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Interstate Pioneers: Rep. George H. Fallon

by Richard F. Weingroff
reprinted from FHWA's Public Roads Magazine, Summer 1996.

Rep. George Fallon, chairman of the Subcommittee on Roads in the Committee on Public Works, was sometimes called "The Big Man From Baltimore" partially because he stood 1.88 meters (6 feet 2 inches) tall. Even while serving in Congress, he lived in Baltimore, commuting daily to Capitol Hill via the Pennsylvania Railroad. Although he played a pivotal role in creation of the interstate highway system, he disliked driving, especially freeway driving.

After attending Johns Hopkins University, he worked in the business his father founded in 1904, the Fallon Sign Company. However, following his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1944, he devoted little time to the family business, which was later dissolved.

Highway construction was an important issue to Fallon. He was described as a "mild-mannered legislator who rarely ventured onto the floor of the House to speak for any other cause in his 13 terms." He was a vigorous proponent of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, but his greatest contribution was his major role in the drafting of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Shortly after President Eisenhower signed the act, Fallon stated that nothing in his career had given him as much satisfaction. "Not only will every person in the United States benefit from it, but the favorable impact on our economy already is felt."

The most unusual moment of his congressional career occurred on March 1, 1954. Three Puerto Rican nationalists in the House gallery interrupted a debate on Mexican immigration with gunfire. Fallon was one of five representatives hit by the burst, taking two bullets in the hip before he even heard the shots.

In 1970, Fallon lost his primary bid for reelection to state legislator Paul S. Sarbanes (now a U.S. senator). Sarbanes attacked Fallon on several fronts, including his age and health, what Sarbanes called Fallon's remoteness from his constituents, Fallon's close ties with the highway and transportation lobbies, and Fallon's support of the Vietnam War. Fallon retired the following year. He died at the age of 77 in March 1980.