Epilogue—
The
Success
Story
The story of the development of highways and of highway transportation in the United States, as presented here, has been limited largely to the role of the Federal Government in the construction of our Nation’s highways under the remarkably successful Federal-aid highway program. As the name indicates, the “Federal-aid” program is one involving joint Federal-State funding and execution of the design and construction of highways on approved systems of interconnected routes in all States. The Federal-State funding varies with the designated system on which the improvement is undertaken, and the States, at their option, may schedule construction without Federal funding and without Federal review.
In the Federal-aid highway program, each of the State highway departments has served as a full and equal partner in that State and merits equal credit for the program accomplishments. This text has recorded the story of the Bureau of Public Roads as one of the partners. The accomplishments of each State highway department in a common and parallel endeavor is a separate story. It has been a truly successful partnership program.
The agency that was to become the Bureau of Public Roads, and ultimately the Federal Highway Administration, was created in 1893 with an initial appropriation of $10,000 per year. The activities of the agency were limited to making “inquiries” among State and local units as to road construction and maintenance practices. The initial “staff” was the Special Agent and Engineer, General Roy Stone, and a clerical assistant, and the first year’s expenditures totaled less than $3,000 of the available appropriation. Thus, at the outset, frugality in manpower and administrative expenditures, through the years, characterized the performance of the Federal Government’s highway agency, by whatever title it was termed under law.
Initially, the interest of the Federal Government in road improvement was minimal, and years passed before the public demand for improved rural mail delivery service resulted in a Federal enactment of financial aid to the States for improvement of selected post roads. Experimentation in road construction methods and in the use of construction materials was the forerunner of today’s sophisticated program of construction and research in the highway industry. The post road improvement program led to the Federal-aid highway program and provided valuable experience which was of assistance to the Congress in its framing of the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916—the first real Federal-aid highway legislation.
Early efforts toward a system of Federal highways, constructed and maintained by the Federal Government, did not prevail. Rather, there developed an underlying concept of State ownership, State responsibility, and State program initiation, with the Federal agency advising and consulting and with the Federal Government providing financial assistance.
The Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 established the partnership role of the State and Federal Governments in a program of Federal aid for highway construction, and the Federal Highway Act of 1921, together with the Post Office Appropriation Act of 1922, provided a multiyear plan of Federal funding
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