the automobile. In urban areas, massive superhighways cut through neighborhoods and destroyed housing, much of it in poorer sections of the city. Elsewhere, the new superhighways followed established railroad routes and so bypassed many small towns and rural merchants. While the construction and routing of the national transportation network evolved in response to community and environmental concerns, the increased mobility Americans enjoyed as a result of the interstate highway system spurred substantial growth in interstate commerce and suburbanization over the next decades.
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