2023-06-30
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FHWA Highway History Website Articles
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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
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The story of Elizabeth Peratrovich, a Native American woman from Alaska who championed the first anti-discrimination law passed in the United States. Peratrovich campaigned for this bill in response to Alaskan businesses discriminating against Native American patrons and the law was successfully passed in February 1945 in Alaska.
2023-06-30
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FHWA Highway History Website Articles
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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
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2023-06-30
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FHWA Highway History Website Articles
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One of the universal truths is that road construction is dependent on the materials at hand. At one time or another, almost every material common to an area has been tried by road builders. Roads of sand and clay are an example. Sand-clay road construction was one of the common methods of providing a stable road surface in the early 20th century. T
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2023-06-30
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FHWA Highway History Website Articles
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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
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United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
2023-06-30
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FHWA Highway History Website Articles
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The U.S. numbering plan was developed in the mid-1920's by the Joint Board on Interstate Highways, which included representatives of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (now the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)) and the State highway agencies. The idea was to identify the main interstate roads of the era and give them a number and a distinctive si
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United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
2023-06-30
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FHWA Highway History Website Articles
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When the Joint Board on Interstate Highways issued its proposal on the U.S. numbered highway system in October 1925, the report identified the main interstate highways that would be included. U.S. 29 was among them, with the route described as: From Gastonia, North Carolina, to Spartanburg, South Carolina, Greenville, Anderson, Hartwell, Georgia, A
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2023-06-30
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FHWA Highway History Website Articles
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The Rambler has long followed a simple rule: if you have to go outside to write about it, don't write about it. The Rambler violated that rule only once, in June 1989, and this website has decided to blow the whistle on him despite his protests. A junior school class in England had been given the assignment of writing to a celebrity and asking for
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2023-06-30
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FHWA Highway History Website Articles
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The Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge carries the Capital Beltway, I-95/495, across the Potomac River. Although President Woodrow Wilson's life was filled with many accomplishments and distinctions, he is not known for links to the Potomac River or for crossing it. So why is the bridge named after him?
2023-06-30
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FHWA Highway History Website Articles
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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
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2023-06-30
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FHWA Highway History Website Articles
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In transportation, predictions are a common practice at the project level (such as loading over a 20-year design life, expected noise levels, and environmental and air quality impacts) and the theoretical level as experts try to figure out where transportation is headed. (Usually, it isn't.) In this feature, the Highway History page has given the R
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United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
2023-06-30
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FHWA Highway History Website Articles
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In July 1988, the FHWA cosponsored a conference called Scenic Byways '88: A National Conference to Map the Future of America's Scenic Roads and Highways. IN preparation for the conference, the FHWA published Scenic Byways as a guide and reference for participants. It contained the following background information.
2023-06-30
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FHWA Highway History Website Articles
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The National Road, in many places known as Route 40, was built between 1811 and 1834 to reach the western settlements. It was the first federally funded road in U.S. history. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson believed that a trans-Appalachian road was necessary for unifying the young country. In 1806 Congress authorized construction of the roa
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United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Highway Administration
2023-06-30
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FHWA Highway History Website Articles
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After reading this article (Where was the First Walk/Don't Walk Sign Installed?), several people commented on the reference to the "scramble," during which all traffic at an intersection is halted so pedestrians can cross in any direction, including diagonally. The readers suggested that Henry A. Barnes, who had been traffic commissioner in Denver,
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2023-06-30
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FHWA Highway History Website Articles
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Many of our Nation's roadways were once dirt and mud paths until the early to mid–1800s. A modern movement at that time called for the building of wooden roads, a great improvement in transportation. These planks-boards-were laid over the roadway on log foundations in various lengths, but most were eight feet long. Built for wagons, the width of th
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2023-06-30
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FHWA Highway History Website Articles
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Canals have a long history of providing drinking water, irrigation, and opportunities for travel. In the United States, canal building began in the 1790s to connect the 16 States to western lands for commerce and families seeking to relocate further west. Packet boats, which provided transportation in the canals, have played an important role in Am
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