by Richard Weingroff / FHWA News 2025

On June 26, 1996, 450 highway boosters gathered in a tent on the Ellipse to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. The event, sponsored by the American Highway Users Alliance, featured Vice President Al Gore honoring four Founding Fathers of the Interstate System: his father, Senator Al Gore of Tennessee and Representative T. Hale Boggs of Louisiana, two of the authors of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956; former Federal Highway Administrator Francis C. “Frank” Turner, who was the behind-the-scenes man throughout development of the legislation; and former President Eisenhower. Senator Gore and Frank Turner were on hand for the event, while Representative Boggs’ wife, former Representative Lindy Boggs, appeared for him. Susan Eisenhower represented her grandfather.

Thus, at a moment in time on June 26, 1996, the highway community forgot to honor the man who basically got the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 through Congress: Representative George H. Fallon of Maryland.

The Forgotten Founder Father

Despite several reminders from FHWA’s future official historian (then merely its unofficial historian so he could be ignored), the gala organizers decided not to honor the other primary author of the 1956 Act. Senator Gore and Representative Boggs accomplished many things in their long and varied careers in Congress and both are well known to historians for reasons other than highways, but Representative Fallon, during his time in Congress before and after 1956, had focused most of his energy on that one topic: roads. He had done, arguably, more than Senator Gore or Representative Boggs to develop the 1956 Act and secure its passage, but as they moved on to other issues that enhanced their fame, Representative Fallon continued to advance the cause of good roads and the “sanctity” of the Highway Trust Fund until he was defeated for reelection in 1970, partly because of that support.

The 6-foot, 2-inch Congressman was known as "The Big Man from Baltimore," where he was born, raised, married, and resided throughout his congressional career. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and worked in the business his father had founded in 1904, the Fallon Sign Company. He won his first elected office in 1939 to become a member of Baltimore's City Council. Following his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1944, he devoted little time to the family business. He was assigned to the Committee on Public Works, and never left during the remainder of his career.

Since his election to the House, he had commuted daily to Capitol Hill on the Pennsylvania Railroad. Although he would play a pivotal role in construction of the Interstate System, he disliked driving, especially freeway driving.

A transportation writer, Duane L. Cronk, described Fallon in 1957:

[He] is surprisingly modest. He is courteous, but not suave. He is no orator, and couldn't make a soap-box speech if he had to. But he is relaxed and congenial, and makes friends easily.

Professor Tom Lewis, in Divided Highways (latest edition 2013), described Fallon as, “A man of good sense, good humor, and modest aspirations. He was content to rise quietly in seniority in Congress.” Lewis added that, “Rarely did Fallon speak on the floor of the House except to support a highway bill that his Public Works Committee had written. So myopic and single-minded did George H. Fallon’s vision seem that his colleagues in Congress came to say that his middle initial stood for ‘Highways.’” (Actually, the “H’ stood for Hyde.)

Highway construction was his primary issue, but he looked after his Baltimore District from his position on the Public Works Committee. For example, he obtained funds for development of Baltimore's port and was a strong backer of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. When he ran for reelection in 1954, he was the only Democrat endorsed by The Baltimore Sun. "No apologies are necessary for this choice," the editorial said, "the good citizens of the Fourth district, whether Democrat or Republican, should vote for Fallon for Representative."

One of the few times he was in the national spotlight occurred on March 2, 1954, when Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire on the House of Representatives from the House gallery. Representative Fallon was one of five Congressmen who were injured. He later said that when he heard shouting and shooting, he stood up and took a single bullet above the hip bone on the right side. He fell to the ground where he remained until doorkeepers and visitors subdued the shooters. All five congressmen shot on that day survived.

After a night in the hospital, he told reporters, “They gave me a sleeping pill and if it had not been for the streetcars outside, I would have gotten a good night’s sleep.” He was the first of the five Congressmen to return to the House floor on March 15. Although he was a little stiff, he was able to walk without a cane or crutch.

In 1966, Fallon, the last of the five still in Congress, told a reporter that they met for lunch each year on the anniversary of the shooting. It was, he said, an exclusive club. They had drawn straws for the four pistols and the flag used during the attack. Representative Fallon won a pistol that he kept in his office as a souvenir.

His greatest accomplishment, of course, was the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. The idea of the Interstate System was popular in Congress, but the problem was how to pay for it. President Eisenhower proposed to establish a corporation that would issue bonds to pay for construction, then use the existing excise tax on gasoline – unrelated at the time to the highway program – to retire the bonds. Most Members of Congress opposed that idea because a high percentage of highway user tax revenue – an estimated $11 billion – would go to bondholders, not roads. The alternatives, such as using general tax revenue or highway user revenue on a pay-as-you-go basis had their detractors, too.

Failure in 1955

Senator Gore, chairman of the Subcommittee on Roads, introduced a bill that the Senate approved. It continued the existing Federal-aid highway program, but with $500 million authorized for the Interstate System annually through FY 1960. The Federal share for the Interstate System would be increased from the usual 50 percent for Federal-aid projects to 66.3 percent, with an increased share in States with large amounts of public lands and nontaxable Indian lands. The bill left out the tax details that, under the Constitution, must originate in the House of Representatives. On May 25, 1955, the Senate approved the Gore Bill on a voice vote that reflected overwhelming support for the program, minus the distraction of a financing plan.

By contrast, the House could not agree on financing. On July 27, 1955, the bill brought to the House floor by Representative Fallon, based on a pay-as-you-go concept employing highway user tax revenue with a Federal share of 90 percent, was widely expected to be approved. Instead, the Fallon Bill was defeated by a vote of 123 to 292, with many Democrats deserting their party. The defeat was even more astonishing because debate during the day had been objective and sincere, with party line votes prevailing on motions. In the end, however, even strong supporters of the highway program voted against the Fallon Bill. Congress adjourned a few days later, leaving the Interstate System for consideration again in 1956.

Trucker opposition to increased taxes to pay for the program was a major factor in the defeat. Telegrams – then the equivalent of today’s emails – from truckers flooded the offices of House members. Another factor was that the bill from the Committee on Public Works included tax changes that were under the jurisdiction of the House Ways and Means Committee, a violation of House practice that concerned many Representatives who otherwise might have supported the bill.

As reporter Theodore H. White put it at the time, “For the politics of American highways has always been dominated by one overwhelming truth: everyone loves roads, but no one wants to pay for them.” (White is better known today as the author of the Making of the President series of histories reporting on presidential campaigns, starting with the 1960 campaign.)

Success in 1956

By the time Congress returned to Washington in early 1956, discussions at the White House with Congress and interest groups had resulted in agreement on a pay-as-you-go financing method, the amount of the highway user taxes, and dedication of revenue from highway user taxes to the purpose.

The final piece of the puzzle emerged on February 14 during a Ways and Means Committee hearing chaired by Representative Boggs when the subject was raised of dedicating highway user tax revenue to the highway program, including the Interstate System. Secretary of the Treasury George M. Humphrey suggested creating a trust fund for that purpose, modeled on the Social Security Trust Fund. That concept was adopted.

Chairman Fallon brought his new bill to the floor on April 26, combining his Title I (Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956) with Representative Boggs’ bill as Title II (Highway Revenue Act of 1956), thus eliminating concerns about committee jurisdiction. Cronk described the moment when the House approved the bill:

In the speaker’s chair, Sam Rayburn announced the very significant results of the vote:
“Yeas—388; Nays—19”

In the rear of the chamber a tall, balding, well-built legislator, rising to his feet, was immediately surrounded by colleagues, pressing in to congratulate him. It was a moment of well-deserved personal victory for George H. Fallon, Congressman from Maryland’s Fourth District . . . His colleagues were sincere in their praise for his efforts.

So was the entire nation. The next day hundreds of newspaper editors, lauding the program to free a congestion-bound America, also paid tribute to the Congressman whose leadership had helped to assure its success. The Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph, speaking for grateful motorists across the country, declared: “Representative George H. Fallon, Democrat of Maryland, deserves a national round of applause.”

The Fallon Bill went to the Senate where it was modified by the Senate Committees on Public Works and Finance before the Senate approved it after a 14-hour session by a voice vote on May 29. A Conference Committee, including Gore, Fallon, and Boggs, resolved differences between the House and Senate bills and completed its work on June 25. The following day, the House approved the measure by a voice vote and the Senate approved it with only one nay vote by Senator Russell B. Long of Louisiana, who supported the program, but thought general Treasury funds should pay for it.

Senator Gore and Representative Fallon issued a joint statement, calling the Interstate System “the greatest governmental construction program in the history of the world.” Fallon added:

The American people will ride safely upon many thousands of miles of broad, straight, trouble-free roads, four to eight lanes wide, criss-crossing America from coast to coast and border to border, built to the very highest standards that our highway engineers can devise.

Perhaps Fallon would be better remembered today if he could have attended the signing ceremony, with Gore, Boggs, and other leaders, to stand behind President as Eisenhower signed legislation launching one of his favorite programs. Surely the President would have handed him one of the pens used to sign the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Photographers would have snapped the image for history.

However, Eisenhower had been hospitalized for surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and was in his next to last day before being released. He signed a stack of bills in the morning of June 29, another stack in the afternoon without Members of Congress looking on, without photographers, and without ceremony. His press secretary, James Hagerty, in announcing that the bill had been signed, told reporters that the President "was highly pleased." The pens used by the President were set aside, to be sent to those who had been instrumental in passage of the legislation. Among those receiving pens were Senator Gore and, on behalf of the American Association of State Officials, Alf Johnson. And Fallon? Sorry, history, that is unknown.

Of course, Representative Fallon voted on many other issues, but his activities on public works gave him the greatest pride. “There’s not a place that I can go,” he said years later, “that I won’t see a monument to the Public Works Committee, a building, a bridge, a road, a dam.”

Paying for Success

In the following years, Representative Fallon fought to avoid diversion of highway user revenue to transit or any other purpose. He fought to keep the Interstate construction program going, and to overcome the growing opposition to it.

Following the first Earth Day in April 1970, environmentalists compiled a list of “The Dirty Dozen” Members of Congress, including Representative Fallon, that they targeted for defeat. They were chosen because of what the group considered their abysmal environmental records. Another criteria was that each Member of Congress had to be in a tight race in districts with major environmental issues that voters cared about, such as the freeway battles in Baltimore.

After all his years of service, Representative Fallon was defeated in the Democratic primary on September 16, 1970, by Delegate Paul S. Sarbanes, 22,602 votes to 20,160. Sarbanes had attacked Fallon on his age and his support for President Richard M. Nixon’s Vietnam war policies. However, as The New York Times put it, Fallon was defeated “almost solely because of his fanatic devotion to highways and the highway lobby.” Six others of the Dirty Dozen also lost their reelection bids, but Fallon’s defeat in 1970 was the environmental community’s greatest triumph.

Fallon conceded defeat, but a reporter interviewing Fallon the next day said:

It was as if the veteran, 13-term, 68-year old Democratic lawmaker could not really believe his defeat in Tuesday’s primary election . . .

He was “surprised” by the upset, but conceded that, “Mr. Sarbanes put on a very vigorous campaign, the most vigorous I’ve ever seen in my district.” He had “mixed emotions,” adding, “you don’t get into this to lose, but this does relieve me of a lot of pressure.” He did not know what he would do after leaving office and wasn’t even sure what his pension would be. In retrospect, he thought, perhaps he should have started campaigning sooner. Still, he said, “I have no regrets.” (Today, Sarbanes is better known nationally for his later long career in the Senate (1977-2007) than Fallon.)

George Fallon Day

Throughout his congressional service, Representative Fallon was a regular participant in the conventions of AASHO, ARBA, and other road-related organizations. AASHO, during its annual meeting after the 1970 election, honored Representative Fallon with a Certificate of Appreciation. Accepting the certificate on “George Fallon’s Day,” he said of the Public Works Committee he still chaired until January 3, 1971:

I have no fears of what might happen to this great committee in the future because when I leave it, John Blatnik [of Minnesota] who has been sitting on my right and who has been on the committee for 24 years will take over as chairman. I don’t know of anybody that is more competent and more knowledgeable of the public works committee than John Blatnik.

He added, “I have no fear of the accomplishments that they will perform in the future.”

He expressed his gratitude to AASHO:

Over the years I have been involved in Congress with many people, but nowhere have I felt so much at home as being with the American Association of State Highway Officials; you represent America in the finest sense.

Years later, The Baltimore Sun reported:

After leaving office in 1970, he stayed out of politics, tending mainly to leisure activities, lunching in downtown Baltimore with friends, and pursuing private business interests. In an interview several years ago, Fallon said he had many offers after public office to return to politics or lobbying but that he turned them all down, saying, “I had 32 years in public office and that’s enough.”

Faint Praise

Fallon’s last few years were dominated by his fight against the emphysema that would take his life at age 77 on March 21, 1980, at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore. Obituaries referred to his role in launching the Interstate System. The New York Times said in its March 24 obituary that his “advocacy of public works programs brought him the appellation of ‘the father of the interstate highway system.’” But an obituary in the Baltimore Evening Sun on March 25 pointed out:

At the close of his 13 terms in Congress, complete with major-committee chairmanships, Who’s Who in America promptly dropped him (what had he done lately?)

An editorial in The Baltimore Sun that same day, recalled his election defeat:

The slight that most disillusioned Mr. Fallon was how voters in North and Northeast Baltimore could reject the father of the Interstate Highway System. “I thought I was helping people,” he told a reporter shortly after his defeat.

Representative Fallon was honored in 1971 when President Nixon signed legislation naming a Federal Office Building in Baltimore’s Charles Center: The George H. Fallon Federal Office Building, a name it still bears. Representative Fallon had helped bring the 16-story, $18.2 million building, which opened in 1969, to life. Several current and former Members of Congress were among the 100 or so people who attended the open-air ceremony on June 30. The Social Security Employees Band and the Hamilton Junior Drum and Bugle Corps color guard performed. Public Works Chairman Blatnik called Fallon “the author of the greatest public works project in the history of mankind,” the Interstate System.

The Baltimore Sun said that the Fallon building had been compared to “an IBM card with all the holes punched.” The Evening Sun explained, “After his help with bridges, harbor, the airport and other public works [in the city], the building they put his name on was Charles Center’s least worthy, architecturally.”

Former Representative Fallon gave a brief speech: “It’s nice to be remembered.”

(Representative Fallon’s successor as chairman of the Public Works Committee was honored when the 7,975-foot long bridge carrying I-535 between Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin, was renamed the John A. Blatnik Bridge on September 24, 1971, to commemorate his role in making the bridge a reality. Just saying!)

Remembered, sure, but soon forgotten except by a few highway historians. But so it was that at a moment in time on June 26, 1996, at a gala celebrating the 40th anniversary of the greatest achievement of his life, Representative George H. Fallon was not honored or even mentioned. The four who were honored that night deserved the praise they received, but so did the forgotten founding father, George H. Fallon.