boatgeek
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2014
- Messages
- 7,451
- Reaction score
- 8,057
Here's more about the original intent. Defense was definitely a piece of it, but there were lots of other goals as well. One noted in the history below was to create a lot of jobs to smooth out hills and valleys in employment. The defense justification was important because otherwise the program would be on shakier legal ground. The Constitution gives the feds ultimate authority for national defense, but only power to regulate interstate commerce (vs. facilitate it).Fascinating.
My understanding was that the Interstate Highway System was originally conceived to improve the military’s capabilities for rapid ground transport around the country, but I’d be curious to know more about this angle.
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/originalintent.cfm