THE FEDERAL HIGHWAY SYSTEM IN LAYMAN'S TERMS

Abstract

The Federal Interstate system of roadways is the brain child of Dwight Eisenhower who is the General that masterminded the D-Day invasion near the end of World War II. As President he saw the need to have a road system that could be used to rapidly deploy troops across the USA. This article will explore the ramifications of this design as it relates to history and to today's needs.

The System

The federal highway system has its roots in the federal highway act that was enacted during WW I. This act was needed because the trucks of the day were tearing up the roads which weren't built to carry the heavy loads. Out of this federal effort the federal highway system was born. This system was design to provide modern highways throughout the USA that could be used for transportation and to carry the goods needed for commerce. This infrastructure soon fueled the economic growth of the 20th century.

The vision of the federal highway system was a crisscross of highways all across the USA. They would start in the East and North (Maine) with highway one and end in the West with highway 101. Odd numbers are used for North/South roads and even numbers are used for East/West roads. Thus Maine begins highway 1 and 2. While all the numbers in between could be used there were special numbers that were reserved for major highways. Ten East/West highways with numbers ending in zero and twenty North/South highways with numbers ending in 1 or 5 would serve as the major grid. This system was pretty much in place by WW II. It has been supplemented as needed with alternate routes, bypasses, and business routes. Recently it seems that some states, most notably Maine have come up with a new system that mimics the interstate 3 number system but without the full support. Funding for this federal system and the state system comes out of the same tax pot.

Just after W.W.II the first freeway was built in California. (The term freeway means it is free of cross street traffic, not that if is necessarily free of tolls.) The idea caught on immediately and everyone wanted one! Ten years later the federal interstate system was born. As already mentioned in the abstract, this system differed from the previous one in that it was for rapid troop movement in defense of the country. The freeway was the perfect tool for this so the new system is totally freeway based. It was never intended to replace the older highway system so only major arteries would be built. The even/odd designation of road direction would be maintained in this system with even roads starting in the South and moving North. They would be two numbers ending in 0. The odd numbers would begin in California with 5 and continue East until 95 is reached with all numbers ending in 5. Of course, this has been expanded somewhat with additional roads so that there are some even and odd numbers used other than these. Funding for these roads which includes all of the I- designated freeways and the H- designated ones in Hawaii comes from a separate tax pot due to their military significance.

The vision included support for loops and spurs off the main system from major population areas. A three number system is used where the least significant two digits are the same as the main freeway number that is connected to these roads. A loop road starts with an even digit and a spur road starts with an odd digit. Sometimes a loop will hold onto the same number for the full loop such as 610 in Houston. In other cases the loop number may jump such as the loop of 280/680 in the bay area. (Recently the bay area added another piece to the loop called 880 even though to date it never touches I-80. Isn't politics wonderful.)

Just like Maine seems to have broken (some would say extended) the rules for federal highways, Texas seems to have broken the rules for interstates by having a I-35E and an I-35W. Texas also manages to have a major Interstate (I-45) that never leaves the state.