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Well, it's the only thing like it in the world! We are the only country that has a highway network (as in, multilane, graded, exits, safety areas, services, etc

Well, it's the only thing like it in the world! We are the only country that has a highway network (as in, multilane, graded, exits, safety areas, services, etc.) that runs "from sea to shining sea" and top-to-bottom as well. Literally every city in America can be reached from it and, paramount in its construction, every military base. A design requirement was that military airplanes be able to land on major highways if necessary for military maneuvers. The interstate helped make America what it is. It created a massive westward expansion even greater than the railroads. It turned San Jose from prune and peach trees into Silicon Valley. It turned Florida from a useless swamp into Miami. It enabled the escape from Detroit that led to that city's bankruptcy. It wiped out countless communities (especially communities of color and rural farm communities) when it skipped over them in its development, or put a pylon right through a local neighborhood. I think the history of the interstate and what it's become is fascinating. This fab promo video from the construction era shows some of the PR they used to sell it to the public: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnrqUHF5bH8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnrqUHF5bH8

jbay808 5y ago
Wasn't it basically modelled after the Autobahn?
- mimixco 5y ago
  Exactly. And scaled massively. And overdone in the usual US style, with US-style repercussions.
- nickik 5y ago
  More like after the propaganda of the Nazis about what the Autobahn was.
ChrisArchitect 5y ago
Trans-Canada Highway has entered the chat
- charrondev 5y ago
  > multilane, graded, exits, safety areas, services, etc.) As someone who actually just finished a month trip from eastern Canada to the Yukon and back, and drove almost the entirety of the trans Canada highway, it’s laughable compared to the US road infrastructure. There are large sections that are 2 way single lane highway. There are parts of this “highway” that slow to 40km/hr as you drive through a small town. I mean I’m glad it’s there, but I’ve also taken long road trips through states and found the interstates highways to be a big step up in quality.
  - mimixco 5y ago
    The Florida Turnpike system is the most amazing road I've ever been on. It's 309 miles with incredible Service Plazas that contain separate areas for trucks and cars, a gas station, sparkling restrooms with attendants (and sponsorships), branded restaurants, convenience stores, etc. All of this is open 24 hours, patrolled by lots of cops, road assistance services, etc. While not part of the Interstate system, it's of course connected. The road is quite expensive and the tolls make so much money for the State of Florida that they don't need to charge income tax or corporate tax. Pretty amazing.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  Trans Canada Highway is on par with the major US federal highways, e.g. US2. It is not comparable to something like I90.
- ChrisArchitect 5y ago
  hehe, I know it's nothing compared to the interstate system I just wanted to give it a shout for connecting across a good chunk of an equally large country etc
SonicTheSith 5y ago
Ehm, just so you every european country has such a system. Since you have to compare europe as whole to the US for size comparison. You can drive anywhere in europe through a system of highways and interstates. You can also fly to each city, but we still have a rail system.... That goes everywhere. You can drive from the northern most point in finland down south to the most southern point in italy. Same from west to east. You could even drive to moscow, china, korea and japan. Tldr the americans interstate system is nothing more than a copy of the german autobahn... And was never something unique.
- mimixco 5y ago
  What's unique about the US system is its scale. It's 48,000 miles of graded, standardized highways with safety features, exits, services, etc. There's just nothing like that anywhere and it helped our country develop in the unique way that it did. The idea definitely germinated in the Autobahn. The proof is in the pudding. (I just love that expression.) The US used its scaled interstate system to achieve a range of product and population distribution that was unprecedented. It also clobbered passenger rail in the process. Conversely, Europe, not having a well developed interstate (would need to be inter-country to even scale to a few US states), did not develop or extend its road system in the way the US has. Instead, it built trains. It's not a matter of one is better than the other. Each one is better for the countries involved because of their size and geography.
  - benhurmarcel 5y ago
    What makes you think that European highways don’t connect between countries? You can cross the continent without leaving a motorway. It’s even standardized: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_E-road_network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_E-road_network
    - kube-system 5y ago
      > The roads should preferably be motorways or express roads (unless traffic density is low so that there is no congestion on an ordinary road). That sounds more similar to the US Numbered Highway system than it is to the Interstate Highway System: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Numbered_Highway_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Numbered_Highway... The Interstate Highway System is a different system - entirely controlled-access motorways, with a minimum of 4 lanes, divided, and no at-grade crossings.
Toutouxc 5y ago
> Well, it's the only thing like it in the world! We are the only country that has a highway network (as in, multilane, graded, exits, safety areas, services, etc.) that runs "from sea to shining sea" and top-to-bottom as well. Literally every city in America can be reached from it No offense, but that sounds so violently American. Do you realize that most of Europe is covered by a network of standardized, multilane highways with exits and services that is much denser than the IHS?
- mimixco 5y ago
  It wasn't meant to be violent but definitely American. Specifically, the fact that we developed this early in our history and instead of an expanded passenger rail network, while Europe went the other way. It simply is not true that other countries have both the same road systems as we have in the US and functionally-equivalent passenger rail systems. Every country has one or the other. We are the country that first committed to total car-ization (with many unintended, unforeseen, and unfortunate consequences) and we took roads to a whole 'nother level of utilization and commercialization. I don't think that's in doubt. Is it?
  - Toutouxc 5y ago
    > not true that other countries have both the same road systems as we have in the US and functionally-equivalent passenger rail systems. Every country has one or the other. Germany, France
- AdrianB1 5y ago
  Eastern part of EU bursting in tears. Former soviet republics cry in agony. Me watching the permanent queue (tens of kilometers of stationery cars) on the Bucharest ring, a 2.5 million capital of an EU country.
  - Toutouxc 5y ago
    I'm not saying things couldn't be even better, but looking at Google Maps, I could still reach Bucharest from my ex-eastern block country capital (Prague) via highways with just a short stretch of non-highway road in Romania (I'm actually considering the trip, I've never been to Romania). You're right about the former soviet republics though, the trip to Riga and especially Tallinn doesn't look very comfortable.
michaelpb 5y ago
> It turned Florida from a useless swamp into Miami. ...I love poking at fun at the state of Florida as much as the next guy, but come on, "a useless swamp"? You really are asking for downvotes with that one lmao https://forest-monitor.com/en/Everglades-Is-Not-Swamp/ https://forest-monitor.com/en/Everglades-Is-Not-Swamp/
- mimixco 5y ago
  I lived in Florida for 17 years so I say this with some authority. The true history of Florida is that it was abandoned by everyone from the Spanish to the US military because it is basically uninhabitable without mosquito repellent and air conditioning. Lacking those inventions, there were no investments or population in Florida of any size. It was a useless swamp. When oil tycoon Henry Flagler was gifted a friend's property on what is now Biscayne Blvd in return for his promise to build a hotel there for the wealthy patron and her friends, Miami was born. It did not develop much further than the railroads, however, until Flagler's railroad was lost at sea during the Galveston Hurricane and never recovered financially. It's now known that if the Florida Overseas Railroad had operated for 100 years, it still wouldn't reach profitability. Transportation to and from Florida (other than by boat) was a fantasy propped up by oil money. There was still no serious business development. Key West was the capital of Florida for 100 years, if that tells you anything, because it's a port city with better access to the rest of the world than anywhere else in Florida. What changed all of this was the interstate system. For the first time, Americans had both cars and somewhere to take them. Jackie Gleason famously semi-retired to Miami only to wind up ruthlessly promoting it on a weekly TV show where he encouraged Pennsylvanians and New Jerseyites to leave their snow-covered driveways behind and come down to sunny Florida. Even Disney World's location was selected by Walt because of its easy access to the interstate, meaning guests would come from many states to visit. Without the failure of the railroad (and its subsequent rebuilding as a freeway) and the connecting interstate to bring people to Florida, along with the charm and influence of Jackie Gleason, Miami would not have become The Magic City -- a name it gets from being the only city in the US which went to "City" status in one step, without ever being a town or settlement or any other geographic designation prior to that. There would be no Disney World. And Miami would not have become the Latam capital that it is. It is, after all, part of US 1, the very first (most important?) of the interstates. To this day, all three of the major north-south routes in the Miami area parallel the original US 1, which still exists in many places, places occupied by about 5 million people. All of that happened because of the interstate.

jbay808 5y ago

Wasn't it basically modelled after the Autobahn?

mimixco 5y ago
Exactly. And scaled massively. And overdone in the usual US style, with US-style repercussions.
nickik 5y ago
More like after the propaganda of the Nazis about what the Autobahn was.

ChrisArchitect 5y ago

Trans-Canada Highway has entered the chat

charrondev 5y ago
> multilane, graded, exits, safety areas, services, etc.) As someone who actually just finished a month trip from eastern Canada to the Yukon and back, and drove almost the entirety of the trans Canada highway, it’s laughable compared to the US road infrastructure. There are large sections that are 2 way single lane highway. There are parts of this “highway” that slow to 40km/hr as you drive through a small town. I mean I’m glad it’s there, but I’ve also taken long road trips through states and found the interstates highways to be a big step up in quality.
- mimixco 5y ago
  The Florida Turnpike system is the most amazing road I've ever been on. It's 309 miles with incredible Service Plazas that contain separate areas for trucks and cars, a gas station, sparkling restrooms with attendants (and sponsorships), branded restaurants, convenience stores, etc. All of this is open 24 hours, patrolled by lots of cops, road assistance services, etc. While not part of the Interstate system, it's of course connected. The road is quite expensive and the tolls make so much money for the State of Florida that they don't need to charge income tax or corporate tax. Pretty amazing.
throwaway0a5e 5y ago
Trans Canada Highway is on par with the major US federal highways, e.g. US2. It is not comparable to something like I90.
ChrisArchitect 5y ago
hehe, I know it's nothing compared to the interstate system I just wanted to give it a shout for connecting across a good chunk of an equally large country etc

SonicTheSith 5y ago

Ehm, just so you every european country has such a system. Since you have to compare europe as whole to the US for size comparison. You can drive anywhere in europe through a system of highways and interstates. You can also fly to each city, but we still have a rail system.... That goes everywhere. You can drive from the northern most point in finland down south to the most southern point in italy. Same from west to east. You could even drive to moscow, china, korea and japan. Tldr the americans interstate system is nothing more than a copy of the german autobahn... And was never something unique.

mimixco 5y ago
What's unique about the US system is its scale. It's 48,000 miles of graded, standardized highways with safety features, exits, services, etc. There's just nothing like that anywhere and it helped our country develop in the unique way that it did. The idea definitely germinated in the Autobahn. The proof is in the pudding. (I just love that expression.) The US used its scaled interstate system to achieve a range of product and population distribution that was unprecedented. It also clobbered passenger rail in the process. Conversely, Europe, not having a well developed interstate (would need to be inter-country to even scale to a few US states), did not develop or extend its road system in the way the US has. Instead, it built trains. It's not a matter of one is better than the other. Each one is better for the countries involved because of their size and geography.
- benhurmarcel 5y ago
  What makes you think that European highways don’t connect between countries? You can cross the continent without leaving a motorway. It’s even standardized: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_E-road_network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_E-road_network
  - kube-system 5y ago
    > The roads should preferably be motorways or express roads (unless traffic density is low so that there is no congestion on an ordinary road). That sounds more similar to the US Numbered Highway system than it is to the Interstate Highway System: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Numbered_Highway_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Numbered_Highway... The Interstate Highway System is a different system - entirely controlled-access motorways, with a minimum of 4 lanes, divided, and no at-grade crossings.

Toutouxc 5y ago

> Well, it's the only thing like it in the world! We are the only country that has a highway network (as in, multilane, graded, exits, safety areas, services, etc.) that runs "from sea to shining sea" and top-to-bottom as well. Literally every city in America can be reached from it No offense, but that sounds so violently American. Do you realize that most of Europe is covered by a network of standardized, multilane highways with exits and services that is much denser than the IHS?

mimixco 5y ago
It wasn't meant to be violent but definitely American. Specifically, the fact that we developed this early in our history and instead of an expanded passenger rail network, while Europe went the other way. It simply is not true that other countries have both the same road systems as we have in the US and functionally-equivalent passenger rail systems. Every country has one or the other. We are the country that first committed to total car-ization (with many unintended, unforeseen, and unfortunate consequences) and we took roads to a whole 'nother level of utilization and commercialization. I don't think that's in doubt. Is it?
- Toutouxc 5y ago
  > not true that other countries have both the same road systems as we have in the US and functionally-equivalent passenger rail systems. Every country has one or the other. Germany, France
AdrianB1 5y ago
Eastern part of EU bursting in tears. Former soviet republics cry in agony. Me watching the permanent queue (tens of kilometers of stationery cars) on the Bucharest ring, a 2.5 million capital of an EU country.
- Toutouxc 5y ago
  I'm not saying things couldn't be even better, but looking at Google Maps, I could still reach Bucharest from my ex-eastern block country capital (Prague) via highways with just a short stretch of non-highway road in Romania (I'm actually considering the trip, I've never been to Romania). You're right about the former soviet republics though, the trip to Riga and especially Tallinn doesn't look very comfortable.

michaelpb 5y ago

> It turned Florida from a useless swamp into Miami. ...I love poking at fun at the state of Florida as much as the next guy, but come on, "a useless swamp"? You really are asking for downvotes with that one lmao https://forest-monitor.com/en/Everglades-Is-Not-Swamp/ https://forest-monitor.com/en/Everglades-Is-Not-Swamp/

mimixco 5y ago
I lived in Florida for 17 years so I say this with some authority. The true history of Florida is that it was abandoned by everyone from the Spanish to the US military because it is basically uninhabitable without mosquito repellent and air conditioning. Lacking those inventions, there were no investments or population in Florida of any size. It was a useless swamp. When oil tycoon Henry Flagler was gifted a friend's property on what is now Biscayne Blvd in return for his promise to build a hotel there for the wealthy patron and her friends, Miami was born. It did not develop much further than the railroads, however, until Flagler's railroad was lost at sea during the Galveston Hurricane and never recovered financially. It's now known that if the Florida Overseas Railroad had operated for 100 years, it still wouldn't reach profitability. Transportation to and from Florida (other than by boat) was a fantasy propped up by oil money. There was still no serious business development. Key West was the capital of Florida for 100 years, if that tells you anything, because it's a port city with better access to the rest of the world than anywhere else in Florida. What changed all of this was the interstate system. For the first time, Americans had both cars and somewhere to take them. Jackie Gleason famously semi-retired to Miami only to wind up ruthlessly promoting it on a weekly TV show where he encouraged Pennsylvanians and New Jerseyites to leave their snow-covered driveways behind and come down to sunny Florida. Even Disney World's location was selected by Walt because of its easy access to the interstate, meaning guests would come from many states to visit. Without the failure of the railroad (and its subsequent rebuilding as a freeway) and the connecting interstate to bring people to Florida, along with the charm and influence of Jackie Gleason, Miami would not have become The Magic City -- a name it gets from being the only city in the US which went to "City" status in one step, without ever being a town or settlement or any other geographic designation prior to that. There would be no Disney World. And Miami would not have become the Latam capital that it is. It is, after all, part of US 1, the very first (most important?) of the interstates. To this day, all three of the major north-south routes in the Miami area parallel the original US 1, which still exists in many places, places occupied by about 5 million people. All of that happened because of the interstate.