One Mile In Five Of The Eisenhower Interstate System Is Not Set Aside For Airstrips

Kentonville.com - Archived Music Lists - Archived Myths - Dr Kenton's Generic Dr Peppers Page

One mile in five of the Eisenhower Interstate System is not set aside for airstrips.  The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, is the fancy and original term for the United States Interstate Highway System. This was created by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, also known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956.  No where in this legislation does it mention the “1 mile straight for every 5 miles” rule that has been passed around on many road trips. The simple fact is this is not true. The best misconceptions are based on mistaken facts that seem entirely plausible.

In a break with the normal way around this my little corner of the Internet I am going to tell you to go somewhere else. While researching this myth every article cites the same source, written by Richard F. Weingroff “unofficial historian” of the Federal Highway Administration. It is full of insightful information and candor. Thank you Richard, you’re the man.

http://www.tfhrc.gov/pubrds/mayjun00/onemileinfive.htm

I have to come clean, I thought this was true. I spend a fair amount of time being a smarty pants (I know your surprised) and pride myself on being correct, only stating facts. That’s kind of the gist of this site, well I was entirely wrong and I added to the communal ignorance that I am trying to erase. I am sorry. I am sure this is not my only trivial sin, for my penance I will spend the rest of my natural days debunking myths, mistakes and misconceptions. Amen.

Random Facts

• Try these searches to see how many times this error is repeated. You may have to go a few pages deep in the search results.
  • interstate airstrips: Bing.com
  • The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one mile in every five must be straight: Google.com
    • If you get past the first few pages you will get to listings of trivia pages, basically it is the same list of trivia over and over. This is probably the reason so many people believe this. It would be interesting to track down the origin of this trivia list. Trust me you have gotten this in your email before.

Further Reading

• The Wild File: Outdoor Questions Answered | Outside Online: Outside.Away.com
  • This article states the myths origin is airstrips being built adjacent to interstates in the early 1940’s.
• Is one mile out of every five on Interstate highways straight for emergency airplane landing strips?:  Geography.About.com
  • Similar article that cites Mr. Weingroff
• Answer Man: Highway Lights and Landings (washingtonpost.com)
  • Even the Washington Post quotes Mr. Weingroff

References

• Interstate Highway System – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipedia.com
  • This entry is a lot more interesting than I would have thought. I found myself reading the whole thing

• Shakespearean Misquotes: William Shakespeare’s Oft MisQuoted Lines
  • “Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him well”, “Bubble bubble, toil and trouble”, “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, Lend me your ears”, “Lead on, Macduff”, “Methinks the lady doth protest too much”, “To gild the lily” You have heard them, you have said them, they are misquoted. Get the truth.
• Frankenstein Is Not The Name Of The Monster In Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly’s Book: Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus
  • Frankenstein is not the name of the monster in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly’s book: Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. Frankenstein is the name of the doctor that creates him: Dr. Victor Frankenstein.
• One Mile In Five Of The Eisenhower Interstate System Is Not Set Aside For Airstrips
  • One mile in five of the Eisenhower Interstate System is not set aside for airstrips. The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways was created by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. No where in this legislation does it mention the “1 mile straight for every 5 miles” rule that has been passed around on many road trips.
• German Chocolate Cake is not from Germany
  • German Chocolate Cake is not from Germany. The recipes name originated from the ingredient “Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate” named for Sam German. The original recipe was published in a Dallas, Texas newspaper in 1957 and titled German’s Chocolate Cake. Republication and the passing of recipes led to eventual dropping of the apostrophe.
• George Washington Did Not Chop Down A Cherry Tree Or Say “I Can’t Tell A Lie, Pa”
  • George Washington did not chop down a cherry tree or say “I can’t tell a lie, Pa” This apocryphal story was created by Mason Locke Weems better known as Parson Weems in “A History of the Life and Death, Virtues and Exploits of General George Washington.”
• George Washington Did Not Have Wooden Teeth
  • George Washington did not have wooden teeth. However, he did have dentures made of gold and hippopotamus ivory. These were made by Dr. John Greenwood known has the “Father of Modern Dentistry”
• Movie Misquotes – Most Famous and Greatest Mistaken Movie Quotes Of All Time
  • “Play it Again Sam”, “Luke, I am your father”, and “Do you feel lucky, punk?”, all great movie lines, but they never happened.
• Shaving Does Not Make Your Beard Grow Thicker or Faster
  • Shaving has no affect on the growth of facial hair, it does not make hair thicker, stronger or darker. Hair grows in cycles, hair is dead, hair tapers has it grows, hair is blunted when it is freshly shaved, hair lightens has it grows and mostly wishful thinking. All these reasons explain why shaving does nothing to increase the growth or thickness of facial hair.

Kentonville.com - Archived Music Lists - Archived Myths - Dr Kenton's Generic Dr Peppers Page

Myths, Mistakes and Misconceptions: is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License