The National System of Interstate Highways

Statler Hotel -Washington, D. C« November 3, 19% Mien the Congress directed the desigiation of a National System of Interstate Highways in the Federal-Aid Hi^iway Act of l^M, a time cycle of one and one~half centuries had elapsed since the recognition of the national significance of major interstate hi^iway routes.In this period governmental interest completed the circle from Federal responsibility through many and varied stages of local and State control, to the present legal specification of a system of interstate highways so located as to connect by routes as direct as practicable the principal metropolitan areas and industrial centers, to serve the national defense, and to connect at suitable border points with routes of continental importance in the Dominion of Canada and the Republic of Mexico.Mileage of Interstate System The Hational Interstate System as now designated by the State highway departments in cooperation with federal authorities comprises 37,800 miles of main thoroughfares-• 31,831 miles in rural areas and 5,969 miles in urban areas.Approximately 2,200 miles of the 40,000 miles authorized for the system have been reserved for connections through cities and circumferential routes around them*