January 11, 1955 - Dwight D. Eisenhower receives member of the President's Advisory Committee on a National Highway Program. Photo Courtesy of the Eisenhower Presidential Library
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After World War II, there was a growing interest in the United States to build large and maintained roads across the country for the ease of moving military materiel, based somewhat on the German autobahns. During the 1956 State of the Union address, President Dwight D. Eisenhower called for the construction of a “modern, interstate highway system.” The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, also known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, was signed into law and authorized $25 billion to build 41,000 miles of interstates. This had a lasting effect across the country, as many neighborhoods in cities, typically neighborhoods that were lower income or where the majority population were people of color, were demolished to make way for the interstates, such as the Rondo neighborhood in St. Paul for I-94.
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