1956Primary sourceWell documented
The Interstate Highway System
On the timeline · around 1956 ·
What happened
On 29 June 1956 President Eisenhower signed the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, authorizing some 41,000 miles of high-speed, limited-access highways. It was the largest public-works project in American history to that point, funded largely by federal fuel taxes through a new Highway Trust Fund.
Why it matters
The interstate system knit the country together, accelerated suburban growth and long-distance trucking, and reshaped the American economy and landscape around the car.