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The Cold War: The Interstate Highway System

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In the midst of Cold War, under threat of a nuclear attack, the United States government was looking for a way to increase the speed of transporting military personnel, resources, and people quickly across the US in a dynamic fashion. The Interstate highway was the most effective plan that was spawned as it could be easily repaired in the event of the nuclear attack, and it would regionally connect the entire nation. Although the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 was a costly federal spending program burdened with exorbitant maintenance costs,the construction of the Interstate Highway system proved to advance the nation economically with the facilitation of interstate transportation of goods allowing faster trade at lower costs, socially the …show more content…

As the highway system made land more accessible, development of these new pieces of land was heavily encouraged. And due to the reliability of travel time for shipments of goods, “just in time” delivery was far more feasible. This reduced the warehouse costs and led to an increase of manufacturing efficiency. The Interstate Highway system not only allowed for quick travel, but expanded the geographical range and options for consumers, which resulted in larger selections and lower consumer prices. This caused an increased retail competition. With companies able to supply their products to much larger geographical areas, and less expensively, the Highway system enhanced inter-regional access and created a genuinely national domestic market. As the Interstate Highway System made more cheap land available, the expansion of residential, industrial and commercial construction exponentially increased. This indirectly led to an expansion of jobs. The highway itself resulted in more jobs as for every $1 billion investment over 40, 000, non-construction jobs, could be made and currently the highway employs close to 150,000 a

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