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Ebook The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways

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The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways

Ebook The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways

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Product details

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Audible Audiobook

Listening Length: 12 hours and 30 minutes

Program Type: Audiobook

Version: Unabridged

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Audible.com Release Date: December 21, 2011

Whispersync for Voice: Ready

Language: English, English

ASIN: B006OT9Q4W

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

I have always had a fascination with major highways, especially the US Interstate system. It is certainly one of man's greater achievements, both from an engineering and political level. Road building and architecture have always been among the crowning achievements of nations, and the US is no exception. I had high hopes for this book.=== The Good Stuff ===* Earl Swift would certainly subscribe to the theory that the political side of road-building is more interesting and more difficult than the actual engineering side. Given the current state of US highway building, it might appear that he is correct-more roads have been shot down over politics than insurmountable engineering problems. Swift does a masterful job of capturing this conflict.* We meet an interesting cast of characters, and Swift does a nice job at capturing the personalities and motivations of these people. There are certainly the stereotypical engineers-you can almost see the slide rules- planning the routes; the finance guys figuring out how to pay for it; and the political operators-managing what is possible. But there are also the citizens who refused to have their city gutted by a cross-town expressway, and environmentalists and historical preservationists who stand up for their principles.* Much of the history presented was new to me. I had always subscribed to the "Eisenhower cross-country trip" theory of how the Interstate system came about. Swift makes a convincing case that much of the work was done prior to Eisenhower, some as early as WWI, and much of it under Roosevelt. Eisenhower comes across as a sort of final enabler, and someone who wasn't really paying attention anyway.* We see some of the dealing that went on to make the project happen. There was the usual government accounting rituals, where money spent isn't really money spent. Swift captures some of this, but spares us the more mundane details of trust funds, bond issues and off-budget shenanigans.=== The Not-So-Good Stuff ===* I am an engineer, and of course was hoping for at least some highlights of the civil engineering that went on. There is precious little of that in the book, other than to say that certain parts of the system were difficult. That is certainly true- take a ride on I-70 through Glenwood Canyon, Colorado and you can't help but shake your head that the road even exists. But Swift doesn't give us any details of how it was done, how long it took, how much it cost, or any of the techniques used.* The early part of the book describes several of the early route proposals for a national highway system. Unfortunately there are no maps of these, and the descriptions are vague enough to be borderline useless in understanding them. Certainly a few maps would have been appreciated. Some of these can be found online, but it takes a bit of effort.* Swift sidesteps much of the controversy of the Interstate system. He gets caught up in the urban routing of I70 in Baltimore, an interesting story, but avoids discussion of any of the larger alignment issues. For example, Philadelphia is a very large city, and a major port, but not served by a major east-west artery. I80 is 70 miles to the north, and I70 terminates to the south in Baltimore. I76 does serve Philadelphia, but is rather a minor interstate, connecting Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and I80. No doubt there was quite a political battle about that, but no mention of it in the book. Doubtless other battles ensued.=== Summary ====The book was an excellent treatise on the political side of building the Interstate Highway system, and I enjoyed the look at parts of the tale I hadn't heard before. The author captures the personalities and dedication of a group of civil servants determined to make the project a reality, and gives a reasonably comprehensive overview of the planning process. However, he skips over some areas that I would have preferred to see included, the most serious of which is the actual mechanics of moving dirt and concrete.

I think this is an important book that presents the definitive history of how the interstate highway system came to be and how America was changed by it. It is chock full of well researched and referenced facts and details, but therein also lies its weakness.As a textbook it is an admirable work, but as a piece of popular non-fiction it is probably more than most people want to know, way more. Unfortunately, this reader found it to be intensely boring for far too many pages. I longed for an abridged edition of perhaps 100 pages less that would tell the main story with fewer side paths.On the plus side, the sections that deal with the resistance the road builders encountered in many urban areas were a revelation and explains why so many of these urban interstates are such disasters. Clearly, one size does not fit all when it comes to road building.He also highlights why so many of these roads are now falling into ruin and our government's woefully inadequate programs for maintaining them. Simply put, roads have a lifespan like everything else and must be periodically rebuilt at high cost if they are to continue to serve their intended purpose.

This was a good book, well-written and enjoyable. Not the greatest-book-I've-ever-read-changed-my-life, but a very good read. This is a book for those who may think, "Read a book about the interstate? How boring is that?" Read it! It's a great history and you will see the impact of perseverance, hard work, luck, political will - and lack of political will - vision and money - and lack of money - all combining to create the biggest public works project in the history of the world. The pyramids only claim to fame over the US Interstate Highway System is that they are 6,000 years older and still standing without any maintenance... (then again, the pyramids were never used very much star they were built!) You'll find out things that we take for granted every day were not even thought about - let alone accepted - for a long time, such as the concept of "paved roads"! Why are they called "freeways"? How did entry lanes, exit lanes and passing lanes come about? Why wasn't everything obvious at the time of early road development? All of us use our nation's highways everyday, and this interesting history is a good read about them, revealing fascinating reasons why things happened, how they happened - and how they almost didn't... well worth your time.

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The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways PDF