Saturday, March 15, 2008

Strange Cold War Trivia




From: http://coldwarwithyou.com


If there was anything that made people's lives easier it would have to be highways and freeways. In the old days, it was not uncommon for an entire state to have nothing but side roads with very low speed limits. Thankfully, in the 1950's highways made their first appearance.

The reason for their development was to provide a safe and orderly way out of a major city in case of an atomic bomb attack. I kid you not folks. Yes, when Sputnik was launched it sent a chill up and down the spine of every American because it became obvious that the United States was far more vulnerable to a nuclear strike than most had initially assumed. The development of freeways was intended to get people out of town as soon as possible.

Nice concept....but you can't travel 20 miles in Los Angeles during rush hour in less than an hour.

Apparently, they never really conceived of gridlock in the 1950's.

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