This important report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. This book has been written for a widely diversified audience—those interested in the general history of our Nation's highways and those whose interest might be more narrowly confined to matters relating to the technical aspects of highway transportation. It has been prepared in two parts—Part I deals with the broad subject of highway history from colonial days forward to the historic highway legislation of 1956; Part II deals separately and in some detail with the several areas of responsibility for administration, planning and research, design, construction and maintenance of highways and bridges, both foreign and domestic as authorized under the Federal highway legislation.
The reader will note the changing reference to the name of the Federal unit assigned responsibility for the administration of the Federal-aid highway program—the original Office of Road Inquiry, the Bureau of Public Roads, the Public Roads Administration, again the Bureau of Public Roads, and finally the Federal Highway Administration. These changes in organization title are chronicled in Chapter I, Part II which covers the program administration through the years.
America's Highways: History from 1776 * Part One * Chapter 1 - The Colonial Legacy * Chapter 2 - Early Turnpike Era * Chapter 3 - Early Federal Aid for Roads and Canals * Chapter 4 - The Age of Steam * Chapter 5 - The Good Roads Movement * Chapter 6 - Dawn of the Motor Age * Chapter 7 - The Beginning of Scientific Roadbuilding * Chapter 8 - The Drive for Federal Aid * Chapter 9 - Planning a Highway System * Chapter 10 - The Highway Boom * Chapter 11 - Roads for National Defense * Chapter 12 - Events Leading to Enactment of the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act * Part Two * Chapter 1 - Administration of the Federal-Aid Program * Chapter 2 - Finance and Economics * Chapter 3 - Planning * Chapter 4 - Research * Chapter 5 - Right-of-Way and Environment * Chapter 6 - Design * Chapter 7 - Bridges * Chapter 8 - Construction and Maintenance * Chapter 9 - Development of the Interstate Program * Chapter 10 - Construction in the Federal Domain * Chapter 11 - International Operations * Epilogue: The Success Story
The economic growth of the United States in the 200 years of its existence and the record of individual prosperity achieved by its people in that brief period of time are attributable to the success of the transportation system developed during that period—a system almost totally dependent on the Nation's highways.
This book has been written to record for posterity the story of highway development in the United States, beginning in the early years of the new Nation and expanding with the growing country as it moved into the undeveloped areas west of the original colonial States, and ultimately evolving into the Federal-aid highway program in which the State and Federal Governments have worked cooperatively and successfully for the past 60 years. It is a proud story and one that should be recorded.
The book will make available for future highway transportation officials a documentation of earlier decisions and experiences which, up to this time, have been available only in scattered writings or in the individual knowledge and recollections of many of those involved directly in the Federal-aid highway program during this period of development and whose experiences have not previously been recorded.