Previous Interstate Facts of the Day

• December 1, 2008:   Although every Interstate has a number, some also have names.  The States are free to name Interstates without Federal approval.  For example, many of Pennsylvania’s Interstates have names, such as:
  I-79:  Raymond P. Shafer Highway
  I-80:  Z. V. Confair Memorial Highway
  I-81:  American Legion Memorial Highway
  I-83:  Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States Memorial Highway
  I-99:  Bud Shuster Highway
  I-279:  Raymond E. Wilt Memorial Highway
  I-476:  Veterans Memorial Highway
  I-576:  Medal of Honor Highway
  
  
• December 2, 2008:   New Hampshire completed its Interstate System in 1988 with the opening of the Franconia Notch segment of I-93 and completion of I-393 in Concord.  The 10-mile I-93 Franconia Notch Parkway opened on June 2, 1988.  Controversy related to traffic vibrations that might damage the rock landmark known as the "Old Man of the Mountain" resulted in a compromise parkway design that required a statutory exception to Interstate standards (Section 158 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973).  The finished highway includes sections of Interstate highway, a four-lane parkway, a three-lane parkway, and a two-lane parkway.  (Due to natural forces, the “Old Man of the Mountain” crumbled to the ground on May 3, 2003.)
  
• December 3, 2008:   Things on Highways #1:  Interstate highways are designed for safe, efficient movement of motor vehicles.  However, motor vehicles are not always the only things found on the Interstates.  “And you thought you had a bad commute yesterday.  Motorists on Interstate 495 near Westborough [Massachusetts] at around 1 p.m. faced a daunting addition to the normal gantlet of obstacles on the busy roadway:  an oncoming buffalo.  The large beast wandered in the direction of traffic in the northbound lane after escaping the trailer that had been transporting it, turning the well-traveled highway into a road where the buffalo roamed, however briefly.”  [Jack Encarnacao, “Errant Bison Buffaloes Motorists on I-495,” The Boston Globe, September 9, 2004].
  
• December 4, 2008:   Things on Highways #2:  “Interstate 40, the main east-west highway in Oklahoma, was closed for several hours Thursday when about 800 baby pigs spilled onto the road after the truck transporting them overturned . . . The freeway was closed in both directions as state troopers, firefighters and ambulance workers doubled as farm hands in a bid to prevent the pigs from running wild in the suburbs, police said.”  [“Nation in Brief,” The Washington Post, September 20, 2003].
  
• December 5, 2008:   Things on Highways #3:  “A tractor-trailer carrying 24 million honeybees from Massachusetts to Florida overturned early yesterday morning on the Gov. Thomas E. Dewey Thruway [I-87] near Tarrytown, N.Y., blocking traffic all day as emergency workers tried in vain to quiet the angry bees.”  [Jo Thomas, “A Toppled Load of Bees Swarms Thruway Traffic,” The New York Times, August 5, 1994].
  
• December 6, 2008:   Things on Highways #4:  “Roughage road ahead:  A stretch of Interstate 65 was closed for nearly 10 hours after a tractor-trailer spilled 20 tons of lettuce, which had to be picked up head by head.  ‘You can’t really use a shovel or bucket,’ [a] state police dispatcher … said.”  [“Nation in Brief,” The Washington Post, November 2, 1995].
  
• December 7, 2008:   Things on Highways #5:  “It wasn’t to clear Interstate 80 of snow that the snowplow was summoned to southwest Wyoming last week… It seems that a semi-truck hauling… chili rear-ended another truck.  According to the Wyoming Highway patrol, the momentum caused the chili cans to smash through the front of the trailer, break open and coat the pavement with beans and meat.”  [“The Big Chili,” The Baltimore Sun, April 30, 2002].
  
• December 8, 2008:   The 12-mile, $12.2 million Monument Valley Freeway on I-25 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was dedicated on July 1, 1960.  Sections of the freeway had been opened as they were completed.  The freeway, which took five years to build, contained 38 bridges and required excavation of 4.8 million cubic yards of earth and installation of 47,867 lineal feet of pipe and 56,836 lineal feet of conduit for electric wiring.  In the dedication brochure, Chief Engineer Mark U. Watrous of the Colorado Department of Highways said that the Monument Valley Freeway “was designed to provide the utmost in safety, convenience and usefulness” in accordance with Interstate design standards.
  
• December 9, 2008:   Between Lafayette and Baton Rouge, I-10 is carried on an elevated structure across the Atchafalaya River Basin.  The 36.9-mile “Swamp Expressway” from Lafayette to Grosse Tete was dedicated on March 12, 1973.  To protect the environment, concrete roadway segments were precast and floated by barge and floated to the site, where large cranes placed the segments on their support columns.  Some other Interstate completion dates in Louisiana:
  I-20 on June 1, 1977
  I-10 on May 5, 1978
  I-55 on May 25, 1979
  I-49 on May 1, 1996
  
  
• December 10, 2008:   The Blue Water Bridge opened in 1938 between Port Huron, Michigan, and Port Edwards, Ontario in Canada.  On Saturday, July 12, 1997, Michigan and Canadian officials snipped the ribbon to dedicate the $79 million Second Blue Water Bridge, which connected I-69 and I-94 with Sarnia, Ontario.  Pedestrians enjoyed the new bridge on July 12 and 13, but it opened to motor vehicles on July 14.  After the opening, the first bridge was closed for rehabilitation, with all traffic using the new span.  Since the reopening of the first bridge in 1999, the two bridges have been used as one-way spans.
  
• December 11, 2008:   On April 15, 1997, the State of Utah sponsored a ground-break ceremony for the reconstruction of I-15 outside of Salt Lake City.  The project involved replacing 17 miles of Interstate--including every bridge, ramp, and viaduct¾and constructing a light-rail system in the median.  Although the rebuilt highway will be in service for many years, one goal was to complete work in time for the Winter Olympics in February 2002.  Using innovative contracting methods, the Utah Department of Transportation completed “The 21^st Century Freeway” with a ceremony on May 14, 2001—on schedule and within the $1.59 billion budget.  As for the 2002 Winter Olympics, the revitalized transportation artery was recognized as a big success in keeping people moving during the two-week event.
  
• December 12, 2008:   I-95 in Philadelphia was shut down on March 13, 1996, by a tire fire that caused heat damage to three spans.  In cooperation with the FHWA, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation awarded an incentive-disincentive contract to reopen the facility by July 9 (the contractor would receive an incentive payment for early completion, a disincentive if the project is delayed).  The section reopened on June 12, a month ahead of schedule.  The contractor received an incentive check of $532,000.
  
• December 13, 2008:   West Virginia’s first and last Interstate projects were parts of I-64, beginning with a $131,900 bridge that opened in 1957 and concluding with a $21 million bridge and connector road in 1988.
  
• December 14, 2008:   Two States claim the first Interstate after President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 on June 29.  Kansas claims the first Interstate project completed under the Act (two lanes of I-70 west of Topeka, completed November 14, having begun before June 29).  Missouri claims the first contract (I-44 in Laclede County, August 2) and first to go to construction (I-70 in St. Charles County, August 13).  Whichever was first, both States completed their Interstate System with the opening of a single road—I-670, a 2.8-mile shortcut from I-70 in Kansas City, Kansas, to I-70 in Kansas City, Missouri, that opened on January 18, 1990. 
  
• December 15, 2008:   From Jim Drago’s “Amazing But True” in Going Places, March/April 1988:  “In the mid-1960s, [California’s] District 8 engineers studied a number of engineering options for a new highway (Interstate 40) to replace the fabled Route 66.  Among those options was a proposal to detonate 22 nuclear devices to clear a path through the rugged Bristol Mountains, 70 miles east of Barstow for the new Interstate.”  The idea was considered as part of President John F. Kennedy’s Project Plowshare to study peacetime uses for atomic energy.  “The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, signed with the Soviet Union in August 1963, banned atmospheric tests of nuclear warheads.  The nuclear option, however, lingered until early 1965 when the department decided to pursue conventional construction.”  The section of I-40 was completed in 1973. 
  
• December 16, 2008:   I-17 and I-19 are located entirely in Arizona.  I-17 connects I-10 in Phoenix and I-40 in Flagstaff (completed in 1978).  I-19 is a 63-mile route from the Mexican border at Nogales to I-10 in Tucson (completed in 1979).
  
• December 17, 2008:   Urban theorist Lewis Mumford, a critic of America’s love affair with the automobile, said of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956:  “When the American people, through their Congress, voted a little while ago … for a twenty-six-billion-dollar highway program, the most charitable thing to assume about this action is that they hadn’t the faintest notion of what they were doing.”  [“The Highway and the City,” Architectural Record, April 1958].
  
• December 18, 2008:   Archeology #1: Section 120 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 authorized the State highway departments to use Federal-aid highway funds for archeological and paleontological salvage in compliance with An Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities (June 8, 1906) or State laws. Because so much of the Interstate System was built on new location, its construction has resulted in many important finds.  For examples, see the next three Interstate Facts of the Day.
  
• December 19, 2008:   Archeology #2:  Construction of I-10 in Tallahassee, Florida, led to the discovery of San Damian de Escambi, an early 17^th century Franciscan Spanish mission that had been destroyed during an invasion by English and Creek forces in 1704.  The site was saved from destruction for use as a State park.
  
• December 20, 2008:   Archeology #3:  The long-sought site of Fort Orange¾founded along the Hudson River by Dutch traders in the 1620s at the site of the future Albany, New York¾was found during excavation for a planned ramp on I-87/I-787.  The fort had protected settlers and fostered the beaver pelt trade with Native Americans.  The site had been a prehistoric Indian site as proven by flint flakes and pottery fragments of the type made before contact with Europeans. 
  
• December 21, 2008:   Archeology 4:  The Central Artery/Tunnel Project (The Big Dig) involving I-90 and I-93 in Boston has been known for many things, including engineering innovation and continuing controversy, but less well known is that it has been a boon to archeologists.  Beginning in 1987, the project has sponsored digs that have unearthed hundreds of relics of life in earlier eras, including: tobacco pipe stems; bowls made in Holland; a mug bearing the image of Queen Anne (dating the find to the early 1700s); a wharf and wood plank floor that had been covered in 1804 when the area was converted to a manufacturing district; a midden (trash pile) on Spectacle Island with shells and other refuse from Native Americans dating from 600 A.D. to the 1620s; and, a colonial privy or outhouse.
  
• December 22, 2008:   Author Phil Patton said, “The Interstates and freeways were the roads of the future; their construction turned all other roads into byways of the past, objects of nostalgia.”  [Open Road:  A Celebration of the American Highway, Simon and Schuster, 1986, p. 14].
  
• December 23, 2008:   In 1958, Texas completed a $1.2 million four-level interchange of U.S. 80 (I-30) and U.S. 81 (I-35W) in Fort Worth.  In the 1970s, State and local officials began planning reconstruction of the interchange and the widening of elevated I-30 over Lancaster Avenue.  After years of controversy and court challenges, officials agreed to relocate a four-mile section of I-30 south to parallel Vickery Boulevard to reunite the historic structures along Lancaster Avenue with the rest of downtown.  The project involved building the new interchange over the existing interchange (nicknamed the “Mixmaster”) and busy railroad crossings while traffic continued on both.  The relocated I-30 opened in 2000.  The new $173 million interchange opened on May 12, 2003.  Mayor Kenneth Barr acknowledged that the city owed “a great debt of gratitude” to the activist group I-CARE, which had opposed the original plan, and to the Texas Department of Transportation.  “Not only will the interchange function better, it simply looks better.  The trees, landscaping, the sensitivity to the surrounding areas all make it a far superior interchange.
  
• December 24, 2008:   The Quad Cities area of Rock Island/Moline, Illinois, and Davenport/Bettendorf, Iowa, has long presented motorists with a puzzle: “Why does westbound I-80, which seems to continue straight ahead, suddenly become I-280 while I-80 turns north at the I-74/I-80/I-280 interchange and loops around the area to the north?  And why is I-74 routed west onto I-280 through the same interchange, only to be routed north again through another interchange into Moline?”  The routings were influenced by the priority of construction of the three Mississippi River crossings in the area.  To maintain continuity of travel, I-80 was routed along the first of the bridges planned for construction (the crossing at Le Claire, Illinois).  The second crossing, at Rock River to the west of the area, was assigned to I-280—the route motorists on I-80 see directly ahead of them as they turn north through the interchange.  The Bettendorf crossing north of Moline, the third to be built, was assigned to I-74. 
  
• December 25, 2008:   Virginia built 16 Interstate routes under the program launched by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.  The six-mile I-95 Emporia bypass was the first Interstate section completed (September 8, 1959).  The last section completed was I-295 from SR 36 in Hopewell to I-95 south of Petersburg (June 25, 1992). The longest Interstate in Virginia is I-81 through the Shenandoah Valley (324 miles).  A 3.9-mile section of I-81 in the vicinity of Pulaski was the first to open (November 1, 1959).  The final section, shared with I-74 in southwest Virginia, was completed on July 14, 1987, completing both routes in the State.  Virginia’s shortest Interstate is I-381 in Bristol (1.67 miles); it opened on November 20, 1961.  [Thanks to:  Scott Kozel at http://www.roadstothefuture.com/ and Charles Slack, “The End of the Pavement,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, August 19, 1996].
  
• December 26, 2008:   Chicago can be called the Interstate Crossroad because more long-distance Interstates pass through the city than any other—I-55, I-57, I-88, I-90 and I-94.  Four cities are tied for second with four—Indianapolis, Baltimore, Cleveland, Dallas-Fort Worth, and New York.
  
• December 27, 2008:   The final segment of the 13 Interstates built in Michigan under the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, as amended, was a portion of I-69 southwest of Lansing between I-96 and Charlotte.  It opened on October 22, 1992.
  
• December 28, 2008:   Founders #1:  Senator Albert Gore, Sr. (D-Tenn.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Roads in 1955-56, is one of the chief authors of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.  He was born on a hard-rock farm in Granville but his family moved to Carthage where he attended a one-room country school in Possum Hollow.  After graduating from high school, he began teaching in the same school while earning a degree from Middle Tennessee Teachers College.  He enrolled in law classes at the Nashville YMCA to secure the legal background he felt he needed to pursue a political career.  For three years, he drove 104 miles from Carthage to Nashville, three nights a week, for his classes. During the Interstate debates, Gore wasn’t sure about the need for control of access.  Francis C. “Frank” Turner, the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads’ liaison to the subcommittee, intervened.  “He invited me to see a new Federal highway about a hundred miles from Washington. Anyway, it was heavily traveled and I saw no big trouble as we went down.  But we came back at night and every little piece on each side of the new road there was a honky tonk, or a service station.  In three years there had been so many wrecks that it had been nicknamed ‘suicide alley.’  This drove home to me the absolute necessity of the cloverleaf [for access].”  [Quoted by the Associated Press in June 1996.]
  
• December 29, 2008:   Founders #2:  Representative T. Hale Boggs (D-La.) of the House Ways and Means Committee crafted the Highway Revenue Act of 1956, which became Title II of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 and created the Highway Trust Fund.  He had served in the House of Representatives from 1941 to 1943 before joining the U.S. Navy for World War II.  After the war, he was reelected to the House in 1946.  In addition to serving on the Ways and Means Committee, he would rise to House Majority Leader in January 1971, the position he held on October 16, 1972, when a plane in which he was a passenger went down in Alaska, killing all aboard.  Boggs would retain a strong interest in the Highway Trust Fund, emphasizing the “trust” when efforts to “raid” the fund took place.  He also was involved in resolving the Interstate controversies in New Orleans.  Following his death, his wife Lindy won the special election to represent his district and served until retiring after the 1990 session.  One of their daughters is the well-known broadcaster Cokie Roberts, while their son Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr., is a partner and Chairman of the Executive Committee of Patton Boggs, LLP, a legal and public affairs firm.  Their daughter, the late Barbara Boggs Sigmund, pursued a political career and was elected to serve two terms as Mayor of Princeton, New Jersey; but “Mayor Barbara” passed away on October 10, 1990, after a long battle with cancer.
  
• December 30, 2008:   Founders #3:  Of the three main authors of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, Representative George H. Fallon (D-Md.) is the least known today.  And yet his bill, incorporating funding compromises and the Highway Revenue Act developed by Representative Hale Boggs, broke the logjam in the House of Representatives that allowed passage of the legislation in 1956.  After the lifelong resident of Baltimore graduated from Johns Hopkins University, he worked in the family business, the Fallon Sign Company, until election to the House in 1944.  Throughout his House tenure, he devoted his time to the cause of better highways as a member of the Committee on Public Works, rising to the position of Chairman of the Subcommittee on Roads.  Despite his role in drafting the 1956 Act and the many later bills that fulfilled the commitment to the Interstate System until he lost a reelection bid in 1970, Fallon disliked driving, especially freeway driving.  He commuted to Washington by rail.  Shortly after enactment of the 1956 Act, Fallon said, "Nothing in my career as a member of the House of Representatives has given me the satisfaction that I have experienced from playing my part in the creation and forwarding of this truly great legislation.  Not only will every person in the United States benefit from it, but the favorable impact on our economy already is felt."  He is memorialized in Baltimore by the George H. Fallon Federal Office Building in the city’s downtown Charles Center.
  
• December 31, 2008:   I-235 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is only 2.8 miles long, but it connects three major Interstate routes (I-44 on the north and the joint I-35/I-40 section on the south).  Its opening on April 22, 1989, completed the State’s Interstate System.  The route is named the Centennial Expressway to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Oklahoma Land Rush on April 22, 1889.
  
• January 1, 2009:   Earthmoving #1:  From William R. Haycraft’s Yellow Steel:  The Story of the Earthmoving Equipment Industry (University of Illinois Press, 2002) on the 1956 Act:  “The manufacturers, expecting immediate increases in the amount of highway work let to contract, were euphoric.  But these expectations proved premature.  What they failed to reckon on were the long leadtimes entailed in major highway projects… The fact was that, initially, a disproportionate amount of the funds available would have to be spent for right-of-way acquisition.”  [Page 144]
  
• January 2, 2009:   Earthmoving #2:  From William R. Haycraft’s Yellow Steel:  The Story of the Earthmoving Equipment Industry (University of Illinois Press, 2002):  “By the end of 1965 interstate highway construction was at a peak.  After a little less than ten years of work, 21,185 miles—52 percent of the system—were already open to traffic.  The program had been a bonanza to contractors and the construction equipment industry alike, but it was a wasting asset.  When it was complete some ten years hence, what would follow?”  [Page 187]
  
• January 3, 2009:   Earthmoving #3:  From William R. Haycraft’s Yellow Steel:  The Story of the Earthmoving Equipment Industry (University of Illinois Press, 2002) on passage of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982, which increased the Federal gas tax by a nickel (4 cents for highways, 1 cent for transit) to restore the condition of aging Interstate and other roads and bridges:  “The program brought about a huge reorientation of the American roads industry.  It went from new construction, which is highly machinery-intensive, to repair, resurfacing, and reconstruction, which are costly but much less machinery-intensive… The highway program would never again generate the massive sales of heavy construction equipment it once did.” [page 245]
  
• January 4, 2009:   Earthmoving #4:  From William R. Haycraft’s Yellow Steel:  The Story of the Earthmoving Equipment Industry (University of Illinois Press, 2002) on legislation in the 1980s through the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, which established the post-Interstate era: “[Despite] a shift away from the massive earthmoving of the 1960s and 1970s to build the Interstate System, highways in the 1980s and 1990s continued to be the primary engine that drove the heavy construction industry in the United States, albeit with somewhat different types of equipment.”  [page 303]
  
• January 5, 2009:   Pre-Interstates, Part 1 of 8: Under President Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin submitted a report to Congress in April 1808 “respecting roads and canals.” The report contained the first national inventory of roads and canals, but also proposed that Congress approve “early and efficient aid of the Federal Government” for national construction of roads, canals, and inland navigation. The great program would cost $20 million and take 10 years. No other program open to the Federal Government would do more “to strengthen and perpetuate that Union which secures external independence, domestic peace, and internal liberty.” Congress did not act on this visionary proposal.
  
• January 6, 2009:   Pre-Interstates, Part 2 of 8: After the chartering of a second National Bank in 1816, Representative John C. Calhoun (SC) headed a special committee that proposed to invest the annual dividends the Federal Government would receive from the bank as a “bonus” for the construction of roads and canals in each State, with State consent. He told Congress: “Let us then bind the Republic together with a perfect system of roads and canals. Let us conquer space.” The Bonus Bill passed the Congress and was forwarded to President James Madison, who vetoed it on March 3, 1817, his last day in office, because he did not think it was constitutional.
  
• January 7, 2009:   If you’re traveling I-80 across Nebraska, there’s more than one reason to stop at a safety rest area, namely a 500-mile Sculpture Garden. It isn’t visible from the roadway, but the sculpture garden can be seen in nine of the rest areas along I-80, each with a unique metal and stone creation. The “Museum Without Walls” was dedicated in July 1976 as part of the State’s Bicentennial celebration. The nine rest areas are: the Nebraska/Omaha Travel Information Center near U.S. 73/75; Platte River eastbound; Blue River eastbound; York westbound; Grand Island eastbound; Kearney westbound; Brady westbound; Ogallala westbound; and the Sidney westbound.
  
• January 8, 2009:   Yesterday’s I-Fact discussed the 500-mile long Sculpture Garden installed in nine safety rest areas along Nebraska’s I-80. That same stretch of Nebraska’s I-80 includes the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument, which spans I-80 at Kearney as a tribute to the 19^th century pioneers who passed through the region on their way to a new life in the west. The arch, the largest object ever transported in Nebraska, is 309 feet long, three stories high, and weighs 1,500 tons. It was rolled into place over the Interstate in August 1999 and dedicated in 2000. The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument contains a 20,000-square foot walk-through exhibit about the Oregon, Mormon, and California Trails; the Pony Express; and the Overland Stage, as well as the Transcontinental Railroad and the Lincoln Highway.
  
• January 9, 2009:   I-88, Part 1 of 2: I-88 consists of two unconnected segments, one in New York and one in Illinois. In New York, I-88 is 117 miles long from I-90 (New York State Thruway) in Schenectady to I-81 in Binghamton. It was added to the Interstate System on December 13, 1968, after Congress authorized the U.S. Department of Transportation to designate an additional 1,500 miles. Construction of I-88 in New York was completed in 1989. Originally called the Susquehanna Expressway, I-88 was renamed the Senator Warren M. Anderson Expressway. Anderson, who lived in Binghamton, was a State Senator from 1953 through 1988 and served as Majority Leader of the State Senate from 1973 to 1988. He was instrumental in securing construction of the freeway.
  
• January 10, 2009:   I-88, Part 2 of 2: I-88 consists of two unconnected segments, one in New York and one in Illinois. In Illinois, I-88 is 140 miles long from I-290 at Hillside in the Chicago metropolitan area to I-80 near Moline in the Quad Cities area. The route was built without Interstate Construction funds prior to Interstate designation. The first section from I-290 to Aurora opened as the East-West Tollway on November 21, 1958. An extension to Fulton on the Mississippi River was studied in the 1960s, with the road to be called the Lincoln Tollway. The extension opened in stages in 1974, with the final toll section¾Rochelle to Rock Falls¾opening on November 15, 1974. The continuation to the Quad Cities was built as a non-toll facility. In June 1987, the Federal Highway Administration designated I-88 in Illinois as an existing road that met Interstate standards. In 2004, the State named I-88 the Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway because the route passes just south of Dixon, the former President’s boyhood hometown.
  
• January 11, 2009:   One of the most controversial issues facing Congress in 1955/1956 was what to do about the toll and non-toll highways that had been built or were underway in Interstate corridors before the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Section 114 of the 1956 Act compromised by calling for a study by the Department of Commerce. Commerce Secretary Sinclair Weeks transmitted Consideration for Reimbursement for Certain Highways on the Interstate System to Congress on January 7, 1958. The report found that the 38,548 miles of approved detailed locations on the Interstate System as of September 1957 included 1,950 miles of toll roads in 26 States and 8,909 miles of non-toll roads in 47 States. Of the combined 10,859-miles, completed miles totaled only 1,955 miles. The report estimated that if Congress decided to reimburse the States for this mileage (minus depreciation), the cost would be $5.92 billion, of which $2.52 billion was for toll roads. Congress took no action on the report at the time.
  
• January 12, 2009:   Fun With Numbers: In Interstate number assignments, which are grouped in tens, the “70s” and “80s” are the only ones where all variations are in use (I-70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, and 79; and I-80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86. 87, 88, and 89). The fewest numbers used in this grouping of Interstate numbers by the tens are from 1 to 9 (I-4, 5, and 8) and 50 to 59 (I-55, 57, and 59).
  
• January 13, 2009:   I-55 is a 964-mile route from U.S. 41 in Chicago, Illinois, to I-10 in La Place, Louisiana. Tennessee has the fewest miles of I-55, only 12 miles cutting through Memphis. Illinois has more I-55 mileage, 313 miles, than the other States. I-55 parallels the Mississippi River and crosses it twice. The route is carried across the river (along with I-64 and I-70) between Illinois and Missouri on the Poplar Street Bridge, which opened on November 9, 1967. I-55 also crosses the Mississippi River on the Memphis-Arkansas Memorial Bridge. Opened in 1950, the Bridge is the only Interstate bridge in Tennessee that is included in the National Register of Historic Places.
  
• January 14, 2009:   The longest stretch of a multi-State Interstate in one State can be found in Texas. I-10, the 2,460-mile transcontinental route from I-95 in Jacksonville, Florida, to CA 1 in Santa Monica, California, includes 881 miles in Texas from Orange in the east to El Paso in the west. The second longest stretch of a multi-State Interstate is in California, with 796 miles of 1,380-mile I-5. The States in the remaining Top 5 slots:
  • Texas: 636 miles of I-20
  • Montana: 552 miles of I-90
  • Texas: 504 miles of I-35
  
  
• January 15, 2009:   The Indiana Toll Road carries I-90 across the State border to border. The turnpike also carries I-80 from the eastern State line to a point near Burns Harbor, where I-80 shifts to the toll-free Frank J. Borman Expressway, which also carries I-94. (Borman, an astronaut who was born in Gary, Indiana, was Commander of Apollo 8, the first NASA mission to orbit the moon.) The $280-million turnpike was dedicated on September 17, 1956, with a ceremony at South Bend that featured high school bands, a parade, and speeches by Governor George N. Craig and other dignitaries. The final 15 miles connecting Gary with Illinois opened on November 15.
  
• January 16, 2009:   Pre-Interstates, Part 3 of 8: General Roy Stone, a Civil War hero, headed the first Federal road agency, the U.S. Office of Road Inquiry, when it went into operation in the Department of Agriculture on October 3, 1893. In an 1895 address to the Tennessee Road Convention, he proposed: “A great national highway . . . 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 central line, say from Washington to San Francisco, joining there another line which connects the States of the Pacific Coast . . . ” He did not expect the Great Road—which looks like a wide “H” on a map—to be built in his lifetime; it was intended to inspire the Nation to dream: “It is often easier to do great things than small ones of the same kind, 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 behind them heretofore.”
  
• January 17, 2009:   Mississippi River Interstate Quiz: How many times does the Interstate System cross the Mississippi River? How many of the seven east-west Interstates with two-digit numbers ending in zero cross the Mississippi River? How many of the ten north-south Interstates with one-or two-digit numbers ending in 5 cross the Mississippi River? How many Interstates cross the Mississippi River more than once? What bridge carries the lowest Interstate number across the river? The highest? How many are named after former members of the U.S. House of Representatives? The answers in tomorrow’s Interstate Facts of the Day.
  
• January 18, 2009:   Mississippi River Interstate Quiz: Here are the answers to yesterday’s Interstate Facts of the Day quiz:

  How many times does the Interstate System cross the Mississippi River?
  20

  How many of the seven east-west Interstates with two-digit numbers ending in zero cross the Mississippi River?
  Six (I-10, 20, 40, 70, 80, and 90).

  How many of the ten north-south Interstates with one-or two-digit numbers ending in 5 cross the Mississippi River?
  Three (I-35W, I-35E, and I-55).

  How many Interstates cross the Mississippi River more than once?
  One (I-55 at Memphis, Tennessee and St. Louis, Missouri. A case could be made for I-35, but it crosses on separate alignments as I-35W and I-35E).

  What bridge carries the lowest number across the river?
  I-10/Horace Wilkinson Bridge at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

  What bridge carries the highest number across the river?
  I-694 north of Minneapolis.

  How many are named after former members of the U.S. House of Representatives?
  Two (I-80/Fred Schwengel Memorial Bridge and I-310/Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge).

  
  
• January 19, 2009:   Pre-Interstates, Part 4 of 8: Through the mid-1910s, many Members of Congress proposed highway networks. Many bills proposed construction of a national "Interstate" highway system, with the routes specified in the bills and, in some cases, given names. For example, Senator Shelby Cullom (R-Ill.) introduced a bill calling for seven national highways that, in keeping with his understanding of the ancient Roman highway network, all began in the Nation's capital. Some bills involved a specific road proposal, such as a national highway from the Canadian border south of Winnipeg to Galveston, Texas, and a national ocean-to-ocean highway over the pioneer trails of the Nation. The Congress was not ready for such schemes.
  
• January 20, 2009:   Pre-Interstates, Part 5 of 8: Charles Henry Davis, a wealthy road equipment manufacturer who lived in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, formed the National Highways Association in 1911. In 1912, the association published a map of a 50,000-mile network of what Davis called "a broad and comprehensive system of National Highways [to be] built, owned, and maintained by the National Government." He recognized that “the unthinking” might consider it “a revolutionary idea,” but "nothing was ever accomplished without a beginning being made somewhere." Although his ideas were rejected (even scorned at times), Davis would live long enough to see the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 authorize a “National System of Interstate Highways.” He also lived to see the Federal Works Agency/Public Roads Administration designate the initial Interstate routes on August 2, 1947—on a map that included many of the routes shown on his 1912 map. Davis, a man who embraced many causes with great enthusiasm, died on June 2, 1951.
  
• January 21, 2009:   Oklahoma completed its 236-mile portion of I-35 with the snip of a four-inch wide ribbon at Wynnewood on February 19, 1971. Wielding the scissors was Governor David Hall. As the Oklahoma City Times put it in a headline: “City to Dallas: Swoosh!” The article began, “A 16-year old dream came true today,” explaining that, “Compared with old U.S. 77, the new highway cuts the distance [to Dallas] only 12 miles. But the saving in frazzled nerves is immeasurable.” Between Oklahoma City and the Texas State line, the biggest obstacle to completion had been the Arbuckle Mountains. Historian William Paul Corbett, in his Ph.D thesis on Oklahoma highway development, explained that using ammonium nitrate, workers “blasted a six-mile long trench at one point to a depth of 150 feet through the bowels of the mountains, removing more than 3,200,000 cubic yards of material.” The result was “a roadbed with a long, wide, gradually sloping four percent uphill grade as opposed to the twisting, narrow five percent inclines on nearby U.S. Highway 77.” (Oklahoma’s Highways: Indian Trails to Urban Expressways, Oklahoma State University, 1982, unpublished.)
  
• January 22, 2009:   Former President Harry S. Truman participated in the opening of a five-mile segment of the Southeast Freeway (I-70) in Kansas City, Missouri, on August 17, 1962. “I know something of this project,” the former President said, “I wanted it built 30 years ago” when he was the presiding judge of the Jackson County Court (an executive, not a judicial position). Federal Highway Administrator Rex Whitton, a former Missouri State highway engineer, said, “We are dedicating this fine new freeway to the people, for their benefit and pleasure.” His wife, Callie Maud Whitton, snipped the ribbon formally opening the expressway, a 35-car motorcade toured the route.
  
• January 23, 2009:   Asphalt has been used for pavement on 47 percent (21,717 miles) of the Interstate System. Concrete pavements equal 28 percent of the total (13,226) miles. In addition, the Interstate System includes 11,703 miles (25 percent) of “composite” pavement (asphalt overlay on a concrete base).
  
• January 24, 2009:   Pre-Interstates, Part 6 of 8: By the 1930s, several proposals for a single massive superhighway across the country were popular. T.E. Steiner, a manufacturer from Wooster, Ohio, proposed one of the most publicized ideas, a Transcontinental Stream-Lined Super Highway stretching 4,000 miles from Plymouth Rock on the Atlantic Ocean to a point just south of San Francisco. It would be as straight as possible, with the roadway including four lanes for automobiles, four lanes for trucks and buses, and room for emergency parking, landscaping, and other purposes. Right-of-way would be 450 feet wide, except that every 10 or 20 miles, the right-of-way would be 3,000 feet wide to accommodate leasing sites for recreation centers, hotels, restaurants, and gasoline stations. Because detailed traffic surveys demonstrated that transcontinental traffic was too small to justify such schemes, Chief Thomas H. MacDonald of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads and his top aide, Herbert S. Fairbank, scorned transcontinental schemes that were so far in excess of need.
  
• January 25, 2009:   Pre-Interstates, Part 7 of 8: Although proposals for a single massive superhighway across the country were popular in the 1930s, an alternative concept, advocated by several Members of Congress, proposed construction of a limited network of toll superhighways. The best known proposal was introduced as a bill by Senator Robert J. Bulkley (D-Ohio) in 1938 with the support of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The bill called for creation of a United States Highway Corporation to build three toll transcontinental and seven north-south superhighways, linked by spurs and connectors. In view of the President’s support, Congress included a provision in the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1938 asking the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads to study the concept. The resulting report, the 1939 Toll Roads and Free Roads, rejected the idea of a limited toll network, but advocated a toll-free express highway network that evolved into the Interstate System.
  
• January 25, 2009:   Pre-Interstates, Part 8 of 8: The most popular exhibit at the New York World’s Fair in 1939 and 1940 was Futurama in the General Motors building. It was a seven-acre model of an interstate network as it might exist in 1960. Visitors seated in armchairs were transported over the exhibit for "a magic Aladdin-like flight through time and space." Fourteen-lane highways crossed the country as thousands of model cars moved at three prescribed speeds up to 100 mph, while observers in towers provided electronic signals to help motorists shift lanes or enter/leave the highway. Vehicle spacing was controlled by radio beams at the front and back of each car. Although visitors leaving the exhibit were given lapel pins reading I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE, Chief Thomas H. MacDonald of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads considered Futurama a collection of "bizarre ideas." As he and top aide Herbert S. Fairbank prepared the 1939 report to Congress that first described the future Interstate System (Tolls Roads and Free Roads) they avoided such visionary “superhighway” schemes in favor of concepts supported by data collected in highway traffic surveys.
  
• January 26, 2009:   The 1953 Kansas State Legislature approved creation of the Kansas Turnpike Authority. The authority considered several routes before settling on a basic routing of Kansas City-to-Topeka (future I-70), Topeka-to-Wichita (I-325 to Emporia and then I-35 the rest of the way), and from Wichita to a link at the border with the planned Oklahoma Turnpike (I-35). The estimated cost was $160 million. On December 31, 1954, Governor Edward Arn climbed onto a steam shovel to break ground for construction of the turnpike. The 236-mile Kansas Turnpike was completed on October 21, 1956, although ceremonies took place on October 25 at three locations. At the eastern terminus, the singing cowboy star, Gene Autry, and his horse Champion burst through a huge paper map of the turnpike to celebrate the opening. The British Poet Laureate, John Masefield, offered this ode to the turnpike:
  
  May this Road’s Angels Blessedly fulfill
  The inmost Hope of travelers of good will.
  May those who seek Love, find; those Knowledge, learn.
  To all, gay going-forth and glad return.
  
  
• January 27, 2009:   Future Interstates, Part 1 of 2: Starting in the National Highway System Designation Act of 1995, Congress has identified 12 "future Interstates" among the 77 High Priority Corridors of the National Highway System, as well as portions of two other corridors. The 12 future Interstates are listed here (I-numbers in parenthesis if specified by Congress):
  • North-South Corridor from Kansas City, Missouri, to Shreveport, Louisiana.
  • U.S. 220 and the Appalachian Thruway Corridor from Business 220 in Bedford, Pennsylvania, to the vicinity of Corning New York, including U.S. 322 between U.S. 220 and I-80 (I-99).
  • I-69 Corridor from Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, through Port Huron, Michigan southwesterly along I-69 through Indianapolis, Indiana, extended through Evansville, Indiana; Memphis, Tennessee; Mississippi, Arkansas, Shreveport/Bossier, Louisiana, to Houston, Texas, and to the Lower Rio Grande at the Border (I-69).
  • U.S. 59 Corridor from Laredo through Houston, Texas, in the vicinity of Texarkana, Texas (I-69).
  • New York and Pennsylvania State Route 17 from Harriman, New York, to its intersection with I-90 in Pennsylvania (I-86).
  • U.S. 90 Corridor from I-49 in Lafayette, Louisiana, to I-10 in New Orleans.
  • The Greensboro Corridor from Danville, Virginia, to Greensboro, North Carolina, along U.S. 29.
  • The portion of Corridor V of the Appalachian Development Highway System from I-55 near Batesville, Mississippi, to the intersection with Corridor X near Fulton, Mississippi.
  • U.S. 78 Corridor from Memphis, Tennessee, to Corridor X of the Appalachian Development Highway System near Fulton, Mississippi, and Corridor X extending from near Fulton to near Birmingham, Alabama (I-22).
  To be continued in the next Interstate Fact of the Day.
  
• January 28, 2009:   Yesterday, the Interstate Fact of the Day began a list of High Priority Corridors of the National Highway System that Congress has designated "future Interstates." The remaining "future Interstates" (showing the route number in parenthesis where specified by Congress) are:
  • The California Farm-to-Market Corridor, California State Route 99 from south of Bakersfield to Sacramento, California.
  • U.S. 41 Corridor between Interstate Route 94 via Interstate Route 894 and Highway 45 near Milwaukee and I-43 near Green Bay in the State of Wisconsin.
  • I-376 from the Pittsburgh interchange (I/C No. 56) of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, westward on I-279, U.S. 22, U.S. 30, PA 60 continuing past the Pittsburgh International Airport, PA Turnpike Route 60 past the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76) interchange 10, and continuing north on PA 60 to I-80 (I-376).
  Congress also designated portions of two other High Priority Corridors as "future Interstates":
  • East-West Transamerica Corridor from Virginia to California, but the "future Interstate" portion is in Kentucky centered on the cities of Pikeville, Jenkins, Hazard, London, and Somerset; then, generally following the Louie B. Nunn Parkway corridor from Somerset to Columbia, to Glasgow, to I-65; then to Bowling Green, Hopkinsville, Benton, and Paducah (I-66)
  • I-73/74 North-South Corridor from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan to Charleston, South Carolina, but only the portion from Portsmouth, Ohio, south on combined and separate routes through West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina to Georgetown, South Carolina, is designated as "future Interstate."
  
  
• January 29, 2009:   On June 29, 1990, North Carolina opened the final link in I-40, a 2,554-mile highway from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Barstow, California. The rolling festivities included remarks by Governor James G. Martin (who called I-40 "North Carolina's Main Street"), 900 pounds of free barbecue, a military band, cheerleaders from Hobbton High School, and a descent by the Ft. Bragg's Green Beret Sport Parachute Team at the NC-50/55 interchange at Newton Grove; an ice cream social at the I-40/NC-24 rest area west of Warsaw, and a final ceremony at Grace Baptist Church near the eastern terminus in Wilmington. In 1958, the first Interstate-funded construction on I-40 nationwide had taken place in Haywood County, North Carolina. Total cost of I-40: $3.3 billion.
  
• January 30, 2009:   The I-70 Eisenhower/Johnson Memorial Tunnel in Colorado is the longest Interstate tunnel and the System's highest point above sea level (11,013 feet (east bore), 11,158 feet (west bore)). The westbound bore (completed March 8, 1973) is named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower, while the eastbound bore (completed December 21, 1979) is named after former Senator and Colorado Governor Edwin C. Johnson, who had fought hard to secure the Interstate mileage west of Denver. (The lowest elevation on the Interstate System is I-8 in El Centro, California, 52 feet below sea level.)
  
• January 31, 2009:   On June 26, 1956, after both Houses of Congress approved the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, the two chief authors, Senator Al Gore, Sr. (D-Tn) and Representative George H. Fallon (D-Md.) issued a joint statement saying the bill would set in motion "the greatest governmental construction program in the history of the world." Representative Fallon added:

  The American people will ride safely upon many thousands of miles of broad, straight, trouble-free roads, four to eight lanes wide, criss-crossing America from coast to coast and border to border, built to the very highest standards that our highway engineers can devise.

  
  
• February 1, 2009:   Rhode Island was the first State to open all of its Interstate mileage, 70.8 miles, in June 1975. Of the States with larger amounts of mileage, Nebraska was the first to open all of its 481.5 miles of Interstate System (November 1976).
  
• February 2, 2009:   During debate on the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, Senator Steve Symms (R-Id.) said, "I think in general, the Interstate and Defense Highway System has been one of the best Federal projects we have ever seen in terms of opening up commerce, industry, and opportunity and personal freedom for Americans."
  
• February 3, 2009:   Secretary of Transportation Samuel K. Skinner submitted the final Interstate Cost Estimate (ICE) to Congress on February 4, 1991. The ICE, which was used to apportion Interstate Construction funds based on needs in each State, estimated that the total cost of the Interstate System would be $128.9 billion, with a Federal share of $114.3 billion. Of this amount, $12.9 billion remained to be expended (Federal share: $11.7 billion).
  
• February 4, 2009:   Vermont's first Interstate highway, a section of I-91 from the Massachusetts State line to Brattleboro, opened on November 1, 1958. Besides being Vermont's first Interstate, it was the first highway in the State with full control of access and a four-lane divided design.
  
• February 5, 2009:   The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944, approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on December 20, 1944, authorized designation of a 40,000-mile "National System of Interstate Highways." On August 2, 1947, Commissioner of Public Roads, Thomas H. MacDonald, and the Federal Works Administrator, Major General Philip B. Fleming, designated 37,681 miles of principal highways, including 2,882 miles carrying the routes through cities. The remaining mileage, used for urban circumferential and distributing routes, was approved on September 15, 1955.
  
• February 6, 2009:   The longest Interstate highway is I-90, stretching 3,085 miles from Boston, Massachusetts, to Seattle, Washington. However, I-90 is not the Nation's longest road. That would be U.S. 20, a 3,365-mile route from Boston, Massachusetts, to Newport, Oregon.
  
• February 7, 2009:   North Dakota's first completed section of the Interstate System was dedicated on October 16, 1958. Located between Jamestown and Valley City, the 40-mile section of I-94 was opened with a ceremony at the Eckelson interchange, with Governor John E. Davis cutting the ribbon.
  
• February 8, 2009:   In 1975, the American Society of Civil Engineers presented a Special Civil Engineering Achievement Award to the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways during a ceremony on the Ellipse south of the White House. Identical plaques were presented to Secretary of Transportation William T. Coleman, Jr., and William S. Ritchie, Jr., president of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The twin plaques were representative of the Federal-State relationship that built the Interstate System.
  
• February 9, 2009:   It is NOT true that one-in-five miles of the Interstate System must be straight so airplanes can land. This widespread myth has no basis in law, regulation, design manual, or fact. Airplanes occasionally land on Interstates, not because the Interstates are designed for that purpose, but because no alternative is available in an emergency.
  
• February 10, 2009:   I-80 across Pennsylvania was completed with a ceremony on September 17, 1970, at the Milesburg interchange. At the time, the highway was known as the Keystone Shortway, but was renamed the Z. H. Confair Memorial Highway in 1984 to honor State Senator Confair, who had promoted construction of the road as president of the Keystone Shortway Association.
  
• February 11, 2009:   The 1.7-mile, $112-million I-70 Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel opened in Colorado on March 8, 1973. During a brief ceremony about 500 feet inside the tunnel's entrance west of Denver, Governor John Love said, "This tunnel, as part of the Interstate System, represents the most recent, and possibly the most effective, answer to tying east and west Colorado together and opening the way west."
  
• February 12, 2009:   To help resolve urban Interstate controversies, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973 provided that a Governor and the local governments concerned could request withdrawal of unbuilt Interstate routes or portions thereof in an urbanized area. The Department of Transportation could withdraw approval if the withdrawn segment was not essential to completion of a unified and connected System. Transit projects in or serving the same urbanized area could be substituted, with funds from the general Treasury in an amount equal to the Federal share of the withdrawn facility. (The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1976 allowed substitution of highway projects in addition to transit projects.) The first withdrawal was approved for Boston's Inner Belt (I-95 and I-695) on May 23, 1974, and the final approval occurred on September 22, 1989 (bus lanes on I-205 in Portland, Oregon). In all, a total of 50 actions involved withdrawal of 343 miles of Interstate highways in 21 States.
  
• February 13, 2009:   The Interstate System includes 55,512 bridges and 82 tunnels (including 104 individual bores).
  
• February 14, 2009:   Texas has more Interstate miles than any State (3,233 miles), but New York has the most Interstate Routes (29).
  
• February 15, 2009:   Ohio completed its Interstate mileage on September 19, 2003, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the final three segments of the I-670 Spring-Sandusky-Interchange Project in downtown Columbus. The $225 million project included 15 projects to widen, reconstruct, and complete I-670 to improve safety and access where I-670, SR 315, and U.S. 33 meet.
  
• February 16, 2009:   Although Presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to the present have supported the Interstate System, only one President has participated in the opening of an Interstate highway. On November 14, 1963, President John F. Kennedy helped cut the ribbon for the opening of the Maryland Northeastern Expressway-Delaware Turnpike on I-95. Eight days later, on November 22, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Officials in Delaware and Maryland renamed the turnpike the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway.
  
• February 17, 2009:   The magazine Invention and Technology said: "The Interstate system works, in fact, it has exceeded its original scope and mission by revolutionizing the Nation's logistics, changing the way we travel, and knitting the country's regions closer together. Thanks to constant redesign and reconstruction, the Interstate remains a vital part of the U.S. economy." [Daniel J. McConville, "Seaway to Nowhere," Invention and Technology, Fall 1995]
  
• February 18, 2009:   The Interstate System has had four statutory names. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 called it the National System of Interstate Highways. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 amended the name to: National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. Public Law 101-427, signed by President George H. W. Bush on October 15, 1990, renamed the Interstate System the Dwight D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways. Section 1005 of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 amended the name by restoring the word "National" after the former President's name. As a result, the official name of the Interstate System is: the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways.
  
• February 19, 2009:   In 1976, Life magazine published a Bicentennial Issue on "The 100 Events that Shaped America." No. 96 was the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. The accompanying article explained that the 1956 Act "aimed at nothing less than tying the whole continent together with a continuous network of limited-access superhighways." The Interstate System is "the most grandiose and indelible signature that Americans have ever scratched across the face of their land."
  
• February 20, 2009:   Which Interstate highway crosses the most States? The answer is I-95, which crosses 15 States and the District of Columbia: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, the District, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. The route that crosses the second most States is I-90: Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts.
  
• February 21, 2009:   The Interstate System includes seven border-to-border routes:
  • I-5, San Diego, California, to Blaine, Washington (1,382.04 miles)
  • I-15, San Diego to Sweet Grass, Montana (1,436.89 miles)
  • I-35, Laredo, Texas, to Duluth, Minnesota (1,831.43 miles)
  • I-55, New Orleans, Louisiana, to Chicago, Illinois (943.69 miles)
  • I-65, Mobile, Alabama, to Gary, Indiana (888.08 miles)
  • I-75, Miami, Florida, to Sault Ste Marie, Michigan (1,787.49 miles)
  • I-95, Miami to Houlton, Maine (1,892.76 miles)
  
  
• February 22, 2009:   The Interstate System connects all but five State capitals. Those not directly served are Juneau, Alaska; Dover, Delaware; Jefferson City, Missouri; Carson City, Nevada; and Pierre, South Dakota.
  
• February 23, 2009:   The Central Artery/Tunnel Project ("The Big Dig") in Boston, Massachusetts, is the biggest project in Interstate history. However, it is actually several projects combined into one. The key elements are extension of I-90 to Logan International Airport and replacement of the elevated I-93/Central Artery viaduct with a tunnel that was built under the existing viaduct that continued to serve hundreds of thousands of vehicles every day. These two key elements required construction of a new Charles River crossing (the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge), a new interchange complex for I-90/I-93; and two tunnels for the I-90 extension (one across the Fort Point Channel and another across Boston Harbor to the airport).
  
• February 24, 2009:   Representative George H. Fallon (D-Md) was committed to advancing the Federal-aid highway program throughout his House career (1945-1970). As chairman of the Subcommittee on Roads in 1955-56, he was one of the chief authors of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 and a Founding Father of the Interstate System. Based on an interview with Fallon on July 17, 1974, Professor Gary T. Schwartz reported that, "There is irony in this, since Fallon dislikes driving—freeway driving especially." ("Urban Freeways and the Interstate System," Southern California Law Review, Vol. 49.406, March 1976, page 434.)
  
• February 25, 2009:   In 1970, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a scholar-politician, urban theorist, off- and on-critic of the Interstate System, and U.S. Senator (1977-2001), said the Interstate program was "of truly transcendent, continental consequence." It would have "more influence on the shape and development of American cities, the distribution of population within metropolitan areas and across the nation as a whole, the location of industry and various kinds of employment opportunities (and, through all these, immense influence on race relations and the welfare of black Americans) than any initiative in the middle of the twentieth century." He added that, "Activities such as urban renewal, public housing, community development, and the like are reduced to mere digressions when compared to the extraordinary impact of the highway program. ("Policy vs. Program in the '70s," Public Interest, Summer 1970, pages 90, 93-94).
  
• February 26, 2009:   The Interstate System is often called the Greatest Public Works Project in History. Speaking on May 13, 1957, Federal Highway Administrator Bertram D. Tallamy put this statement in perspective: "This Act threw down the greatest challenge that has ever been given to any peace-time public works agency. It is bigger than the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Panama Canal, the Grand Coulee Dam, the Egyptian Pyramids and a lot of other big projects that you can think of, all rolled into one."
  
• February 27, 2009:   The final segment of I-20 (Florence, South Carolina, to Pecos, Texas) opened on April 3, 1989. The last project consisted of grading, structures, storm sewers, and concrete pavement from west of Shepherd Road to east of Beltline Road southeast of Dallas. The total cost of I-20 (1,539.38 miles) was $1.84 billion.
  
• February 28, 2009:   The Capital Beltway surrounding Washington, D.C., gave rise to the phrase "inside the beltway" to define information and debate of primary interest to Washington's political leaders, media, and policy wonks. The phrase is attributed to Mike Causey, a columnist for The Washington Post. ("Outside the Beltway," The Post once joked, refers to "the so-called Real World, as perceived by those unfortunate souls" who inhabit the rest of the country.) [Vic Sussman's "The Best (and Worst) of the Beltway," The Washington Post Magazine, May 21, 1989, p. 28.]
  
• March 1, 2009:   The numbering policy for the Interstate System prohibits using the same number for an Interstate route and a U.S. numbered highway in any State. That is why the Interstate System does not include I-50. In the grid of routes, I-50 would have fallen in many of the same States as U.S. 50 (Annapolis, Maryland, to Sacramento, California), a situation that would have been confusing to motorists seeking directions ("Take Route 50").
  
• March 2, 2009:   The familiar Interstate shield was designed by the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) after considering dozens of proposals by the State highway agencies. It was placed into use on August 14, 1957. In 1966, AASHO applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to register the shield as a trademark, to secure ownership, and create a legal tool for controlling its indiscriminate use. Trademark Registration 835,635 was issued on September 19, 1967. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (as AASHO is now called) says the trademark "has been used several times to prevent or remove Interstate-like signs near the Interstate highways, where they might confuse the traveling public and cause accidents."
  
• March 3, 2009:   The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge carries the Capital Beltway (I-95/I-495) across the Potomac River. It is the only part of the Interstate System that is owned by the Federal Highway Administration. All other segments are owned and operated by State agencies. (The toll segments are owned by the turnpike authorities that built them.) Construction is underway on replacement of the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge; when it is completed, the existing bridge will be removed and the new bridge will be owned by Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
  
• March 4, 2009:   On June 29, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 while in Walter Reed Army Medical Center following surgery for ileitis earlier in the month. The bill was in a stack of bills he signed without ceremony, statement, or photograph.
  
• March 5, 2009:   I-80 (Teaneck, New Jersey, to San Francisco, California) was the first transcontinental Interstate highway to be completed. The final segment—between Redwood Road and 5600 West in Salt Lake City, Utah—was dedicated in a ceremony on August 22, 1986.
  
• March 6, 2009:   The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 authorized the Secretary of Commerce, whose department included the Bureau of Public Roads, to approve as part of the Interstate System any toll road located on a route designated as part of the Interstate System. The toll roads had been built by State toll authorities established to issue bonds to finance construction without any Federal tax revenue. On August 21, 1957, Federal Highway Administrator Bertram Tallamy announced inclusion of 2,102 miles of toll roads, including 1,837 miles in operation. Today, the 46,730-mile Interstate System includes approximately 2,900 miles of turnpikes that have been incorporated under the 1956 Act or later provisions.
  
• March 7, 2009:   On June 19, 1986, President Ronald Reagan declared June 26 National Interstate Highway Day and urged "the people of the United States to observe that day with appropriate ceremonies and activities." He called the Interstate System "the world's largest and most successful transportation and public works project."
  
• March 8, 2009:   From 1957 through 2004, vehicles on the Interstate System traveled 15.8 trillion miles.
  
• March 9, 2009:   I-70 in Colorado’s Vail Pass was completed in 1978 through a challenging, environmentally sensitive terrain. Designers incorporated techniques used in the European Alps to minimize scarring, soil erosion, water pollution, and wildlife disturbance. Two miles of I-70 were carried on pre-cast, prestressed, segmented box girders placed on concrete pylons to elevate the highway 90 feet above ground. The elevated segments were installed by gantries moving on completed portions of the highway to minimize the impact of heavy construction equipment on the mountainsides. Because the highway crossed an ancient migratory path for deer, an underpass was included in the project to allow them to move through the area safely.
  
• March 10, 2009:   Secretary of Transportation Samuel K. Skinner said, “1990 is the greatest year for major highway completions in the history of the interstate system.” He was referring to the following openings:
  • June 29: With the opening of the final link of I-40 in North Carolina, the entire route was open from Wilmington, NC, to Barstow, CA (2,554 miles).
  • August 10: The Papago Freeway in Phoenix, Arizona, was the “Final Mile” of I-10, which was completed from Jacksonville, Florida, to Santa Monica, California (2,460 miles).
  • October 15: Completion of I-35 in St. Paul, Minnesota, gives motorists an open highway from Duluth, Minnesota, to Laredo, Texas (1,568 miles).
  • November 20: The final section of I-15 opened near Plymouth, Utah, creating a continuous Interstate highway from the Montana/Canada border at Sweet Grass, to San Diego, California (1,437).
  
  Of these completed routes, Federal Highway Administrator Thomas D. Larson said, “President Eisenhower would be smiling.”
  
• March 11, 2009:   As of the end of 2005, the Interstate System included 55,512 bridges. The Interstate System includes many majestic, eye-catching spans that are among the best bridges ever built, such as the Verrazano Narrows Bridge (I-278) in New York and the Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway in Florida (I-275). The System also includes many bridges built to accommodate unique circumstances, such as the I-70 viaducts through scenic Glenwood Canyon in Colorado and the viaducts that make H-3 in Hawaii one of the most scenic drives in one of the most scenic States. However, most Interstate bridges are so common no one notices them: interchange ramps and simple overpasses carrying the Interstate over local roads.
  
• March 12, 2009:   U.S. Route 66, the historic road from Chicago to Los Angeles, was replaced by segments of five Interstate highways: I-55 (Chicago to St. Louis), I-44 (to Oklahoma City), I-40 (to Barstow), I-15 (to San Bernardino), and I-10 (to Los Angeles). The opening of I-40 near Williams, Arizona, on October 13, 1984, bypassed the final segment of U.S. Route 66. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, which controls the designation of U.S. numbered highways, removed U.S. Route 66 from its U.S. highway records on June 27, 1985, because it no longer served interstate traffic. Although this action ended the 59-year life of the historic road, the outcry of public interest in the death of U.S. Route 66 resulted in a rebirth of interest that continues to this day.
  
• March 13, 2009:   If an Interstate highway has a one- or two-digit even number, such as I-40, a motorist can tell it is predominantly an east-west highway. One- and two-digit odd numbers, such as I-15, are reserved for north-south routes. Parts of long-distance multi-State roads may have a different cardinal orientation, but the number is based on the termini (i.e., end points). For example, I-94 between Chicago and Milwaukee, is a north-south route, but this segment is part of an east-west route between Port Huron, Michigan, and Billings, Montana. As a result, the route carries an even number.
  
• March 14, 2009:   On August 17, 1964, Federal, State, and local officials gathered in Maryland to mark completion of the 64.7-mile Capital Beltway around Washington. In a ceremony near the New Hampshire Avenue interchange, Maryland Governor J. Millard Tawes and Federal Highway Administrator Rex Whitton cut a ribbon officially opening the Capital Beltway (and relieving a traffic jam that had formed while the ceremony took place). Governor Tawes called it a "road of opportunity" and Whitton called it a "huge wedding ring for the metropolitan area." (The 21.9-mile Virginia section had been completed in April 1964.)
  
• March 15, 2009:   I-35 is the only Interstate highway with divided numbers—I-35 East and West through St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas. The Interstate System once had many numbers that carried cardinal letters, including:
  • I-15W—Burley to Pocatello, Idaho (now I-86);
  ;
  • I-70N—Frederick to Baltimore, Maryland (now I-70);
  • I-70S—Frederick, Maryland, to the District of Columbia (now I-270);
  • I-80N—Portland, Oregon, to Council Bluffs, Iowa (now I-84 from Portland to Salt Lake City, Utah, and I-80 to Council Bluffs);
  • I-80S—Denver, Colorado, to Monroeville, Pennsylvania (now I-80);
  • I-81E—Stroudsburg to Scranton, Pennsylvania (now I-380);
  • I-80S—Seville, Ohio, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (now I-76)
  • I-80N—Crescent, Iowa, to Neola, Iowa (now I-680)
  • I-70N—Valleyview, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio (now I-670)
  • I-80S—Big Springs, Nebraska, to Denver CO (now I-76)
  • I-35W—Wichita to Salina, Kansas (now I-135)
  With the exception of the two on I-35, the divided numbers were eliminated to avoid motorist confusion.