Actually the current Interstate Highway System started out as the National
Defense Highway System. Ike had learned the hard way how hard it was to move men
and equipment long distances in Europe during WWII and the US has two coasts to
defend 3500 miles (nearly 6000 kilometers) apart. The thought of trying to move
men and equipment between the two in a war situation scared the crap out of him
(an rightly so), so he pushed and pushed for a highway system that would allow
rapid deployment. Of course long before it was completed it was obsolete as
military transportation over long distances was then done mostly by air, but by
then everyone appreciated the advantages of a decent high-speed highway system
and the work continued.
Steve Sharpe wrote:
So, what was Eisenhower's Secretary of Defence's other job? He was
Chairman of General Motors.
--
graywolf
http://graywolfphoto.com
"You might as well accept people as they are,
you are not going to be able to change them anyway."