WEBVTT - How the US Interstate System Works 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:02.760 Hello, Stuff you should Know listeners, if you want to 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:05.120 come see s Live, You've only got a couple of 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:07.560 more cities this year that still have tickets, and that 0:00:07.640 --> 0:00:10.840 is Orlando in New Orleans. Yeah, we'll be in Orlando 0:00:10.920 --> 0:00:13.440 on October nine at the Plaza Live, and we'll be 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.320 in New Orleans at the Civic Theater the following night 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.720 October t and friends like Chuck said, you better go 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:22.680 get your tickets. Go to s Y s K live 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:26.840 dot com for info and ticket links and everything you 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:31.080 need to come see us. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:39.800 a production of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.400 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:47.560 w Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there, and the three 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:51.839 of us are um going riding on the Freeway of 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:56.240 Love and a pink Cadillac. There's no looking back. Jack. 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:59.480 Who is that Aretha? Yes? A good song for later 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.200 stuff for sure. That and then knew you were waiting 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:06.200 with George Mike Leving. Come on, yeah, I mean it 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:09.640 doesn't hold up to me for the against like the 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.119 stuff from the sixties and seventies. But you're like, it's 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:16.480 no Zeppelin. I'm just talking about Aretha's earlier work. I know, 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:19.920 I know what you mean. I felt like I would 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:21.320 have liked to have seen her sing with Zeppelin. That 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:25.600 would have been neat. Yeah, what what would have it? Songs? 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:28.760 She would have song? I don't know, But how about 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:30.839 a whole lot of love? A whole lot of love? 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:34.080 We'll go with that one. All right, We're getting in 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:42.320 to get to reanimating Aretha and John Bonham mm hmmm, alright, Chuck, 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:45.720 enough of this. It's high time that we got to 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:54.640 talking about the United States Highway Interstate system. Yeah. I 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:58.040 love this stuff, are you too? You know? I was like, 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:00.800 what is it about this that I do love? Because 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:02.640 I've been meaning to do this one for a really 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:05.840 long time. And I guess it's the fact that it's 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:09.360 a huge mass of public works. That's where it gets 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:12.480 civil engineering. We kind of have a thing for civil engineering, 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:15.160 don't we. I think so man like subways and bridges 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:18.400 and like all that stuff seems to delight both of us. 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:20.960 But then also the other thing I like about it 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:23.360 that really kind of came to the to the fore 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:28.160 through this research is the enormous impacts, both like good 0:02:28.200 --> 0:02:33.480 and bad that this huge, massive, sweeping public work project 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.280 had on on America and still has today like just 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:41.680 completely restructured America inside and out. Yeah, and this also 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.440 makes me want to do a commission a piece on 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:49.280 the suburbs. Yes, dude, I think that's a great idea. 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:52.080 That's a that's a big one to unpack and commission 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.160 a piece. I'm glad you said that because this was uh, 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:57.880 this is based on an article written by the great 0:02:58.000 --> 0:03:03.880 egg Grabanowski, the Grabster. That's right. So um, we should 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:06.280 probably say what we're talking about. If you've never been 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:08.959 to the United States, or if you've never been out 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:10.880 of your house and you live in the United States, 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:22.760 the America has um a really extensive system of roadways, 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:27.440 like really really fast, really well designed interstates. That's what 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.359 they're called. They're highways, their expressways, speedways, whatever you want 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:33.600 to call them. But they connect every major city in 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:36.640 the United States to every other major city in the 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:40.720 United States. You can get anywhere from anywhere, and there's 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:45.920 something like forty eight thousand plus miles of interstate just interstate, 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:49.080 not not highways, not by ways, not roads. I think 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:52.760 that comes to something like a hundred and fifty thousand miles, 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.560 but there's like forty eight thousand miles of just this 0:03:55.840 --> 0:04:03.760 incredibly well engineered, well constructed, super fast UM road artery 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:09.480 system cardiovascular system for cars in the United States. Yeah, 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:11.360 it's kind of what looks like sometimes on a map. 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.760 For sure. It's like a central nervous system for the US. 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:17.800 So shall we go back in time a bit? Though? 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:19.680 I think we should, but we had to lay down 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:24.720 while we were talking about first in complete UM contrariness 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:27.760 to the standard s Y s K. Fan. That's right, Okay, 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:30.400 So let's go back in time, Chuck. So we're going 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.000 back to the beginning of the twentieth century here and 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.840 at the time roads in the United States, and we're 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:39.920 talking about, you know, roads outside of the major, major 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:43.640 urban centers. Uh, they had a little bit better roads, 0:04:43.680 --> 0:04:47.400 but the rural roads were not good by any standard. 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:50.880 They were dirt roads. So when it rained, and we're 0:04:50.880 --> 0:04:54.400 not even talking gravel roads, we mean literally dirt roads, um, 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:56.240 which seems like a catch all tern but a gravel 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.280 road is much much better than a dirt road because 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:03.039 I've lived on both. Oh fancy, man, you lived on 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:06.000 a gravel road. Yeah, growing up, had a gravel road 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:08.080 until I was like ten or eleven they paved it. 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:10.880 When did you live on a dirt road before they 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.560 put gravel down? Okay, so you looked on the same road, 0:05:14.640 --> 0:05:16.480 but it was a dirt road once and then so 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:18.640 I think when they put the gravel down, that's called 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:21.719 an improved road. Yeah, I went from dirt to gravel 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:24.800 improved two paved, which I and I said this on 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:27.760 one episode, but I remember very distinctly they paved it 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:30.760 after my whole life going up that gravel road. It 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:33.800 felt like we were driving on putting. Oh. Yeah, it 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:37.120 was so smooth and weird and we felt so modern. 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.240 So so you grew up on a road back in 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.359 nineteen o six, chewing tobaccy and working in the mines, 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:48.520 Is that is that where you grew up? Uh? No, 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:50.840 it was the seventies. But it was just a dead 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:54.039 end road. It wasn't a big neighborhood, which talked about before. 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:56.360 I bet that was a pretty big difference in um 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:59.360 in in feeling. When you had it paved, it was 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:03.320 really weird. But rural roads at the early twenty century 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:07.760 were dirt and when it rained, it was terrible mud. 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:10.240 And then when that dried up. There were terrible ruts, 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:13.520 and it was not the biggest deal at the time 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.960 because cars were still pretty new and we're very much 0:06:17.279 --> 0:06:20.320 for the rich. But the horse and buggy and the 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:23.760 horse drawn carriage did not enjoy these roads either. Sure No, 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:29.400 and then um, another mode of transportation, the bicycle, actually 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:34.599 created something called the better roads movement. Good roads, good 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:38.960 roads movement. I like mine better. Yeah, you got good, 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:43.400 but wouldn't we rather have better? Sure in the meeting, 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:47.400 let's think old timey folks. So um, the good roads 0:06:47.440 --> 0:06:50.159 movement was was created by bicycle enthusiasts who said, like, 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:54.080 these you know, dirt track, muddy roads aren't gonna work 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:58.719 for bikes. And when people started using automobiles, especially like 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:01.479 you said, wealthy people, at first they were like, these 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:04.320 bike people are onto something. I'm a car guy, but 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:06.600 the same apply. So let's kind of adopt this good 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:11.080 road movement and we're gonna start agitating for better roads. 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:13.960 And those better roads are, like you said, just laying 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:16.560 down a layer of gravel was a vast improvement over 0:07:16.600 --> 0:07:20.160 what they had before. Yeah, and there was also UM 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:26.559 legislation in for what's called rural free Delivery RFD. Mail 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:28.440 because at the time, if you lived in the country, 0:07:29.280 --> 0:07:31.560 you went and picked up your mail, they didn't bring 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:35.480 it to you. It seems appropriate, and so in they 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:38.080 finally passed legislation that said, you know, we need to 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:40.720 get mail to people, and that was a big part 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:44.080 of improving the roads as well. They're never gonna find 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:48.000 out about Circuit City's newest sale if we don't get 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.040 them their mail out in the out in the rural sticks. 0:07:51.200 --> 0:07:56.120 That's right. So, um, there are people agitating for road improvement, 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:59.680 but at the time it was it was kind of 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:04.840 take and on by the wealthy people who owned cars, um, industrialists, 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:08.680 philanthropist benefactors. This is all like within the first twenty 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:12.520 twenty years of the twentieth century, I think, um, where 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:15.360 clubs were formed where they said we're going to take 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:20.320 over responsibility for improving roads and just basically getting things 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.240 up to snuff so that um, you know, we can 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:26.440 drive our cars on these things. And I think they 0:08:26.440 --> 0:08:30.400 did it fairly locally at first, but by the Lincoln 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:34.160 Highway was built, and that was the first transcontinental highway 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:39.080 that was basically built four cars. Yeah, I went from 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:42.680 Times Square in New York to Lincoln Park in San Francisco. 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:46.320 And it didn't just carve it out of you know, 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:48.319 barren earth. That used a lot of the roads that 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:52.920 are already there, improved on those connected stuff together. Uh. 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:55.400 There was a dude named Carl G. Fisher. Did you 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.760 look into this guy. Yeah, he was an entrepreneur from Indiana, 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:03.920 real estate mogul and really big time auto slash auto 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:09.520 raceing enthusiasts who had a way of marketing and like 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:12.480 drumming up support for stuff like this. Yeah, he was. 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:15.400 He was big time into racing cars. But he had 0:09:15.440 --> 0:09:18.760 like such severe stigmatism. He had like coke bottle glasses. 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:22.600 But he's still raced cars and um, he actually set 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:26.160 the record, the land speed automobile record. He made it 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:28.920 around a two mile. He made it around a track 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:33.880 two miles on a track in two minutes. Broke the record. 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:38.120 That's not a joke. That's adorable. It is. It's pretty cute, 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:40.520 isn't it. Yeah, he had he had the calm down. 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:42.600 He took five days for his nerves to you know 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:47.640 stabilize after that top speed. But he was the champion 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:50.880 of this highway, of the Lincoln Highway. Um, it became 0:09:50.960 --> 0:09:53.640 famous for you know, kind of like Root six sixty six, 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:56.440 We did an episode on that, Um, Lincoln Highway was 0:09:56.520 --> 0:10:00.440 notable for its famous roadside giants and attraction and things, 0:10:00.480 --> 0:10:03.400 just like Root sixty six was yep, so then um, 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:06.920 but still there was this idea that that private groups 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.960 of auto enthusiasts were kind of the ones who are 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:13.080 responsible for taking care of roads or designating highways, that 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:16.040 kind of thing. And this group called the American Association 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:20.199 of State Highway Officials now it's the American Association of 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:25.120 State Highway and Transportation Officials. They sound like this very um, 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:28.679 legal important group, and they are, but they're not an 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:33.960 actual like government group. They're non government organization that basically 0:10:34.120 --> 0:10:37.200 started and I think nineteen fourteen saying we're in charge 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:40.200 of saying what the best practices are for roads, what 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.160 roads should be made into highways, And they managed to 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:49.199 basically insinuate themselves in between the government and the highway 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:52.120 system and said, hey, these roads should be highways. Why 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:55.440 don't you go fund and improve these these roads right 0:10:55.440 --> 0:10:57.360 here in the government said sure, we'll do that, and 0:10:57.400 --> 0:10:59.080 that's kind of how we started to get our first 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:02.480 highway system. Yeah, so they were nineteen fourteen. Then two 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:05.840 years later the Federal Aid Road Act came along to 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:11.000 provide funding, and I guess future libertarians started to weep 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.960 because the public couldn't take care of their own roads anymore, 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:18.800 or maybe they were sad because it came clear that 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:20.640 the public taking care of its own roads was not 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:23.760 a workable solution for the future. So they had to 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:26.480 rely on the federal government to come in and they did. 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:29.320 And this this group, uh, as you said, now, the 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:34.319 A s h t O. Not only did they designate 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:38.040 highways and connect cities, but they said, you know, you 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:41.360 should get funds, this road should be improved. We need 0:11:41.400 --> 0:11:43.800 to get a numbering system, we need to get signage 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:46.760 that makes sense. And we'll get to the numbering system. 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.880 But the basics of it are that highways are numbered 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:53.880 in reverse order from inner states, because what you don't 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:57.760 want is like those numbers to be too close to 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.760 one another, right, which is which I actually led to. 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.080 One of the corks of the US interstate system is 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:07.560 that there's actually no I fifty in the United States 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:11.719 because there's a US Highway fifty and they would be 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:15.840 in the exact same spot basically, and US Highway fifty 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:18.520 I looked into It's called the loneliest road in America 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:21.920 because it goes through some of the most desolate stretches 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:25.000 in the entire country. Doesn't look like a fun trip 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:28.360 to me. Where where does it go through? Um? The 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:34.880 flyover states basically the drive through states kind of yeah, 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:38.000 but it's like it goes I can't remember exactly where 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:39.960 it goes through, but from from what I was reading, 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:44.120 it's like there's huge long stretches between gas stations and 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:46.760 towns and stuff like that, far more than the average 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:51.240 even back road highway. Interesting. I'm wondering. I'm just trying 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:52.400 to think if I've been on it. I'll have to 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:54.520 look at the map I looked. I wondered if you, 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.520 me and I have been on it between Scottsdale in 0:12:57.600 --> 0:12:59.880 Las Vegas, because I was like, man, we were death 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:03.640 really on desolate stretches. No, that was I think like 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:07.000 ninety three or something like that, or sixty maybe sixty. 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:09.600 It wasn't fifty though. Yeah. When I did my big 0:13:09.600 --> 0:13:12.079 Outwest trips, I was definitely on some roads where I thought, 0:13:12.960 --> 0:13:15.520 if I have car trouble, I'm you know, the buzzards 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:20.160 will be circling doomed. Yeah. Yeah, so the highway systems going, 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:23.840 not the interstate system yet. Yeah, that's a big, big 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:26.160 thing to remember. We're talking about two different things here, Yeah, 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:30.200 big deaf because these roads were still many, most of 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:33.560 them two lane roads, and they still had some you know, 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:36.640 dangerous curves, and they had stop lights, and they went 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:39.600 through little towns in big towns, and they were just 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:44.440 connected together at least that's right. So around this time, though, 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:48.600 is this highway system is is um coming along and improving. 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:51.920 They were just constantly adding to it and designating new 0:13:52.120 --> 0:13:55.880 roads that were you know, traditional horse and buggy paths 0:13:55.920 --> 0:14:00.480 to be improved into US highways. The autumn beal is 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:03.880 becoming more and more important. Is going from you know, 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:07.760 a luxury of the very rich to something that just 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:11.079 about every American was starting to depend on, especially people 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:15.840 who didn't live in the center of a city. So um, 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.880 as the car gets more important, the highways start to 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:22.120 get more and more important, and people started to say, look, 0:14:22.160 --> 0:14:24.680 I think we might be able to do better than 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:28.120 what we have now. And that actually was the fire 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:32.160 that ignited the interstate system as we understand it today. 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:35.200 That sounds like a great time to stop. As I 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:37.320 was saying at Chuck, I was like, God, this is 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.360 such a great segue into a message. Yeah, we'll take 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:42.600 a little break and come back and talk about FDR 0:14:42.800 --> 0:15:00.920 right after this. Well, now we're on the road, driving 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:03.560 in your truck. Want to learn a thing or two 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:10.080 from Josh Camp Chuck stuff you should know? All right? 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:16.400 All right, So highways are being built, they're being connected. 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:24.240 But uh, in N seven, Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, here's 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:28.560 a plan. Uh to the Bureau Public Roads, it's seven 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:33.680 they're six super highways. And everyone went, what he's like, 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:36.600 these are going to connect our nation. And they had 0:15:36.600 --> 0:15:39.760 all these reports done and that sort of formed the 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.960 basis of what would become our highway system. But we 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:45.240 couldn't afford to do this at the time. World War 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:47.920 two came along and everything just sort of was put 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:53.080 on hold, right um understandably so. But then afterward America 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:55.800 was like, man, we've got a lot of money. And 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.200 from what I've read, there was a concern that this 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:03.360 post war boom that had been generated by World War two, 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:05.400 because you know, one of the big knock on effects 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:08.200 of World War two, it pulled us right out of 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:11.960 the great depression and put us into a pretty great 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:14.680 um boom period. I think they were scared to death 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:17.320 that we were going to go back to a recession 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:20.440 or lose this boom. And so some people say that 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:23.120 one of the main reasons, one of the great unstated 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:28.280 reasons for why the federal government was suddenly so um 0:16:28.280 --> 0:16:31.800 happy over the idea of spending billions and billions and 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:34.760 billions of dollars to create this interstate system was to 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:38.760 put significant numbers of people to work and just flood 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:43.400 the economy throughout the entire country with government money to 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:46.040 um just keep that post war boom going. And it 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:48.880 worked like an absolute charm. It still works. I mean, 0:16:48.920 --> 0:16:55.040 that's still a stimulus package that's reliable is a lot 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:58.080 of times now it's improving stuff obviously, but you know, 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:00.360 that's what a lot of presidents turned to, like, let's 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:03.400 get people working on these roads that are falling apart. Yeah, 0:17:03.440 --> 0:17:07.000 look at these slackers, Somebody give them some asphalt. So 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:12.320 Eisenhower is obviously most associated with the interstate system because 0:17:12.320 --> 0:17:14.159 it was when he was in office and he pushed 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:17.160 for the Federal Aid Highway Act of nineteen fifty six, 0:17:17.720 --> 0:17:22.800 which really kind of made everything legit um. For many reasons, 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:26.439 this was like a very necessary thing, not least of 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:30.000 which was for the military. We talked about, you know, 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:33.720 since World War One, we needed bigger roads, Like we 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:37.560 didn't have railroad capacity to take all the armaments and 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.320 all the things we needed and supplies, and then we 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.360 didn't have the highways that could do it either. So 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:48.080 in nineteen one, this guy named Thomas McDonald, he's ahead 0:17:48.080 --> 0:17:50.639 of the Bureau of Public Roads. He and his staff 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:55.080 really drew up this this map, this proposed system of 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:59.240 seventy eight thousand miles. Handed it over to General John Pershing, 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:03.200 who presented it to Congress and said, we need these 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.000 for you know, this is critical for the military. Became 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.480 known as the Pershing Map, even though he just handed 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:12.600 it over to Congress. It should be the Thomas McDonald map. Sure, 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:14.359 but nobody knew who he was, and they would have 0:18:14.359 --> 0:18:16.280 been like, get out of here, McDonald, you know, buddy, 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:19.320 probably General Pershing. They were like yes, sir, and like 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:23.199 clicked their heels together and started building things. So, but 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:25.199 that was back in the twenties. I think that the 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.480 Pershing map was handed over right, but it was apparently 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:31.280 such a good map. The pershing slash McDonald map. That's 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:33.760 what we're gonna read, Christen it okay, Yeah, And it 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:36.280 was pretty I mean they drew it up in a 0:18:36.320 --> 0:18:38.440 way that made sense. But it wasn't like here's your 0:18:38.440 --> 0:18:41.400 exact blueprint. It's just like we've connected all the places 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.720 we think we should connect. But it was basically the 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:48.280 general blueprint that was used for the interstate system. So 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:51.720 it was pretty pretty well done map. As Yes, it 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:54.880 wasn't research, but they weren't you know, thirty years later 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:57.880 they didn't go with this McDonald guy was way off there, 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:00.960 basically like this this works really well, that's right. An 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:04.800 Eisenhower himself had traveled the Lincoln Highway during World War 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:07.959 One in a military convoy and he was like this 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:11.840 kind of stinks. And all the military brass in Europe 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.480 saw the Auto Bahn and they saw the highways in 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:16.800 Italy and they were like, we need some of this stuff. 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:20.359 Plus also not just the military, but related to the military. 0:19:20.440 --> 0:19:22.679 This was done during the Cold War. You know, this 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.400 is nineteen fifty six that the legislation was signed into 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:29.000 law to create the interstate and this is you know, 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:32.440 a pretty uneasy time. So there was a real concern 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:36.840 that with the existing original US highway system, if atomic 0:19:36.880 --> 0:19:39.840 bombs started getting dropped out of the United States, we'd 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:42.560 have a really hard time moving people from place to place, 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:47.720 from bomb cities to unaffected cities. And um, this interstate 0:19:47.920 --> 0:19:51.160 was a big solution to that too. Yeah. And uh, 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:55.720 not to oversell the military importance, but it was literally 0:19:55.760 --> 0:20:00.520 called at first the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, right, 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:05.760 defense highways. Yeah. Interesting, At least it's not the offense highways, 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.560 you know what I mean, they're real aggressive, the pokey 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:13.399 in the chest where they're talking to you. So. Um. 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:17.200 There was another another reason. There's a whole list of reasons. 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:19.480 A lot of people say, oh, it's all military. That's 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:21.600 that was large part of it, but that certainly was 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:23.680 not the only reason that the interstates were built in 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:27.000 the United States. Another one was that people were starting 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:30.360 to move into the cities more and more, and they 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:33.400 had been for decades already. People were moving, leaving their 0:20:33.440 --> 0:20:37.960 farms for factories. But this is putting an enormous strain 0:20:38.240 --> 0:20:41.240 on the cities themselves, as huge influx of people that 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:43.920 the infrastructure couldn't really support. So they said, well, wait, 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:46.400 a minute. If we build these interstates, we'll be able 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.840 to more easily connect these rural areas with the cities. 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:53.120 And then I've got this genius idea that people can 0:20:53.160 --> 0:20:56.199 continue to live in the rural areas but go to 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:59.520 and from work each day in the city. What do 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:02.240 you think of out that? And everyone said, that's that's 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:05.840 probably the best most flawless idea anyone's ever had in 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:08.920 the history of the world. Right, and then que upcoming 0:21:08.960 --> 0:21:13.119 podcast on the suburbs, right exactly and excerbs nice. I 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:15.720 think we just did like a choose your own adventure 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:20.880 wedge in their trucks is pretty sweet. Another couple of reasons, uh, 0:21:21.040 --> 0:21:24.280 leisure travel. You know, people hitting getting in their car 0:21:24.560 --> 0:21:27.320 with the family and going on a vacation, driving across 0:21:27.359 --> 0:21:31.320 country to see these roadside attractions and stay in hotels 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:34.080 and swimming swimming pools. It was all very new stuff 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:39.600 in America. Safety interstates, no matter which way you slice it, 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:42.119 are a lot safer, even though you're going faster, a 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:44.320 lot safer than these highways that they had out there. Yeah, 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:46.600 which is really funny to think of if like I 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:49.320 think of highways like crash on a highway it's just 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:53.120 like you know, limbs everywhere and just blood all over 0:21:53.160 --> 0:21:56.199 the place. But the thing is like, yes, you you 0:21:56.240 --> 0:21:59.159 can get into big serious trouble going very fast on 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:01.800 on the highway or on an interstate. But on a 0:22:01.880 --> 0:22:06.200 highway you don't have things like this designated um set 0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:11.760 distance between the incoming and on oncoming traffic. UM. You 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:14.760 don't have like gentle slopes to the shoulders so that 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:17.119 if you do, you know, fall off the side of 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:20.080 the road, you're not necessarily go yeah, you're not necessarily 0:22:20.119 --> 0:22:22.800 going to bear overall. You might just like keep driving straight. 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:26.560 There's all these designs that are created to make highways safer, 0:22:27.000 --> 0:22:30.240 interstates safer than highways, And part of it is like 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:34.560 you can't get in an head on collision with another car. 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:38.480 It's basically impossible on a United States interstates. Well, and yeah, 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:41.320 unless somebody gets on going the wrong way, which happens, 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:45.719 it does happen very infrequently, but under normal conditions, you're 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:48.000 not gonna veer out of your lane. You'll veer into 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:51.960 the median and go, what the heck happened? I'm driving 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:55.880 on grass right exactly the other the other there's two 0:22:55.880 --> 0:22:59.280 other things that make interstates distinct from highways that improve 0:22:59.280 --> 0:23:04.760 their safety safety tremendously. One is that there's there controlled 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:10.040 h entrance and exits right. So that means that when 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:14.679 you get onto a highway or an interstate, man, I'm 0:23:14.680 --> 0:23:18.840 gonna do that all episode apparently you're you're traveling in 0:23:18.880 --> 0:23:23.840 the same direction as traffic and ideally at speed. So 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:28.160 I remember very distinctly in UH driver's ed the first 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:31.240 time I emerged onto the highway and how nerve wracking 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:34.159 that is, and the dude telling me to punch it, 0:23:34.560 --> 0:23:37.280 and I'm like, but the speed limit and he was 0:23:37.520 --> 0:23:41.240 he was correct, He was correct, and saying like, no, man, 0:23:41.320 --> 0:23:43.879