In 1956, Congress approved the Federal Highway Act, which allocated more than $25 billion dollars to build 41,000 miles of public highway, crisscrossing and uniting the Continental United States in an entirely new way. The first transcontinental road, from Washington D.C. to San Francisco, was built by the US Army in 1919, though the nation had very limited potential for expanding or even maintaining its existing infrastructure until the 1950s. President Dwight Eisenhower is credited for the project; he was involved in the building of the Army's highway, and admired Germany's much-advanced Autobahn system, and pushed for the passage of the bill. It was passed by Congress on June 26th, 1956, and by President Eisenhower on the 29th.

Despite the shining age of America's transportation infrastructure having faded long ago, it is still possible to drive from one side of the country to the other by multiple routes, and driving is still America's preferred method for getting around. Vehicles aren't the only participants in our roadway system, as Professor Gary Kroll discussed in 2013. "Road Kill in the Age of Mass Mobility" examines how Americans have thought about and dealt with the problem of animal-automobile collisions in the 20th and 21st centuries. By examining the work of hunters, conservationists, wildlife biologists, animal rights activists, veterinarians, automobile boosters, state departments of game and wildlife, state departments of transportation, and road and urban planners, we can come to a greater understanding of the historical and contemporary relationships between humans and non-human animals in the age of mass-mobility. The project analyzes the collisions between various forms of mass-mobility (trains, cars, planes, ships, and recreational water craft) and animal mobility (cattle, deer, Canada Geese, Right Whale, Florida Manatee, dogs and humans) in hybrid environments (tracks, roads, airports, shipping lanes, and canals). This interdisciplinary project contributes to scholarship in environmental history, the history of science, animal studies, and mobility studies.

To watch the talk with Dr. Kroll, please click here!