A great old map on a subject matter very dear to my heart – the Interstate Highway System. Produced in 1961 by the Caterpillar Tractor Company, who stood to gain a great deal in the construction work required to complete the network, it shows the proposed completed network in white, sections under construction with blue dashes, and – somewhat counter-intuitively – sections that are open to traffic in red.

It’s immediately apparent how little of the system has been built to this point, some five years after the original Federal Aid Highway Act was signed into law. A beautifully formatted table to the right – look at those wonderful hanging tenths of a mile! – breaks down exactly how much work remains to be done on a state-by-state basis. Note also the original numbering of many of the highways: what is currently I-84 from Portland, Oregon to Echo, Utah is labelled as I-80N, for example. The rather breathless copy at the top of the map is worth a read as well, as it exhorts the nation to get this thing done! 

“After all, if we don’t do it… who will?”

Our rating: An awesome map about the history of Interstate Highways? What’s not to love? Four stars.

See also my subway map of the Interstate Highway system.

Source: Cornell University Library