by Richard F. Weingroff
On October 3, 1993, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) celebrated
100 years of service to the country. General Roy Stone, the agency’s first
head, called the movement to improve the Nation’s roads a “peaceful campaign
of progress and reform.” Today, the 68,800-kilometer (42,800-mile) Dwight
D. Eisenhower System of Interstate and Defense Highways is the most visible
result, but the peaceful campaign continues as the FHWA adapts to the intermodal
demands of the 1990s.
Origins
In the second half of the 19th century, the railroads dominated interstate
travel, and the limited pre-railroad network of roads fell into neglect. In
the 1880s, however, the growing popularity of a new mode of transportation,
the “ordinary” bicycle — the type with the large front wheel — was the first
sign of change. The speed and individual mobility afforded by the bicycle
created a nationwide craze — complete with bicycle clubs, clothes, races,
and touring guides — for what appeared to be the next important mode of transportation.
With the introduction of the “safety” bicycle with two wheels of the same
size and the pneumatic tire in the late 1880s, the craze became an economic,
political, and social force in the United States. By 1890, over one million
bicycles were being manufactured in the country each year.
The biggest problem was that, outside the cities, the nation’s bad roads
made bicycling a laborious, dangerous process. As one contemporary slogan
put it, the roads were, “Wholly unclassable, almost impassable, scarcely jackassable!”
The Good Roads Movement was a response to this problem. Bicycle groups, led
by the League of American Wheelmen (L.A.W.), and manufacturers, led by Col.
Albert Pope, worked at the federal, state, and local level to secure road
improvement legislation.
Continue reading “The Federal Highway Administration at 100”
