The Road to Prosperity (1950s?)

[Music] this is where the Santa Fe Trail began today the city Crossroads of American Transportation and Industry since the 19th century this city has been a livestock and grain market Railroad and Industry headquarters now the interstate and defense highway system is opening up new avenues of growth and providing Direction and a timetable for the progress that will keep this and all other American cities alive Kansas City and the nearby towns and Villages combined to form a metropolitan area that is a crosssection as well as AC Crossroads the attitudes and opinions expressed by the people here are repeted over and over all across the country it is an ideal location to investigate the importance and the impact of the interstate highway on the nation's economy here we can find men like CC penber store owner and Civic leader in oy Kansas he lives and works just 20 minutes from Kansas City on Interstate 35 and he has seen what the new highway has done for his community we have uh had had several large Industries the largest of which is the Delco plant of General Motors um the king radios and several lesser siiz plants come to the community there has been uh increased business uh activity with uh new firms and new stores and it has widened our trade territory in the future as far as our Interstate it's all important as the railroads were important to the community a 100 years ago as important as the railroads were a 100 years ago important because trucks not trains are carrying the freight to most cities and towns today and because Passenger cars not Pullman cars are carrying the people the interstate system is a highway system separate and unique from all other highways in America 90% of the cost of building the 41,000 Mi limited access high-speed roadway is being paid by the federal government with taxes paid by the highway users when it is completed in 1972 the network will carry 1th of all the country's traffic even though it will be only 1% of the total highway system already the interstate system is shortening the distance between terminals and making every Community accessible travel and shipping times are less Roots more direct and fragile and perishable Goods arrive fresher and in better condition the New Roads mean lower costs to both shipper and Shopper and at the same time they free commercial districts of profitless through traffic with the growing Network comes growth for the communities it serves he I'm Bruce Dicky vice president of the Farmer State Bank here in Lanexa when I35 came in we saw quite a Housing Development and uh in recently in the last 6 months to a year we have seen a very substantial interest by industry come into our community well farmer state has a lot of faith in the community in malexa uh and we are in the process of the present time of constructing a new Bank building on a site just one block north of where we are the building that we now have has been sold to one of our local Merchants who is going to expand his present operation into a supermarket new industry has been very receptive to our community and presently we have General Motors who has um just about ready to move into their new building which is on I35 and we have two or three other U companies that are coming in that or that will employ in the neighborhood of 100 to 200 people new jobs mean new people and a new standard of living for older communities each Interstate mile that brings a suburban community closer to the city it serves means more people willing to drive the 20 or 30 or even 50 miles between home and job it is reflected in the housing developments growing up around the interchanges and Beyond the rights of way as the population grows so must the local businesses that serve the everyday needs of the people the interstate highways and connecting Urban Beltway and freeways practically bring the marketplace to the consumer expansion of local stores and the creation of new shopping centers are part of the prosperity that comes with good roads a large part of that Prosperity is the increase in employment resulting from Industrial and Commercial expansion into suburban and rural areas served by the interstate system typical is this Research Center for a Kansas City Chemical Company Cy Thomas tells how his company selected the location we wanted to be fairly close to downtown Kansas City because we have about 300 people in our General headquarters down there it is our general operating headquarters but we didn't want to be too far away I finally settled on three locations along what was then us50 the highway to OA Kansas because I knew that in a very short time Interstate 35 was going to come right by our door and uh this would give us uh high speed Transportation downtown Kansas City our people can get downtown to our main office where Dr Robertson the head of our research and development department has his offices they can get down there in uh 15 20 minutes from this place and this makes it a splendid location I suppose that the average um resident uh is probably not over 10 minutes from uh this particular Center and that's a tremendous Advantage wherever you look today industries of all types are discovering the same kinds of advantages described by Mr Thomas they range from heavy manufacturing to Light Industry [Music] insurance [Music] companies Executive offices and government installations for all the advantages are the same room to build and expand parking access to high-speed direct highways the the effects of this 41,000 Mi highway system are felt everywhere every business of any size can see and take part in the changing concepts of location and service Dean Edwards is President and general manager of a Truck Sales and Service Company in Kansas City he explains his move from an established location this way we chose this location due to the accessibility to the freeways and major highways running through this area uh we have found that since our move here our business has increased immediately and has constantly be on the increased since due to the accessibility to the highways the um customers find it much easier to get to us we found a piece of property that a probably more parking area than the property here however it wasn't accessible to the interstate freeway system um I think the urban renewal program possibly was prompted partially because of the interstate system urban renewal prompted because of the interstate system Mr Edwards was of course speaking about Kansas City but the same thing could be said for almost every city and town in our country the masses of Earth steel and concrete that are being moved and molded to build the interstate system are setting up waves of movement in all our urban areas new job for the construction workers increased production for industries that Supply them tenement neighborhoods and blighted Commercial districts replaced by modern communities all bringing a new face to the American [Music] citycape the new highways with access ramps connect loops and feeder streets are being integrated into Total Transportation plans for urban areas it is happening in Hartford and Chicago Minneapolis and San Francisco Kansas City and New York city where the roads go new buildings follow in Chicago tenements are being replaced by modern lowcost apartments on land adjacent to highspeed freeways in New York City a 36 story apartment building is growing in the airspace above the freeway leading from the George Washington Bridge just beyond is a terminal for commuter buses providing effective use of the space left by the depressed Highway constructed Below in fact as far as the eye can see in almost every city concrete and asphalt are changing the patterns of land and land use use soon traffic will flow smoothly in around and between every major city and town in America there will be no traffic tie-ups where the interstate goes driving time will become minutes for local trips and City to City travel will be shorter by hours the inter State and defense highway system is opening new Vistas for all highway [Music] users the complete network will make it possible to drive coast to coast and border to border without a stoplight without delays caused by heavy traffic [Music] the scenic beauty of our land will be within sight of every [Music] traveler tires on the pavement will sing come on America the welcome mat is out every city and every state will be at the end of an access W or just beyond the next interchange there will be no lack of opportunity to stop at the travel 's convenience the fingers of concrete and asphalt will beckon all Americans to Recreation and resort areas of all sizes and [Music] kinds this is the road to Prosperity it is already bringing a new kind of life to people like these and to the places where they live the end of the road lies ahead in the future the Fulfillment of the promises made by these signs of an America designed for the transportation that serves it lies at the end of that road [Music]