The first *100 year milestone* in US route history

[usends]

On Nov. 20, 1924, AASHO wrote, "This Association hereby requests the Secretary of Agriculture, in cooperation with the several states, to undertake immediately the selection and designation of a comprehensive system of through interstate routes..." That ultimately led to the creation of the US highway system, inaugurated two years later. My new book (available in 2025) will be full of factoids like that. More info about it can be found in this thread, but you can click here and sign up to be notified when the book becomes available.

[pderocco]

Secretary of Agriculture?!?

[Scott5114]

Roads were under USDA at first because their primary purpose was considered to be getting goods from farm to market. Then they were under Commerce for a few decades before USDOT was created in the 1970s.

[Quillz]

Roads were under USDA at first because their primary purpose was considered to be getting goods from farm to market. Then they were under Commerce for a few decades before USDOT was created in the 1970s.

This is like the road geek version of the "fun fact" about the Secret Service being under the oversight of the Treasury Department prior to 2002 or so, since presidential security is something that wasn't done until much more recently. Their primary job has been (and still is) investigating counterfeit currency.

[pderocco]

Roads were under USDA at first because their primary purpose was considered to be getting goods from farm to market. Then they were under Commerce for a few decades before USDOT was created in the 1970s.

This is like the road geek version of the "fun fact" about the Secret Service being under the oversight of the Treasury Department prior to 2002 or so, since presidential security is something that wasn't done until much more recently. Their primary job has been (and still is) investigating counterfeit currency.

They may eventually lose their original job, as dollar bills are used less and less. I haven't used one in at least a month.

[formulanone]

Roads were under USDA at first because their primary purpose was considered to be getting goods from farm to market. Then they were under Commerce for a few decades before USDOT was created in the 1970s.

Every roadgeek knows it's a backronym for United States Driving Association.

Actually, I didn't know that. Makes sense, though.

[SEWIGuy]

Roads were under USDA at first because their primary purpose was considered to be getting goods from farm to market. Then they were under Commerce for a few decades before USDOT was created in the 1970s.

This is like the road geek version of the "fun fact" about the Secret Service being under the oversight of the Treasury Department prior to 2002 or so, since presidential security is something that wasn't done until much more recently. Their primary job has been (and still is) investigating counterfeit currency.

They may eventually lose their original job, as dollar bills are used less and less. I haven't used one in at least a month.

The Treasury Department doesn't issue paper money.

[usends]

Another 100 year milestone: on Feb. 20, 1925, the Joint Board on Interstate Highways was approved by the Secretary of Agriculture, who appointed officials from the Bureau of Public Roads and from multiple state highway departments.  Over the next eight months the Board would work towards a recommendation of the specific highways that would be included in the US route system.

[Henry]

Another 100 year milestone: on Feb. 20, 1925, the Joint Board on Interstate Highways was approved by the Secretary of Agriculture, who appointed officials from the Bureau of Public Roads and from multiple state highway departments.  Over the next eight months the Board would work towards a recommendation of the specific highways that would be included in the US route system.

Happy 100th Anniversary to the US Route System! And who knew back then that it would take another three decades before the word Interstate was introduced for the higher-speed limited-access highways that would soon take over the nation?

[Scott5114]

Well, it's not 100 yet—what happened 100 years ago was they got together a committee to start making the US Route system.

[kalvado]

Well, it's not 100 yet—what happened 100 years ago was they got together a committee to start making the US Route system.

They didn't have to do a 10-year environmental impact study back then. Otherwise we would still be waiting for the first coast to coast highway to be completed in near future, shortly after another study on impact of the previous study is finished.

[kphoger]

Well, it's not 100 yet—what happened 100 years ago was they got together a committee to start making the US Route system.

Imagine if people threw you a 40th birthday party forty years after your parents first started "trying".

[kalvado]

Well, it's not 100 yet—what happened 100 years ago was they got together a committee to start making the US Route system.

Imagine if people threw you a 40th birthday party forty years after your parents first started "trying".

That would be too early, it should be almost 41 years later. 

[kphoger]

Well, it's not 100 yet—what happened 100 years ago was they got together a committee to start making the US Route system.

Imagine if people threw you a 40th birthday party forty years after your parents first started "trying".

That would be too early, it should be almost 41 years later. 

No, it's equivalent.  The US Route system wasn't "born" 100 years ago.  Its "parents" started "trying" 100 years ago.  Yet |Henry| shouted, "Happy 100th Anniversary to the US Route System!"

[Henry]

I see you caught my premature celebration, and so I apologize for that.

[pderocco]

Well, it's not 100 yet—what happened 100 years ago was they got together a committee to start making the US Route system.

Imagine if people threw you a 40th birthday party forty years after your parents first started "trying".

That would be too early, it should be almost 41 years later. 

No, it's equivalent.  The US Route system wasn't "born" 100 years ago.  Its "parents" started "trying" 100 years ago.  Yet |Henry| shouted, "Happy 100th Anniversary to the US Route System!"

Parents starting "trying" usually coincides with their "marriage", which is celebrated every year just like birthdays.

[Rothman]

Well, it's not 100 yet—what happened 100 years ago was they got together a committee to start making the US Route system.

Imagine if people threw you a 40th birthday party forty years after your parents first started "trying".

That would be too early, it should be almost 41 years later. 

No, it's equivalent.  The US Route system wasn't "born" 100 years ago.  Its "parents" started "trying" 100 years ago.  Yet |Henry| shouted, "Happy 100th Anniversary to the US Route System!"

Parents starting "trying" usually coincides with their "marriage", which is celebrated every year just like birthdays.

Erm...Who's going to tell him?

[GaryV]

Parents starting "trying" usually coincides with their "marriage", which is celebrated every year just like birthdays.

What century is this from? Even an old fart like me knows that some start trying well before their marriage, and some try desperately not to be trying for several years after their marriage.

[pderocco]

Parents starting "trying" usually coincides with their "marriage", which is celebrated every year just like birthdays.

What century is this from? Even an old fart like me knows that some start trying well before their marriage, and some try desperately not to be trying for several years after their marriage.

It's from the same century as the start of the US Highway System, obviously.

[SectorZ]

I see you caught my premature celebration, and so I apologize for that.

It happens to the best of us on occasion.

[kalvado]

Parents starting "trying" usually coincides with their "marriage", which is celebrated every year just like birthdays.

What century is this from? Even an old fart like me knows that some start trying well before their marriage, and some try desperately not to be trying for several years after their marriage.

It's from the same century as the start of the US Highway System, obviously.

Not so sure

in particular, they confirm that bridal pregnancy was more common in the eighteenth than in the seventeenth century. Evidence is presented to suggest that the sixteenth-century experience was similar to that of the seventeenth, while the nineteenth-century experience was similar to that of the eighteenth

Population Studies
Vol. 24, No. 1 (Mar., 1970), pp. 59-70

[kphoger]

Well, it's not 100 yet—what happened 100 years ago was they got together a committee to start making the US Route system.

Imagine if people threw you a 40th birthday party forty years after your parents first started "trying".

That would be too early, it should be almost 41 years later. 

No, it's equivalent.  The US Route system wasn't "born" 100 years ago.  Its "parents" started "trying" 100 years ago.  Yet |Henry| shouted, "Happy 100th Anniversary to the US Route System!"

Parents starting "trying" usually coincides with their "marriage", which is celebrated every year just like birthdays.

Erm...Who's going to tell him?

  I will!

All righty, |pderocco|, you may need to sit down for this.

Anniversaries and birthdays are not the same thing.

[pderocco]

Well, it's not 100 yet—what happened 100 years ago was they got together a committee to start making the US Route system.

Imagine if people threw you a 40th birthday party forty years after your parents first started "trying".

That would be too early, it should be almost 41 years later. 

No, it's equivalent.  The US Route system wasn't "born" 100 years ago.  Its "parents" started "trying" 100 years ago.  Yet |Henry| shouted, "Happy 100th Anniversary to the US Route System!"

Parents starting "trying" usually coincides with their "marriage", which is celebrated every year just like birthdays.

Erm...Who's going to tell him?

  I will!

All righty, |pderocco|, you may need to sit down for this.

Anniversaries and birthdays are not the same thing.

WTF does that mean? And why are you obsessing about something like this? The whole point is that somebody implied that the date on which people first got together to start planning the US Highway System shouldn't be regarded as significant. Well, why not? No one claimed it had the same significance as the date they stuck the first shovel into the ground.

And by the way, birthdays are anniversaries. They are anniversaries of someone's birth.

[kphoger]

The whole point is that somebody implied that the date on which people first got together to start planning the US Highway System shouldn't be regarded as significant.

You're right.  I'm wrong.

[usends]

Another 100 year milestone: on Apr. 20, 1925, the Joint Board on Interstate Highways held its first meeting, in which they grouped the 48 states into six regions.  Soon meetings would be held in each of these regions, in which officials from each state DOT would formulate a list of highways that should be considered for inclusion in the interstate route network.