Who Tore Up the Tracks? · Episode 16 of 24 · 22 min
The Yellow Book: How the Routes Were Chosen
In April 1960 President Eisenhower was shown a book of maps and discovered, with visible anger, where his interstate highways were going. The book had been printed five years earlier and sent to every member of Congress. The episode traces how engineers set urban routing doctrine in public reports from 1939 on, and Congress ratified it by silence.
Who's who
- Dwight D. Eisenhower+12 more episodesPresident who objected in 1960 to urban routings
- John S. BragdonEisenhower's public works adviser who recorded the 1960 meeting
- Bertram D. TallamyFederal Highway Administrator who acknowledged the maps sold the program
- Thomas H. MacDonald+1 more episodeRan the federal road agency 1919-1953 and shaped the routing doctrine
- Herbert S. FairbankMacDonald's chief planner, drafter of the 1944 report
- Lucius D. Clay+1 more episodeChaired the committee proposing bond financing
- Harry F. Byrd+2 more episodesSenate Finance chairman who killed the bond plan
- Sam Rayburn+2 more episodesHouse Speaker who blamed lobbying for the 1955 collapse
Where it happens
- Washington, D.C.+31 more episodesBureau of Public Roads issued the maps; Eisenhower met Bragdon here
Timeline
- April 1939Toll Roads and Free Roads calls for arteries into the heart of the city
- January 1944Interregional Highways recommends 33,920 miles, of which 4,470 urban
- August 1947First designation of 37,681 miles, with 2,319 held in reserve
- September 1955Yellow Book designates the reserved miles, with maps for every member of Congress
- June 1956Federal-Aid Highway Act signed: same routes, different financing
- April 6, 1960Eisenhower is shown the Yellow Book and objects
Still debated
Claims that Congress approved the Yellow Book are false; the 1956 act enacted no route maps. The 1960 memorandum documents Eisenhower's displeasure but does not establish he had never been told. The maps showed general corridors; states drew actual alignments.
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