Time to think By Hank Silverberg Why we all hate I-95 In the summer of 1919 the U-S army decided to send 81 vehicles from Washington, DC to San Francisco to test the ability to move men and machine from one coast to another. It took 62 days over back roads, through mud and across narrow mountain passes to travel the 3,251 miles to the west coast. Among those who made the trip was a young Lieutenant named Dwight D Eisenhower. Twenty-four years later as Supreme Allied Commander he witnessed how fast Germany was able to move its troops along the Autobahn as American troops defeated the Nazis. Eisenhower would remember both events. Promoted by President Eisenhower out of military necessity, the Interstate highway system was created by Congress on June 29, 1956. It took almost 50 years for the originally planned 48,000-mile system to be finished. For decades it seemed Ike’s dream of an efficient continental road system had worked. The ...