The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways Review

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(More customer reviews)Earl Swift has written a marvelous book about the US interstate road system and the men - and there were a lot of them - behind the scenes, in "The Big Roads".
Most people seem to think that the US Interstate system was devised and begun during the Eisenhower administration. It was Eisenhower who approved and began the billions dollar project but planning had begun years before, as the automobile designs improved and costs went down, and people-in-cars took to the roads. At first, cars were used basically to go short distance, but as the 1900's turned into the 1910's, visionaries began to see the need for roads - and good roads - to stretch across the United States. Various government and private companies began working on developing a nationwide system, basically based on the upgrading of already established roads. State governments would approve upgrades in their own states, but there was no country-wide plan. Throughout the 1920's and 1930's plans continued to be made but not necessarily implemented. Notice was taken of the autobahn system being developed AND built in Germany. Strange how those beautifully developed four lane highways went out to the country's borders and not from city to city within Germany... Strange.
After WW2, the US government realised they had to begin building the Interstate system. Added cartage of goods and materiel during war-time had shown how inadequate US road system truly was. It was under Eisenhower, who, curiously had been part of a government study as an Army officer in the 1930's of the country's transportation system, that the national United States Interstate system was finally developed, approved, and built. Begun in the 1950's, roads are still being built and fixed today.
But with the approval of the Interstate system came the problems inherent in building it. Very little problems with going through the countrysides, but as urban planners and transportation planners began to clash as large interstate highways were being designed to cut through urban areas. Baltimore is a prime example of the problems encountered as the need for highways displaced entire neighborhoods.
Earl Swift has really done a great job producing a readable, thoughtful study of the Interstate system. The history of the roads and the problems we now face as a country as our infrastructure begins to stress in dangerous ways. I can really recommend this book.

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