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Note: The Direct Federal Highway Construction Program is now called the Federal Lands Highway Program. For a present-day history of the program, please go to: https://flh.fhwa.dot.gov/about/history/.
No history of road construction in the United States can be complete without an acknowledgment of the difficult pioneering work performed by engineers of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (now called Federal Highway Administration [FHWA]) in the early days of direct Federal construction on national forest and park lands. The men who located, designed, and built the initial highways in the Federal domain, often under adverse conditions, completed important links and extensions that were essential in the development of the Nation's highway systems.
After leaving office, Dodge remained in the Washington area, living at 1513 O Street, NW. He had purchased land in Prince George's County, Maryland, where he built a home in 1903, but the O Street address remained his primary residence. Naming his property Dodge Park, he reserved a portion for his family and developed homes on the remainder for sale. Dodge Park is still shown on State maps in the Glenarden area near the intersection of U.S. 50 and State Route 202 ( Landover Road), not far from the Capital Beltway (I-95/I-495).
Although Congress did not approve the Latimer-Brownlow Bill, key Members of Congress were aware of the OPRI's role in advocating passage. As Seely pointed out, Congress "resented the intrusion of this executive office." [Ph.d., p. 47]
As 1904 began, good roads advocates were optimistic about the prospects for Federal legislation authorizing funds for highway improvement. The 59th Congress had begun its second session on December 7, 1903, running through April 28, 1904. A third session would run December 5, 1904 to March 3, 1905. Those were the key dates for the good roads legislation.
When Congress appropriated $10,000 to launch the road inquiry in 1893, one of the goals of the ORI was to gather information "in regard to the systems of road management throughout the United States," as well as "the best methods of road-making." Under General Stone and Martin Dodge, the small Office produced many reports on these topics. Dodge, however, would launch one of the Office's most important and challenging information gathering initiatives by directing Eldridge to gather data on public road mileage, revenues, and expenditures in the United States in 1904.
The introduction to OPRI Bulletin No. 23 summarized the 5-month tour:
In Chattanooga from November 13-16, OPRI's Harrison led construction of a sample road on a 3,500-foot straight stretch of Vance Avenue at the foot of Missionary Ridge. The clay loam soil of the roadbed was a good soil for a road "if properly drained and consolidated." To illustrate proper construction of an earth road, Harrison proceeded by "simply rounding it up with the road machine, leaving wide and open ditches on both sides, and rolling the surface with the heavy steam roller." [Bulletin 23, p. 25]
The Southern Railway Good Roads Train spent the final week of January 1902 in Columbia, South Carolina. Rain again limited the planned object-lesson road work. The bulletin summarized the activity:
The engineers and machinery experts with the train began the work Monday morning, January 27. A portion of a city street was graded and macadamized and a new country earth road about 1 mile in length was graded and rolled.
The train arrived in Charlottesville on March 24 for the final stop of the Southern Railway Good Roads Train. Dodge and Colonel Moore, who wanted this stop to be special, had invited many prominent officials to attend. Good Roads Magazine reported that, "Two special trains on successive days took about 150 congressmen and department officers down from Washington." ["The Southern Railway Good Roads Train," Good Roads Magazine, June 1902, p. 7]