America's Ribbon of Highway Mystery Cache
America's Ribbon of Highway
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
Related Web Page
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One of the biggest engineering accomplishments which we often forget about are America's "ribbon of highways". Chances are that the last time you went to Ramapo, you took I-87 to I-287 and got of in Mahwah or the time you went to Stewart State Forest you most likely took I-87 to I-84 or the Taconic to I-84. Without America's highways, it would take much longer to get to your hiking destination. I remember when I was in Poland last summer, it took half an hour to travel the distance of about 10-15 miles because the concept of highways is fairly new (lately they have been upgrading two lane roads to six lane highways). The first year I went there when the highways were still under construction, it took 6 hours to get to our destination. The next year, it only took roughly 4 hours. The next time your on the highway on your way to Harriman, you can thank Eisenhower and because of him, you can get from Point A to Point B much faster than you would on local roads meaning you would have more time to go hiking!
During World War II, Eisenhower had been stationed in Germany, where he had been impressed by the network of high-speed roads known as the Reichsautobahnen. After he became president in 1953, Eisenhower was determined to build the highways that lawmakers had been talking about for years. For instance, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 had authorized the construction of a 40,000-mile “National System of Interstate Highways” through and between the nation’s cities, but offered no way to pay for it.
America's first true highway was the Pennsylvania Turnpike. You can read the history of it in the "Related Web Page"
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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