When driving on the roads you don’t often think if you are on a “highway” or an “interstate” or some other form of road.
But the United States Interstate system is really incredible.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower was a big proponent of the system, and as one of the five five-star generals that this country has had, he had the nations armed forces on his mind when he pushed for it.
One of the purposes that the Interstate was built for, is in the case of a ground war within the United States (regardless how (un)likely this may be), the military would be able to get from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible, and as such, the System connects the countries Airports, Military Bases, Seaports and Rail Stations.
In the past I had heard a rumor that 1 mile out of every 5 miles on an Interstate had to be straight, in case a plane needed to land (of course as part of the last paragraph, this was for military usage during wars again). Now if you check the worlds favorite “source”, Wikipedia, you’d find they say:
A widespread urban legend states that one out of every five miles of the Interstate Highway System must be built straight and flat so as to be usable by aircraft during times of war. Contrary to popular lore, Interstate Highways are not designed to serve as airstrips.
So I dug a little deeper, and actually read the article on the Federal Highway Administrations website, and found that they did intend for some usage of “air strips” on the Interstate system, but
No law, regulation, policy, or silver or red tape requires that one out of five miles of the Interstate Highway System must be straight.
Regardless, next time you are on an Interstate, keep an eye out for signs that point to nearby Air Force or Army Bases, as those signs are there more for their usage, then a friendly sightseeing reminder to you!
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