Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956:

·      Popularly known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 established an interstate highway system in the United States

·      The movement behind the construction of a transcontinental superhighway started in the 1930s when President Franklin D. Roosevelt expressed interest in the construction of a network of superhighways that would provide more jobs

·      But with America on the verge of joining the war in Europe, the time for a massive highway program had not arrived

·      When President Dwight D. Eisenhower took office in January 1953, however, the states had only completed 6,500 miles of the system improvements

·      During World War II, Eisenhower saw the German advantage that resulted from their autobahn highway network, and he also noted the enhanced mobility of the Allies, on those same highways, when they fought their way into Germany

·      In the act, the interstate system was expanded to 41,000 miles

The pattern of community development in America was fundamentally altered and was henceforth based on the automobile