@Hawkwinter You know what I learned recently? Freeways...

@Hawkwinter You know what I learned recently?

Freeways were created in the US primarily so that the US military could quickly move equipment from one side of the country to the other.

Also, they wanted high speed networks created for communication purposes and at least one point in the 80s there was talk of laying fiber-optic cable down the median of the interstate to link everything together.

(Not sure if that ever happened, but it would make sense.)

You essentially have nationalized infrastructure, arteries that connect everything and while it has advantages for commerce, etc, my understanding is that the primary purpose was military logistics.

Like 29 Jul 2023 at 22:53 | Open on oliphant.social

9 comments

DELETED

@oliphant @Hawkwinter They also placed them deliberately to destroy Black neighborhoods using eminent domain and called it "urban renewal"! Fun history.

29 Jul 2023 at 23:26 | Open on fosstodon.org

Jeremy in the blue house.

@theheck @oliphant @Hawkwinter well, a lot of "them" was local powers directing the federal funding. While the feds were anything but innocent, I still lay a slight majority of the blame on municipal and state-level power brokers.

29 Jul 2023 at 23:40 | Open on mas.to

Hawkwinter

@theheck @oliphant

That I did not know 🇨🇦 . Gross.

29 Jul 2023 at 23:52 | Open on mementomori.social

Oliphant

@theheck @Hawkwinter That is very much true about North Minneapolis. A thriving black community, now cut off from the rest of the city when they put a highway right through it.

30 Jul 2023 at 0:35 | Open on oliphant.social

Hawkwinter

@oliphant @theheck

Appalling.

Mastodon *REALLY* needs to start to support xKey emoji reactions. A star is too ambiguous.

30 Jul 2023 at 1:18 | Open on mementomori.social

DELETED

@Hawkwinter It is but I just treat it like either an agreement or acknowledgement of what someone said

30 Jul 2023 at 1:30 | Open on fosstodon.org

Gwen the Trans Balrog

@oliphant @Hawkwinter
Modeled after the autobahn built by, wait for it, Nazis! Eisenhower saw the roads in Germany and made it his mission to recreate them in the US for essentially the same reasons Hitler initially okayed them: military transport. Sure, they sell them as great for commerce etc. but yeah, you're entirely correct.

29 Jul 2023 at 23:39 | Open on chaosfem.tw

NoctisEqui 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇪🇹

@oliphant @Hawkwinter

Actually by the time Eisenhower was president and passed the national highways acts, the war was over. Furthermore most of the war traffic, machines and troops was moved by rail, not by road. Freeways were a give-away to the oil, rubber & steel industries.

29 Jul 2023 at 23:47 | Open on mastodonapp.uk

Hawkwinter

@oliphant

You know what else could transport all those things? Train tracks.

Save a ton of money in maintenance every year.

Need to move your car somewhere far away? pay a fee to load it on a train car, sit in your car until you arrive at the destination, enjoy the view.

I'm not saying national infrastructure is bad. I just think freeways are bad national infrastructure.

29 Jul 2023 at 23:52 | Open on mementomori.social