The original design for the shield was drawn by senior traffic engineer Richard Oliver of Texas and selected out of 100 entries in a national design competition in 1957. The modern U.S. interstate highway system is modeled after the German autobahn. “When we get these thruways across the whole country, as we will and must,” wrote John Steinbeck in 1962, “it will be possible to drive from New York to California without seeing a single thing.”. Here are three key places that happened: Towns and Cities Labor activists, usually British, German, or Jewish immigrants, founded the Socialist Labor Party of America in 1877. On October 6, 1683 thirteen German families, led by Franz Daniel Pastorius, established the first permanent German-American settlement in America. The idea behind the system … As for the old one? His interest in war games was triggered as he read his mother’s book collection about history. The creation of National Parks was an idea that sprang out of 19th century America. The National K-12 Foreign Language Enrollment Survey Report JUNE 2017 A comprehensive study of foreign/world language enrollments across the formal U.S. education system, K-12. Fast food and motel franchises replaced small businesses.”. Privacy Statement Born in Germany in 1952, the inspiration for America’s most famous doll was a saucy high-end call girl named Lilli. Till's death was the catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. In the 1960s, activists stopped construction on highways in New York, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and New Orleans, which resulted in several urban interstates becoming roads to nowhere. “New distribution networks arose that were vastly more efficient and flexible than the old.”. Keep up-to-date on: © 2020 Smithsonian Magazine. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1938 was the first serious attempt to develop a national roadway system. (National Park Service) Christmas in the United States would be unrecognizable without the traditions that German immigrants brought to America. The ambivalence people felt about this new system is visible in the protests that sprang up to the interstate: "in the 1960s, activists stopped construction on highways in New York, Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and New Orleans," writes Emily Becker for Mental Floss, "which resulted in several urban interstates becoming roads to nowhere.". The highways would connect the country from east to west and north to south, making consumer, commercial and military travel easier, saving hours of driving time. Terms of Use ... did no longer invent it. Inspired by the network of high-speed roads he saw in Germany during World War II, Dwight D. Eisenhower championed the passing of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Currently, the “largest pothole in the country” award has been claimed by this section of I-75 outside Detroit. While earlier in American history, driving was portrayed as an excursion that involved skill and might have some degree of unpredictability, the interstates imposed a system of standardized landscape across the country–same wide roads, same rules, for the most part even the same signs. Give a Gift. Eisenhower was a leader in promoting the interstate system, having seen what could be accomplished by a national system of highways during his career in … They called it Deutschstadt which became known as Germantown. A centralised administrative system was put in place and it formulated uniform laws for all citizens within its territory. The alleged youthful teasing of 14-year-old African American Emmett Till with white store clerk Carolyn Bryant, on August 28, 1955, led to his brutal murder at the hands of Bryant’s husband Roy and his half-brother, J.W. Pothole in the country would do in the name of the no s famous! 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