The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways

Discover the twists and turns of one of America’s great infrastructure projects with this “engrossing history of the creation of the U.S. interstate system” (Los Angeles Times).
 
It’s become a part of the landscape that we take for granted, the site of rumbling eighteen-wheelers and roadside rest stops, a familiar route for commuters and vacationing families. But during the twentieth century, the interstate highway system dramatically changed the face of our nation. These interconnected roads—over 47,000 miles of them—are man-made wonders, economic pipelines, agents of sprawl, uniquely American symbols of escape and freedom, and an unrivaled public works accomplishment.
 
Though officially named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower, this network of roadways has origins that reach all the way back to the World War I era, and The Big Roads—“the first thorough history of the expressway system” (The Washington Post)—tells the full story of how they came to be. From the speed demon who inspired a primitive web of dirt auto trails to the largely forgotten technocrats who planned the system years before Ike reached the White House to the city dwellers who resisted the concrete juggernaut when it bore down on their neighborhoods, this book reveals both the massive scale of this government engineering project, and the individual lives that have been transformed by it.
 
A fast-paced history filled with fascinating detours, “the book is a road geek’s treasure—and everyone who travels the highways ought to know these stories” (Kirkus Reviews).

• Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life
• A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World
• The Reckoning
• The Phantom Atlas: The Greatest Myths, Lies and Blunders on Maps
• Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II
• Stonehenge - A New Understanding: Solving the Mysteries of the Greatest Stone Age Monument
• How the Scots Invented the Modern World: The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World and Everything in It: The True Story of ... Created Our World and Ever ything in It
• The Fifties
• That First Season: How Vince Lombardi Took the Worst Team in the NFL and Set It on the Path to Glory
• God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question?