Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways
    The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways
    The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways
    Audiobook12 hours

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

    Written by Earl Swift

    Narrated by Rob Shapiro

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    A man-made wonder, a connective network, an economic force, a bringer of blight and sprawl and the possibility of escape-the U.S. interstate system transformed America. The Big Roads presents the surprising history of how we got from dirt tracks to expressways in the space of a single lifetime.Earl Swift brings to light the visionaries who created these essential highways as well as the critics and citizens who questioned their headlong expansion throughout the country, including:Carl Fisher, the irrepressible car-racing entrepreneur who spurred the push for good roads in the early years of the automobile, built the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and made a fortune creating Miami Beach, only to lose it all;Thomas MacDonald, chief among a handful of driven engineers who conceived of the interstates and how they would work, years before President Eisenhower knew the plans existed;Lewis Mumford, the critic whose crusade against America's budding love affair with the automobile-and the ever bigger roads it required-now seems prescient;Joe Wiles, an African American family man turned activist, one of thousands of ordinary citizens in dozens of cities who found their homes and communities targeted by the concrete juggernaut-and were unwilling to be uprooted in the name of progress.In mapping a fascinating route through the dreams, discoveries, and protests that shaped these mighty roads, Swift shows that the interstates embody the wanderlust, grand scale, and conflicting notions of citizenship that define America.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateDec 12, 2011
    ISBN9781452675350
    Author

    Earl Swift

    Earl Swift is the author of the New York Times bestseller Chesapeake Requiem, which was named to ten best-of-the-year lists. His other books include Across the Airless Wilds, Auto Biography, The Big Roads, and Where They Lay. A former reporter for the Virginian-Pilot and a contributor to Outside and other publications, he is a fellow of Virginia Humanities at the University of Virginia. He lives in the Blue Ridge mountains west of Charlottesville.

    More audiobooks from Earl Swift

    Related to The Big Roads

    Related audiobooks

    Technology & Engineering For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Don't Evangelicals Ever Get Tired Of Being Wrong?

      Apr 28, 2019

      At least Judas got 30 pieces of silver. Franklin Graham got a tax cut and the promise of a border wall. Some may consider it unfair, likening the tragic villain of the Bible to Billy Graham's controversial son. And no, their sins are not alike. Judas

      2 min read

    • Article

      Mrs America

      Sep 1, 2021

      Mrs America
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Mother’s Road

      Jun 30, 2020

      A Mother’s Road
      18 min read

    • Article

      Land of Enchantment

      Jul 9, 2019

      Land of Enchantment
      7 min read

    • Article

      Getting OUR KICKS

      Feb 20, 2024

      Getting OUR KICKS
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Great River Road

      Jul 17, 2020

      The Great River Road
      6 min read

    • Article

      Across Nevada on The loneliest Road

      Jul 6, 2021

      Across Nevada on The loneliest Road
      10 min read

    • Article

      Crooked Roads of the Finger Lakes

      Aug 18, 2020

      Crooked Roads of the Finger Lakes
      7 min read

    • Article

      Great escapes

      Aug 14, 2021

      Great escapes
      9 min read

    • Article

      Coast To Caverns

      Nov 8, 2023

      Coast To Caverns
      9 min read

    • Article

      Where To Eat

      Jun 3, 2021

      Where To Eat
      9 min read

    • Article

      One Dream, Two Riders Part Two

      Nov 7, 2018

      One Dream, Two Riders Part Two
      8 min read

    • Article

      Cruising The Coastal Highway

      May 22, 2023

      ASK SOUTHERN MOTORCYCLISTS ABOUT THEIR favorite rides, and a few storied names are sure to cross their lips: the Natchez Trace Parkway, the Cherohala Skyway, the Tail of the Dragon, and the Blue Ridge Parkway, among others. Today, however, I’d like t

      5 min read

    • Article

      Along Forgotten Paths

      Jun 5, 2019

      Along Forgotten Paths
      7 min read

    • Article

      COAST to COAST USA

      Feb 27, 2019

      We exited north into Wyoming for three nights and a rest, as it was nigh on July 4. We weren’t sure if the country ground to a standstill or not on Independence Day, so thought it prudent to stop while it was all going on. One thing we did realise wh

      5 min read

    • Article

      Land Of Enchantment

      Jul 19, 2023

      Land Of Enchantment
      9 min read

    • Article

      State Of Sunshine

      Oct 5, 2018

      WORDS & PHOTOGRAPHY: Peter Stokes There’s a reason the road movie was invented in America – their roads. They’re big and wide and they go on for ever, sucking you in so that you never want to stop riding. But I don’t think my pillion had the same ide

      7 min read

    • Article

      Reunion By River

      Feb 3, 2023

      Reunion By River
      4 min read

    • Article

      Riding with the Rich & Famous along the Hudson & Delaware Rivers

      Apr 14, 2021

      Crossing the New York state line from the east, I was surprised at how richly treed the region was. I had imagined that as I approached the sprawling monster that is New York City, I would face nothing but concrete and traffic. I had, in fact, consid

      8 min read

    • Article

      Searching For Our mississippi

      Jul 15, 2023

      Searching For Our mississippi
      28 min read

    • Article

      The Wild West

      Apr 10, 2024

      The Wild West
      7 min read

    • Article

      Crossing Paths with Hemingway

      Jun 9, 2020

      Crossing Paths with Hemingway
      6 min read

    • Article

      Immense USA

      Aug 11, 2021

      Immense USA
      8 min read

    • Article

      Lowcountry Idyll

      Mar 16, 2021

      Lowcountry Idyll
      4 min read

    • Article

      Parting the Waters

      Dec 29, 2022

      Parting the Waters
      12 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Big Roads

    4/5

    19 ratings10 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Little detaily. But would read the author again
    • 4/5
      I've always been curious about how our highway system came about. This book answered that question thoroughly. It's well worth reading.
    • 3/5
      I admit that I have a fascination with infrastructure. It seems so natural that I could jump in my car in Boston and be in Florida 24 hours later. I'm already forgetting the snarls and confusion in Boston during the Big Dig and the new harbor tunnel. At the dawn of the automobile age, cross-country travel was virtually impossible for the average person. Actually, travelling outside the city was not much easier. The Big Roads traces the development of the modern interstate through the eyes of some of the key architects of highway travel. Mostly that falls on the shoulders of Thomas Harris MacDonald and his protege, Frank Turner. They lead the efforts at the federal level to develop the big roads. The book also debunks some myths of the interstate. Most prominently, it discredits Eisenhower with its creation. Sure he signed the law, but the system was already far along in design before that happened. Swift points out that Eisenhower was an advocate solely for rural interstates that did not come into the city itself. The other aspect of the book is the portrayal of some of the bad things highway designers did to the urban core. Baltimore is the central story point as the design for getting interstates through the city destroyed neighborhoods, but rallied citizens to find a better solution. I don't think the book was entirely successful in focusing the narrative on the key people involved. Most of the central characters are career government bureaucrats and they come across as the grey, generic paper-pushers you would expect. If you are interested in how our highway system came to be, you will find the book fascinating.
    • 4/5
      5413. The Big Roads The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways, by Earl Swift (read 12 Oct 2016) This book sort of starts with the beginnings of automobiles and tells of how they grew so quickly into a major factor in American life. Along with that it tells of roads and how they developed. He says the idea for the superhighways was broached by FDR and legislation looking toward development of the Interstates was enacted before Eisenhower became president and Ike's role was relatively minor. The engineers who undertook to create the Interstates were devoted and hard working men. The Interstate system was supposed to cost some 13 billion dollars but of course the cost was much greater. Much of the book is of interest, though it seemed to me we heard more about the travails in regard to the Interstates around Baltimore than necessary. I would have liked to learn something about the Interstates with which I am more familiar but I guess they caused less trouble while being located and built so there is very little about Interstates in Iowa and vicinity. It is discouraging that the author says the Interstates are wearing out and not being adequately maintained. And he decries the uniformity of using Interstates--which reminds me of my wife usually choosing that we travel on non-Interstate routes since there "is nothing to see when driving on the Interstate." The book meanders some but is full of solid information, though the author sometimes decries aspects of the Interstate system which do not seem so awful to me.
    • 4/5
      Say “Interstate” and the person who comes to mind is Dwight D Eisenhower, right? Not so fast. Based on this fascinating story of America’s highway system, old Ike wasn’t the enlightened president who rammed through legislation creating the Interstates. Yes, he made a speech or two about the importance to America’s defenses of a good road system – he had first-hand information about Germany’s Autobahn from his experiences in Europe during World War II. But a letter written early in his presidency outlining his vision of such a system was so un-researched, irrelevant and off-base that it was filed away in a Commerce Department file cabinet, never to see the light of day again. By the time Ike was president, several generations of engineers and bureaucrats had hammered out a plan for a road system – where it would go, where it wouldn’t go, how it would be constructed and numbered – was pretty well finalized and awaiting funding. While Congress battled about how to fund the system without raising the debt limit (sound familiar?), Dwight D. was on the golf-course or otherwise occupied, it seemed. But he did sign the bill in June 1956, so maybe that’s enough to have his name emblazoned on thousands of signs even today. Earl Swift tells the stories of the men (and they were all men) who were truly responsible for the “good roads” we have today, starting with Carl Fisher (who also developed Miami Beach AND started the Indy 500). The operative word here is “story.” Earl Swift is a masterful storyteller who makes the subject of ROADS endlessly fascinating and ENGINEERS interesting. I love the author’s casual writing style – his ability to cut through the dull, bureaucratic stuff to make the prose come to life. The Big Roads was fun to read and I can recommend it without reservation.
    • 5/5
      Very well written, fascinating history, and great perspective on our modern world.
    • 4/5
      This was a really fascinating look at the history of road transportation in the U.S. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
    • 3/5
      Very detailed & well researched - full of facts and trivia. For me, the book seemed to really bog down about 2/3 in. Overall very interesting but probably only for a history buff.
    • 4/5
      Greatly appreciated how deeply this book dove beyond the tired old history that Eisenhower was responsible for all the interstates. Learned a lot about some individuals I had never heard about - however, it spent a bit too much time focusing on people and things that didn’t really relate to the interstates themselves. Example being the last chapter which randomly mentions a possible alternative fuel than gasoline that was possibly invented in the 1910’s, or about Carl Fisher building the Indianapolis speedway. I understand laying the groundwork for what’s to come, but a more focused approach would have been preferred.
    • 3/5
      Not just Eisenhower.