Can you imagine something of this magnitude getting passed today?
Interstate Highway Act passed on this day in 1956
- Thread starter StormHawk42
- Start date
Dwight D Eisenhower pictured a vast network of cement to bring our country together.
Millions of motorists each year enjoy America’s scenic highways & biways.
Interstate 69 is where you’ll find me.
- LuteHawk
Millions of motorists each year enjoy America’s scenic highways & biways.
Interstate 69 is where you’ll find me.
- LuteHawk
I remember driving into New York City one Sunday night after Midnight and arriving around 6:00 AM Monday. I have never seen so many trucks on the road at one time. It was bumper to bumper semis (and me) for 100 miles or so coming in on I-80 from the West. All lanes were jammed. ... and moving at the speed limit plus a little.
In any case, the boost to commerce has been staggering.
In any case, the boost to commerce has been staggering.
I am old enough to remember taking plain old highways on vacations.
The US needs to pass a huge infrastructure bill. Ironically, probably the only thing I agreed with Trump about and something that has still not been accomplished.
The US needs to pass a huge infrastructure bill. Ironically, probably the only thing I agreed with Trump about and something that has still not been accomplished.
Sadly no. Look how long it took to build the freedom tower. Everyone involved would need their cut so they could have a bigger boat.
Interstate system hurt urban centers and only strengthened our dependence on cars for transportation. It had many unforseen consequences.
Ironically it would have passed much earlier, but someone was left lane lounging.
I’d argue that’s a bit apples and oranges. One was in response to a worldwide medical disaster. One was an actual investment.
I did a quick calculation of inflation and it doesn't actually seem like it was all that big. Says the 25 Billion invested in 1956 would be about 235.6 billion today.
But I would say it was nice when we invested in the future of the country instead of in more tanks, more planes, more bombs. Oddly enough it was all done by someone who was a career military man.
And that’s how Ike sold it to Congress. It was necessary so as to be able to quickly move military equipment in the event there was a fight on American soil.
I would have to check my presidents but I think Eisenhower was the first Republican president since Hoover who wasn't all that good. I guess Cooliage was alright though.
Or, one could say it freed people from the crowded, corrupt cities and allowed them to live and work where they wanted.
The geographic size of the US was pretty much always going to dictate that motorized 2 and 4 wheeled vehicles would be a predominant form of transportation.
Ike was the only one after Hoover until Nixon came along, a span of 36 years. The 3 GOP presidents in the 1920's, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover are easily forgotten, except for the Crash of 1929.
Funny you mention Coolidge. He once said the following:
"The words of a President have an enormous weight," he would later write, "and ought not to be used indiscriminately."
Quite the difference in the GOP today and the GOP of that era (and Eisenhower as well).
People have only moved into urban centers in recent decades, not away from them. And commute times only got longer, before the pandemic that is.
Yea I phrased that incorrectly but I think generally speaking, those 3 in the 20's were pretty decent Presidents (although I disagree with their tax philosophy of course).
The democrats really had quite the run from 1933 with FDR until 1969 when Nixon was elected. Ike was the only exception in the 50's.
Nope.
Can we get the GOP back to the days they gave a shit about public infrastructure?
Dwight D. Eisenhower was one of the great
Americans of the 20th century.
This 5 Star General served as the Supreme
Allied Commander in WWII and led us to
victory. His leadership made the difference.
This humble leader served 8 years as the
President of the United States. His landslide
victories were evidence that he was respected
by both Republicans and Democrats.
Americans of the 20th century.
This 5 Star General served as the Supreme
Allied Commander in WWII and led us to
victory. His leadership made the difference.
This humble leader served 8 years as the
President of the United States. His landslide
victories were evidence that he was respected
by both Republicans and Democrats.
They want to privatize this kind of project today, so their big donors can charge the public to use this system.
This is why I'd like to see similar investment in an Elon-Musk-Like Hyperloop.
Not for cars and people; for commerce.
Build an above ground pipe that runs along major interstates that you can shoot large and small packages along at 300 mph or more. Including mail.
Impervious to all kinds of weather.
Eliminates most of the truck traffic on the roads.
Just set up depots the packages drop off to every 200-500 miles, or major metro areas.
It'll clear road traffic. Save roads from the poundings from all the semis, ship packages across the country in a few hours vs. days - even replace air-freight if done right. And you'll still have long-haul trucking for oversize stuff, and local hauls to move things from the central depots to the endpoints. You can even have Amazon invest in part of it, to have specific depot dropoffs only for them.
Just like the vacuum tube systems you have in hospitals and banks, only for general shipping. Cost benefits for faster shipping and reduced transport costs would be enormous.
Last edited:
Why not improve existing rail instead of constructing brand new facilities?
Rail cannot move products along at 300+ mph
Rail is not immune to weather.
Rail is for shipping the stuff that doesn't fit in the hypertube.
You realize it took decades to connect our country via rail. How long do you propose it will take for the hyperloop network to be as complete?
And trains can travel much faster than they do now, if we improve the rail facilities.
Ike came back after the War, carrying with him an indelible impression of the autobahn system in Germany that had allowed the Nazis to move men and machines around the country rapidly. He had grown up in rural Kansas, and had seen the introduction of autos and the comparatively slow rate of building highways in the US. He knew the logistics and challenges here from his early military days.
I think it's one of the best things an American President has ever done for this country. And he had the ability to use his good personal "capital" with voters, many of whom were former American troops who had also seen the autobahns, to push the project.
I'm old enough to remember as a child when we only had the US Highway system, many of which were two lanes. The interstates have provided this country with an immeasurable benefit in commerce and travel.
But - is anyone else with me on this - sometimes it's interesting to get off the interstate and travel those old US Highways just to get a feel for "America"? My sister and I like to do that here in Florida.
We are going to take a slight detour on our way to Colorado to see Cadillac Ranch on Rt. 66 outside Amarillo. I don't know what kind of shape it is in these days.
this shouldn't be quite so political...but that said, the GOP here in Florida does PLENTY of infrastructure. I invite you to visit Orlando and be sure to drive I-4...permanently under "improvement, widening, expanding".
If "you people" would just stop coming here, we'd have enough roads...
Just wish we would have built them thicker the first time...yes it would have taken a lot longer and cost a lot more, but I doubt we'd have to do as many repairs to them either.
I-15 between Las Vegas and Los Angeles really gets torn up in the summer. The Semis actually leave ruts in the pavement. It gets hot and the highway is through the desert. The surface is an accumulation of millions of years of sand buildup and In the scheme of things, the ground is really soft. I think Germany has a better surface to build upon, but they did build the autobahn to be somewhat thicker.
It seems to me that there must have been some development in building materials over the past 50 years, but I guess not. They have ways of strengthening steel ... why not concrete and asphalt?
We need the equivalent of Reardon Steel for concrete.
Last edited:
You can use the existing interstate thoroughfares for it; again, above ground tube.
Train will never travel 300 mph; they barely get over 60 mph in this country, and you'd have to improve thousands of RR crossings to allow them to move at those speeds through towns. Today, they are limited to slow speeds, and have to honk every time they go through.
A package-hyperloop doesn't need to be 10 ft wide. It can be fairly narrow (6 ft) and simply shoot packages through and direct 'cars' around. You can easily hit 600 mph with them. Double-bonus is you can put solar panels along the entire top to power it, so basically it required no energy to operate. Panels pay for themselves in 10 yrs, so you get 20 yrs of basically free operation.
I'd like to see someone run the numbers on this vs all the externalized costs we have with truck traffic. My guess is this would pay for itself in being $.10-.20 on the dollar for what you pay to ship things today.
What is the value added to goods shipping at 300mph vs 100mph? Is it worth the money to construct this giant network?
Constructing along interstates is feasible in rural settings, it is not in constrained corridors in cities. You will have high construction costs and/or high land purchase costs.
Vs 60. And 60 is the "peak" speed you'll get trains going. Average speeds will be 2/3 of that with how long they take to accelerate, decelerate and slow for crossings. Plus, the loading/hookup times.
The advantage is you get stuff 600 miles away there in about 2 hrs, vs. 6 hrs.
If you run your hypertube at 500-600 mph, then you get things somewhere in 1 hour that'd take >6 hours otherwise.
Ergo, you can literally ship freshly caught seafood from the coasts to about anywhere in the country in time for evening restaurant dinners.
300 mph, you can shoot something from one coast to the other faster than you can fly it. And neither snow, nor fog, nor thunderstorms will impact the schedules. Only local delays.
Again, combo of increasing shipping speeds by 5x or more, and lowering costs by large fractions.
Des Moines basically trashed black owned business to get I-235 to go through the city.
