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President Eisenhower's internal review, launched in 1959, of the Interstate Highway Program raised concerns and generated rumors within the highway community. The February-March 1960 issue of Highway Highlights magazine, contained the following interview with General John S....
Although the primary justification for the Interstate System involved civilian benefits, its value for defense purposes was another important factor. A particular concern was the need to evacuate cities if an atomic bomb were on the way.
In the 1950's, the issue of evacuation was not in...
When Sinclair Weeks was chosen to be Secretary of Commerce, he may not have had strong or even clear views on the future of transportation.
His father, John W. Weeks, served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1905-1913) and the United States Senate (1913-1919). He also served as...
Tuesday, January 18, 1955
I shall discuss the proposed new road plan at length in the Senate when the President submits it to Congress January 27. In this statement I am commenting briefly on the recommendations to the President by the National Advisory Committee for a...
by Richard F. Weingroff
On March 25, 1955, Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks released the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) report on Needs of the Highway Systems, 1955-1984, as requested by Section 13 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1954. The report covered all highway needs, but its estimate of the...
After Vice President Richard M. Nixon, speaking on President Eisenhower's behalf, invited the Governors to suggest ways of improving the Nation's highway network, the Governors Conference appointed a Special Highway Committee headed by Governor Walter Kohler, Jr., of Wisconsin. The Committee...
March 11, 1955
Subcommittee on Public Roads
Committee on Public Works
United States Senate
The subcommittee met at 10:05 a.m., in room 412, Senator Office Building, Senator Albert Gore presiding:
Senator Gore: The committee will come to order.
...Senator Albert Gore, Sr., of Tennessee had been elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1938. In 1952, he challenged Senator Kenneth McKellar, who had been a Senator for 35 years, in the Democratic primary. McKellar was seen as an entrenched "shoo-in" who would easily defeat his 44-year...
by Richard F. Weingroff
On July 12, 1954, Vice President Richard M. Nixon informed the Governors Conference at Lake George, New York, of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Grand Plan-a $101 billion program to create an articulated highway system, one in which the Federal,...