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Today in Interstate History

Representative George H. Fallon. Photo courtesy of FHWA.

January 26, 1956

Representative George H. Fallon, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Roads in the House Committee on Public Works, introduced a revised version of the unsuccessful Interstate Highway System bill he had submitted the previous year. The Maryland congressman's new bill, H.R. 8836, authorized $24.8 billion to construct the highway system over a 13-year period. That bill was eventually merged into H.R. 10660, which would become the Interstate System measure passed by the House of Representatives and -- after reconciliation with its Senate counterpart -- signed into law as the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956.