The U.S. National Highway System Turns 50

The Washington Post reports:

To mark the 50th birthday of one of the most ambitious and consequential engineering projects in human history, a caravan of highway figures led by Eisenhower's great-grandson has been traveling across the country by interstate and will arrive in the District of Columbia on Thursday. They have been celebrating a system that includes 47,000 miles of highway with 55,500 bridges, 104 tunnels, 14,750 interchanges and zero traffic lights.

It reaches every state -- plus 13 miles in the District -- except Alaska; in Hawaii the superhighways are designated by an "H" rather than an "I." And it has spawned such basic elements of American life as the suburb, the motel, the chain store, the recreational vehicle, the seat belt, the spring-break trek to Florida, the 30-mile commute and the two-mile traffic jam. Today, nearly nine out of 10 adult Americans have driver's licenses.

Nothing has done more to destroy the old industrial cities than this.