Celebrating 50 Years: The Eisenhower Interstate Highway System

In this article, the author writes that the planning, design and construction of the U.S. Interstate System bestowed the nation with three historical legacies, as well as some important lessons for the future. Those legacies include the safety impacts of the system based on medians between opposing traffic lanes, grade-separated interchanges, and high design speeds. The second legacy is its effect on the American lifestyle in terms of America's suburbanization. The third legacy is the way in which the Interstate fundamentally changed the way freight is distributed, enabling the U.S. to have the world's most efficient supply chain management system. Lessons learned include the unpredictability of large-scale social and technological systems, how much Americans value community preservation and environmental stewardship, and the notion that a carefully engineered and planned system can bring extraordinary benefits.