us highways: the rise of asphalt

7/31/2019 US Highways: The Rise of Asphalt

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U.S. Highways:

The Rise of Asphalt

By Lane Billings


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U.S. Highways 2

U.S. Highways: The Rise of Asphalt1st Edition

Lane Billings

Southwest Compass Publications


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U.S. Highways 3

Lane Billings

U.S. Highways: The Rise of Asphalt

2012, Lane Billings

Southwest Compass Publications

[email protected]

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means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information

storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the publisher.


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Croissants to Mustang Sally: The Birth of the Car

In a rural section of France in late 1769, a manlets call him Pierrewas buttering hiscroissant when he saw it for the first time. Nutty neighbor Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot was at

it again, inventing the three-wheeled fardier vapeur. Pierre screamed to his wife, Il sera

tu! (Hell be killed.) Within two years, Pierres prediction was almost correctthe test

run of Cugnots second vehicle crashed through a wall. Yes, the French were responsible

for the worlds first automobile accident. Dont get too cocky Americans. We have since

overtaken the French to win the bronzewere the country with the third most fender

benders in the world.

Americans have played a large part in the development of the automobile. In 1789, Oliver

Evans was the first American inventor to receive a patent to create car parts. He built avehicle that could travel on wheels, or via a paddle down water James Bond eat your

heart out. He called it the Amphibious Digger. It was steam- powered and, if youve seen

the Disney film Steamboat Willie, you get a good idea of what it looked like. Gas-

powered engines werent developed for another century, until German companies such as

Benz, Daimler and Maybach came to the fore. Your great-grandpappy shouldve bought

one then, because now you have to cough up $1,380,000 for a top-of-the-line Maybach.

Top of the line Duryea Motor Wagon


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Across the seas the Duryea Brothers of Springfield, Massachusetts developed a motor

wagon in 1893. Their car company officially launched two years later. As part of their

promotion, they held a race in Chicago. Brother Frank was able to drive this new car 54

miles, at an average speed of 7.5 MPH. Zippy, wasnt it? Please note that an adult canwalk at the average speed of 3 MPH.

The next logical step was to sponsor further races, offer more prizes and provide hot ladies

to present trophies. In November 1895, a race starting in Evanston, Illinois covered a 54-

mile course. Frank Duryea won with a time of 10 hours and 23 minutes. Newspapers

across America carried stories about the race, igniting curiosity about this new-fangled

invention.

Engineers, wannabe mechanics and scientists came out of the woodwork to introduce dual

engine cars, four-wheel drive, a variety of body styles, construction materials and

overhead camshafts yes, your engine was dangling above your head ready to crush you

in an instant. That should have promoted safe driving. Anything went or didnt. Lack of

fuel and breakdowns or even blow ups were frequent. Throughout the early 1900s cars

were seen as novelties, or play toys for the rich, rather than having any practical use.

That was until Henry Ford came into the picture. He had previously tinkered with Models

A, S, N, and U. But, it was the T that stuck. Between 1908-1927 over 16.5 million Tin

Lizzies were sold. It remained the best-selling car model until the 1970s. These cars came

in black, black or black, and high-end packages included hand brakes, crank start engines

and a steering wheel. Innovative for the time.

1908 Tin Lizzy


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Just before the Great War, the general public started to develop an interest in cars. Styles

and standards became uniform thanks to the inventions of hundreds of smaller car

companies. Engines went to the front, and four-wheel brakes and sliding gear

transmissions were the norm. However, WWI and the Stock Market Crash took their toll.By 1929, the number of car companies fell to 44. Still, 57% of the rural population had

purchased cars. This number climbed steadily until WWII.

In pre-war America, 4.68 million cars were produced annually. No cars rolled off

the production lines from 1942-1946 as all resources went toward the war effort.

Then, boom-time. During the first post-war year, the U.S. produced eight million cars:

two-thirds of the worlds vehicle output.

Post-WWII, the culture of America was changing rapidly. Due to the Great Depression,

over 70% of the population had been living in poverty. Now, the country was growing

prosperous. Old war factories turned out refrigerators, TVs and cars, while bombed-out

Europe was rebuildingsometimes from scratch. New forms of financing such as monthly

payments emerged. Carmakers rushed to produce more affordable cars to cash in on this

sudden national affluence. Within a decade, the cost of a car increased by half but sales

still shot up 40%. By 1960, there were over 61 million cars in the United States.

1960 Chrylser 300f


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Then the style of the car changed forever. We have Harley Earl to thank for much of it. He

got his start pimping out cars for Hollywood actors and the elite. He used futuristic body

designs, bold colors, and offered two-tone finishes. Inspired by jet planes, Earl introduced

the tail fin, an iconic feature of Cadillacs and Thunderbirds. The tail fin became standardand took over the market. That is, until the idea of Muscle Cars came along.

The popularity of cars kept climbing. In 1970 there were 89 million vehicles in America, by

1980 there were 121 million, and today there is a car for every person in the country. Cars

changed the American culture more than any other invention. Can you imagine the

famous chase scene in the 1968 film Bullitt done on foot? Or Springsteen singing about

his Pink Bicycle? Cars led the way to the creation of drive-thru fast food, the roadside

motel, car hops at drive-ins, drive-thru funeral parlors and wedding chapels, and more

than anything, the national highway system.

Bullitt Chase Scene


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From Mud to Pavement

As with the development of any project, there was a lot of throwing ideas against the wall

to see what stuck. Many of the earliest plans regarding road systems became unglued. In

1815, the National Road was built from Maryland to St. Louis. It was little more than a

one-horse dirt path, and it wasnt maintained. Just over a hundred years later, the first

transcontinental roadthe Lincoln Highway, running from New York to San Francisco

was completed. The idea came from the Indianapolis Speedway and 500 founder, Carl

Fisher, who championed the all-gravel highway. Funding from private citizens, and Frank

Sieberling of Goodyear, and Henry Joy of Packard led to the projects completion. The

reality of crossing this road was pot holes, wash outs, and a genuine adventure as noted

by future president Eisenhower.

Early road, 1909 Image courtesy of NC Archives

The need for paved and standardized roads increased and, in 1916, Congress responded

with the first Federal Aid Road Act- but WWI halted progress. The idea wasnt considered

again until the early 1920sin 1924, the Automobile Association of State Highway

Officials laid out the plan for the earliest roads.

The government was dragging its feetapparently nothing ever changesso private

citizens were forced to develop their own roads. By 1925, they had created two hundred


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and fifty of them. Most were simply laid over former paths such as the Santa Fe and

Oregon trails. They were dirt or mud depending on the weather and were decorated

with a hodge-podge of randomly thrown up signs. Washed out bridges were never marked,

arrows pointed in the wrong direction, and forget about getting your pizza in under 30minutes. Roosevelt was furious over this last transgression (his addiction to pepperoni is

noted heavily in history) and wanted a study done. He saw the need for eight corridors for

national highways and developed the idea of using toll roads to fund transportation

routes.

Highway building could also get millions of unemployed Americans back to work after the

Great Depression. On Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929) the stock market lost $14 billion

and, by the end of the week, $30 billion. This was ten times more than the annual federal

budget. In New York Citys financial district, it became so common for people to commit

suicide by leaping out of buildings, that one hotel began asking patrons checking in if theyneeded a room for sleeping or jumping. In the worst years of the Depression, 1 in 4 people

were out of work and 50% of children didnt receive adequate food, clothing, or shelter.

Between 1930-1935, 750,000 farms were lost due to financial reasons.

Adding to the farmers problems were dust storms. In 1932, fourteen severe dust storms

were reported. In 1933, the number climbed to 38. And, the following year, 134 black

blizzards swept through the Plains states. This led to the Great Migration to the West.

John Steinbeck recorded this time period in his novel, Grapes of Wrath:

Theys a time of change, an when that comes, dyin is a piece of all dyin,and bearin is a piece of all bearin, an bearin an dyin is two pieces of thesame thing. An then things aint so lonely anymore. An then a hurt donthurt so bad.

The poverty-stricken country didnt have time for roads until 1944, when the Federal

Highway Act was signed. The government wanted to construct 40,000 miles of highways

but didnt offer a means of paying for it. A serious stab at highway construction didnt

come along for over a decade.

Ike Likes Highways

On Friday June 29, 1956, President Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Acta

brilliant idea that was about to change the landscape and culture of America forever.

However, it was also the day that screen siren Marilyn Monroe chose to marry Arthur

Miller. Their five-minute wedding captured the nations headlines. Tough luck, Ike.


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When Eisenhower was an Army officer in 1919, he was part of an 81-vehicle convoy from

Washington DC to San Francisco. They wanted to see how long it would take to move

military equipment across the country. The group averaged only 58 miles per day, and

were involved in 230 accidents. This disastrous experiment concluded in 62 days plenty

of time for Americas enemies to come in and kick butt.

In the second year of his presidency (the first was dominated by the Korean War)

he started campaigning for a highway system based on the German Autobahn system. The

Cold War was in full swing, so Ike pointed out the military necessity for the planevacuations due to natural disasters, and nuclear fall out, were secondary considerations.

The idea was to connect 90% of all cities with a population of over 50,000 people.

Congress worked together (an oxymoron today but lets step back in time for a moment) to

hammer out a plan that took 35 years to fully implement. Standards included:

Minimizing traffic lights to toll booths and ramps Being able to travel up to speeds of 70 MPH Lanes that were twelve foot wide with ten foot shoulders Bridges with a fourteen foot clearance Signs that were standardized, along with numbered exits and mile markers

California, already a complete mess (*shock* for those of us who have traveled Cali

highways), was exempt from the signage system because it was deemed too expensive

through the 1950s. The last sign was replaced in 1972. Timely, huh?


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Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.

Albert Einsteins quote was appropriate for the developing mess with the

highways. However, why choose either option? Fighting it out makes much more sense.

Lets start in San Francisco.

Citizens protested the Embarcadero Highway in some cases there were up to 200,000

sign waving marchers. The highway was supposed to run along the waterfront, ruining

everyones view unless you enjoyed staring at rust buckets all day long. Due to the

Freeway Revolt, San Franciscos Board of Supervisors passed Resolution 45-59 in

January 1959. It paused highway building for several years and eventually the proposal

was accepted and the highway was rerouted. The cities of New York, Baltimore and New

Orleans also experienced the wrath of its citizens.

Racial discrimination was on everyones mind in the 1950s and Jim Crow laws were being

struck down left and right in the court system. Highways were no exception. They were

being used to segregate black from white neighborhoods, and these concrete beasts were

forcing the demolition of poorer (read that as black) communities. Highways were also

accelerating the decline in mass transit usage and sucking up their supporting funds.

Soon, with the rise of highways, blacks wouldnt be forced to the back of the bus, because

there wouldnt be any buses left.

Lunch counter revolution


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Historical properties were also in jeopardy, 15,000 people were displaced every year, and a

1961 federal commission was requesting another $11 billion to complete the project on

time. By 1962, only 23,000 miles of the proposed 41,000- mile system had been laid. Break

out the pitchforks and tar. This wasnt sitting well with the public.

Someone had to come up with some solutions and fast. In 1964, President

Johnson announced a public relations campaign by declaring a National Highway

Week. Um-hmm. Go on. The Office of Right-of-Way and Location was established in

order to facilitate moving displaced families and businesses, and the Office of Audit and

Investigations was created to handle fraud and financial scandals. President Kennedy

established grants of $500 million over the course of three years, to be used to upgrade

facilities and equipment for mass transit.

What began as a complaint to a husband actually helped beautify the areas around the

highways. Lady Bird Johnson noted the unsightly junkyards (in 1965 Americans were

junking five million cars annually) and the never-ending stream of billboards lining the

roads. Removal of billboards began in 1971, and fines were implemented for junkyards

without screening such as shrubbery or fencing.

Another day in the office, and another crisis averted. Until, the conservationists came out

in force, raising inconvenient questions about the impact of running a six-lane paved

monster through the forest.

I-476 protest in Pennsylvania


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Conservation had long been the cause of a good fight. Since the 1750s, there had been

movements to clean up the prisons and slums, and Ben Franklin himself demanded that

the waterways be restored. When the Mother of the Forest, an enormous 321-foot tall

sequoia tree in the Sierra Nevadas, was felled in 1851 there was an uproar by the arearesidents. This fueled the campaigns by John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt to save our

natural resources. To some, cars had become enemies. Dr. Alice Hamilton labeled Charles

Kettering, the inventor of leaded gas, a murderer. By 1964, projects had to taken the

environmental impact into consideration.

What Just Happened?

The creation of highways has caused some unforeseen results and were not just talking

about those dreaded orange barrels. It was the rise of Suburbia. After WWII, 16 millionveterans returned home to get married, find a job and raise a family. Only, there was little

space in the cities for this growing population. Highways came to the rescue sort of.

As families munched on their TV dinners in front of I Love Lucy, the Cold War hovered

overhead and the threat of the US going up in a mushroom cloud lingered. The solution?

Highways. They could carry the masses out into the rural areas. The road system was

designed in a circumlinear concentration, meaning that there would be a series of ring

roads circling the larger cities.

Now Americans could safely flee the cities. The unexpected result was urban sprawl.

These ring roads turned into the morning commute for suburbanites into their city jobs.

Housing was much cheaper due to a number of factors, including the Homeowners Loan

Corporation. And there was land to spare on the outskirts of the cities.

Born as a result of the Great Depression, the HOLC divided mortgages into easier, smaller

payments (to prevent foreclosure). The National Housing Act of 1934 piggybacked this

idea and was expanded into the US Housing Authority a few years later. The federal

government was lending up to 90% of material and building costs to localities to build

affordable housing for everyone, especially veterans returning from WWII a decade later.

In 1944, the GI Bill, signed by President Roosevelt, secured lending for returning vets, foreducation, training and loans. Ah. Homes for the many.

These highways helped build up suburbia, and also a developed a car culture in Southern

California. In 1942, its estimated that 85% of people drove themselves to work. Within a

year of this, the first freeway in SoCal opened connecting downtown to the suburb of

Pasadena. Naturally, smog immediately followed. They choked and hacked together as the

first car ad came across the TV in May of 1946. Buy your new Chevy today! Hurry to


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work or sit in traffic on the new highways connecting the valley and the infamous I-

5! California had highway fever.

Not to be outdone, New York got in on the madness. Long Island, the first planned suburb

on the East Coast, popped up in 1947 courtesy of land developer Levitt & Sons. By 1949,

the popular ranch style home was available for as little as $8,000. The Levitts makehousing even more affordable to whites only.

The idea exploded across America. In 1949, the first mall opened in Raleigh,

North Carolina. Within a decade of its opening in 1954, McDonalds had sold its

400 millionth burger. The Thunderbird became the worlds first affordable luxury car. You

could drive the new car to Disneyland, a 160-acre theme park in Anaheim, designed to

suck the money out of your pockets. People were reading books about road trips, including

Jack Kerouacs On the Road. More wives were working outside the home (30% in 1960)

so that most Americans now owned homes rather than renting and 80% owned at least

one car. By 1960s Suburbia was fast out-growing the cities, and by the 1990s, more thanhalf of white families lived there.

Industries began following their workers outside of the city limits. Between 1980-1995,

thirteen of the fifteen new car manufacturers opened plants near highways. Retailers

followed their clients, creating ghost towns in previously bustling downtowns. Detroit

has a commercial vacancy rate of 25% while 40% of Phoenix is boarded up. These are the

norm, not the exception. Cities are being forced to reinvent themselves.


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Forgotten Detroit

Highways have become the victim of smog and pollution. The worst hit area is the mostcar-heavyLos Angeles and the vicinity. Smog from automobile emissions was officially

recognized in 1943 and, a dozen years later, 95% of the population suffered from smog

complex. This included respiratory problems, irritated eyes and nausea. In 1974, the first

Stage Three smog alert message crossed the TV screen, and people were encouraged to

drive less. By the 1990s there was so much smog that you couldnt see the tops of the palm

trees. In 1993 alone, over 58 bills dealing with emissions were introduced to the state

senate. Still, as late as 2005, over 9,600 people died every year in the Los Angeles area,

due to respiratory problems related to smog.

Trucks make up a third of the smog in the Southern California region. Its up to seventimes cheaper to move goods by highway than by rail. Consequently, the US rail system

began a long declineAmtrak is always teetering on financial ruin. Not only are trucks

causing a lot of pollution, but they are also taking up more space, leading to congestion. A

mid-sized semi-truck is equal to 2.5 cars in length.


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The End of an Era

In 1992, the last of the I-70 was completed in Glenwood Canyon. The final

interstate stretches from Utah to Baltimore. The former roads these highways replaced

have become frontage roads, including Route 66, which was decertified in 1985.

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel acrossthe country from coast to coast without seeing anything. Charles Kuralt

The Mother Road (Route 66) was commissioned in 1926 but wasnt fully paved until a

decade later. It stretched 2,448 miles, across eight states and three time zones, from

Chicago to Santa Monica.

It is hard to dissect the love for the Main Street of America. Does it represent times past

to Baby Boomers, the hope for a better future to those heading west or a fat slice of the

American pie? For whatever reason, 66 has been woven into songs, TV shows and film. It

has sprouted kitsch hotels of wigwams and giant round barns and legend the white

lights, or spooklights over Quapaw, Oklahoma and featured some famous foods and

restaurants. People still flock to any place that Elvis ate, for corn dogs and more.

When the signs began coming down in 1985, there was an uproar by the people. This road

had taken writers west, had moved troops across the nation and served the country well.


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Route 66 Historical Associations popped up: eleven spread across all of the states that the

route passed through, and there were five offices overseas. Now, the old route has been

designated as Historic 66.

Today there are over 47,000 miles of highway in the U.S., and a forth of all miles driven

are across these concrete beasts. All told, they have cost $425 billion (2006), with 70% of

funding coming from gas tax. This tax started out as one cent but today, it is 18.4 cents

per gallon. Other funding comes from bonds. Roads that still havent paid off their bond

remain toll roads making up roughly 2,900 miles.

The longest interstate is the I-90 from Seattle to Boston, covering 3,020 miles. The state

with the most highway miles is Texas at 3,233 miles. And, the I-405 near Los Angeles is

the heaviest traveled, with over 374,000 vehicles rolling across it each day.

us highways: the rise of asphalt

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