Interstate Highway

The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly called the Interstate Highway System, is a network of highways in the United States. The Interstate Highway System is a separate system within the larger National Highway System. With very few exceptions, Interstate highways are controlled-access freeways, allowing for safe high-speed driving when traffic permits. They are assigned a special level of funding at the federal level. Despite this federal funding, these highways are owned, designed, built and maintained by the state in which they are located, with the only exception being the federally-owned Woodrow Wilson Bridge on the Capital Beltway (I-95/I-495).

Criticism

In addition to the various economic issues, the system has roused criticism on aesthetic grounds. The efficiency and faster speeds of the system, made possible in part by engineering techniques that often tend to cut through the land rather than merely following it as with the older U.S. Highway, have inevitably resulted in a safer but less-scenic drive. When the cross-country I-40 was finally finished in the late 1980s, by completing the segment between Raleigh, North Carolina and Wilmington, North Carolina, Charles Kuralt stated, "It is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything!"

Related Topics:
U.S. Highway - I-40 - Raleigh, North Carolina - Wilmington, North Carolina - Charles Kuralt

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