Wednesday, November 15, 2023

[wskeglyg] Hitler-Eisenhower Interstate Highway System

the U.S. Interstate Highway System is a direct copy of the Nazi Reichsautobahn.  then-General Dwight Eisenhower ironically appreciated the usefulness of Hitler's roads for invading Germany, so he replicated them in America when he became President.

Hitler was quite a visionary for constructing the Reichsautobahn because there were not many cars at the time.  (is the reason some parts of the modern Autobahn have no speed limit because the original Nazi design was so good?)  or, even if Hitler took no part in the design, he did use his political power to cause good (but expensive) designs to be built.  he appointed competent people to proper positions of power.  in America, President Eisenhower gets all the credit for being the visionary: the U.S. would be a very different place if most of our Interstate highways were like "U.S." highways, one lane in each direction and narrow shoulders, which I think is the case in many modern countries which didn't copy the Nazis.  such narrow roads were also the case in 1919 when then-Lt. Col. Eisenhower took an army expedition across the U.S. to determine whether U.S. roads were suitable for military transport (they were not).

(did Reichsautobahn have wide shoulders?  some image searching seems to indicate not.  a place to put disabled vehicles so they don't block traffic is a very good feature of U.S. Interstate highways.)

imagine U.S. Interstate highway signage in a hypothetical alternate universe which gives credit where it is due, even if politically unpopular.  replace the blue "shield" design.

previously the other way: Hitler tries to copy what the United States did well.

(or, imagine an alternate universe in which both men are considered fools not visionaries: environmentalists correctly foresee the internal combustion engine causing climate change, so they (the true visionaries) steer transportation away from fossil fuels, perhaps toward electric trains.)

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