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VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. On June
twenty-ninth, 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a public works bill. The
act of Congress provided federal aid to build the Interstate Highway System.
I'm Steve Ember. Today Sarah Long and I present a brief history of road
building and how it changed America.
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America's national road system makes it possible to drive coast to coast.
From the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west is a
distance of more than four thousand kilometers. Or you could drive more than two
thousand kilometers and go from the Canadian border south to the Mexican border.
VOICE TWO:
You can drive these distances on wide, safe roads that have no traffic
signals and no stop signs. In fact, if you did not have to stop for gasoline or
sleep, you could drive almost anywhere in the United States without stopping at
all.
This is possible because of the Interstate Highway System. This system has
almost seventy thousand kilometers of roads. It crosses more than fifty-five
thousand bridges and can be found in forty-nine of America’s fifty states.
The Interstate Highway System is usually two roads, one in each direction,
separated by an area that is planted with grass and trees. Each road holds two
lines of cars that can travel at speeds between one hundred and one hundred
twenty kilometers an hour. The Interstate Highway System is only a small part of
the huge system of roads in the United States.
VOICE ONE:
To understand the Interstate Highway System, it is helpful to understand the
history of roads. Roads in most countries were first built to permit armies to
travel from one part of the country to another to fight against an invader.
The ancient Romans build roads over most of Europe to permit their armies to
move quickly from one place to another. People who traded goods began using
these roads for business. Good roads helped them to move their goods faster from
one area to another.
No roads existed when early settlers arrived in the area of North America
that would become the United States. Most settlers built their homes near the
ocean or along major rivers. This made transportation easy. A few early roads
were built near some cities. Travel on land was often difficult because there
was no road system in most areas.
VOICE TWO:
In seventeen eighty-five, farmers in the Ohio River Valley used rivers to
take cut trees to the southern city of New Orleans. It was easier to walk or
ride a horse home than to try to go by boat up the river.
One of the first roads was built to help these farmers return home after they
sold their wood. It began as nothing more than a path used by Native Americans.
American soldiers helped make this path into an early road. The new road
extended from the city of Nashville, in Tennessee to the city of Natchez in the
southern state of Louisiana. It was called the Natchez Trace.
You can still follow about seven hundred kilometers of the Natchez Trace.
Today, the road is a beautiful National Park. It takes the traveler though
forests that look much the same as they did two hundred years ago. You can still
see a few of the buildings in which early travelers slept overnight.
VOICE ONE:
The Natchez Trace was called a road. Yet it was not what we understand a road
to be. It was just a cleared path through the forest. It was used by people
walking, or riding a horse or in a wagon pulled by horses.
In eighteen-oh-six, President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation that
approved money for building a road to make it easier to travel west. Work began
on the first part of the road in Cumberland in the eastern state of Maryland.
When finished, the road reached all the way to the city of Saint Louis in what
would become the middle western state of Missouri. It was named the National
Road.
The National Road was similar to the Natchez Trace. It followed a path made
by American Indians. Work began in eighteen eleven. It was not finished until
about eighteen thirty-three. The National Road was used by thousands of people
who moved toward the west. These people paid money to use the road. This money
was used to repair the road.
Now, the old National Road is part of United States Highway Forty. By the
nineteen twenties, Highway Forty stretched from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Pacific Ocean. You can still see signs that say "National Road" along the side
of parts of it. Several statues were placed along this road to honor the women
who moved west over the National Road in the eighteen hundreds.
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VOICE TWO:
In nineteen hundred, it still was difficult to travel by road. Nothing
extended from the eastern United States to the extreme western part of the
country.
Several people wanted to see a road built all the way across the country.
Carl Fisher was a man who had ideas and knew how to act on them. Mister Fisher
built the famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway where car races still take place.
In nineteen twelve, Carl Fisher began working on his idea to build a
coast-to-coast highway using crushed rocks. He called this dream the
Coast-to-Coast Rock Highway.
VOICE ONE:
Carl Fisher asked many people to give money for the project. One of these men
was Henry Joy, the president of the Packard Motor Car Company. Mister Joy
agreed, but suggested another name for the highway. He said the road should be
named after President Abraham Lincoln. He said it should be called the Lincoln
Highway.
Everyone involved with the project agreed to the new name. The Lincoln
Highway began in the east in New York City’s famous Times Square. It ended in
the west in Lincoln Park in San Francisco, California. The Lincoln Highway was
completed in about nineteen thirty-three.
VOICE TWO:
Later, the federal government decided to assign each highway in the country
its own number. Numbers were easier to remember than names. The Lincoln Highway
became Highway Thirty for most of its length.
Today, you can still follow much of the Lincoln Highway. It passes through
small towns and large cities. This makes it a slow but interesting way to
travel. Highway Thirty still begins in New York and ends near San Francisco. And
it is still remembered as the first coast-to-coast highway.
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VOICE ONE:
In nineteen nineteen, a young Army officer named Dwight Eisenhower took part
in the first crossing of the United States by Army vehicles. The vehicles left
Washington, D.C. and drove to San Francisco. It was not a good trip. The
vehicles had problems with thick mud, ice and mechanical difficulties. It took
the American Army vehicles sixty-two days to reach San Francisco.
Dwight Eisenhower believed the United States needed a highway that would aid
in the defense of the country. He believed the nation needed a road system that
would permit military vehicles to travel quickly from one coast to the other.
In nineteen fifty-six, Dwight Eisenhower was president of the United States.
He signed the legislation that created the federal Interstate Highway System.
Work was begun almost immediately.
VOICE TWO:
Building such an interstate highway system was a major task. Many problems
had to be solved. The highway passed through different areas that were wetlands,
mountains and deserts.
It was very difficult to build the system. Yet lessons learned while building
it influenced the building of highways around the world. Today, the interstate
system links every major city in the United States. It also links the United
States with Canada and Mexico.
The Interstate Highway System has been an important part of the nation’s
economic growth during the past forty years. Experts believe that trucks using
the system carry about seventy-five percent of all products that are sold.
Jobs and new businesses have been created near the busy interstate highways
all across the United States. These include hotels, motels, eating places,
gasoline stations and shopping centers.
The highway system has made it possible for people to work in a city and live
outside it. And it has made it possible for people to travel easily and quickly
from one part of the country to another.
The United States government renamed the Interstate Highway System at the end
of the twentieth century. Large signs now can be seen along the side of the
highway that say Eisenhower Interstate System.
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VOICE ONE:
Our program was written by Paul Thompson. My co-host was Sarah Long. I'm
Steve Ember. To download a free copy of this show, including a transcript, go to
voaspecialenglish.com. And join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA
Special English.
（來(lái)源：VOA 英語(yǔ)點(diǎn)津姍姍編輯）
