Preface
This book has been written for a widely diversified audience—those interested in the general history of our Nation’s highways and those whose interest might be more narrowly confined to matters relating to the technical aspects of highway transportation. It has been prepared in two parts—Part I deals with the broad subject of highway history from colonial days forward to the historic highway legislation of 1956; Part II deals separately and in some detail with the several areas of responsibility for administration, planning and research, design, construction and maintenance of highways and bridges, both foreign and domestic as authorized under the Federal highway legislation.
The reader will note the changing reference to the name of the Federal unit assigned responsibility for the administration of the Federal-aid highway program—the original Office of Road Inquiry, the Bureau of Public Roads, the Public Roads Administration, again the Bureau of Public Roads, and finally the Federal Highway Administration. These changes in organization title are chronicled in Chapter I, Part II which covers the program administration through the years.
Biographical information on a few key individuals has been included at the end of Part I and in selected chapters of Part II where each man’s contribution is directly related. The numbers are purposely limited, and many hundreds of dedicated and competent individuals go unrecognized.
Many former and current employees have contributed text for or reviewed this book. The manuscripts, in most instances, have been edited to make this book a reasonable length, but the original manuscripts are available in the U.S. Department of Transportation Library for future scholars to review. In addition to those listed below, many others assisted in the preparation of this book, in particular Mary Jo Burke and Verla R. Cook of the Department of Transportation Library, to assure a history as complete as possible.
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