2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
South Carolina's section of I-85 is 106 miles long, part of a route from Montgomery, Alabama, to Petersburg, Virginia. The first contract on I-85 in the State was awarded September 21, 1956, for a bridge over the Broad River in Cherokee County at a cost of $280,665. This was also the first contract in South Carolina's Interstate Program following P
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
Ever mindful that history is most interesting when it is helpful, the Rambler thought it might be worth mentioning that the Federal Government's first road aid was accomplished through innovative financing.
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
In announcing an America the Beautiful initiative in January 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson (D) said: "I want to make sure that the America we see from these major highways is a beautiful America." The cornerstone of the initiative would be the Highway Beautification Act of 1965, which called for control of outdoor advertising, including removal
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
All forms of transportation are risky. Stagecoaching was no exception. The condition of the roads-and the drivers-ensured that. Two famous 19th century writers left accounts of their own perils on travels around the United States.
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
In good times and bad, the Rambler can safely say State and local governments never have enough money for their highway needs. It has always been so. In recent years, the Federal Highway Administration has spearheaded "innovative financing" techniques that can help meet needs. There's even a website about it: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/ipd/finance/ H
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
The novelist John Steinbeck and CBS Newscaster Charles Kuralt knew and wrote about roads. Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, published in 1939, is a classic of road literature; its description of Dust Bowl refugees driving to California along U.S. 66 has given the route an enduring nickname ("The Mother Road"). Kuralt, in his CBS news feature "On the
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
This is the story of a highway that couldn't make up its mind--the Pikes Peak Ocean to Ocean Highway (PPOO), one of the early transcontinental highways of the named trail era (about 1910-1926).
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
Motorists on Interstate 77, a major north/south highway, pass easily and quickly through the Big Walker Mountain Tunnel near Wytheville, Virginia, and East River Mountain Tunnel at Bluefield, West Virginia. The twin lane East River Mountain Tunnel is 5,400 feet long and the Big Walker Mountain Tunnel, also twin lanes, is more than 4,200 feet in len
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
County Highway S-2 is a desert road in south-central California with a fascinating history. Beginning at California Highway 79 near Warner Springs, the road leads south through the Anza-Borrego Desert in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Known as the San Felipe Road, it is also known as Sweeny Pass, Imperial Highway and Great Overland Stage Route
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
For those motorists planning to travel the Pennsylvania Turnpike this week, have no fear-it is not abandoned. But there is a 13-mile stretch of the Turnpike, with three tunnels and a travel plaza, east of the Breezewood area, that was bypassed in 1968 and dubbed "The Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike." To see what led up to the bypassing of this stre
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
In 1928, 4.6 million automobiles were sold. When the stock market crashed in October of 1929, many of those cars could not be used as gasoline prices increased and gas was soon rationed. Many of these motorists removed the heavy engines, the windshields, windows, and other parts to lighten the weight of the vehicle. Then they hitched it to the team
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
A brief history of road construction throughout world history and description of modern road building practices and materials in the United States, with a focus on asphalt concrete.
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
The term Second Battle of New Orleans has also been used to describe the controversy in the 1960's over the Vieux Carré Riverfront Expressway (then I-310). In fact, Richard O. Baumbach, Jr., and William E. Borah described the expressway fight-in which they were active project opponents-in their book, The Second Battle of New Orleans: A History of t
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
The transporting of letters and postcards by mail has been going on for years. Stamps required for this activity have pictured every conceivable topic imaginable-overing the unique heritage of America. Narrowing the subject to highways and bridges points up a pictorial view of history. In a postage stamp there is a particular kind of art-a small-si
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
The parkway concept, intended for recreational driving, embodied many design concepts that would be integral to expressways, including wide right-of-way, control of access, elimination of grade crossings with other highways, and separated highway lanes that were blended into the contours of the land. Taking the parkway concept a step further, a New
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
On the afternoon of May 3, 2010, the Washington Division hosted its third annual Retiree Ice Cream Social. As part of this event, the Division invited Mr. Alan Boyd, the first USDOT Secretary, to speak. Mr. Boyd currently lives in Seattle and late last year spoke to a group of Seattle area USDOT Federal Executives at one of their quarterly meetings
...
United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
Federal Highway Administrator Victor M. Mendez' busy schedule is jam-packed with meetings with White House, DOT, and FHWA officials, Governors, Mayors, a middle school student from Washington State, Members of Congress, industry trade groups, and many others. On June 16, the Administrator met with Heni Barnes of Coupeville Middle School who had com
...
United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
National History Day is a year-long education program designed to help students in grades 6 through 12 gain an understanding of historical topics. Students produce dramatic performances, exhibits, multimedia documentaries, and papers based on research related to an annual theme. Over 2,000 students worked on projects illustrating the National Histo
...
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving a Bureau of Transportation
Statistics (BTS)/National Transportation Library (NTL)
Web-based service.
Thank you for visiting.
You are about to access a non-government link outside of
the U.S. Department of Transportation's National
Transportation Library.
Please note: While links to Web sites outside of DOT are
offered for your convenience, when you exit DOT Web sites,
Federal privacy policy and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation
Act (accessibility requirements) no longer apply. In
addition, DOT does not attest to the accuracy, relevance,
timeliness or completeness of information provided by linked
sites. Linking to a Web site does not constitute an
endorsement by DOT of the sponsors of the site or the
products presented on the site. For more information, please
view DOT's Web site linking policy.
To get back to the page you were previously viewing, click
your Cancel button.