The history of the development of our transportation system is rich.
On this day in 1951, in Detroit, MI, the first section of the Edsel Ford Expressway opens, financed by BPR, the State, Wayne County, and the city. The expressway is depressed below ground level, with all principal intersecting streets carried over the six expressway lanes. Frontage roads are provided at ground level for local traffic. BPR’s annual report for FY 1951 says the opening “was the beginning of a new era of automobile transportation in Detroit.”
Also on this day in 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signs the Urban Mass Transportation Act to provide additional assistance for the development of comprehensive and coordinated mass transportation systems, both public and private, in metropolitan and other urban areas. The Act vests urban mass transportation functions in the Administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency. The authority is shifted to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development before being transferred to the Secretary of Transportation.
