and the creation of highway departments and commissions. It also began to put pressure on Congress to provide some form of Federal assistance for highways.
The first State to actually create a State Highway Commission was Massachusetts in 1892. The Commission was given the authority to establish a State road system, and beginning in 1894, the Legislature appropriated the first funds for actual construction. The need for State aid in financing road construction had been recognized as early as 1891 when New Jersey enacted the first State-aid road program in the Nation. However, it was designed simply to help the counties finance their programs, and its administration was placed under the State’s Department of Agriculture. It wasn’t until 1894 that New Jersey placed the program under a Commission of Highways.
The Office of Road Inquiry is Created
In 1892, the Senate passed a bill entitled the National Highway Commission Law, but Congress adjourned before it was enacted into law. Then, in the Agriculture Appropriation Act for 1894, enacted March 3, 1893, an item for $10,000 was included to enable the Secretary “to make inquiries in regard to the systems of road management throughout the United States . . . to make investigations in regard to the best method of roadmaking . . . and to enable him to assist the agricultural college and experiment stations in disseminating information on this subject. . . .” To carry out the work directed by Congress, the Secretary created the Office of Road Inquiry, the small beginning from which the world’s largest highway program was to develop.
When the Federal interest in roads was reinstituted in 1893, the appropriation was made to the Department of Agriculture because the recognized problem was in the rural areas—there were not enough adequate roads for the farmers to get their produce to the railroad terminals and even nearby towns. The cities and larger towns were considered to be adequately satisfying their own internal road needs.
The creation of the Office did not represent the reinitiation of Federal financial assistance for the construction of roads in the States, since Congress provided only $10,000 for each of the first 3 years and then dropped the appropriation to $8,000 for each of the next 4 years. Rather, it was distinctly an educational and promotional effort, but it did represent a renewal of Federal recognition of the importance of highways in the Nation’s economic and social future.
For several years the work of the Office of Road Inquiry consisted almost wholly of collecting and disseminating road information through publications, lectures, and consultations. In 1896, a new program was administratively added. Short stretches of road were constructed as object lesson roads through contributed labor and materials and borrowed equipment. The only Federal cost was usually the salary and expenses of a road expert from the Office of Road Inquiry who designed and supervised the work.
Despite efforts to get increased appropriations to expand the object lesson roads, additional funds were not provided—probably because of some congressional concern that construction of roads by the Office of Road Inquiry might be the opening wedge for reinstitution of national roads under Federal control. It was not until 1901 that the appropriation level was increased. From then on, additional increases followed almost every year, until 1912 when the appropriation was over $160,000.
During the years between 1897 and 1912, the Office broadened its activities to include experimental use of new materials in the construction of short sections of experimental roads; free tests of road materials sent in by private citizens from all over the country; provision of onsite assistance to State and county highway authorities, ranging from solving specific problems in construction or maintenance to encouraging enactment of road laws and helping in the organization of highway commissions or departments; institution of a training program for student highway engineers; provision of specialized assistance in problems concerning bridges, culverts and drainage in general; and of considerable significance, in 1909, launching into the area of economic research and statistical investigations,[1] the forerunner to the sophisticated and extensive programs of today.
Some accomplishments had been achieved by 1912 through the joint efforts of the States, counties and townships combined with the leadership of the Office of Public Roads and the many good roads associations and similar special interest groups. In 1912 the expenditures by the States for road work totaled approximately $43 million, and it was estimated another $100 million was spent by counties and townships.[2]
A new need was gaining recognition—interconnecting roads at the local, State and national level. Few States had either the authority or the necessary funds to plan an interconnected system within their own boundaries, and each operated independently of its neighboring States. A road location in one State which was advantageous to that State for topographic, economic, or geographic reasons might not fit the situation just across the State line, so there was no assurance that a road would not simply end at the State line or some local terminus.
The landscaped median on I-19 provides a pleasant exit from Tucson, Ariz., and an effective headlight screen on the curve.
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