The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 preserved all of the essential features of the Federal-State relationship that had been built up over the preceding years, while liberalizing Federal assistance in some areas, notably right-of-way. In passing it, Congress again beat off efforts by the toll road and superhighway extremists to impose a national system of trunk highways under Federal control on the country. The National System of Interstate Highways was intended to satisfy the demand for long-distance highways, but without strong funding, it could not possibly achieve this purpose in any reasonable time, as events in the next 12 years would demonstrate.
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