I was watching a Modern Marvels presentation called "Superhighways" and learned that Eisenhower's and Nixon's real motive in building incredible superhighways form 1956 until 2007 was to prevent whole cities of people dying because they couldn't evacuate fast enough. So, Superhighways were built across America so people would have the means to get away from large cities and military installations if they were struck by nuclear weapons. Amazing to think that now!
However, one of the main reasons we are so successful as a nation is our superhighways and trucks and cars and because we have oil here in the U.S. that has mainly kept our costs (except for labor) lower than other nations which has made us very efficient and competitive worldwide since the 1950s as a result of our superhighways.
However, now many bridges are collapsing one by one because it is now almost 60 years since then or will be in 2016 so many of these superhighways need repairs as well as the bridges that cross them. However, because we spent so much money (trillions of dollars on Iraq and Afghanistan) we no longer have the funds to enhance our infrastructure like we did in the 1950s. So, this is a problem now in keeping these superhighways repaired and keeping bridges from collapsing under the weight of many cars or large trucks.
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