Happy Birthday, I-94

And all the other highways. Today marks the 50th anniversary of the creation of the interstate highway system. It is difficult to imagine any governmental action over the last 50 years that has done more to transform this country.

I was not alive in 1956 and I only remember parts of the 1960s. I grew up in a town that is not served by the interstate highway system. For reasons unknown, the Fox River Valley did not get a branch of the system until the 1970s, when I-43 was completed between Green Bay and Milwaukee. But since I left fair Appleton, I have lived in places where I travel the interstates nearly every day. It's no exaggeration to say that the presence of these highways affects every American. The interstates have provided a reliable system for intercity transportation, shipping of goods and, in a little mentioned but crucial matter, greater ease of transport for our nation's defense. In fact, when President Eisenhower signed the legislation into law 50 years ago, that was a primary consideration.

But more than that, the interstates have changed the landscape in other ways. America was once a provincial place, where regional differences were huge and an overarching model was not seen. There were real differences between the ways that people in different parts of the country lived. Some of the regional differences and preferences were pernicious, especially the Jim Crow laws of the American South, but they were persistent. The growth of national news networks, radio and television were of course instrumental in helping Americans speak a more common cultural language, but the role of the interstate highway system is difficult to overstate. It used to be an all-day trip to get from Minneapolis to Chicago; now, you can get from place to place in about 7 hours, if traffic and the Wisconsin State Patrol are amenable. And because a person can get from one place to another that quickly, people do make the trip.

Of course, this integration has led to a certain amount of homogenization as well. It's a common complaint that the landscape of the interstate highway is littered with fast food restaurants, cookie cutter hotels and unsightly billboards. These complaints arose almost immediately and those who cherish regional differences have continued to nurse these grievances throughout the past half-century. And I don't dismiss these complaints; one of the great benefits of travel is to see things you might not otherwise see, and it's difficult to learn much when you eat at a McDonald's. But the journeys are what matter and because of the interstate highway system, I've been able to make more journeys than I would have otherwise.

Americans love the road - from Jack Kerouac to William Least Heat Moon, from Dennis Hopper to Charles Kuralt, we all tend to look beyond the immediate boundaries and seek adventures in places far from home. And every American has stories to tell about their travels. The interstate highway system is integral to who we are and what we have become in the past 50 years. And even with gas hovering around $3 a gallon these days, the siren song of the road remains.