2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
The Rambler is often asked how Hawaii can have Interstate highways when the roads clearly don't connect two States. The question is often followed by the observation that, just in case the Rambler hadn't noticed, Hawaii doesn't share a border with any other State and is, in fact, ____ miles away. (The blank indicates that people asking the question
...
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
Frederick W. Cron, an engineer with the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads from 1928 to 1969, was also a historian of highway design. While living in retirement in Colorado, he saw a letter in the Denver Post advocating a scenic design for Interstate highways. Mr. Cron wrote the following letter that was published on November 25, 1973.
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
In American, covered bridges were first built in the 1800s as a free alternative to merchant run ferries for travelers looking to cross rivers and creeks. These bridges have a rich history. All over America concrete and steel have replaced instead of repaired the structures that are so vital to our historical past. Down from 3,500 to approximately
...
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
Ohio plays an important role in the 50th anniversary of our Nation’s Interstate. Harvey Firestone, founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, was born in Columbiana, Ohio, in 1868. In 1904 he joined Henry Ford to make rubber tires for the newly invented automobile. In 1919, Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower led that famous military con
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
The Blue Star Memorial Highways are a tribute to the armed forces that have defended the United States of America. The National Garden Clubs, Inc., is the parent organization for Blue Star Memorial Highways. The idea dates to 1944 when the New Jersey State Council of Garden Clubs beautified a 5½-mile stretch of U.S. 22 from Mountainside to North Pl
...
United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
In the late 1920's, the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) issued a series of news releases on the major U.S. highways. The releases described the routes, including road conditions and tourist opportunities along the way. The following memorandum on U.S. 11 was prepared for the series, but the BPR did not issue a release on the route. The following is pr
...
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
These photographs from a 1923 dictionary show early twentieth century road construction and the vehicles and equipment of the day. The photographs were entitled as "Newest Methods in Good Road Construction." One photograph is captioned as a "U.S. Object Lesson Road." But what exactly is an object lesson road? In a nutshell, beginning in the 1800s,
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
The National Scenic Byways Program of the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, has been in full swing with 309 projects in 45 States chosen in 2006 to receive $25.5 million in grants. The program, established in 1991, has provided funding for 2181 State and nationally designated byway projects in 50 States, Puerto Rico
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
Ohio has been celebrating its Bicentennial all year. Many barns were painted with the Bicentennial logo. (See photographs below.) A Wagon Train left Martin's Ferry, Ohio, on June 20, and will cross Ohio on the National Trail. It arrived in Reynoldsburg, an adjoining city to Columbus, Ohio's capital and home of the FHWA Ohio Division, on July 4th at
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
Blaine, a small community in Belmont County eight miles from Wheeling, West Virginia, is home to Ohio's oldest sandstone bridge. The historic Blaine Hill "S" Bridge was built in 1828 as part of the National Road project, the first road funded by the federal government. Not only is it the oldest bridge at nearly 178 years, but the longest at 345 fee
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
As you travel toward the historic city of Cumberland, Maryland on I-68 from either direction, you will see a mountain ahead in the distance that makes you question if the highway will go over it or around it. As you travel, you strain to see the roadway for your answer. Upon approach you will see that there is a cut in the mountain and you will hav
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
The word pioneer has a flavor of something belonging to "ye olden days," but when applied to the motor car, it might almost be used regarding matters of yesterday. The men who crossed the United States in a motor car only five short years ago encountered conditions to overcome which required a courage and ingenuity not surpassed by that evidenced b
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
Route 66 was built in the early 1900s and linked hundreds of rural communities from Chicago to Kansas to Los Angeles. Route 66 was popular for transporting goods and for tourists taking cross-country road trips. By 1970, much of the original road had been replaced and its popularity declined.
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
In early colonial times, letter writers sent their correspondence by friends, merchants and Native Americans via foot or horseback. Most of this correspondence, however, was between the colonists and family members back home in England. In 1633, the first official notice of a postal service in the colonies appeared. Mail was originally carried on h
...
2023-06-30
|
FHWA Highway History Website Articles
|
PDF
Over the years, the Rambler has come across quotes that he wanted to save for a future book series on the history of highways after he retired. Because of other very important activities in his life, he never got around to writing the books. But recently, while retrieving his DVD set of the ten seasons of "Smallville," the Rambler came across the i
...
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.