Interstate system a wonder

WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, July 11, the United States will become more geographically stable than it has ever been. It will have been 17,126 days since the admission of Hawaii to statehood on Aug. 21, 1959. The longest previous span between expansions of the nation was the 17,125 days between the admission of Arizona on Feb. 14, 1912, and the admission of Alaska on Jan. 3, 1959. Since then the nation has become, in a sense, smaller through the annihilation of distance and, to some extent, of difference.

An important part of the groundwork — literally, it covered a lot of ground — for today's America was begun 50 years ago this summer. A conservative Republican president, who grew up in a Kansas town where hitching posts for horses lined unpaved streets, launched what was, and remains, the largest public works project in the nation's history — the interstate highway system (IHS). Its ribbons of concrete represent a single thread of continuity through the nation's history.

With that program, Dwight Eisenhower, the 13th Republican president, helped heal the wounds of the war won by another general, U.S. Grant, the second Republican president. That war was related to "internal improvements," as infrastructure projects such as roads and canals used to be called.

In 1816, South Carolina's Rep. John Calhoun — then a nationalist; later, a disunionist — introduced legislation for a federal program of internal improvements. The legislation passed, but President James Madison vetoed it because he thought Congress was not constitutionally empowered to do such things. So, prosperous Northern states built their own improvements while the South sank into inferiority and increasing dependence on slavery.

The military handicap of an inferior transportation system was one reason the South lost the Civil War. Another reason was the industrialization of the North. Its transportation system (the Erie Canal, railroads) cut the price of shipping a ton of wheat from Buffalo to New York City from $100 to $10, and the difference between the wholesale price of pork in Cincinnati and New York plunged from $9.53 to $1.18. Suddenly, workers flooding into the North's cities had more disposable income to spend on the North's manufactured goods.

The first Republican president began his public life as a 23-year-old candidate for the Illinois General Assembly by telling voters of Sangamon County his "sentiments with regard to local affairs," the first sentiment being "the public utility of internal improvements." The vigor of the union also was a preoccupation of Teddy Roosevelt, the eighth Republican president, whose great internal improvement, the Panama Canal, was external, although he thought of Panama as America's private property.

Comments

• Most Popular
• Most Commented

1. Glenn Beck sees new project as 'most important' of his life
2. Collie has made his All-American case
3. USU football: Andersen is the Aggies' new guy
4. MSNBC names Buttars 'worst person in world'
5. BYU, Weber State basketball: Cougars shoot down Wildcats
6. Utah Utes, BYU football: Utes are rewarded with MWC accolades
7. Utah State football: Andersen to Boise State: 'Here we come'
8. 2008 Deseret News Mr. Football: Craig Bills
9. BYU, Weber State basketball: Rahe says BYU loss will be turning point
10. Reid gives Big 3 little hope

1. Sore losers won't let go in California 668
2. Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, oldest apostle, 91, dies at home 252
3. Boise State should man up, play TCU 197
4. BYU football: Destination is unknown for Cougars 195
5. Buttars says bah to 'holiday' greetings 195
6. Smith's journals made available to public for 1st time 151
7. MSNBC names Buttars 'worst person in world' 137
8. Utah Utes football: Johnson, Sakoda, Whittingham headline All-MWC honors 115
9. USU football: Andersen is the Aggies' new guy 110
10. Collie has made his All-American case 109
11. (Stories published in the last five days with the most comments)

• Utah
• Sports
• Business