Today, almost anytime someone travels somewhere by automobile, part of the trip is spent on some stretch of interstate. The 46,876 miles of highway across the country are an integral part of American infrastructure, and without it, important parts of the economy and culture of the United States would suffer. Trucks could not take cross-country trips to deliver goods, families could not take road trips and vacations easily, and suburban commuters would have a much more difficult time making it to their downtown jobs.
In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law a bill that established the Interstate Highway System. This system spanned the entire country, and built highways that would connect major cities and states across America. Although part of the original intent of this system was to facilitate military and defense action during the Cold War, the Interstate Highway System has had lasting impacts on both the economic and cultural landscape of the United States (Brown, 2002).
Economically, the effects of the Interstate system are quite similar to the transcontinental railroads in the mid-1800s, in that they allowed for much quicker and more efficient cross-country transportation of goods, which strengthened interstate commerce. One of the benefits of the highway system is that it provided nationwide standards of design, which was also a large player in facilitating efficiency of transportation and subsequent economic development (McKinney, 2011). The largest cultural effect of the Interstate Highway System was its influence on the suburban lifestyle. The 1950s were characterized by increased suburbanization, and the highway system accelerated this process by allowing people to have easier access to previously remote areas (McKinney, 2011).
The effects of the Interstate system on the expansion of suburbia and the rise of the suburban lifestyle are reflected in the above photo. The photo shows the highway system that provided access to New York City from Long Island. It also demonstrates the increased mobility that allowed people to live farther from urban centers and settle in a neighborhood of single-family homes outside of the city, similar to the way many families live today. Many residents on Long Island likely worked in Manhattan, but may have lived with their nuclear families in suburban neighborhoods like the ones in Levittown—which meant they would commute to and from work everyday using these highway systems. The commuter lifestyle was a new phenomenon in America, but today it has become the way of life for the majority of Americans. The sprawling highways in this photo also visually represent the way that the automobile and highway systems were quickly becoming the backbone of the American lifestyle, as they connected cities and towns all across the country. This photo is just one demonstration of the suburbanizing effects of the highway system on the American lifestyle. With the design and development of the interstate highway system, the automobile officially solidified itself as a necessity for Americans, and it has remained a cultural symbol in America even today.
Citations:
McKinney, Tom Watson. "Interstate Highway System." Encyclopedia of American Environmental History. Ed. Kathleen A. Brosnan. Vol. 3. New York: Facts on File, 2011. 780-782. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Apr. 2015.
Brown, Jeff. "Interstate Highway System 1956." Civil Engineering 72.11/12 (2002): 140. Web.
In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed into law a bill that established the Interstate Highway System. This system spanned the entire country, and built highways that would connect major cities and states across America. Although part of the original intent of this system was to facilitate military and defense action during the Cold War, the Interstate Highway System has had lasting impacts on both the economic and cultural landscape of the United States (Brown, 2002).
Economically, the effects of the Interstate system are quite similar to the transcontinental railroads in the mid-1800s, in that they allowed for much quicker and more efficient cross-country transportation of goods, which strengthened interstate commerce. One of the benefits of the highway system is that it provided nationwide standards of design, which was also a large player in facilitating efficiency of transportation and subsequent economic development (McKinney, 2011). The largest cultural effect of the Interstate Highway System was its influence on the suburban lifestyle. The 1950s were characterized by increased suburbanization, and the highway system accelerated this process by allowing people to have easier access to previously remote areas (McKinney, 2011).
The effects of the Interstate system on the expansion of suburbia and the rise of the suburban lifestyle are reflected in the above photo. The photo shows the highway system that provided access to New York City from Long Island. It also demonstrates the increased mobility that allowed people to live farther from urban centers and settle in a neighborhood of single-family homes outside of the city, similar to the way many families live today. Many residents on Long Island likely worked in Manhattan, but may have lived with their nuclear families in suburban neighborhoods like the ones in Levittown—which meant they would commute to and from work everyday using these highway systems. The commuter lifestyle was a new phenomenon in America, but today it has become the way of life for the majority of Americans. The sprawling highways in this photo also visually represent the way that the automobile and highway systems were quickly becoming the backbone of the American lifestyle, as they connected cities and towns all across the country. This photo is just one demonstration of the suburbanizing effects of the highway system on the American lifestyle. With the design and development of the interstate highway system, the automobile officially solidified itself as a necessity for Americans, and it has remained a cultural symbol in America even today.
Citations:
McKinney, Tom Watson. "Interstate Highway System." Encyclopedia of American Environmental History. Ed. Kathleen A. Brosnan. Vol. 3. New York: Facts on File, 2011. 780-782. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Apr. 2015.
Brown, Jeff. "Interstate Highway System 1956." Civil Engineering 72.11/12 (2002): 140. Web.