Highways Benefiting
Illinois Interstate 39

Amanda Etnyre
Oregon High School, Oregon

Can you imagine living in a nation without interstates? Transportation in the United States would be very different today if there were no interstates. The mass production of automobiles and freight transporting caused interstates to pop up everywhere. There were many advantages and disadvantages of the interstates here in Illinois and all across America. Illinois has many interstates, including one of its newest—Interstate 39.

Thomas Jefferson passed a law for the first federal highway on March 29, 1806. It stretched from Ohio to the East Coast. Unlike the concrete ribbons of today, the first highways were dirt roads. Automobiles weren't invented yet. The roads were used for mail delivery for the Pony Express, horse drawn carriages, and probably the most important function of these roads was to get the farmers' products to their markets. The original freight was hauled in horse-drawn wagons. Development of the internal combustion engine led to the development of modern trucks, which became the major users of the interstate system. On July 11, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Road Act, launching the federal-aid highway program, with grants to the states for the construction of roads. This act is the reason why Interstate 39 could be built.

By the 1920s, trucks hauled more and more freight. Some of this business was taken from the railroads, and much of it was also due to the growth of the economy. These trucks needed wider all-weather roads. Dirt and gravel would not do anymore. The population was growing and becoming more urbanized. They too needed better roads for automobiles; by 1940 there were twenty-three million trucks and cars in the United States. The federal highway system was proving to be inadequate by the late 1940s. In the early 1950s President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the modern interstate highway system, when there were sixty-five million motor vehicles. The huge cost (100 billion dollars) of these projects was in large part justified for the internal defense of the United States. Wider and stronger highways were needed to allow the fast transportation of modern military equipment from coast to coast, in a hurry if needed.

Illinois has a cluster of interstate highways in the northern part of the state (I-90, I-94, I-80, I-88). There is another cluster in the central part of the state (I-74, I-55, I-70, I-57, I-64). Prior to the creation of I-39, there was nothing joining these highways. The initial start of what became I-39 was an upgrade of U.S. 51. The first section of this upgrade built to interstate standards stretched between Rockford and LaSalle-Peru. Another section started in Bloomington working northward towards LaSalle-Peru. The state of Illinois was providing most of the funding for this construction. The final obstacle to completion of this project was funding to build a bridge over the wide Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru. The state did not have the money. Rich Carlson said, "IDOT was pressured by local governments that want interstate highways to attract industry and other economic stimuli." In 1969 the Demonstration Projects Division was established to promote application of new technology. In exchange for her vote to pass the federal budget, congresswoman Lynn Martin insisted on funding for a demonstration project in the Federal Highway Budget. This demonstration project was the bridge at LaSalle-Peru. This project did not have any new technology applications. Politics was the sole issue in the funding. This also allowed the designation of this road as Interstate 39 (1987-1988). As of 1993, Interstate 39 was complete from I-55 north to I-90. As of September 2000, Interstate 39 was complete from Bloomington, Illinois, to Merrill, Wisconsin, a distance of 262 miles. Today, Interstate 39 has quadrupled in size from when it was first developed.

Interstate 39 has many advantages and one real disadvantage. The disadvantage of Interstate 39 is that it occupies a lot of productive farmland, especially in the section from Bloomington to Rockford. One of the advantages of Interstate 39 is that it connected the whole state from all directions, via the interstate system. Another advantage is that it greatly facilitates the transportation of goods within the state and within the country, by connecting the two clusters of interstates within the state of Illinois.

Many things must come together to create an interstate highway. Interstate 39 was created when political pressure, economic need and justification, and funding came together. Illinois' location in the central United States, with the northern cluster of interstates and the southern cluster of interstates that were not joined with an interstate or interstate class highway, helped create the need for Interstate 39. The politics surrounding the federal budget and the Surface Transportation Act of 1984 allowed the funding of the bridge on Interstate 39 at LaSalle-Peru. The growth of automobile traffic and truck-hauled freight were major economic justifications for the creation of this highway. This 262-mile interstate from central Illinois to northern Wisconsin is the lifeblood for many communities along its path.—[From Fon W. Boardman, Roads, New York: Henry Z. Walck, Inc., 1958; Federal Highway

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