The new roads made truck travel easier, swifter, cheaper, and safer. They allowed bigger trucks to carry more freight on faster schedules. Traffic congestion on urban streets and two-lane country roads could be bypassed. Costs were lower, with less wear and tear on vehicles. Businesses erected new warehouses and factories outside of cities on cheaper rural land near the interstates.
Large multiservice plazas, many owned by oil companies, replaced mom-and-pop stores that once catered to truckers and other travelers. In , some billion ton-miles of commercial intercity freight traveled by truck. A ton-mile is one ton carried one mile. As the interstate system grew, commercial freight by truck more than tripled to billion ton-miles in Easing of federal restrictions on trucking prices and routes came in the s, and commercial truck freight grew to nearly billion ton-miles by Peterbilt Model tractor, Gift of Werner Enterprises, Inc.
Scenicland, U. Guenther and Siewchin Yong Sommer drove their Pontiac Grand Prix for 32 years, visiting national parks, monuments, memorials, forests, historic sites, historic parks, seashores, recreation areas, historic trails, and scenic areas. They stayed on the road as long as a month at a time, sometimes sleeping in the car. The Sommers drove to all 49 continental states, including a trip to Alaska on the old Alaska Highway.
They traveled more than , miles. Pontiac Grand Prix convertible, Crawl and sprawl—too much traffic and spreading development—defined American cities at the end of the 20th century. Local and state governments faced choices about land use and highway and transit construction, balancing costs of new roads and the loss of unspoiled land with the demand for housing and economic development.
Families had to balance housing costs and convenience with time spent sitting in traffic while commuting and running errands. The automobile shaped daily life in ways that neither its inventors nor the designers of interstate highways imagined. In the last half of the 20th century, reformers and then politicians and the public pushed for increased automotive safety. Changes in every aspect of driving—better roads, stricter traffic enforcement, better driver education, and improvements in vehicle design—increased traffic safety.
In , more than 50, Americans died in traffic accidents; 20 years later, when the number of miles driven had doubled, there were 46, fatalities. In the s, government agencies began to set standards for vehicle and highway safety programs. From new cars had to feature seat belts, padded dashboards, dual braking systems, and standard bumper heights. In succeeding years, despite resistance from automobile manufacturers, new government regulations required improvements such as air bags, collapsible steering columns, shatter-resistant windshields, and child car seats.
Sign up for Monthly E-newsletter. For north-south routes, the lowest numbers begin in the West I-5 , while the lowest numbered east-west routes are in the South I I and I do not exist, because they would have passed through states that already had a U. Prominent interstates in the West that motorists are fond of driving along include 40, 17, 10, 8, and 19 in Arizona, 80 and 15 in Nevada, and 10, 8, 15, 40, 5, and 80 in California. All but five state capitals are directly served by the Interstate Highway System.
Many Americans take these magnificent ribbons of concrete and occasional asphalt for granted; yet for those of us who grew up in the middle part of the 20 th century and who can actually remember Dwight Eisenhower, the five-star general and President, they are an indelible part of the landscape that has, for better or worse, helped define the American experience.
How to Keep Ice Cold in the Desert. Desert Survival Skills. Get the Best Hotel and Motel Rates. DesertUSA Newsletter -- We send articles on hiking, camping and places to explore, as well as animals, wildflower reports, plant information and much more. Sign up below or read more about the DesertUSA newsletter here. It's Free. But there was a downside to building I It has been in free fall ever since.
More: El Paso goes from 'hick town' to city of sophistication by I was completed in December within a two-year period. How will we commemorate its history? How will we remember the use of eminent domain, and the immense loss of architecture and homes—that was price we paid to get from one end of town to the other. Instead of attacking the idea itself, opponents limited their criticism to the freeway's route, advancing alternatives that would steer the freeway clear of their homes.
Many, for instance, argued for a viaduct freeway atop Venice Boulevard, whose commodious median had been unused since the Pacific Electric decommissioned its Venice Short Line in Although planners rejected the Venice proposal, in April they did revise their original route in the face of community opposition. But while the new route saved 47 homes, it largely shifted the freeway away from the domains of its most vocal opponents and into new neighborhoods.
Local opposition persisted, but the highway commission held firm. On June 17, , construction crews broke ground on the first segment of the newly renamed Santa Monica Freeway over the Los Angeles River. Land acquisition for the freeway's right-of-way began in , and by families — living in houses the state had purchased and then rented back to their occupants — received orders to move.
At its western extreme, the freeway required a 7,foot-long, foot-deep cut before reaching the Pacific Coast Highway's McClure Tunnel. Perhaps the most ambitious part of the project was the route's interchange with the San Diego I Freeway. With the aid of an early computer program, Reece plotted the curves of its ramps and soaring, foot-tall bridges to allow automobiles to transition between freeways at 55 miles per hour — a significant speed increase over the tolerance of earlier interchanges, like downtown's Four Level, which required cars to slow to 35 miles per hour.
Work on the freeway progressed slowly, and in stages. It was not until October that it extended west to La Cienega Boulevard, and on January 29, — several years after residents in the freeway's path were displaced — a Goodyear blimp helped cut the ribbon on the 4. By then, local opposition had dissipated, and civic groups participated in the dedication festivities.
The final segment through Santa Monica opened on January 5, Many of the archives who contributed the above images are members of L.
Our posts here provide a view into the archives of individuals and institutions whose collections inform the great narrative—in all its complex facets—of Southern California. Tending Nature.
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