Editing Interstate Highway System (section)

===Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956===
{{Main|Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956}}

The Interstate Highway System gained a champion in President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was influenced by his experiences as a young Army officer crossing the country in the 1919 Motor Transport Corps convoy that drove in part on the [[Lincoln Highway]], the first road across America. He recalled that, "The old convoy had started me thinking about good two-lane highways... the wisdom of broader ribbons across our land."<ref name="Watson article on Motor Transport convoy" /> Eisenhower also gained an appreciation of the [[Reichsautobahn]] system, the first "national" implementation of modern Germany's [[German autobahns|Autobahn]] network, as a necessary component of a national defense system while he was serving as [[Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force|Supreme Commander]] of [[Allies of World War II|Allied Forces]] in Europe during [[European Theatre of World War II|World War II]].<ref>{{cite magazine |title = On the Road |first = Henry |last = Petroski |magazine = American Scientist |volume = 94 |issue = 5 |year = 2006 |pages = 396–369 |issn = 0003-0996 |doi = 10.1511/2006.61.396 }}</ref> In 1954, Eisenhower appointed General [[Lucius D. Clay]] to head a committee charged with proposing an interstate highway system plan.<ref>{{cite book |last = Smith |first = Jean Edward |author-link = Jean Edward Smith |title = Eisenhower in War and Peace |publisher = Random House |isbn = 978-1400066933 |date = 2012 |page = 652 }}</ref> Summing up motivations for the construction of such a system, Clay stated,
{{Blockquote|It was evident we needed better highways. We needed them for safety, to accommodate more automobiles. We needed them for defense purposes, if that should ever be necessary. And we needed them for the economy. Not just as a public works measure, but for future growth.<ref>{{harvp|Smith|2012|pp=652–653|ps=.}}</ref>}}
{{Wikisource-multi|object=section|leading=2px| National Highway Program| A 10-Year National Highway Program |General Location of National System of Interstate Highways}}

Clay's committee proposed a 10-year, $100&nbsp;billion program {{USDCY|100000000000|1954}}, which would build {{convert|40,000|mi|km}} of [[Dual carriageway|divided highways]] linking all American cities with a population of greater than 50,000. Eisenhower initially preferred a system consisting of [[toll road]]s, but Clay convinced Eisenhower that toll roads were not feasible outside of the highly populated coastal regions. In February 1955, Eisenhower forwarded Clay's proposal to Congress. The bill quickly won approval in the Senate, but House Democrats objected to the use of public [[Bond (finance)|bonds]] as the means to finance construction. Eisenhower and the House Democrats agreed to instead finance the system through the [[Highway Trust Fund]], which itself would be funded by a [[gasoline]] tax.<ref>{{harvp|Smith|2012|pp=651–654|ps=.}}</ref> In June 1956, Eisenhower signed the [[Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956]] into law. Under the act, the federal government would pay for 90 percent of the cost of construction of Interstate Highways. Each Interstate Highway was required to be a [[freeway]] with at least four lanes and no at-grade crossings.<ref>{{cite web |title = The Interstate Highway System |url = https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/interstate-highway-system |website = History |publisher = A&E Television Networks |access-date = May 10, 2019 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190510175042/https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/interstate-highway-system |archive-date = May 10, 2019 |url-status = live }}</ref>

The publication in 1955 of the ''General Location of National System of Interstate Highways'', informally known as the ''Yellow Book'', mapped out what became the Interstate Highway System.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://etext.virginia.edu/journals/EH/EH38/Norton.html |title = Fighting Traffic: U.S. Transportation Policy and Urban Congestion, 1955–1970 |last = Norton |first = Peter |year = 1996 |access-date = January 17, 2008 |work = Essays in History |publisher = Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia |url-status = dead |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080215220316/http://etext.virginia.edu/journals/EH/EH38/Norton.html |archive-date = February 15, 2008 }}</ref> Assisting in the planning was [[Charles Erwin Wilson]], who was still head of [[General Motors]] when President Eisenhower selected him as Secretary of Defense in January 1953.